Do You Educate Your Family When...
How do you tell your family they have their TVs and TSs mixed up?
I got to spend Father's Day with Dad et al. On the drive home I decided to swing by my uncle's in Richmond to visit with him and family there. It was a superbonus visit in that I got to see aunt and uncle, both cousins and their spouses, and one of the offspring.
I dropped in as they were talking about summer trips of days gone by. Somehow they got on the topic of a trip to NYC a couple of years ago. The trip didn't go well:
- their car had issues on the Jersey Turnpike
- they arrived at their hotel in the pouring rain
- the hotel was heavily booked
- the hotel had a huge group of foreign squatters who wouldn't leave because their flights back to their home countries were all fouled up
Sounds like your typical road trip to NYC to me. But wait, there's more.
The hotel was heavily booked because of -- according to my cousin's wife -- a convention of transvestites. She begins describing the sight of the whole thing. While everyone else in the room is tittering and snickering, I'm quietly waiting for the punchline because this still sounds like your typical road trip to NYC to me.
Then came tales of the whole mindgame of playing "is she a he or a she" in the elevator, lobby, restaurant, in line with the concierge, in the rotating front door, etc., because, ya know, you can't tell which ones have been changed.
O.o "Which ones have been changed?" The story drags on (sorry), but this is where I realize they don't know the difference between transvestite and transgendered. And I want to waive my arm and say "whoa, time out", but they're all laughing, particularly when the 17 year old boy recites his run-in at the ballroom door with one of the convention guests. And I think "is it going to make any difference this afternoon to fix this bit of confusion; to footnote the memories in their head in order to learn the difference between TV and TS; to play killjoy for my Presbyterian relatives at a time they're enjoying a good laugh and need one?"
They laugh and giggle, I only smile, and they segue to other tales. Another time, perhaps.
Then again, if I email them disambiguated links to Wikipedia...
I got to spend Father's Day with Dad et al. On the drive home I decided to swing by my uncle's in Richmond to visit with him and family there. It was a superbonus visit in that I got to see aunt and uncle, both cousins and their spouses, and one of the offspring.
I dropped in as they were talking about summer trips of days gone by. Somehow they got on the topic of a trip to NYC a couple of years ago. The trip didn't go well:
- their car had issues on the Jersey Turnpike
- they arrived at their hotel in the pouring rain
- the hotel was heavily booked
- the hotel had a huge group of foreign squatters who wouldn't leave because their flights back to their home countries were all fouled up
Sounds like your typical road trip to NYC to me. But wait, there's more.
The hotel was heavily booked because of -- according to my cousin's wife -- a convention of transvestites. She begins describing the sight of the whole thing. While everyone else in the room is tittering and snickering, I'm quietly waiting for the punchline because this still sounds like your typical road trip to NYC to me.
Then came tales of the whole mindgame of playing "is she a he or a she" in the elevator, lobby, restaurant, in line with the concierge, in the rotating front door, etc., because, ya know, you can't tell which ones have been changed.
O.o "Which ones have been changed?" The story drags on (sorry), but this is where I realize they don't know the difference between transvestite and transgendered. And I want to waive my arm and say "whoa, time out", but they're all laughing, particularly when the 17 year old boy recites his run-in at the ballroom door with one of the convention guests. And I think "is it going to make any difference this afternoon to fix this bit of confusion; to footnote the memories in their head in order to learn the difference between TV and TS; to play killjoy for my Presbyterian relatives at a time they're enjoying a good laugh and need one?"
They laugh and giggle, I only smile, and they segue to other tales. Another time, perhaps.
Then again, if I email them disambiguated links to Wikipedia...