We live over here. Everyone else lives over there.
Mood:
tired, frustrated
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Reading today: excerpts from Eugene Debs, Wm. Jennings Bryan, Upton Sinclair, the list goes on....
Music today: radio
TV today: "Sabrina, the Teenage Witch" rerun
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We have had this problem since the first day of our marriage, and it still hasn't resolved. Won't ever resolve, in our opinions, although we fight about it a lot. I'm talking travel. Namely, the fact that we must travel a minimum of 2 hours to visit any friends and family members. It is getting old... very old... now that we have to pack for 3.
It has always been tiring to do the drive, fit everyone in, call up everyone "in the path" to try to see everyone at once. Or more challenging, keep our visit to particular places quiet so no one else "in the path" asks to see us. Yes, gentle readers, we have done that. I have a penchant to say yes to everyone's invitation (or guilt trip) and then justify it later, and do my own guilting of Doug to get him to agree to go. Doug has a penchant to say no to everyone, make everyone angry or disappointed, and then backs off and agrees to go. Which then just makes him frustrated. Yes, our communication has improved - but the strain is beginning to show... again, now that we have a third to think about.
This leads to another unusual problem; we don't have a lot of friends here. This would be because, on the occasion when we have a weekend at home, we don't want to go anywhere. We don't want to visit people locally, we don't want to meet them anywhere, we just want to stay home and do things around the house. Consequently, there are a couple couples who do not call us anymore to make plans; 1., we are never home, and when we are, 2., we agree we just want to stay at home. That is so sad.
Our lives are here. Our jobs are here. With Roman, we're getting involved, or WANT to get involved, with activities here. It is sad and disappointing that many people are over there, yes, but very soon (we have talked about this) limits are going to have to be put on how often we're willing to make the trip. I'm going to have to grow a backbone and say no... I hope people will respect when I DO say no... and we will both be happier to make visits when it's not a drag, or "yet another" weekend.
A sampling of our future, scheduled over the next 14 weekends (through middle of November):
5 already-scheduled weekends away
3 weekends we know of activities occurring, but haven't committed
2 occasions where we need to visit specific sets of people (probably in October), but haven't planned it yet
Not to mention the weekends we have tickets to UM games, of which this is the last year we will be attending. Some of the above-mentioned plans overlap those same weekends. And wait... let's hope that I don't have any major planning or papers to correct over the weekend, God forbid....
And it's not that we're complaining about what we have planned already; we like what we're doing and who we're visiting. It just gets to be so MUCH. And the above plans involve all out of town people. So where's the time for local friends? Where's the time for our family of three?!
And can big business and democracy co-exist?
Is the American Dream under attack?
Music today: radio
TV today: "Sabrina, the Teenage Witch" rerun
-----------------------------------
We have had this problem since the first day of our marriage, and it still hasn't resolved. Won't ever resolve, in our opinions, although we fight about it a lot. I'm talking travel. Namely, the fact that we must travel a minimum of 2 hours to visit any friends and family members. It is getting old... very old... now that we have to pack for 3.
It has always been tiring to do the drive, fit everyone in, call up everyone "in the path" to try to see everyone at once. Or more challenging, keep our visit to particular places quiet so no one else "in the path" asks to see us. Yes, gentle readers, we have done that. I have a penchant to say yes to everyone's invitation (or guilt trip) and then justify it later, and do my own guilting of Doug to get him to agree to go. Doug has a penchant to say no to everyone, make everyone angry or disappointed, and then backs off and agrees to go. Which then just makes him frustrated. Yes, our communication has improved - but the strain is beginning to show... again, now that we have a third to think about.
This leads to another unusual problem; we don't have a lot of friends here. This would be because, on the occasion when we have a weekend at home, we don't want to go anywhere. We don't want to visit people locally, we don't want to meet them anywhere, we just want to stay home and do things around the house. Consequently, there are a couple couples who do not call us anymore to make plans; 1., we are never home, and when we are, 2., we agree we just want to stay at home. That is so sad.
Our lives are here. Our jobs are here. With Roman, we're getting involved, or WANT to get involved, with activities here. It is sad and disappointing that many people are over there, yes, but very soon (we have talked about this) limits are going to have to be put on how often we're willing to make the trip. I'm going to have to grow a backbone and say no... I hope people will respect when I DO say no... and we will both be happier to make visits when it's not a drag, or "yet another" weekend.
A sampling of our future, scheduled over the next 14 weekends (through middle of November):
5 already-scheduled weekends away
3 weekends we know of activities occurring, but haven't committed
2 occasions where we need to visit specific sets of people (probably in October), but haven't planned it yet
Not to mention the weekends we have tickets to UM games, of which this is the last year we will be attending. Some of the above-mentioned plans overlap those same weekends. And wait... let's hope that I don't have any major planning or papers to correct over the weekend, God forbid....
And it's not that we're complaining about what we have planned already; we like what we're doing and who we're visiting. It just gets to be so MUCH. And the above plans involve all out of town people. So where's the time for local friends? Where's the time for our family of three?!
And can big business and democracy co-exist?
Is the American Dream under attack?
Read/Post Comments (2)
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