Politics Over Dinner

After getting home from all the fun last night, my Mom made some popcorn and then I took a shower.  I stayed up doing a bit of writing and then went to sleep. 
I actually did alright last night sleeping-wise.  It still took me awhile to sleep, but I don't think I woke up as fully as I usually do some nights. 
When I got up this morning, I could tell there was some kind of tension.  My Mom was clearly stressed out about something.  She swore at her computer.  She left soon after that. 
One of the neighbors called.  We did them a good deed in July, and they wanted to know if they could take us out to dinner.  We've kept telling them that, really, no big deal, but they insist. 
Us going to dinner depended on my Grandma, who is still in the hospital.  My Mom called to say that they gave her some drug to make her sleep (she hasn't been sleeping either, only she'll go days without sleeping, even though she is too tired to eat most of the time.)  My Mom said she was hoping she would stay in bed without incident, and that if so, we would go. 
My Dad went out for some errands, and I decided to use this time to get myself some food.  My Dad has this tendency to be in the kitchen whenever I am, and if he's not outright telling me what to eat, he's staring at me.  It's annoying and creepy. 
The problem with getting up with my computer is that it is so cold in our house I really don't want to get up.  I'll be in two layers of pajamas and with two blankets on and still be cold.  I really don't want to give up my blankets just to get food (even though I had been up for hours and hadn't had anything to eat.)
My sister and I complain about there not being enough food in the house.  This is sort of true.  There are lots of little snack things or things you could use to make a meal, if you had the other ingredients.  It's one of the many things I hate about it here.
But today I was excited because someone got rice cakes, which I really love and haven't had in ages.  They're delicious, though simple. 
After my meal, I sat down again and did some more writing and reading.  I put on some music and tried to sing.  I'm not much of a singer.  Then my sister came down.  I felt bad because I probably woke her up.  I didn't mean to, but I didn't think she was in the house. 
Madison sent me a message saying her uncle died last night.  I feel badly for her.  It seems like a lot of people, her family included, have seen a lot of unexpected deaths lately. 
Ashley is having a party tomorrow for New Year's, so I texted her asking if I could bring a date.  I had a certain someone in mind, but I wasn't sure if he'd be interested anyway, since he already told me he made plans. 
I didn't have to wait long for a reply from Ashley- it was almost instantaneous.  She said sure and asked who the lucky guy was. 
Er.  If he came I guess he was lucky. 
I made the call.  I got his voicemail, which didn't surprise me, since he usually didn't keep his phone around him all the time.  I left him a message. 
I have a love/hate relationship with leaving messages.  On one hand, it's nice sometimes to just do that, but I'm always so afraid of making a fool of myself on these messages and saying the wrong thing or just generally sounding stupid.  No one has ever mentioned that I sound funny on these messages, but it would be just my luck that one day I do mess up and then someone has another bit of proof that I'm an idiot.
I sat down and worked on my writing.  I had a bunch of editing to do on a piece I wrote last week.  It's a short piece, but it clearly needs a lot of work.  I worked on it for a while.
My Mom called and asked me to look up a phone number for her, which I did.  Then she asks me to tell my Dad (whenever he gets home) to talk to her about this dinner we may or may not be going to.  She said we would probably go.  My Mom thinks that they are watching their budget since they offered pizza.  I suspect she may be right too. 
I was not really excited to go.  Inevitably, there will be questions about what I am doing with my life.  When I explain what I'm interested in, it'll be tough because they are from a very different set of political views.  When I found out, I was vaguely disappointed with them.  I was hoping to avoid certain specific questions. 
It was actually not too bad.  When we got there, they gave me hugs.  We had salad and pizza.  My Mom was late, as usual, coming from the hospital. 
We had a mostly nice conversation.  Gary is working a lot, which surprised my parents because they thought he would be out of a job.  Rose has a sister who is really sick and in a nursing home, though not the same nursing home where her mom is. 
They updated us on their family.  Shannon just got married.  Kelly is dating someone named Chris.  Derek is working at a pizza place nearby.  There was some stories about how we wanted to die.  We didn't really have as much to update them on. 
I mean, I guess I could tell them about what I was up to, since so many people don't have beyond a high school education when it comes to my field, most people don't really have the background to understand what I'm doing with my life.  And it's been my experience people aren't always that interested. 
Which was fine, but then my Mom had to open her mouth and tell them what I was doing.  There was a quiet moment of disapproval, but it was brief.  I'm a little ticked at my Mom because everything was going so well, and it was so unnecessary for her to open her mouth.  My Mom just can't seem to help herself.  This is why I am always so hesitant to tell her things because I absolutely hate that my life gets thrown out there like that, especially when I try to get along with people. 
I guess that other thing that I really hate about this was the tone my Mom used.  I get it; she disapproves of my political beliefs.  Fine.  I'm happy to quietly roll my eyes and not fight.  She's always picking fights with me about it, and mocking it to her friends.  I particularly hate that.