I forgot that Sunday was my turn to host the family monthly lunch. I called Oceanarium and made reservations for nine of us! I think it will be fun. This will be the first get together since the Christmas bash.

Had a good talk with B about the Jen & Jerry's school issues. Hmmm...Jen & Jerry's...sort of has a ring about it.

Back in at 11:09 pm
Spent the evening working on our Ongoing Research project. Running into a lot of snags because of missing user names/access codes. Hopefully, this is only a tempoary snafu. Just my short research tonight shows me that there will be a lot of data to wade through. The HR types are quite wordy and seem to like to write.

Anyway, back to my talk with B this morning. There were a lot of parts to the conversation. One having to do with J talking with DW. B asked my read on the situation. I told him that I really did not want to get involved, but I did give him my "read" which was...both J and R feel that DW is not good for B. I think this resonated for him. He seemed to feel more assured.

Then, I bit the bullet and brought up my concerns about Jen's and Jerry's choice of schools. B could not understand J's actions with respect to Sacred Heart...why take Jen to the open house in the first place. We went over J's reason for wanting Jen to go to that school. Both B and I could see the opposite rationale was also possible. I told him that I was concerned about the disappointment which she might have to face.

I told B that I considered Jerry to have pseudo grand-parents (given Mrs CH's attitude toward Jerry).She does not deserve Jerry. I know that they would want to help Jerry any way they can. Would they pay the entire tuition? I don't know...it is quite steep. However, with Jen, I feel she is kinda left out...no one seems to pay her much attention. That may be why I want to try to support her as much as is practical. B is now aware that Dick and I would be willing to pay half the tuition if her grandma and J would also pay some. B seemed a little torn because he felt the tuition would be wasted on the kids. He apparently feels the kids are not that bright. Sigh.

I did not want to get into a discussion of why that is not pertinent. However, I did mention that I thought Jerry had a lot of winning attributes. I did not offer any further explanations.

Why do relationships have to be so difficult? Is it possible that B does not love all the kids? I guess that could be true, since the two spend virtually no time with him. I feel sad for all of them...B, especially. I am sure the love is there.

Why is it so threatening to express love? Is this a common thread for families? Have I ever seen loving relationships between family members? I've read about them. I've seen duty, responsibility, mutual respect, etc. Rarely have I seen affection, much less overt, expressions of love.

It is too late in the night to ponder this question.