...and they drove off into the butt crack of dawn.

Ah, where to start? I've had such an eventful couple of weeks that I'm not sure I can hit all the highlights. But I'll give it a go...

First, my sister's wedding...it's over!

It went quite well, actually, but it took a lot out of everyone. It was fun meeting the fiance's family, especially the grandma from Germany who spoke minimal English. They are a lively bunch, the kind that's both interesting and exhausting at the same time. The fiance's dad was a little much--quite the flirt and pretty shameless about it. I'm not used to that anymore, but fortunately he didn't have his heart set on me or any other particular girl. Rather, he preferred to spread his attention among all of us. The mom, his ex-wife, was a blast...even though she left her little dog at our house three days in a row, traumatizing the hell out of my children.

Pippy made the unfortunate mistake of trying to escape from my room once and found himself face to face with said strange dog. He was so freaked out that he slammed his head on the door frame trying to get back in, and that's what I mean by trauma!

But not all the trauma was caused by outsiders, as Sunshine would be quick to point out. And she should know, being the recent target of one of George's spraying fits--almost literally.

Apparently pissed off (pun not intended) by my constant scolding for his stalking behavior, my precious little George pissed all over my file boxes the other night as I was sitting at my computer. Sunshine was in her little basket under my desk, having given up on enjoying her share of the catnip. I'd tried to give her a private stash, and--though there was plenty of it elsewhere--George had promptly gone after it, only to be chased away by yours truly.

Next thing I knew, George was standing directly under my chair, and I heard a strange noise and felt a slight breeze. He's always sounded more like a horse than a cat when he pees, and that's probably why his mess splattered all over poor Sunshine.

After that I had no choice but to move Sunshine to the one remaining free bedroom, where she cried incessantly whenever she knew I was in the house. She was so loud that one evening the neighbor across the street called to ask if we'd accidentally left a cat outside. Which only happened because I had the window open trying to air out the smell of George's piss, which he had sprayed all over a stack of boxes upon sneaking into Sunshine's new room.

That's also how I came to find myself picking up a bunch of very old, extremely dusty books the next day, one at a time, and sniffing them individuallly. You see, the books were in the box George peed on, and I needed to find out if any smelled like piss so I could remove them and their offending odor. Fun stuff.

I know I'm jumping around, but that's what it's been like around here lately.

So back to the wedding stuff...the ceremony was nice, the dresses were beautiful, my sister was calm and well-behaved, and my little nephew Charlie was the cutest little ring bearer EVER. I saw very little of the reception and barely had time to sneak some cake between duties, but I did have plenty of opportunity to notice that Ryan and both of my nephews looked dashing in their suits!

The next day, I was totally beat. I skipped out on lunch with the new in-laws so I could gather my stuff and get ready to head back to Ryan's and work the next morning. The new brother-in-law gave me a hard time about not spending time with my sister, and that didn't sit well with me. Who was he to make me feel guilty over someone who's never made it a priority to spend time with me???

Besides, everything is not all about her. She may be graduating and getting married and, supposedly, conquering the world, but I have a new job and I happen to think it's pretty important.

I cried when I said goodbye to my kitties that day; I felt so bad about their being shut up in my room all the time, about Pippy hitting his head, about George's deviant behavior, and about Sunshine screaming her lungs out down the hall. Pippy noticed my voice was different and gave me an especially inquisitive look, endearing himself to me more than ever and causing the tears to fall even harder.

After I got to Ryan's house I had another good cry on his shoulder, and that was when I realized it wasn't about the cats. It was about my sister, about her leaving for Miami and not appreciating her family or telling me thanks for my help with the wedding. It was about how how the rift between us has grown when it could have so easily gone the other way.

I kept remembering her stupid email after our big fight, and how she wrote "I wish you could be more like [insert name of annoying fellow bridesmaid here]." I thought about how she's spent all of her free time with that friend and none with her family, how condescending and arrogant she's been toward my parents and me lately, and how surprised I was when so many friends at the wedding declared her to be such a sweet person.

My sister is a complete stranger to me, and I don't know how that happened.

It was mostly exhaustion that pushed me to the point of crying, what with all the wedding flurry, the tons of people to talk to, the uncomfortable shoes, the new job, the long hours and the complete lack of down time between trips to and from OK City.

My sister and her fiance left this morning in their moving truck long before I even thought of getting out of bed, so all was quiet here by the time I got back to Tulsa this afternoon. The cats have been calm and happy, which has done wonders for my aching heart and tired brain. I had a lovely nap on the couch with Sunshine, and I'm beginning to recover from one hell of a busy week.

I think I'll dedicate an entire separate entry to thoughts on the new job. For now, I will say it's exhausting and stressful and very difficult, and I think I might love it.

It feels natural, like I'm getting paid to be myself.