Tuesday, March 25, 2008

Don't invite other houseguests when it isn't your house

My mommy did a faux pas.  I got an email from her on Sunday. She said my sister (who lives in Houston) had sent her a plane ticket to go visit her and the kids, and would I like to go too?  My first instinct was, “Nahhh, plane tickets are expensive.” However the email went on to tell me about a deal that Southwest was having, which was ending that day. Curious, I looked up this special, and found that it would only be $81 each way. Nothing like a hard-to-pass-up deal to make you go visit your relatives.

We’ve been meaning to go visit her and her new digs, but the occasion just never came up.  So why not?  It’ll be like a reunion of some kind.  Plus I’ve never been to Houston and it’ll be nice to see a new city.  So I went ahead and bought the tickets to arrive the same day my mom was arriving, so they could pick us both up at once.

The next day, my mom calls me to tell me that she suddenly remembered that my sister’s in-laws were also going to be arriving that day… and staying at her house. Oh geez. She may have a large house, but it isn’t a mansion. “Oh, and by the way,” she said, “I havn’t told your sister yet that you’re coming, so you should call her.” Doh! Mooooom, how could you invite someone to stay at someone else’s house without even consulting them?? I wasn’t going to go if I was going to have to shell out for a hotel. I’d rather visit Seattle instead.

Lucky for me Southwest makes it easy to change your flight plans online. I changed it to arrive the day the in-laws left. Hopefully nothing else unexpected will come up. And for anyone else out there who doesn’t get it, when a home owner says, “Mi casa es su casa,” don’t take it literally and invite people without telling them. That’s just rude.