Family gatherings

Yesterday I went for my annual family gathering from my father's side, to celebrate my grandparent's birthdays. It's not something I usually look forward to and I'll explain why;
We reach the place (which is nothing more than a medium sized room next to the church my grandparents like to go to, god forbid it's held anywhere else), where there's usually already a bunch of people there who will all turn around and stare at you the minute you walk in. Then, you have to pass by all these people and shake their hands to say hello. Mind you that the majority of these people are strangers to me, including most of my relatives. Sure I know them and I know most of their names, but conversations between them and me have never went further than "hello", "how are you" and "you've got a potato chip on your face". After all the hand shaking and kissing (unfortunately it's custom in my country that you kiss relatives of the other sex on the cheeks, three friggin times), you sit down at one of the tables, where someone of the catering will come to you and ask what you want to drink. Then a bowl of nuts and chips and other nibblets will be put in the middle of the table, so that you at least have something to do while you sit and watch the clock. After a while a stranger who apparently you have to call uncle or aunt will come up to you and ask you things like; "How's school?". Of course I haven't been to school for 4 bloody years, just to show you how well we know each other. You smile at them and nod your head along with their anecdotes of in their minds hilarious stories and after that you continue to watch the clock and see the hands tick forward really, reeeeaaaally slowly. After about 3 to 4 hours of sitting, when you get to the point where you would actually pay good money for it to be over, your travelling companions will come up to you and say "Let's go home". Those are the words that you've been waiting to hear the entire day and with a broad smile on your face and a well meant; "See you all next year", you leave the room.
This happens every year for as long as I can remember. It's always like this and I always thought it would never change, until now.

This year, my girlfriend came along. She's never been at this gathering before so she had a lot of new people to meet. Poor thing. But strangely..when we came home I didn't feel like blowing my head off or scream really loud into my pillow. The gathering was..nice this year. I can't believe I'm saying this but I had fun.

She makes hopelessly boring things interesting. Man, she's awesome.