Brief thoughts upon returning from the American South

--I, unmarried and childless and in my thirties, remain like a circus freak to my sister, my sister's friends, and my three nieces. Not a day of a visit passes without some attention directed to the state of my love life and my uterus. Despite my 16-year-old niece's exasperated questions and stabs at analysis ("Why won't you get married, Aunt Medusa?!" "Maybe you didn't marry X because you are too cynical."), she is at least a little bit (and in a good way) intrigued. My sister and her friends remain in a state of panic.

--The mullet is alive and well.

--I wonder if it is normal to sit at the dinner table and wonder which of Lacan's four structures of psychopathology (hysteria, obsessional neurosis, perversion, psychosis) is most dominant in each family member. I also wonder if it is normal that when I mention that I am doing this, it becomes a popular dinner-table game for the rest of the week.

--Christianity (at least the Southern brand of it) scares the bejesus out of me.

--Despite the fact that we are all insane and I remain one snarky bitch, I love my family and it was very good to get away.