InRealLife, I think you may be reading something into this that isn't there. I wasn't being fake or lying. It was a three day event. Lodging within a 30 mile radius has been booked for months. I thought she would be working two of the days. I did not expect her to come all three days. I would have been much more specific about the invitation if I had known she would take time off.

It's like inviting an out of town friend to your place for dinner when you assume they have a hotel room, having them accept, and then they let you know that they will spend the weekend with you as well-- only more complicated, because my invite was not specific enough in the first place and it's my mother.

The event was good and I managed to avoid her for most of it, but I am definitely going to remember this the next time I think I should be nice and invite her. She has become increasingly annoying/crazy over the years (and started off at a pretty high level of annoying/crazy). She has an imaginary auto-immune disease with disgusting symptoms that she likes to talk about in detail. She doesn't stop talking. She asks you a question and then interrupts to change the subject. She has strange vendettas because she takes things personally and is one of these people who always has to make things difficult because it's the 'right' thing to do (but her idea of right is pretty far out there).

She kept copying everything I did and trying to follow me around. I had to be really vague about my plans. Thank god cell service was not working well.

If I had suggestions about something she might like, she ignored them and instead chose workshops that were wholly irrelevant to her interests (and then complained about them to me). I tried to warn her the first time, but then just gave up. Let her be miserable if she wants.

At one point, she told me that she had decided to leave early and asked if I was at anything interesting. Forty minutes later I texted back to say that I was at X workshop, figuring it was safe. Five minutes after that, I get a text from her saying that she was sitting right behind me!!!!!

I think it would have been a very different experience if she had not been there. I was so drained from dealing with her during the off hours that I didn't have the energy to be very social during the event itself.