Recently, my remaining sister went to university at another city. The other one has been away for a few years too for the same reason. From now on, it’s only me and my parents.
I’m the older brother who ended up being the one who stayed, found a nice job close by, and is saving up and living a quiet life in our small city somewhere in Mexico.
Anyway, I don’t feel like reflecting on all of that right now, I’ll just narrate how today went, as we went out as a family for the first time in a few weeks, now that my parents got a moment of rest at last.
Honestly, I didn’t want to go out in the first place. I wanted to stay and play videogames, maybe write a completely different blogpost about something unrelated, or maybe write the same kind of post, but about being home alone maybe.
We usually go to the same bigger city half an hour away that has malls and big-box stores, I don’t mind, I can read while on the move on my Kobo. I actually did quite a bit of progress on Nemesis Games, after many weeks focused on gaming and manga.
Our first stop was at Costco, we bought some big boxes to carry some belongings for my sister, which we’ll visit in an upcoming trip. I also updated my eye prescription and was congratulated because it only changed by .25, in only one eye—I forgot which one—after three years without doing a vision test. Not gonna lie, I felt a bit smug about that.
I decided to get a new style of glasses and will have to wait for a couple weeks to pick them up. I wonder if this will push me to update my pixel art profile picture…
While walking around the store I was tempted by some interesting devices.
First, apparently they sell Steam Decks at Costco now, and the price wasn’t bad at all. However, I also saw the Nintendo Switch 2 with Mario Kart World at an even lower price. I know the Steam Deck is the right choice, but, I like Nintendo games way too much and I’m afraid it’s still what I would pick up, if I were to.
In the end, I resisted once again, and only bought a new pair of pants, and a couple of things for my parents.
After that, we went to a mall to have food. We arrived a little early, so I decided to visit the book store with my dad while my mom checked some other department stores.
To my horror, they had completely reorganized a bunch of the sections. The one with books in English got changed and I couldn’t find it. I was too socially awkward to ask someone working there for directions, but after exploring around, I found it in a different floor. To my surprise, I ended up buying Ready Player One by Ernest Cline.
Sidenote, this was one of the first books that got me into retro stuff, geek culture and reinvigorated my love for science fiction, somewhere around 2016. It got ruined for me after listening to 372 Pages We’ll Never Get Back, but it’s still kind of nostalgic, and there are some high school memories associated with it that I can’t ignore wether it’s bad or not. I’ll give it a re-read and see what’s up. I’m sure Matt would approve.
I think that seeing it reminded me of my sister, who would always go with me and pick some book, and kinda coherced me into buying one too. Sometimes I had no interest in anything but that one, but I would resist because it was a bit pricier than I’d like, especially since I also had to pay for her book, as the big brother with a job. This time, as I was the only child, I gave myself some slack and finally got it. My dad got something too, but he paid for it himself.
Soon, it was late enough for lunch to be had, so we ordered some chicken burgers from KFC. While waiting for them, I was staring at the tables besides the wall, with three seats. However my mom sat at a table for four, it’s probably something she didn’t even think about—most tables are like that after all—but it did feel a little weird to have an empty chair by my side.
After lunch we walked for a bit longer, visited a couple of shops and my mom got another couple of things. I didn’t really feel like going anywhere. Usually, my sisters would be the ones who would ask me to go to X or Y place, but without them, my parents and I only checked a couple of different stores, didn’t buy anything else, and called it a day.
On the way back, I read some more, catched up in some manga as well, and we got home right on time for me to drop dead tired on my bed. I read a bit more of my current book, and then just rested.
It was weirdly tiring, and a strange experience, I kept thinking how different it would have been if one or both of my sisters were there. They would always grab my hand and push me around and pick clothes for me and the like.
There’s a certain relief that comes with me just being able to do my own business and buy my own stuff without them critiquing my choices or trying to get me to buy some brand. But at the same time, we are family, I will miss the banter and also me being able to bully their choices based on some TikTok fashion trend or some K-pop idol wearing something.
Just siblings, making each other’s life a pain, and a joy, at the same time.
