Tricky times

AGH. Today was the big family gathering in the burbs to commemorate my grandmother's death anniversary, 17 years ago. Four little ones, aunts, uncles, cousins, spouses. I was the useless female family member since I'm no good at knowing when and how to help as a dutiful apron-clad bearer of food, cooker of food, setting of places, wiping of tables, clearing of dishes, washing of pots, replenishing of plates, and so on. I did cut some fruit, though. I did some weaving and undoing and re-weaving and undoing again; my aunts are very good at these things and kept advising me on it and that was a little stressful, but helpful. One aunt was in town from the US, which was a surprise to me, so I got the shake down: when am I leaving, how long have I been here, have I accomplished all of my goals, what's next, when am I getting married? Good times, as always.

The unpleasant part is that now I have to add a few more farewells into my schedule. Very unwillingly. I have to change the date of my final group dinner, which is okay since I haven't actually invited anyone yet. And I have to visit a teacher that I don't want to see b/c she wants me to make a piece for her so she can claim it as her own, keep it, photograph it, and put it into shows as her work. I had planned on NOT doing that. But my aunt insists on saying goodbye b/c it's the respectful thing to do. This also means I have to get the hanji back from another family friend and just give it back to the teacher, and say I never got the piece made. All quite unpleasant even if I had abundant time. Especially unfun now that I have so little of it left here and I'd rather not lose hours to such tasks.

But at least I get to see my cousins one more time next weekend. And I suppose I can chalk it all up to abundance.