I am sorry your childhood was like that. It makes me feel less lonely about mine, because I feel like nobody would believe the things that have happened to me.
That's unrealistic for your mom to expect women to date with all of those conditions. If a woman waits until her 30s, have a career, her own home to even start dating, a woman can be an age where it's a bit of a challenge to start a family.
My mom would tell me I was dumb in a more subtle way. She would tell me I was book smart, but I lacked common sense. I probably did do stupid stuff when I was a kid, but I was also a bundle of anxiety who was scared of making her angry all the time. So, my brain probably wasn't full engaged at all times, but that was due to external circumstances and not something from within.
Anyway, I hope you and your fam have a great time. What are you plans for the next few days? How is your foot doing with all of the traveling?
Yeah, what I told my mom about the dating thing is that I disagreed with that because if you wait until you already have a job, a home, etc, you are so used to doing things your own way...it's harder to merge 2 lives that way. She and my dad were both in their 30s when they got married and had kids, and they were both so set in their ways and refused to compromise on how they had done things all their lives. They ended up divorced when I was 6. Mom kept telling me I needed to be in my 30s before I started dating and I needed to have everything done that I wanted to do...if I wanted to travel, I needed to do that before I started dating. And I needed to have my own home, a career. I said I wanted to travel WITH my husband. She said my husband might not be into travel. I said then we wouldn't be compatible. I couldn't imagine being married to someone who didn't share my interests or support them. And she said I was too young to get married when I was in my 20s, and I should be at LEAST 30. I told her there was no magic age at which marriage will suddenly work out. And I reminded her that SHE had been in her 30s and it didn't work out. Oh she was mad at me for that. But I didn't say it in a mean way, just that age is no guarantee of success in marriage. I'm convinced that half their problem was that they were both so set in their ways and wouldn't compromise...that, and they obviously didn't really get to know each other or talk about what they expected from marriage.
I ended up with flashbacks to my childhood yesterday, because my husband kept yelling at me about tiny little things because they weren't HIS way. He asked me to drive because he was feeling drowsy, then got frustrated because I asked things like how to set the GPS, and he got mad at me because we were looking for a McDonalds, and I went to " Points of interest" and then "Restaurants" instead of "choose destination"....he said his way was faster. Then I missed a turn....I had to turn left onto a street and then immediately turn right again, but it was a two-lane street, and you can't change lanes in an intersection, so I didn't have enough time to get into the right lane. So he yelled at me for missing the turn, so I just took the next right, thinking it looked like I might be able to get through via the parking lot, but I couldn't. But it looked like there might be a lane at the back. He's yelling at me "JUST GO THROUGH THERE!"...it was like the drive up thing on a hotel to stop while you are checking in. But I didn't want to go through there, because I wanted to see if I could get through at the back. I finally just told him to stop yelling at me, and was it really THAT big a deal to have to make a loop around the hotel? Then when we got to Rock Springs, the GPS said I still had a mile and a half before I needed to get off the interstate, but he saw a sign that indicated there was a gas station at the exit before, and we needed gas, so he kind of half points at the exit and grunted, which was apparently supposed to mean he wanted me to exit there. But there were 4 exits to this town....I was pretty sure there'd be a gas station somewhere off the exit the GPS gave us. He screams at me "YOU JUST MISSED THE EXIT!" I look at the GPS....I said "I still have almost 2 miles!" He says "But it says THIS way is gas!!" I went to the one on the GPS and sure enough, several gas stations. So I go to one, and it's started to rain really hard and even though the pumps are under cover, it's raining through, but the pump won't take my card because I have a Dutch address. So I have to go in to pay, and we were going to switch drivers at that point, so he was trying to move the seat. I come back to find him sitting in the car....he hasn't started pumping gas. So I ask, which kind we need. I thought maybe he had looked it up. "What do you MEAN, which one!?" I was like "Regular, premium?" "He snaps at me "I think regular is sufficient! Don't YOU?" Then he starts yelling at me about how he can't move the seat back....I'm short. So I ask, well, does the car maybe need to be on to do it? "How should -I- know!?" So I go and move it back no problem, so then I'm thinking maybe he meant that he wanted to move the seatback...I like to sit up pretty straight. He usually leans back more. So I ask him which one he wanted to adjust, and he yells at me like I'm an idiot for asking. "I want to move the fricking seat back!" I said "I know....but which part??" and he snaps at me again that he needs to move the whole seat back, which I had JUST done for him, and he's shouting at me that it won't move, and I said "I just DID it for you! PLEASE stop yelling at me! It's not my fault!!" He just looked at me like I was the biggest moron he'd ever met. I said I didn't know what I did to p*ss him off. He didn't say a word. Just got back in the car and we drove off, him acting like it was all my fault that he didn't know how to work the seat after he snapped at me for everything -I- didn't know how to do. I ended up in tears....I still don't know what the heck I've done wrong. Everything I do seems to be the wrong thing, and everything I don't know frustrates him, and when I do something, like look something up on the GPS, he gets mad at the way I do it. I think if he asks me to drive today, I will tell him only if he lets me do it my way and doesn't yell at me.
We're visiting my cousins today, then we head to the Bighorn Sheep center tomorrow, and Yellowstone the next day. My foot would be fine if it hadn't been for security taking 2 hours in Amsterdam. But that's another story.
So, I just woke up for the day at 4. I kept waking up through out the night, too. I think don't sleep as well in the summer as I do in the winter, anyway. But my husband is coming home later on, so hopefully tonight will be a better night's sleep. 
, but tasty recipe. I only have to cube the chicken before I stir fry it, everything else is measuring things that are already prepared.
