Monday, January 10, 2011

Raton Blitzkrieg

Today is 32 weeks. To celebrate, Nugget has been moving and nudging up a storm. Maybe he likes the cold weather and snow as much as I do. Although, it is slippery out there, so I am definitely breaking out the yak trax on the way home for safety. I am not the most graceful person right now: sliding on ice, running into walls, falling back into bed when I try to get up, etc. I am sure you wish you had 24 hour surveillance on me right now, but I am glad you don't.
At least I am finally remembering the importance of slowing down. Due to our snow storm yesterday the buses were running slow, so I almost sprinted to catch the train, but then I remembered ice + clumsy me = bad. I ended up being late to work, but so was everyone. My boss was shocked I even made it in before he had to leave for the airport, but I knew he would need me to do lots of last minute changes to the presentation and I am dedicated to work and shit. So I made it.
The family reunion in Raton went well. Grandma was definitely true to form and delivered the appropriate levels of overstimulation. Despite the fact that there were two empty beds available in various rooms, she decided I would be sleeping in her room with Big Butter and my cousin's 4-year-old, Corey. I didn't even care to put up a fight....just play dead, that is the best tactic to surviving. Rather than sleep in the bed next to me, she decided to take the couch cushions off the pull-out couch and sleep on the floor. What 75-year-old person would do that? Answer: my grandma. Wish I had known she wouldn't be crawling into bed with me, I could have spread out instead of cling to the edge and try to keep the other side open.
I am infinitely glad I only went for one night. That is about all I can handle without wanting to run for the hills. On Sunday morning, we were all sitting around in the lobby, but not grandma. She was running around asking me 50 times if my bag was packed and ready to go and moving her car, and talking to my uncle, and looking for who-knows-what. I was on the couch next to my dad and we were looking through an "America's National Parks" book discussing all the places he had taken me growing up. When she would stop to say something I would ask him 'what is she doing? why is she running around?'. I think he figured out how stressed out she was making me. I can be pretty sensitive to the vibes of people around me. Turns out she was flipping out about the impending storm in Denver and wanted to get on the road right away. Of course, she didn't explain that to anyone. We were all just trying to relax and enjoy each other's company, you know, like the whole point of the reunion. Anyway the whole display was kind of good. Dad didn't really realize how wacked out grandma is until now. Both Nathan and I have tried to relay to him how she is losing her grip, but he seems to have been in denial. But dad found out first hand. We were all sitting around chatting and grandma rushes in and looks at Butter and I and says 'are you ready to go?'. We're like 'ummm....what?....yeah we can go if you want?'. Dad heard her and was like 'we were going to wait an hour? how about we just sit and chat for a bit longer and then we can all hit the road at the same time?'. Grandma goes into this rant where she is like 'I don't want to get home in the dark. I have a steroid shot tomorrow morning and I need to get home and get stuff done before that'. Not sure what she had to get done. She lives alone, no animals, maybe a house plant which I am sure she overwatered for the two days she would be gone. And as far as getting home in the dark, it is 5 hours from Raton to her house and it was 9am. I know it is winter, but the days aren't that short. I was all queued to go right away and then she seemed to calm down a bit when everyone reinforced my dad's opinion that there was plenty of time and we should visit a bit longer.
She sat down at our table and seemed to be calm, but then she slipped in sentences about how she didn't know why my dad was trying to be her "keeper" all of a sudden. I tried to ignore it, but it finally became clear that the only solution was to get her on the road, right then. So I told Butter we needed to head out and Grandma decided it was time to pull dad aside and yell at him. Poor guy. He did just get diagnosed with prostate cancer and spent a week thinking he might be done for.
Since I had rode down with him and Shelly he was troubled that I was heading out with Grandma, but I just told him 'she's freaking out, it isn't going to get better until we get her out of here and I should go with them so Nate's not alone'. He admitted he was starting to realize how bad she was. So we hugged everyone goodbye and got grandma on the road. At first it looked like her worry was unfounded, but we finally hit the storm and I was instantly glad we had gotten her out of there. Nate and I are fine in bad weather, the key was the hour drive grandma had to accomplish without us. I texted Andy (yes I got text....I'll get to that in a minute) that I might have to drive her home and he would have to follow and drive me back. I knew she could stay at our house, but the idea of driving an extra two hours was mighty appealing if it meant spending the rest of my evening calmly and quietly. Turns out from downtown north, it wasn't too bad. So grandma headed off by herself and made it home safely. When I relayed the story of my 48 hour trip to Andy he just laughed. He said at least next year we would have Nugget as an excuse to go back up and hide in our hotel room. Hahaha. I like how he thinks.
So yeah we got text messaging. I have been resisting text messaging like the plague for the past...well forever. I just think it gets ridiculous when people spend 45 minutes sending notes back and forth when a phone call to say the same amount would take 1 minute. Plus I think there is an expectation for you to answer texts right away. Accessibility already skyrocketed with cell phones. Our friends and family freak out if we don't return calls within a few hours of missing theirs. Do you remember those days when you would call someone, they weren't home, you left a message, and you waited to hear back from them patiently? I feel like life will never be that relaxed again. It is all about 'the fastest 4G network', word recognition programs that allow you to compose a text message in seconds, constant connections to everything. I get really sad when we go to restaurants and see two people sitting across from each other looking down at their phones. Dude there is a real person right in front of you. Look up and connect with them, in real life! But I resigned my soapbox on Friday and we went into Verizon.
My phone has been malfunctioning for a few months. It is a slide phone and most of the time when you close it....or push the end button, the screen would go blank. The only way to get it back would be to restart it, which I would do several times a day. Most people would not have the patience to deal with it, but I am special. At orientation last week Andy found out that the only way the University tells students about closures/delays is through text messaging. So he mentioned that we might want to get it. That coupled with the fact that I am tired of people looking at me like I am an alien when I tell them we don't get texts, I caved. You should have seen the face on the guy at Verizon. When we explained we didn't have text, my phone hasn't worked right in months, our phones belonged in museums because we've had them so long, and we still retained our phone numbers from New York, he was pretty positive that we lived up in a shack in the woods. But we made him laugh...a lot. And it paid off for us. We ended up getting an even better deal because of how awesome we are. He told us that we made his night. So yeah, I have text....and I have been using it....Andy and I are both wondering what the hell happened to us.

4 comments:

  1. Jeesh, that's a lot. Phew!

    I have to say that I can't believe what is going on with my balance these days too. Margo (pup) loves to lie underneath the foot rest to our recliner so I usually have to get up from it without putting down the footrest, this has now become impossible to do given my center of balance. I know that it is impossible thanks to three very BIG efforts to get up. I thought the boy was going to pee himself laughing at me. Awesomeness...not.

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  2. 32 weeks?!? How did that happen so fast? I seriously can't believe it's been so long! Thinking of you friend... and I can't wait to "meet" the little one in your belly!

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  3. I seriously read 32 weeks and thought WTF?! I remember you POAS before your weekend trip that you were going to get drunk at with you BFF... it doesn't seem like it was that long ago!

    So glad you got text. :) Now I only have one friend left without it - and he's in his 20s as well. So weird. BWAHAHAH.

    Your Grandma sounds...nuts. Glad you all made it back safely.

    Can't wait to see you today!!!

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  4. Don't stress about returning texts right away. I return texts when I feel like checking texts (makes for interesting time spanning a small convo over 2 days) and I barely check my VM once a week (except for that one time I waited a whole month - oops!). I also insisted on getting the most archaic phone Verizon had when we switched to Verizon. The guy just thought I was weird. I like it though. I have also thought about telling everyone that I don't have texting so no one will bug me when I'm trying to nap or changing a diaper and expecting me to get right back to them. :)

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