Family Drama and a Movie

We all have our childish sides. I, personally, like to indulge mind on a regular basis. Harry Potter, ice cream, Disney movies, anyone? Today I had the great idea to take Little Cousin, Little Sister and her friend to the movies. I wanted to see Night at the Museum 2 and Little Sister wanted to see, inexplicably, Dance Flick. Plus the local theater was $5 before 6pm and in this recession we have to take advantage of these things.

Chaos ensued the second my aunt and LC showed up, with their [demon] miniature pincher, I came downstairs to my irritated father toting a terrified and shaking Precious, muttering to me, "get him." Him, I discovered, wasn't my...mischievous cousin but instead, C, who apparently bit/scratched Precious. When we returned later my dad was still upset because Precious was hurt.

"It never fails," he er, yelled. "Every time that dog comes Precious gets hurt and everyone walks around like it's funny. No more. You tell [Aunt] or I will. That dog is not allowed in this house anymore." Scary. Little Sister and I are used to Dad's ranting when not directed to anyone, but it made an impressionable LC slightly upset. Which he took out on me on our car ride to drop him off. Oy vey. I felt bad for the kid. But it's not his fault.

C is one of those proverbial "small, yappy dogs" that no one likes. Except C has the additional bonus of being mean. Except my aunt thinks the dog is "just playing" and everyone's picking on her (C, and by extension, her) for no reason--cue long family drama backstory. Except C is actually annoying, and you can't outlaw a dog just for being overly annoying without seeming like a mean animal-hater. But like I said, C is annoying and slightly vicious; when she makes an appearance at family functions everyone's just kind of like "OH NO. [Aunt] brought C. Fucckkk!!!" Pets are like children; you can't discipline other people's children when the parent/owner's there because it implies that the parent/owner isn't doing their job correctly.

Anyway. I said all that not only to say that I was secretly glad that my dad put his foot down and banned C from our house, but that it's still weird to get in between/pass messages to fully grown family members when, in everyone's eyes, you're kind of still a kid. For example, when my dad said someone has to tell my aunt that C's not allowed, I was like, fuck, hopefully him or my mom** will do it. I hate having to contradict older family members or get involved in whatever issues they have amongst each other, you know? Because I usually side with whoever's right in the situation and in my family, that's usually my parents and my relatives tend to hold grudges/take things personally/blow things out of proportion so on the whole it's best that the "kids" (namely, me) not get involved. However, they tend to play the oh-so-mature "well, tell your mother I said this" or "call your aunt and tell her that" game.

**Mom had nothing to say because she's currently on a weekend trip to New York City with my aunts and cousin, probably on Canal Street buying all the knockoff bags and perfume she can carry. It's her first time to the city. I asked her if I could please please please come and she said no ma'am. Hmpf.

Le sigh. What was supposed to be a fun day at the movies was not quite as such. Let's just say Little Cousin is a dramatic handful. I enjoyed the movie, though. I really, really, want to visit the Smithsonian Museum. Every time a historical artifact came onscreen I was all "ooh Darth Vader! Look it's Bochelli's Venus! HAHAHA OMG that's the theme song from Titanic!" Such. A. Nerd. But whatevs I liked it. "Visit the Smithsonian" has been on my To-Do List of Life for like a year and now I want to go more than ever.

That list also includes seeing Kobe Bryant play live and writing a book. In case you were wondering.