In late summer of 2019, SO and I were planning a nice week-long beach vacation.  We planned to fly out on Saturday and return the following Saturday.  Earlier in the year, my sister let me know her family (BIL and niece + nephew) would be passing through our area and wanted to visit for a few days.  I spoke to SO about it and we agreed.  Their dates were close to our departure but as they would be leaving Wednesday morning we thought it would work out fine.

Of course, we didn’t anticipate Bratty wanting to crash the party.  Her new job started the following week in the Bay Area and she wanted to pack up her things the week before, pick up the car, and drive north.  She wanted to stay the whole week because she would need ‘a lot of time’ to pack up her stuff (um, she had one room and all that stuff was not fitting in her car anyway – so she really only needed a couple of days at most).

I told SO no way for the whole week as there would be nowhere for Bratty to sleep with my sister’s family visiting.  Also my brother-in-law can be a little cuckoo and he would likely explode around Bratty’s drama.  We told Bratty she could visit from Wednesday through Saturday (after my sister left and before our vacation).  Bratty agreed and arranged her flight.

My sister’s visit was fine and it was fun hanging around my niece and nephew.  After they departed, SO went to pick up Bratty at the airport.  I let him know I was making salmon with veggies for dinner, as we recall Bratty made clear in her letters that she ate ‘vegan food, fish, and meat subsitutes’.  SO said sure and it sounded great.  I had made a grocery run that morning and picked up some almond milk, tofu and few other things to keep in the fridge for Bratty. 

Bratty and SO arrived home and after some greetings Bratty headed upstairs to rest from her flight.  SO said he told Bratty we were having salmon for dinner and Bratty said she couldn’t eat fish because she was a ‘strict vegan’.  WTF!  I rolled my eyes at SO and said I no longer cared.  I would make the salmon and veggies and she could eat it or not.  When Bratty came down for dinner I told her we (SO and I) were having salmon and veggies.  I also told her there was some tofu in the fridge if she wanted to make some for herself.  Bratty looked annoyed at first but then did fry up some of the tofu and ate it with the vegetables I had made.  The next couple of nights we ate out so there were no further issues with the dinner menu but I was annoyed at the random change again, even after the Thanksgiving debacle.  I started to realize that Bratty was really just using dinner as an excuse to stir up drama.

The next couple of days Bratty did little actual packing despite thinking she needed ‘a lot of time’ to do so.  She slept in, went shopping, watched TV, etc.  Finally the Friday evening before she was supposed to leave, Bratty started to go through her stuff.  She stayed up most of the night (it seemed) and was still asleep when SO and I were ready to head out for our flight.  SO and I both went upstairs and knocked on her door.  Bratty said she was tired, and was it alright if she left after us and locked the door behind her?  We said sure no problem and said our goodbyes.  SO and I headed out to the airport. 

After making our way through the busy airport, we boarded our flight.  Just before we turned off our phones, Bratty texts SO.  She was still really tired and didn’t think she could drive.  Was it alright if she left that evening after sleeping longer?  I told SO to deal with it as I no longer cared – I was decompressing from a stressful week.  He told her it was fine and she could stay until the next day if she wanted to (which she eventually did). 

Our vacation was wonderful and relaxing.  The resort we stayed at was amazing and SO and I enjoyed a nice week of swimming, eating and drinking.  Mid-way through our trip, Bratty texts SO – she had made it to the Bay Area and started her new job.  She had questions on the benefits and could she call SO?  He asked me if I thought it was alright.  I was definitely annoyed that she was bothering us on our vacation but I told SO it was fine as long as he kept it short, which he did even though Bratty didn’t want to get off the phone (I overheard as we were both in the hotel room).

The rest of our trip went fine and we returned home to a quiet house.  I went upstairs to check out Bratty’s room and at first I was surprised – other than the bed and dresser the room look emptied out.  I was confused as to where the stuff went as we figured she would leave most of it behind after realizing it wouldn’t fit in the car.  Then I opened the closet.  Ah, there it all was.  Bratty’s treasures all shoved in there – 20 pounds of crap in a 5 lb box.  Did she think we wouldn’t notice?

Bratty later said she thought it would be helpful to us so we could ‘use the room’.  Um, ok, but Bratty should have asked us first.  I was annoyed again but took a deep breath and reminded myself it would all be gone in a year.  I shut the door and did my best to ignore the stuff but my patience was really starting to wear thin.  I was expecting that Bratty would take a bit of stuff here and there during visits, or we would bring some up with us (SO’s brother lives in the area so we were planning on heading up there for Thanksgiving that year). 

Not only did that not happen, but Bratty decided she really didn’t want to move out after all, even though she said she would.  We’ll get to Bratty’s meltdown eventually but next up was a camping trip I had organized for SO’s birthday.  Since Bratty was now in driving distance, I invited her to join us where unfortunately more Bratty behavior was in store for us.