Twinkle: Bunco Ya-Ya

Alright, so bunco wasn't as horrible as expected (of course). There were actual alcoholic beverages there, which I sampled a tiny bit of at the very beginning, since Chamberlain Lane is a 45-freakin'-minute drive from civilization. So that was better than expected. The food was OK and, all things being said, with the obvious exception of my mother-in-law (who just wants to control everything), Mr. Twinkle's family is really very sweet to me.

I do have a few observations about my mother-in-law's odd behavior. Rewind to around two years ago, when Mr. Twinkle and I announced the impending arrival of Twinklette, thinking it would be a joyous occasion, and my MIL's initial reaction was, "Holy crap, where are we going to put a crib in our condo?" It sort of took the wind out of our sails a little, and I rather took it personally. Well, apparently I was wrong to do so because she pretty much has the same attitude toward her own daughter's path to motherhood.

Everyone there was congratulating my MIL and saying how exciting it was, asking about due dates and all the normal questions, and MIL just shrugged her shoulders as if to say, "Well, they didn't consult me on this, but I guess there's no going back now." Meanwhile, GMIL (grandmother-in-law) was going on and on, once again, about how worried she is because my sister-in-law can't do it alone. It's as if MIL (and GMIL to a certain extent...although she is sweeter in general) think that they are the only competent mothers in the world, and no one else will know what to do when confronted with an infant, and woe to any infant who doesn't have either of them for a mother.

And I have to say, for all the up-front b*tchiness on the matter, MIL is certainly obsessed with Twinklette. But we all know that Twinklette is only as wonderful, kind, caring, and smart as she is because of MIL's influence. Left only up to me, she'd probably be an insufferable smocking-clad snob. Thank heaven for the village!

Another experience I had was with a very nice, funny, seemingly normal girl (the only other one there, really), a friend of Mr. Twinkle's cousin. I liked this girl right off because of her dry wit and her unashamed consumption of peach margaritas (I only had one, but far be it from me to deny anyone else...especially since she walked there). Anyway, upon talking to her more, it became apparent that she was clad from head to toe in grandma jewelry--the kind where your grandchildren (or children) are represented as stick figures on a pendant, or their birthstones are part of a bracelet, or, in her case, both. And the jewelry wasn't tacky-looking, and I guess one piece of it can be OK as long as it's not plain ugly, but I cannot imagine why a girl our age would wear more than one piece of this sort of jewelry at a time. Aren't the stick figures enough? Did she have to include the birthstones, too? I find the whole thing mind-boggling.

The game of bunco was just boring. There was no strategy, it was just rolling dice. I like playing cards, specifically games that can have a variety of outcomes based on the other players' cards and their strategies. Bunco was just rolling, rolling, rolling. My luck was terrible but at least I couldn't blame myself for losing.