Musings of a Wench

I think you all know what my answer is

True or False: Is this your idea of a good weekend?

Wake up early on your Friday off. Drive for 10 hours. Get a motel. Meet up with his relatives, eat, go back to motel. Wake, spend time with them. Buy them dinner. Sleep. Wake, meet them to say goodbye. Drive for 10 hours.

Okay, not that bad yet. I mean, if you didn't hate being in a car for 10 hours as much as I do.

So, the relatives: Aunt M, a nice lady who has been worn down by years of problems. Uncle R, who works in a slaughter house/meat processing plant and spends most of his time talking about slaughtering and cutting up animals. At least he learned to read recently, so maybe he will talk about stuff he read in the newspaper. (Yeah, right.) 18 year old P, who is friends with people with dubious occupations who can purchase their own Jaguars at 22. (Oh yes, that dubious occupation. God.) And then there is scary, scary E. She is 16, autistic, unable to socialize normally, violent and sexually attracted to John.

How about now? Sounds like your idea of a good time?

How about the fact that this is pretty much the end of summer, and the last Friday off we have together until next year? How about the fact we are still in the middle of renovating? The fact that our car needs either new tires or new alignment before we can take it on a road trip like that? How about the fact that we need to get a motel room, because last time we stayed there, we slept on the floor and woke in the middle of the night to find E standing at the foot of the bed staring at us? How about the fact that in his own words he calls this a nightmare and doesn't want to go? I don't know why he is so insistent - there is no pressure from his mother or his grandmother, and even his aunt has never said much more than it would be lovely to see him. Cathy has never made this trip to visit her own sister - why do we? She only goes if she's in the area on a vacation or heading to Oregon.

How about now? Sounds like your idea of a good time?

How about the fact that this is a mere two weeks after I have to give up my 4 day long weekend to go up to the cabin in BC with his parents? The last time we went, it was such a nightmare that this was all I would say about it? It was awful. John and sis and boyfriend literally threw rocks at each other for an hour - and later said it was one of the highlights. (I? Did not participate.) It was one of those times where the 4 of us killed about a litre of vodka in an evening, and at no point got drunk - that just took the edge off. (I know, it sounds weird, but it's true.)

How about now?

How about the fact that I never do this to him, that in 4 years, I've made him go to a single one night event in Medicine Hat, where we drove up with my parents, the whole family got seriously wasted, and crashed in my aunt's spare room and my parents drove us home the next day. We maybe see my extended family 3 times a year, and at least one of those is a Chinese food dinner and nothing else. We see his extended family several times a month. (I'm not bitter - it's just my family is not close and we are all okay with that.)

How about now? Because this is my idea of hell on earth and my anxiety level just cranked it up to 11. I thought I'd managed to deal with everything but no. Apparently not.

posted by Morgan @ 3:52 p.m.