You know how every family has a personality trait that extends between its members? A vibe that permeates each person’s temperament in a subtle way – like being low-key, high-strung, passive, aggressive, passive aggressive, or medium-key quasi aggressive. For the Nagy family, the characteristic that defines us all is obsessive.
Since I am the youngest child, and born into a dynamic where the other 3 family fellows were excessively obsessive, I manifest this quality the least. You know how 2nd children have to adapt to the crazy they are surrounded by as a means of survival. I was still influenced by that token Nagy obsessive energy, and will do things like clean my kitchen while people are still eating, but I am much more relaxed than my brother, mother or father.
Sometimes I think these semi OCD tendencies are a symptom of an overactive mind. My parents and brother are all academics, so I think they tend to get trapped in their heads. Once an idea comes to them, they can’t stop fixating on it until it is resolved. Mulling the thought over and over, allowing it to eat away at their consciousness like a stray dog gnawing on a bloody bone.
So lets take my brother as a case study. Yesterday some of his furniture was being moved from his old home in Boston to New Hampshire, where there is room to store it. Not a lot of furniture mind you… a desk, a couch, and some books. This seems a non-event right?
Yet here is the conflict in my brother’s brain. There was going to be a two-hour window between when he said goodbye to his stuff as the movers loaded it into the truck, and the time it would take them to arrive here in New Hampshire. That means from 3-5 pm my brother would have to wait until his stuff got here in order to relax and know that everything was in fact okay.
So all my brother could think about during this fateful afternoon was the movers, and subsequently it was all I thought about as well because of the influx of texts I received.
3:40
First text from my brother Laszlo: Toni, my movers left at 3. They are in a budget van. I think the situation should be okay. Like there is no human way they could be there by now. I would call the movers, but I don’t want to make us look stupid.
My reply: No stress I am here!
Reply from Laszlo: Ok. The head mover Brandon, looks like the lead singer from Hootie and The Blowfish. The only real drama is they took out the drawers from the desk because it was so hard getting it out of here.
My reply: It will be okay!
Reply from Laszlo: But aside from that it was fine. They left at 3:07pm, maybe 3:10. The van is a “budget van.” And am I getting this right that Adelia and Toni might witness the spectacle of Uncle Laszlo’s furniture being tendered? That is how I am imagining this.
My reply: Yes we will!
Reply from Laszlo: Can I give you the number to the movers? Might be wise… Should I communicate with him? This is a short story in the making, and I don’t even know the plot.
(I don’t reply fast enough)
Reply from Laszlo continued: Okay so I made an executive decision and gave your digits to Brandon.
My reply: He is not here yet.
Reply from Laszlo: These are just preemptive moves on my part, but me being a Pisces, even though I lack evidence, I sense that strange things are afoot at the Circle K… quote from Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure.
(Again I don’t reply fast enough)
Reply from Laszlo continued: Maybe they will go to Burger King in which case there will be temporal harmony in the Universe.
(Yet again, I don’t reply fast enough)
Reply from Laszlo further continued: I go have a cigarette in your honor.
My reply: He is here!
Reply from Laszlo: For reals??? Take pictures! He is super nice!! Tell him I say ‘Hi’ okay? Are you happy?
My reply: He is very nice.
Reply from Laszlo: He must think we are insane in the membrane. I fuck off now, but if you feel like taking pictures….
Then an hour later I get a phone call from my brother. I didn’t answer because my friend was over, and I figured we had established that everything was in fact fine.
Text from Laszlo: So no one answers their phone… is this a novel or what?
My reply: Everything is fine! I just have a friend over. Can I call you when she leaves?
Reply from Laszlo: No need to call. I did a lot of filling in the blanks over radio silences… inner dad and all that. Have a good time with your friend and I love you! Thanks for being there for me Toni!
Sigh… at least I know where The Munch gets it from.
This is a picture of man who never stops thinking…
