A surfeit of relatives

My grandmother and great-grandmother (Nanny) live in a house with a well and electrical wiring from the 1920s, so we stayed at a hotel because their well can't take the pressure of all our showers. Nanny used to live down the street from the house, and she said she used to walk past it with her kids, and say they couldn't pay her to live there. But even then you housing was tight in Ft. Montgomery, so it was the only place for sale when they had to move out of the place they were renting. Nanny has always hated that house. It would be funny if it wasn't so sad.

We got two suites, with two bedrooms, a bathroom, and a kitchen. Emerald and I shared a bedroom, with Mom and Dad in the big bed in that suite, and James was thrown to the wolves, er, brothers, in the other suite. It was called the Five Star Inn, and I thought that was funny, since it was nice and all, but nowhere near as swank to be five star. Then I realized they meant generals, since we were on a sub-base of West Point. Our hotel used to be a dorm room of Ladycliffe College, which went bankrupt and was bought up by USMA. Emerald and I would go to bed in our twin beds, and when I woke up, we would sometimes have switched beds in the night. Every other night that I've been here, at home and in the hotel, Emerald has woken up saying there are snakes in her bed, so we switch.

Thanksgiving was spent with my mother's family-at least those that she's still talking to, which I believe is three-her brother, mother, and grandmother. Then on Friday we met up with my Dad's siblings and my cousins at Denny's. I haven't seen most of them in two years, and I realized that I didn't really have much to say to them. But soon the food came and like true Raffertys, we devoted our attention to it. I had the Meat Lover's Breakfast, and I asked Liam if it was true if vegans soon became disgusted by the taste or even smell of meat.

"As a vegan, I can tell you that's not true," Liam said. "The best tasting thing in the world is meat." Denny's must have been torture to him then, since almost everything on the menu consists of meat.

Then we drove home, and I've spent today recovering from a surfeit of food and relatives. I was so eager to get away from "the community" for a while, but I didn't factor in that I had an even larger community back home. They may understand me better, but its not always a benefit to have people around who remember what you did since you were a baby.