Good luck on the presentation, P-C. I'm sure you know this stuff backwards and forwards and you'll slow down when you have people in front of you. Also, there's no reason why you can't declare an unscheduled break. Take charge!

My mom's relationship with her own mother is so fraught that she's really good about boundaries. Except when she's not.

ION, my neighbor who went into labor last night had her baby! Welcome to the world, wee Beatrice! (Their first kid is named Benedict, so I fully expect the next two to be Viola and Sebastian.)

Presentation-ma, P-C!

Or Claudio and Hero.

Oh, ditto. I'm dealing with it right now in the form of disappointed parents who can't understand why on earth we want to move so far away from themmmmmm.

Tell them that it's the same reason that they decided to move to North Carolina half of the year.

Tell them that it's the same reason that they decided to move to North Carolina half of the year.

suh-NERK

I'll let Lewis share that with them at the appropriate moment. On the other hand, it's turned my mother's attitude around because now, knowing that Lewis' parents are kind of disappointed and angry about the move, she gets to be the reasonable and supportive parent.

Go figure.

Or Claudio and Hero.

The last time I saw the Kenneth B-something or other movie, I couldn't help thinking, it's Wilson and that Vampire chick.

Sunil, Part of that stuff was about me, my brother, and our family crap. I mean, we may always have different...posting ethics and whatnot, but you remind me of my brother(Which is not in any way a *complete* burn(grin), my brother is smart, and responsible, and a lot of other things that a sister might want her brother to be, but the things about him that push my buttons are things that you appear also to have/do.) Which might be funnier if I wasn't having similar dinner conversations on an irritatingly frequent basis. Getting it in "stereo" just felt like "Oh, HELL, no. Not here, too." Which you couldn't know, even if I hadn't just figured it out. So, dude, I'm sorry about that, and that you have a German-American doppleganger who's six-four, also not great with women, and who has a sister with a big mouth. White people family crap isn't any more fun, though, I swear. You dodged me as a big sister at least.

They still don't know we're planning a wedding.

Whoa, seriously? That's going to be exciting when they get the invitation. Or however you tell them.

My husband's family is like that and I guess it works for them, but I'll never get used to it. In my family, we might not give each other big news but it's usually because we thought we already did or didn't realize it was big news or were just that absent-minded.

Conversations like this make me really appreciate my mom and dad, I tell you what.

I could tell my dad anything. Mom, not so much. There's a lot of omission and some flat out lying. Basically, if I tell the truth, I'm going to be unhappy. If I lie, I am happy and she is happy. Works for me.