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.

I wonder, does Maine offer vegan Chinese and Indian food? Those could be annoying.

Where in Maine, Hil?

Old Orchard.

I was just in the ladies room here at work, listening to someone in another stall fuss with wrappers and throwing things away and grumbling. A state of transcendent joy fell upon me, causing me to bless Menopause and my freedom from such things.

My mom apologized for freaking out about the food stuff.

She also suggested that we just decide each day what we'll do for dinner. My sister and I both said no to that plan -- we've tried that before, and it goes very badly. Nobody wants to go through all these negotiations while hungry.