Thanksgiving with the family

I spent Wednesday night getting ready for my trip to Little Rock for Thanksgiving. I cleaned up the apartment, so that my friends coming over to feed Chuck wouldn't think I was living in absolute squalor. I made an MP3 disk fo rmy car that was roughly the same length of the four-hour drive down there...which I discovered I could've had 10 hours on a single disk, but my attention span isn't that bad.

Thursday, I get up early (by day-off-standards), feed Chuck, pack up the car and head out of town. I call my parents from the road and let them know when to expect me. I talk to my stepdad for a short while, wherein he informs me to not be surprised by my mother's black eye. I swerve to get back on the road and listen to the explanation. Truns out my mom was grabbing something off the top shelf in the pantry, accidentally knocked off the light fixture and it landed on her face. I was just thankful the expanation didn't involve her refusing to get her bitch-ass back in the kitchen and make him some pie. Not that that would ever happen. Knowing my mom, if that was ever the case, the phone call wouldn't be about the black eye, but rather to inform me that my mother was being booked for murder.

I got to my parents' house about the same time my stepbrother did. I hadn't seen the guy in about two years, and from what I could tell, and was completely surprsed by, he has really pulled his life together. He's had the same job for the past two years (pervious record: 3 months), he's trying to spend as much time as he can with his daughter and-gasp-paying for things with his own money! It was really great hanging out with him.

Almost every time I spend time with my family, there is always a certain level of passive-aggressive criticism towards certain areas of my life, i.e. finances, relationships, wardrobe, etc. It's never enough to really spark conflict between us, but enough to not go unnoticed. This time, aside from from a comment about how my hair looks so much better than the shaved head they last saw, everything was just peachy.

I had to drive back last night because I had to work the door at Arnie's. I got back into town at seven, and had to be at work at eight. After four hours straight in the car, needless to say I did most of my work standing up. I was home by two and asleep by two-thirty.

Now, I'm slow-cooking some chili for dinner, and catching up on my DVRed shows while I was gone. Another lazy Sunday.