Let the Games Begin

Ah shit, this is going to be a long 2 days. Ignoring the whole I-have-to-deal-with-Penn Station-the-day-before-Thanksgiving – aka Hell – thing, it now turns out that my cat has been disinvited to my parents’ house. Um…what?

Yup, my phone rang last night, and when I answered it I was confronted with first my mother, whimpering on the other end (shit), and then my father, taking the phone from my mother to tell me that I could not bring my cat home for the holiday. Um, okayyyy. Why?

Well, turns out my brother and sister-in-law had just called. They’d finally heard back from their son’s (my nephew’s) doctor – and it seems that the little guy is allergic to dogs, cats, dairy, soy, and pretty much everything else under the sun. (He’s been having some asthma problems lately, and everyone’s been concerned about it.) Anyway, as many of you know my parents have a dog (a dog that all of us – my sister-in-law excluded – are very fond of). I have a cat. And since the dog can’t go, my cat apparently has to.

However, the real problem came from how my brother and sister-in-law chose to handle this news. Instead of calling my mother to discuss what could be done to make the house as dog-hair free as possible (hell, my parents pulled up all the carpeting in their house and put down hardwood floors for my sister-in-law a few years ago – she’s allergic to dogs as well), they simply called my parents last night and informed my mother that 1) while they would be coming for Thanksgiving (that’s my family’s holiday – we don’t get them for Christmas), they would just be coming for dinner. In other words, there would be no time spent together before or after the meal. And 2) they would probably not be coming to visit my parents much in the future. Because of the dog hair you see.

What…the…fuck? Overreact much? While my mother cried, my father handled talking to me (after my mother failed to get a word out) about my cat staying in NY for the holiday, and the rest of the family raged.

Now I love my brother and sister-in-law, and I understand their concern when it comes to their son, but calling my mother (a very sensitive and loving woman who does NOTHING but try to be a good mother-in-law and grandmother) to say that they will come on Thursday, but that they won’t be visiting much in the future…that was just cruel. And I’m pissed. My sister is pissed. My grandmother who flew up from Florida to spend Thanksgiving with the whole family is pissed. And my father…well, my father is upset mainly because my mother is upset.

In summation, Thursday should be a rockin’ good time – how much wine do you need to drink to make that kind of awkwardness go away? Happy Turkey Day everyone.