It seems I use this space to write about personal matters as much as I do to share my opinions on local news topics.Many times, when I decide to open up about my personal life, my family is the subject. I’ve written about Christmas joys; Thanksgiving feasts; my reverence for Mother’s Day and Father’s Day; the wonderful qualities of my grandmother, and about family vacations.What you may not realize, is that whatever I’ve written about my family has been cleverly edited before it hits the press. Although they give me lots of love and laughter, they also give me stress and heartburn and I just haven’t shared that aspect of our relationship before.But after spending a weekend in North Dakota with four girls from my family, it seems like it’d be more fun to complain this time around.I picked up my older sister three hours into the drive — we had about five hours ahead of us. We packed her yelping dog in a kennel and got snacks and drinks for the road. Then I settled in for the medical updates: her headaches were improving, but her triplexus muscle was bothering her; she needs to make a dental appointment, but hasn’t had the time, considering she’s been to the reflexologist.As we pulled into our destination, I was finally brought up to speed on her sinuses.Once there, we did fun things, like hang out with my cousin and her well-behaved toddler. We caught up on current family events and reminisced about the old days. We scoped out my other sister’s new apartment where she cooked us a beautiful meal, and we sampled the Rugby nightlife.After the fun, we had a little catfight about the merits of futons, however. We had disagreements over what words were allowed for points in a rousing game of Scattergories. Hamburger cannot be called a junk food according to me.The dog barked in the night and interrupted my sleep.My sister (the one who already has medical problems) fell while walking her dog, skinning her knee and shin to the point where she had to wrap most of her leg in gauze. My other sister was groggy from working nights all week. We all got tired of watching toddler videos. Like I said, they bring me such pleasure that it hurt to say good-bye, but even so — next time the girls want to spend a weekend with me, they can drive south.
