Some Truths

Well, I hate to do this, but this is MY blog, and if someone reads it and doesn't like what I have to say, it is no skin off my nose. This is MINE and people are welcome to read and think, but they are not welcome to flame or be rude. And they are not welcome to take offense. So "group," take note, I'm about to speak my mind. And not the mind I keep in check while I am around you all.

We had a family reunion last month, and we saw some cousins we hadn't seen in several years and played some wicked cool games. Had a good time, overall. But then the backbiting started up, and it's been two weeks, and all I've seen, heard, and felt is Nikki's "negativity bubble." It surrounds this family like a fart cloud. Stinks that bad, too. "Let's do this for this child," one says. "Who cares that the other 57 members of the family want something different?" "We have to have the reunion this week because it will conflict with this other thing..." "I can't come to the reunion unless we have it here..." So. How about we say screw the freaking reunion and everyone can keep their comments to themselves and stay home? That's the idea I like the best and I don't have to hear all the lies and see all the two-faced people who would just as soon stick a knife in the back of a family member than actually show their backbone and speak their true thoughts. Everyone's thinking the same thing: We like the mountains! We like the cool pines. We don't want to be in dust and dirt and down low where it gets 100º during the day. But nobody will say it in "public," only behind others' backs so that there is a constant murmur until the person in question walks in. Usually it's me, which I think is hillarious. Sometimes I walk over to where people are talking just to hear them go silent all of a sudden. Then I'll walk around a camper when I know people are talking smack and it's almost like hearing brakes on the highway.

This family is no family. They act like they care about one another, act like they are happy to see each other, but when it comes down to it, every single one of them is keeping an imaginary score. "Oh, I gave you a good deal on...(whatever that person does for a living) so now you owe me..." "I helped you out with backing your trailer up, so now you need to...", "I came to your house and helped you move, so now I want you to..." It never ends. And the emotional blackmail! "Oh, that really hurt me that you said that. You should....to make up for it." WTF? Are you serious? Pouting? Whining? These are not children I am talking about, these are grown people, adults, parents, even grandparents. I believe even a great-grandparent or two! If it wasn't so petty, it would be funny. But more people have chosen to take offense and hold grudges and I mean petty, petty stuff. A word, 25 years ago, made one sister mad and now she won't talk to her brother. Oh, she'll talk ABOUT him all you want, but not to him. Or it is one of those fish handshakes and a tap on the back and a "I'm glad you made it." Or one sibling makes more money and so everyone hates him because he has no problem living high on the hog. He doesn't want to camp. That makes him a bad person? Um, no! If I had the money to drive back and forth to a motel, I sure as heck wouldn't want to sleep outside with bugs and rain and dirt falling down all over me all night.

And this is supposedly a "family" reunion. But there's a "good reunion" up in Alpine every year around labor day. Nobody with small children is invited. (so much for family togetherness) Only certain of the siblings is invited, and many don't know it is even going on. We went once, and because ours were the only kids there, they were bored and annoyed the adults a LOT. Annoyed me alot, actually, and when I found out the reason we didn't know until the last moment was because someone had emotionally blackmailed the rest of the group into agreeing to tell us, I vowed never to go again. And I haven't. And I never will, either.

MY life is not complicated. I wake up, I walk, I go to work, I come home. That's my life. It's the same every day. In summer, I wake up, I walk, I go do whatever the kids have signed up to do, and I come home. I do not have adult friends, I don't "do lunch" except every month or so with my visiting teacher, and I don't gossip. I have NO idea whose husband is stepping on on them, or whose girls are getting knocked up by whose boys. I don't know and I don't care. I don't want to know. I keep my life simple because I cannot take drama. It is stress I cannot handle, do not want, and do not need. This family stresses me out so bad that I almost cannot stand to even think about being around them. Which is sad because I genuinely love each and every one of them, despite all the flaws. I just cannot handle the drama that occurs when they are together.

Okay, got that off my chest. If one of you out there decides to take offense, remember I warned you. This is MY thoughts, in MY personal space. You have no right to hold them against me because I have the same rights anyone else does to express opinions. There you have it!