Geez! I really get aggravated by my mom. Today Anna, Gaby, and Mrs. Ramirez came over to see my mom and to say hello, etc.,etc., and it turns out my mom wanted to give Mrs. Ramirez a present we had bought in Czech Republic: a beautiful Bohemian crystal napkin holder. Well, as my mom and I were unwrapping it in her closet, it slipped and shattered into a hundred pieces. Well, that instant, my mom looked at me with a look of such loathing and anger and aggravation that I started to cry. I mean, I know she doesn't understand my personality because a) she doesn't understand anything outside her own feelings and experiences, b) we're complete opposites of character, and c) she thinks anyone who doesn't have a "strong" (a.k.a. jerk-like) character is a weakling that deserves no notice or to be trampled upon. So there I sat as she went off to explain to Mrs. Ramirez how I had let the napkin-holder slip (When, in actuality, I was taking off the packing paper as she held it, then I went to grab it and it slipped) and how it was all over, how there was nothing left to be salvaged, but, oh! she could look at some of the fine workmanship from the bigger shards. I felt so crappy about it (not only because of my mom's influence, but because I really like Mrs. Ramirez, she's like an aunt to me) that I decided to give Mrs. Ramirez a Bohemian crystal jewelry bowl that was intended for me for Christmas. My mom of course did not object (not only b/c it wouldn't be polite to tell me, "no, that's for you for Christmas" in front of Mrs. Ramirez, but also because I think she felt that I deserved to give up my own christmas present after it being ENTIRELY my fault that the napkin holder broke). So here I am, with a mother who doesn't understand my personality, thinks me a weakling and a klutz, (she even cracked a joke to lighten the mood later on when Mrs. Ramirez told me "It's good luck to break a glass object" to which my mom responded "How many glasses did you break this summer, Annemarie?") and I think really might be happy, or maybe less angered, if I decided to vanish into thin air off the face of the planet.