I'm sitting at the computer at my dad's house. The last time I updated this page from here, I was telling you all that my mom had passed.

The news is considerably better this time.

Dad and I just got back into Ohio this afternoon, after spending Christmas day forward in Pittsburgh. I fly back to Florida tomorrow.

I'm pretty tired right now, because after my cousin's wedding yesterday, my sister Mollie (a bridesmaid) and I stayed at the reception until the bar shut down, then proceeded to go out to some pub with several of the groomsmen.

Come on. Did you expect any less?

I split pitchers with the nice boys and played two terrific games of pool. Well, terrific except I lost them both. Unlucky.

We ended up crashed at my cousin's house, still wearing our dressy wedding clothes and watching soft porn on TV.

The wedding and reception were about a kazillion different types of strange. See, my cousin the bride is about 4 years younger than me. Now, you and I know that I'm so not ready to get married that I have to restrain myself from recoiling away from other people's engagement rings, like marriage is contagious or something, but my relatives are having a harder time accepting that I WANT to be single.

Because, trust me. I don't want to brag, but if I had any desire to be married, I could make it happen within a week.

We went to the parents of my soon-to-be-married cousin's home for presents and cookies and stuff the day after Christmas - pretty much, the holidays with my mom's side. And I kept getting sucked into these bizarre, Bridget-Jones-like conversations where I had to assert my decision to not settle down yet.

Everyone wanted to feel sorry for me. They wanted to be hopeful for me, and it was nice and all, but I'd rather they be hopeful that I'll strike it rich, not get knocked up or tied down.

(Which, by the way, is what my grandmother is convinced will happen. She informed me that I've been making it by the skin of my teeth so far, but before I knew it, I'd have an unexpected visitor. I started to explain the Pills + Condoms = Fort Knox Down There method, but stopped, realizing that I just could not discuss my birth control status with my grandmother.)

As I was leaving, my soon-to-be-married cousin was all, "Oh, I hear you're seeing someone."

And I'm like, "Yep."

And she's all eyebrows raised, hopeful gleam in her eyes, "So...?"

I had to bust out with, "It's going nowhere," and it actually let her down. You could see it.

My aunt cornered me for a similar conversation at the reception, all, "I was so glad to hear you have a new guy in your life!"

In an attempt to actually give her some context of what my life is about (i.e., NOT entirely focused on selling my cow), I tried to explain to her how I've been "The Girl With The Boyfriend" pretty much straight on since I was 13 years old. How I've always been a little jealous of the freedom my single friends enjoy, even when I was in love. How I'd never really "dated" anyone, and I'd always wondered what it was like.

So I tell her all that, and then I tell her, "After the break-up, I was really excited to be single. I was really looking forward to being free."

And she butts in with, "And it wasn't all it's cracked up to be, huh?"

I stared at her for about ten seconds, realizing that I could explain for an hour, I could write a novel, I could produce a documentary on Jamie, and these people would still never understand me.

Finally, I replied, "Nooo.... I loved it. Absolutely loved every second of it. To the point that when I started seeing someone REALLY nice, I fought the relationship kicking and screaming, trying to hang on to that final shred of singleness."

And then I gave up.

They still don't understand me. But it's okay.

I don't understand their Gotta Be Hitched And Reproduce En Masse asses, either.