Redheaded Jill

I don’t know if this is a woman thing or a human thing, but I am so easily miffed. I noticed it recently when answering questions of relatives.

Once my Aunt said, “Your cousin has a good friend who is single… What is your sister up to? I she seeing anyone? He’s about 38.” At the time I was 28, and my sister was 23/24. I thought, “First of all… that’s a big gap. Also, what am I, chopped liver?” I was offended because she didn’t think to ask me. BUT… I would have been annoyed if she HAD asked me. Because I am a defensive person. It was a lose-lose scenario. My Uncle tried to ask me about dating once and I talked to him instead about my dreams of owning a dairy cow. So… take THAT! Try talking to ME about my personal life again, HA. I’ll thwart you before you can say, “Dating…?”

Fast forward to this weekend. I was chatting with my Grandma. She no longer asks about my dating life. (Which is partly a relief.) Now she asks, “Since you don’t have a real job will you be able to collect social security someday?” Now, it’s hard to explain to your 90 year old grandma what side hustles are, and how I have several different jobs instead of one regular 9-5. It’s also hard to explain how I pay taxes even though my business is mostly dealt in cash. I report to the IRS just like everyone else. I also was like, “Seriously? We skip the possibility of me being married and jump straight into what will I do someday when I’m ready to retire?” These are valid concerns. But they still annoyed me.

And while I am a big enough person to point out my personal hypocrisy, I’m also silly enough that it DOES bug me and I will probably continue to let it bug me.