Yup. You read that right. If you haven’t already heard from the grave vine, my sister is definitely engaged. J popped the question on Friday and the engagement was announced today. I got a kick out of the gasps coming from the sisters’ sections when my sister stood up and J walked over to stand next to her.
The engagement lunch was also today, where members of each party’s extended family comes together for a meal, some kind of Chinese tradition. Of course, at a Chinese restaurant that charges an arm and a leg per table. For some reason, I feel like we’ve just been eating and eating the past few days. Maybe it’s b/c we have – Jinga Korean BBQ (a lot, a lot of meat), Sat lunch; TAPS Fish House & Brewery, Sat dinner; and Prince Seafood Restaurant (10-course meal), LD lunch. After all that food, I think my family was pretty happy to simply eat a skimpy dinner of leftovers tonight.
And as the news broke of my sister’s engagement, a few questions have also been thrown my way. How do you feel about your sister going first? Are you in a relationship? When are you getting married? Are you feeling the pressure now? (To provide some context, for those of you who don’t know, I’m the older of my two siblings and two years older than my now-engaged sister.) And I have no problem, no, no idea, and no.
I guess I can see how someone else might feel the pressure to get things going if their younger sibling is getting hitched before them, but that doesn’t really bother me. Besides, being a guy, I do have a longer shelf life. Sure, if I’m nearing my 40’s and still have no prospects, that might be cause for worry. But when the time comes, it’ll come, and rushing usually makes things worse more often than not. And perhaps the pressure isn’t there simply b/c I think things will somehow just work out. Unfounded optimism?