(not the teenage kind)

Tuesday, January 23, 2007

Minneapolis

I realized that this was my fourth trip to MInneapolis but the first time in the Winter and the first time for a funeral. On the way to LAX, don dokken, my mom and I stopped for dinner and we talked about Aunt Ruth. The ultimate word we decided described her was "accepting." The last time I saw Aunt Ruth was when she and Naomi came to visit two weeks before my dad died. Unfortunately, the sight of my dad and the talk of his starting morphine, upset her greatly and when I walked into his house I thought we were going to have to call 911 for her. She so upset my dad that my job for the rest of the night was to keep her away from him. So I was mainly with him in his bedroom and did not really get to talk to her. I was supposed to have breakfast with her and Naomi the morning they left but that was the morning that don dokken's aunt died. So I never even said goodbye. Naomi called from the airport just before they left but I don't think I even talked to Aunt Ruth directly. I just wasn't thiinking straight. And I feel pretty sad about that.

But, about the trip:

- Mom and I took the red-eye and arrived at the airport very early. I had my eyes closed around 10:30 or so when my phone rang. It was my ab fab real estate partner, Helen, who is now a jet setting flight attendant. As we were talking, my friends Carol and Eric walked by back from a trip to Hawaii. I literally hung up from Helen and ran after them. It was great to see them and felt like a really good omen.

- My mom and I weren't sitting next to each other because we booked separately. And because she doesn't like to sit next to me because I always take medication and fall asleep. That seems pretty appropriate for a red-eye but whatever. For no particiular reason or maybe because of the aforementioned medication, I asked the guy next to me how they are able to dig graves in Minneapolis (or anywhere) in the winter after a huge snow storm (this was not the case this weekend. I was just being hypothetical). He told me that only the first inch or two of ground is hard and they have special equipment for that.

- I accidentally left my gloves in the lobby of the hotel and when I went to find them at the front desk and told her they were black gloves she said they had a lot of those in the lost and found. I told her that they looked like they belonged to someone from California and she went right to them.

- Each of Aunt Ruth's three children gave a eulogy and they all talked about her accepting nature. They also talked about how she spent so much of her time taking care of others (mainly her husband) and not enough time taking care of herself or doing the things that she wanted to do.

- After the service, we drove to the graveside and there was a lightly falling snow. The funeral director apologized to the people from California for the lack of sunshine but the cemetary looked much more beautiful this way. Another thing I remember about Aunt Ruth is that she would never admit the winters in Minneapolis were cold. We would hear about a huge snowstorm and below freezing temperatures and she would say they were having a "mild winter."

- My mother refused many offers of rides to the aiport so we took the super shuttle. Our shuttle driver was late and apparently had no idea where the airport was. This made me very anxious. When we got to the airport and were exiting the van onto the icy road, he did not even offer to help with our bags. I told my mother she is never to turn down a ride to the airport again.

Monday, January 22, 2007

Getting Priorities Straight






My mom and I flew to Minneapolis for the funeral of my dad's eldest sister, Aunt Ruth. I will post more about Aunt Ruth and the funeral but for now one story. On the morning of the funeral, the plan was for the family to gather at my cousin Naomi's house so we could ride together in a limo to the funeral home. My mom and I made plans to drive with my cousin Michael and his family to Naomi's house. We were all in the car, ready to go, when my mom realized she did not have her scarf. I said I would go look in the hotel lobby and Michael asked that I make sure the car trunk was properly closed.

As you can see from the picture I've posted, we had some snow. So I gingerly walked to the back of the car, opened and closed the trunk,and then even more gingerly walked through the ice and snow to the hotel entrance, walked into the hotel lobby and then promptly slid on the marble floor and fell hard on my butt. The entire hotel staff came running, it was very embarrassing and I was fine except for the huge bruise on my butt.

When I got back to the car with my mother's scarf, I told everyone how I had slipped and fallen on my butt. They looked alarmed, inquired if I was okay. Except, of course, my mother,who turned to me and anxiously asked "So what about the trunk door? Are you sure it's closed?"

Friday, January 12, 2007

It Really Is A New Year

One of the things about the purge of 2006 is that I really cleaned out my kitchen. That meant that I got rid of a lot of clutter and old food and now things are arranged so that if I need to get to something I don't have to go through a pile of clutter first. My empty cupboards inspired me to shop and fill them with healthy staples. My kitchen has become, as kruthless might say, somewhat "nurturing." So here was the conversation with don dokken tonight:

Me: Do you want me to make some pasta for dinner?

dd: I'm not sure what that means.

Me: I thought I would cook some pasta for dinner. Do you want some?

dd: I'm still really confused. And scared.

Me: Okay, I'm going to cook some pasta and if all goes well, maybe you'll have some?

All went well. We had pasta with broccoli and it was good. But I still say that the time spent cooking and then cleaning up afterwards is hardly worth the effort.

And the cooking is not all that is new in 2007. Those who know me will be shocked (SHOCKED), that I now own three (THREE) pairs of jeans. You see,my big problem has always been that any pair of pants that fit in the hips were too big in the waist and vice versa. But apparently in the 20 years since I last bought jeans they have invented these things called "low riders" which sit on your hips and the waist does not even fit into the equation. I bought the jeans in San Francisco on a shopping expedition with Sandra, Claire, and don dokken. I would like to thank them profusely as I can tell already that this new development is going to be life altering.

Thursday, January 04, 2007

Happy New Year


I wanted to post this several days ago but Cingular was not cooperating and I could not get this picture out of the camera phone until now. As you can see, Eva and Isaac were rooting for Wisconsin. Eva is wearing the Badger cap and Isaac is wearing the colors (although there was some confusion about the colors because the other team - Alabama? Arkansas? - was similarly colored.) This picture was taken shortly before my mother dropped Eva on her head in what she called a "fun game." She claims the game was ruined by me and Karen's screams when Eva's head hit the tile because we startled Eva and made her cry. She did, however, later admit that Eva gave her a very dirty look.

 
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