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And yet, my head cold rages on.

We made it.  Grandma is still grandma, if flakier and more frail.  Nothing unexpected – she’ll be 87 in a week and has never had a healthy habit in her life.  The fact that she is still alive is amazing, though I would have to say that one good fall with a broken bone, and she’d be toast.  In talking w/Sharyn it’s agreed all around that the “caregiving crew that can’t be called caregivers” needs to be expanded and we’ll be working on that.  The biggest problem is when she is alone, no one gets any peace.  Whenever something pops into her head, she goes to the phone – it’s a pure reflex at this point for her, not a conscious decision, which results in her making everyone else crazy.

This is probably also the last Christmas she’ll have any clue who we are.  Kinda sad, but again, hardly unexpected.  I’d say it could be her last Christmas here on earth, but we’ve been saying that for the last 10 years.

The calendar says it’s Christmas Eve, but you couldn’t prove it by me – the biggest downer of being here at Christmas is that it has never, ever felt anything like Christmas.  Everything that makes Christmas what it is to me is back home, not here.  So, that part fairly well sucks, but it is what it is.  (And though I have fears to the contrary, my grandmother will not live forever and I’ll have many years of finally doing Christmas my way.  Just not this year.)

On the upside, we have made a few brilliant decisions this trip.  The first being the hotel.  (Mad props to my brother for coming up with this idea in the first place.)  We’re at the Renaissance Grand over in Glendale, and it’s really nice.  It’s right next to the town center which has a bucketload of restaurants, the hockey arena and a movie theater – and people under the age of 60.  And given that it doesn’t seem that Phoenix is a big Christmas destination, we got a really good deal on the room to boot.

The second brilliant decision was in making the travel days separate from any interaction with my grandmother.  (This comes from my last trip out here.)  It may sound harsh, but I can deal with US Airways, or my grandmother, but not both in the same day.  Just isn’t going to work.

Last but not least – deciding to fly out of Dulles instead of National.  Amazing how when you decide you will take flights that are convienent for YOU and not anyone else, things are a lot easier.  I hadn’t flown out of Dulles in 10 years and I was blown away at how much better it is than National.  Between having many hours in the morning to get the pets to the kennel (*sob*) and not having to take a death cab to the metro and fight with that ridiculousness (and I’m not even sure our metro station was open) and deal with the service impaired folks at National – it was actually a stress free travel day.

I’m still kicking myself a bit for the length of this trip – we could probably leave day after tomorrow and it wouldn’t make a difference at all in my grandmother’s mind.  But her shrieks of “you won’t be here long enough to get everything done!” from years past kept ringing in my ears as I made the reservations…  Ah well, lessons learned.  (I think I’ll have it all figured out about a week after she dies.  If she ever dies.)

I was initially concerned about this snowstorm and it’s ripple effects on travel on Tuesday – US Airways routinely overbooks their flights in the first place and I can only assume multiple flight cancellations would result in even more overbookings as folks try to reschedule, etc, etc, etc.

And then I talked to my grandmother earlier this evening and realized, so what?  Now, lest you think I am making fun of my grandmother, I am not.  However, I am laughing at the situation, because if I can’t laugh about it, I’ll have to check myself into the insane asylum.

First, she’s not real keen on this visit to begin with.  (This after two years of her complaining that we didn’t visit for long enough or often enough.  This is my 5th trip there in 24 months.)   I know for a fact that she knows she’s getting worse and doesn’t want us to see it, because I want to take her home away from her and stuff her in a nursing home.  (Her words.  Thank you Sharyn for convincing her that was NOT the end game of the Power of Attorney.)  I also just don’t know how much visiting she’s up for – bless her, she is ancient and I know this year will be more tiring for her than others.  (We may find ourselves with more time to explore Phoenix than we expected.)  So, if our flight is canceled or we’re bumped and it takes another day off the trip, I think she’d be letting out a large sigh of relief.

While she isn’t living her life in 1958 or anything, time distortion is a real issue for her.  When every day is the same, and you don’t have anything going on that distinguishes weekdays from weekends and your brain is essentially turning to cement, the days do tend to run together.  That being said, we could probably be there for 3 days in the middle of February, tell her it’s Christmas and she’d think we’d been there a month, so once again, I’m not so worried if we are delayed getting out there.

So, bring on the snow.

And I have yet to see the sun.

Probably a good thing that I did not have any plans to go golfing this week.

In general, I don’t consider Sun City to be a particularly spectacular place, but it does have a couple things going for it.

– Slanted parking spots in most shopping centers.  Much easier to park.

– Toasted Corn Doritos.  (Can’t find these within 50 miles of the DC metro area.  And I’m not sharing.)

– You can buy liquor in the CVS store.  (It still seems weird to me, but I’ll take it.)

Up at the crack of dawn for 8 days of sleep deprivation, malnutrition and emotional waterboarding. Also knows as Christmas in Phoenix with my grandmother.

Oh the joy of travel.

I was convinced that we wouldn’t even survive the cab ride to the airport. Despite SatNav, our driver couldn’t find his way out of the neighborhood to get to the metro. Once we got him on the right route, he developed a lead food and penchant for random lane changing. If that didn’t kill us, I was quite certain we’d die of asphyxiation via cologne.

By some miracle we made ti the airport intact. Got checked in and nicked for $30 to check bags. Got frisked by security for not wearing a skin-tight shirt and then yelled at for attempting to fetch my carry on from the wrong side of the conveyor belt.

On to the gate we were are greeted with the announcement that the flight is oversold. Wonderful job of counting, US Airways!! They needed 4 people to volunteer for another flight. Oh how I wanted to jump up and scream, “Me! Me!!! OH PICK ME!!!!” However, knowing this would not go over well with my grandmother, I stayed silent.

Got on the plane with one infant, two crying toddlers and a barking dog.  (The infant, toddlers & dog are not mine.)  I comment to my seatmate that perhaps this is karma for not volunteering to take another flight.  We take off 30 minutes late because we are a “weight restricted” flight and they had to double check the weight of the plane.  Not even sure what makes a flight “weight restricted”, but it’s nice to know they want to make sure we have enough fuel.

I manage to somehow miss the first call for drinks – the cart was there one second and then 5 rows back – I only blinked.  Oh well – $7 for a Bloody Mary is highway robbery anyway.  I’ve already stolen a pillow that they’ll likely try and charge me $10 for anyway.

I doze back off and wake up again about 2/3 of the way through the flight to discover that my knee has seized up and it hurts like hell.  Two of the three kids are crying and the dog is barking again.  The flight attendants are taking drink orders again and suddenly $7 for a Bloody Mary doesn’t seem so bad.  I dull the knee pain a bit with some Mr & Mrs T’s and Finlandia.  The dog stops barking and the kids settle down and I doze off for the rest of the flight.

Off the plane, get the bags and gimp my way to tthe car rental counter.  Everyone is so cheery and I am decidedly not.  My knee hurts and it’s raining and I’m staring down the barrel of 8 days in God’s Waiting Room Sun City.  I try to be nice, but I don’t think I succeeded.

Finally get to the condo and discover that the compact car isn’t quite as compact as I thought and it barely fits in the garage.  My grandmother is still essentially living in a cold water flat as she refuses to leave the hot water heater on, because who needs hot water on demand anyway?  She also still insists that it only takes 20 minutes to get hot water, which is far short of how long it actually takes.

I pre-emptively vetoed going out for dinner.  My knee still hurts and I have no desire to go head to head with blue haired ladies in Lincoln Town Cars in the rain.  We order in pizza and wings.  I veto potential trips to the bank, as they do not need to occur.  I veto washing the dishes with cold water.  (The hot water heater is still in the ON position as I type.)  I suggest on 3 separate occasions that she should see a doctor and am soundly ignored.  Despite the desert supposedly having a great climate, I cannot breathe because I am allergic to something in this condo.  (I wonder if I should make an appointment now for the sinus infection I’ll have when I get home.)

Oh well.  At least we won’t have to go to the bank multiple times for no reason.

I’m in hate mode at the moment.

Still have to go to Staples, Petco, the cigar shop, and Kohl’s. ATM machine. Ticket and rental car printouts and directions from the airport to the house. Have to get the animals to the kennel. Packing. Figure out what laundry I missed.

This is why Valium should be available over the counter.

Finally got the photos done from Philly!

Reading Terminal Market

Independence Hall

Flower Show

Got back in this afternoon – tired as hell, but what a great little trip. I have SO many damn pictures to go through and right now I can barely see straight, so it will have to wait. This is the view from the top floor of the hotel where my room was:

It’s snowing in Philly today, and no one is freaked out about it. Cars are not spinning out, cab fares have not been doubled, school is in session and yes, it’s definitely different than DC.

Well, what I’ve seen of Philly so far is pretty cool. Granted, I may just be in the fun part of town, but it definitely has a different vibe from DC. (Yes, I have the laptop. Given that I filled 2 of my 3 memory cards on my camera today, bringing it along seems to have been a good idea.)

Amtrak was a great way to get up here – nice to sit and just watch the world go by out the window on the way instead of madly searching for the right exit.

First stop off the train was a shoe shine. My timberlands were looking a little on the sad side. $7 very well spent for some seriously shiny boots.

Dropped off the bags at the hotel and headed out.

First stop – Reading Terminal Market for a quick snack, since it’s right in between the hotel and the convention center. Oh. My. God. I’d been told this was a place I could get food, but I was NOT prepared for this. The place is huge, has EVERYTHING you could possibly want to eat. And not just prepared stuff, fresh meats, seafood, produce. Seriously, whatever you’re in the mood for, they have it. To the point where it is actually somewhat overwhelming. Me? Being the exotic one, I ended up with coffee & a croissant. Hey, it was still early. It’s highly likely I’ll be back over there for breakfast or lunch or something before I leave. Also, seeing the occasional sign in German in the place just warmed my heart.

Then off to the flower show. Wow. I always knew I was a suck gardener, but this really cemented it. I’ll be getting up the rest of the pics later this week – I really think that is the best way to explain the whole thing. You really don’t have to be a garden freak for this – it’s just tons and tons of really pretty flowers and plants and just a plain nice place to wander around. It’s mainly a competition – take your 4H botany competition at the county fair, put it on enough steriods to make the Balco case look like they were dealing tic-tacs, and you have the Philly Flower Show. Over 100 classes of entries, from regular flowers and plants (ie, small irises, hanging plants, etc.) to artistic entries. The artistic entries included miniature arrangements, jewelry made from plants & flowers, landscaping designs for things such as arbors/entryways/whole yards. The artistic entries had to stay in the theme of “Legends of Ireland” and there was just some really lovely work done by these folks. The local nurseries/landscapers/floral designers had exhibits as well, also keeping in the theme, even if there were a couple that were slightly more reminiscent of a Lucky Charms advert. Like I said, I think the pictures can do it more justice than I can.

The flower show also had some culinary demos as well. Caught two of those, and they were pretty good. I expected they’d somehow tie it back into the flower show with something along the lines of cooking w/edible flowers or something like that, but it was just “normal” stuff, but still cool.

First one was a chef from Acme Markets, which I gather is the local version of Wegman’s from the way they talked about it. I felt a little bad for him. First, the “host chef” who is introducing all the chefs doing demos this week made a really big deal abut how Acme donated the cookware and it was SO great even their chef was using it. I could see him cringe a tiny bit over this. It’s non-stick stuff, and I know how I feel about non-stick, and how a certain other chef I know feels about it, and from the look on this guys face it appeared he was trying hard to remind himself “they pay me to do this.” He also had to talk up the store through it, and you could just tell he’d really rather just be talking about the food. He did a pan seared ribeye and mashed sweet potatoes with a blood orange compound butter. He had this kickass ricer/masher he said he’d just gotten from Poland. I tried to get a closer look right after the demo, but the kids from the local culinary school that were recruited for help and cleanup were overly efficient and it had already been dumped in a bucket of suds in the back. Bummer. At one point he also said the words, “I know Rachel Ray says [do it this way], but you don’t want to do it that way – trust me on this.” I’m not sure he made it out alive after that.

Second one was the chefs from LaCroix – apparently a rather high end place here in town. Couldn’t help but notice they were sticking with their stainless steel cookware. They did a sautéed fish with an egg sauce with a pineapple garnish. I’ll have to look it up – it really looked great. The lady next to me was just horrified at the fact that they charge $52 for Sunday brunch. Hey, someone must be paying and frankly, it may very well be worth it. One of the chefs said they had something along the lines of 200 items or some equally insane number.

After going through all the exhibits and demos, it was snack time again. I swear, when I am on vacation I eat constantly. Popped into the Independence Brew Pub, right next to the hotel. Went in based on some good sounding things on the appetizer menu, only to find out half of them aren’t on the “bar menu”. (WTF, it’s all in the same room.) So I ended up with a chicken quesadilla that while it was edible, was truly nothing I’d want coming out of my kitchen. However, the Oatmeal Stout (brewed there) kicks ass.

So, if you ‘re in Philly next to the Reading Terminal Market, hit Independence Brew Pub for the beer, NOT the food. Sure, you probably shouldn’t go to a brew pub for the food in the first place, but really, it’s pub fare, it really shouldn’t be something you can screw up.

The hotel is great – Marriott does a good job of keeping my business. Dinner at Cuba Libre was AWESOME, and will get it’s own write up at some point, most likely after I get some sleep.