Dinner, dinner, din--EXCUSE ME?

It's Saturday night, and that means eating out with family friends! Fun time! Talk time!

Yeah...not really. At least not this time.

During these dinners, it's the same old story. My parents sit down with their friends and they talk about everything--kids, recipes (especially), work, the bad economy, and such. This time, the hot topic was, believe it or not, my braces! Who would've thought? Okay, well, that was the topic for like thirty seconds...

My mom's friends asked me when I got braces. Of course, I told them the story, including the wisdom teeth extraction. Then they asked me why I decided to get all four removed. I was about to tell them until my dad suddenly said, "Okay, time to order!"

He didn't even say, "Excuse me" or "I'm sorry" or any of that. What. The. Heck. Then all the attention shifted to him, leaving me there. Just "there." No one even remembered me saying anything.

LATER ON, while we were eating, we talked about some other stuff ("we" meaning that I'm excluded). When I started talking after an awkward silence, my dad broke in again. This time, I rolled my eyes (big mistake). My mom caught it and said, "Wait for your turn! Be courteous!"

WELL, EXCUSE ME. Who's the one who interrupted me like three minutes later?

And I'm the one accused of butting in. Come on! In our Socratics at school, when two people speak at the same time, both pause and decide on who should go first. When it comes to all adults and one kid, for the first time ever, I have like no voice. At all. I understand that my parents' family friends have so many more things to talk about, but when I talk...bam. I get shut out instantly.

Life isn't fair. Yeah, I get it. Sadly, so few people know the second part of the saying: "But you should be."

And my own parents, too. They spent fifteen years telling me to be courteous to others and they interrupt me without knowing that I was talking? What hypocrites.

To be honest, I haven't been this angry at my parents for a very long time.