Here's a good one!

[ulij20]

Bear with me, this is a rant and it's kinda long.

Anyway, back when I was a little kid, we'd have family reunions every summer. A cousin of mine (we'll call him Steve) and I were great friends and played together. After the reunions sort of ended about twenty years ago, we lost touch, but a few years back, they moved to a small town on the outskirts of LaPorte. We've both been very busy, but we've had a few visits. He's married to a girl (Tammy) and they have a five-year old girl (Valerie) who just adores me like nobody's business. Everytime I come over, she can't stand to be away from me for one second.

Anyway, late last year, Tammy and Steve decided to take a trip to Florida this coming spring, more specifically, to Disneyworld. They're going in early April, since that's when Valerie's school has spring break. Tammy and Steve wanted some time to themselves during the vacation, so they got this idea to take me along with so I can walk around the park with Valerie. I was delighted, since God knows I need a vacation. So I'm really looking forward to this, or at least I was.

I was over at their house yesterday morning (I only worked during the afternoon) and casually mentioned the vacation and Steve said, very non-chalantly, as if it were nothing, "Oh, Chris, didn't we tell you? We've decided to take Margie along instead."

Margie is the daughter of the man who lives next door to my cousins. She doesn't live with her father, but she comes over to spend one week out of the month with him during breaks. She lives in Kentucky, and her spring break happens to be the same week as the one at the school that Valerie attends. Margie is fourteen years old and I've met her before. Whenever she's over at their house and I'm also over there, she tends to steal my thunder, as far as attention from Valerie is concerned, but I don't mind that; it gives me a chance to visit with Tammy and Steve.

Anyway, I couldn't believe the news they told me, as well as the way they told me, as if it were no big deal. I didn't make a big scene, but I let them know that I really was looking forward to this trip and that I was hurt that they nixed me from the trip to take along their neighbor's kid instead. It was like they didn't care about how I felt. Needless to say, my visit didn't last long at all. I was so pissed off, and, if I do say so myself, I think I have every right to be pissed. I thought my cousins and I were friends, but a friend wouldn't just flat out exclude you from a trip they promised to take you along on and not be the least bit apologetic about it.

Anyway, I just needed to vent. I'm feeling a little better already, but I'm still pissed knowing that I won't be going with them on the vacation that I really could use.

Oh well, at least now I have plenty of time to give their next door neighbor a knuckle sandwich for introducing his daughter to them.

[a Nick O!]

That's really a raw deal and I'm sorry to hear it turned out the way it did.

[mtm4319]

You should say that Valerie should get to choose who the fourth person is (if you're confident that she'd pick you instead of Margie).

[ulij20]

mtm4319 said:

You should say that Valerie should get to choose who the fourth person is (if you're confident that she'd pick you instead of Margie).

Well, the thing is, Valerie's parents haven't told Valerie yet. They want to wait awhile, because if they tell her too soon, she'll become impatient for the trip to come. Remember, Valerie is only five years old. Kids that age do not have the concept of time, especially that long of a time. She might think three months is next week.

Meanwhile, I don't plan to talk to either Steve nor Tammy anytime soon, for the cheap trick they pulled on me. I plan to take my own vacation in April. I'm not sure where I'll go, or what I'll do, but I'll think of something. I plan to spoil myself rotten!

[czarina]

Yeah that sucks-even if they DID want to take Margie, I wouldnt just nix you. The more the merrier.

[ulij20]

I have a feeling that they nixed me because they thought I'd feel awkward walking around with two girls. Otherwise, I'd have to walk around with Steve and Tammy, which would pretty much defeat the whole purpose of bringing someone else along (they wanted time to themselves).

But you do sort of bring up a good point. The more, the merrier - and safer. I mean, is it really a good idea for a 14-year old and a 5-year old to be walking around such a large park by themselves?

[ulij20]

Well, it looks like I might be going to Disney with my cousins after all. I honestly thought this story would stop with me never speaking to my cousins again, but little did I know, I had another think coming,

Well, it seems that Margie and her father were going to arrange for Margie to go to Disneyworld with my cousins unbeknownst to her mother. Her father was going to have her over Spring Break and make Margie's mother believe that he was taking her to his summer home down in Florida.

Why would they lie (or stretch the truth, since Margie was indeed going to be in Florida), you may ask? Apparently, Margie's mother thought Margie was getting a little too close with my cousins since, after all, she was here to see her father, not them. I guess her father is more interested in watching golf on TV instead of spending time with Margie, so one day, when she came over to visit, her father was standing outside talking to my cousins. He got them acquainted with Margie and then she hung out with them for awhile. Then she started spending more and more time with them that it got to be that she spend most of her time with my cousins than with her Dad. When she was in town visting her father this past summer, she babysat for little Valerie while her parents went out for the evening, and they took Margie along on their little outings (i.e. to Chuck E. Cheese's for Valerie's birthday, to a water park in Chesterton, and many other places). It was like they had adopted Margie (which was actually nice of them, since her Dad seemed to be more interested in his damned golf games than his own daughter!) She apparently told her mother about these great people and her mother wasn't very happy about her spending so much time with these people and told her to start spending more time with her Dad and less with her Dad's neighbors, so naturally, when they offered to take her to Disneyworld, she knew her mother would have a cow, so she told her Dad about it and he devised this little summerhome-in-Florida scheme.

Anyway, Margie's Dad apparently told my cousins that her mother had given the green light for her to go along, meaning that they had no idea about the sneaking around business. But, somehow, the news leaked to Margie's mother and she saw red. She called my cousins and told them that it was not okay for Margie to go to Disneyworld with them and she didn't want her hanging around with them anymore. My cousins agreed, since they're trying to do right by their daughter and didn't want Margie around if she was so dishonest. So I guess I don't have to give Margie's dad a knuckle sandwich for getting his daughter acquainted with them; I have a feeling her mother's going to do that for me, when she goes over and hands her dad a court order for supervised visits until further notice.

Now don't get me wrong; I did not agree to go along with them at the drop of a hat. The phone call I got did not go like such:

Cousin Steve: Hey Chris, Margie's not going to Disney with us, so you can come along after all.
Me: Oh, OK.

NO-HO! It took a lot of doing to get me to agree to come along with them. First of all, I finally got an apology from them, and I didn't even have to drag it out of them. They indeed felt remorseful about what they did, and they promised to do anything to make it up to me for hurting and angering me (and you better believe I'm going to take them up on that offer - so I'm soon going to have a clean pair of boots, mottled with their tongue prints!)

Anyway, yeah, they told me about what they found out about Margie and her Dad's scheme to go to Disneyworld without their mother's knowledge. I've told you that they weren't very bright, but their father seems to be even dumber than them. I mean, did he really think that he'd pull it off without her mother ever finding out. The truth had to come out somewhere down the line. Good thing it happened when it did because, as well as me actually getting to go to Disney with them, her mother would have been even more upset if she had found out about it after the fact. She probably would have strangled her ex-husband to death. He, by the way, is also no longer welcome at their house.

And so it goes. Just thought I'd let you know about this recent development. If only I hadn't brought up the trip during my last visit, I would never have known about this. I sort of wish that had been the case (since that news did indeed mess up my day, and weekend as well). But, as long as I'm still going with them, that's OK.

[a Nick O!]

Well that's great news.