I'm Back

I’m back. I know you all missed me terribly, and I am sorry to have been gone so long. I could give you a long detailed excuse but it doesn’t really matter does it.

So where did I leave off?

My plan for picking Melody up was to get up fairly early on Friday and nap from 8 until midnight when Gordon got home from work. Leave here at 2:30 and drive to the airport to get her. Everything went as planned except the nap part, the nap was only from 10:00 to 11:30, I forget now the reason but still remember the loss. We waited outside the security checkpoint and Melody arrived right on time. We went downstairs to collect her bags (why is it that the first 10 or so bags that are placed on the carousel belong to no one?), with bags in hand we turned to leave and realized that we did not have Megan. I looked around and panicked. Melody and Gordon assured me that she could not have gone far, I did not find this very assuring as I knew that and had looked as far as she could have gone and she was not there. Melody started walking amongst the crowd and Gordon suggested I find the bathroom and she if she was there. She was, apparently she had told me but could not wait for an acknowledgement that I had heard her. This trip to the bathroom cost me a dollar as it put me in the parking lot for one hour and one minute. I thought since I was now paying for an additional 29 minutes we should use them driving around the parking lot, but emotions were running high so I didn’t even suggest this.

We stopped at McD for breakfast and then went to Mommy’s where many went to sleep. Having taken my nap earlier I was unable to fall back asleep and anxiously awaited Jackson. Erika and Jackson arrived right on time, followed shortly after by Robin and her entourage. We headed up to the pool and enjoyed the last good weather of official summer, (I think it was also the first good weather of official summer). Heather and Sabrina brought with them the rain and the official party moved to Little Caesar Funland. The kids had a ton of fun and the rest of us had a ton of pizza and crazy bread. I had forgotten how loud and obnoxious those places are, thousands of kids running and screaming. I guess it’s a good thing that as you get older you forget things more often, this way my own grandkids have a chance of going there with me. Steph and Arn left us at Funland and the rest of us went back to Mommy’s. Sean, Bryan, and Sabrina ran around in the front yard playing tag. It doesn’t seem that long ago that I watched what are now the big kids running around in that same yard. At one point to voice his displeasure at appropriate playthings Sean said, “I’m so boring” I told him that I couldn’t disagree more.

Once all of the extras had left for home, with cell phones preprogrammed to call when they were lost (and they did), we settled in for a quiet evening of Big Brother and Jackson. Jackson was fascinated with the Just Jack show on Mommy’s computer screen and his face registered surprise when Sammy’s picture came up as if to say, “hey wait a minute where did you get him, he’s mine.” I can’t vouch for anyone else but I slept well that night.

Sunday we went to breakfast and then ventured out to see the other half of the family. Most of the other half was busy with their own holiday weekend schedules, but we were able to spend some time with Grandma Gerry and Darryl. And then went to Dawn’s new house and played a little with Devon. We then got on the road to home with a stop at Great Lakes Crossing for a mall fix for Melody.

Monday was a trip to see Dustin in the Cadillac area. The barbecue was rained out so it was pizza again. Melody met the dogs, and Dustin played guitar for us. The drive home concluded Melody’s scheduled events for her vacation.

Tuesday morning I got up bright and early for my interview in Farmington Hills. The car sounded funny when I was leaving the house but the faster I went the less I noticed it, by the time I was on the freeway I hardly noticed at all. Someone else driving down the road did though and flagged me down to let me know I had a flat tire. In my professional clothes on the side of the freeway I as able to use (personally for the first time) the handy dandy air compressor Bob and Dorothy got me for Christmas a few years ago. I refilled the tire and drove on. I stopped at 202 and bought a pressure gauge and rechecked the tire. It was still full so I continued on. I stopped again around 134 at a rest area and the tire was still full so I drove on to the interview, arriving early I went to a different area of the parking lot and rechecked the tire, it was fine. I thought the interview went extremely well, but I have thought that about almost all of the interviews that I have gone to. They told me they would be making a decision next Monday or Tuesday (it is the next Tuesday as I type this – oh well).

The rest of the week was pretty uneventful. Melody pretended like she lived here, coming and going as she pleased, stopping occasionally to ask, “What’s for dinner?” I’m not sure of the significance, but I bag up all of the trash every Tuesday so Gordon can put it out for Wednesday pick up and this last week the trash was full by Saturday, coincidence that Melody was home? Could be.

Melody is back in California safe and sound, although she will probably be emotional for a while, as she has to start missing all of us all over again. I know I certainly missed seeing that lump on the couch this morning when I got up. Heather automatically drove to our house last night and came in for a while before she remembered that Melody was not here and she doesn’t like the rest of us.

In other news, my bank has still not cleared up the fraudulent charge stuff. And I have two interviews on Friday; one is for Snelling for temporary work, and the other with an electrical company in Livonia. I have a Nar-Anon picnic on Saturday so I will be staying overnight at Mom’s.