Early Birthday/I Am A Terrible Child

Warning: This post contains a lot of me being whiney about things that aren't really worth complaining about, but give me a break. I've been sleep-deprived and stressed out since buckling my seatbelt on the ride to Jersey. Something about being here just makes me tweak out.

My Mom took me on a shopping trip yesterday to spoil me for my impending birthday. I got a new phone [far and away my most needed/most hoped for gift], few more treats from the VS Semi-Annual, a few more colors of my favorite shirt, two cute little cardigans, and a bunch of cleaning products for the apartment. I've been greatly desiring a pair of cute boots [I'm sick of skidding around in Nikes all Winter] but I have never found a pair that I want that fit over my 16" dancer calves, and I pre-disheartened myself out of another Mom shopping trip to look for a pair today. [Note: I would fuck these boots]
As a present to myself I ordered the type of day planner that I wanted in the first place from Amazon.

I know I have written this before, but no matter how little time I spend at home without my Bro I always end up with both of my parents mad at me. When it's just me sans the big chatty barrier that is my Big Bro they have to pay attention to me; I don't really enjoy that. Which is why I want to get the fuck out of dodge when I graduate; "dodge" meaning the Eastern United States.

Tonight my Mom brought home a little cake from the grocery store as another early birthday treat since I won't be around for my actual birthday. After dinner, my Dad went into the tv room for more football and I skipped upstairs to check my emails. I assumed that after football was over we'd reconvene and do the cake thing. What really happened was my Dad and I watching tv together as my Mom watched a movie by herself, coming downstairs to tell us she was going to bed. When my Dad asked if we were going to have the cake she just sighed and said "I guess we'll do it tomorrow night."
Thing is, I might be leaving tomorrow afternoon. I've been telling my parents for the entire duration of my stay at home that I'm catching a ride back up either Monday or Tuesday. Somehow that got translated as "JS will be home until late on Tuesday night."
So now my Mom is frustrated with me because I don't know if I'll be home for dinner tomorrow, even though I've been telling her for weeks now that I might not be, and my Dad is ticked because I upset Mom. I would have been more than happy to blow out some damn candles at any point tonight, but since I didn't plan my departure around cake I seem like an ungrateful family-hater. I would have asked "Are we having the cake tonight or what?" but I've done that before: it ends with them thinking that I just want to get everything over with and that I am an ungrateful family-hater.

The icing on the cake fiasco came about an hour later, when I finally worked up the nerve to ask my Dad for the graduation present that I'd really love- A Spring Break trip to Mexico that SH is planning. I've never been to Mexico and this trip [cabana on the beach near a nature preserve and Mayan ruins] seems like a once-in-a-lifetime sort of thing; I really want to go very much.
Now, I hate asking my parents for anything, and I prefer to go through Mom because she's more the "sigh and just agree to get it over with" type. However, Mom had already decided that the family trip to Hawaii was going to be her grad present to me and got pissed when I told her that, if I had to choose, I'd much prefer a $700 week in Mexico with my best friends over a $3000 family vacation in Hawaii. That was the wrong wrong wrong answer, I know, but can you blame me for trying honesty?
Enough backstory, so I ask Dad, and he spent the next 45 minutes looking up stories about drug-related Mexican gang violence on his Blackberry. Of course, all these stories happened in large cities and near the U.S. border. I told him the name of the tiny coastal town where we'd be staying and he was scrolling away silently for close to ten minutes before I got up and left. Outlook: not so good, but I guess at least I'll get to go to Hawaii with my family oh crap I can't even type that without thinking about how much I fucking hate family vacations...

Even though I know that I bring much of this family drama upon myself, I never plan for it to happen, and I always imagine that my parents talk about what a disappointment I am as soon as the door shuts behind me. Between asking for too much, not asking for things at the right time or in the right way, not saying anything for fear of it coming out wrong, spending too much time in the basement by myself to avoid any conflict, preferring to hang out with my friends instead of my Mom's friends, agreeing to plans with my Dad not knowing that my Mom had plans for me, not being receptive to 50 reminders about dentist/doctor appointments, it seems like anything and everything I do at home just isn't right.

Also, I may have broken the dryer.

*Edit*
one more Vegas picture:
For those of you have been missing HNTs and such: My butt is still intact and preeetty nice!