It all starts the week (Feb. 8th) before, the assignment. I had gone home for the weekend to get the tires on my car changed, because my dad is paranoid about those kinds of things. Some quick background, my parents own a hardware store, and on weekends and breaks when I am home I work there. On that Saturday, I was on my lunch break in the backroom when over the speaker, I hear my mom say "Hi Paula!". My first thought was that it couldn't be my aunt, there are probably thousands of Paulas in the world. Right? Wrong. It was my aunt.
Now some more back ground so this whole ordeal will make sense. Paula and I do not get along at all, and its been so long that I don't really remember why. She is actually my former aunt, having divorced my dad's brother G, when I was young, but for some odd reason my family has kept close ties with her, and she even moved to our town a few years after the divorce. That's when our 'relationship' went down hill. After moving to Whitehall, my sisters and I began spending time at her house because it was just down the block from our house and apparently we need more adult supervision while my parents were at work. At first everything was fine but she had the most annoying catchphrase, "If you're going to act that way then you can leave". But is it really a catchphrase, if she only said it to me? One day it all changed. Paula was having a little garden party for her church friends, and I was sent with my sisters to help her get her yard ready and stuff. Everything I did upset her, but that is a much longer story and I am already way off topic. So after about an hour of her yelling at me, she said it, "If you're going to act that way, then you can leave". And in front of her, my sisters, and her foster daughter I said fine and left. Ever since then we barely talk to each other, and when we do its only to trade thinly veiled insults. Then she moved and all was fine, accept when she came to visit, which is why I carefully plan my weekends home. But in the past few years she has been really nice to me which is weird, and I have attributed it to the fact that she is now 60 and since she just became a paster to a church, I think she wants to atone or something.
Anyways, my mother neglected to mention that she was stopping by to stay for a few nights, and visit her favorite nieces (i.e. my sisters, not me). So she went to the house, where my sisters were and I stayed at the store trying to enjoy my last few minutes before it all began. Then around 4 o'clock, I was trying to solve the case of the missing power tool box, when someone came in the front door, I looked up and it was my dad's brother, my Uncle M. This was not the same uncle who Paula had been married to but a different one. My dad has five brothers and sisters, so its all really confusing. But Uncle M took Uncle G's side in the divorce, and hasn't had any contact with Paula in over 10 years. So Uncle M and his wife Aunt T, were only passing through on their way to Yellowstone to go skiing, but they wanted to get lunch with me the next weekend in Bozeman with two of my cousins who live in the area. They left with promises to call, never even knowing that Paula there.
So I survived the weekend with Paula, by claiming that I had a paper to type, and instead watched movies in my room. The next weekend I decided to go home again to avoid the lunch, only to discover that my dad's other brother E, and his wife K were visiting. You have no idea how weird this is three of my dad's siblings/ex-wives, all stopping by within one week of another. Usually we can go years without seeing any of them, other than Paula, who visits at least once a year. So then I had to endure a weekend of Uncle E and Aunt K, and their son Ethan. And Uncle M never called for lunch, but I talked to one of my cousins and he was invited, he didn't go but they told him that my other cousin they were planning on getting lunch with already agreed to get lunch. So basically my uncle stood me up before I could stand him up. And to make everything better it was a three day weekend, with Uncle E and co. who are well they are just plain strange. I know that's a harsh thing to say but its the truth. Ethan who is only 11 years only already is over 200 pounds and told me how he has only been really drunk a few times, and his parents completely allow it. His parents also decided to pull him out of school and home school him, which he only does when he feels like it, and neither of them have jobs at the moment. However, I did find out from my dad, that they only visited to check out the town and see if they could get jobs if they moved here, so I guess I am now house shopping in Bozeman so I won't have to go home ever again.
You know how they say that every family has a black sheep, well I think my family is the complete opposite, all black sheep and I am one of the few white sheep. Or maybe they think we are the weird ones.
Sorry its such a long and probably boring post.
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