Today is the day we’re making our big meal and hanging out with my dad, step-mother, and brother, and then watching the Iron Bowl. It should be a pretty nice day.

As you can see by what I had to amend above, my step-mother did not show up after all. I discovered this when my dad and brother pulled up in front of our house with just the two of them in the car. I’m not totally shocked. I only ever gave her 50-50 odds on coming in the first place. She didn’t come to my wedding, see (but in that case she did use the online RSVP form to warn me), or to Christmas when I hosted here a few years ago. She doesn’t like to leave town, or the house, much.

My dad says it’s because she’s very introverted, but (and I say this as someone who is ALLL the way over at the I end of the I – E spectrum) it’s obviously something more than that.

We are not close and haven’t ever been, although we do get along fine — the only reason we don’t really know each other that well is that she and my dad met my senior year in college, right before I moved to Oregon, so I’ve never lived in a house with her and have only spent brief time with her around the holidays. But not on any holidays I’ve hosted, AHEM, because she won’t come to those. Fine. I’m not broken hearted about it, but I am somewhat…insulted.

One more thing and then I’ll finish complaining about this: my invitation went out to everyone. My dad and brother both talked to me about planning, both of them generally using the term “we,” and never specifically mentioned my stepmother by name. They also did not mention that she wasn’t coming. She didn’t mention it either, obviously, since she didn’t ever reply to my invitation or contact me via any other means. So, basically, if she is completely ignoring my communiqués and not even doing me the courtesy of a regretful decline, how long am I obligated to keep inviting her to things? Because I am about done.