Another Game Night

My family likes game nights. Well...not my immediate family, my extended family. My immediate family is fine with sitting down to play a game of cards or Monopoly, and we don't need to make a huge deal out of it.

Game Night wouldn't be such a big deal (to me, anyway) if we didn't play games like Cranium or Trivial Pursuit at 10:00 at night, when we're all fighting to stay awake. It's like everyone on that side of the family doesn't ever sleep. They're awake in the middle of the day, and then they're awake at freaking midnight, and THEY NEVER SEEM TIRED! It's ridiculous.

Unfortunately, they also seem to believe that everyone else is the same.

Every time we have Game Night, we don't start playing until 8 or 9 at night. Now, Tinkerbelle gets bitchy when she gets tired, and games are not an acception to that rule (although, lately she's been bitchier than normal, so being tired seems to have nothing to do with it anymore). The main problem is that we seem to have to work around everyone's work schedules -- everyone's work schedules except ours, of course.

Last year, Thanksgiving was postponed because my cousin had to work.

Everyone wanted Tinkerbelle to try and get off early from work the last Game Night we had so that we could work around their schedule.

My cousin had us hold off on Christmas presents because he had to work (really, what kind of shitty job has you working on Christmas?).

Tinkerbelle had to get up early the next morning for work, and they were here until almost midnight.

See what I mean?

It's like the entire family revolves around my know-it-all cousin. Now, keep in mind that my cousin is nearly 40, has never had a girlfriend, works at Comcast answering phones for a living (seriously, what a shitty job), has some kind of computer degree he does nothing with, is working toward getting another degree he'll probably do nothing with, and may as well still live with his parents since he's always around them anyway. He lives in his grandfather's house (his mother's father), and visits his parents every single day. He vacations with them, every time they go on vacation. He goes curtain shopping with his mother. He goes grocery shopping with his mother. He shares every single opinion he has with his mother. Seriously, there's something wrong with that relationship. I mean, I completely and totally understand loving your mother with all your heart, but if you can't even stay home when she goes on vacation halfway across the world, you have a serious problem. It would be different (maybe) if her husband were dead, but he's not.

And I'm sick of the family revolving around this Mamma's Boy.

Luckily, tonight we played a game we could all enjoy. It wasn't too difficult, but still kept us on our toes, and it was entertaining while being something everyone could do (instead of acting, sculpting, or drawing).

Now, my entire family? We're visual learners. We need to physically see how something is done in order to understand it. Which basically means that, when we're playing a new game, we all need to see, read, and understand the rules in order to have a good time.

Unfortunately, my cousin is like, the Rule Nazi, and doesn't share the rules.

Tinkerbelle actually had to stand up and steal the rules from behind his back just to understand what the hell she was doing in the game. He never noticed, but I'm sure he would have uttered an annoyed sigh and audible eye-roll had he seen. He's like a man with the remote to the t.v. except...with a piece of paper that comes inside the game box.

To top it off, my aunt seemed really pissed off tonight, for no reason I could really understand.

Oh, and my aunt's brother and sister-in-law (my aunt married into the family and isn't related to us by blood) have a SEVERELY autistic little girl, who likes to scream for no reason and tear glasses off of your face. Granted, I know she can't really help that sort of thing, but...damn. I really, REALLY hope I don't have an autistic child, because I would not be able to handle it. And this is coming from someone who's mother once told her that she thought she was autistic as a baby (and I still may have Asperger's, though I've never been diagnosed). Luckily for us, the nurse they have working for them offered to stay until the game was over. That kept the little girl occupied the whole night, which was nice. Yes, they have a nurse working in their house taking care of thier child. That's how severe she is.

Anyways, it's been an eventful evening, my cousin's birthday. Oh, yes, it was that same annoying cousin's birthday today. I've lost track of how old he is but...I think he was born when my mom was 8 or so...I don't feel like doing math, bleh.

He's good for something, though! He's taking me to Les Miserables in September.