Europe Day 4

Day 4 was quite possibly the worst day I have ever had on vacation, in the history of history. We went to pick te car up early that morning (because we were in a mad rush to leave the house) and we found out the car was a manual. Seriously. We were almost ready to cancel the rental when a quick 40 seconds of processing led us to the conclusion that it would be impossible to continue the trip without the car. I could have sworn i saw an automatic gearbox in the car I was shown that day, but having a rental agent put the exact sane car in front of ou tends to make you doubt yourself. Apparently "manual would be difficult" in Paris means "manual is 100% impossible". Then we had to drive a car that was incapable of flight through the streets of Paris, on a quarter tank of gas, which was simply unimaginable. it is needless to say that we couldn't find parking at the hotel, and then when we did, the parking meter wouldnt take coins so there was this added frustration of my dad not wanting to use his credit card in paris.

All this built up and resulted in me 1) not eating breakfast and 2) not being able to call my bike rental place. Then i had to navigate my dad to a gas station, without having any exact directions as to how to get to one. I stepped out to fill gas, and then the attendant basically mumbled to himself while looking at me when i asked him if i pay first or pay after filling (because the pump didnt initially work). I got even more steamed with all this and so you could only imagine my anger when my mom asked "so how did it go?" I said "not well" and then she asked "so you didnt fill gas?" indicating that she was completely oblivious to what was going on in the car around her. I snapped and yelled at her "Of course we filled gas!" My dad insisted i calm down, and this was the point at which i realized that my mom has basically zero capacity for filtering the questions she asks. She doesnt give any forethought as to what the answer could be or usually is, she never pays attention when she doesnt have to, and she relies on others whenever she wants to in order to process information for her. It saddened me to discover this, or rather realize the extent to which it occurs with her, because it showed that, all the times when i've tried politely to explain why her questions were unnecessary, she has completely ignored me.

Then there was this long, painful drive to Lourdes (painful because I wasn't driving) and that night was the absolute worst night because i wanted to skip things the next day and sleep in, but my mom essentially wouldnt allow me to not partake in things. We were in Lourdes, and i am an atheist, so was not at all interested in seeing the grotto or random caves. I went to sleep pissed on day 4. I banged my hands against a bathroom wall in anger and i ended up injuring my wrists. It was not a good day, because i realized that i never want to go on vacation with my family again. Whenever i go on one of these trips, there is just too much of what everyone else wants to do, and not enough of what i want to do, and there's barely enough time in which to do it. I wanted to relax before residency began, and so far i havent achieved that in Europe at all. Bullshit.