Lighting the bulb of brilliance

I agree with tw. There's nothing worse than having to deal with the family when its a bunch of them against one of you. "Mano a mano" is always best. Sometimes you may need allies. Even one is better than none. My family, gathered together, used to drive me to drink. This was bad since they were all tee-totaling Southern Baptists. I almost subsided into solitary alcoholic despair. Then one night I discovered my cousin Sheila up in her room with a bottle of Jack Daniels of her own. We sat in her room and passed the bottle back and forth and exchanged family horror stories 'till dawn. Me and Sheila. Yeah. Neither of us ever went to a family reunion again. We were free.