Stitches, Staples, and the Feminine Mystique. Oh My.

I thought I would burst through the door today, after having played nurse to my mom for almost a week, and have tons to unload. I came home. I got a beer. I feel empty.

We (Todd and I) are leaving on our cross country road trip tomorrow. It the vacation we've been trying to take for a month, but what with death in the family and work, it just hasn't worked out. So now it's sort of working out. We have to drive to Scottdsdale, AZ, to get a new radiator on our car, then we can drive easy. I'm not sure if we are going to make it to Louissianna, which was going to be one of the highlights of my trip.

I'm exhausted. Taking care of my mom was not laborious, but there was not much sleep happening in the too-short twin bed I slept on , and when I bunked with my mom and double pull out, my pillow would get lost under the couch and I would wake up with a paralyzed neck. I put neosporin on her incisions, made sure she took her Vicodin on time, and didn't steal any Vicodin. Okay, maybe one. I got her stuff, I watched movies, I played cribbage, and she is a mean, nasty cribbage player. My grandma kept saying, oh you're such a good girl, which contributed greatly to my twelve year old self image. My grandma also kept acting shocked and surprised that I am capable of taking care of someone and even of saying interesting things. She must have very small expectations concerning me. She goes on and on about my cousins, with whom she is obsessed. I know it's not their fault, and I don't hold it aginst them, but I wish my grandma knew how tiring it was. She is not easily confronted however, becuase she doesn't get over things, and it's better just to let her be. I'm sure that is how everything really is, when it comes to love.

I learned some new things about my Grandpa while I was there. He was on a destroyer in the South Pacific, and he was in five battles. He was invovled in fishing those 40 some marines out of the water when they had been dead for some time, he saw some action. That makes me understand him a little better. Most of my family two generations back were drinkers, smokers, gamblers, and fighters. This makes me feel better about myself.

But you don't want to hear about all this boring stuff.

Moby-Dick is getting slow. I'm to the Cetology chapter and it's getting a little harder to digest. But I really like it. I got my own copy of Absalom, so I can finally tie up the loose ends of that reading. I also bought The Curious Incident Of the Dog in the NIght time for the road. ANd I will work on some projects of the crochet variety while passing through the Smokies. But mostly, I need a nap. I'm no fun anymore. I need to recharge.