![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Familied-out
Aug. 18th, 2002 12:10 amI arrived home this evening about 8:45 after a week in Estes Park, Colorado, for the sporadic/quadrennial family reunion. It wasn't bad, though it wears on me to suppress my natural reactions and opinions.
My sister pissed me off the very first day. We were swimming in the hotel pool, and she saw my navel ring and tattoo. "Tattoos? Belly button ring? Where did mom and dad go wrong?" I bit my tongue to prevent myself from telling her "Fuck you," since that's not a word that gets used in our family. They pretend it doesn't exist. But my cousin's daughter (11 years old) told her "My mommy has one, she just got it," and that made me smile. I always thought that particular cousin might be a little cooler than the run-of-the-family, if not as cool as Mike. She wasn't there, though, unfortunately. In fact very few of my cousins were.
Most of the week was spent in Kathy's company, however, and she wasn't quite such an ass the rest of the time. She does have a knack for the cutting remark, though. Friday morning I went to the laundromat with her and my mother. Mom had folded some of Kathy's family's clothes for her, and Kathy was re-folding them differently.
"Picky?" I asked.
"No, Jeff is. His mother folded his shirts this way, so now I fold shirts this way."
"Ah. If Ray wanted his laundry done a certain way, he did it himself."
"And that's why you're no longer married."
Grrr. There are far too many assumptions buried in that statement. I don't have the energy to tease them all out and rant about them. But that is typical Kathy fare, and I had more than enough of it this week to last me quite a while. My parents and auncles were much less judgemental, thankfully.
Because Rosa was not willing to be parted from me hardly at all, I ended up spending much of my time watching her and Kathy's 4 year old. I'd have actually liked a bit more time with the other relatives, and I definitely wanted more chances to play pinochle, but it wasn't bad. At least the children weren't picking at me.
Wednesday evening was a small escape from the family: wombats Lori and Evelyn each drove up from their respective locations and we hung out for a while and chatted. Lori is taller than I am. It is not a terribly common occurrence that I meet women who are taller than me, and it was a bit odd to walk beside her and look up at her.
Thursday night all of us went over to Pat and Dave's RV to watch a video of my uncle Paul's medical mission work in Uganda. Rosa was in their bedroom sleeping, and then threw up her dinner all over Pat's new white bedspread. Ack. I took her back to the hotel, and she proceeded to throw up some more over the bed there. I called the front desk, who did not answer. Finally I put on a robe and walked down there to ask for new sheets. A few minutes later they brought me *one* sheet. Better than nothing, at least. Then I called Mom and had her run to the supermarket for me to get some children's Motrin and have been dosing Rosa on it ever since. She has still been sick though not as bad.
Today Pat and Dave took Rosa and me out to breakfast, and then we headed back to Denver to catch a plane. I called Lori to see if she wanted to hang out on the way, but no one answered, so we went to The National Center for Atmospheric Research to waste a bit of time, and then to DIA. Nothing of interest to report after our return.
All week I kept having flashbacks and tactile memories of sleeping with Jen (not to mention yearnings for more of the same). Wonderful things, but somewhat out of place under the circumstances. I kept thinking what a good thing it was that no one in my family is telepathic.
( The run-down of daily activities )
My sister pissed me off the very first day. We were swimming in the hotel pool, and she saw my navel ring and tattoo. "Tattoos? Belly button ring? Where did mom and dad go wrong?" I bit my tongue to prevent myself from telling her "Fuck you," since that's not a word that gets used in our family. They pretend it doesn't exist. But my cousin's daughter (11 years old) told her "My mommy has one, she just got it," and that made me smile. I always thought that particular cousin might be a little cooler than the run-of-the-family, if not as cool as Mike. She wasn't there, though, unfortunately. In fact very few of my cousins were.
Most of the week was spent in Kathy's company, however, and she wasn't quite such an ass the rest of the time. She does have a knack for the cutting remark, though. Friday morning I went to the laundromat with her and my mother. Mom had folded some of Kathy's family's clothes for her, and Kathy was re-folding them differently.
"Picky?" I asked.
"No, Jeff is. His mother folded his shirts this way, so now I fold shirts this way."
"Ah. If Ray wanted his laundry done a certain way, he did it himself."
"And that's why you're no longer married."
Grrr. There are far too many assumptions buried in that statement. I don't have the energy to tease them all out and rant about them. But that is typical Kathy fare, and I had more than enough of it this week to last me quite a while. My parents and auncles were much less judgemental, thankfully.
Because Rosa was not willing to be parted from me hardly at all, I ended up spending much of my time watching her and Kathy's 4 year old. I'd have actually liked a bit more time with the other relatives, and I definitely wanted more chances to play pinochle, but it wasn't bad. At least the children weren't picking at me.
Wednesday evening was a small escape from the family: wombats Lori and Evelyn each drove up from their respective locations and we hung out for a while and chatted. Lori is taller than I am. It is not a terribly common occurrence that I meet women who are taller than me, and it was a bit odd to walk beside her and look up at her.
Thursday night all of us went over to Pat and Dave's RV to watch a video of my uncle Paul's medical mission work in Uganda. Rosa was in their bedroom sleeping, and then threw up her dinner all over Pat's new white bedspread. Ack. I took her back to the hotel, and she proceeded to throw up some more over the bed there. I called the front desk, who did not answer. Finally I put on a robe and walked down there to ask for new sheets. A few minutes later they brought me *one* sheet. Better than nothing, at least. Then I called Mom and had her run to the supermarket for me to get some children's Motrin and have been dosing Rosa on it ever since. She has still been sick though not as bad.
Today Pat and Dave took Rosa and me out to breakfast, and then we headed back to Denver to catch a plane. I called Lori to see if she wanted to hang out on the way, but no one answered, so we went to The National Center for Atmospheric Research to waste a bit of time, and then to DIA. Nothing of interest to report after our return.
All week I kept having flashbacks and tactile memories of sleeping with Jen (not to mention yearnings for more of the same). Wonderful things, but somewhat out of place under the circumstances. I kept thinking what a good thing it was that no one in my family is telepathic.
( The run-down of daily activities )
