Holidays are Happy Family Times...

So I attended my first Seder tonight. It was an interesting and enjoyable time, and I highly recommend the experience to other non-jewish students.

Midway through Bill and Mary Ann stopped to say hello. They had just spent the weekend visiting my brother, and when asked about it my dad shook his head and my mother just started to cry. I then offered to go have dinner with them, but they declined. I even invited them in to join the Seder, noting that there was plenty of food, but they also declined.

"I don't want to pull you away from your friends," Mary Ann said tearfully.

I said it was no problem, and that we should catch dinner, but they still said no. Nothing I said or offered seemed to change the fact that this was going to be a short visit. It was strange. I mean, these are the people I have had great, long conversations with. We've always gotten something to eat whenever they visit -- even if it's just been ice cream after a concert. We always go somewhere, and we always talk. And there was so much to talk about this time, especially since I haven't had a substantial phone conversation with them since last Wednesday or so.

But no. Something that had happened hundreds of miles away was biting at them. Mary Ann was bitter, and while I know she didn't mean to take it out on me, she did. And it really sucked. In the end we had an awkward ten-minute conversation, spelled with some relief from Justin -- one of the brothers who was parking his car. Then they got back into the car and left.

I called my brother later to tell him he was an asshole for making mom cry. I hope he feels guilty. After 20+ years of having mom and dad help him along into adult hood, he really should.