"Dominion/Mother Russia" - Sisters of Mercy
The story really begins back on July 4th. My family has a reunion every year normally around the end of June or the beginning of July and for the most part I am a regular attender of said event, but the last few years I just haven't had the desire to go. In part it was because of all of the infighting that was taking place after my grandmother's and the bickering that came with who got what from her will. Not that I got or wanted anything, anything that was in the will was split between her kids (I am the oldest of the grandkids) and the remaining possessions in the house were either sold off or offered to everyone else in the family. I did not ask for nor did I want anything, my memories are more than enough. But afterward there was lots of chattering about who got what and why did this person get such and such. It was just very toxic and it wasn't a situation that I wanted to immerse myself in and since the family reunion is her branch of the family tree. it just seemed best for my mental health to stay away until the dust settled. Then last year the reunion happened right after Ruth had come to visit me. Between the fact that I had blown all of my vacation time on her and how miserable the actual visit went, I could neither afford to take the time off, nor would I have been pleasant company to be around. There are times where I lock my doors for your safety kids, last year was one of those times.
"Something I Can Never Have" - Nine Inch Nails
Pardon me while I say "Fuck you Pandora", stop coming up with mood music that fits what I am talking about.
So for the last few years my interactions with my family have mostly consisted of one or two trips home, where I end up staying with my mom and we end up doing nothing of a social nature or my excursions (usually to breakfast) with my aunt Amy. Given our age difference and when and how we grew up Amy is almost more like a big sister than an aunt. She is 6 years older than me and a large portion of my childhood was spent in the presence of my grandmother, Amy her youngest daughter and my uncle Will, who is 3 years older than me.
"Pretty in Pink" - The Psychedelic Furs
Anyway back to our present day story, Amy and I had went to breakfast a few weeks ago (along with my cousin Sarah) and during breakfast the subject of the reunion came up. I was hoping to go this year, but I was hping that my mother would go as well. My mom hasn't been to a reunion for a few years now either, in fact I don't know the last time she had left the house to visit anyone from the family. And for the life of me I have no idea why, most days she just sits around the house. Her husband goes out with his friends sometimes, but she really doesn't go out and see people or do things.
"But Not Tonight" - Depeche Mode
As bad as I am inn keeping in touch with my family, I at least send them messages on Facebook, my mom wasn't even doing that, she is almost a shut in. Not that she is afraid to go outside, she just doesn't. I wanted to go to the reunion this year in part because I thought if I said I was going then maybe shed would be motivated to go as well. So as Amy and I talked over breakfast and the topic of the reunion came up I said that I would like to go this year. Amy said that if I wanted to I could ride up with her, which would have been cool enough, I can get to her house via bus in town even though she lives out in the suburbs, so no one would have had to come and pick me up if I took her up on that offer.
"Araidne" - Dead Can Dance
She mentioned also that she was coming down to Pittsburgh on the 4th of July to check out some of the Pittsburgh Regatta, so I said that I could meet up with her if she wanted, we lease a couple of parking spots downtown that would not be being used at that time and she could use one if she wanted to save on parking in a garage, which can run upwards of $20 a day, depending on when and for how long you park. So we made it a date to go hang out together at the Regatta and my personal clock started ticking.
"Sadness Pt 1" - Enigma
I called my mom a day or so later and mentioned about the date of the reunion and said that I was going. I don't know if she originally wanted to go because she was tired of sitting at home or if she just showed an interest in going because I said I was definitely going, but my mom said she was going this year too and if I wanted they would come and pick me up for the weekend so we could go together. I told her once I knew more about my work schedule I would know when I could get off, though I am not technically on the schedule on any Saturday, I just go in because it is easier for me to do my ordering that way and get caught up on my paperwork than it is to sit in the store half the night on a Friday, so I just told Ed I would do my ordering on Friday instead of Saturday and he was cool with it. Then again the store owes me like 9 paid days off, so for me to request a weekend day when I am not on the schedule isn't exactly taking advantage of anyone.
"Song Sung Blue" - Neil Diamond
July 4th comes around and I meet up with Amy, Sarah, Ethan (her son) and Fred (her husband) and I tell them that I am coming but I do not need a ride, I just need to know what I need to bring. Usually the family reunion is just bring a covered dish of some sort, and some prizes for games that are played. The same rules applied this year, bring at least one adult gift and one kid's gift and bring a covered dish. Now most of the men don't bring a covered dish, they leave their wives do the cooking.
"What A Wonderful World" - Louis Armstrong
"The Ghost in You" - The Psychedelic Furs
Sorry, catching up on my Pandora music there. Anyway, most of you know that I am all kinds of unattached and nobody answered my craigslist ad so I could sucker someone into cooking for me, so instead I just decided to grab some cookies from Giant Eagle to take and I picked up a couple of gifts, nothing extravagant by any means, just things that maybe someone would want. The adult gift was for something called a Chinese auction and after sitting through it I am still not sure exactly what it is. I know it isn't like Chinese food, I was not looking to auction again an hour after the last auction, but that doesn't really give me any better of an understanding of what it actually is.
"Blue Monday" - New Order
The best I can tell is you by tickets and then put the tickets into baskets next to the prizes you like and then it is just a bunch of mini raffle drawings, picking only from the tickets that are in the basket next to the gift, so you never get a gift you didn't want and hopefully nobody brings something that it so horrid that nobody else wants it.
But I am getting ahead of myself here. I tell Amy that I am going with my mom, ask if she needs me to do or bring anything in specific. I end up bringing plastic forks and helping with cleanup afterward, I was supposed to help set up as well, but we will get to that.
I call my mom and make arrangements, she asks when I will be getting off of work on Friday and I say that I don't know yet, it might be better if they wait and I will call when I get home from work rather than have them leave and possibly get here and me not be back from work yet. So I go into work Friday, it was a busy day as to be expected, made busier because after everything was done I still had to turn around and do three different orders for Monday morning, so by the time I got off of work it was already 5:30 and till I got home it was almost 6pm. I figure first thing I will do is grab a quick shower to get my work stench off of me and then call and say I am home, so I hop into the shower and am getting all soapy and stuff. I start singing "Rub a Dub, Three Men in a Tub", but then I think that three men in a tub sounds like a really bad gay porn title, so I stop singing.
"Policy of Truth" - Depeche Mode
I get out of the shower and dry off and throw some clothes on and call home to say that I am home, thinking that the hour it takes for them to get here from there would be enough time to throw all of the things I need into a bag or three. Between my laptop, my camera, my cell phone and my iPad I had an entire section in one of my bags that was just cables, let alone the clothes I needed and the gifts and cookies for the reunion. So I call their number and no answer, they had already left. I just love it when a plan comes together. So, instead of having an hour to just organize the things I was taking, I had no idea how much time I would have, so I entered the realm of speed packing where you just throw shit in a bag and hope its right. For the most part it was, I didn't leave too much behind, I even packed a book to read (which I never opened while there).
"Higher Ground" - Stevie Wonder
About a half hour after I called they arrived, so I had more time than I thought, but not much more. I quickly threw my stuff in the car and we left. On the way home they had decided they wanted to stop and get something to eat. I had planned on this happening, I had enough money with me so we could go out to eat a few times, it is one of the few forays into the outside world my mom does make when I am home. They decide to stop at Denny's, which is fine, I am hungry anyway and I haven't eaten at Denny's in years so it would be a nice change of pace for me.
"Bizarre Love Triangle" - New Order
While we are at dinner I go to scratch the back of my neck, I recently had about ten pounds of hair lopped off and being able to feel my neck without a bunch of natty hair in the way is a pretty good sensation. But when I go to scratch my neck I feel a bump back there and leave it to me to pop a blister or something on my neck while in a restaurant. I am sure it was most appetizing for anyone who might have seen it. Luckily it didn't bleed or anything, but I just sat there wondering to myself how long that had been hiding under my mop of a hairdo. Thankfully the check came and I paid the bill and we escaped without any further repulsive behavior on my part. I didn't stick my fingers up my nose or anything.
We got back around 9:30 at night and my mom turned on the TV. I am still at a loss for how my mom finds the most awful television programs to watch and then actually sits through them as if they are good or something. This weekend was no different.
"I Was Wrong" - Social Distortion
They have Dish Network, they have literally hundreds of channels to choose from, yet my mom managed to find out thy were doing a made for TV Christmas movie marathon on the Hallmark Channel this weekend, so yes, the viewing choice for Friday (and most of the weekend for that matter) was Christmas programming. I fired up my laptop and left a brief blog about being home, I didn't want to get into details because my mom was sitting in the very same room. It didn't help that I was having problems with the internet connection, for whatever reason I was lagging on their connection, a problem that I do not have here in the Fortress of Solitude.
"Jumping Someone Else's Train" - The Cure
My mom then said that I could sleep on the big couch if I wanted to and she would sleep on the loveseat. For long time readers of the blog, you might remember a couple of months ago I mentioned that the place across the street from my mom's place had caught on fire, three people died in that fire including a 9 year old girl. While my mom's place did not go up in flames, it did get damage from the fire.
"Kiss Me on the Bus" - The Replacements (I really should sing this song on the way to work someday just to freak out my fellow bus riders.)
Apparently that damage has yet to be fixed. This is where I could have used someone like Ed because he never would go for someone putting off work that is supposed to be done for over 2 months now. Instead there is a giant hole in the ceiling of my mother's bedroom, water damage from when the place was soaked to keep it from catching fire, and the front now looks like this.
But still, I am not comfortable blogging with other people around me, not that I am going to divulge state secret's mind you, but because I just like to be in my own element when writing. There are a couple of places that I am comfortable, here in my apartment, the Squirrel Cage, my bench in Schenley Park and the spot Hope and I used to hang out in front of the Frick Fine Arts building. In those places I am in my element, in my mom's living room with Christmas movies on in the middle of July? Not so much.
Wow, I have rambled on quite a bit here and I have just covered Friday so far. Think I will pick this up again tomorrow, that way I am not rushing through things. Besides, I am getting tired of listening to Pandora anyway and I have leftover pizza I have to put away for dinner tomorrow night. So tomorrow is part 2, lol.
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