No promises!: March 2007

Monday, March 19, 2007

Aaah...vacation...

So here I am, in Plant City, FL, spending some quality time with my SIL Becky's family. My niece Sky is 4, and she has a brand new baby sister, Savannah. There's also her husband, Steve, but since he's working he doesn't get to hang out and play with us. Barb and Cam and I are camping out in their living room till Wednesday. We spent the day today in the Zoo...we all came in very tired, achy, and slightly sun-kissed. Not quite burned, but really dry and it hurts to scratch. I know, I know...don't scratch, right? Anyway, here's a smidgen of our day:

This is Cam and Sky checking out the kangaroo exhibit. The one lounging on the far right has a joey in her pouch, but he never did poke his head out to say "G'day" or anything. The keeper there said that it looks like a little chihuahua. Heh! Cam is taking pics with Barb's camera, as she was outside the kangaroo enclosure with the stroller and my other neice, Savannah.

This is Sky and Cam feeding the goats at the petting zoo. These were some incredibly fat goats. We went in after they fed them and they got to brush some of them...they weren't hard to catch, as a lot of them just sort of laid there, hugely fat, and content to be brushed. It's hard to be a petting zoo goat.

So this one...this one makes me laugh. The llama on the left has the most dreadful underbite I've ever seen. I actually laughed out loud when I saw him, and this picture makes me laugh every time I see it. It looks like he's just told a really lame joke (surely a lame llama joke) to the guy on the right, and is trying to laugh it off. I mean, that's what it looks like to me...ahem.

Sky and Cam at the Africa exhibit with rhinos in the background. We stood in line to ride the camels for nearly 15 minutes prior to this, and moved all of 2 feet with over a dozen people still in front of us...they only had one camel going at a time and it was taking forEVER! We ditched the camel ride and checked out the rest of the exhibit. This was easily the hottest part of the zoo, and yes, I understand it's supposed to be Africa and all, but crap!

We cooled off by hopping on the cable cars...Becky (she's waving) and Sky in the one ahead of me and Cam. Barb stayed with the baby and the stroller:

You can see she was very upset about this. LOL! We spent most of the day there, and the kids rode the pony ride (twice), the Jeep ride, the carousel, the cable cars, and Sky rode the "flying banana" ride twice on her own-Cam abstained as it's the sort of thing that would make him barf.

We saw bald eagles, bison, foxes, bears, wolves, deer, elephants (and the cutest baby elephant EVER), rhinos, tapirs, manatees, water moccasins (we see those at home, though), giraffes, bats, dingos, a komodo dragon, and countless reptiles and amphibians, just to name a few. They fed giant koi, catfish, turtles, goats, and some kind of pink bird (scarlet ibis, maybe?). They got to pet stingrays ("slimy!") and talked to keepers in the petting zoo and the kangaroo exhibit. It was a fun, yet educational sort of day.

Sky told me yesterday that this zoo also had unicorns, princesses, and dragons...unfortunately, we didn't get to see any of them today. As I told Dawn earlier tonight, we may have just missed them as we skipped parts of the zoo-we were worn out. I'm laying here on my air mattress (which has a funny story all in itself) listening to Cam snore over on the couch...he's had a long day.

We never did decide exactly what we're doing tomorrow...there was talk of going to Dinosaur Land (not at all like the one we have in P'cola, for those of you perking up at that), there was talk of a picnic lunch, and then something else but I can't remember it. It's been a long day. LOL! I'll try to blog some more tomorrow. Night!

posted by Jen @ 8:05 PM 4 comments

Wednesday, March 14, 2007

More deep thoughts...

Spring Break is coming. TJ, Kas, Cam, and I leave Friday for the Florida Trail Conference in the sprawling metropolis of Umatilla, FL. We’ll be there Fri-Sun, and then Sunday Cam and I will be deposited at Becky’s in Plant City. Barb will be there, and we’ll hang out and play with Sky and meet the new baby. We’ll drive back Wednesday.

I really, REALLY need this time off. There will be no school, no work, and I won’t be doing any of this traveling in a charter bus filled with 50 teenagers in smelly band uniforms. Don’t get me wrong – I love my smelly band kids. I just really need some time off.

Resa left last night with a van slam-full of her stuff. She made it to Jax around 7 this morning and is probably sleeping off a long night on the road. I miss her. Cam is angry because he doesn’t remember when we woke him up to say goodbye, and swears it never happened.

Then there’s the whole “my grandma died” thing…which sounds much more callous than I intend, but it’s such a broad collection of drastic experiences that I really don’t know of a better way to put it. My out-of-town cousins have returned home, my out-of-town aunt has returned home, and Resa left last night…it’s down to the core P’cola players now; minus one. There’s a huge swirl of emotions throughout the family, and it’s all completely unexplainable to anyone uniniated with my "we put the fun in dysfunctional" family.

I haven’t been on my computer much lately…well, I have been on my computer, but I’ve taken to playing silly online games (obsessively) rather than keeping up with email, chats, or blogging. Avoidance much? …sigh…

So while I was not reading email or chatting with anyone, a good friend of mine’s father passed away. She’s had a run of really shitty luck lately, and this just sort of capped it off. She found out that her dad stopped paying his life insurance policy and it had been cancelled. Now her Mom, who was not in a good spot before the death, is in a very sticky situation.

Another friend had a parental unit emergency Monday. His Dad is in bad shape…diabetes and Alzheimer’s have left him unable to care for himself. My friend’s Mom takes care of him. Monday she stood up at the bank and passed out. It turns out that it was a medication problem, but my friend had to take off all day to make sure that both of his parents were taken care of. He came to the realization that if anything were to happen to his Mom he wouldn’t know how to care for his Dad…

So with all this in mind, I’ve been thinking deep thoughts again. I know, I know…run away! The realization of the parental/grandparental (assuming that’s a word) role-reversal is a harsh one. That instant in which you realize, “My Mom/Dad/Grandma is completely dependant on me/another person for every need, and he/she is NOT going to get better” sucks. It sucks balls.

Think about it…the closest thing we can get to a real, live superhero is a parent (grandparent, close uncle, etc). As a child we idolize them…they know everything there is to know about anything there is to know…ever. We all outgrow that stage as teenagers, but there is still that element of…indestructibility to them. To suddenly realize that your folks are only as human as yourself (whether you find out they can’t manage money or that one has terminal cancer) can affect you in ways you never imagined.

Maybe some people come to this realization in a prettier way…slowly and in little bits at a time. My experience with this has been bitter, sudden, and overwhelming. To see it in my family is one thing, but to see two other friends dealing with it at the same time… I don’t know. It keeps the situation in the forefront of my mind. Maybe that’s the best way to deal with it…stir up the pot, let the stink out and get it over with.

I guess what I’m worried the MOST about is that this won’t be one of those life experiences that you can check off your list and move on. Is this going to be a recurring theme? I do have two other grandparents – they’re still trucking and they’re in their late 80s/early 90s. I’m a little worried about Grandma’s memory…I don’t think her short-term memory is what it used to be at all.

Morbid, eh? I’m looking into drawing up a will now, and a living will and all that other stuff nobody likes to think about until it’s too late. So yeah…about that vacation…Friday is just not getting here fast enough!

posted by Jen @ 12:16 PM 2 comments

Friday, March 02, 2007

Fini

I spent the past 3 weekends on a death watch for my Grandma Tucker. She was too ornery to go predictably, though, and spent the better part of a month mystifying her doctors, nurses, and family. She passed away in the wee hours this morning. Dad called me this morning around 7:30...he probably didn't want to wake me up, or something like that. He called Resa (she's at my house) and I called Val, who was taking Jacelyn to school. Boom. The shoe we've all been waiting to fall has fallen. I left school and came home, and Val stopped by between Jaceyln's school and work.

We sat around talking and reveling in our unusual brand of off-color humor...it really sort of reaches a pinnacle in situations like this. We were like the 3 Stooges in the ICU waiting room when Mom was dying. We found out that it must be a Tucker thing rather than a Morton thing at our Uncle's funeral...we were sitting out in the front room of the funeral home with our cousin, reveling in our unusual brand of off-color humor. We didn't create a scene or anything, but it was nice to know that we had a partner in crime in our cousin.

So here's the thing...Resa has an old college friend coming over today. Tomorrow is her birthday, and we had every intention of going out tonight and having a brilliant time. She bought a birthday outfit that she's giving to me (Thanks, Sa!) because the people that sized it? They were on crack. Anyway, it was going to be a whole HERD of people, but now we're not entirely sure what to do. Should we go out anyway? We've asked everyone what we can do to help...there's nothing right now. Our Dad and Aunts are going to make arrangements for the funeral today, and they're waiting to hear when our out-of-town cousins can make it in. We're in the limbo phase right now. Would it be dreadfully disrespectful to go tonight? I mean, Steven is coming in from Panama City...we've made plans. We're going to go out for her birthday regardless...just a matter of when.

We went to McGuires (my sisters and my cousin) after my Uncle's funeral for a night of tributes and drinking. We figure it's the way he would have preferred to be remembered anyway. We plan to do the same after Grandma's funeral, but I really don't want to say, "Yeah, we went out for Grandma's funeral and Resa's birthday last night...good times..." Know what I mean? Ugh. What do y'all think?

posted by Jen @ 10:06 AM 2 comments

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