Awkward Family Moments

We spent this morning with my father and his new wife (I guess you could call her my "stepmother", but I certainly wouldn't) celebrating our "Christmas" with them. This is always kind of awkward, because, 1) My father is kind of awkward, 2) Our family dynamic is kind of awkward, and, 3) The fact that he has married another woman (let's call her "Joan", because that is her name) is kind of awkward.

For one thing, Joan doesn't sit down with us to eat. She does all the cooking and all the serving of food and SHE DOESN'T SIT DOWN TO EAT. As a matter of fact, she doesn't eat at all. In all the years that I've known her, I've never seen her consume more than a diet coke and a chicken breast.

And then there are the pictures of Joan and my dad up around their house... pictures of them on vacation, pictures of them in front of Bubba Gump Shrimp... and it's all just kind of, weird. Like, it's weird that my dad was once married to my mom, but now he's married to Joan and they are going to Bubba Gump Shrimp and taking pictures by it.

We're eating brunch, and none of us are really talking to each other, and I start hearing the clinking of our forks on our plates. Clink. Clink. Clink. And I start thinking that this is the funniest thing in the world and I almost burst out laughing right then and there, but instead I search for something to make conversation about and I end up asking my niece about her facebook addiction.

And it's really not that bad, really. And I enjoy my dad and my family.

It's just different. That's all.