With Christmas and New Year's past, can we think out the Easter Bunny?

My aunt and uncle sent me a save the date for their daughter's wedding. I'm trying to push back that skeptical voice in the back of my head that is saying I only got one because I ran into my uncle at a family event a couple weeks ago, and he remembered I exist. Honestly, when he saw me his jaw dropped like he saw a ghost.

Maybe his jaw dropped because he was happy to see you. I'm assuming that's why my cousin Wenty's jaw dropped and his eyes popped when I saw him at Christmas. No reason for him to have forgotten I exist, since he hangs out with the rest of the family. But we haven't seen each other in a while, and things change when time passes.

Isn't that normal behaviour for people you haven't seen recently?

There wasn't really a smile to go with it that would indicate happiness to see me.

I'm okay with me just having knocked people agog with the inability to speak for a little. Maybe I'm lying to myself, but who's it harming? I bump into lots of people after years and years of being apart. I see those faces a lot.

My life is too short to attach negativity to them.

Everything hurts. I wish it would stop.

ita there is a long history of things with my father's side of the family that make it pretty impossible not to attach negativity to these things. Even though I like this cousin a lot, I'm probably going to send a gift and not attend the wedding. When I was at her sister's wedding no one informed me when they were taking all the family pictures. Maybe I shouldn't have allowed myself to be hurt by that either, but I was. I don't need to put myself through that again.

Hil, I'm sorry you're in pain. I hope it eases up for you soon.

When Jose's brother got married, they took a family picture right in front of me without me and the kids. Maybe they wanted just the original family but the brides nieces and nephews were included.

Stephanie, all the bride's other cousin's as well as my aunt and uncle disappeared all at once, and it took me a while to figure out that it was for pictures. No one ever said a word to me about it. My dad died 33 years ago, and my family has yet to deal with it. They sort of just pretend he never existed, which makes acknowledging that I am a legitimate part of the family hard for them. I shouldn't say all of them; I do have one uncle that is pretty good about remembering that I am his brother's daughter.

I've been thinking for a while about getting a dog. My lease says,

No pet, animal, bird or other pet will be kept on the premises, even temporarily, without written permission from Landlord or Agent. If written permission is granted, the Tenant agrees to pay the cost of having the dwelling de-fleaed and de-ticked by a professional exterminator at the termination of occupancy. Tenant expressly agrees and understands that Landlord's permission may be conditional upon an additional deposit to be paid prior to the pet being kept on the leased premises.

How should I phrase an email to the landlord asking for permission? I don't know yet exactly what kind of dog I'd get, or when -- I don't want to start looking until I know that I'll be allowed to get one.