Help, I need advice! Last year we were invited to my niece’s house for a family gathering. There were about forty family members who came in from various parts of the country and I was looking forward to enjoying time with them. The entire experience was ruined for me because of my niece’s father-in-law. He’s a very scholarly person, a physician, perhaps even a savant, who has no clue that he is monopolizing your time so that you cannot speak to anyone else. He button-holed me for FIVE hours, talking endlessly to me about his plans for a new house, how his design is rooted in ancient Greek temples, how Greek temples relate somehow to the crucifixion, how stone contains geometric properties that predict world events….on, and on, and on. While the topics are fascinating, I would rather read these things in a book, at my own discretion. When he talks to you, he stares directly into your eyes like an ophthalmologist to assess if you are paying attention. He does not pause between sentences. At the last event, I made many attempts to break away by saying I’m going to get a coffee, or go to the bathroom, or even begin a conversation with someone else standing nearby. The problem, he waits for me outside of the bathroom or makes his way over to the other side of the room to pursue me. One time he was scrolling through his phone as I was talking to someone else, looking for photos he wanted to show me.
I asked my niece about him, and she said that because I was new to him, he found a new victim. My niece is having another gathering in two weeks and I would rather have root canal than attend, but I am obligated to attend because of the rest of the family that will be there. Any advice how to get this leech off of me without being offensive?