What a Weekend

I'm finally back in the land of the living, but I'm surprised I managed to survive. Between my aunt's shenanigans and the paranoia of becoming a new parent, I'm impressed that I still have a mind with which to think. I'll do the news in the next post, because I just want to vent/update a little.

My husband and I went to a Baby Care Basics class on Saturday morning [I looked up the location of this hospital and knew exactly how to get there so that we were not late] and the woman who taught it was the best teacher they could've found for it. Anyone who is willing to come to the house of a new set of parents just to trim their baby's fingernails is totally awesome in my book. She was even willing to spend an extra hour talking to the two of us about our concerns because I'm horribly paranoid that I will have no maternal instinct. I like people who are honest about everything and when I told her that I would be going back to school two weeks after the baby's born, her biggest concern was that I wouldn't want to go back to school (whereas my biggest concern is that I will be all too willing to go back and get out of the house). I felt better after this class that I won't be a complete screw-up with this, and we left to go see the Jeff Smith exhibit at the Wexner Center on campus (this is the guy who did the comic/graphic novel Bone, which I recommend to anyone because it's a great adventure story. See my LibraryThing collection for more information), went out to an early dinner with my mother-in-law, and had a very pleasant day.

That night was a slightly different story.

My aunt, who needs a name for the sake of writing, has issues. She is a person who likes to manipulate everything so that her friends think my family is the enemy when it is in fact she who is the cause of all of her own problems. As I regaled in my last entry, she wanted to leave for Columbus at 10:30 to get to a 12:30 shower. It's a 2 and a half hour-long drive and there was a good chance that she and everyone she was driving would've missed the shower entirely, so my brother decided that he and my mom should find another way to get to the shower. They ended up taking the Greyhound Saturday night and got here near 2 a.m. (and I was too stupid to figure out they were taking the 11 pm bus...but that's another story for later) and we had to pick them up at the station (less than a 5-minute drive for us). My mom called my aunt when she got to the house to say that my husband had to drive up to Cleveland to do something for his mother and decided to bring them down on the way (complete lie, because his mom drove down to stay at a hotel, but my uncle figured it was the easiest way to not piss my aunt off and Matt is willing to play the fall guy). My aunt sounded like she didn't still want to just come to the shower on her own, but she was encouraged to still come down.

This detail is important only because Aunt Crayzee (as she will now be called) called my phone at 10:15 the next morning. I had no money left on my phone (pay-as-you-go and all), so Matt called the number back and spoke to Crayzee who said (in tears in front of her friends) that she couldn't come to the shower because she couldn't afford the gas and that they (my mom and brother) were supposed to split the gas and blah, blah, blah. Here's what I have to say about that: If you were splitting the gas, why were you charging them $30 a piece? And what kind of a car were you borrowing that you wanted them to fill up? Was it a van? I can tell you that on one tank of gas in a fairly gas efficient car (roughly $45 worth of gas) you can drive from Cleveland to Columbus and back on one tank. What did she need all that money for? Answer: She is always trying to get money out of my mom and uncle. These two people are trying to find jobs and while she is gainfully employed, that hasn't stopped her from borrowing money from them all the damn time. She was telling my mother what to buy me for my shower (as if my mom has never been a mom) which was to just get me a gift card so that Crayzee could get more of the money for herself. Crayzee was even trying to get my uncle to go to the shower so that she could get another $30 for herself. I didn't get to see my cousin, who would've really enjoyed herself at the shower, but Crayzee has only herself to blame for not going to the shower. I do feel as if she was going to arrive late on purpose so that she could embarrass my mother for being late to her own daughter's shower because, unfortunately, Crayzee is bitchy like that, but they thwarted her at her own plan by taking the bus (they would've rather given their money to the bus than to her). She needs to knock this shit off before I finally call her out on her behavior.

What is most upsetting is that I'm angry that I feel bad that Crayzee missed the shower. I didn't do anything wrong, but I feel guilty. How screwed up is that?

Anyway, the shower was wonderful. I took pictures and I will hopefully post them with a better description of the shower sometime this week. Two of my girlfriends came down to see me and it was nice to know that people cared so much about us to do this for us. And while both of our names were on the shower, Matt ran for the hills with my brother to see the Dark Knight again. I don't blame him; I would never be the type of woman who would make a man go to the showers (bridal and baby), but I won't say that other women who do so are bad. I just know that he would hate it and I'd rather have a good time than deal with him bitching about everything.

After the shower was over, my mother-in-law (who was upset to find out that my family had to take the bus when she could've picked them up) had offered to drive them back that very day, but because they had no way of getting back in the house (my uncle had the keys and was tutoring his friend's kids that day), they stayed with us another night. My brother, who has been living in his car for the past six months, said that this was the best sleep he had gotten in a long time (he was on the air mattress) and my mom crashed on our couch. They're not the best houseguests a person can have (my uncle, being the example of the world's best houseguest, sets a high standard for others to follow), but I'd put up with them all over again because it was worth it to have them here.

My Monday was supposed to consist of going back to work, but I had to drive the two of them back to Cleveland. If I had just driven them up there and left immmediately, I would've gotten to work by 2 p.m. but instead, I stayed with them and my uncle (who must have gotten home late because he fell asleep on the stairs for a little bit) and they picked at the fidgety baby for awhile. This kid's gotten a lot of attention and one of my girlfriends tried to encourage the baby to arrive on her birthday (8/25) but we'll see how that works out. :-) I ended up driving my brother to work (which was a detour on I-480 that causes me to lose no time on my trip since it empties out on I-71 South putting me further on my way than if I had to go right back to where I got off) and getting home by 4:30. This weekend left me feeling burnt out but blessed. I was thankful for what I received (because I didn't think I was going to get anything) but I felt so bad that I ended up spending the rest of the day curled up on the couch. Matt came home from his church meeting and asked me if I wanted him to stay home to take care of me and I actually relented. We needed time to reconnect anyway, and we spent an hour talking about the merits of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (not kidding) and I didn't feel like I wasted my time. I managed to get a lot of sleep and while I didn't get to work today until noon, I did get to work, so things have worked out.

Well, this turned into the long post from hell. I'll try to quickly throw together the news post so as not to lose any potential new readers to my maudlin rants.