Aren’t you excited? I knew you would be. I am back, peeps! Back at work, back in the real world, back to opening the window at 4am to let the cats in, back to feeling anxious in my office. I really intended to do some blogging while we were gone, but OH MY GOD THE DISTRACTIONS.

First, the Good:

Brian had probably the most fun he’s had in, oh, forever. He chilled out, slept in, grew a beard and drank some beer. He made jokes, he laughed, he grocery-shopped and he told stories about his dad. It was one of the most heartwarming sights I’ve seen in a long time…watching him unwind and de-stress and get back to the person I married. I would give anything to keep it that way, but he goes back to work tomorrow.

I have to say that we truly enjoyed (most) of the time we spent with his family. I know I was a little utterly terrified apprehensive about the sheer volume of people we were going to share a house with, but it was a three-story house with a lot of bedrooms and living spaces and it (mostly) worked out just fine.

Next, the Bad:

My SIL got a stomach bug approximately 45 minutes after we got to the beach house. I didn’t take offense right away, especially when my niece came down with it that night, my MIL’s boyfriend got it and then I fell victim 24 hours later. We went through a lot of Gatorade and Clorox wipes, but then it was all good and we were happy campers once again.

I wouldn’t necessarily call this part bad so much as I would call it THIS IS WHY I’M NEVER HAVING CHILDREN. We took all the kids to the aquarium one day, and on the surface it was an alright outing. There were no screaming fits, no real fistfights, nothing major. But the underlying theme of the entire past week was “I want it and I want it NOW and if you don’t bring it to me/buy it for me/make it appear immediately I will whine and stomp and possibly cry and I don’t care how gray your hair gets because I’M GOING TO GET WHAT I WANT.” At the aquarium, my MIL and Brian and I made a hasty undercover exit at the gift shop because I knew the whining would go up about 37 notches and none of us could take it. I adore my nieces, really I do, but there’s only so much a girl can take.

Finally, the Ugly:

I realized some things about myself on this trip (most of which I’ll discuss at a later date) that I’m not proud of. The first clue was when my 10 year-old niece cocked her head to the side one day and said, “Do you beg Brian a lot?” Oh, yeah, go ahead and laugh; we all did. And it was hilarious up until I started thinking that maybe I do beg a lot, and for what really?

And then I looked around at this family, most of whom are incredibly loving people, and I thought about all the shit that’s gone down between us and all the years I’ve spent talking shit about them and I realized that maybe, just maybe, I’m wrong. Maybe I’m the weird one. Maybe I’m the one who needs an attitude adjustment.

But then I cracked open another Corona, took a big long swig and decided that NOPE, I’m never wrong, and I”m not going to start being wrong now.