There have been way too many comings and goings around here lately. In some cases this is kind of heartbreaking and it's killing me, but in others, well, it's a welcome relief*. But to be honest, I'm completely emotionally depleted from all of it and that does not bode well for the coming endless onslaught of holiday family meshugas, shenanigans and triangulations. It's never awesome to attack this season on an empty emotional stomach, but unfortunately that seems to be my situation this year. I'm so thankful I'm not turning 40 on top of all of it, though the fact that I'm turning 41 does mean I'm really in my 40s now (do I buy the orthopedic shoes and cut my hair off?), so I've got that to remember when I need an emotional appetite suppressant while I'm visiting my family in Texas. Which is good because I'll need it.

Please don't get me wrong, my family is made up of seriously fantastic and totally weird personages and I couldn't love any other human beings on the planet more than them, but for some reason if I go into a situation with all of them all at once I revert into an incredibly petulant twelve year old, almost without exception. And this behavior isn't reserved for just my parents, oh no, it extends a full 100 yards on a multi-generational football field. Like a couple of years ago when I was stuck riding on the hump in the backseat of my brother's family car squished between two child car seats (I love how 40 years later it's still the place I always get relegated to in the car)...I got into a very interesting game of "I-know-you-are-but-what-am-I" with my young nephew that was not happening in the I'm-older-and-pretending-to-be-Pee-Wee-Herman-because-I'm-the-cool-aunt kind of way but more in the you-and-I-are-the-same-emotional-age-and-you're-pissing-me-off-and-I-don't-have-a-rational-argument-for-you kind of way. It ended with me getting so annoyed that I popped his balloon, literally, that he had gotten as a souvenir at a baseball game while my niece tried to feed me cheerios, dropping them onto my white pants with her sticky fingers. My brother had to inject some rationality and break up the ruckus. Yes, I am Auntie of the Year in everyone's book. I fully admit to extreme assholery.