Wild, Wild Weekend

This weekend has been crazy. There's been good, bad, and just plain weird.

It all started Saturday night at work. I've written a post for "Out of the Mouths of Morons" that you can find here: "I Can Explain."

After work, I picked up DM and we went to play pool. That didn't last long, after the night I'd had at work, I wasn't really in the mood. We then went to Fridleykins and witnessed random drunks and random gamers grabbing grub. I think DM is going to write about that experience. After Fridleykins, we headed back to my apartment and played with iTunes and my iPod. I'm getting farther in the organizing of my music files and now the iPod had 4,795 songs on it (and one photo). I think I'm getting set for a plane ride!

On Sunday afternoon, we got up at 3:30 and started to finalize the trip to Portugal. We bought our tickets (NWA.com) and we've got the plan for the airport set. Having the purchase come out of my checking account has really made the trip seem like a reality and I'm getting more and more excited. Believe me, there will be plenty of pictures here and tons of stories.

Before DM and I could leave for our afternoon event, my phone rang and I got to deal with another problem in the social circle. Of course, I can't explain it here. This made us even later for what we were going to do.

Finally, we went to my dog's 18th birthday party! Yes, that's right, we went to a birthday party for a dog. Taco turns 18 today, April 4th. He's brought our family many years of joy and he deserved a big celebration. My mom bought T-bone steaks and the dogs enjoyed the leftover bones. My dad came over as well. At the party, there were quite a few people. It was my mom, my dad, Scott (my mom's boyfriend), Dave, Sandy (Scott's brother and sister-in-law), Nani, Amber (people who watch Taco, Chip, et. all when Mom goes out of town), DM, and myself. Taco was loving the attention.

DM and I sat upstairs eating with my mom, Nani, and Amber. I showed my mom the iPod (her knowledge of technology is abounding. I especially enjoyed the whole, "Oh, go back! Go back! Escape! Escape!" She didn't understand how to change the songs on it.) We talked about karaoke and how we don't attend church, unless you count karaoke as going to a sermon by Bryan McDonald. My mom made a comment that DM's experiences watching Bobby pour water do not count as a religious experience (of course, Mom said it using much more graphic words).

All was going well, until the phone rang. As it turns out, my mother's godmother, Miss Ruth, passed away on Sunday. Miss Ruth was 95-years old and was ready to go. She had been having a rough time this last year and kept telling my mom, "I'm ready to meet Jesus." Mom was very sad, this is the first person that Mom truly cared about to pass away in her life. Since Miss Ruth was my grandma's best friend during and after World War II (they had Victory Gardens together), my mom decided that Grandma should know.

That's when the evening got bad. Mom called Arizona to talk to Grandma and found out that my grandma has been in the hospital for two days and almost died on Friday. But no one there decided to call the rest of the family and let them know. My mom yelled at her sister who lives with my grandma (the sister is Bonnie). She told her, "This is the same stuff that you complained about before you lived there!" If Miss Ruth hadn't passed away, no one would know what was going on.

Mom then called another sister (she has four) to let her know about it. This involved a lot of crying and pissed off screaming. It was time for the party to be over anyway, so we left and I gave my mom a lot of hugs. I feel so bad for her. She has it in her head that Taco, Grandma, and Miss Ruth are all connected. And the one that scares her the most is Taco. He's the one she cares about the most and I understand that completely.

Once DM and I got to karaoke, my mom called me. She had spoken to Lollie and Warren, my aunt and uncle in Arizona. Lollie has always kept news about Grandma secret, saying, "Oh, I just didn't want to bother you with it." Well, when you care about someone, this is not a bother. Family has the right to know if something is happening so they can be there for each other. Mom's conversation with Lollie and Warren involved a lot of telling them to "F--- off" and "F--- you" and "F--- me". My mom was furious and hurt. She wanted to tell her mom what happened, especially since in the last year of Miss Ruth's life she had a stroke. Miss Ruth could only remember her family, my mom, and my grandma. Of the friends in her life, my mom and my grandma were the important ones. My mom wanted to let my grandma know what had happened. Finding out about Grandma's condition didn't help. Then when Bonnie told Mom that if Grandma doesn't drink more water they're going to put her in a home (my grandma has the early stages of Altzheimer's), my mom went ballistic.

So I dealt with that on Sunday. Karaoke was fun and a good distraction. Bryan remembered to bring DM and I copies of his album and I've been listening to it since. It's fantastic! I wish I could tell everyone how to get a copy of the album. There were strange people at karaoke, but not too many. One guy was drunk and looked like he'd been swimming all day long. He even carried a towel! We enjoyed karaoke (and I got a little loopy from the cold medication I had taken) and my plans for this evening are to head to Dad's to do a bit of laundry, spend time with him, and practice for something coming up.

I am hesitant to write about what I'm planning for this week, but if all goes well, I'll explain it all.

I'm off to Dad's now!