What the hell are they thinking?!
My husband's youngest brother turned 17 in April. His girlfriend is due to give birth in a few weeks. I barely have the energy to write about this. All I can say is obviously he learned nothing from his sister's experience, who was a 17-year old mother, or the husband's experience, who was an 18-year old father. HOWEVER, the the husband had left home 3 years before and was supporting himself and his kid. The sister has relied more on their mother. But this one -- this youngest sibling -- is struggling to get through high school, making bad choices all the way around, is apparently not working, and recently was involved in a hit & run incident in his car(where he was the one who took off but came back shortly thereafter). Oh yeah, he's off to a great start.
Today they had a (co-ed) baby shower for the kids. We weren't going to go at all because the husband has work going and because he didn't want to go -- and I didn't want to go without him. I convinced the husband to go so we could drop off their gifts. I figured it'd be about over and it would be painless. We showed up an hour and a half into this thing and they were still playing games -- hadn't even gotten to the gifts yet. I couldn't believe it. The place was also noticeably warm -- turns out the A/C has been out at this facility for a few weeks and it's over 100 f'ing degrees out. Fabulous. We stayed for a total of 15 minutes, I think, before the husband started saying his goodbyes and said we were out of there. I was fine with that. I think it was a mistake to have a full-on shower as though this is an occasion for celebration. I learned which of these people was the girl's mother after we left and -- let's just say I found I was not surprised. Each of them lives with their parents -- the mother's parents, I just found out, live in a TRAILER in a sketchy area of town. It gets worse. The parents apparently inherited the trailer from one of their parents. So they're on 3rd generation trailer living. Gross. Oh, and the husband's brother told another of my brothers in law that he was looking into buying a trailer in the same place. WHAT?! 4th generation trailer living. What's wrong with a fucking apartment where you can just call the rental office if something needs to be fixed -- then move up later? A trailer? A trailer. A trailer! A fucking trailer. Could you BE any more white trash? The husband basically explained to me that this is why he never wants to go to any family events, and he would prefer to distance himself from them. It is a supremely uncomfortable experience -- yet they continue to plan events, month after month after month, and expect everyone to go. Mother's day pizza outings. Birthday parties (ALL the birthdays). Thanksgiving and Christmas. Next thing you know it'll be Groundhog Day. It makes me want to move out of the state. Or, to another part of it. I love California. I wish we could afford to live in San Diego. It also makes me sad, because it would be so nice if he was close to his family and I could feel like part of it. But we just don't. I don't know why I care -- I'm pretty sure my MIL dislikes me -- and she probably thinks I'm the reason we never go to anything, but the fact is the only reason any of them have received any gifts for anything and seen the husband at any event is because I made it happen. I don't think they get that.
ANYWAY, we high-tailed it out of there and grabbed a few groceries for the week and are hanging out at home. The brother in law (not the 17 year old father to be) left the party soon after we did and showed up at our house, and one of the husband's friends is here and the familiar sounds of Madden on PS2 are filling the house. I made some salsa and we killed about 3/4 of it before the friend showed up. He killed the rest. Now I think I'm gonna make some chocolate chip cookies. Might have to skip dinner entirely!
So that's our excitement for today. A 15-minute baby shower in a room that was about as hot as outside. It was enough for us. We have a few more hours of freedom before it's back to working for The Man. I never did get to any of those magazines. Perhaps once the cookies are in the oven . . .
Today they had a (co-ed) baby shower for the kids. We weren't going to go at all because the husband has work going and because he didn't want to go -- and I didn't want to go without him. I convinced the husband to go so we could drop off their gifts. I figured it'd be about over and it would be painless. We showed up an hour and a half into this thing and they were still playing games -- hadn't even gotten to the gifts yet. I couldn't believe it. The place was also noticeably warm -- turns out the A/C has been out at this facility for a few weeks and it's over 100 f'ing degrees out. Fabulous. We stayed for a total of 15 minutes, I think, before the husband started saying his goodbyes and said we were out of there. I was fine with that. I think it was a mistake to have a full-on shower as though this is an occasion for celebration. I learned which of these people was the girl's mother after we left and -- let's just say I found I was not surprised. Each of them lives with their parents -- the mother's parents, I just found out, live in a TRAILER in a sketchy area of town. It gets worse. The parents apparently inherited the trailer from one of their parents. So they're on 3rd generation trailer living. Gross. Oh, and the husband's brother told another of my brothers in law that he was looking into buying a trailer in the same place. WHAT?! 4th generation trailer living. What's wrong with a fucking apartment where you can just call the rental office if something needs to be fixed -- then move up later? A trailer? A trailer. A trailer! A fucking trailer. Could you BE any more white trash? The husband basically explained to me that this is why he never wants to go to any family events, and he would prefer to distance himself from them. It is a supremely uncomfortable experience -- yet they continue to plan events, month after month after month, and expect everyone to go. Mother's day pizza outings. Birthday parties (ALL the birthdays). Thanksgiving and Christmas. Next thing you know it'll be Groundhog Day. It makes me want to move out of the state. Or, to another part of it. I love California. I wish we could afford to live in San Diego. It also makes me sad, because it would be so nice if he was close to his family and I could feel like part of it. But we just don't. I don't know why I care -- I'm pretty sure my MIL dislikes me -- and she probably thinks I'm the reason we never go to anything, but the fact is the only reason any of them have received any gifts for anything and seen the husband at any event is because I made it happen. I don't think they get that.
ANYWAY, we high-tailed it out of there and grabbed a few groceries for the week and are hanging out at home. The brother in law (not the 17 year old father to be) left the party soon after we did and showed up at our house, and one of the husband's friends is here and the familiar sounds of Madden on PS2 are filling the house. I made some salsa and we killed about 3/4 of it before the friend showed up. He killed the rest. Now I think I'm gonna make some chocolate chip cookies. Might have to skip dinner entirely!
So that's our excitement for today. A 15-minute baby shower in a room that was about as hot as outside. It was enough for us. We have a few more hours of freedom before it's back to working for The Man. I never did get to any of those magazines. Perhaps once the cookies are in the oven . . .
posted by PlatinumGirl at 5:57 PM
4 Comments:
well, they say housing prices are starting to dip in san diego. it's been so crazy expensive in most of southern california.
my boyfriend's parents live in a trailer [i think they call it a mobile home], and they're not white trash. they do joke about being trailer trash, so they have a good attitude about it.
i think there's trailer park living and then there's TRAILER PARK LIVING. heh.
SD is a nice place.. you should check it out! hehe.
spam comments! so not cool.
LE: What's that? Sale prices in San Diego? I'm outta here!
Re: trailers, my grandparents lived in a senior community in MA where their homes were those modular types -- like a house inside. There are differences. In this case, w/the young parents, I mean the icky, bad part of town white-trash livin' type. I see NO reason to buy into something like that when you could rent an apartment!
Grrrace: 'zactly. S.D., here I come!
Anonymous: Prepare to be deleted.
LE: Weird . . . never had a spam comment before!
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