And then there is that dire exasperation when you realize that you did not, in fact, manage to escape family manufactured drama for the first year in forever when your mother refuses to accept the word “No” as a valid answer when someone else cancels a function that nobody wants to go to and she demands you accommodate the new schedule that the other party demands be met even though there is no one particularly interested in said event.

“But the girls need this meeting with second cousins they haven’t played with in four years and they have nothing in common with while their father drinks himself stupid and you are forced to put up with his antics for four hours. What do you mean that the girls return to school the next morning after a break where they’ve both been sick and they should really rest up beforehand and not have a late night?”

Yes, everyone talks in run on sentences in this family when operating on high drama…

Of course they are still invited to her house so my mother can turn on the Catholic guilt trip for my benefit at the last minute… You know, because it’s happening anyway.

And people wonder why I hate family gatherings. Huh.