Rant VIII: The Reckoning

We are being buried under the avalanche of your inadequacies!

I just want to scream that at some one at the top of my lungs right now.
 

Dave

Staff member
A lady at my wife's office got fired today. She sent my wife a text that said, "They are talking about closing your clinic. Get out while you can."

Fucking hell. She loves this job. She can't catch a fucking break. And it means we'll be in hot water again.

edit: And this inability to post anonymously is pissing me off.
 
Ok, update:

I have made it to a relatives, I'm more surprised than anyone else that I have been here for the couple days that I have been. That's a really long story I don't want to get into right this moment.

At this stage, I am still not sure of what direction to go, or what to do. I have a number of things I have been trying to get tied up and taken care of that will allow me to make whatever move ends up being for the best. Some of those are taking longer to get tied up than I expected and some are just falling to the wayside because they have ended up not being as important as initially thought. And some have taken on greater importance.

What I do know is that making choices that I have in the past to not secure myself and my position is what has ended up putting me in this spot in the first place. So I feel it's most important to "solidify my foundation" and plan it out correctly to make whatever is the right move. Thankfully right now I'm not in panic mode anymore. Not in a good situation, but it's not chicken little's sky is falling at the moment.

@CrimsonSoul and his wife, @Dave, and @Halforums_as_a_whole have been great during this time for me. I can't thank CS and his wife enough for being there, talking with me and opening their hearts, home, and shoulders to me.

So, what tomorrow has in store, as yet I can't say. But for today it's not the end of the world.

Thanks again, I'll keep you posted.
 
Ok, update:

I have made it to a relatives, I'm more surprised than anyone else that I have been here for the couple days that I have been. That's a really long story I don't want to get into right this moment.

At this stage, I am still not sure of what direction to go, or what to do. I have a number of things I have been trying to get tied up and taken care of that will allow me to make whatever move ends up being for the best. Some of those are taking longer to get tied up than I expected and some are just falling to the wayside because they have ended up not being as important as initially thought. And some have taken on greater importance.

What I do know is that making choices that I have in the past to not secure myself and my position is what has ended up putting me in this spot in the first place. So I feel it's most important to "solidify my foundation" and plan it out correctly to make whatever is the right move. Thankfully right now I'm not in panic mode anymore. Not in a good situation, but it's not chicken little's sky is falling at the moment.

@CrimsonSoul and his wife, @Dave, and @Halforums_as_a_whole have been great during this time for me. I can't thank CS and his wife enough for being there, talking with me and opening their hearts, home, and shoulders to me.

So, what tomorrow has in store, as yet I can't say. But for today it's not the end of the world.

Thanks again, I'll keep you posted.
Just remember there is a plan. You just have to discover it. Take your time and make a choice that you are most comfortable with. I'm happy to lend my ear anytime for any reason, because sometimes talking helps most. :) I'd like to thank you for letting me in, I know it isn't always easy to let others in when things are chaotic.
 
UGH.

So today was my Canadian Thanksgiving dinner. Dinner went great. At least I thought it did. My turkey was perfect, my potatoes were exquisite, my mushroom medley was earthy and incredible. My stuffing was great. My soup was great. My fuckin' green beans were fuckin' great. My gravy was the best I've ever made.

Good thing it all lead to a blowout fight with the girlfriend and me spending the rest of the evening feeling completely miserable. It's not like Thanksgiving is my favorite day of the year or anything.
 
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Ah yes, family at Thanksgiving. If it weren't for the food, we wouldn't bother.

(Note: I celebrate Thanksgiving in November, like normal Americans. This weekend is my father's birthday weekend.)
 
My mom had a mild heart attack this weekend. We didn't know it at the time, but she was feeling very sick - pouring sweat, dizzy, nauseated, weak. So we took her to the hospital. She's stable now, and they're putting in a pacemaker. She's out of danger.
 
UGH.

So today was my Canadian Thanksgiving dinner. Dinner went great. At least I thought it did. My turkey was perfect, my potatoes were exquisite, my mushroom medley was earthy and incredible. My stuffing was great. My soup was great. My fuckin' green beans were fuckin' great. My gravy was the best I've ever made.

Good thing it all lead to a blowout fight with the girlfriend and me spending the rest of the evening feeling completely miserable. It's not like Thanksgiving is my favorite day of the year or anything.
I'm sorry Frank. Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday too. I mean, Christmas is great and all, but it has all the stress of getting gifts for people and hoping that they actually like them and all of that, whereas Thanksgiving is all about the feasting and the family (mostly the feasting). I'm sorry yours lead to a big fight. I'm starting to dread mine as well.

The wife's family has finally just started to stop doing all holidays together, now that enough people are spreading out and moving further away from home, and now that the parents have each remarried - not that I'm against big holiday gatherings, but their family is a bit weird. The parents are divorced and they still do everything together, except, well, live together and sleep together. I get being friends and still caring for someone, and wanting to maintain a family presence for the kids, but come on! Your youngest child is married, graduated college 4 years ago, and has a kid! Stop doing everything together! You're divorced for crying out loud! Plus, now the father and his wife have a young daughter that they adopted and the mother (not the new wife, the original one) wants to criticize every little detail of the way they're raising her, and it's all just a whole big mish-mash of uncomfortable feelings and alcohol. :rolleyes: Unfortunately, the youngest daughter of the original couple had a baby a few months back so now we're doing the "whole family Thanksgiving" thing again, only we're doing it out of state, and I really don't want to have to hassle with finding a hotel room for Thanksgiving night, and taking off work early the day before or leaving early in the morning the day of, and driving down to Portland (3 hours on a non-holiday weekend, 18 on a holiday weekend), and chances are good that not only my in-laws, but also the host's in-laws will be there, and their family is freakin' huge (in terms of numbers, they're all actually pretty fit), and we certainly can't cook anything and take it down there, which is my favorite part of the holiday to begin with!

Maybe I'll invite my parents to fly out, so then I can say "Whoops, can't go to your place, my parents are in town from Wisconsin. My bad."
 

GasBandit

Staff member
I have no idea how this thanksgiving is going to work. Last thanksgiving was pretty much completely ruined in the worst possible way.
 
My mom had a mild heart attack this weekend. We didn't know it at the time, but she was feeling very sick - pouring sweat, dizzy, nauseated, weak. So we took her to the hospital. She's stable now, and they're putting in a pacemaker. She's out of danger.
That's good. My grandma went through the same thing. She was like a new person afterwards though, her heart was affecting her so much for a long time it was shocking how much more spry she was after the pacemaker.
 
We haven't done Thanksgiving in years. Closest relatives are at least 250 miles away, and other than my sister, none under 65 for nearly 1,000.

That just leaves me and my mom. She can't eat turkey, and I'm usually working. So even if relatives did visit, all I'd get would be leftovers. Just not worth the bother anymore. :okay:
 
My family is mostly far away too, so I always do a dinner for my friends and coworkers who don't have their families near or just want another dinner since I do it on the Saturday before the usual Sunday or Monday actual Thanksgiving day.
 
That's where the third shift double whammy gets me. I'm not going to want to have Thanksgiving dinner as my before-work breakfast, or have my meal at what would be my 3 or 4am. So even if there is food, I wind up getting left out.

Same thing happens on big event weekends at work. Housekeeping and desk share pizza after the last of the football or graduation guests leave and rooms are cleaned. I get... to throw out the empty boxes.
 
Usually Thanksgiving is pretty simple around here: we host at our house, and all family and friends come to us. But this year.....*sigh*.

My mother-in-law and her boyfriend have to catch a plane to Taiwan Thanksgiving night (where they'll be for the next month+), so they can only come by in the morning/early afternoon. My father and grandmother always make the 3 and 1/2 hour drive to be here and stay a few days, but now my father is afraid to leave their house over night*, so he only wants to do day trips, which my grandmother hates because it bothers her hip to stay in the car so long. She wants to stay with us the week before, which is fine, but that means my father has to be responsible for getting himself out here and he can never be on time for anything. He's usually an hour or more late. Despite their acrimonious divorce, my parents have learned to get along again in recent years (having only one kid, and one grand kid, will do that). But my mother recently remarried another divorcee who's wife turned their kids against him, so he never sees his own kids or their children. Even though he has met my father and grandmother and gotten along (oddly enough, they live 2 towns over from where he's from), he whines and pouts to my mother that it isn't fair that she should get to see her kid/grand kid on the holidays when he doesn't, so most likely he's making Mom skip Thanksgiving with us again this year**. And one of our friends who's parents don't really celebrate Thanksgiving will be joining us (with his wife) as usual, but he has no idea what time yet, because they still need to see her family that day.

Basically, I plan to wake up Thanksgiving morning, put out a bunch of turkey sandwiches and say, "Forget you guys; I'm done."



*I love my dad, but I could fill up an entire Rant thread on him. Short version: I am 99% positive he has undiagnosed Delusional Disorder.
**This is a bone of contention between me and my mom. I know she wants to be here because she loves big family holidays and doesn't want to miss seeing my son on them, especially after her bout with breast cancer last year. But my mother also has a spine of Jell-o, so she doesn't stand up for what she wants and gets upset quietly. And for the record, I like her new husband, but he has a habit of getting whiny and stomping his feet when he doesn't get his way. Sometimes she stands up for herself, but not often enough.
 
I moved away from my entire family and all of my friends so I was really fortunate that my gfs family invited me over for Thanksgiving dinner and hot tubbing and too much wine.
 
My parents = 4900 miles away
His parents = 2600 miles away

We do whatever we please on Thanksgiving. Last year we had it with our neighbors for a more traditional turkey dinner. We've had Italian foods. We've had Mexican foods. If we don't get together with the neighbors again this year, we're talking about making all kinds of breakfast foods for dinner.
 
I loved spending Thanksgiving with my aunts and their children, but now that they've moved away, I don't think my wife and I are going to make an effort to do anything in particular. Closest family at this point is over 5 hours away.

I'm noticing a common pattern here. Less family presence = less stress :p.
 
My parents = 4900 miles away
His parents = 2600 miles away

We do whatever we please on Thanksgiving. Last year we had it with our neighbors for a more traditional turkey dinner. We've had Italian foods. We've had Mexican foods. If we don't get together with the neighbors again this year, we're talking about making all kinds of breakfast foods for dinner.
Last Thanksgiving it was just my girlfriend and I. We had no reason to make a massive turkey, so instead we made steak.

Great decision.
 
The thing is, I usually like big family Thanksgivings. We're pretty drama-free on the holidays, unless there's outside forces like my grandmother's stroke last year or the time my cousin got 3-degree burns from having coffee accidentally spilled on him when they were at a rest stop. But this year seems to be an exception.

We've done the "only the two of us" thing on Easters in the past, because neither of us are religious and I'm ambivalent on it. On one hand, it was nice not to have to make a big meal and spend the majority of the day in and out of the kitchen, but on the other, we're limited as to what we can do because everything is closed and if I don't want to cook, our only option is Chinese food. (Not the good ones, but the so-so American-style one around the corner.)
 

fade

Staff member
Man, even when it was just my wife and me, we still made the traditional spread. I always thought it was fun and homey, and you only really get to do it once a year.
 
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