My parents are up for a visit.  It's their first time at our new place.  There are just a few days of their 2 weeks here left.  

My stepdad and my DH are both talkers.  They like to control the conversation, they both fancy themselves to be terribly interesting people, and they're both a little bit one-uppers (mostly that's my stepdad, in all fairness to DH). 

At first, it was funny watching 2 talkers trying to out-talk each other, but after a while, it got a little annoying and started looking like your average pissing contest.  I tried to explain to DH that these older Southern men are accustomed to having the floor and as much respect (or faux-respect) as you can give them.  What I needed was for him to just defer a little and then it could be The DH Show again once they left.  I'm a quiet type in general, so it's never bothered me too much that DH rarely stops to take a breath.  

And for a few days, he did that for me.  But I guess all those words were just building up and he couldn't deal, because after that they started getting weird.  Then last night my cousin, who's been staying with my parents at their house, suffered an accidental overdose, and things got a little dramatic here with them having to ask the neighbor to check on her, then call their local PD for a wellness check, and all that ensued after.  

And while honestly it's my mother and I who literally just lost a relative, DH and Stepdad were raring to share every experience they've ever had that could even be tangentially related to the situation... and that carried on into this morning.  

I was in our bedroom doing some laundry when DH came in all pouty and said he'd basically just had a tantrum and told my Stepdad, "I guess I just won't talk at all."  

I know that the issue is mostly my Stepdad and his one-upmanship and so on, but I just needed DH to tolerate it a little longer.  I've tried to tell him a thousand times there's a reason I left the south and a reason I distance myself from my relatives, a huge chunk of which is that those old folks down there want the stage 24/7 and anything but awe and asspats is considered heavy disrespect.  I was willing to tolerate it for 2 weeks, and in his usual assumption that I was exaggerating and just couldn't possibly be able to handle it as well as he definitely could, he said he was willing to put up with it, too.  He didn't realize that the things I was saying and asking of him were serious and not me just being a giant drama queen (which, in fairness to myself, really isn't my MO to begin with). 

Well... I said as much, and told him from now on they could take their pissing contest out back so my mom and I could at least get through a few sentences now and again, and so of course that only made it worse, and now he's out at goodness knows where for the past 5 freaking hours now, and not responding to the 2 texts I've sent.  

And my stepdad is being strangely quiet and a little sulky, which is super special because my mom is literally processing my cousin's unexpected passing and we could both use the support of our partners, but they're too upset with each other for both of them loving the sound of their own voices and really overestimating the amount of wisdom they have to share with the world.  

I'm so f'cking tired, and DH disappearing like this all day after their little confrontation thing is super embarrassing and it's making things awkward.  

I've never been this pissed at him and I wish he'd taken Guzzlord with him, at least, because now the kid is asking me left and right where his dad is and what's for dinner and I really don't think I can keep being patient for much longer.  

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