So where is Bratty today?  

After Bratty and SO resumed their regular phone calls and conversations, Bratty shared with SO that she had applied to be an egg donor/surrogate parent.  She learned she could earn money this way and wanted to do so before getting a hysterectomy later due to her self-diagnosed endometriosis.  SO dutifully pulled some old childhood photos of Bratty as a young girl for Bratty’s donor application and reminisced on what a cute little girl she had been.  I think he feels some loss with her currently not identifying as a girl anymore.

One day out of the blue Bratty texted SO while I was finishing preparing dinner.  Bratty had a college paper that she believed worthy of publication in a journal but her professor did not.  Bratty asked SO how she could go about getting it published anyway.  SO was confused as to why she expected him to know an answer and texted back that he had no idea.

On SuperBowl Sunday, we had another couple over to watch the game.  Bratty texted a few times (always a sign of a Bratty mini-meltdown) that she had been visiting her Uncle when Grandma called.  She was upset because she heard them using ‘she’ when talking about her.  She wanted to call SO and talk about it.  Now it was SuperBowl Sunday and SO had been drinking so he texted back no as he was busy and we had company over but they could talk another day.  SO also grumbled to me that Bratty needed to better manage her expectations around preferred pronouns.  I knew Bratty would not appreciate that feedback but left it alone since I was disengaged.

Since then, Bratty has been again giving SO the cold shoulder.  Avoiding phone calls, or skipping phone calls after they arranged a day and time, as she did before her big meltdown last year that sent us to family therapy.  While they’ve been texting back and forth, it has been about 3 months since they’ve spoken on a phone call.  Last week SO remarked that Bratty had been uncommunicative lately and I asked him why he thought that was.  He shrugged and just assumed she was busy.  He remarked that most young 20-somethings don’t spend a lot of phone time with their parents anyway and viewed it as normal. 

I thought to myself, yes its normal for most, but it is not normal to suddenly shift from a pattern of regular (and usually fairly long) phone calls every 2-3 weeks directly to no phone calls.  I guess we’ll see what happens.

Bratty has been living in the Bay Area and has been working as a medical assistant.  She has not given up on her dream of becoming a doctor but will have to repeat another post-bac program.  She has applied to several, has been accepted to one (in the mid-west, near her grandmother), and as of a couple of weeks ago was waiting to hear about the others.

She invited herself to Grandma’s for a week to visit the school she was accepted to and will spend Mother’s Day there.  She has threatened to cook for Grandma, who at 87 years old is still very much a meat-and-potatoes type person.  No idea if Bratty plans to cook a vegan meal or not.  As noted in another post, Grandma is stressed out over Bratty’s visit and has threatened to cancel.  Still waiting to see how that drama ends…

Last week SO noticed that someone logged into our Netflix account from Pennsylvania and he texted Bratty if she knew who that could be.  Bratty texted back that is was her as she was visiting a friend in PA.  I asked SO if he knows if Bratty is still currently working, since she mentioned she was ‘transferring’ from her current clinic to a different one closer to her place effective May 1.  He said he didn’t know for sure.  Of course May 1 Bratty was scheduled to be visiting with Grandma so that timing doesn’t really line up either.

As I shared in Breaking News, Bratty texted me out of the blue a couple of weeks ago inquiring about any plans we have to go to Disneyland when it re-opens.  Then just asking how I was.  I gave a grey rock response (ignored the Disneyland inquiry altogether) and just said I was doing well and hoped the same for her.  As one of the programs she is waiting to hear back from is in our area I suspect she is testing the waters for a visit.  We’ll see.

Bratty has some periodic car drama that I’ve also posted about.  It will be hilarious if she does end up in the Midwest for a year since that bucket of bolts she’s driving will not survive a real mid-west winter.

My birthday passed recently and no word at all from Bratty, which is perfect.  Bratty turns 24 in July and I don’t plan to acknowledge it at all.

I’m sure Bratty has more adventures in store and I’ll be sure to post them here!