My Shitty Sister-in-law

I got a phone call at home this early morning and the conversation went like this:

Caller: Hello? Ma huh?
Me: Umm, I am not your Ma, but if you want to call me that, I won't mind.
Caller: (Long pause) Huh?
Me: You're Monica right? (Monica is Joshie baby's elder sister)
Caller: No. I'm Jeny.
Me: Oh. Ma not in.
Caller: Uh. (Then hangs up without saying goodbye!)

Gah! Jeny is the wife of Joshie's eldest brother. And I don't like her.

I think she is blind or deaf because when I met her for the first time at Joshie's house and greeted her, she completely ignored me. She simply walked past me like I don't exist. So I thought that maybe she couldn't hear me amidst the chattering of Joshie's mother.

The second time I met her, I greeted her again louder and with a BIG smile. She ignored me.

The third time I met her, I still greeted her. This time, not out of respect but to prove that she is blind and deaf. Yep, it is official - she IS blind and deaf.

From then on, I chose to save myself the heartache and ignore her too.

It was then I also observed that she does not fancy talking to Joshie. And when her little boy asks for permission to go into our room to play with Joshie's toy cars, she would never allow it.

What's her fucking problem?

Despite reminding myself to pay her the same respects as she gave Joshie and me, I slipped up at a recent wedding dinner of a relative. The devil possessed me and I stood up to pass her the serving ladle during dinner. As expected, she took the ladle without as much as a twitch of her lips. So she is mute too.

Is this a habit of the eldest daughter-in-law of the family, to have her nose in the air and ignore the presence of the younger ones in the family? My youngest aunt used to bitch about how arrogant the wife of my eldest uncle was.

Yet strangely, Jeny would always chatter with Monica and her husband animatedly.

Did that stupid woman think Joshie and I are beneath her? That we are lesser persons since we smoke, drink, have tattoos and do not possess Singaporean or American degrees like Monica and her husband?

Shit. Gets me seething mad now as I think of this again.

She really pisses me off. And it isn't just how she denies our presence or refusal to let her child play with us. It is also how she is always in a rush to go home after dining with the family. She would always use her child as an excuse to leave soon after the meal - "Baby has to sleep" or "Baby is tired and needs his nap now".

On the few occasions that Jeny wasn't in Singapore and Joshie's brother comes visiting with the kid, they would stay on longer. And never once did the kid pester the father to leave soon so he could go home and sleep.

Dang. Makes me wonder who really wanted to leave so soon every time.

Then there is this other thing that I hate about her.

My entire family - from my parents to my kid cousins - often follow this saying in Cantonese which translates as "look at the dishes as you eat". What it means, is that as you eat, please make sure you leave enough for everyone else at the same table.

That's basic manners, eh?

Perhaps I'm biased and would nit-pick at the things Jeny do. But I have observed that at restaurant dinners (Joshie and I seldom stay home to eat if Jeny comes around), Jeny would volunteer to serve everyone and then get the larger servings for herself and Joshie's big brother.

Once, at a Mother's Day house party, Jeny volunteered to cut the cake and serve it on the plates. I noticed that all the slices were bare on top although the cake has some strawberries on it. Then I saw that her slice had all the strawberries!

Not that I care for the strawberries, but I found her behaviour ridiculous! Was she that deprived as a child?

Gah. Some people are just really oddballs.