I LOVE all the "Real Housewives" shows on Bravo. If I could, I would watch them everyday. Up until recently I watched all of them except Atlanta and New Jersey. Atlanta was just a bit to much for me...and I somehow felt the mob would come after me for watching New Jersey. My husband says to me all the time, "How can you watch that? It's horrible!" That's the point! It is horrible. Most of the women are not "real" nor are they "housewives" by the traditional description of the word. But I love watching them. It makes me feel normal. Like whatever is going on in my life isn't so bad.
I got sucked into watching the New Jersey version this season. I overheard two women talking about it in a check out line at Target (hello, my name is Andie, and I'm an eavesdropper). They kept going on and on about a brawl at a christening. Well, I couldn't resist. I had to find out what was SO bad that a full on fight could break out at such a holy event as a christening. And that's all it took. One episode. I was hooked. Then it happened. The more I watched, the more I realized. This is my family, on steroids.
So here's the quick version of what's happened on the show. Teresa and her brother Joe used to be really close. Joe is married to Melissa and Teresa is married to (another) Joe. Apparently, the Joes don't get along...not sure why...and Melissa and Teresa have never been very close. Each one blames the other for this whole thing. So they all got into a huge fight at a family christening and no one talks to one another. Teresa has reached out in the form of a letter...actually sat down and spoke to her brother...and as the last episode stopped, was sitting down to talk to Melissa. I think that's all the high points.
Now, here's my family. Tim and his sister used to be really close. Tim is married to me (of course) and his sister is married as well. Tim and his brother-in-law just don't see eye to eye on things, so they've never been real buddy-buddy. Me and my sister-in-law had always gotten along, but were never really close just because we didn't seem to have that much in common. She and her husband has already started a family, which (until about a year ago) just meant we were in different places in our lives. Tim and his brother-in-law got into a HUGE fight last year (won't go into details) and no one's done a whole lot of talking since. I've tried occasionally to get everyone together, or at the very least the wives and kids...but nothing ever seems to come of it. I get a lot of the "that sounds great" followed by ignored texts or unreturned phone calls. Seems like every time it gets brought up I hear the "I'm sorry" but nothing seems to change.
So...there are a lot of similarities. I find myself glued to each episode now almost looking for advice (as CRAZY as that sounds). But, hey, if they could fix things surely we could too. I just don't have a clue as to how or where to start. It breaks my heart that we all live in the same city and hardly see each other. I miss seeing my niece and nephew. But besides that, it KILLS me that my daughter may not have the relationship that she deserves with her cousins because the adults in the situation can't get along. I wonder what happened to faking it for the kids, so to speak. I wonder, sadly, if this bothers anyone else but me. It would be a very disappointing thing to find out that the other parties involved were fine with the relationships we have, but at least it would be a truthful answer. That's one of the things that stings the most, telling me you want something that you clearly don't. I'm a big girl. I can take the truth. Guess I have to wait until Sunday to see how the rest of the NJ conversation plays out. I'll be sure to take notes along the way!
No comments:
Post a Comment