— छह हज़ार सत्तर —
Well, the Biannual Family Vacation that had been long planned for August 27-29 has straight up imploded. A lot of the drama has unfolded in comment sections of posts to the Family Vacation Group on Facebook, for me serving more than anything to underscore how right my decision was to leave Facebook—and I only returned occasionally to get needed updates on the status of this trip.
Still, I think I shall construct a timeline for posterity.
August 22, 2025: Gina posted to the group that we should all mark our calendars for August 27 and 28 at the Tradewinds On The Bay, the same hotel we all stayed at in 2024, which had been our third Family Vacation trip after the first two, in 2020 and 2022, had been at a large house shared by the family in Leavenworth. I felt that booking separate rooms at this two-story hotel on the coast was much more successful, and really looked forward to doing it again this year. Gina has always been the coordinator of these trips, to some degree with the help of Brandi (Angel's eldest), and typically Gina made the reservations and people send her the money for their rooms. This year was expected to be $330 for two nights; I have had the days blocked for for PTO at work for months.
Brandi made a note on the same day of that post that it may conflict with volleyball tryouts for Jaycee. I don't know if we all might have been able to do earlier in August otherwise, but Shobhit and I were away on our trip to Europe July 25 through August 11. If we try this again for next year, for instance, I suspect aiming for either earlier in August or sometime in September (which it was the first two times; I think Gina and Beth could not do September this year because of a conflict with another trip of their own) might make it easier for everyone to be able to go. Late August is just too close to when school starts. In short, there probably was a lot of elements conspiring to preventing the trip from working this year.
April 4, 2026: Gina posted to the group to ask for a room count. At that point, at least 7 rooms were confirmed and accounted for.
May 16, 2026: Gina posted again, noting that scheduling conflicts with the dates were turning out to prevent more than half the family from being able to make it this year, and should we cancel or still go ahead with those of us who could go. At that point, Beth (Gina's wife) chimed in with a vote to reschedule, but Brandi confirmed they would still go; as did Nikki and Angel. But, Jackie noted that they found out Georgia's (one of Gina's granddaughters) first day of kindergarten would be August 24 so now they would not make it. I chimed in that if anyone was still going then Shobhit and I would too.
May 25, 2026: Sherri chimed in on that same thread that she and Dad were "going to the Tradewinds as planned." With Dad and Sherri still confirmed, to me that really sealed the deal, regardless of how few others would make it this year. My rationale was that it was still well worth it to me if at least Dad and Sherri, and Angel and Gina (my two sisters) were there.
July 20, 2026: Nikki posted to that same thread that their "August is pretty jam packed" and so they would also be sitting it out after all. I actually did not see this particular comment at the time.
July 20, 2026: Gina starts another new post: "Time for an update!" She listed all the rooms she understood still to be blocked, and the count at first was eight. Nikki replied here that they would not make it, and this comment I did see; I replied that I thought they were one of the ones still making it, and she actually explained here that they were invited to go on a camping trip to Glacier National Park, which apparently TJ had been begging to go to for years, so they prioritized that instead. I'm bummed but I get it.
July 21, 2026: Gina shares a new post with the room count at 7.
July 31, 2026 is when I think things took the first big turn: Sherri posted to the group that "as much as we hate doing this," they can't come to the family get-together after all. Dad has been experiencing severe back pain for months, and he now has a surgery scheduled for August 20th. He could have had the surgery as early as August 10 if there was a cancellation (this clearly did not happen) but either way there was no way he would be recovered enough to go on a trip to the coast by August 27. And nothing could be more obvious than the fact that his back pain should be prioritized over the Family Vacation this year. The surgery is to repair two discs in his lower back. (Angel posts a comment here that she still wants to go, and "I have a feeling that papa is going to be better fast," which is a little naive but whatever.)
August 7, 2026: Gina texts me directly while Shobhit and I are in Amsterdam, noting first that it
Looks like you guys are having an amazing trip! but then asking,
Are you still going to the family thing? Since so many people have dropped off, I assume you'll want to save you[rself] leave time and money!
This wording clearly indicates Gina is starting her own distancing from going, and perhaps looking for validation for calling the trip a bust. I assured her that I had no need to save "leave time" (PTO), in fact quite the opposite: I refuse to waste the massive amount I get every year but cannot cash out or roll over, so I need to use it. She followed up with:
Angel and I are sharing a room. Wendy is going. Brandi and two of her kids. That's it. ... Ricky told Angel he would go but I seriously doubt it.
I immediately responded that I absolutely still planned to go. But, these texts obviously opened up new questions: Why the hell was Beth now not going?? I was initially afraid there was some relationship trouble there or something, but Gina said they have a foundation golf tournament that weekend and Beth is covering for her as the event coordinator. And when I naturally noted that last I checked, Dad and Sherri were going, so why wouldn't they be going now?? Gina replied:
Your dad is having back surgery!
Whaaat? This was the first I heard that news—because, even though it was a solid week after Sherri posted the news to the Facebook group, as already noted I rarely go to Facebook anymore, plus I was wildly busy with all the stuff we were doing on our trip.
I got the sense that Gina assumed I already knew this, but I did not. I was like:
Holy shit. I need to call him when I get home. And right after that, Gina hit me with this:
Mom fell and broke her wrist, gave herself a black eye.
Jesus Christ!
She texted me a photo of what looked like a selfie Sherri had taken, of her black eye, her head on a pillow looking up at the camera. I wrote: OH MY GOD. She also texted a photo of her broken wrist getting wrapped by a doctor, her face contorted in pain. I did not need to see that. It was like looking at stills from a snuff film about one of my parents. Gina confirmed she took the photo; Dad could not drive to Gina took her to the doctor.
I noted that I texted Dad on his birthday, apologizing for not getting a card to him on time; his birthday is August 5 and we left for Amsterdam July 25, when I wasn't thinking about his birthday at all. I found a card in Amsterdam and mailed it, but it could take like two weeks just because it's international mail. Anyway I told Gina Dad thanked me but said nothing about any of this. Apparently Sherri had a neighbor take her to the ER because:
they didn't want to BOTHER us! I told her they needed to get over that. This is exactly why they didn't say anything to you about the back surgery.
August 12, 2026: Gina texted me directly again, letting me know Brandi was out now too.
I'm calling it a bust. Call the hotel directly if you still want to reserve a room. So disappointed.
This was kind of where things got worse with the entire extended family, because Angel came into the mix of the conversation. I asked Gina why not still go with Angel, and Gina replied,
I have a giant fundrasier on the Saturday so I was going to leave early anyway. I'm kinda over it. Saturday was when we'd all be going home anyway so again: whatever.
My contention as of that point was that if Angel was still going, then I would go too. I asked if I should just follow up with her; Gina said,
Yeah, hit her up. When I texted Angel she clearly was unaware of this latest development. She told me she still planned on going, though.
That was at 8:30 p.m. on Wednesday (August 12). By about a quarter after 10:00, she followed up with this text:
Well my reply on the group went over well. Lol. She wrote more than I would share all of, except she said her daughters were mean and rude.
My heart kind of sank at this point, the first true feeling that maybe the trip really wouldn't happen at all. I needed to go find what Angel wrote to the group that clearly amounted to kicking a hornet's nest. She and her daughters have a long history of communicating badly and getting easily triggered by each other, which is precisely what happened here.
I read Angel's reply, to a post by Gina on August 12 that amounted to the same thing she texted to me about calling the plan a bust and that she was out. I honestly think Angel's intentions were relatively innocent, she was just expressing frustration, but she kind of stuffed her foot in her own mouth when part of her reply read,
The only people who have a good reason not to be going is mom and papa and the families who have kids starting school. Everyone else is just being lame.
She ended with
Just my rant. I will get over it but cmon! But, this elicted a cascade of predictably defensive responses, mostly from her daughters (Brandi and Britni), but resulted in others chiming in, in some cases by people for whom this was none of their business—except, of course, that now a bunch of family drama was being aired out to all of us, which arguably made it everyone's business.
Fucking Facebook. It's worth noting that Facebook is
designed to encourage people to do this. Manufacturing rage is the most effective at people engaged and on the platform, where the millions in ad dollars are being spent.
I'll be a bit more vague about this, but it was in this cascade of responses that I learned one person had a scheduling conflict for more than a year, but another is apparently going through a divorce—news I think was new to most of us seeing the comments. Great way to learn about that, huh? In any case, the financial and emotional impact of a divorce is a wholly legitimate reason to bow out of the trip, something I'm not sure Angel understands and which I texted to her later. One of the things Gina texted me was,
I'm really disappointed in the whole situation but I understand life got in the way. By and large that's just the long and short of it.
August 13, 2026: Sherri posted her own comment to this thread, clearly heartbroken by all the family mudslinging going on. She asked anyone willing to call her directly to give her updates on what's going on, rather than ranting on Facebook. This was maybe the most sensible thing posted to the entire thread.
— छह हज़ार सत्तर —
— छह हज़ार सत्तर —
As of yesterday, though, I am finally accepting the apparent fate that the Family Vacation will not happen this year. Too much shit going on with too many people, by and large all of it totally understandable. I tried to make it work with just Angel, but apparently Gina had offered to share the room with her, after which Angel used half of what she had saved for tables for her estate sale business. But with Gina announcing she was out, Angel could no longer afford it either; she stated to me yesterday morning over text that she was also "over it" and not going to go either.
I even tried looking up alternative ideas, somewhere else to stay on the coast, maybe somewhere closer to Olympia—I figured we could stop by Dad and Sherri's for a visit on the way there, share some Belgian chocolates with them. Maybe we'll drive down and see them that weekend regardless. As long as they are up for it—I'll need to ask and make sure—I am really leaning toward doing exactly that on Saturday of that weekend, August 29.
I did come up with a new idea for using that PTO time, though. I had really been wavering on when to go on an overnight Christmastime visit in Vancouver, B.C., like we did for Victoria last December. I had been leaning toward waiting to make a decision until I knew dates for the tour I can only assume Madonna will go on, but whatever. If she doesn't come to Seattle on this tour, I can either go to Vancouver again or see her maybe in Portland; I'm sure I'll have options. I just don't want to have these two days of PTO and do nothing. I really like the Vancouver Christmastime—like, early December—idea and still need to broach it with Alexia. I just feel a lot better having this idea in mind now, so I don't feel like these two days off are wasted. And we're going to Albuquerque in October anyway, having just gotten back from Amsterdam last week, so without the dates having been scheduled for me, there's no great need to take off yet another two days this month.
— छह हज़ार सत्तर —
Okay, so, what else? I did go to a movie last night, though I rode my bike home first with just enough time to make Shobhit and myself some chai for the first time in three weeks—it was one of few things I really missed while we were gone! I then rode my bike back downtown again, to AMC Pacific Place, to see
The End of Oak Street—this being the first movie I had been able to go to in nearly
four weeks.
And? It was fine. I was very entertained by it, but found it narratively a little hollow. I was actually leaning toward giving it a solid B, but once I was writing the review and going through my many complaints, I decided it wad a B-minus at best. A C+ could even be argued, except for how much I was entertained and thrilled despite its flaws. The movie is way too similar to the far superior
Jurassic Park, but whatever. I had a good time. I'll probably really enjoy rewatching it again soon enough, and I am certain Shobhit will have a blast watching it eventually.
I rode my bike back up the hill yet again, spent about an hour writing the review while eating the pasta/soup dish Shobhit had made dinner out of using harvested vetetables from his p-patch, and then,
finally, we got to watch the first of the three episodes of
House of the Dragon was still had to catch up on. This included, I only realized last night, the season finale, which aired last Sunday.
So now I'm finally able to start catching up on episodes of podcast recaps and deep dives as well, particularly by Joanna Robinson and Mallory Ruben on
House of R.
I'll be late to the party but am going to see the new
Spider-Man movie after work today, and plan to go through the same routine: write review, then watch another episode, or maybe both episodes left, of
House of the Dragon.
Tomorrow is Alki Beach Pride, which I clearly will not go to with Laney as planned as she's still recovering from her own back injury. Shobhit and I will still go though, and it will then become the final local Pride event for me to attend this year. I had a double feature planned with Laney on Sunday but I'm not sure what I'll be doing that day now. I'll get it figured out, I always do!
— छह हज़ार सत्तर —
In the meantime, I am now working on updating the tags on the nearly 2,000 photos from the trip to Amsterdam and Brussels. I did a lot of that while I was at work this morning, don't tell anyone. In a perfect world I would also have captions on all the photos, but that's a straight up pipe dream. I only managed to caption all the photos for our first trip to Australia, in 2020, because I had nothing else to do during stay-home orders during the first months of the
covid-19 pandemic.
I do try to add captions to any photos I use for my Daily Lunch Updates, such as this very one you are reading right now. They are often very brief and to the point, but it still counts! You can always click any of the Flickr photos embedded in any of these posts, which will take you to the photo's Flickr page, where you can scroll down and read the caption under the photo.
— छह हज़ार सत्तर —
[posted 12:33pm]
