Abby

[threemeninaboat]

Mom called.

"I have terrible family news. But Roz says I'm not supposed to say it like that because it sounds like someone died."
"Who died?"
"No one died."
"Good."
"Your cousin Martha's husband Brian, has decided to become a woman, so Lois is flying out next week to Martha out of Brian's apartment."
"Abby's apartment."
"Lois calls her Brian Abby."*
"Abby."
"Anyways so we aren't all getting together. And Bryce got a job! He's the manager at Jiffy Lube. So he works Sundays and then I guess we aren't getting together with him then either."

*there are 2 other Abbys in the immediate family, Alisse's daughter Abby and Niffer's cat Abby. We have 3 Johns and 2 Wades and 2 Jennifers. Wade's wife AND sister are Jennifer G (hence Niffer, Niffer hates being called Niffer). You can see why Niffer named her kids Saylor and Almathea.


Not like I can travel back in time and urge my brother to aim for a career rather than ending up at 38 yo as a manager at Jiffy Lube. He's probably disappointed in himself enough, but he needs to get food on the table some how. "The average salary for General Manager at Jiffy Lube in Colorado is $53,281."  It'll be less than that in Pueblo. I'm glad his wife has a job. SIGH.
 

Comments

[fbhjr]

My brother is 57 and works as a bag boy at a supermarket. The same job I had when I was 16. I bet it still pays minimum as it did back 40 years ago.
So Jiffy Lube manager isn’t the worst thing…

[threemeninaboat]

I think Bryce just likes jobs he can do under the influence.

[fbhjr]

I’m not a fan of Jiffy Lube, so would not be surprised you could get away with that there…

[altamira16]

Didn't people know that they were supposed to announce their transitions by just sending out photographic holiday cards and not providing any explanation at all?

[threemeninaboat]

I don't think they will be together that long. Martha's moving out right now.

[malterre]

Oy, families. Is there ever a playbook for the stuff they create...no. Will we eventually have one..also no.

[threemeninaboat]

Haaaa. It always a good show and I'm glad the spotlight is not on me.

[basefinder]

"terrible family news" "decided to become"

Ouch!

I'm not sure how my parents would have reacted to one of my cousins transitioning. Though, my depression-era dad still loved my brother's ex-wife after she came out as lesbian, and remained close with her to the end.

[threemeninaboat]

Martha's mom is old conservative and I'm sure this uncomfortable for her. But no one care's about how Martha's mom feels, it's how awful this is for Martha.

[scrottie]

World is full of people who aim for a career and miss, at least in tech. Running a local user's group for a number of years and getting to know people there, a lot were living with their parents, supported by their parents, or living in their car. I've been lead in successful tech startups that got bought and Bryce is probably making significantly more than I am and almost certainly working a lot fewer hours. Tech is plagued with cyclic layoffs, acquisitions for the intellectual property where the acquired company is just gutted, and high profile bankruptcies, so it's not so much a matter of finding maybe one or two good jobs, you have to find a good tech job over and over and over. Then if you had or kind of had a career, it becomes extremely difficult to get hired back in to a blue collar job. So, cheers for Bryce.

[threemeninaboat]

I really think that my brother's past 15 years of employment as Drunk Cashier at the Liquor Store is not aiming for a career. Can't support kids on your collection of empty beer cans.

[sistawendy]

Wait, did she just call a gender transition "terrible family news"? I think you know where I stand on that.

[threemeninaboat]

Yes, for Martha, who wanted to grow old with Brian, this is terrible family news. She's now going through an an unwanted divorce, that's terrible. She's the first and hopefully only member of this generation to get divorced. Her dreams for the future are shattered, that's terrible.

Abby may be free, but my cousin Martha is devastated.