The in-law visit went surprisingly well
Wednesday, Oct. 01, 2003, 3:48 p.m.

Hey Mama,

Well, I had my new in-laws over for the first time as my in-laws. It was very odd. It's kind of silly, actually, because I got myself so worked up about it, so worried about it all and it went so smoothly, so simply, I just couldn't believe it. On Sunday, Anthony had been talking with his dad and Linda (step-mom) about us getting together to look at the proofs of the professional photos. It had to be before the 10th because that's when we have to return them, so, with everyone's schedules being so hectic, it ended up being rather short notice and we decided to get together Tuesday. The thing is, when we'd originally talked about it, the plan was to go out to dinner, because, well, that's what we always do. I've only ever actually eaten at their place twice in the three plus years I've known them, once for Thanksgiving (or was it Christmas??) and the other, not terribly long ago was to look at the video tape of the wedding. (No, no, honestly, we're not obsessed with the wedding!) Anyway, it was completely unexpected when Anthony asked what I wanted to do for dinner on Tuesday and it became clear that the expectation was for me to cook it!! Acck!

So, we've been married just shy of 2 months (hah! I wrote moths instead of months) now, and you'd think that we'd have everything unpacked and sorted and put neatly away by now. Ummm... yeah... I know you're laughing right now because you know me better than that. So, we were actually closer to being done getting everything settled (thanks to Anthony) than you'd expect. It was a reasonable goal to finish finding a place for everything Monday night after work (because the phone call took place around 11 pm Sunday night and I wasn't about to start cleaning and putting things away that late!) and to clean things up.

Or so I thought... The catch was that Anthony's got class on Wednesday nights. He hadn't finished his homework yet and, since Tuesday would be dedicated to having Robert & Linda over, that meant he had to spend Monday night working on it. And it was going to take him somewhere around 4 hours (estimated) to finish. Which meant sorting, putting away, and cleaning, was all my job. Oh, plus going grocery shopping and making sure I had everything necessary for company. (Additional hitch for me to freak out about: they prefer to eat chicken almost exclusively and, for whatever reason, I cannot cook chicken [unless it's smothered in some kind of sauce] without turning into this dry chunk of almost-jerky. Yum, yum! I decided to do something simple, alfredo sauce, chicken chunks, mushrooms [almost every dish I make has mushrooms in it, did you know that? I bet it doesn't really surprise you...], broccoli, and noodles. It came out very well. :) Although almost a little too dry! I don't know what it is I do... Whoo! That was quite a tangent, huh?) So, I started to get a bit overwhelmed. Grocery shopping took a ridiculously long amount of time. By the time I got home (he's so sweet!) Anthony had started shifting the pile of things that needed to go to our storage area as well as sorting through what was left to be placed somewhere. Poor thing, he didn't get all of his homework done and will probably suffer for it today, but I was incredibly grateful to him for the help. I didn't get everything cleaned quite as much as I'd have liked, but it was presentable. Dinner turned out fine. (There were even compliments, genuine ones, not just the obligatory, "thanks for cooking so we didn't have to" kind of compliments.) Conversation was pleasant, and looking over the pictures was even fun! It was... weird.

I guess I haven't told you, well, I have a little but not much, about how weird and usually unpleasant Anthony's family tends to be... Usually there's at least one snide remark that ticks me off or ticks Anthony off, or both... his step-mom is significantly worse than his dad, and I don't even want to get into what his mom, sister, and brother are like!!! So the whole evening, I kept waiting for that one comment to drop... and waiting... and waiting... and it never came. It was just very strange. I kept thinking, "Ok, just say it and get it over with, so we can get on with the evening and have a nice time." But they never did. It was very odd. But it was pretty fun and gives me hope for future events. :)

I wish I could have called you last night, while I was getting ready, to tell you about it. You knew Dad's family for such a long time, I don't think it was a big deal for you to have them over for dinner, but I really don't know these people very well. I wish I could've asked your advice or talked with you about what I should serve for dinner. I wish you could've laughed at me for how much food I was making (honestly, there's enough left there to feed Anthony and I for a week, and we sent home enough for several meals with his parents and took some over to the neigbor who doesn't like to cook!!) and tell me how silly I was being to get so worked up over it all. I bet you'd have told me some stories, either of your own, or about Gramma... Oh, mama! I don't seem to be able to end these letters without crying, without wishing desperately for you to be part of my life. There are so many things, so many new and exciting, strange and wonderful things that I want to share with you so very much... it just hurts so badly that I can't...

I love you.
Me.

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