Home (Almost) Alone

I come from a large family and for years they have dreamed of going on a cruise together. We’ve imagined how fun it would be, how the kids would all get to play with their cousins, etc.
Well this year one of my sister’s families bought a cruise and invited everyone to get on board with the scheme. Many people signed up but a few of us weren’t able to. For us, we needed all our money to pay for our daughter’s starting college and didn’t want to go into debt for something like that. Actually about half the family signed up. I was very sad several months ago but over time it was not an issue.
Well, now it’s cruise week, and the cruising branch of the family are all on the way to sunny Mexico, eating and laughing, and making inside jokes that we will hear about for years to come. A couple of my fellow non cruising sisters are pretty down, if you can judge by their depressed blogs, multiple posts, and sorry little facebook status lines. Now I have to heave a sigh, feel sad, and then try not to think about it. But nobody likes feeling left out. I’m just telling myself I already cried about this eight months ago, so what’s the point now. I’m not breaking out a Jane Austen novel to fuel my pity party either. One sis at home watched Becoming Jane for the first time and was so sad afterward. I told her “Whatever you do, Don’t watch Miss Austen Regrets this week”.