Back to normal... well as normal as I get

This weekend wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. But let me start from the beginning.

Saturday, I couldn't sleep in for the life of me. I woke up around 5:30 am, and hovered inbetween sleep and awake until about 7. I watched cartoons with the girls till about 9, then we started getting ready. I wanted to leave at 10 so I could be at mom's by 10:30 and we were leaving at 11. But, as my life goes, mom called and told me to stop at the post office to fill out a form to get her stamps that the machine wouldn't hand over the night before. It took her money, kept the stamps, and the cash return button was broke. I figured it would be a quick in and out. Yeah, right, when have I ever been that lucky? There was a mile long line. I finally get up to the counter, fill out the little slip and asked for the holiday stamps that mom wanted. The guy behind the counter looks at me and said, "I'm out of holiday stamps. I can give you your $7.80 and you can go back out and fight with the maichine?" I told him no, she would have to settle for what ever I brought her. I called her and told her to be ready when I got there, that since I had to drive, I wasn't getting out of the car. When I got there, she came out, got in the car, and when I looked, we were 8 minutes ahead of schedule.

We were doing really well, and as we got to Chillicothe, mom decided that we needed a potty break. So, we got off the highway and I pulled into the Speedway at the bottom of the ramp. Mom and Annie went in to potty, and as I sat there, I decided that I needed a hot chocolate or something. So, Katie and I get out of the car, go inside, flagged down mom when she came out of the potty. We all picked our snacks and drinks, and as I'm capping off my cup, I realize that I don't have my car keys. I look at Katie and asked where my keys are. She looks back at me with a blank look in her face and says, "I thought you had them." I look around, look back at her and say, "Does mom have my spare?" She nods and says, "Yeah...... I think." Well, mom was already paying for her snacks, so we got in line. As mom turns to walk back toward us, I asked her if she had it with her. When she said yes, and I replied, "Good, go unlock the car." She gets this horrified look on her face and says, "Oh My Goodness! You didn't?" All I could do was laugh and nod, and she rushed out to open the car. I couldn't stop laughing, and the lady in line in front of me was looking at me like I was nuttier than a bag of walnuts. I was still laughing when we got to the counter to check out and the guy behind the counter asked me if I wanted a bag. I said, "No, we're going straight to the car with it, providing mom got it open." He just shook his head and laughed at me. When we got out there, she was sitting in the car, and when I got in, she gave me the mother lecture. You know, the one where they go on about how someone could've broke the car window and stole the car (in the 5 minutes that I was actually in the store). I just looked at her as I started the car and said, "Mom, you know going anywhere with me is an adventure."

The rest of the drive to Waverly was uneventful, but we realized that we were way early. So, we found a little store for mom to look for flowers for my sister's grave, and generally goofed off for out a half an hour.

We finally got to the church they were using, as the family church is way too small, and the funeral home isn't much larger. We get inside, and everyone was sitting or milling about chatting. I was glad that no one was wailing or boo-hooing uncontrolably. My Auntie Elaine stood up on the other side of the room and flagged us over. Now, there was a little anxiety about taking my mom with me, as this is my bio-dad's side of the family, and mom hadn't been around them in 30 years. Not that I was worried about anything my mom would do, but I was more worried about what my bio-dad, Jeff, would do. See, he's the black sheep if the family, the bad egg, as it were. But, I didn't see him anywhere, and thought I might get lucky and he wouldn't show up. I hugged all my aunts, Auntie Anita, Auntie Meshell and Auntie Yavonna. As I hugged Auntie Y, my eyes misted a little, and she grabbed and said, "Don't cry, 'cause if one of us cries, we are all doomed." And as I looked around, I realized that I have never seem such a large funeral party, if that's what it can be called. I went and hugged my grandparents, and it was my grandfather's mother that we were there for. Everything went nice. There was the occasional crying outburst as the preachers were delivering the "sermon", as it were. And let it be said that there was never a bad thing anyone could say about that woman. She was always smiling, her door was always open, and she always made sure you ate something from fear that you would get too skinny. The only thing that casted a cloud was when I noticed my father arrived, at the very last second, and I mean just as we were bowing our heads for prayer. And when it was time for the funeral procession to go to the graveyard, it caused some major traffic back ups. It was the longest procession I have ever seem. It was over a mile long, and I was only a quarter mile back from the hurst. When the graveside service was done, most of went back to the family church for a potluck. And in true family tradition, it was louder that all get out, with plenty of good food and good humor. We had a good time.

From there, we went back to Auntie Y's to relax a bit and talk. And we got home around 10 pm.

There was one funny part about my bio-dad (well, at least I found it funny). I'll tell ya about it tomorrow.

And thanks for the kind comments. They really help.