Me and My Imaginary Friends

The only true currency in this bankrupt world is what you share with someone else when you're uncool.

Monday, July 23, 2007

Someday I'll think of a better title than Update

Friday night, I had to go home before heading over to Mama's house for the evening.  While I was there, The Doctor called to tell me that some very dear old friends from the south side were at her house.  They wanted to see me and were waiting until I could get over there.  I headed over to The Doctor's house to see the parents of The African Hag and an older couple who kinda adopted my sisters when they were single and regular/auxiliary pioneering. 

I'd seen African Hag's parents sixth months ago when she was in town.  (Should I say "in town" or "in this hemisphere?")  But it had been a while since I'd seen the other couple.  I'd heard that he wasn't doing too well but he looked fine.  In fact, everyone except African Hag's mother looked basically the same.  AH's mom has had some health issues that restrict her movement so she's a little slower than she used to be but she's basically hanging in there. 

True to form, AH's dad drove and had car issues.  A cable had come loose somewhere in his engine.  In order to start his car he had to pop the hood and hold it while someone else turned the ignition.  It's nice to know that some things never change - the mechanic never has a car in perfect working order. 

We went to dinner at a local Mexican place that I can't stand.  The place did not make any points with me Friday night, either.  They sat us outside (thankfully it was cool enough to handle) right next to the incredibly loud musician.  As I blogged at the time and has been wildly debated about since then, I HATE LOUD musicians.  I never go to a restaurant with the intention of listening to someone else.  I always go in order to enjoy the company of the people I'm with.  If the music is too loud for me to have a conversation with the four people sitting closest to me, it is time to turn it down.  I'm 34 years old.  (Isn't that right?  Sometimes I forget my age.)  I was eating with people in their 60's, 70's and 80's.  If I was having a difficult time hearing (with my famous dog-girl ears), I know they couldn't hear a thing.  We complained but nothing was done to correct the situation.

Still, it was nice to hang out and drink margaritas with old (and I do mean old) friends.

Super Mom got into town late that night.  I hung around and played with the kids for a little while before I finally went home for the evening.

Saturday morning brought bookstudy and more hanging out at Mama's.  My mother's brother and sister came back.  That was the third time they've been to see her in the last two months.  I really enjoyed their visit because I got to look through old photos my uncle brought.  The Doctor took a big stack of selected photos back to her house to scan so that we would have lasting copies.  Eventually, we got out Mama's old family photos and found some that even my uncle had never seen.  I was shocked to find out that we have a photo of my mother's father as a baby.  I still can't wrap my mind around it.  He had to have been born in the Aughts.  We don't have any photos of my grandparents on my father's side like that.  We have one or two of great-grandparents, but no baby portraits.  I found several photos of my grandparents and their parents and siblings (on both sides).  It was very interesting.

Saturday afternoon, T helped me load a few items up over at Stinky Garbage Trailer.  I didn't have as much as I thought I did.  Some of it turned out to be empty boxes that I decided to leave in case the new owners need them.  I still don't have confirmation that the new owners ARE the new owners.  They have to be approved by the park.  I'm trying to be patient but I do want an answer soon.

Sunday brought a low-pressure weather headache.  I always get one on the first day of a drizzly/overcast day.  I don't get headaches when we have good old-fashioned thunderstorms - only on days that are gray and blah when the sky is only going to spit on you a couple of times.  On those kinds of days, I wake up about an hour or two before time to really get up and feel the headache coming on.  If I were to get out of bed and take my various medications right then, I could be rid of it for the rest of the day.  But usually the urge to sleep outweighs the urge to medicate and I deal with a lingering headache until around mid-afternoon.  That was the case yesterday. 

After the meeting, I let my new cleaning lady follow me home.  She got a look-see at the first two floors to know what she's up against.  She said it wasn't as bad as I make it out to sound (which I knew).  But I was shocked to hear her say that it would take her 5 - 6 hours to get those two floors into the condition she wanted them to be in.  On the phone, she'd mentioned that time frame and since I knew my house really wasn't as bad as I make it out to be, I thought it would be around 3 - 4 hours of work for her.  But that doesn't count the "private" floor.  I'm going to take advantage of Super Mom being here this week to use a couple of nights to conquer the clutter and get the "private" floor into a state fit to show to her.

I spent the rest of the day with Mama.  Super Mom and her kids were there.  Eventually, my whole family showed up because a sister we'd been very close to when I was a tween came up to visit.  This sister (the self-proclaimed Frazzled Mom) has five kids.  Her oldest daughter is one year younger than I am.  Her youngest son is the same age as Poly.  He and Poly grew up as BFF and Poly was in his wedding last year.  What's so bizarre is that the dude has a one month old son!  How weird is it to hold the baby of someone you remember holding as a baby?  (OK, technically I remember holding his older brother because he didn't exist when I moved away from that congregation.  But I certainly remember holding Poly as a baby and this kid is the same age as Poly.) 

We put Mama to bed as soon as everyone was out of the house.  That was a really big crowd to have in the room with her.  She likes to see people but gets pretty confused when multiple conversations happen at once.  I left my photo album project with her.  She seemed like she was interested.  I don't know how long she will be able to do it at any one time.  But everyone in the family seemed to understand it and think that it was a good idea.  Super Mom and I tried to watch an old movie with Mama on Sunday.  Old movies have always been Mama's favorite thing in all the world.  She had a difficult time following the plot even though I'm sure she's seen "Roman Holiday" several times.

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