[chastmastr]

Wow. Well, on the one hand, our love of Disney has definitely been reawakened (after the awful trip a while back), on the other hand, it's because of all the cool stuff we tried in vain to get our guests (well, the mother, anyway; the daughter was very nice and cool) to enjoy. (The mother... was a neurotic mess. Long story. Wasn't just Disney either. OMG we're glad to have the house to ourselves again...)

More later...

David

[DisneyTeacher]

I can't wait to hear more!!

[disneylovers5]

suspense is not good for us

[chastmastr]

LOL! Well, as Cubby said just now, he thinks we were starting to take Disney for granted. You know how there are those threads periodically about people who just, incomprehensibly, don't seem to "get" Disney? Combine that with being a very ungracious guest (the daughter, again, was a very nice, sweet, cool, intelligent person -- heck, she helped a great deal in the peacemaking process when The Big Meltdown At MK occurred) to the point where one considers (as the host) unilaterally ending the visit. Yes! That bad!! But we could not do that to the daughter, and I think we handled it well.

The Settings
Our house in St. Pete, newly made neat and clean by our hired handyman
Local Beaches
Magic Kingdom
Animal Kingdom

The Cast
Me
Cubby
The Mother
The Daughter

More to come...

[dixie]

OH David- the suspense is killing me- tell tell tell....please!!

[smee57]

You sure know how to pique curiosity!
Get on with the report . . .

[chastmastr]

(Me, this morning: "I hope I'm not being unforgiving..."
Cubby: "It's not inappropriate to say that her behavior was that of a six-year-old child, because it was. She was tired and hungry, and thought that throwing a temper tantrum would get her needs met...")

After our handyman spent a lot of last week getting our place in shape (apart from ten million boxes hidden in the spare room, now being gradually gone through; more pics to follow on the Our House thread in Chit Chat), right up to the wire of when we had to leave on Thursday to pick them up from the airport, we got them just after their plane arrived, around 10 PM.

We ate at Steak'n'Shake. We then (since they'd never been to Florida and even late at night the daughter was eager to see the beach) drove around a bit (lights on the water of the bay, beautiful) and dropped by St. Pete Beach. The daughter, at least, seemed to like it very much. The mother apparently wasn't pleased, I only later (today) found, with "driving around for hours in the middle of the night." Whoopsie! But at the time things seemed to be going all right...

[tiggerlover1971]

Oh my cant wait to hear more of the rude houseguest lol ...

[quakercub]

anyway, we went to bed and the next morning (Friday) we slept in a bit since everyone was tired. The mother was outside on the patio having a cigarette and enjoying the outside. We had a good morning everybody doing their version of waking up (coffee. tea, etc.). It took us some time to get out of the house, which annoyed the mother a good bit. We took them to a lovely boardwalk at Madeiro Beach where they shopped and had a good time. We ate, but I can't remember what. In any case, the next day was Saturday and it poured, so we went to The Pier and looked at the Aquarium and some shops. Everybody was tired so we went home and got some Chinese take-out. We planned to get up early the next day so that the mother and I could go to quaker meeting. Daddybear unfortunately had a bad reaction digestively to some of the Chinese and was unwell for much of the night. The upshot was that we were exhausted and did not hear the alarm when it went off. We overslept big time.

The mother was quite angry. She had mentioned that waiting around was taking away a lot of time from sightseeing and that she didn't like that. This particular morning, she expressed her displeasure thusly, "I'm not comfortable with how much of my daughter's and my vacation is being taken up by waiting for other people." She railed for a few minutes and we expressed our apologies. When Daddybear suggested that we all forgive each other and move on, she replied that she was not ready to do that yet and she'd let us know when she was. More to come, but dinner calls

[quakercub]

(ChastMastr posting while Cubby takes his shot, now that I'm home from Wendy's with food: One thing Cubby didn't mention is how hurtful the whole "my daughter's and my vacation" nonsense was, given that the mother and Cubby were supposedly old friends who hadn't seen each other in fifteen years or more. And when she started in on the whole not-ready-to-forgive thing... after being reprimanded by a near-stranger in my own house... before I'd even had my coffee yet... Well, as Dr. David Banner said in the old Hulk TV show (yes, yes, I know, he's Bruce in the comics, and who knows what in the new movie, but he was David in the TV show), "Mr. McGee, don't make me angry. You wouldn't like me when I'm angry..." I started to have my own outraged meltdown and very quickly went into the house before I exploded.

That explosion would come later, the next night, at the Magic Kingdom, after the last straw...*)

David
* Foreshadowing: Your key to quality literature!

[Dopey]

Ummmm, I did understand that correctly, did I not, those two were your guests, were they not?
Wow Mother sure does have a bad temper/attitude. How terrible for you. Wow.
I cannot wait to hear all of what went on

[quakercub]

(ChastMastr posting again, after dinner from Wendy's: Yep, these were our guests. Though God bless her, the daughter spoke up when her mother said "[Daughter] feels the same way I do" ("Um, I never said that..."). Fifteen-year-old girl and vastly more mature than her almost-58-year-old mother.

One thing to keep in mind is that both Cubby and I come from rather rough familial backgrounds, with poor upbringings, and unfortunately this means that many of our old friends/acquaintances from before we each started "getting better" have been... well, kind of messed-up people themselves. In some cases (there are numerous other types), looking at us as basically charity cases to try to help somehow, or take under their wings. Unfortunately, this means that when we did get better, some (or even many) people we used to know didn't take well to our growing up, becoming assertive, growing a backbone, etc. This applies to those 2 friends in Tampa we mentioned on another thread whom we finally realized about a month ago [after not seeing them since last August! Well, they had what sounded like good excuses for a long time... and while it's sad, I'm still glad we kept trying to believe in our friends as long as we did] had "dropped" us, and most likely, at least in part, because we wouldn't run our lives to their satisfaction. I think that the visiting mother was used to Cubby being... well, more vulnerable and possibly more manipulable than he is now. Not sure. Thoughts, Cubby?)

[mickeysgirlz]

"Guests, like fish, begin to stink after 3 days" - B. Franklin

For you it was DAY 1! Yikes . . . so even though you were "Ruining her vacation" you were providing her with FREE room and board, free transportation and I'm sure FREE food . . . unless of course she was treating it all?

Manners . . . some people have NONE!!!

[chastmastr]

I'm back as me! Free room and board and free transportation, yes -- we were somewhat going to split some food costs, at least eating out, which could explain her weird fascination (see future posts) with eating leftovers, including the Chinese delivery crap that I was up throwing up at 4 am after eating (and then got reprimanded* the following morning for oversleeping, as the Gentle Reader may recall) ahem, where was I?

David
* in my own house!!** This still blows me away!!
** Well, all right, technically it was the patio outdoors, but the principle is the same

[Dopey]

ok, on with the story. I am fascinated by people like that. More please