I had wanted to write this entry last night, in fact I had every intention of it. Unfortunately my aunt's LONG visit changed that.

Yesterday my husband and I talked more about whether or not we wanted to go to dinner with my aunt. We decided to go over to my parents' house and when she gets there, talk to her for a few minutes, then her and her husband would go to dinner with my parents and that would be that. Ahh..if it had been so simple.

They were supposed to get there at 2pm. They didn't get there until after 3. Once they got there, my mother had disappeared in another room and my father was either on the computer or watching TV. I don't remember which. Well...my husband barely knows my aunt and her husband so it was up to me to open the door. I opened the door, said hello, and right away my aunt insisted on a hug. That wasn't a problem. We hugged, and she didn't let go right away. The hug lasted more than a minute, closer to 2 minutes. That was the most affection I've gotten from all of my father's other sisters put together.

We all went into the living room and started talking. My aunt brought her camera and I thought she'd take a picture of my father, and maybe all of us together. Well I was sort of right. She took a bunch of pictures of everything and everyone, whether we liked it or not. I didn't mind at first but after awhile I was getting quite annoyed with it. I caught myself one time when she took a picture of me checking something on the computer turning quickly and giving her a hateful look. It wasn't intentional and she didn't notice. She even took a picture of my father, HER brother's backside. She thought it was funny..it makes me wonder why a woman would want a picture of a brother ass.

My father decided to watch a race and everyone else watched it too. My husband and I were about to fall asleep. I found out during the race that my aunt's favorite drive is the late great Dale Earnhardt. A driver whom I did NOT like. She went on and on about how devestated she was when Earnhardt died. She got emotional and almost cried right there. It was very hard not to trash Earnhardt. I did have a few comments which I did say but I could have done a lot worse.

After a little while, my aunt, her husband and my parents were getting ready to leave. Thank God..I was starving. My husband and I hadn't eaten all day. Just before they left my aunt asked if there was any games at my parents' house. I mentioned a few board games, unsure of the reason she was asking this. I found it to be a rather odd question. She said she wanted to play charades. I was like "Umm..ok." She then said for me and my husband to make up a bunch of words or phrases and when they came back we'd play. I was like "Huh?? You're coming back??" They then left and I turned to my husband. We knew this visit was far from over.

My husband and I tried to come up with words and phrases but we didn't know whether to do movie titles or what. I've never played charades. I knew how to play it but I had never actually played the game. Not to mention we wanted to be on the same team and it would have been hard for us to be if we were the only ones to come up with the phrases to guess. We decided to worry about it later and just get dinner. My husband and I were already on the verge of falling asleep from bordeom.

A couple hours later they come back. My aunt still has her camera taking pictures. Not giving any real warning at all other than advanced knowledge she had the camera. One time I turned to look at her while sitting next to her and she took my picture. I was temporarily blinded as was my husband who was near me. My aunt just laughed. I told my aunt I wanted that film removed. I was half kidding, half wishing those pictures and never been taken. She said we had to allow her to take all these pictures because her birthday is next month. Well dear aunt, my birthday is 2 months from now, does that mean I can come to your house and take pictures of you every other second??

My father decided to show my aunt his entire hat collection. Mostly baselball, football and every other sport type hat. He has enough to open up his own hat store. When he showed them to her, he showed them only 3-4 at a time. Going at that rate it took awhile before she saw all of them. I turned to my aunt's husband and said "I was lucky..growing up I only had to see a couple at a time..not all of them all at once."

My aunt didn't forget the charades plans she made. It was decided to do boys against the girls. Then it was decided to just go individually and one person would write down a phrase, give it to someone and they act it out, then they write another one to give to someone else. Without realizing it I wrote down movie titles each time it was my turn to write something. My mother won. I'm not sure how, she was in and out of the room every other minute. During one time of going out of the room she came back with another game that was LIKE Charades. We played that for an hour or two. It was fun..for awhile. When you're playing with people twice your age and they use hints that came from THEIR generation you're in trouble. The teams we played were couples. Surprisingly enough though my husband and I won.

During the entire time we played my aunt's husband maybe tried to guess ONCE. He just sat there and watched and would give hints, but didn't really make any guesses.

I was SO bored and I had been sitting on the floor and my legs were cramping up. I got on the computer and just a few minutes afterwards my father insisted on showing my aunt his screen saver. Basically it's baseball pictures looping. I got off and went into another room to watch tv. I wound up dozing off here and there. My mother and husband kept telling me my aunt and her husband were getting ready to leave. Each time I was told, some time would pass and they would still be there. Finally at sometime after 10pm my aunt came into the den and hugged me and said she wanted to see me again soon. Afterwards they left and my father ran me out of the den. I was SO tired, I thought I was going to fall asleep on the walk to the car.

My husband and I got home and it took me only a few minutes and fell asleep. I woke up a little while later and was wide awake and up the rest of the night. I then fell asleep again at about 6 something and got up about 8 something.

Now..I don't hate my aunt..I do like her...I just got annoyed with her a few times. Mostly with the never ending pictures. I hate having my picture taken sometimes and I made no secret that I didn't want my picture taken but that just made her more determined. Why is it those people who don't want their picture taken much are the ones people go after the most??

So how would I summarize the visit with my aunt in one sentence?? It didn't go as expected in more ways than one.