Night the First
Jun. 27th, 2003 01:06 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
terryclothSo, yeah, my mom flew in at 6:30 (the plane was late) and got to her hotel around 8:00. I'd been waiting with the phone off (== no net) since 6ish, increasingly impatiently, taking my anger out on all the telemarketers (there were three in that two-hour span) I was forced to answer in case it was her.
And then... I waited some more. Apparently the plan was to have Anna (my sister) and Alex (her husband) drive from Magnolia to pick up mom and then the three would come get me, and we'd go get dinner. They arrived at 9:00.
Mom had brought gifts, of course -- a shirt for me (that I suspect is too small for me unless I lose 20 lbs) and a bunch of appealingly creepy stuffed animals for Anna's baby, once she has it. I got mom a couple trinkets that I saw randomly walking through the mall a few weeks back.
Alex, as always, seemed kind of embarassed of me. I mean, I'm clumsy and make stupid, often self-deprecating jokes... but eventually he started talking about his work and how horrible it had been recently (25 hours overtime over the weekend for the Harry Potter release) and things loosened up. Anna was as quiet as ever.
We weren't sure what would still be open, so we went to Applebees, which my mom loves but everyone else in the world hates, at least if they have any sense.
The service was kind of crap. We ordered non-spicy buffalo wings, but got served their spicy wings, which turned out to be really not very spicy after all. I ordered sprite (which they didn't have) then root beer (which they only had fancy cans of -- I hate fancy root beer) then finally fruit punch. The men ordered meat, the women vegetables, which came with salads, which were delivered very late. Looking at the vegetable platter all I could think is... yeah, okay, maybe it counts as food, but there's no way that's a meal. It was like a snack platter, steamed! And they didn't even finish it!
After dinner we stopped back at my aparmtent so I could brush my teeth and so they could prowl around judgementally. Anna and Alex looked longingly at the furniture they'd given me which they CAN'T HAVE BACK because I need it, and Alex made fearsome growly noises at the copy of Harry Potter.
Then we drove all the way to Magnolia to watch 'The Amazing Race' -- my whole family's addicted to reality shows. It was interesting enough to see one episode, reality shows usually are, and I got to pet the new kitten. Purry little thing.
We also started planning out the next day's activity. I told them I wanted to go to the Shadake game in the evening, and Alex was working all day, so we decided I'd pick up mom and drive to Magnolia to join Anna and go prowl around downtown with them, then at night I could go home and Anna and mom and Alex could do something else. We also tentatively scheduled a barbecue for Saturday.
Not a half hour after we arrived, though, mom realized that it was past midnight PST, which meant past 3 by her internal clock, and decided to drive back. Since it's the better part of an hour each way... well, whatever. Scary construction on the roads, but I got back safe, and can only hope she didn't crash driving the six blocks to her hotel.
So, dinner and half an episode of the amazing race ended up eating seven hours of my time. Geez, dealing with other people is so inefficient.
And then... I waited some more. Apparently the plan was to have Anna (my sister) and Alex (her husband) drive from Magnolia to pick up mom and then the three would come get me, and we'd go get dinner. They arrived at 9:00.
Mom had brought gifts, of course -- a shirt for me (that I suspect is too small for me unless I lose 20 lbs) and a bunch of appealingly creepy stuffed animals for Anna's baby, once she has it. I got mom a couple trinkets that I saw randomly walking through the mall a few weeks back.
Alex, as always, seemed kind of embarassed of me. I mean, I'm clumsy and make stupid, often self-deprecating jokes... but eventually he started talking about his work and how horrible it had been recently (25 hours overtime over the weekend for the Harry Potter release) and things loosened up. Anna was as quiet as ever.
We weren't sure what would still be open, so we went to Applebees, which my mom loves but everyone else in the world hates, at least if they have any sense.
The service was kind of crap. We ordered non-spicy buffalo wings, but got served their spicy wings, which turned out to be really not very spicy after all. I ordered sprite (which they didn't have) then root beer (which they only had fancy cans of -- I hate fancy root beer) then finally fruit punch. The men ordered meat, the women vegetables, which came with salads, which were delivered very late. Looking at the vegetable platter all I could think is... yeah, okay, maybe it counts as food, but there's no way that's a meal. It was like a snack platter, steamed! And they didn't even finish it!
After dinner we stopped back at my aparmtent so I could brush my teeth and so they could prowl around judgementally. Anna and Alex looked longingly at the furniture they'd given me which they CAN'T HAVE BACK because I need it, and Alex made fearsome growly noises at the copy of Harry Potter.
Then we drove all the way to Magnolia to watch 'The Amazing Race' -- my whole family's addicted to reality shows. It was interesting enough to see one episode, reality shows usually are, and I got to pet the new kitten. Purry little thing.
We also started planning out the next day's activity. I told them I wanted to go to the Shadake game in the evening, and Alex was working all day, so we decided I'd pick up mom and drive to Magnolia to join Anna and go prowl around downtown with them, then at night I could go home and Anna and mom and Alex could do something else. We also tentatively scheduled a barbecue for Saturday.
Not a half hour after we arrived, though, mom realized that it was past midnight PST, which meant past 3 by her internal clock, and decided to drive back. Since it's the better part of an hour each way... well, whatever. Scary construction on the roads, but I got back safe, and can only hope she didn't crash driving the six blocks to her hotel.
So, dinner and half an episode of the amazing race ended up eating seven hours of my time. Geez, dealing with other people is so inefficient.
