Vivi - I seem to have upset you, which makes me sad. I don't want to upset anyone, except possibly Kegs.
And Bob. Sheesh.
"Running interference" just means that he got between me and my parents. In D2 terms, if I were a sorc with no armor or gear and only 1 point left in my health bulb, he's the merc standing in front of me and keeping Big D and Big D's wife away. In this picture, the merc doesn't die instantly when Big D shows up but instead gets 100% more strength and HP. I was 25 when this all went down with my parents so I had no basis for comparison. He was the one who kept saying "This isn't normal. This isn't OK. They can't treat you like this." Up until then I thought it was normal, and I was the problem. That, as you know, is the nature of any kind of abuse - the abused feels like it's their fault and it's something they did.
And as for alcohol, I'm not a drinker by any means. I do have to attend very high end dinners for my job, where I have to socialize with executives and government officials and make small talk on a topic I know almost nothing about. This is, as I'm sure you can imagine, pretty stressful. I've gotten better at it over the years, and that's the main reason I attended that etiquette dinner a few weeks ago. However I have found that just one drink is helpful so that I can loosen up a bit and not be quite so uptight. Y'all know how uptight I am.
But seriously, IRL I'm not often relaxed enough to be as sparkling and witty as I am on here. I have a very strict rule about only 1 drink at these things though, as the waiters will keep pouring the wine unless you physically stop them, and it is my job, so it would be disastrous for me to get loopy there. I have to find the right balance.
So please don't be mad at me, my dear. That would make me too sad.