Why So Difficult?

You know, I don't rant about my husband often. I love him dearly and after twenty years together, I well and truly understand him. There are just times when...

AAAAHHHH!!!!!!!!

That was me, screaming. Today I asked him to sit down with me to look at hotels in Florida by my dad's. We are paying for one night, dad is paying for the other two. I'm looking for deals to keep everything as inexpensive as possible and I thought that having a hotel to escape to was a big plus for this trip. One minute we were browsing pictures, the next the man is completely losing his mind screaming about this trip! It was all "I don't want to go!" "I'm not going to pretend that I like these people!" "I'm not going to go and make any effort for this party!" "I'm not wearing dress clothes for this!" On and on and on it went and I'm sitting here thinking "How did a picture of a fountain by a pool trigger this rage?"

No one knows.

Then...THEN...he wanted to throw at me how we did not go on his parents 50th anniversary cruise extravaganza so why should we go to my dad's 65th birthday party? Now I have to speak up. First off, you cannot compare a $5000 cruise to a $79 hotel bill. Sorry, you just can't. Secondly, I am busting my HUMP to keep him away from my family as much as humanly possible and he STILL is making a fuss. Thirdly, we are not only seeing my family on this trip, we are also going to see his parents - who everyone LOVES! Seriously, these people are just plain likable and we always have a good time with them.

So I am stumped. I mean, I gave him the option to just not go. I am not going to be tortured - YET AGAIN - over another trip that involves seeing people that I am related to. He did this on our last trip up to New York, even though, he spent most of the time visiting with his friends. It's like the man just CAN NOT unclench long enough to just relax. He is always tense before a trip. Any trip. Actually, any time we go ANY WHERE he seems to have issues. We are never on time to go to anyone's house. Why? Because HE has issues. He has an aunt and uncle that live 90 minutes away who no longer invite us over. Why? Because HE has issues. Seriously, they stopped inviting us over because they got tired of us declining. Why did we decline? Because HE has issues.

If it were up to Frank, we would not go anywhere. Ever. I make all of our vacation arrangements because if I didn't, we'd never leave home. And I'm sorry, but I just refuse to sit in this stupid teeny, tiny house for the rest of my natural born life! Not gonna happen!!

Should I be used to his travel tantrums by now? Yes. Am I? No. Like I said earlier, I gave him the option to just not go. It's a long, long drive but hopefully Nick will have his license and he can help. Coming home I will have Nick and my nephew to help with the driving. So really, I'm okay. But Frank does not want me driving alone. "It's too much driving," he tells me. No kidding, Einstein! I know that, but I would rather drive alone CROSS COUNTRY than deal with this nonsense.

Please be praying for me, friends. The trip is in three weeks and I just KNOW he is going to make each and every minute of it miserable and that's not including the 15 hours I'll be forced to listen to him while driving in the car!