Traveling Thoughts

So last night, my family had a dinner and it was probably all my fault because the dinner was to draw names for christmas so that we didn’t have to buy for everyone we just had to buy for one person. This was done I believe because last year I took huge offense to my sister giving me a $5 giftcard to Target after I gave both her and her husband $50 gift cards to Target.

Mom was all worried that there would be a war over this move but there wasn’t. I could tell that my uncle didn’t like it and he especially didn’t like it when we were told that we had to make lists. He didn’t want to buy stuff from a list. I don’t know what he was all bothered about, he usually just gets everyone gift cards to a restuarant (I assume because he doesn’t know what else to get us, so now he has a list, it’s not all that difficult to shop now)…

The only part about it that pisses me off is that I have to make a list. I don’t make Christmas lists. Not for a very long time. Mom always says “Courtney, I need your list…Courtney I asked for your list last week…Courtney your list is overdue” Mom, anything I want I can buy. Anything I’d wait to buy you can’t afford. I don’t want anything…I can’t do that this year. I have to make a list. My aunt told me to make an amazon list. I don’t fricken do lists. What don’t they understand. I seriously go out and buy what I want.

I want a dvd, I go buy it. I want a bike, I go buy it. I want a book, I go buy it. I want a new jacket, I go buy it. Are you following me here. I just go buy it. Whatever IT may be.

This is all my fault, if I hadn’t been offended over the $5 giftcard last Christmas, I probably wouldn’t have to make a list this Christmas. And actually, I had every right to be pissed off last year. I know that Christmas is all about giving. But this is the sister and brother in law that refinanced their house to go on vacation. If they’re gonna make a stupid move like that, the least they could do is get me a decent Christmas present. Luckily this year I don’t have to worry about them getting me crap. Oh yeah that was the other thing. My sister decided she was going to be a Mary Kay consultant so I got face wash with my $5 gift card to Target. I wasn’t even using Mary Kay anymore at that point. I think I pawned it off on some teenager. Actually, this isn’t all my fault. It’s all her fault.

The other thing is, whatever I put on my list, I can’t go buy. My list is due Nov 1st and whatever is on it, I won’t know if I get to go buy it for almost 2 months. That’s killer for me. If I didn’t want it, it wouldn’t be on the list, and the fact that it’s there means I want it and therefore would normally go buy it. To have to wait 2 months is just fricken hideous. I told mom I didn’t want anything but for her to crochet me a sweater and that I’d even buy the yarn, but she didn’t get my name. So I have to make a list and not go shopping for that stuff.

Just to be a brat I should put stuff on that list that they can only get online and not in the stores…

Oh yeah, there’s a $50 minimum that we have to spend…so for me, that’s quite a few items because any big item I want is usually well over $50…

It’s August and when August rolls around so do the demand for the Christmas list. Mom’s already started.

Mom: Courtney, I need your list by the end of August
Me: Mom, I don’t want anything, I can by anything I want
Mom: Courtney, we go through this every year, I still need a list
Me: do we have to have Christmas here, can’t we just go somewhere else instead of opening gifts
Mom: What about April, you know we can’t take her with us and she just wants to come over, open presents and go back home again
Me: *big sigh*

Yeah, it’s that time of year again, and even worse than me making a list is buying presents for those that don’t make a list or refuse to tell you what they want for Christmas, it’s ridiculous. My favorite person to buy gifts for isn’t even a person, he’s a creature, my dog Dominic, every Christmas he gets a new animal. And there’s no designation on who buys it, so one day between now and Christmas, either me, mom, or dad will come home and announce that we got his gift.

Since I go to PetSmart often to get bird food, I can start looking for his toy, he doesn’t have a list other than the animal.

Mom…she’s been eyeballing my iPod lately so that’s an easy pickup from BestBuy

Dad’s been a little bit harder to shop for in the recent years, in general I’ve been picking up giftcards to outdoors stores for his birthday, father’s day, and Christmas. But this last father’s day he went and bought clothes with the giftcard, outdoorsy clothes so I think that’s what I’ll get him this Christmas. Rocky Mountain Trail has got some nice sweaters and shirts and he might like those. Needless to say, while I’m thinking about what I want for Christmas, I’ll have to spend some more time thinking about what he should get from me for Christmas.

And of course, since I’ve been big on the online shopping deal lately I can choose what I want to get them and then hop online and get promo codes so that I can buy that item online at a discount. There’s PetSmart coupons, BestBuy coupons, and Rocky Mountain Trail coupons so I’m good to go.

In the meantime, you should know, I hate when August rolls around because I have to make a Christmas list. Seriously, I’d much rather not be given any gifts, how about a plane ticket instead? Send me away to some place that I’ve always wanted to visit, like, oh, I dunno, Australia…

I don’t remember the year, I just remember my cousin calling and telling me to call my father.  A call to my father revealed that my step mom’s mom had passed away and that he hadn’t called because calls like that fell under my step mom’s job description.  Some years after that, my cousin calls again (and no, this isn’t the only time she calls) because my great grandmother doesn’t have many years left on her ticket and she wants us to see her again.  God bless my cousin because she flew my sister and I (moody, irritable, hard to manage, pain in the arse teenagers) out there to see my great grandmother, that was the last time that I saw her.  When she kicked the bucket, who was it that called, none other that my great cousin. 

My cousin always has the family news/gossip.  She finds something out and calls me.  This time I knew something first, and what we discovered, we really already knew, it was just proved.  Our family is very dysfunctional, but find me one that’s not…they all are, every family….some more than others…ours may not be the worse, there’s always someone worse, but we’re always worse than someone else…

so, here’s how this one goes, my grandfather has terminal cancer…my sister calls to tell me….my cousin sent me an email about her rough week, i ask if it had anything to do with grandpa (something *SHOCKER* that she didn’t know about).  I think my sister found out from my grandma, but I’m still unsure on who she talked to, to get the information.  My cousin called my uncle to ask him about it, and this is what she found out.

Grandma called dad/step mom, who called family friend, who called aunt, who told uncle, who called grandma…leaving all the rest of us out of the loop…that was chain one, then there’s chain two…sister calls me who emails cousin who calls uncle who says ‘oh yeah’…cousin calls me to rant and rave about this communication issue which spawns this blog…i get an email from grandma about the entire situation…

it’s pretty pathetic when there’s a family member with terminal cancer and there’s no string of communication. in fact, it’s severly screwed up…

for future notice this is how this should have worked:
grandma calls dad who calls daughters (and perhaps the rest of the family)…and i don’t call anyone because i don’t communicate with this part of the family other than my cousin

names have been withheld to protect the idiots in my family.  if a family member is reading this, forgive me if i’ve offended you