Speaking of uncomfortable family stuff, one day I basically spent THE WHOLE DAY with my parents. And then a neighbor came over. I had no downtime whatsoever. So then we go out to dinner (at which point, I'm wanting to hide under a bed and trying desperately to be civil and yet not blank.) We order our drinks and when the waitress came back with them: "I'd like a really LARGE margarita,please." Out of the blue, as until it came out of my mouth, I hadn't planned on ordering one. My parent just look at me and my mom starts to laugh. I mutter something about "too much people" and my dad starts laughing. I don't know if it was the booze or just the end of the need to even pretend to fake it, but I suddenly was much better off.

Anyway, now every single relative my mother talked to that week (and that would be every sister, brother, in laws, cousins and family friends) now knows that story. I'm the family misanthrope. Public knowledge.

Happy New Years, everyone! Oh, and Happy Birthday to Susan W!!

I've been on hold for half an hour with the pizza place and just hung up because I don't need overpriced barbequed chicken that badly. They've got to be insanely busy for them not to be picking up the phone like that.

After my mother read the Vampire book, her big learning was not to talk to me when I go out for a cigarette, because Allyson described it as being a needed break from all the people. Heh.

Yup!

My dad has still not learned that if I wander off (nic or no), he needn't follow me. He shouldn't! I'm not doing it because I'm bored and want company... he is getting a little better, though.

Suddenly I want to take up smoking.

I need to learn to leave the room when I am getting annoyed - that is my big problem, I just stay there and get more annoyed.

Thank dog I do not have a battle of beliefs with my family though, just annoying habits.

Allyson, it sometimes amazes me that such different people can come from the same family. I agree with whomever said to try and address the nephew when he spouts off the stuff. if you can get a flight to NY and reroute your return flight, you are welcome here.

Suddenly I want to take up smoking.

That reminds me of an old boss who would smoke when she was really stressed out, but it was mostly for the walk around the park she would take while smoking. She couldn't justify just going for the walk, when she was so busy.

Great. The Intelligent Design folks are taking on linguistics. It's called Edenics.

Here you will discover that ALL human words contain forms of the Edenic roots within them. These proto-Semitic or early Biblical Hebrew words were programmed into our common ancestors, Adam and Eve, before the language dispersion, or babble at the Tower of Babel -- which kickstarted multi-national human history.

[link]

And there's a book: The Origin of Speeches: Intelligent Design in Language

The Origin of Speeches begins by recapping the history of our views about the source of language. It then debunks the errors that infuse your dictionary, like those about how words in "unrelated" languages could only have identical sound and sense by "coincidence." It does so with both quality and quantity of data. The next chapters give anyone the skills to sleuth out the Edenic origin of any human word. One learns about letters that shift in sound and location, and letters that drop in and drop out. We discover how Edenics works much like other natural sciences, such as chemistry and physics. Like-sounding opposite words were certainly programmed, not pragmatically evolved.

::waits patiently for the whole ID thing to collapse under the weight of its own absurdity::

I'm the family misanthrope

better they learn this , now.

Allyson, I wish you a haven, and I am hoping that you can become your nephew's haven

Yoiks. I'm sorry for the frustration, Allyson.

Jessica, those eggs look divine.

I survived the Rose Parade. Don't get me wrong. I LOVE the parade. I love the floats. I even love to go and look at the floats (after they are parked in the post parade viewing where you can get up close and personal). I love the pretty horses and flowers. And I adore making fun of the ugly band outfits and crappy marching. But I have NO NEED WHATSOEVER to go to the fucking parade and sit in the stand for a long long while. Like maybe a decade.

My highlight? Walking back in my house. And I had a good time. The Kam school male warriors who were essentially loin clothed? Go them. I enjoyed the marching and the floats, even those towed, especially the neat Day of the Dead one and the cool Cal Poly with the diving fish. But I kept mentally ticking off each as they went past and couldn't wait until the end. Too many people for my taste and I like people.