What I Did On Vacation (part 1)

On the first day nothing much happened. I mean I saw my father and he was the whole reason I drove 12 hours, though on that 12 hour trip, I did have a complication. We were on our way, my wife along with the teenager packed the car, (I did do a preliminary check and I thought everything was fine… I was wrong) So we got on to I95 and at 70 MPH my suitcase (and my wife’s as we were sharing) flipped over and was dangling off the roof rack, hanging on by one stray hook. Luckily I packed some extra tie down straps, so with only a 5-minute delay, we were on our way. No other incidents of note took place, and we were all glad of it.

Sunday I saw my father’s kids (he has 2 older girls, 1 older boy, me, and a younger daughter). It is kind of a happy/sad reunion of sorts… as I almost never talk to any of them at any other time; my dad says my two older sisters have found themselves in hard times. My older brother has married again, my little sister has moved away.

It was good to see my siblings again. But this started a troubling trend, that is, my step-mother’s alternate reality inhabited only by herself. She was accusing everyone that walked of taking her plates and doing so with a litany of curses. Why would she do this? I have no idea. She threatened my father with death if she found out he took them, accused me of feeding my dogs with them, insinuated that my wife let my kids take the plates into a room, and somehow lost them. While it was funny, at first, it got old pretty fast. It turns out the plates (the $2 Corelle kind) were in the dishwasher.

Later that night, my teenage daughter was watching Harry Potter, and my step-mother thought that was "Unholy". She said to me "how can you let your kids watch that?" I just looked at her stupidly. She doesn't go to church, spouts off curses like a sailor, but apparently Harry Potter is where she draws the line. She then goes on to lock my father out of their bedroom, and curse loudly so that everyone else can hear her displeasure. Yeah it was messed up

Anyway that is just two of many messed up things that happened, but as my dad said to me… “Remember the good times” and so I am, and a little bit of the bad. I can’t help it. Next time: New Orleans.