At the family christmas gift exchange, i gave my brother a sealed envelope: three months of covered rent. he opened it, looked around, and said, “tries to compensate for the fact that he’s not needed by this family.” the whole room erupted with laughter – except for me. i just took the envelope back and said, “useful to know” ten minutes later, the whole family was shouting, “please listen to us!”
Sinatra was crooning from my mom’s Bluetooth speaker like it was trying to glue the room together. The tree lights…