Thanks for the comments guys—-I love them. Whew, yesterday was kind of a rough day. It started out nicely, work was fine and I met my sister for a lovely lunch of prosecco and sushi at Ko-Fusion and then we blithely headed off to the nursing home. It was one of the most depressing afternoons I’ve ever had. It just got more and more depressing the longer our little tour went on. It wasn’t the facility per se—-they are moving into a new one shortly, it was more the mentality. The man we spoke to was nice enough but was extremely discouraging about the possibility of my parents being in a room together. He also was discouraging about patients bringing any of their own furrniture. Now, my sister’s field of study is nursing homes so of course she was able to ask a lot of questions that I wouldn’t have been able to. She was not impressed. The level of medical care may be fine and I know it has a good reputation but she said it was most defintely not terribly progressive. It may just be because of lack of competition. Anyway it was an absolutely miserable experience. Then we went to my parents–which I really was not in the mood to do—so Judi could say goodbye (she left this morning) and I could pick up a couple of Christmas presents we had left there. One time we were there and we needed to hide some presents from the boys so we tucked them in their spare bedroom. WHAT WERE WE THINKING? This is the house where things disappear and show up in odd places all the time. Of course my father had indeed moved them and we couldn’t find them anywhere. Dad just kept saying “what are we looking for?” and I kept telling him “A TOY RACETRACK” over and over until I wanted to scream. I was near tears and finally just said “ERNIE WILL FIND THEM” and gave them a hug and left. I was so depressed. I got into Judi’s car and just cried and cried.
Of course there are always amusing moments like when Judi found the bowl of popped popcorn in the their little laundry room and Mom acted as though that were completely normal. I have a sneaking suspicion that I may have gotten my talent for denial from my mother. Suffice to say that Ernie did go over and find the presents and then we all drank some more prosecco and cooked a good dinner but it was a trying day nonetheless. HOWEVER—it is now Saturday and we just had breakfast at Carmon’s and I love my guys—so things are not all bad! Ernie and I are bringing the boys over to my folks for awhile this afternoon so we can finish up getting stocking presents and probably go out for a celebratory drink too. Then we’ll come home and tipsily make some Christmas cookies with the guys….
