No turkey, but lots of drama

What a vacation. Pseudo-vacation, perhaps, is a better word. It seems to me that the aftermath of my holidays spent at home are blog posts full of bitching, but oh well. I was made to rant.
Anyway. Thanksgiving Day wasn't that bad, actually. We had dinner with the only members of my father's family that we actually speak to - his older sister and her two sons, all grown. It was rather nice, since I got to indulge in my aunt's fabulous cooking and see my "nephew" again (the eldest of the two is married and has a 1.5 year-old boy. We Koreans don't mess around with "second" cousin and "third cousin once removed" or whatever. They're just all nieces and nephews). The kid looks a lot more like his mom, these days, and is much cuter for it.
Friday, at around 2am, my sister Jane pulled into the driveway. I helped her unload her Honda, and then the two of us passed out until around 4:30am, which is when our parents woke us for the drive to Tahoe and Reno. Traffic all along the way, of course. I actually drove, for the first time in the history of family road trips. I forget when exactly we pulled into Tahoe - I want to say it was around 2pm. The weather was chilly, but the lake was just beautiful.


There's me, my mom, and my dad, on the edge of the lake. It was our first time visiting Tahoe, and though we were only there for a short period of time, I think we all enjoyed it.
I slept most of the way from Tahoe to Reno; I forfeited my camera to Jane and passed out in the back of the van.
Once at Reno, there wasn't a whole lot for me to do. My sister and our parents gambled for a little bit, while I stayed in our hotel room. I think I read... or did I sleep some more? Eh, insignificant detail. Anyway, a little while later, my mother returned to the room, and we trooped down for dinner at a delicious restaurant in the hotel. My sister ordered me a cocktail as a dessert - a White Russian, with a shot of espresso. Absolutely fantastic; quite possibly the best part of the whole vacation.
We left Reno late Saturday morning, and the drive home was not nearly as peaceful as the way north. My sister brought up a sore subject with my mother, and we all received a nice tongue-lashing. Terrific. I was snappish and short-tempered for most of the way as well, since I quite loathe trips to casino resorts. I see no point in them since a) I don't like gambling away my money and b) even if I did enjoy throwing money away, I'm not legally old enough to. A wasted trip.
Considering that we didn't leave too badly in debt, and that we only had to suffer through my mom's one outburst (albeit, a very angry outburst) and my strained temper, it was actually a successful family trip. Hopefully, though, we won't be going on too many more of them. I enjoy traveling and all, but NOT WITH FAMILY. We have too many opinions, too many tempers, and too little sympathy and patience to be able to deal with one another very well.
Anywhoo, random text messages from my RA buddies kept me sane (relatively speaking), and now I am happy to report that I am back in San Diego.
Not so happy that finals are rapidly approaching, but that's another post.