Catch 22

I feel fairly fortunate when it comes to my mother in law. She's a very nice, friendly and helpful person, and she is genuinely a good person. I feel like she respects the sort of person that I am and doesn't think that I am not good enough for her son or anything gross like that.

However, my husband and his mother are fairly close. He is the only child in his family who lives somewhat close to her, so they had a habit of getting together weekly for dinner. I have been accompanying him on these dinners, both in our house and at restaurants, and honestly, they're a bit tedious. I can make conversation with her, but getting together once a week is a bit much. I'm not used to so much contact with parents; I usually contact mine every three weeks or month or so. We've been fairly busy since the beginning of the year with moving into our house, wedding plans, getting back to work this fall, and everything else that has been going on, so we've cut down our dinners to once every other week. And yet, it still feels somewhat like a chore. There is always a point in the meal where he and I finish eating before she does, and I mentally check out of the dinner, thinking "..." until it's time to leave. I guess I feel like I've had my fill or something, but this time in the dinner seems to take the longest.

Also, the aforementioned mother in law has taste that's a bit on the tacky side. She gave me a couple of frames for my birthday, and normally I love frames, but I prefer classy, understated frames that don't overshadow my pictures. These are big, gaudy frames and I don't know what I'll put in them or where I want to put them in the house. I found out just the other night that she is making my husband and me a frame for one of our wedding pictures, and I'm a little nervous about what it is going to look like, picturing a huge monstrosity with shell pieces and pieces of ribbon attached.