3 posts tagged “story”
thanks to ctv.ca for this wonderful article
So here I am, back at home. There's nothing overly exciting to post about my trip, but I'll see what I can do. Maybe I'll get myself a drink first to see if that will help spice things up.
Okay, all set. Now where was I? Oh yeah, the trip. Okay, so my mother and my aunt picked me up bright and early on Thursday morning for the drive to my sister's place. It's normally about a seven-hour trip, but driving the speed limit sure does put the kibosh on timing, yanno? Plus, we stopped a few times to gas up and have a pee - their bladders aren't what they used to be. The trip there was relatively uneventful. I'd never driven to my sister's place before so it was my first trip by car along that particular highway - whew, give me the maritimes back any day. What boring scenery! Thank goodness for the pee breaks so that we could bask in the glory of the "comfort stations" (gas bar plus a couple of fast food and coffee joints at each). Anyway, we eventually reached our destination.
My sister was sweet enough to pluck this from her garden just for me, calling it "arbed's boyfriend" - yuk yuk. What a shame he ended up in a batch of pasta sauce.
You know this is headed
downhill when I say "I love my sister and her family dearly, but...".
So I won't say it (at least not twice). Suffice to say that my sister
and I both know that we can only spend at most a couple of days
together (funny, when I accidentally read that in an email of hers to a
friend back home, it hurt, yet I know it's true). It's nothing
specific, but whatever it is, it's worse when her significant other is
there. I know this because they were separated for a few years. My
mother said more than once how my sister was somehow different on her
own, but I didn't quite believe it, especially when my visit last year
(first one after they got back together) went so well. It's not that my
sister and I hate each other. I think it might be that when we're
similarly-minded, we're dead on, but in areas where we differ, boy do
we differ. And the things I could say about the BIL include the words
smarmy and selfish. Again, it's nothing that stands out, it's more of
an atmosphere. Every time I visit, I get a wicked headache, and usually
the accompanying stomach problems. I didn't make it to the birthday
supper out at the swanky restaurant because of that (and I was the only one of the lot of us who had never been there before). Maybe a post in
the future will tell all sorts of lovely things, mostly about the BIL.
It makes for great story fodder but I have to keep myself emotionally
distant from the story or I go ballistic.
So we did the usual visit stuff: shopping, hanging around, playing games. They are a big video game family and I am one of the most uncoordinated couldn'tgiveashit people when it comes to video games. This doesn't stop them from wheedling me into trying, and then I get pissed off because exactly what I say will happen, happens. This visit it was with their Wii. On the bright side, she did seem to love her presents, of which I brought her tons. I had a bunch of little things picked out and at the last minute, splurged on something I spied on my way home one night before the trip. I snapped at the BIL once, maybe twice, but he just doesn't care.
Break time! Here is a pic of their Newfoundland dog, Samson - the sweetest dog around and if it weren't for my sister, he'd be the most neglected dog around. The BIL and the two nephews pretty much ignore him, which is very sad. I love paying him attention when I'm there.
And this is Basil, their cat:
As far as cats go, I'm
spoiled by Edgar. I never realize how big Edgar is until I am around
other cats. Basil is like his shorter, stockier, stumpier cousin, with a big
face like a British Shorthair.
All the same, Basil is quite affectionate with me. Here's a bonus video
of me giving Basil some lovin'. If you turn your sound up (a lot!), you
might hear some purring toward the end of the vid. Notice all the bells
on his collar? He was always showing up with "presents" for my sister,
so she had to keep adding "Basil Detection System" bells until the
little birdies and small animals got enough warning.
Okay, break time is over. We left bright and early yesterday morning, again with a multitude of stops along the way, including one at the tackiest of tourist traps, The Big Apple. There are a few animal warning signs on the way in, although they are not official signs, so I have no idea what purpose they serve. There is another sign warning tourists of the possibility of the wild rabbits biting, however they don't discourage feeding them should you find some. It was a bizarre place. I thought this magnet was very funny so I bought it:
Oh, I forgot to mention
that I went to this really cool pet store that my sister had taken me to
last year. I picked up some treats for Edgar, knowing full well that
I'd be lucky if he liked any of them, but they carry different things
there so I wanted to give some new things a try. I tested them on Basil
first and luckily had slightly better luck with Edgar. At this very
moment he is on my lap trying to get into one of the containers. The
one thing I knew for sure he would like was a new toy for him to lose.
Here's a very blurry shot of him playing with his new catnip duck (it
was hard to get a shot of him while he was still):
And finally, here is a video I secretly took on the drive home. Again, you'll be needing the volume cranked because yes indeed, that is Billy Joel that I am being forced to listen to. If you listen really closely, you'll hear at least one (I think my mother) person chiming in on the tune. Ever since the conference I went to last month, I want to giggle when I hear a Billy Joel tune, which thankfully is not too often. The guy who taught my seminar is an aging hippie rock aficionado guy and likes to throw musical references out there. At one point, he used a Billy Joel reference and made not one, but two cracks during the rest of the seminar about how he had never before used Billy Joel as a reference and he had now defiled his mouth and needed a smoke.
So there you have it, my
boring and uneventful trip - sorry, the liquor didn't help. Tomorrow I head back to work, where puppy
has no doubt been regaling the office with tales of her Parisian
adventures for the past two days. Oh, actually, that reminds me about
my doctor's appointment today - my blood pressure is up (I blame it on
puppy - lol) and I need to have an ultrasound on one of the girls.
Yippee!
