I had told Dawn I'd help her pack things for moving on Sunday. She is being forced to move out of her place because her landlady decided she wanted to sell, and nether she nor her husband can pick up a ton of boxes. They have to hire movers, which is pretty hard on them. Since her moving day is on the weekend when I can't assist, I offered the one free day I had before then. Uh, forgetting that Mom would be around.

Mom DESPERATELY WANTED TO COME HELP, but Dawn said no to that. Which I totally understand under the circumstances. That... took several arguments with Mom to get the point across, also that I needed her to leave the house by 11 because I was going to be gone the rest of the day. Ironically, Dawn barely had me do anything at all. I packed three boxes and everything else was packed, I gave her "moral support" while she cleared out three boxes of toiletries, I took her to the SPCA dropoff spot and took some stuff off her hands, and then I went over to the new house. Amusingly enough, it's on Jess's old street when she lived here. I actually think(?) they are next door to Jess's old place, but I haven't seen or lived in the joint since 2004 and I'm not 100% sure I remember everything any more, if you know what I mean. But at any rate, I was released into the wild by 3. Go figure.

However, there was such drama all damn morning, and not just because I was trying to get Mom to pack up and leave.

Mom forwarded way too many e-mails from Travelzoo to me this week. Which I barely skimmed but did not look into or think about in any way because I was busy rehearsing or writing up all of the documentation for my gallery show at every opportunity. I haven't had ANY interest in thinking about Yet Another Vacation in the way that she is nagging me to. I mean, I JUST went on vacation in June (not that it was a super fun one or anything) and July (4th weekend), and she wants MORE vacation? What is this, Europe?

What she didn't mention was that she has 4 weeks of vacation for the year and she is NO LONGER allowed to take ANY of them past December 31. Period. She is forbidden from using it from January-end of April by default because that is busy season, but I guess they are ticked off at having her using up all of her remaining time in May or June. (And even worse: she found a listing for a business like hers for sale, and she thinks it's her business because the bosses are circling
the drain when it comes to retiring. This is going to be very bad.)

So it has to be done NOWNOWNOWNOWNOWWWWW, not exaggerating. And she hounded me all morning in person and all night via the phone about this. How she has to take vacation now both because of work and before she gets sick. (Or out of work.) How Granddaddy DENIED THEM ALL A PROPER VACATION when she was a child and she's bitter. How on a scale of 1-10, this is a 10 priority for her. And since I never read every damn Travelzoo e-mail, we've now lost out on all of those super great deals!!!!

I told her it was a priority of 2 for me. For one thing, I'm now in Busy Season at work and it's no longer all that super convenient for me to take off in September in the way that I used to. And that I hate Travelzoo because I do NOT want to have to decide instantly whether or not I want to spend the money on a trip and pay up quickly. (Sorry, but I am just NOT their ideal customer who is cool and froody with doing that.) And I don't want to have to wade through a list of trips wondering which one she wanted because she didn't specify. Not to mention wade through tons of e-mails of that crap. And...travel is hard for me, okay? I don't have wanderlust, I don't dream of trips to take any more really, I don't want to stir up drama by being gone during "busy season" at work, etc. I flat out told her multiple times that I didn't want to take a trip with her (under the circumstances of "must be NOW, with Travelzoo and instant deciding" specifically, guess how well she took that) and to stop considering me in her travel plans because I can't deal with it.

No was not an option. I'll leave it at that.

So okay, FINE. I have tentatively cleared it with my boss to be gone at some point in September, busy season be damned. Whatever the fuck she wants to do off of damn Travelzoo. Because apparently it'll be the last vacation ever, one way or another.

Guilt, guilt, guilt.

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