Small Calamities

Your Calamities

The Week in Review
December 23, 2005 | permalink

Let me catch you up, Gentle Readers, on what I would have been writing about were it not for my little surprise at the beginning of the week. Namely, the holiday craziness of my visiting my family.

Last weekend I went to my Father's for his annual Solstice Celebration. He doesn't do Christmas anymore- he say's it's too 'white man' for him. (This is the man whose decent is English and German... and believe me when I tell you that this is mild on Father's idiosyncrasy scale.) He had the Solstice Frog in the living room, wearing a Santa hat, with the presents all around, a fire in the hearth, and the bar stocked.

I haven't been to my Father's in quite a while. I have issues with him, as you may or may not have noticed. A lot of the things I am trying so hard to work through have their root in the way I was raised, and I confess that at the moment that I feel a bit resentful for this. I'm sure this is unfair, and yet there it is. So it was a little awkward. But mostly fun. My sisters were both there, as well as a couple of aunts and other sundry relations. There was liquor to drink and Star Wars on the television, and plenty of good food.

After two days, I headed back to the city, having some work and a long list of shopping and errands to finish. Not to mention the Sagittarian Party. Two very unproductive days later (the party and the accompanying drinking was all I managed to accomplish- thanks for the Subway Strike!) I got on the Metro North to my Mother's Very Full House.

My Mother and Red (my step-father) live in a small two story, three bedroom house upstate. My Grandfather moved in with them after Grandma died this summer and took one of the rooms, so now there is one spare room. Both of my sisters and two of my aunts are in there... we had to bust the bunkbeds out of the basement. I'm sleeping on the couch, and my cousin Spacey is sleeping on the recliner. Plus my aunt's pug is running around. And these are just the people sleeping here! I think something like thirty more people are showing up on Christmas day. Madness. My Mother is already cracking up.

Last night my sisters and I escaped for a while, playing drinking games with my step-brothers and their wives across town. Quite a welcome distraction.