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Bratty's Brother

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Submitted by caninelover on Thu, 06/03/2021 - 12:47pm

Last time I wrote about Bratty's long-lost sister, so this time I'll write about SO's middle son - Bratty's brother who we're calling Luke.  Luke is a year older than Bratty and just turned 25 (Bratty turns 24 next month).  He graduation from college 3 years ago as a Drama major.  He loves to act on stage and particularly in Shakespeare productions.  He is still living at home with Darth Vader (BM).

Bratty McBratFace: Adventures in Dogsitting

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Submitted by caninelover on Mon, 05/24/2021 - 11:18am

SO and Bratty had a phone call this weekend to catch up.  SO shared some news from Bratty's life.

Bratty has a GF!  They've been dating since January and they are also non-binary and use they/them pronouns (I'll still use GF here for simplicity - since Bratty or GF are not reading).

GF has a Real Job with a Real Company!  Very exciting as I think it will help Bratty grow up a little to be around people who are actually trying and succeeding at adulting.

I Dream of Vegans

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Submitted by caninelover on Tue, 05/18/2021 - 4:57pm

SO and I have been doing some thinking about our wedding plans for next summer.  The only 'family' event we are having is a reception in the mid-west near Grandma McBratFace as she is too old to travel now.

I had a dream last night.  

We were at our reception and we had two types of food - some yummy spicy ethnic food from my culture and the other side had some standard American fare except all the side dishes were vegan.

SO and I are getting married!

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Submitted by caninelover on Sun, 05/02/2021 - 2:36pm

SO and I have been living together for almost 5 years now.  Since his last marriage did not end well he maintained from the beginning that he wasn't interested in marrying again.  It wasn't important to me and I've been fine with it.

Surprisingly he brought up the question on Friday and I said I would love to be his wife.  Now he is going to get a ring and do a proper proposal so until then we aren't telling anyone (except you guys LOL).  It really feels like we already are married in many ways so this feels right to both of us.

Update on Grandma-gate

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Submitted by caninelover on Mon, 04/26/2021 - 8:22am

Bratty and SO did talk on the phone Saturday.  He asked Bratty about the now cancelled Grandma visit.  Bratty said she was confused as she applied to that school in the mid west to be around Grandma and now it seems like Grandma may not want that.  Otherwise SO said she seemed disappointed but not upset.  

Breaking News: Grandma Officially Cancelled Bratty's Visit

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Submitted by caninelover on Fri, 04/23/2021 - 11:45am

SO just had his regular Friday call with his mom.  She told him she had sent Bratty an email earlier in the week asking Bratty not to visit or 'visit later'.  She didn't hear back from Bratty so SO's sister (who lives nearby and takes care of Grandma) followed up with an email.

Eventually Bratty called Grandma a couple of days ago and said she was cancelling her visit and got a refund on her flights.

What’s Up With Bratty Today?

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Submitted by caninelover on Fri, 04/23/2021 - 10:44am

So where is Bratty today?  

After Bratty and SO resumed their regular phone calls and conversations, Bratty shared with SO that she had applied to be an egg donor/surrogate parent.  She learned she could earn money this way and wanted to do so before getting a hysterectomy later due to her self-diagnosed endometriosis.  SO dutifully pulled some old childhood photos of Bratty as a young girl for Bratty’s donor application and reminisced on what a cute little girl she had been.  I think he feels some loss with her currently not identifying as a girl anymore.

Epilogue: What I Know Now That I Didn't Know Then

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Submitted by caninelover on Thu, 04/22/2021 - 10:22am

The road to stephell is paved with good intentions.  Looking back, I now know what I didn’t know at the start of my step-journey…

I didn’t know that my hopeful enthusiasm of a friendly relationship with Bratty would disintegrate into a disengagement standoff.

I didn’t know that Bratty, who seemed like a normal teen when I first met her, would exhibit disturbing levels of resentment and passive-aggressiveness.

Chapter 24, Part 5: Not My Circus, Not My Sometimes-Vegan Monkey

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Submitted by caninelover on Wed, 04/21/2021 - 11:15am

Over the next few weeks I took a break while Bratty and SO continued with weekly appointments.  The therapist coached Bratty on a plan to move out, which would really be SO moving her stuff out.  SO sent her pictures of her stuff and she went through and marked off what to keep (we had said all along that she could keep a couple of boxes of important stuff with us) and what to get rid of.  I saw SO going through her stuff, making piles of keep/donate/trash.  The room eventually cleared out and everything left was put into two boxes.  Bratty texted and asked if she could keep one of her thre

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