Monday, December 27, 2010

Christmas Vortex

So I'm running a bath, yes right now. On 27 December 2010 I am running a hot bubble bath. What is with this weather?

It's been a really strange few days. I got sucked into the St Kilda Scandal vortex that is the internet forums and facebook sites. I've been doing my best to try and bring education to the masses about the age of consent and other 'topical' issues, as well as trying to encourage people to be less trollish and more compassionate.

Last night I watched Gangs of New York with Princess. It did not improve on second viewing.

And Christmas Day sucked balls. It was the least festive Christmas evah and by the time I went to sleep I wasn't talking to Clokes and he was starting to realise that maybe me complaining about it to him and then him NOT SAYING ANYTHING LIKE You know babe, sorry I know how you're feeling, the food was great was not the right way for him to play it.

That's all it would take. A little rub on the arm and a sorry, the food was delicious, thank you. Which he did the next morning after he noticed I still wasn't talking to him. But me spelling it out and then not getting any support? Hmmm.

Christmas has been complicated for me since the age of 14. It's the bane of many a child of divorce. But try adding a blended family into the mix and it becomes hell. Diarama when I can be bothered.
Hope all your Christmas Days were better than mine.

PS And I haven't even mentioned my father and the pathetic phone call Christmas afternoon, that I had to make after lack of contact for two weeks, and weak way he goes AWOL at Christmas most years.
See? The fourteen-year-old sad and disappointed little girl is still inside of me. BATH TIME!

5 comments:

suze2000 said...

Jesus, I overcooked the turkey at my place and they still found something nice to say about it (that it was well-stuffed).

And I agree with you about Cloakes, though I try not to criticise other women's partners within their relationship. I'm sure you don't really need me (or anyone) to tell you that you deserved better support.

I've also been a step since I was 12. To be frank, Xmas became a whole lot less fraught when the family business forced us to move it to the Saturday before Xmas and freed the rest of us up to go to my father's family on Xmas day. When we reached adulthood my stepbrother's wife ruined Xmas forever for all of us by coming to my sister's place and griping about everything from the moment she arrived to the moment she left. To the point when my BF at the time (who never said a bad thing about anyone) commented that he never wanted to see her again because she was the psycho bitch from hell. After that, and a couple of other incidents, nobody wanted to be together as a family anymore. It was a relief when I started having to work shift and odd hours as I had an excuse not to participate. I still went and spent the day with my father's family though, as they were/are always welcoming and positive.

A bath is a lovely thing when the weather is cool isn't it? And a lot less guilt-inducing now that we've had some rain. *hug*

I'm not Craig said...

Wow, so sorry to hear that that was your Christmas for the year.

My wife pointed out the day after Christmas that my family is also really bad at the thing about acknowledging the quality of food or effort that went into it.

My sister in law at least commented on the quality of pavlovas with berries and lemon curd that HB made from scratch, and her home moade tartare sauce for the prawns, but the rest of them were hopeless at this.

I didn't really do any cooking, so I wasn't as offended. There's really not much skill or effort in throwing together a green salad (I chose to ignore my pregnant sister's complaints that the sun dried tomatoes were likely to give her lysteria) and if no-one wants to think about how many hours I spent on Christmas morning shelling and deveining a huge stack of prawns, it isn't so bad.

I did feel sorry for my mother, who did the turkey, the vegetables, the pommes (it's a stupid family tradition, but we keep doing it) the gravy and everything else and got very little in return.

And yeah, we men can be hopeless at the supportive comment thing. I got away with it several times yesterday by reminding my wofe that I had just bought her a really expensive 40th birthday present.

I hope the bubble bath marked the beginning of a good few days, and you have an excellent new year's celebration

phoenixmummy said...

It's awful when people don't recognise the effort you put in. It's just rude, but that's the way some families operate. I hope you feel better now, after the well-deserved bath.

Your mother sounds so nice, I meant to ask about her when I saw you but we ran out of time.

hugs.

magical_m said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
magical_m said...

SHAME ON THEM!!

If I was at your house I would have been so appreciative you would have been shouting at me to shut up by the end of the day!

I was adopted for the day by my friend's in-laws and her sister-in-law put on a spread worthy of Masterchef. I was so excited not to be cooking that I kept taking photos of the food and uploading them to facebook and raving about how wonderful each course was.

THAT'S what you should be doing when someone goes to all the effort of cooking for you.

I hope they all read your blog and are filled with remorse at their lack of gratitude.

xox