mother in law......ditch her,or dine her?

you are brave

I hate to spend more then one hour with my MIL.
And I would never volunteer to do all of THAT for her..

Lets hope you come back in one piece..

Somehow I think next year will be different

My sympathies!

Be stoic. And may God go with you.

Re: mother in law......ditch her,or dine her?


But wait. This post is a hoot and confusing at the same time.

Did you volunteer because somewhere lurking in you is a generous spirit and you knew, you just knew, it would make you mother-in-law happy? And now the inevitable dread has set in. Well, not dread so much as profound annoyance and feeling deprived of your own time.

Or is this one of those annual events, both predictable and obligatory, to keep things running smoothly with your spouse?

I feel for you, man. Although, you've probably saved yourself a lot of future difficulty in volunteering for this.

Alex--

You're a Good Man.

Re: mother in law......ditch her,or dine her?


We'll be here. Waiting.

If you ask around, someone may have an adult beverage for you.

Drive carefully.

oh - the 'official' name for your new friends ... Atookaians







(did I leave out an "i"?)

Godspeed, alex ..... and welcome to A2K.

I just returned from my semiannual "predictable and obligatory" (great description, Gala) 4-day stay with the in-laws in West Texas. I know I say this every time, but those people are completely out of their minds.

There's the cranky Great Aunt on oxygen with bad hearing. (We stayed with her. She's the only relatively sane one. Four people in a 750 sq. ft. house with one tiny bathroom, though...it was claustrophobic.) Then there's the anorexic, bipolar, compulsive-liar Sister-in-Law with no teeth. She just got a new tattoo. Fairies, vines, leaves and the four elements now cover her entire back but do not disguise the ribs sticking out. The only reason I could tolerate her was because she was seriously overmedicated this time. Probably better that way. Her husband, the Human Ostrich, kept his head firmly buried in the sand...or was that the refrigerator?...the entire time. Their daughters, Ne'er-Do-Well #1 and #2, brought boyfriends this time. #2's boyfriend, the Sumbitch, was the same one as year before last, just before she kicked him out for cheating on her. He's still mooching off her...very blatantly. We weren't going to speak to him, but he beat us to it. Sat there, ate our food and left, never said a word. #1 brought a new guy that she met two months ago and moved in with after 3 weeks. Maybe he dropped clues that I didn't catch, but he actually seemed rather normal. I felt sorry for him...it would never work. #1 is way too messed up. On the bright side, #1 and #2 are both employed this Christmas, which is a first.

Distant cousins visited from Cape Cod. We haven't seen them since we went to the Cape 8 years ago. They had never been around the Texas group and were a bit shell-shocked. We piled them into our car and took them to a drive-in where they will bring beers out to your car. (Only in Texas.) They obviously needed a drink. So did we. Too bad I don't like beer...but with all the desserts that the Human Ostrich keep pushing at me, I usually passed out at about 9:30 p.m. from sugar inhalation.

All this is to say, Alex...hang in there. If I can survive a 10-day power outage followed by 4 days of Hell in Texas, you can make it through one day with the Whining Crones.

Oh, and welcome to A2K!

Oh Eva, like the storm wasn't bad enough!


I'm exausted just from reading about it all.

(((((((((Eva))))))))

Boy, I bet you're glad it's all over ;-)

Next time Eva..

drive away for a few hours and come knock on my door in Austin.

Oh, shewolf, that is really nice of you! But if I ever left the in-laws and started driving, I might not ever stop!

I hate these trips. I really do. It was cathartic writing it down, but I need a few more days of quiet around here to recover.

I always used to like it when Cmas and NYears landed somewhere in mid week. That meant that however tense, dreadful, exhausting the double drives to families' - days were, there were the lazy days, when we'd have friends over, hang out, sometimes on the porch if it was a warm southern california week, and I'd cook or hub would but with 'no worries' and conversation would just sail along. Neighbors would stop by if we were outside... all good.

In part, the contrast made the lazing days that much better.

Poor Eva! It's funny to read though

Well, at least these dysfunctionals did produce your husband,
so they were good for something.

Did Alex make it back?

Re: mother in law......ditch her,or dine her?

He hasn't posted since.

I fear we will never hear from alex again. He probably never got to see Texas beat ASU. From his description, and based on my own personal experience, there was just no way "A few hours of shopping" wasn't going to stretch to "all flippin day." He didn't have a chance.

I know that's right!

Alex is probably in recovery...