In-laws

K the Love Monkey's parents are coming to visit today. They're retired now, and found cheap tickets. It's stressing me out.

I feel I need to qualify this with the statement that really, I got pretty lucky on the in-law front, as they are nice people and I have none of the horrible mean nasty in-law stories that many people have. They just have some habits that annoy me and at the moment I'd rather hide under the covers rather than interact much with my fellow man, except for certain specific fellow (wo)men and men

1. cleaning

I am an OK housekeeper. I might edge into competent occasionally, but most of the time the floors aren't pristine. I have hair. Quite a lot of it. So does the Love Monkey (well, not nearly so much), and we both shed; nevermind the cat. I don't always feel like washing the dishes every night, but they rarely last more than a day or two. I've been making special effort lately to put away what I take out, and the general clutter has kind of gone down, but things like the ballots to next week's election end up on the kitchen table.

Now the bathrooms are scrubbed, there's nothing (visibly) growing in the shower, the floors & chairs are vacuumed, stuff is put away, floors are swept. Gee, it doesn't sound like much but it sure seemed to take awhile.

2. Suggestions. Advice. You should.

My FIL loves to tell us all about what we ought to be doing and me, feeling petulant, will actively resist doing any of it, even if some of it I had intended to do anyway and it'd probably be a good idea. Think teenager mentality.

3. Divergent interests

I don't really watch a lot of tv. They don't read books.



I freqeuently feel personal responsibility for everyone's good time, and should someone seem to be bored there is this lurking guilt for their lack of enjoyment. I realize this is mostly, maybe entirely unreasonable but I've spent many long years developing a finely tuned ability to feel guilty at the mere drop of the pin. Unfortunately there aren't any celebrity endorsements available for accomplished guiltists.

Anyway, my give-a-damn-o-meter is particularly low this year, and so I did not clean as much as I might have in the past. There MIGHT BE DUST on the shelves (gasp!). All the bedding is clean, OK? I am not going to feel responsible for their good time.

They're looking for someplace to move to. They've previously professed a strong interest in a desert location with lots of lights, flash, and money being parted from its original owner, if you know what I mean. Not my scene, but it's not me that's retiring there. Recently they visited in December when the west had some unusually cold weather and decided that LV is too cold. Too. cold. I'll let that sink in a little. They're from the midwest.

Now they're looking here and I really don't get that at all because winter here doesn't qualify even remotely as warm, compared to the desert southwest. Finally I found out why -- they're now considering another desert location in the US, one known for its retirees, endless stripmalls, and 120 degree fires-of-hell summers. And -- they're thinking of getting 2 places, one here and one there. This is pissing me off.

1. because people with 2 houses unless one is some cabin shack kind of annoy me. Let's be fair, it's at least partly envy; but really, you need *2*? houses.

2. because FIL is adamant about living someplace where they WON'T TAX HIS PENSION. I'm sure this somehow involves a scheme to try to convince everyone that a Washington residence is his full-time residence to get out of the taxes, even though they wouldn't be here more than 3-4 months of the year. Glad you've got a pension to worry about.

3. because I figure we'll be expected to be the house caretakers the rest of the year

There's also a little current of resentment underlying this as FIL took some early retirement dealy years ago, and my parents, who are *10+ years older* just retired this year, because they didn't feel they could before now. Hi WWW, hope you enjoyed this therapy session!

I keep glancing out the window and wanting it to rain, a LOT. I want it to be overcast and grey and mid-winter depressing. I want to hide in a corner and knit a lot and only come out to dye some fiber.

Enh, whatever, it's only for a week. I need to chill. Work has been full of lots of detail work and (bad) drama lately and the Love Monkey has been working overtime and Saturdays for probably 3 months now and the forseeable future and I just do. not. want. to. deal. I will try to lay back and just let it flow over me, try to drop the guilt and resentment. Life is good, I'm still employed (quel miracle!) and so is the Love Monkey, and I've got a pile of yarn. Good stuff.