Happy Happy Happy

My family is suffering from a surfeit of happy couples.

 

Wait, that sounds wrong.  It isn't a matter of suffering, since the couples are happy.  And whether or not it's actually a surfeit could be argued as well.  What it boils down to is this: I'm the only single person in the family at the moment.  That is fact.  I'm not mad about it, I'm not whining about it, I'm not pitying myself . . .  but it makes for interesting dynamics.

 

When my two sisters were dating, then on the verge of getting engaged, then actually engaged, they had what I have always termed Happy Couple Syndrome.  Since they were one half of a happy couple, they thought everyone would be better off and happier if they, too, were half of a very happy couple.  Blind dates are not the norm in my family, but all of a sudden, both of them knew eligible young men that I needed to go out with.  I needed to be a member in a happy couple.

 

(Again, please note--I've nothing against happy couples.  I am, in fact, happy for happy couples.  At the moment, I just don't have any type of vested interest in making myself part of a happy couple)

 

Anyway, this Christmas has brought another all-but-engaged couple in the form of my brother and his girlfriend.  This brother, you understand, is downright mean on a bad day.  Doesn't understand me on an iffy day.  And delights in having faux-arguments with me on a good day.  (I'll admit it: the phony arguments can be a lot of fun, especially as they devolve into claims and counter-claims that become more and more ridiculous)

 

And now my older brother thinks I need to be part of a couple.  Because, and I quote, "I think, Katie, you'd be a much happier person if you were getting some action."  Other gems from his fount of wisdom include, "Don't say that you don't want a boyfriend right now just because you don't have a boyfriend.  Everyone wants a boyfriend."  Pause.  "Unless you want a girlfriend."  He's a charmer, my brother.

 

I've always had some silly notion I controlled my happiness, and I didn't need to have any particular people there--or not there--to be happy.  Then again, maybe if my older brother temporarily disappeared . . . eh, he'll get married soon enough.  I think I can do a good job of remaining chipper until then.  And after then.  And pretty much whenever I want to be happy.