(warning: long insane rant about crazy family follows)

Well... I think that dream was a premonition. Not of all the crazy stuff literally happening, but more trouble with Grandpa's new girlfriend & my mom.

My aunt called up my sister wanted to see if the girlfriend could come down with her to my sister's baby shower (so she has someone to drive down with).

Of course, my mom who already resents the woman, does not want her coming. And she's further enraged by them calling my sister and not her ("They're trying to sidestep me!") though my sister obviously called up and asked Mom about it.

I myself don't think it would be that big of a deal to bother with the woman. It's not like Mom personally has to hang out with her, the aunt would. But she's been off the deep end about it. And how she can never have a GOOD event, citing specific events.

I.E. 1. Grandma herself messed up my sister's wedding, she had major health problems. And not only that, she was a little bit of a jerk about it. Which... I really can't blame her. Before she died she had several years of being hospitalized all the time and throwing up all the time and taking tests that (having a similar disease I know from experience) are worse than the actual problem. I'm not exaggerating--literally worse. I would rather have my 1 or 2 normal 10 minute long blindingly painful bowel movements than take 6 cups of laxative mixed with fruit juice that doesn't cover the taste enough for me to not constantly be gagging and afraid that it's all going to come up and I'm going to have to start over again, then having that fruit juice shoot out my butt for 24 hours afterwards then having a scope put up there.

Stuff like this also makes me wonder why mom seems so fiercely loyal about grandma now that she's dead. When she was alive, she fully bitched about grandma (both recent incidents AND stuff from when she was growing up) as often as I bitch about her. I'm a horrible, horrible person, but I wasn't that sad when she died. Not only was it actually probably kind of a relief for her after all the health problems, but I mostly have bad memories of her saying horribly mean things to me ever since I got old enough not to be cute anymore. Not that I have many memories of her at all, since she hardly ever visited. My mom keeps going on about how she's going to miss the birth of her first great-grandchild. I was like, "Hey, my cousin has a kid." And my mom's like, "That kid was illegitimate, so she has never recognized it." That's a horrible attitude! I know you can miss someone even if they aren't nice, especially if they might've used to be nice, but do you really pine away for someone like that? When grandma died this line from a Ben Folds Five song, "She said I'd feel sorry but the truth of it is/that I feel guilty for not giving a shit," just kept going over and over in my mind because it was exactly how I felt about it. I'm glad grandpa's found someone nice.

2) my aunt ruined my sister's wedding shower by showing up. I didn't know this at the time, because it was a perfectly okay wedding shower. I myself was a liiitle miffed because I was the Maid of Honor and it was my job, and I wanted to do it really badly because my sister hadn't really let me do anything else because she's the type that has to do things herself. Anyway, my mom, the aunt, the mother in law to be.... all were kind of butting in because they thought that I didn't know how to do anything, and it cheesed me off. But once we actually had it, it was alright. Anyway, this makes me think, "Maybe if you didn't irrationally hate so many people, so many things wouldn't be ruined for you!" Because she does hate the aunt because the aunt is my uncle's second wife and they kind of hooked up before he was fully divorced from his first one, and she's catholic which my mom doesn't like for some reason. But anyway, my mom hates my sister's mother in law too, for no real reason, so she feels like they ruined my sister's graduation for her (they both threw the party since her and my brother in law graduated at the same time) because she forgot to offer for us to take home some of the cake we half paid for.

Lastly.... come on, the baby shower isn't (nor was the wedding shower) a paramount occaision. It's an excuse to get gifts! The actual wedding, the actual birth of the baby--important life moments. Showers--excuses to get presents. Which--I'm not downing showers. People starting a life together or having a baby need to buy a lot of crap, and this sort of lifts their burden. But a total snoozefest for everyone else involved, and not even a life-changing occaision for the one getting the gifts.