CafeChatNoir

One week to go. Not sure I’ll make it…

Had some Festivus action here yesterday, my brother said the airing of the grievances actually went quite well and I did stay exceptionally calm. Hopefully I’ve gotten across to her that the constant second-guessing has GOT to stop, I am NOT like either of my parents and that she can’t expect me to be like them, and despite the fact that it doesn’t really look like we know what we’re doing, we actually do.

& , the headphone info is much appreciated, sadly, the suggestion would not go over well at all. (Have confirmed this with my brother, and he’s much better with anything regarding my grandmother.) I asked him if he was spending time in the basement popping Valiums off a forged scrip, as calm as he is, but no, he can just tune her out. God, I wish I could do that. But he also agreed that 13 hours a day of very loud TV is quite grating. It also doesn’t help that CourtTV (Her fav!) has the WORST volume control of any cable channel I’ve ever run into.

Tonight’s MO was “get gramma likkered up and to bed early” - well, not really, but it kinda worked out that way. (Note to self: Get more Jamesons tomorrow for more Irish Coffees.) Of course, this means she’ll be up that much earlier in the morning… Dinner was uneventful, with the usual dropping of some extra cash on the table as we left. Grandma tips like a typical senior citizen - not a judgment, just a fact. So, I make sure we make up for it appropriately, especially considering that the servers always seem to recognize the situation and are on top of things accordingly. However, given how she was chomping at the bit to get out to dinner before 5 PM, either a) she feels my cooking sucks, or b) we need to move dinner up earlier. The problem is that eating as early as we did, I managed about 3 bites and I was done - just not hungry. My brother was in the same boat.

I am freakin’ exhausted, and it’s certainly not like I’ve actually been DOING anything this past week. I can only attribute it to the fact that I haven’t slept for shit since she got here, since I am basically always listening to be ready for her to either come barging in my room at 2AM to inform me that there is a light on somewhere in the house, or that she’s up and around in the morning and the remote is basically nothing more than a freakin’ brick to her (not her fault, bad vision + remote she’s never used = worthless piece of plastic, it just is what it is.), so one of us really needs to be up so we can get the TV on, etc. I am very grateful to for the mornings he’s heard her first and gotten up and when I hear him downstairs, I know I can sleep a little longer.

She is usually up between 5:30 & 6 AM when she’s at home. Thank god she’s not adjusted to east coast time yet, cause 7:30 is bad enough. In my degenerate, irresponsible, unemployed student status, I’ve just let my sleep schedule shift a bit to fit where it wants to be - I don’t sleep until noon or anything like that, but I am not bright & shiny at 7:30 either.

My brother is also aware of the fact that we’re at each other’s throats and it’s because she’s here and we’re pretty much constantly spending time in the same room, which we don’t ever normally do. I told him I couldn’t wait to be alone in the house (even if he was here) - as he said, “Even when I’m here, I’m not really here.” - he’s quite good at arriving and just disappearing. :)

OMFG, now I am the very bad granddaughter AGAIN. Apparently there was a window open in her room and I never noticed it (hell, it was the same temp outside as inside when we got the room ready!) - I’m sure she thinks I’m trying to freeze her out or give her pneumonia.