Sigh. I love my mother. I really do. However, I am really sick of being made to feel like I'm selfish and demanding for suggesting that, while we're on vacation in Maine, we sometimes go to restaurants that aren't specifically seafood restaurants. (Every restaurant that I suggested has lobster or shrimp or something on the menu. I made a point of that. But they're things like Greek restaurants that serve some Greek seafood dishes, or pubs that have seafood and also vegan stuff, and that's not "Maine food.")

That's rough, Hil. I'm sorry.

It seems I have the power to ruin an entire vacation just by mentioning the existence of a food truck called Totally Awesome Vegan Food Truck.

And she keeps phrasing this in terms of "everybody else." My sister likes trying new things, and she's totally fine with vegan stuff -- when the two of us went on a trip together last year, I'd estimate that nearly half of the restaurants we went to were entirely vegetarian or vegan. My dad, I sometimes wonder whether he actually has functioning taste buds -- he'll eat whatever you put in front of him, and generally had no clue what it is. (More than once, he's eaten what he thought was his restaurant leftovers, when they were actually from some other family member, and he didn't even notice that the thing he was eating tasted completely different from the thing he'd eaten the previous night. Like, once he thought he was eating his leftover salad, which had a lot of fruit in it and a blueberry dill dressing, when he was actually eating leftover vegan enchiladas with a lot of lettuce for garnish.) And he doesn't eat shellfish, anyway. (He's the least religious of us, but he grew up keeping kosher, and just never liked shellfish when he tried it as an adult.)

Hil, you mom needs a better hobby than meddling in your life all the time.

Sorry, I know you love her, and that she overall means well. I just wish you could get some peace and support from her when you need it.

Hil, you should really use your awesomely strong powers for good, and not waste them on family vacations. Tell her you have better places to be? Or ostentatiously eat a vegan protein bar at the seafood restaurant and tell the waiter your mother couldn't handle the thought of eating somewhere else for a single meal, and thereby shame her?

Do you have to have every meal together on vacation? Or can you and your sister go out one night alone?

Not that I should be giving advice at the moment because I just had a screaming match with my own mother.

I don't have any coping advice, Hil, but I wish your mom would get over that.

I was sure when I made the appointment this morning that it was for today, but it's actually for next week. Oops. I figured that out after I got to Kaiser but before I tried to check in, so that's something I guess.

I don't think I can take week-long vacations where I don't have real plans anymore. I sit in my house and get lost inside my head and don't eat at regular intervals etc etc. It's not a good thing.

Thanks, everyone.

If I get too frustrated while on vacation, my sister and I (or my dad and I) can go find something to do, and somewhere to eat.