"And How Does That Make You Feel?"

Joanna and I took Alice to the foot doctor on Monday. I never thought that this would be a standing date for me in my twenties, but-there you have it. Every two months, Joanna and I find ourselves in the waiting room of our grandmother's foot doctor's tiny office. His receptionist is a tiny little lunatic who hums, talks, and cackles to herself at an alarming volume. We are subject to her conversation with the voice in her head for a good 20 minutes each time. I suppose that on Monday, it was slightly more annoying than usual, as Joanna and I got into a fight right there in the waiting room. Basically, I said I thought one of our distant ex-relatives looked old, and she told me that I sound like I am trying out for a Tennessee Williams play. It doesn't make much sense, but I guess you could blame it all on PMS and that crazy receptionist-something just snapped in both of us.
Driving Alice home, there was still a lot of tension in the car, and it lingered there up until walking Alice to her apartment. While sitting there, the tension exploded into a shouting match, and this made my grandmother upset.
"I don't want to hear it! Just don't respond to her, Joanna!"
The shouting continued, and so did Alice.
"I don't want you here if you are just going to be shouting!"
"FINE!" Joanna said, "THEN WE ARE LEAVING!"
And off we went. Joanna and I settled things in the car, and we then had a lovely day at the craft store. What occured to me, however was this: Joanna and I were just doing what sisters DO-we fight, yell, swear, and destroy somebody completely, then go to Starbucks. All in a day. Having sisters enables you to say hurtful things without the fear that you burned a bridge. All is forgotten in the time it takes to brew a latte. The sad thing was that our grandmother, who herself had four sisters, couldn't deal with the stupid bickering that comes with the territory-forgoing a nice visit because she couldn't just be a tiny bit empathetic. I have noticed that this is just the way she is-the opposite of my mother, who NEVER passes up the opportunity for a good verbal battle, (ask my fifth grade teacher). If one of her sisters said something nasty about my mother, my grandmother wouldn't stand up for her daughter, it was as though she was always afraid to counter them. Today, while at her house, my mother asked her why she doesn't change something about her life if she wants to-for example, moving around more to get more mobile, and my grandmother changed the subject; something she always does when she just doesn't want to answer an honest question. This makes me think, do I know Alice's true personality? IS this her personality? I feel like there must be something else there, but that it is never shown. I know little things; she likes Ashton Kutcher, for example, but I wonder what pent up opinions or answers are there that she has been sitting on for 90 years? I'll probably never know, so Ashton Kutcher will do for now.
-Kat