And now I get to relax

I will avoid going into details about my relatives. More specifically, I will avoid going into detail about what my house is like when they are all here. They (except for my grandfather) left shortly after dinner tonight. If I could sum up their presence in one word, that word would be "stressful". To go on a tangent, a lot of the things I write about (essays for example) are things that stress me out, and consequently I might be giving the impression that I get stressed out a lot. Nevertheless I am generally considered to be very laid-back. Perhaps overly so (indeed, I have been told so many times). That said, when my relatives are here, I get stressed out. Now, it would be unfair to say that my relatives themselves stress me out. I am often angry or annoyed at my cousins for their somewhat uncouth and racist behaviour (although I do not fault them for it, rather it is the social climate of small-town alberta from which they herald), but I am generally good at dealing with that type of thing. The more important issue here is that it is considered to be my duty to attach myself to my cousins while they are here. To entertain. Going out to see my friends is considered a heresy by my parents. Consequently, I am stuck in my house. Part of the difficulty arises from the fact that I have little in common with my cousins (two males, a year younger and older than me). They smoke prolifically. Any trip, anywhere, will usually involve at least one joint and a couple cigarettes. When driving/walking I figure they spend more minutes smoking a cigarette/joint than time not smoking. That is, their breaks between cigarettes are shorter than the time it takes to smoke one. Not being a smoker, and indeed being someone who prefers to avoid inhaling second-hand smoke in general, I tend to discourage any adventures outside of the happy smoke-free confines of my house. While inside, much of what we do is sit in a room together, bantering from time to time, but mostly engrossed with our computers and the television. There is a great deal of boredom. In a nice, overly-packed, house. Being someone with hermit-like qualities, I prefer to have a great deal of time alone during the day, but this arrangement seems specifically designed to thwart my access to time alone. The result is stress. So, in a sense, I feel like the relaxing part of my holiday is just starting. Did I say I was going to avoid details? I guess not. Anyhow, time to go relax.