EY's Rants and Raves

This was War Eagle weekend, Gentle Reader, and for some reason, I thought it would be fun for my mother and I to go. For the uninitiated, War Eagle is a large craft fair and they really do try for it to be crafts and not a lot of junk. All the surrounding areas also jump on the craft bandwagon. Some of this is very nice to look at and some would be nice to buy. But I'm just not a "put some wooden scarecrow or snowman in my yard" kind of gal. I go for the pottery. Which there was darn little of. But I'll get that at the Arkansas Craft Guild Fair in December. The trip up was OK, the car made it wonderfully, Mom didn't drive me too nuts, Becky's sister and friend took a bit to open up, but when they did, they were cool. I found it funny that we connected over our common love of dogs.
Got all the kids on my Dad's side of the fam bought for. They were the only ones I really could buy for at this kind of gig. Couldn't shop for Mom or Becky right there with them.
I found the actual War Eagle fair to be a bit odd. I'd just been to WE a few weekends ago and was struck, as I often am, by how pretty a place it can be. Mountains (hills, really), a nice plain in the valley, old bridge, big red (operational) grain mill. Green fields, wonderful trees just starting to turn. It's one of the spots that DH loves and I fully understand why. But not this weekend. Oh, the trees and sky were perfect; bridge and mill as they always are. People....tons of people. Tents, cars, SUVs, trampled grass, dust. I don't get why people would bring anyone under 16 to War Eagle. Especially this weekend when it was hot and dry. Little kids could really care less. And the guys....almost every non-vendor male I saw looked like he was being tortured. Why not leave the guys and kids at home to have way more fun than they're having looking at stuff they don't care about? My DH went to WE once. And at the end of the day said "OK, I've been to WE with you. I had fun being with you, but I will never do that again, so don't ask". I absolved him of any future visits and thought it quite funny.
Of course, my visit with Mom was fine until we discussed the holidays. Thanksgiving will be at our house and they'll be here, so no sniping that we won't be spending time with them. Great. Now Christmas. It's at a cousin's in the NE part of the state at a time when we'd normally be heading to the NW part of the state. Not good. Of course, my objection only got me the "you always spend Christmas with them, why can't you spend Christmas with us for once" that I SOOO love. I told her that we'd try to work something out, but that conversations like that make me want to say "if you can't accept the idea of compromise, we just won't come see you at all". Which is so petty. And so uncalled for. But then, so is her attitude. She is RETIRED. Dad takes the months of Dec-Feb. off. His work puts him 30 miles from us every week. If they come spend the weekend with us, it's closer than him going home. My in-laws aren't retired. Sometimes, Thanksgiving and Christmas is the only time we get time to see them. "That's not MY problem" Mom says. And this is the woman who taught me to share. Being an only, it's not like I can foist her off on another sib to deal with until she cools off. If I had other sibs, I suppose it wouldn't matter if ALL of us got together or not. My grandmother was always happy to see the kids that were near or could come see her and to talk to the others on the phone. Would that she had given her daughter any of that.
Sigh. DH agrees that she should be better about the whole thing. He threatened to tell her so, but I don't see that happening. Not sure if it would be better or worse if he did.
Sigh. Yep, only a mother can turn pearls of wisdom into a choker. And make me wish that I'd spent my weekend cleaning out the garage.