Monday, March 31, 2014

March, trees, lions - Oh! MY!




Forget the lion, for me March was the tree and I was the antelope!

While most of what went on this month didn’t happen to me, it definitely affected me.  Being in a zombielike state, you’d think that I could just cruise along without so much as a by your leave but for some reason, anxiety just never goes dormant.  (Oh! Speaking of zombies! Are you watching The Walking Dead?  “ … Just look at the flowers, Lizzie.” OMFG! And Daryl and Beth?)

 Before I get distracted again, lemme just break this down for you.  Somewhere around the last week of February, my niece called me to say that she and her brothers were buying me a plane ticket to go to New York for my sister’s 80th birthday party.  I’d be leaving on March 26 and coming home March 31.  “YAY! A vacation,” you’re thinking.  You’d be partially correct – time with my sister &; brother-in-law, staying in their house, can be thought of as a vacation … in a psych ward. But what the hell, it was free and I was going to get to Manhattan. Plus my sister is going to be 80 and I might not have another chance to visit. 

 My grandson’s first birthday party was planned for March 8.  We wanted it that weekend because of my niece’s birthday and ex-mother-in-law’s birthday would be celebrated the following weekend.  As you can tell, I like a plan.  Now comes the first stress inducing, heart-breaking monkey-wrench. My son’s girlfriend gets a call from her stepfather on March 2; her mother is in the hospital.  She is not doing well.  Her mother has been battling breast cancer for 15 years.  She’s been in remission on and off but has been very sick for the last year or two.  She has now come to the end of her fight.  

My son and his girlfriend are off within the hour to go to Georgia (a six-hour drive).  Mulder and I are babysitting.  (Seriously, how to older mother’s do it?)  They come back very early Monday morning. Tuesday afternoon, her mother passes away.  They decide to miss the wake but will go up Thursday for the funeral.  I get to be a stay-at-home grandmother for the day!  I enjoyed the time with my grandson ‘cause he’s the cutest, sweetest baby in the world but I was utterly exhausted by the time Mulder came home.  I also had to notify the party attendees that the party was postponed until March 22. 

 Being zombified, I’m not the best person to comfort anyone, let alone an already a girl/woman that has had a difficult mother/daughter relationship when her mother dies.  I did my best.  In hindsight, having the party three days before my scheduled trip wasn’t my most brilliant idea, though. 

 Next was Mulder getting a job in the company he’d been contracting for the past six years.  Now while this is AWESOME news, he was and still is stressing out over the background check and because our luck is usually bad, somehow Murphy is going to step in and fuck things up.  There was a minor mix-up with a drug test but that was taken care of.  Still – STRESS!!! Because we aren’t normal. Oh! Yeah, we have to buy a car.  THAT should be lots ‘o fun and totally stress free, right? 

On March 15, I spoke to my sister.  She tells me my brother-in-law is very sick and they are putting him in the hospital on Tuesday.  “Should I still come up?,” I ask. “Yes,” she said because they have paid for tickets to a show at Radio City Music Hall.  Okay, no worries.  On the 19th, I call my niece for an update.  My BIL has congestive heart failure (he’s had this for awhile), has been retaining water, is really very sick and they can’t get in touch with his cardiologist.  However, my trip is still on as is the big birthday bash.  

Saturday, the 22nd,(day of my grandson’s birthday party) my sister calls me at 8 am to tell me that by BIL is still very sick, no end to the hospital stay in sight, he has hospital induced dementia and the show at Radio City has been cancelled, so let’s postpone your trip.  No NYC for me. 

 I am, to be honest, somewhat relieved.  My sister is difficult on a good day but throw in the added possibility that her husband of 60-plus years might die at any moment and you have one bat-shit crazy old lady.  As of this writing, her birthday party is still on but could be cancelled any second.  My sister and BIL have had an unusual (putting it politely) marriage.  He’s an alcoholic, has been abusive, he never really was playing with a full deck but was a wiz at the stock market.  They have managed to cheap themselves into being richer than Croesus but don’t enjoy what they have – now it’s probably too late.  I always thought that they’d both live forever because neither one wanted to leave the other alone with all the money!

 Here’s some hospital humor from my goofy as a box of rocks brother-in-law – 

  • The Pope is coming  to the hospital gym. 
  •  I played golf in Ireland.  (He used to be a fantastic golfer. Should have gone pro.) 
  • The pubs here are excellent.
  •  I’ve had sex with all these nurses and barmaids. 
  •  I met the Pope last night. 
  • When are they bringing me my beer?

The baby's party went very well, which made me feel better about this whole month.  I'm definitely hoping April will be tranquil even though there are no lambs in sight, yet!



From Millan.Net (OH! Day-um!!! Rick is THE MAN! October is far away, I'm sad!)