Mike's Graduating Next Week!

And all of my family will be here to celebrate. Thus outnumbering his family by at least 6:1. I swear to God, if my grandparents tell his parents that they flew all the way out here just to meet them because, and I quote, "we'll be dead before Amy and Mike ever get married" it will ensure that we elope! I mean, they'd already have met his parents so why would we need to have a ceremony? It just eats me up to hear them say that, since they have never accepted my mother or my uncle's partner and they couldn't give less of a shit about my sister's love life.

See, Mike's technically Jewish. My grandfather survived the Holocaust. I understand the bitterness of having one son come out of the closet and sing on Broadway and the other marry a Christian girl after having your culture nearly wiped off the map, but I don't see how my Jewish wedding would fix anything. Accepting your very accomplished sons and their extended families would at least mean more time with the family you do have, in what time you have left. What's really ironic is, Grandma claims to see a lot of herself in me- that I'm strong and stubborn, unconventionally smart, and willing to take a stand for what I believe in. The rest of the family sees me as exactly like my mom- strong, stubborn, unconventionally smart, and willing to take a stand for what I believe in. My grandma started a culture club in her rural high school and hosted dances where the Jewish kids could dance with the Christian kids, and graduated at the very top of her class even though she was a woman. She reads more than anyone I know, and I was a poetry major! My mom failed out of a few undergrad colleges, attending 10 in total, then zipped through Yale grad school and got into Berkeley for her PhD, but didn't go because she had an idea about using forest service lands as recreational areas. Any forest service lands in Oregon that aren't logging sites, you can partially thank my mother for. For their eras and circumstances, they both made unprecedented stands for what they believed in. I still think they should put aside their ridiculous bitterness and get along!

Anyhow, I'm extraordinarily stressed about them coming to visit, along with my amazing uncles and Mike's parents, and all of my family that lives in the area.

Oh, and did I mention that they'll all still be here for my final's week? Yeah. My finals start a week from Monday. Gah.