Bed head

I had bed head when I went to visit the kids. My poor hair had been caught, snagged and pulled for over two hours and was a fright.

I had asked my son on our last phone call the day before I left if he wanted anything, and his answer was, no. But I thought of their living room with only two chairs (one a plastic outdoor chair and the other a wooden kitchen chair I'd brought them) and decided that they needed more furniture. They also had talked of inviting my son's "brother" down to visit at some future date. He would drive down with me and be good company, I love that kid. But there only were two beds at the apartment, a futon on the floor and the blow-up bed.

So I decided to take the bottom bunk of the metal bunk beds. I'd bought them used when son was three and have utilized them ever since. In fact I sleep on one of them, in my bedroom now. But the other one was up in the loft and could be used for a couch or a bed at the kids' apartment. I'd used one of the bunk beds for a couch in the living room many times when I was poor, until finally we had a real couch and overstuffed chairs in the living room. It would be a good start for them.

Getting the bunk bed down from the loft was a challenge all by myself. Even getting it apart was a challenge! The first thing my son asked when he saw it was, "I supposed you scratched up the walls of the loft!?" But I didn't, was very careful--with the furniture. Wish I'd been more careful with my back as taking that heavy bed down two flights of stairs, outside and into the jeep all by myself was probably more than I was supposed to do. I wasn't supposed to carry anything heavy nor bend forward. Needless to say, I paid for my stupidity on this...

Getting the bunk bed into the jeep was the worst challenge. At first it didn't seem to fit and I had to keep leaning and shoving on it to be able to get the hatch door closed. When it was finally all inside the jeep, the (open) springs were jutting over the front seats. I had to drive two hours and twenty minutes with my head scrunched down and my hair getting torn at by the springs. Changing lanes on the interstate was exciting too, as I couldn't see in the back of the jeep and lost hair trying to turn my head to see out the sides. It was quite a drive. I have to say that I enjoyed the drive home much more!

The kids were very happy with their new bed/couch. I had to go and lie down on the cool kitchen floor to ease my back. Although I told him what I was going to do, son came into the kitchen, saw me and said with concern, "Should I call an ambulance?" But no, it wasn't that back although one of those Cortisone shots would have felt good at that point! Or those electrode-thingys.

Son's roomie and ex-girlfriend thought I should use one of those scooters when we went to the store they work in for the second time. I've been too proud to use one of those but in a strange city where nobody knows me, why not? And it was a relief to be able to concentrate on the conversation instead of walking and coping with the pain. When my Mom called last night to wish me a Happy Birthday, I told her about the scooter and suggested she should use one to go shopping!

Glad to be home

I'm better today, this morning, even though I woke up to another bout of sciatica. I'm looking forward to attending both of my regular churches today (would have missed them if I had stayed as long as planned). I looked it up and it was June 22 when I last went to visit son and girlfriend which is what, four weeks ago? Son thought it was only three weeks, so that should have told me something! Although it had sounded like he and Girlfriend were looking forward to my visit. But there were just so many little things piled on top of each other besides the ones I already mentioned in my lament from last night:

Son is thinking of breaking up with Girlfriend, and I thought they were a happy couple. This was the biggest and most major bummer.

Girlfriend hates the microwave I brought them last time. It was the one son had used when he moved out previously. It's old but large and powerful and works well.

While son and I were moving around furniture in the living room, I kept moving the cords and other things in the way (as I backed up) but one time forgot to look and backed into the very tall torchiere lamp I had brought them last time. I loved that lamp in my own living room, it made the vaulted ceiling sparkle (there are sparkles in the paint!). The lamp fell over and got broken. I had carried it downstairs, out the door, in the jeep, driven miles with it, then up the stairs to their apartment all without mishap--then weeks later, knock it down while moving furniture around.

Well, there are lots more little things, it just wasn't a good visit, period. So I'll leave it there. I still have half of the weekend left. Hope you are enjoying your weekend!

A self-indulgent post

Yes, I was supposed to be gone all this weekend, not back until late on Sunday night. But things didn't go as nicely as I had planned, plus I was feeling extra-sensitive for some reason this weekend. I normally am overly sensitive but it turned practically into a depression. I usually can keep my head up and keep swimming despite feeling down or blue. But this weekend I just couldn't, and so instead of writing privately in my notebook journal, as I really ought, I'm being self-indulgent and writing here in the blog.

Let's start at the beginning, and no, I won't bore you with the intricate details but more of an outline form:

(1) I loaded up the washer and dryer into the jeep all by myself. They're apartment-sized, not the full-sized, but the washer is still quite heavy and both of them were rather awkward to fit into the jeep. I also loaded up a bunch of other things, like chairs, golf clubs, vacuum cleaner, full boxes, etc.

(2) No, I shouldn't have done that by myself. I've already been suffering from sciatica, which sounds like a funny little granny ailment but isn't at all funny. The first time I had it I fainted and every time since then have wanted to scream with pain--it's that bad. If you don't know what sciatica is, try looking it up in Google. I did, even though I unfortunately knew what it was. It was reassuring to know that I wasn't being melodramatic in my description which is: like a butcher knife stuck into my thigh and twisted back and forth! On Google I found a diary sort of thing by a young girl who described it almost exactly that way, the way I've been describing it. And others like that, too.

OK, I've already lost the outline form and have gone into those intricate details-- but I bet you aren't that surprised!

(3) I drove down to see son and his girlfriend, stopping on the way to buy the particular fast food that girlfriend loves which isn't available anywhere near where they live. Nobody was home. But they were expecting me and had left the door unlocked. My little ex-dog was glad to see me!

(4) After 5 hours of waiting and boredom I sort of figured I might not be seeing them until the next day, especially because Friday night was the launching of the new Harry Potter book. I had known that they were going to go there shortly before midnight, but didn't know that they weren't going to be there early in the evening to greet me and help unload the jeep (they live on the second floor). I brought up pretty much everything but the washer and dryer, also took the dog for a short walk.

(5) They did finally come home, apologized for the lack of greeting and brought me the brand new Harry Potter book! We talked for about an hour, then went to bed. I got the very comfortable air bed in the spare bedroom.

(6) I got up shortly after 7:00 a.m. and they didn't get up until well after 12 noon. So guess what? More hours of boredom, another short walk for the dog, getting and reading the paper, etc. They had carried the little lamp into their bedroom, so the light wasn't good enough to start reading the Harry Potter book.

(7) By this time my back was killing me and I was feeling very down. I suggested to them that I just wanted to go back home. They were somewhat upset about this but son's girlfriend had to work so we brought her there and came back home. I insisted that he unload the washer and dryer out of the jeep so I could go home when I wanted to leave. He disappeared upstairs (I think to get the dog) but when he didn't return right away, I took both items out of the jeep myself. He did carry them upstairs, though as I couldn't have done that.

(8) Son moved his computer and table into the living room, with my help. I helped him move the TV and entertainment center over to a wall. Then he sat and played on his computer, put the 4th Harry Potter movie in the DVD for me and ate some of the food I'd brought for girlfriend. He (like his girlfriend, earlier) insisted that he wanted me to stay, yet I wasn't feeling very welcome! I found the home-cooked food that I had brought them last time rotting in their refrigerator, so I dumped it out and then washed my dishes. I didn't do up all the dishes lying around nor clean the apartment like I did the last time I visited them.

(9) I left when the movie was done, son carried down my heavy suitcase. Gee, I sure wouldn't have needed all that stuff for one night! While watching the movie I did eat a small pizza (one of those little frozen ones that you bake) all by myself, which wasn't good, but I was hungry by that time. As I was driving the couple of hours to get back home, I did wonder if I had returned to visit them too soon? Yet they had encouraged me to come down again and we had planned the exact date according to their work schedules.

(10) So now I am home again and glad of it, even though it's a day earlier then planned. The real estate guy had left a message on my answering machine about renewing the listing contract. It made me tired to realize that I will have to explain to him why I want to list with another company (his company barely advertised my house).

So, I'm finally done lamenting over my "lost" weekend and ready to go to bed now. I feel much better after writing all this down even if it was quite the "poor me" self-indulgent post! Thanks for reading (if you managed to get this far...!) But hey, I have the new Harry Potter book.

extended weekend

What a great weekend I had! It got extended for these past two days, Monday and Tuesday, because then I got sick. But let's get back to the great weekend.

I drove to my son and his girlfriend's apartment in a distant city. I hadn't seen him since April Fool's Day, and for the two months before that time he had spent most of his non-working time in that city with his girlfriend. After a long day of work on Friday, I loaded up my vehicle with the things he'd asked for, things of his that he couldn't take down there in his little car when he moved. So I fit in a computer desk chair, a bedside table, a floor lamp, the large old, heavy microwave that I used when he was 6 years old. He and his roommates had used it in his apartment here in town. I also brought some of his clothes, towels, dishes and other things. At first I wondered why I was riding a bit low but then realized the vehicle was packed full!

I followed the MapQuest map that I printed off and stopped at what I thought was about 20 miles away, in a parking lot and called my son, as he had asked me to do, to make sure he was home. It only took me a few more minutes before I was there! I had been driving in what looked like the middle of nowhere (but a very pretty, rural nowhere) and suddenly there were houses and there was his street! Girlfriend was working but son got me settled in the spare room and we unloaded all his stuff from my jeep. He was happy to see me and also pleased to get some more of his things. We spent some happy time catching up and then had to go and pick up girlfriend from her work at 9:00.

In fact during the weekend, we ended up at their work several times. It's kind of their home away from home. Both work long hours there, plus they buy just about anything that they need from that store. Having an employee discount helps, and it's a superstore with groceries, clothing, furniture, hardware and just about everything! They had a karaoke contest there on Saturday while girlfriend had to work again. Son had purposefully taken the weekend off to visit with me. That was one of the reasons he was so disappointed when I first told him that I had decided not to go (but changed my mind, of course)

I found out that sleeping on an airbed is really really comfortable. Much more so than my regular bed here at home. Well, actually the first night wasn't as comfortable. My son pumped up the airbed but told me that it had a leak. He offered to take it back and exchange it during the night (the store is open all night) if it wasn't working for me. The bed steadily was losing air so when I laid on it, the air came out with a persistant hissssssss. But the air didn't come out evenly so the bed tossed me around a bit, even into the wall once before it totally deflated. I thought it was hilariously funny--until it totally went flat and I was on the floor. I don't know what I was thinking but I can't sleep on the floor, can't even sleep on a sleeping bag because of my injured back.

I had brought down a bank of various sized pillows to serve as a backrest. I got up and moved some of the larger, flatter ones underneath me and laid back down. That didn't work well. It was 2:00 AM and girlfriend had to work at 7:00, so I really didn't want to wake up the kids saying, "Can you go and exchange the airbed now?" They don't even have a couch or recliner or even a large chair to use. I thought longingly of the back of my jeep, and even considered going out there to sleep! But that would wake up the dog and everybody else. I looked around the room and there was a pile of clean clothes lying by the door. I took them and spread them out, put the sheets on top and actually went to sleep! I think it was mostly because I was so tired, not really because it was comfortable--at all.

On Saturday girlfriend had to work early so she took their car and son could sleep in (normally he would have had to get up and take her--but then normally he probably would have been working too). I got up very early and sat in the living room. They just have 2 plastic lawn chairs in there but it was comfortable. The apartment has such a good vibe to it. A bit later I took the (my former little) dog for a walk. The neighborhood is beautiful. There are large trees on each side of the street, the canopy nearly touches in the middle. So even though it was already hot, I could walk mostly in the shade. The neighbors all had gorgeous flowers and landscaping. Even though it's not so far away, it's a totally different climate then I live in!

When son got up we sat around and talked a bit, read the papers (for I had gotten one of each from a nearby kiosk) and then went to the Leinie Lodge. I have always wanted to visit and tour Leinenkugel's Brewery. The kids didn't have a phone book and the newpapers didn't have any information, so we were lucky to be able to join a tour forming (they recommend reservations). I've heard about Leinenkugels my entire life. Both of my brothers came down to this area to go to school. In fact the one and only time we took a vacation when I was a kid was with a beloved Aunt who took us camping in the large park right next to where my son lives now! So even though I've never explored the area, I've always had a fondness for it.

After we toured and had samples at the Leinie Lodge, we went to listen to the karaoke contest at the kids' work. They work with lots of fun people and I got introduced to many of them. That night (Saturday) some of their work friends came over to the apartment to watch movies. Son had also exchanged the airbed for the world's most comfortable (also an airbed) bed! So I went to bed fairly early and slept well all night.

It was hard to leave, I wanted to stay there, not to come back home to work and house troubles. The real estate agent called me when I returned and told me nobody had come to the open house. I can't say it was great to be back home! Now I'm thinking about possibly moving to that city if I ever sell the house. The paychecks are better and rentals are cheaper. But then there is my poor Mom who lives here, so maybe not.