<- BEGIN WHINY UNAPPRECIATIVE POST THAT NEGLECTS TO MENTION WHAT A VERY NICE XMAS THIS WAS ->
My mom has been staying with us since Christmas Eve — she arrived that afternoon. It has been a good visit, but my patience with her is growing thin.

She annoys the crap out of me.

Quite a while back, she promised my kids a trip to the American Girl Place in New York City. This glitzy store boasts floor after floor of overpriced dolls and accessories galore. You can also get your doll’s hair styled there, or bring her to the hospital for repairs. There is a theater as well as a restaurant where your doll gets to sit in a special chair at the table with you. And is served food. I kid you not.

We went to this fabulous place once before, and my mom bought each of my kids a doll. Carla got an Emily doll, and has enjoyed her immensely. She does take quite good care of Emily. Annie actually got two dolls — the Bitty Twins. These are sold together, and geared toward younger kids, so it seemed a good idea for Annie to get the twins. They are a handful, alright. I mean really, you have twice as many dolls to care for (four shoes to not lose!) and when you try to take them anywhere, both your hands are literally full. Just like real live twins!

Now it’s come to be time to go back there again, only this time mom’s not promising to get them more dolls. Just accessories for the dolls they already have. Sigh – please someone explain to me what the point of all this is?? It’s one thing to go there, for the experience, ONCE. We did that. Can we do something else fun in NYC this time?

I am all for taking my kids to the Big Apple and exposing them to culture, museums, Chinatown, or whatever. There is much good and funky and interesting in NYC. The American Girl Place? NOT SO MUCH.

Mother also wants us to go home with her tomorrow, stay over at her house, then drive into the city on Monday with her to go to the American Girl Place. NO THANKS WE JUST HAD A FIVE DAY VISIT AND YOU WANT ME TO GO AND EXTEND THAT AND STAY AT YOUR HOUSE ARE YOU FUCKING CRAZY?

So yeah. I told her, no thanks, I’d like to make it a day trip. We’ll meet you in NYC. Now we are making plans of how best to do this all, and she’s telling me do this, do that, don’t go this way, go that way. It is making me crazy. She tried to claim it was a long walk “because there are so many people.” Huh? It’s 1.2 miles — okay, that’s a pretty long walk — but unless the streets are absolutely jam packed, I don’t see what the number of people in the city has to do with the length of the walk.

If we get tired, we can always hail a cab. But why not give the walk a try, that’s all I am saying. There’s much to see along the way, including the Empire State Building and the New York Public Library. I would enjoy that. Ugh, but Mother keeps on nattering on about how we shouldn’t try to do that as a walk. It’s one thing to tell me ONCE but um… now, you’ve said, SHUT UP ALREADY. I had to leave the room.

Actually, I had another reason to leave the room, which was that I needed to visit the bathroom. So, okay, that’s fine. I walk away, heading for the stairs and she’s STILL GOING ON AND ON about the walk. To my husband. Who is sitting at the living room computer, looking up stuff on google maps. He says — haltingly– “Um. Pann isn’t in the room anymore, you know?”

To which she replies… “Oh I know… I’m just telling you… She’s like, you know, not with it.”

I hear this from upstairs. I am even more annoyed. The most clueless person that I know just called me “not with it.”

Grr.