Reason #679 that I'm glad I'm single . . .

AKA Are you putting on weight?




This is Uncle Tom. (Note the hat: I'm Old School, HA!) He's not my uncle. In fact, I'm not sure that he's anyone's real uncle. He isn't technically related to my nephew's Dad, but somewhere along the line, his Mom, Coreinne acquired Tom as an "uncle", hence the "Uncle Tom". Coreinne died a few years ago, and Tom is now the main family that her children have in this area. He's kind of a crochety old man, a little awkward, but family nonetheless. Today was my nephew's birthday dinner. His family, coming together to celebrate him, and of course, shower him with gifts.

Uncle Tom, my nephew and his Dad had only walked in the door and were saying their hellos when Uncle Tom looked at my older sister and greets her with, "Hey, are you putting on weight?" Now, I'm sure many of you know that this is poor form, incredibly poor, in fact. I concede that you may not know this if you are over 30 and blogging from your mother's basement(and if that's the case, no offense, but here's your lesson!) My sister is famous for her poor life choices, her insecurity, and her attitude. She promptly got upset, began ranting, and retired to the living room in tears. I would have just ignored it if it had been directed to me, but I felt obligated to chide and give Uncle Tom some grief about starting a family gathering like this in the hopes of regaining the peace in a quicker fashion. It was a pretty tacky comment, and I told Tom that I'd thought he was old enough to know better than to comment on a woman's weight. He responded with a comment about how he thought that in this day and age he thought that it was okay and that no one cared about weight(I think he even said 'hip and groovy' with his hands waving in the air). Yeah, did I mention that I thought maybe he's always been single? (. . . shocker!*) I don't think that he'll make that mistake again . . . I think he's truly lucky he didn't get slapped. It seems that in past times he might have been. He did have his age working in his favor, I guess, I mean- how much grief can you give a crusty old curmudgeon? It brought the whole event onto par with a three ring circus in a real hurry. My sister and her boyfriend left for home a few minutes later. She'd been working all day and needed to run home and change and pick up the ham. What? You're leaving us alone to entertain his family? You'd better hurry back!

My thought for the day is that I'm glad I'm single. I can hardly, quite simply, deal with my own crazy relatives without importing another family!

May all of your family holiday gatherings be more civil, and well- joyful!

Happy upcoming holidays!

A


*A While You Were Sleeping reference for Sarah.