sunshine is cheaper than maryjane

not even the fact that i made $13 dollars at work today can bring me down. not today. that's because i'm still riding the natural high i received from playing beach volleyball over the weekend. being able to spend a whole saturday outside and among my friends was like coming home. the "beat-box" was blaring techno music, men were swearing at one another over controversial plays, and, per usual, those players refereeing the final matches of the day were doing so with beer in hand. i have never been so happy to wake up the following morning with a sunburn.

this past weekend was exactly what i needed to keep my head up as i continue to endure one of the coldest winters that north carolina has ever experienced. more importantly, it was what i needed to get through the tensions at home. did i ever mention that there are now two boomerangers living under the same roof? that's right. my brother has moved back home for a few months while he settles into his new job. since our elder sister was the first to move back home after college years ago, i guess that makes my brother the second-generation boomeranger and me the third-generation boomeranger. needless to say, adding one more person to the mix makes everything a little more...congested (last family member to enter the living room is ousted from sitting on the couch)...bittersweet (now there are two baby birds tweeting for attention in this nest)...aggravating (i could hear every word uttered by my brother and his friend last saturday night as they recited passages from the pickup artist to prepare themselves for a night of drinking and hitting on girls of course).

it was hard enough trying to sustain a healthy, happy household when it was just my parents and myself. we had our good times but also had a good deal of heated tension. the addition of my brother is basically adding fuel to an already blazing fire. this should not be misconstrued to make my brother come across in an unfavorable way...it's just that adding one more body to an already strenuous mix of age and personality creates a whole new set of complications. his presence is not without a few delights, however. i do enjoy the sideways glances my brother and i exchange as our parents dissect our behavior (apparently there is hair in my shower drain and his toilet seat is up).

as you can see, i really needed some sunshine to break through the clouds...both literally and figuratively...which i received this past weekend. it has gotten me through my $13 dollar payday, and it is currently getting me through the fact that my brother is usurping the remote while wearing his tar-heel snuggie.