Life and death and everything in between

I'm thinking I really need to post something of substance before all of you abandon me. Oh, the conundrum of balancing what I want to be doing with what I have to be doing. I absolutely despise having to make the choice, as I'm sure most people do.

Where to start... where to start...

We were away from home most of the weekend. Saturday was a picnic at the house of one of the weird cousins from the husband's family. I wish I could adequately put the weirdness into words, but it really is something that must be experienced first-hand. Katie would have a family get-together every weekend, if it were up to her. She told us as we were leaving that next year's Fall gathering would be a costume party, so be prepared. Pam, married for the first time at the age of 50-something this past summer, pulled me aside for a 25 minute conversation on what I thought of seeing her transgender step-daughter (formerly her step-son) at the wedding. (A little background - I used to manage a small bookstore in my hometown. The man she married used to come in this store regularly with his first wife and their 2 kids, a boy and a girl. I also used to sell him some of the more hardcore selections from our rack of adult magazines, which of course comes into my head everytime I see him. He wears red, high-top Converse sneakers always, and probably 10 gold chain bracelets on each arm. Ick.) I told her honestly that I felt a little bad for Ann (formerly Chris) at the wedding, because you could tell that she felt rather awkward. I told her that it's hard enough to get through this life being fairly certain of your identity, but that I can't imagine how hard it would be dealing with figuring something like that out, and that I thought Ann is showing a lot of courage doing what she's doing. She (the cousin) said several times during the conversation, "We just tell anyone that asks about it that we support her... him... I mean her, and that we still love her." I really wanted to ask, "Are you trying to convince the people you say this to, or yourself?" but I didn't.

Sunday we spent a good bit of the day with my in-laws (joy, joy!). They returned last week from six weeks at their timeshare in Florida, which included a one week cruise to the Bahamas. We got the full, blow-by-blow story of my father-in-law's two-day bout with constipation. I will spare you the details, but will suggest that if you ever go on a cruise, take your own Ex-Lax. Apparently the infirmary doesn't stock enough. In the end (ouch... bad choice of words?), he paid $45 for a bottle of the same stuff they make you drink to clean you out before a colonoscopy. Why the cruise ship stocks plenty of this over Ex-Lax is a mystery.

And to the person who sent pictures of their dildo to my cell phone this weekend...

THANKS FOR SHARING!

That's all I'm saying...