It is not an uncommon feeling among people with parents and other relatives, in-laws and the like, to want to load them all up into a rocket and shoot them into the sun.

Or in a more cost-effective solution, load them into a bus and send them off a cliff.

Obligatory family events have a great way of reminding me of this on a regular basis.

While I've pretty much stopped going most family things, there's been several that I can't get out of for various reasons, and decades long frictions continue to reinforce the bus/cliff solution.

It would be nice if I wasn't the ball in a game of family rugby, I've never developed a good way of extracting myself from the game except by non-attendance. Well, that and silence. Bringing up my displeasure at being caught in between two people that don't get along just makes things worse every time.

You shouldn't be in a situation where your emotional support system is the problem you need to talk about.

Luckily, while I have a few good friends to talk to about it, you know, everyone's got problems of their own. Right now, my friends are going through worse stuff by far than me, so burdening them is just unfair and a little mean.

I figure in a totally selfish way, if I can help my friends, then they'll be freed up for me to whine too. :)

But in the meantime, I wish for a good self-guided rocket to the sun. And if they wont go, maybe I'll take it myself. At least it'd be a fun view for the trip....

I'm sure there was some point to this besides just complaining, but I think I'll just stick to complaining for now.