Tuesday, March 22, 2005
BloodbathFamily relationships can sometimes be a real chore to handle. Thanks to rude, unfillial people, the whole family can be thrown into a massive disarray, and the more they stir up, the worst it gets. I have a cousin, Liz from Dad's side, who I've never seen in all my 21 years until very recently, mainly because she has never attended any of our family functions, even Grandma's birthday celebrations. First of all, no one's even sure she's really a cousin, cos her dad (my uncle) remarried a woman who had some children of her own before their marriage. And frankly, I doubt she's of any blood relation to us. Even my grandma doesn't think so. Well I've always known about her existence, but I've never seen her before. Is that strange or what? Well that Liz-woman is getting married this week, on Good Friday to boot. Knowing that all of us are Catholics, and she herself is Christian, she should have had enough bloody cow sense not to book the wedding dinner on that day. But noooo... because she gets a good discount, she goes ahead and does it! Thanks to her, the entire extended family on my Dad's side is squabbling like chickens now. Everyone doesn't want to go, but they all feel compelled to go. My parents are going, but my bro, sisinlaw and I aren't going. I don't even want to go! Why should I go for a wedding of some unknown 'cousin' that I've never seen before, and who's so damn disrespectful, she didn't even put her parents' names on the wedding invitation? My grandmother told me last night that if a couple doesn't put their parents' names on the invitation cards, it's a statement that says "My parents are dead." I'm utterly horrified. Following the chinese culture has always been a sensitive issue, especially for the older generations. And her parents are definitely alive! Well I guess at least her mum is alive. I don't know anything about her real dad. The issue here is that she doesn't even treat her 'dad' (my uncle) as a father. Grandma said that she screams at him, scolds him, and treats him like dirt. So why should she treat us like family? And then throw a huge fuss that my other (real!) cousins and I are not attending her dinner? We're NOT even family. Have we ever played together? Has she ever attended any of our birthday parties when we were kids? Have we ever gone to the zoo, or the birdpark, or the beach together? Sure as hell, NO. Then why should we even bother going to a wedding of a person that we have never spoken to? Especially since it's on Good Friday, and we're supposed to be fasting instead of feasting on a 10-course dinner at Conrad Hotel? She jolly well knows that Good Friday would be a day that's totally inappropriate to be holding a wedding. Even her mum told her that. Can anybody get any stupider than that?So now the uncles, aunties, and my dad and mum have decided that us younger generation people will not be attending the wedding, and only the older generation people will be attending. I say that's fair enough, and 'respectful' enough, considering the fact that she's never in her life attended anything on our side. But now, that woman says that since we're not going for the dinner and she reserved seats for all of us, we still have to give an angpao even if we're not going. Like WHAT THE HELL, we RSVPed that we weren't going -- TWO WEEKS AGO! What is the bloody point of asking us to RSVP if she has already reserved alll the seats for us, assuming that we would go? Like we are such important guests in the first place???? All that being said, the decision has been made that us cousins will not be attending. Not that I would want to in the first place! I have plenty of other things to do on a Good Friday evening than to sit through a wedding dinner that I don't even want to be at. And the worst news is, my brother and sisinlaw will be staying in the same condo estate with that 'cousin' of ours soon. What's wrong with the world?? Is it really that small??
lying among the petals 12:52 PM
