Maintaining Sanity After Moving Back in with My Mother and Sister

In late July of this year, I had to face the reality that I was not making ends meet in California, I was broke, and therefore had to either become homeless, or move back into my mother's house in New Jersey.  My older sister, Denise, made the move back home from Miami a few years ago for the same reason, although she wasn't broke, as my mother had been paying her rent (to the point where my mother's car was repossessed because she couldn't afford both her car and my sister's rent) for about a year before she packed up and headed back North.  I set out on a cross-country drive in early August, and arrived at the family homestead about 5 days later.  Also in the house is my sister's fiancée, a wonderful guy whose family has been friends with our family since long before I was born, to the point that we call them cousins and aunts and uncles.  Tony is in a somewhat-similar situation of having to find a job after a company he was working for in Hempstead folded, and he had to move out of his place there.  So it's a bit of a crowded house with a mixture of personalities: Tony is very laid back and friendly (my mother says he is, "mas suelto que un caracol"), I'm somewhat laid back but suffer from anxiety and panic attacks at times, and both my mother and my sister have explosive tempers that flare up at the drop of a hat.  I take after my father's side of the family (from Jamaica and Curação) both in looks and temperament (tending towards shy and quiet), my sister takes after my mother's side of the family (from Puerto Rico, loud and boisterous, alcohol-and-tobacco-loving, family-oriented and social, and extremely temperamental to the point where fistfights sometimes break out at family gatherings).

It hasn't been a lot of fun thus far -- I feel very much like Kristen Wiig's character, Imogene, in the movie, "Girl Most Likely".  Depressed, feeling like a failure, and regretting my decision in 2008 to leave New York like I did, when everything seemed to be going great.  The living conditions are even somewhat similar, an old, cluttered house in New Jersey, an extra houseguest, etc, with the added stress of economic duress (only one of us is currently employed, so the bills are hard to pay) and explosive temperaments.

In order to help me cope with my situation, I've been oversharing on social media.  Not advisable, admittedly (some people, even potential employers, may judge me harshly for the things I reveal, but I'm willing to take that risk); however, I find it therapeutic to share my complaints and foibles on my Facebook wall and so I will continue to do so.  Writing is therapeutic for me, especially when I'm exercising my comedic chops to make fun of myself or my situation.  Since I'm verbose, I'll stick to telling the full version of my tales here on my blog, and mentioning the posts on Facebook, and people can click through and read if they are interested, keeping the Facebook post to something crisp and quippy.

So the majority of my posts for the time being are going to be about the clashes between my mother, my sister, and me, because the interactions we've been having since I landed here about two weeks ago have been truly funny, as if they came out of some goofy reality show.  And if I write about them, especially if I manage to make even one person laugh with these posts, I will be able to refrain from banging my head against the wall or stabbing myself in the eye with a pencil.

Enjoy, feel free to comment, especially if you can make as much fun of these situations as I am trying to.  Also feel free to criticize me, admonish me for making fun of my family, if you like.  But I might just be creating material someone could use in a sitcom someday.