Heard this on the radio on the way home from the inlaws', seems particularly appropriate today

[nightshade1972]

This is one of those songs, like Evanescence's "Everybody's Fool" and Billy Joel's "My Life", that I fantasize about playing someday at the Maternal Unit's funeral.  This song actually applies particularly well to both parents, given that the Maternal Unit's a narcissist, the Paternal Unit's an enabler, and they're both convinced I'm the black sheep.  I never truly wanted to totally cut off contact with everyone in my immediate "family", but longtime readers of my LJ will know they pretty much left me no other reasonable alternative.  I present to you excerpted lyrics from Shinedown's "Second Chance":

Tell my mother, tell my father
I've done the best I can
To make them realize
This is my life
I hope they understand

I'm not angry, I'm just saying
Sometimes goodbye is a second chance...

Please don't cry one tear for me
I'm not afraid
Of what I have to say
This is my one and only voice
So listen close
It's only for today

Full video is here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H25ORRgLxdA

No presents and no phone calls.  Today was the best xmas I've had in years!