jo_anne_storm: (SGA -- Nap Time)
So, after my last post...

Talked to my older half sibs on Wednesday. John basically went "Yeah. OK. Dad had a new girl over every weekend at that point." John lived with Dad for awhile then. Also, John and Justin look alike.

Janice, on the other hand... I guess Aunt Linda might have tried to tell her first. And Aunt Linda said she thought Janice was going to go from NC to GA and tell her to shut up in person. Completely did not believe her. And has been pretty closed-mouthed about it in the short group chat we have going. Other than saying that she is overwhelmed.

And... OK. I get some of it. From a kid perspective, her dad abandoned her and got a new family. And if he did not go off and marry someone else, her parents would have gotten back together. Kid perspective, plus a mother who probably filled her head with lies.

Dad died when I was 13. She was 26. The last time she saw him, she was 14. That was her choice. One that, during his funeral, she claimed to regret. But, I was 13. Jacque was 16. And I said some things I regret. Things that... OK, I was a stupid kid. Like, deeply stupid. And everyone thought I was very mature because I was quiet. I was not. I was just quiet. And so sometimes I would parrot things that the adults around me said. In this particular case, my parents would always joke to friends "This is my friend X, but we don't claim him."

Yeah... Imagine substituting "Sister" for friend, right around the time of the funeral. Her then-husband had to explain to me that I upset her. I did apologize...

But, that is neither here nor there. The last time Jacque or I spoke to her, she was 26, married, with a child. Jacque and I were kids. 30 years with no contact. Which might have been partially my fault. Then again... Kid. Not an adult.

So, yeah... My relationship with my eldest siblings is not the best...

Anyway.

Thursday, DH was rear ended while sitting at a red light. The Rogue, a 2010 with 200+k miles on it, was declared a total loss.

In today's car market?!?! FML.

No, seriously. Used cars are going for more than new cars, partially because people can FIND used cars. We were looking and a used 2022 Honda Civic LX (base model) was going for at least 2K more than a new 2022 Honda Civic EX (top model). But you could get it now, not October when they hope to get the next new car! CarMax and Carvana was more like $5K more.

He managed to get said 2022 Civic LX for the same price as a new EX. And it's that disgusting.

So... 23&Me still in process. New car purchased (ugh, the car payment, but our gas bill is going to go down $100/month, at current prices).

So... Yeah. I need to get off this ride for awhile.

Can't I just win that $1.1 BILLION dollar lottery they are drawing for tonight? I actually got a ticket.
jo_anne_storm: (BtVS -- Babble)
Bemusing is a good word for it. Overwhelming is another.

I've never done the Ancestry DNA, 23 and Me, etc test kits. I've done the Ancestry website free trial before, but not the DNA testing thing. I have reasons for this! Other than the "Ah, they own my DNA, WTF?!?" aspect of it all. (I should have read the fine print before ordering...)

But, also, because I have a pretty good handle on where I come from. Dad was 100% Swedish. OK, that is a lie. Finnish by way of Sweden. Mom is a mix of mostly German with Scottish and Irish. I have some genealogy research from both sides of the family. No reason to spend the money to see what I already know.

Only, notice I said I ordered one?

My first cousin did a 23 and Me. (Pretty sure that portion of the family did it because one of the siblings found out that her father was not her father and did the test to find out. Got matched with some cousins or such.) And she had a message in the last day or so from someone else matched as a first cousin on the Finnish side and she thinks I have a brother.

*blinks*

*blinks*

Wait... Wah?

OK, I took it better than that, I did. The gentleman was born in San Diego in 1975. He never knew his father and his mom died when he was 2 or 3.

Mom and Dad married in San Diego in January of '75. My sister was born in December. Mom and Dad dated maybe a couple of months before getting married.

I know what my dad's attitude towards cheating was. I know what his attitude towards child abandonment was. I know how hard it was for him to find out from my older half-sister that his wife had a boyfriend. I saw how much it hurt him when that same half-sister rejected him.

I do not know the circumstances around conception. The math works so that he was conceived shortly before Dad and Mom got together. But we all know that pregnancy math is never exact. And everyone who would have known is dead now.

My cousin, whom I call "Aunt" because she and Dad were more like siblings than uncle and niece, said that he was foot loose and fancy free (that is what we are calling it around the munch) between the divorce from his first wife and marrying Mom. My new, bonus brother, said the same could be said for his mom. (He has two older brothers, each from a different father, and his mom died of a drug overdose. So...)

Of course, I still need to approach my other half-siblings about this. I have not talked to them in about 30 years. So, that will be fun. They may be fine with it, or use it as a way to degrade our father's memory. My half-sister, Janice, didn't even tell Dad that she got married. I saw her when I was 7 and when I was 14. I'm sure I saw her more than that, but those are the ones I remember. She refused to visit and refused to take Dad's phone calls.

Jacque has seen John, our half-brother, in the last couple of years. He was delivering asphalt to her work as part of a paving project and she went out to meet his new wife. I saw him shortly after Dad's funeral, when he had left his wife and kids and brought his girlfriend to live in a trailer in our back yard for a bit. Yeah, class act, my sibs.

Anyway, tomorrow would have been Dad's 83rd birthday. "Happy birthday, Dad! It's a boy!" has been my joke of the day.

Also, he has a J name! That's 5 kids in total from my dad with J names!!! Justin, this time around.

So, that's why I ordered the 23 and Me. Unless Dad had a full sibling running around that he did not know of, I have a bonus brother.

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