[nandm]

Please send positive thoughts my way this week. My g/f mother bought us all tickets to go on this Alaskan cruise for her 80th birthday. The problem is my g/f sister is also going with her kids. The kids I don't mind. They are nice enough, especially her son. He has a nice calm demeanor. Her daughter though is very much like her. They both talk incessintly, loudly, and have such a hyper energy about them that it overwhelms my senses to be around them.

The best way for me to explain it is to give today as an example. Her mother asked me to book a hotel for us because our ship leaves tomorrow and she did not want to drive up to Seattle the same day as the ship leaves. She also insisted on paying for the 3 rooms. So I tried to get the lowest priced decent place to stay. When we get here her sister has a cow as we are trying to get checked in when she finds out that the rooms are smoking rooms and she doesn't smoke. Neither do I but who cares a room is a room and if you aren't smoking in it then there shouldn't be smoke in it. She also complained because the rooms were not on the ground floor. I made these reservations in March. She was quite vocal and finally stated that since they didn't have any non smoking rooms available that we would just go down the road to the next hotel and book there. I knew since we were 2 hours past the check in time there was no way they wouldn't charge us for the rooms but she insisted on going down the road. So she, her kids, and my g/f went to check the other place out while my g/f mother and father and I went next door to the bar and they had drinks while even though I really wanted a drink I had water. Well when they got back they insisted we go to the other place so I said then she needed to figure out how to get the money back out of our rooms. Also the place they wanted to go was twice the price. There was no way I was going to have her mother pick up that tab. That would have been extremely wrong. So her sister went over and ranted and raved at the manager demanding the deposit back. Meanwhile the manager is doing his best to figure out how to bump someone into a smoking room to free up non smoking for us. I got volunteered to go over and try to smooth things out. The manager would not waive the fees but was able to get two non smoking rooms on the ground floor and one smoking room on the second floor. So I smoothed things out and got her sister to calm down by saying we would take the smoking room and they could have the non smoking as I did not care, just wanted peace. That settled things there.

Then came dinner. She didn't want to go where everyone else did but finally calmed down and agreed. Then we get there and she talks non-stop. I wonder how she got any food down as her mouth never shut. She is so loud and hyper and her daughter is very similar. By the time dinner was done I was so stressed I just wanted to go to my room and relax in peace and quiet. The bad thing is I take Klonopin for anxiety and I had already taken my limit for the day and it did nothing to help. Actually I probably would have been in a full blown anxiety attack from the constant stimulation if I had not taken it.

I have to spend a week with this woman. Oh my God! I might be insane before I get back. I can not completely avoid her as this is a family thing. But I wish I could. Since it is her personality I dont' see it getting better this week.

So I really could use any positive thoughts you can send during this time as a drink really sounded good today. Even though I know drinking would not solve anything.

Take care everyone. I will try and pop in as I can. Thankfully the hotel has free internet so I could pop in this evening.