I am the worst daughter ever - but a great employee

I took yet another three-day weekend (gasp!) and headed to the homeland. My mom taught me how to knit (a new addiction that will add to my growing carpal tunnel? sign me up!). I caught a cold. I saw some friends, including a woman I've known since fifth grade, a woman who somewhere along the way morphed into an 80-year-old church lady. Seriously. I almost choked while trying not to audibly guffaw at some of these gems:

"So, do you sit on the east side of the church now, by the Malloys?"

"No, don't eat all the brownies. I made cake, too."

"Pastor Don asked me to speak in church tomorrow about my experience in our congregation. It's important that I set a good example."

WTF? I wasn't drinking, but I totally wished I was. And I had a hard time not making eye contact with my friend Jess, who admits that she can only take Church Lady in very, very small quantities.

Jess didn't talk a whole lot the entire night. And she left early. Heh.

I don't disparage Church Lady's church tendencies. And god knows I'm all over the multiple baked goods. But, like, I'm an Episcopalian? And, like, we don't take ourselves that seriously?

Anyway.

This weekend, I also made my mom cry. Again. But, too be fair, she made me cry more. She told me - out of the blue - that she was sorry she and my dad hadn't set a good example with the work business.

I cried and told her that I wished I hadn't said anything.

She maintains that every parent wants their kids to have better lives than they had, and it just goes on and on like this, and that the work thing is part of it. She hopes that I learn from their mistakes. She said I was really smart and perceptive.

And then I cried some more. Great. I made my mom feel like crap and I identified a problem to which I have no solutions. Super.

Today, I left work at 2:30 for a doctor's appointment. Then, instead of going back to work, I met my surrogate parents to go look at kitchen cabinets, as Surrogate Dad is going to remodel my kitchen. Talk about information overload - I picked out cabinets, but now I have to select a countertop, backsplash, hardware, dishwasher, microwave and probably a bunch of other stuff that I can't think of right now. Exciting, but a tad overwhelming.

Anyway, I got home a little before 7 and it felt like I had an eternity ahead of me - only 7 p.m.! An entire night to do STUFF! Wow!

And then I realized that was totally lame and a symptom of the whole work bidness. Especially since I plugged in my laptop and spent half an hour responding to e-mails. Because god forbid I give myself permission to have a life.