Sunday, October 29, 2006

 

I Lied


I took no pictures.

Apart from that everything else was true.

This is going to be a huge post with a billyun links, so I think I'll break it into several parts.

What I Did On My Weekend Trip: Chapter I

OK, where do I begin? Let's start at the very beginning; it's a very good place to start. My apologies to anyone who has Julie Andrews singing in their heads now.

I guess I should have known there was going to be trouble when I didn't break my foot. This is the first time in a very long time that I've made it across the border without smashing my toes first. I think of it as The Seattle Injury, and I endure it happily because quite frankly I love Seattle and many of the people there so much that I'd possibly do without an entire toe to get to visit on a regular basis. Not a whole foot, though. That would fuck up my spinning even worse than I manage to do on my own.

So ...

Friday night I took Ben out for dinner, to celebrate the annual appearance of his natal day. The mother of a friend of Eleanor's invited her over for a playdate for the evening, so we hastily accepted and scampered out to have a child-free dinner, thus minimizing the chance that we would hear the phrase "would you like fries with that" from the person taking our order.

We picked her up and hung around for a bit, talking to the parents. Got home 10:30-ish to find a message from my friend C asking if I was "still able" to take her kids on Saturday night as she was working 13 hours. We have an arrangement whereby I take her kids as often as I can on Saturdays and she takes mine on Monday. Saves wear and tear on her parents, saves me some childcare costs, everyone wins. But not this weekend.

I called her back, saying that not only was I unable to take her kids, but reminding her that we had made arrangements weeks before for her to take E on Sunday so I didn't have to race back and could have lunch with Libby (or the sadly blogless Patti and her offspring), maybe visit Gaile on the way back, bla bla bla.

There was a silence, and then she blurted out "but I'll be out of town on Sunday." "So shall I," I replied through clenched teeth. She said she would try to work something out, and I, seeing my entire weekend -- the first weekend I've managed to wangle away, alone, in eight years -- crumbling before my eyes, asked her how soon she'd be able to tell me. She said in about half an hour.

So then I cried. And then I got mad. And then I decided that I'd go anyhow, but if C couldn't do it I would just come home early on Sunday, so that I only had to cancel one day's plans. Libby and I had sort-of-flexible maybe-happening plans and I hadn't even called Gaile, thank goodness.

Two hours later, no call. So I call her again at work and she says that she's called her mother (at midnight? Um, the woman is retired and there's a really good chance she went to bed at 10) and that the "memorial service for her great aunt" is on Sunday, so she wouldn't be taking E, definitely.

OK, so which is it? A memorial service? Going out of town? A memorial service out of town, perhaps? I could be judging her too harshly and she did sound exhausted, but she hasn't been herself lately and I just found the whole thing hard to swallow.

Today I called to see if she was going to take E tomorrow, as per our usual plan. I haven't heard from her but I called again and her voicemail message has changed so ... um ... I'm sort of thinking maybe she checked her messages and is avoiding me. I'm trying frantically to believe the best of her but there's only so many times you can sit on Santa's knee until you realize his beard is held on with elastic, you know? I have a feeling tomorrow's going to be a giant mess.

Anyhow, so after all of that, Ben and I stayed up far too late watching movies (A Shot in the Dark, Peter Sellers. It's the first Inspector Clouseau movie and really, because of my special Movie Retardation I didn't remember about 90% of it and fell about laughing until I hurt myself.) and drinking beer and doing laundry. Laundry is always a romantic thing to do on someone's birthday.

Eventually I noticed it was well into Saturday and I really had to get some sleep before I hit the road, and staggered gracefully off to bed.

thus endeth the first chapter

Comments:
I'm so sorry that happened, Rabbitch.

Loyalty and friendship needs to flow in two directions, ya know?
 
Damnit. I'm hoping this all gets better.....I have Movie Retardation also, big time.
 
Given some of what you said early on in the post, I'm guessing that this has a happy ending. Jeez, I hope so, cuz otherwise it's gonna suck bigtime. So sorry for your troubles.

Oh, and the first Inspector Clouseau movie was The Pink Panther. A Shot in the Dark was second and all the reviewers liked it a lot better. Personally, I'm a cat person and I was always fond of Claudia Cardinale back in the day and I loved the PP music (to this day it is one of about 3 songs I can still play from memory) and I was impressed with the incredible-to-small-town-me sophistication of the one-named actress who played Clouseau's wife, so I preferred The Pink Panther.
 
Sounds like you need a new "C" in your life. I wouldn't do though, I live too far away, but I would if I didn't.
 
ugh...sorry bout your weekend. I know I'm a terminal geek as well but I just gotta say that I posted before I read your blog today, therefore, the fact that our titling is strangly similar - is either accidental, or astral.
 
That was you first weekend away in eight years?! You shoulda told us! Not that we coulda knitted any more than we did or eaten more pizza or lost you in Seattle traffic more often, but, still.
 
OK - I am a total asshole. I wasn't able to get online all weekend long, as the boyfriend has DIAL UP. (Yes, apparently he lives in 1994.)

And didn't realize until Saturday night that I'd completely blanked on actually GIVING you my phone number.

So I'll email it to you for next time, mmmkay?
 
Wow
I can't wait for chapter two!

As for romantically doing laundry...I say that a clean pair of shorts should never be underestimated.

Well done!
 
So glad I already know you made the trip, or I'd be nashing my teeth.
 
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