Good News: Randy was moved to Fairfax Hospital, had surgery this morning to remove blood clots(??) and will probably be able to go home on Friday. Merry Christmas!
6 hours into Grandma’s visit, and it’s going…well…as well as could be expected I suppose.
First some things I have convinced myself I should not be concerned with, even though maybe I should. When she’s stressed about a particular issue, she repeats herself. At first glance, it kinda freaked me out, but then I realized the couple things she was repeating were things that were freaking her out. The more frazzled I get about any issue, the more I tend to obsessively focus on it. Second, poor Snoopy cat is going to be only known as the “pretty black kitty” cause she’s said she can’t remember his name to save her life. She remembers Mox and Target, but Snoopy is screwed, cause she says she keeps thinking it should be some elegant name cause he’s got such an elegant look about him - and he is so NOT elegant in real life, and well, Snoopy isn’t the name you think of for a cat anyway.
She’s got friends who want her to move to the Forum (assisted living) and she doesn’t want to. She likes where she is. I did manage to get her to promise that if she starts to feel uncomfortable on her own, she’d consider it. (This is a woman that gave up her license voluntarily, so I am not too worried.)
She had a crappy day starting with her cab to the airport showing up over 45 minutes late, which I can understand throwing her into a tizzy from the get-go. She made the plane, and while picking her up I near had to punch out a US Air rep who kept saying, “I need this wheelchair” as I tried to take over. (She always gets a chair at the airport cause hoofin’ it all over National when you have a cane and have been sitting on a plane all day is NOT FUN OR EASY.) I pointed out to the rep that a) it’s not like it would fit in my car and b) she’d have to wait until we were damn well good and done with it, meaning through baggage check and until the car came around. She finally relented and let me take over when she realized I was dead serious and if necessary I would body check her skinny ass into a wall and go along my merry way.
Apparently last year some things were stolen from her house (she assumes while she was here) - haven’t been able to get out of her if it was someone who had access to the house or someone quietly picked the lock knowing she was gone… The things that were taken were things she doesn’t use regularly so she didn’t even know things were gone until much later. If I ever find out who did it, there is going to be such a fucking beatdown. She drives me up a wall, but you don’t fuck with my family.
She is NOT happy that my brother hasn’t secured work yet. She has absolutely no concept of what it is like to be completely burned out from a job - he’s needed this time off, and I certainly don’t begrudge him of it. She’s still convinced that he can’t possibly afford to be out of work for a while.
Despite this, I went ahead and told her I am going back to school. She wanted to know how long it would take and when I would be working again… I pulled 2 years out of my ass. (Cause I didn’t see the question coming, cause I am an idiot.) I pointed out that the proceeds from my townhouse would more than cover my expenses for multiple years, but I don’t think she believed me. I also pointed out that one of my coworkers had a freakin’ HEART ATTACK and maybe it wasn’t the healthiest place to be.
The next two weeks will likely contain a lot of “you don’t not have to worry about us financially” reassurances. We let her know that the bulk of the estate, though in our names, is with our broker, who is a good friend of the family and honestly feels a level of responsibility towards us (he’s sort of the good uncle who is also a broker) so if we need money, we have to go through him and he’s not gonna let us do anything stupid. (I did not mention that I am separately saving for a condo at the beach. My one smart move of the evening.)
The lamppost came up again. At least we could say the wiring is fixed (and at 1/2 the price of the estimate!) - we just have to find a replacement lamp fixture for the top and hook it up. (I honestly thought I could get it from the electrician the way I buy replacement stuff from the plumber…)
Almost every request this evening has been directed at
The chair I happen to be sitting in had a wine box next to it… One that I brought home w/ 5 bottles of wine some time ago from Il Vino. I was quite sure that I’d taken all the bottles out and the box was empty and just happened to be sitting there and we’d not gotten it out to the trash. Nope, 3 bottles in it! So, took them out and was putting them on the counter and
The notebook that has my brains in it has disappeared. This is not good. This is SO not good.
Grandma is totally panicking about Christmas. She wants to get me a sweater, and I know the shop she wants to get it from. It will be fine, but frankly, I’d rather have another thermal top or even better, an Icebreaker top… So…do I let her get me what she wants to get me (with me driving to said shop and checking sizes) and keep the tags/receipt, or have
The “D’OH!!!!” moment of the night. (Well, one of many…) When the new 4 door Wranglers came out, I was ready to go jump on one IMMEDIATELY. But - how do you explain to Grandma that the color of your car has changed? (I wouldn’t necessarily expect her to remember the exact style.) Well, as we were waiting for
