Bad Behavior, IMO

So we went to a birthday party today for my aunt's brother. My aunt isn't actually blood related to me; she married my mom's brother. Anyway, we went to this birthday party which turned out to be really fun because it was a chance to see his wife's sister's new house (wow this is getting confusing, lol), and see all of them again.

Now, it goes without saying that since it was her brother's birthday, my aunt was going to come. She came with my uncle, cousin, and her father. Now, my aunt's mother died a few months ago, but my aunt seems to have some kind of disorder where if she's not "helping" someone she's not happy, so she's officially moved her "caring" nature onto her father. Her father is one of the sweetest men I've ever met in my life, and he's just so much fun to hang around...once you get him talking. But the problem is that my aunt seems to think he's incompetent and senile, so she's always treating him like a stupid old man who can't do anything for himself. He walks with a cane because she tells him that he needs it, but when he stays with his son, it's said he ditches the cane within a few hours and walks all over the house with no problem.

Well, we were all at this party, and one guy was barbequing. My aunt's dad said he wasn't hungry and didn't want to eat, and my aunt told hime that he had to eat something. This wouldn't have been so bad if she hadn't said it like: "NO, DAD, YOU'RE EATING SOMETHING! YOU CAN'T JUST LIVE ON SCRAMBLED EGGS ALL DAY!"

I desperately wanted to say something, but I knew it would just cause an arguement between the family members and I didn't want that, so I just smiled at him and shrugged my shoulders like, "sorry, Dale."

Now, my other cousin, and my aunt's other son, is getting married in a few weeks. We got the invitation last week in the mail. So today we thought it would be a good idea to ask, since my aunt is practically paying for the wedding (which is a bad idea since she's such a cheapskate), to ask if we could bring dates. Tinkerbelle asked her, and instead of a nice explaination about how it would cost more and they would appreciate it if we didn't bring anyone else, my aunt said, "DOES THE INVITATION SAY 'GUEST' ON IT? NO! IT'S ONLY FOR YOU AND YOUR FAMILY! THE PLATES COST $35 A PERSON, AND YOU'RE NOT BRINGING A GUEST!"

Which leads me to say this: What the hell? Ask a question nicely, and you expect a nice answer. You don't expect someone to rip your throat out and stomp on it just because you asked an honest question! And what's with the way she treats her father? That old man just sits there and does nothing because she's convinced him that he can't do anything. It's infuriating to me! At this point, he's happy just to have someone sit with him. They just leave him in a room, with a tv that's turned off, and completely ignore him!

I shouldn't be getting involved because they're not even related to me through blood, and it's not my life...but it really makes me angry.

And the way my aunt treats us, especially Tinkerbelle....that's just not right....