Homeward bound (I wish I was)

Today I leave for Seattle to see the folks, and also my grandmother (she's out visiting). On one level, I look forward to seeing the family and all of that, but, truth be told, I'm not looking forward to much else about this trip. Mom and Dad will most likely spend most of the time talking about business (it's the one thing I suck at), while I feel increasingly alienated. The thing is, I love my family, and they love me, but we don't share very many common interests. As a result, conversations can be somewhat awkward, filled with long embarrassing silences. Let's run through the interests:

1. Philosophy. Mom will at least feign interest until I say something she disagrees with, and then she just tells me to drop it. Dad just comes out and says "I don't get it," and that's the end of that.
2. Science Fiction/Fantasy. Mom thinks it's trash. Dad thinks it's blasphemous. Anna has no use for it. Andrew just doesn't like to read.
3. Role-playing. Mom thinks it's too nerdy. Dad thinks it's vaguely satanic. They know I do it, and there's nothing to be done.
4. Politics. Okay, at least this way it is interesting. Our family runs the gamut on this one. Dad is Mr. Republican, Mom is right-leaning moderate, while I'm left-leaning moderate. This is one of the few topics in which genuine conversations takes place, albeit not necessarily the most harmoniously. Dad and I started talking more with each other when we realized there was genuine disagreement between us in politics. We keep it civil, and things go fine, but there's only so much politics one can talk about before one gets bored.
5. Relationships. Mom loves to talk about this sort of thing. I don't. At least, not right now. See previous posts for the specific reason.

Oh well. At any rate, I'm thinking about getting the apprentices together for a symposium tomorrow night, so I can at least have some sort of good conversation. You know how it goes. We'll see. I will be back in the 'Kane on Friday.