The family kvetch-catcher

Must update blog ... must update blog ... oy. How do I squeeze a lifetime of aggravation into a few days? I know -- attend a family wedding!

We flew to Connecticut on Wednesday and landed smack in the middle of my family's usual baroque intrigues all neatly compressed into the short time it will take to see my youngest brother wed.

It's not even a matter of who's sleeping with whom, but where. Oh, it's not like anyone's sleeping anyplace interesting, like a bed of nails, though there's certainly one or two who deserve it.

Let's just say I'm having trouble keeping track of people's current addresses. Who's moved out? Who's moving in? Are they still speaking? Which one's been designated the "bad guy" this week?

Mostly it concerns people who should be living together as families who aren't, for one reason or another, engendering a certain amount of disbelief, heartbreak and irritation, depending on the family and their set of circumstances.

This puts pressure on me, the only sister, thrusting me into the unfamiliar role of interlocuter, sounding board and, for lack of a better term, kvetch-catcher. I stand around in my emotional padding and intercept all the stray insults, bellyaches and discontented mutterings.

I long ago retired as the family neurotic, the introverted and slightly odd spinster who finally married but lived too far away, then went and had a kid she was obviously going to ruin. But I'm pregnant now and temporarily on everyone's good side. And I have the curse of appearing to be a good listener, when people mistake my silence for rapt attention.

Plosh knows better, but isn't blowing my cover. Hard experience has taught him that the vacant look on my face is because I'm on an entirely different planet. It's amazing what a few well-timed nods can convey.

So I'm at my mother's house, wagging my chin up and down, wondering if this soap opera has a commercial break. Because, vacant stare or not, I need to think about something else for a while.

Comments

[plosh]

I, on the other hand, find the family drama quite fascinating.

[Anonymous]

Kind of makes you wonder about the old saying, "Family is everything." I always wonder "everything what?"

hehehe

Anonymous, Louise's Evil Twin

[Ontario Emperor]

Nodding with sympathy while your mind is elsewhere can only go so far. What if someone later asks you what was said? Do you claim that you "can't betray a confidence"?

My wife is the only sister in her family. It can be a pressure situation.