Drama llama much?
My sister called me today. She'd called my cousin to firm up how many hotel rooms we'd be needing. My cousin clued her in on some of my hesitation over whether or not this trip was a good idea for me.
The original plan involved my cousin and I driving up. She'd be spending the gas money with or without me, but I volunteered my new car. If I'm not really kicking in much for gas, the least I can do is set her up to use a lot less gas by driving the hybrid. It was just going to be us, and there's a "spare" bedroom, so there would be no other cost for the trip.
Except now it's turning into a free-for-all, and my sister is paying for 2 hotel rooms to house everyone.
I hate feeling like a mooch. It was one thing to offer better MPG and a little gas money to my cousin who was going anyway. It's another to find out that my sister has already liquidated her 401k to fund this extravaganza.
I did manage to talk her out of one of the hotel rooms for one of the nights. No way in hell my cousin will arrive before dawn on Saturday, she doesn't need a room Friday night. I could be there Friday night, but I can share a room with my sister, and when my cousin arrives we can vacate that room, she can crash, and we can spend the morning with my sick cousin.
I told my sister that I'd decided to let the universe decide, and it had. I hit my MIL up for child care. Her house is on the way to Ohio, and if she could take the babies for the weekend then I would go. She responded quickly and said she would. If she'd said no, I could have but did not intend to hit up my Mom for child care. Not that she's not up for it, she's just 150 miles in the wrong direction, adding another 600 miles (twice there and back) and 10 hours driving to what is already a 1200 mile trip. The detour to my MIL's is maybe 20 miles off my route.
My sister is a force of nature, let me tell you. She wasn't letting me off that phone until she'd convinced me to go. When I brought up mooching she just laughed, said I should consider it payback for the thousand and one times I'd had her covered years ago, for which she still owes me. And besides, she wants to see me badly enough that she's willing to pay for the room. I was reminded of my 20th birthday, my friends dodged me for days because they felt bad that they didn't have any money when I said I wanted to go to the fair, so I told them I was paying because I had the money and I just wanted the pleasure of their company on my birthday, even if I had to pay for everyone.
Barring any epic weirdness, it looks like I'm going.
Epic weirdness in potentia has already surfaced. Joe got a text today from Cricket. "Mom's in the hospital. She had a stroke." WHAT?!? Seriously, the amount of insane shit that has been coming at us from his ex (don't get me wrong, I'm not blaming her for having a stroke) is visibly taking its toll on Joe. He's stressing for Cricket, planning her rescue. It's sweet, and marginally insane at the same time. Any problem that prompts Joe to commit too much thought about how to fix it results in insanity.
The original plan involved my cousin and I driving up. She'd be spending the gas money with or without me, but I volunteered my new car. If I'm not really kicking in much for gas, the least I can do is set her up to use a lot less gas by driving the hybrid. It was just going to be us, and there's a "spare" bedroom, so there would be no other cost for the trip.
Except now it's turning into a free-for-all, and my sister is paying for 2 hotel rooms to house everyone.
I hate feeling like a mooch. It was one thing to offer better MPG and a little gas money to my cousin who was going anyway. It's another to find out that my sister has already liquidated her 401k to fund this extravaganza.
I did manage to talk her out of one of the hotel rooms for one of the nights. No way in hell my cousin will arrive before dawn on Saturday, she doesn't need a room Friday night. I could be there Friday night, but I can share a room with my sister, and when my cousin arrives we can vacate that room, she can crash, and we can spend the morning with my sick cousin.
I told my sister that I'd decided to let the universe decide, and it had. I hit my MIL up for child care. Her house is on the way to Ohio, and if she could take the babies for the weekend then I would go. She responded quickly and said she would. If she'd said no, I could have but did not intend to hit up my Mom for child care. Not that she's not up for it, she's just 150 miles in the wrong direction, adding another 600 miles (twice there and back) and 10 hours driving to what is already a 1200 mile trip. The detour to my MIL's is maybe 20 miles off my route.
My sister is a force of nature, let me tell you. She wasn't letting me off that phone until she'd convinced me to go. When I brought up mooching she just laughed, said I should consider it payback for the thousand and one times I'd had her covered years ago, for which she still owes me. And besides, she wants to see me badly enough that she's willing to pay for the room. I was reminded of my 20th birthday, my friends dodged me for days because they felt bad that they didn't have any money when I said I wanted to go to the fair, so I told them I was paying because I had the money and I just wanted the pleasure of their company on my birthday, even if I had to pay for everyone.
Barring any epic weirdness, it looks like I'm going.
Epic weirdness in potentia has already surfaced. Joe got a text today from Cricket. "Mom's in the hospital. She had a stroke." WHAT?!? Seriously, the amount of insane shit that has been coming at us from his ex (don't get me wrong, I'm not blaming her for having a stroke) is visibly taking its toll on Joe. He's stressing for Cricket, planning her rescue. It's sweet, and marginally insane at the same time. Any problem that prompts Joe to commit too much thought about how to fix it results in insanity.