Being home with my mom and step-dad, it reminds me of how much I don't want to be like my mom.  At least personality-wise.  She can be pretty fake, at times.  She likes to give and take.  It's difficult, sometimes, to live with it....but it is who and what she is.  I don't know her any other way.

When she was dating my step-dad, she went on hikes with him in the mountains, took long walks, did a lot of outdoor activities with him.  Once they got married, she developed a less than desirable dislike for the very things that she did while dating him.  I wonder if she knows that that can be cause for legal annulment...misrepresenting yourself.  I know that she's got problems with her feet...but she's had those problems for years and years.  She had them while dating him.  She just didn't complain, and she always participated in their dates wholeheartedly.

Something silly that still goes on, is that she got a new SUV a few years ago.  She put a downpayment on it, approximately half of the price, and now he is making two payments per month on it until it's paid off.  Unfortunately, although he's paying half of the car's total, she rarely allows him to drive it.  He mentioned once that it's like asking your controling parent to borrow the car and getting the run around.

In spite of all of that, my step-dad seems to genuinely love her, and for that, I'm glad.  She needs someone in her life to complain to, laugh with, and experience the twilight years of her life with.  I just know that I hope I don't get like that with my husband.  Here's to the future!