Somehow, due to rain, traffic, road construction and stopping for lunch and to shop a little (Dad needed some new shirts… :P), a 450 mile trip managed to take almost 12 hours.

Synopsis of the trip:
Dad wants to invest in robots… I got a two hour lecture on robots.
Dad wants to know about websites… I gave a two hour lecture on websites.
Dad has a patient in the hospital back home who has multiple problems… Dad was on the cell phone for probably three hours altogether explaining this to: the patient, her husband, the nurses and two other doctors.

My parents live an incredibly stressfull life, and they can never seem to get away from it. I think that’s one of the reasons I shy away from stress and conflict… partially because I have a very empathetic soul, which I try desperately to control, and partly because that stress colored my childhood.

I grew up fast.

Anyway, we’re staying with the most fabulous older woman. She’s in her late 70s and spry as all get out. Her husband was quite well off, so she lives in this big house in this tiny little town where my mom grew up. And she’s a riot. My mom and I have stayed with her before and she’s just so much fun and sweet and I want to be her when I get old.

We were running late (five hours), so we called her, just to see if we needed to stay outside of town and not arrive at 1230AM. She said, “Of course not! I’m wide awake.”

And she was. And the first thing she said when we walked in? “Hi you guys. Did you have a nice trip? Who drove?”

We all pointed at me.

“Honey, do you still drink straight vodka? I bought a bottle just for you. Let me go pour you a drink.”

I love this woman.

My dad is upstairs now, on the phone with the patient again, and my mom, E and I are, to quote them, “shooting the shit.”

Tomorrow, the festival begins with a tractor pull and a parade… then there’s going to be apple butter, cider, pie, etc. being made and pigs being greased.

Ah, small town life. 😛

My parents arrived without incident. They apparently slept well; I still had crazy dreams. ARGH!

Morning synopsis:

Wake up at 3AM—Dad’s phone is ringing. It’s about a patient back home. (Dad is surgeon.)
Wake up at 730AM—My phone is ringing. It’s Jen; I need to go by there and pick up my camera before we leave.
Wake up at 945AM—Mom is up and has wandered into my room. She’s taking a shower… am I going to make coffee?

So now everyone is up. Coffee has been made, everyone has scoured the kitchen for breakfast and realized I have nothing. Seriously. My dad and I had leftover pad thai from dinner.

My mom has brought out nine different kinds of baked goods… and new sheets and a new comforter. (She’s fabulous, no?)

They’ve showered. My dad is dressed, my mom is in a housecoat and I’m in my PJs still.

My dad has assessed everything he is going to do and has already taken out the screwdriver and debated the merits of screws and such with me… as I nodded and went about my business.

They’re putting the new cover on the new comforter in my bedroom and I’m answering some emails.

We’re supposed to drive nine hours today to PA… we need to leave soon.

And now my mom wants more coffee, rotfl, so I need to go make it.

Oh, and they know I blog and I told them I’m blogging about this, so every time they do something funny, or tell me what else they think they should fix while they are here, my dad looks at my mom and says, “I bet she’s going to blog about this.” And then they laugh.

Be back later… when I tell you all about the drive.

😛 If I survive.

The data center of our CMS is having problems. Which means our sites, along with all of their other clients’ sites, are down.

My parents made their connection and now I must head to the airport.

I still have a headache today. (WTF)

And my fortune cookie said, “Begin… the rest is easy.”

Yeah, OK. 😛

My parents called me a little while ago. Their flight is delayed out of Seattle due to bad weather at their connecting airport: Philadelphia. It’s entirely possible that a) they might make their connection and everything will be dandy, b) they miss their connection and catch another flight later or c) they can’t get out until tomorrow, so they stay there overnight and I meet them in Philly.

Because, remember, we are taking a road trip to the middle of nowhere PA. And it was supposed to start tomorrow morning.

I still haven’t been able to shake the crazy dreams, or the headaches for that matter. And then last night I didn’t get to sleep until about 2AM. Fortunately, Bravo is running a West Wing Season Six marathon continuously… ahhhh. 🙂 It’s quite possible, I suppose, that I just wanted to stay up and watch. 😛

I do think the dreams are related to my parents coming to visit. I subscribe to the philosophy that it’s better to have never had, than to have had and lost. It’s much easier to live when you don’t know what you’re missing, in other words.

I love that my parents are coming, but every time they do, I’m reminded of how painful it is to live so far away. It’s one of the reasons I so rarely go home. Preventative medicine, shall we say.

And I know all of you will say “’tis better to have loved and lost, than to never have loved at all,” and I think that’s true for some… just not for me.

Oh, and Ellie’s doing fine. 🙂

Shot in the dark?
Hammerhead?
All-nighter?
Black Eye?
Coffee Suicide?
Cup o’ Crack?
Dead Man Walking?
Overdrive?

I prefer the term “red eye.” It’s a shot of espresso in a cup of regular drip coffee and it’s quite tasty.

This morning I stopped at my favorite local coffee shop. I have a cold weather drink and a hot weather drink. In the summer I’m a double iced espresso over ice, extra ice. In the winter, I’m a red eye.

It was cold this morning (still is), so I ordered a red eye. Two girls I didn’t recognize were working—and one was obviously new to the business. Holding the cup, she said, “OK, what’s that?”

“Oh,” I said. “Do you call it a ‘Shot in the Dark?’ It’s just a shot of espresso in a cup of drip coffee.”

The other girl looked at me and said, “It’s not on our menu.”

I looked up. It wasn’t. I smiled… “Um… OK.” I’m sure I looked confused.

“We have it,” she explained. “We just call it add a shot of espresso to your cup of coffee.”

“Long name… that must be why it’s not on your menu, huh?” I grinned. (Their menu is a small chalkboard.)

Less than amused, she said, “Well we’re not that fancy.” And walked away.

WTF did I say?!

And first of all, before any crazy coffee people jump on me, let me say: I’m from Seattle. I worked in coffee for almost seven years. I overtip and I know what I’m talking about. And I wasn’t being rude. 😛

Lovely people in the AM, hmm?

Hi. I am a cat owner and I suck and they should be taken away from me.

See, here’s the thing…

I thought I would give them a bath before my parents came to visit and my dad switched the shower head (right now it detaches). Seems logical, yes? Well… kinda. It’s a small shower and they really aren’t keen on the whole bathing thing.

But Izzie got done, no problem. A little crying on her part, but as long as I was talking or singing to her (I am weird, my cats are weird, deal with it), then she was fine.

Then came Ellie. She’s the smaller of the two, the one who only wants attention occasionally and really only to play fetch. She cried a lot. And she squirmed.

When we were almost done, she was thrashing about and caught one of her back foot’s claws in the drain. She struggled and something ripped and then there was a little bleeding.

I am the worst person in the world, aren’t I?

I have NO IDEA what to do and I wonder… should I take her to a vet? She’s walking OK, and there wasn’t much blood and I seriously feel like the most heinous human on the planet right now.

Somebody tell me what to do.

Should I wait for my dad (Thursday night) or should I take her to a vet?

I’ve had the craziest dreams all weekend. The kind where you wake up and remember every single detail with crystal clear clarity. The kind where the rest of your day is colored by the disturbing events that occurred while you were sleeping.

I hate that.

In the first, there was some sort of massive explosion that changed the face of the world (I said they were crazy). Many survived, but we were living in a ghost-like city, and those in charge were doing a piss-poor job. I went off on my own with someone—not entirely clear who—and then we were getting flashlights from off the street—under several feet of water. At some point my cats were in this dream… they were staying at a hotel that I had been staying at before the explosion. After it, I went back for them (they were fine… hi, they are my cats… very resourceful. 😉 )

In the second, it was Christmas and I had forgotten to get the presents for my family. It was two days before Christmas, then Christmas Eve and I was in a dead panic. (Which is very odd, because I’m the person who has all the Christmas presents purchased before Thanksgiving, normally.)

And now that I’m typing this, I have forgotten the third… last night’s. But it was just as disturbing.

Alright, so here’s the thing… is this because I’m completely off the cigarettes? Four days now and not a one. Is it because I have a new mattress? Or is it because my parents are coming and I am stressed? I don’t know.

But it’s weird.

And I don’t like it.

Columbus Day. Apparently our company celebrates it by… yes, that’s right… not going to work. Woohoo. 🙂

Is everyone else working? Does anybody have today off?

I slept in. I ate sushi. I played with the cats. Then I went shopping and bought new sheets. And a Waterpik shower head.

I’m quite excited about the fact that my parents will be here in a few days. My mom is bringing me Almond Roca, and dad is going to install the new shower head. Yay. 🙂

Anywho, so I’m all mellow and just puttering about the house.

Then I attempted to turn on my ceiling fan in my living room. Sparks flew, something popped and the damn lights went out. I think, I think I might have a short. Uh huh. Fortunately the landlord was up and he flipped the breaker switch and then came upstairs and poked at the fan.

He’s going to come back on Monday. With an electrician.

And the day was going so well… lol.

The coworker and I spent the day at the main office with the Boss. Surprisingly, it wasn’t too bad. The Boss’ wife is being fazed out of the company (we think), and so she wasn’t at the meeting… which means no marital fighting. A bad, bad thing in the workplace. There wasn’t any yelling or being mean AND we got to eat Thai food again. Bliss. 🙂

However, there was one little incident… I was discussing this new (terrible, very bad, no good) program that the Boss wanted me to get and use to design the images of the report covers we give away on one of our sites. I despise this program. You can only use it on PCs and it’s just very… icky. And I can design these covers freehand, so my response was “WTF?”

Anyway, so I was saying, “Well, I don’t really like it. I designed the basic cover using the program, then I had to take it into ImageReady and fuck with it..” and OHMYGOD, I just said fuck to my boss. I was so appalled. I blushed and covered my mouth while the Boss, the general manager and the coworker busted out laughing. I couldn’t stop apologizing.

The GM looked at me and said, “Don’t worry. He [the Boss] cusses all the time.” The laughter continued.

Ten minutes later, the Boss used the f-word in a sentence, paused, looked at me and said, “Did I get you to start swearing?” More laughter ensued as I assured him that, no, he had not.

Yeah. It was one of those days… lol.