crazy in your own way

It's that fabulous holiday time again, which means the news is full of stories of crazy people doing things like stabbing their wives over turkey dinners. My family is not crazy. Holidays are great - we get to see almost everyone and we all like everyone - at least enough to eat dinner with them once or twice a year. I hear people complain about going home for the holidays and I just don't relate to them at all.

This year I discovered that my family is crazy, just in their own way. A way which is preferable to the stabbing each other kind of crazy. Due to a bad experience with an airline last month, my mother got $200 to fly anywhere this year. First she tried to give them to her mother, who didn't want them. My mom won't use them because her husband (my stepdad) won't fly. She tried to give them to my sister and she didn't want them. She tried to get my sister to split them with me, and she still wasn't interested. So they're all mine. See - my family is crazy. What a great excuse to take a vacation. Of course, the vacation I want to take is to Boston and they don't fly in to Boston. But I'm sure I'll find somewhere to go with them.

Oh - and does anyone know anything about social security? My friend's father died. His wife is getting a little under $300. That's it. No one can figure out this math - the man was in his early 70's. I'm not sure if she just isn't getting it until a certain date or if that's really it. And if so, where did the rest of it go?