Jill

I survived. ( Read more... )Thank goodness for the holidays, eh?

Thanksgiving, we drove up to Deer River to visit my godparents (also known as my mom's step brother Randy and his wife Kay).

Interesting things of note:
- There is still a giant bald eagle's nest up above a power line near Remer on Hwy 6.

- We passed by a sign that said something like "Rich and Fay Smith" by a house. My mother's name is Faye and I proceeded to tell Tim about her story that when Hurricane Fay came through, it was so windythe "e" blew off. He snorted and said "Now I know where you get it from."

- My grandma (mom's step mom) wasn't told that we would be there, so she was happily surprised when we showed up an hour early. (I forgot how long it took to drive up there, so we left early)*

- My cousin Angie was there along with her nearly 6-month old daughter Georgia, her husband Chris (the tattoo artist), and Chris's parents and brother. Angie brought a veggie tray and deviled eggs on which I munched quite happily.

- Kay's mother turned 95 this summer and was also at the dinner. Georgia is her eightieth great grand child. Holy crap. We had a lovely conversation about car crumple zones and our lowest lake and river levels in years. Then she proceeded to inform me, with complete aplomb "If it's yellow, let it mellow. If it's brown, flush it down." That's her motto for water conservation.

- After stuffing ourselves on stuffing and numerous delectable dishes, Kay took Tim and I on a 1 mile trot through the woods on the ski trail. (It's a Minnesota thing, methinks) You learn much about a person when you're a mile into the wilderness. Apparently, retirement is a scary thing when it's just a couple years away.

- The drive home was uneventful other than stopping to pick up the paper to see the ads for today.

- I hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving. :)

* I also forgot the exact directions to the house, and so went solely on the "follow the ski trail sign" which worked remarkably well.

Interesting day today.

Amanda and I went for our usual walk around the building at lunch time but didn't get very far today. There was a dark follower.

A young cat (a little smaller than History) with a blue bell collar but no name tag. Very friendly. She mewed quite a bit and rubbed all over our legs. No struggle when we picked her up.

We had the front desk call the Humane Society, but they don't pick up animals. Instead, they gave us the number of the Animal Control Officer. But that just went to voice mail. So I asked my boss and she asked her Account Rep and we took kitty across town to the Humane Society.

There is only one house next to our building but nobody answered when we knocked and rang the door bell. Soft-hearted me wrote on the admittance form "If no home found, call Jill @ ..."

She really was a sweet cat. Apparently she'd been out there for at least 7 hours as the Press Foreman mentioned seeing her at 5:30 this morning when he got in. The only other thing I can think of is that she was a trucker's cat who got out on accident. But Amanda noticed that there was some kind of bite or something on her shoulder and that her whiskers looked a little singed on one side. Poor thing.

Tim's response: "If you get a second cat, then you have to give me a hummer every day."

He was joking, but boys sure can dream some times...

Other interesting note: I came home and Tim was noticeably agitated and very hostile towards the squaking black birds in the back yard. Betty, his step-mother called this afternoon. Apparently his dad was admitted to the hospital yesterday and had two more stints put in the arteries by his heart today. He was still in the hospital and will be released tomorrow.

The last time his dad had problems like this was two weeks into our relationship. I was in Boston for the first time and got a phone call from Tim saying that his dad had a heart attack. I didn't quite know what to do. I'd only been dating Tim for two weeks and I was on the edge of the continent and would be for a few more days.

Today, I told Tim that he should just call work and say he's coming in late so he can go see his dad in the hospital. He hemmed and hawed over it, but finally called. We drove over to the hospital (a whole four blocks away) and navigated through the halls to the private riverview room Art was in.

He was wide awake and seemed pretty feisty. Tim's sister Sandra and her son Craig were right behind us. We visited for quite a bit and didn't leave until about 7:30. We told him he'd have to stick around for a while yet because he needed to meet his first granddaughter. That'll be a few years yet. He agreed and smiled at the thought of having a granddaughter and how his two daughters would fight over spoiling her.

Tim was pretty quiet when we got home (other than the daily hummer thing) and finally left for work at 8:10.

It was pretty hard walking into that hospital. I was worried I'd get all emotional thinking about my grandfather or my father, but I did ok. Told the story about my sunburned butt and gave everyone a giggle. It's got to be scary, seeing your dad in a hospital bed.

Third interesting note:
Our friend Trent, who was one of our personal attendants at the wedding, had complained about not getting an invitation - even after I insisted that I had sent it. We mailed those things out at the end of February. I just received today Trent's invitation back from the USPS. I spelled his last name wrong. Not Tullis, but Tulus. They put "Addressee Not Known" and then mailed it back to me over three months later. WTF?

Just spoken by me: "Oh my gahd, that's Mandy and Shaun!"

heh.

I am currently attempting to type up the programs and print them, but am a bit stumped on the "Letter to the guests" section. So I've been clicky-ing around and somehow landed on this site. The Red picture in the middle there? That's my cousin Mandy at her wedding last August!

That is all.

Giddy and worried

All at the same time.

Received the first response in the mail today!!!!

I was so excited! "Oh, who could it be? Who could it be?" I thought. And then opened it.

"Who's that?"

Tim's response: "Dear God, they're bringing the whole clan!"

One of the late additions to our guest list (courtesy of an over-zealous future sister-in-law and a procrastinating future husband) is some cousins. Having never met them, and as his family tends to be much older than my own, I assumed that when addressing the envelope to Mr. and Mrs. Cousin, that was the extent of the family. But no. The response card says "Number of persons: 8".

Tim immediately starts thinking we won't have enough room. And, well... We have a permit for 149 people at the park and invited (at initial count and not knowing family sizes) a little over 170. All of the books say to assume only 70% will show. So, if that is true, 120 people will show so that leaves plenty of room for this couple's six children.

I'm not trying to sound ungrateful or horrible! Just uninformed and unprepared for that first response card...

Now don't all of you other people start having six kids and wanting to bring them too! Unless, of course, they are unbelievably adorable and will distract from the crazy, harried lady in the big white dress. Then you can bring them.

Christmas Eve was spent in a more-unusual-than-normal way.

You see, my parents live in a suburb of Tampa. Next door is a couple, Trisha and Anthony, and next door to them is another couple, Ray and Tina.

Ray and Tina are both from Panama. Ray "pushes tin" as an air-traffic controller and Tina collects all things collectable. Ray loves the run from Guyana. Ray, Tina, and my family were all invited over to Trisha and Anthony's house for drinks and food on Christmas Eve.

Trisha is from Trinidad with grandparents from India (very lovely woman whose speach is just musical). Anthony is from Guyana and can't sit still for very long without offering more rum (of which my poor hung-over father proclaimed he'd get him back for) or changing the CD or making my dad a tiny paper boat as a present. Very jovial company.

Trisha made some absolutely delicious food! We had corn soup which was a little concoction of meat and corn and various seasonings and then some curry goat which had the texture of deliciously melt-in-your-mouth roast beef and was delightfully spicy. There was also some roast pork with a spicy pepper sauce to dip it in, various baked desserts, homemade chex mix, and a variety of "I'm not telling you what is in this alcoholic drink" drinks.

Definitely a different kind of Christmas Eve.

In my mother's backyard there is a lemon tree, a lime tree, a tangerine tree, a grapefruit tree, an orange tree, a basil plant, and some tomato plants that are growing like weeds! Not to mention the cute little lizards skittering all about! In her front yard is an array of local fowl -- a wood stork, many egrets, and shorter white birds, as well. Apparently they like balogne, but much preferred the left-over catfish I had for lunch one day.

Having one of those odd days where I don't know what time or day it is. Tim and I both feel like it's at least 9 or 10pm when in reality it's hardly past 6.

I really hated work this week. I had to get the fuck out of there.

I had an interesting visit with my cousin Diane in Sartell. She gave me my grandfather's Bronze Star, letter of Commendation, and one of his dog tags to deliver to my mom this weekend. She also called her grandmother "a shit". But Tim became her son Aidan's new best friend.

Friday we hadn't even gotten out of the city limits before my car's "Check Engine" light went on. I was not about to continue on a 700 mile road trip through the uninhabited desolation that can be I-94 through Wisconsin when my car is questionable. $200 later, my O2 sensor is replaced and my tires are rotated. Tim, who hates driving long distances and can fall asleep just driving home from work, was a doll and drove all the way to Madison, all around Madison, and all the way home from Madison. Sometimes our topics of conversation were, shall I say, "improper", but it kept him awake and me amused.

If you had a pet pygmy goat, what would you name it? Tim suggested "Bucky". I forget what my ideas were...

The parents had been drinking free beer at the Holiday Inn Express in the hot tub with my brother for a few hours by the time we got in Madison. My mother hates her job as well. She jokingly said that every morning she and my dad debate going to work at all, but my brother's tuition bill keeps 'em plugging away, for now, at least.

I think driving in Florida, having a couple free beers, and just being crazy and borderline senile assisted us in our maneuvering through the maze that is Madison, Wisconsin. There are two big lakes in the city with a large capitol building in the small narrow strip of land between. It makes for some creative navigating at times. At one point, we followed my dad going from a parking lot, over the sidewalk and curb back onto the road on our way to dinner.

We went to a SCSU Husky hockey game last night versus the NDSU Fighting Sioux. The Sioux won 3 to 2. The second period was the best and we were in row four on the corner of the rink in the sweet seats Tim "won" in our company's silent auction.

We then met superna, viksin, Christel's cousin Heather, and their friend Lorna at The Press for the Slow Children show. Drinks were had. I tried hooking Lon up with a chick from work. He mentioned he prefers blondes more than once. I loved Slow Kids' first set as it included Corrosion of Conformity, old-school Soundgarden, Alice In Chains, old school Filter, and some Type O Negative for Christel to shake her booty to. And the girl in the bondage pants on the dance floor was totally making eyes at me. And there was a ripped navy blue girlie thong on the floor of the girl's bathroom.

Today we went to Tim's youngest nephew's 9th birthday party. We had ribs, rolls, veggies, potato salad and corn for dinner. The three-level chocolate cake was delicious. Craig always forgets my name (but at least he didn't call me Ginny this time. heh) and he was very excited about his new Harry Potter GBA game and Yu-Gi-Oh cards.

I'm in a bit of a funk at the moment as I gained 2 pounds last week when I was sick and didn't feel like keeping track of my cough drops, this week isn't looking much better, what with the tuna steak pre-Thanksgiving with the family in Madison and Craig's birthday party today in Rice. Next week looks worse with Thanskgiving in Rice, a possible day-after-Thanksgiving Thanksgiving with Jody and her St Cloud friends, and another Thanksgiving feast on either Saturday or Sunday with Tim's friends.

I am not looking forward to working the next three days. I need a vacation.