Only two emotions.

It's my dad's birthday this Friday. It's my family's plan to have a small get-together about it. It's been my family's plan to do it in Brooklyn with bagels and cake. It's the assumption I'll make the cake. I'm good with making the cake. I'm happy with making the cake. I'm unhappy with being told I'd make the cake without being told I was invited to the get-together. That the invitation was implicit was lost on me. Nobody told me I was invited until I was told there was an expectation I'd provide a cake.

I'm going on a hike with my parents tomorrow, and having dinner alone with them on Friday. I'm presently on the fence about a Saturday get together on the grounds that I really don't know how I'll feel about spending three consecutive days with them. I know if I don't tell them that with those specific words, in more or less that specific way, there won't be any effect on their behavior. I know that and I'm also wondering about staying quiet and observing what they say and how they act in regards to my presence as a litmus test they're not aware of. I'm fairly certain that'd backfire just as much as telling them I want to feel comfortable around them. I might go with the "not saying anything until I have no choice" strategy, or I might go with the "talk about it with someone on Friday to get my feelings out" strategy. I worry I'll have to buy more bourbon and rum in any case.