Vacation From Sobriety

The second week of August brought with it great peace. After two days of playing family referee, counselor, and official cursing interpreter. Two days prior to our vacation beginning, we joined my parents and my sister's family on their vacation. I mean this - it definitely was not my family's vacation. Well, maybe Julian was saved from the family turmoil. When we arrived we learned there was no way Peter and I would fit in the bed we were assigned. We gladly gave up the room and called dibs on the queen-size air mattress in the middle of the living room - which was the same room as the kitchen, which was in the path of the only bathroom and right next to the window of my parent's bedroom, which was a converted porch, and thus had a window to our "bedroom." At least Julian loved that window. My 8-year old nephew would lift him up and leave him dangling in the window. He would yell, "Mama! Help!" and I eased him out the other side of the window about 25 times until he figured out how to land on the couch with only minor injuries.

There are no great Fish Tale stories as detailed in the Nature Lovers post. In fact, both Julian and Ashley (the dog) doubted those were really "fish" in the bucket.

What there was primarily was a 16-year old boy. And my mother. A 16-year old who I love like crazy. But, a boy who has a mouth on him like mine - except I don't use it around my parents or siblings. Ever. Never ever. I decided maybe he needed some support. Someone who actually listened to him. I decided the time for this move was when he started yelling at his mother, my sister, about how she never supported him in his last relationship. Then he turned on my mother. Choice words thrown in. I said something like "I know how you feel." This caused my mother to grab the economy-size bottle of zinfandel sitting on the table in the kitchen/my bedroom, which was already open, and storm out the door - I am positive it hit her in the ass on the way out. Both my sister and I were left questioning "Was it something I said?" Turns out it was something I said. How do I know? My mother and her wine bottle, in the knick of time, caught Pete leaving in our boat, and they both jumped in. Pete spent the next hour listening to her say,"She thinks it is so easy to raise kids, she'll see how easy it is when she has to talk to her children about sex." I guess I will see. Sounds easy enough. The 16-year old and the 2-year old were not so affected by the match.

I was later left explaining to the 16-year old that drinking was not the answer. He asked, "Then why have you been drinking gin and tonics since you got here?" Uhhh . . .

We never unpacked our suitcases. We were prepared to run. We did so on schedule Monday morning, arriving in Hayward at check-in time. Ready to start our own vacation. Julian and I were so relaxed, we both were totally carefree as we got sand in our asses. And I am pretty sure we looked cool doing it.

And Peter, he spent lots of time on the golf course and the boats sans economy-size wine. Only to be replaced with 24-ounce bullets. Awesome!