...and for the last time too, I say! The case of the vandalism chez mes grandparents has gone from strange to majorly wrong. Just plain wrong.
I now understand why my grandmother didn't take my suggestion to call the police; an obvious plan of attack after any break-in.
Well "the vandalism" was that the pillows weren't fluffed in the living room, someone had sat on one of the beds upstairs with the curtains shut (her love nest accusation) and left a throw pillow on the floor, a shower was taken in the bathroom built in 1955 in their haunted basement, and bottles of fairly inexpensive wine was missing.
In that case, I don't deserve a wedding. C'est logique.
On the phone with my grandmother, she said that Séb and I would be in the "clear", if someone came forward. Once again, Séb and I who live in Europe.
Well what she failed to tell me was that someone did "come forward" before we even spoke on the phone. To be honest, I was actually concerned. How stupid was I? I thought someone had ransacked her house. So much that I called Kitty's husband, a police officer, to see if any reports in the area had come in. It wasn't until my brother told me that by the time I had spoken to her, he already admitted to staying there and apologized for not putting things back the way they were. He doesn't drink so the few bottles of wine missing are a mystery...
My brother has since been labelled a co-conspirator and is trying to cover up for his sister. One, that's a joke. Anyone who knows my brother knows very well that he wouldn't come forward for something he had nothing to do with. And two, covering up what?! Co-conspirator to what?! The case of the unfluffed pillow in the sun room?! As for the wine, I bought my own wine this summer. I have the receipts to prove it. As some of you know, it was a boxed wine/Barefoot Chardonnay/Skinny Girl cocktails kind of summer for us. We also loved our early evening summer ritual of walking down to a family run wine shop, to chat with the owners and their daughter Diana (one of my blog readers!).
The only way I'll be allowed back into my family is if Séb and I either fake confess to staying at their house and profusely apologize like a bunch of buffoons or we fly back to New York to take a lie detector test to prove we weren't hanging out in their house. Fly back, stand-by of course.
I've always been the black sheep in the family who wanted to explore, live life off the beaten path (on my own dime!) and have been repeatedly put down and any accomplishment went gravely ignored. MF and Lucien actually noticed this on their own. Unfortunately, I've grown used to this and have taken a stance of indifference. It's now that I have outside person looking at this insanity, I can now see that this has gone too far. If they didn't want to plan our wedding, telling us instead of creating a fake vendetta against us would have been a lot easier. For everyone.
I do think getting married is important and is the next phase in one's life, but I never fell for the "this is the most important time of your life" nonsense that was being forced down my throat for everyone else's weddings in the past. But saying that, I wouldn't wish this engagement on anyone. It's cruel.
Once again, another milestone in my life is being gravely ignored by a family I had tried my entire life to please. Can't say I'm terribly surprised but Séb, the poor thing, he is just horrified. He simply doesn't understand this insanity.
I thank you all for your emails, comments and suggestions on how to make our wedding that will now be in Paris (!!!) a moment to remember! Thank you! You all have been so supportive and helpful during this weird moment.
