It’s the holiday season. And that sickening feeling that’s slowly bubbling in the pit of your soul is anticipation. It’s not the happy kind of anticipation you get when you’re on the verge of pressing your hungry lips to the lips of your significant other. Oh no. This is the dreaded anticipation of the inevitable vacation that spells certain doom! At some point in your relationship, your significant other, who you’ve spent weeks seducing most artfully and whose very look sends your heart aflutter, will turn to you and ask if you would like to spend the holiday with his or her family.

And because you love your significant other, there’s only one possible answer for you.

CERTAIN DOOOOOOM!!!

Surviving the Holiday’s With Someone Else’s Family

If you are a geek and you significant other is a geek, chances are both families have geeky tendencies. If this is the case, you’re in luck.

However, if your significant other is geek lite, chances are his or her family is completely geek free.

Breath, breath. It could be worse.

Take comfort in the knowledge that your significant other probably hates to see you uncomfortable and probably dreads spending the holidays with their family and extended family more than you do. This is good. Misery loves company and there’s nothing more miserable than holiday family gatherings.

Be prepared. You will have to bring a few things to keep your brains from oozing out of your skull box. A DS would be good, especially if you have games you can play networked. These gatherings typically have many children running around. They will probably have a DS as well allowing you to challenge them to Poke battles while the “grown” folk talk about politics and the war (god, the war is sure to be a fun holiday topic). A video iPod or other similar device might not be such a bad idea either. Bring cables with you so that you can connect to a TV so you can be the one who is able to calm the kiddies down and get them to sit still while watching Mobile Suits plow through each other. Every one needs some anime in their holiday. Now might also be a good time to bust out that Watchmen trade paper back. You won’t be able to read comics at the party itself, but at least you’ll have some brain food for before and after should you be cornered into a conversation about what, exactly, it is you do. They don’t really care, they just have nothing else to talk about.

While you’re arming yourself, you might as well practice your winning smile and hand shake. Lots of invasion of personal space at these things so if you prepare yourself mentally, you won’t accidentally hip toss uncle Steve when he comes barreling towards you with his hands outstretched.

It’s Not All That Bad–Okay Fine, It Really Is That Bad

You may be lucky and have an absolutely wonderful time. You’re a lucky bastard because from personal experience, I always leave these family vacations feeling like a I need yet another vacation.

As bad as they tend to be, the nice thing about going to these events with your significant other is that it shows your commitment to the relationship.  Otherwise, why would you bother getting to know the family if you don’t intend to stick around.  That’s a warm fuzzy feeling that will make it all, surprisingly, worth the pain.

And hey, now your significant other owes you one. Time to ask for that plasma TV you’ve always wanted!

Stumble it!

This entry was posted on Friday, November 16th, 2007 at 2:49 pm and is filed under Angry Zen Master, geek love. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments. Both comments and pings are currently closed.