"let's take the moments that we have and remember everyday to say I love you"
Well, I am back, a day late. So I have decided to weave my story of death, life, woe, and joy here.
Friday was the day set for me to leave my home and take my brother, sister-in-law, niece, and nephew down to Florida. My sister-in-law’s, Mary, step-father was dying. So, Charlie was driving her and my niece down to stay for a few weeks and returning with me and my nephew.
Thursday night I went to bed at ten. This was normal for me, and I expected to be woken up at seven and leave for Florida at eight.
Wrong.
I was pulled out of bed at one in the morning. Besides that, I was not packed, and I had yet to take my shower. Or activate my phone. Or pull out my cd’s. Or grab books to read.
Yep. I was screwed from the start.
I got into the truck with only my purse, two sets of clothes, and hygiene stuff.
Then, promptly fell asleep.
I woke up at about seven in Tennessee. Which I must say, held me in awe. I’ve always managed to sleep through Tennessee whenever I’ve gone on a trip.
Mountains closed us in and the sides of the interstate where not fields, but cliffs. Some water ran down them like fountains; others had icicles hanging down. The color of the rocks was phenomenal. Passing by a small pond, I managed to glimpse the water. It was the prettiest and bluest water I have ever seen. No lie.
I want to spend the rest of my life in Tennessee.
We also started a game. Basically, spotting Wal-Mart semis. Mary won the first day. I sucked. I did not call one Wal-Mart truck all day.
I discovered that my brother feels the need to stop by every rest stop available.
Which tends to become annoying after about the tenth stop.
The rest of the ride was uneventful until we arrived in Florida. Suddenly, the entire landscape changed. Now it consisted of palm and pine trees. The side of the roads were covered with the spindly growing trees that I have only seen in Florida. Memories flooded back to me of the forests I used to play in as a child.
I basked in the nice, warm weather. It was sunny out, but just perfectly so, about 70 degrees with just a slight breeze.
We arrived at Mary’s parent’s house at around eleven and crashed. I slept on the floor. Which was actually quite comfy.
Let me restate something I forgot.
We arrived at Mary’s parent’s huge expensive house. These are rich people. In the whole town where they lived I saw three piece-of-crap cars. I know, because I counted. People there do not live in singular houses. They live in communities like Sun Valley East, Country Fair, Graystone. Gated communities with police guarding them. How much do these places run a month? Seven thousand dollars. Charlie told me when he and Mary lived there they had a one bedroom/one bath apartment that wasn’t even nice. It cost them $735.
Anyway, in the morning I woke up, mumbled a few incoherent sentences and took a shower.
All the people in the house crowded around Mya, my niece. And I felt a sort of selfish pride, because she hid from them and cried when they touched her. But she hid behind me, or hugged me, or kissed me. Like I said, selfish.
About an hour before me, Charlie, and my nephew, Christian, needed to leave, Mary’s step-dad passed away. It’s the closest I’ve ever been to someone who died. Spatially speaking. I was in the room next to his. It’s also the first time I’ve ever seen a dead human body.
Everyone was crying. Thankfully, my special aunt powers allowed the children to already be in bed.
I went outside with my brother. This was more of a time for family. I remember quite vividly looking up at the sky and seeing Simpson-like clouds everywhere.
A perfect sky. Except for in the very corner, where one small purple cloud hung.
When I went back inside, Mary called me into their computer room. Containing computers I would kill for. But that is besides the point. She asked me to try and pick up this mean cat. Correction, evil cat. I have never had a cat not like me. So far it had bitten Mary and Charlie. I touched it’s fur barely. It growled at me. I did manage to pick it up without getting bit, but only because of my mad cat skills. Then Mary led me to the bedroom where her mom and step-dad were. I placed the cat on the bed with her step-dad’s body. Her mom picked up his hand and petted the cat with it.
That was a little creepy.
After all this, we decided to stay until morning, which meant no school for me on Monday.
I’m complaining. Really.
One thing really irritated me that day. A pastor came over shortly after he died and said prayer. He told Mary’s mom to take as much time as she needed. Then he walked over to the dead man’s brother. He said they needed to make some decisions. Then he asked the brother if he had any "influence" on her decisions.
My brother and I both wanted to pop him.
Over the two days I found out a lot about Mary’s family. Her step-dad was a big business man and took care of everything. Including Mary’s mom. He brought her over from the Philippines.
Mary’s mom does not know how to pay bills. Write checks. Or do anything else in the real world. Everything has been done for her.
And now that he’s gone she has no idea what to do. And he owes $45,000 in taxes this year. That haven’t been paid.
And she is helpless. Seeing this and hearing about it has made me add one more thing to my list of fears: being helpless. I couldn’t stand it.
The ride back consisted of silence. Except for the occasional:
"Wal-mart truck!"
"Fuck you!"
Score: Me-7 Charlie-8
I did better! Now hopefully I can move on and learn to never go on trips with Charlie again.
Although I did find out he has a weirder sneeze than me. While mine consists of a high-pitched funny noise, his sounds somewhat like this:
"Achooshit!" "Achoofuck!" or my favorite "Achodammit!"
Teehee.
My poems are all up.
-
My list of fears (in no particular order)
1) People
2) Failing
3) Rejection
4) Falling
5) Loneliness
6) Helplessness
Friday was the day set for me to leave my home and take my brother, sister-in-law, niece, and nephew down to Florida. My sister-in-law’s, Mary, step-father was dying. So, Charlie was driving her and my niece down to stay for a few weeks and returning with me and my nephew.
Thursday night I went to bed at ten. This was normal for me, and I expected to be woken up at seven and leave for Florida at eight.
Wrong.
I was pulled out of bed at one in the morning. Besides that, I was not packed, and I had yet to take my shower. Or activate my phone. Or pull out my cd’s. Or grab books to read.
Yep. I was screwed from the start.
I got into the truck with only my purse, two sets of clothes, and hygiene stuff.
Then, promptly fell asleep.
I woke up at about seven in Tennessee. Which I must say, held me in awe. I’ve always managed to sleep through Tennessee whenever I’ve gone on a trip.
Mountains closed us in and the sides of the interstate where not fields, but cliffs. Some water ran down them like fountains; others had icicles hanging down. The color of the rocks was phenomenal. Passing by a small pond, I managed to glimpse the water. It was the prettiest and bluest water I have ever seen. No lie.
I want to spend the rest of my life in Tennessee.
We also started a game. Basically, spotting Wal-Mart semis. Mary won the first day. I sucked. I did not call one Wal-Mart truck all day.
I discovered that my brother feels the need to stop by every rest stop available.
Which tends to become annoying after about the tenth stop.
The rest of the ride was uneventful until we arrived in Florida. Suddenly, the entire landscape changed. Now it consisted of palm and pine trees. The side of the roads were covered with the spindly growing trees that I have only seen in Florida. Memories flooded back to me of the forests I used to play in as a child.
I basked in the nice, warm weather. It was sunny out, but just perfectly so, about 70 degrees with just a slight breeze.
We arrived at Mary’s parent’s house at around eleven and crashed. I slept on the floor. Which was actually quite comfy.
Let me restate something I forgot.
We arrived at Mary’s parent’s huge expensive house. These are rich people. In the whole town where they lived I saw three piece-of-crap cars. I know, because I counted. People there do not live in singular houses. They live in communities like Sun Valley East, Country Fair, Graystone. Gated communities with police guarding them. How much do these places run a month? Seven thousand dollars. Charlie told me when he and Mary lived there they had a one bedroom/one bath apartment that wasn’t even nice. It cost them $735.
Anyway, in the morning I woke up, mumbled a few incoherent sentences and took a shower.
All the people in the house crowded around Mya, my niece. And I felt a sort of selfish pride, because she hid from them and cried when they touched her. But she hid behind me, or hugged me, or kissed me. Like I said, selfish.
About an hour before me, Charlie, and my nephew, Christian, needed to leave, Mary’s step-dad passed away. It’s the closest I’ve ever been to someone who died. Spatially speaking. I was in the room next to his. It’s also the first time I’ve ever seen a dead human body.
Everyone was crying. Thankfully, my special aunt powers allowed the children to already be in bed.
I went outside with my brother. This was more of a time for family. I remember quite vividly looking up at the sky and seeing Simpson-like clouds everywhere.
A perfect sky. Except for in the very corner, where one small purple cloud hung.
When I went back inside, Mary called me into their computer room. Containing computers I would kill for. But that is besides the point. She asked me to try and pick up this mean cat. Correction, evil cat. I have never had a cat not like me. So far it had bitten Mary and Charlie. I touched it’s fur barely. It growled at me. I did manage to pick it up without getting bit, but only because of my mad cat skills. Then Mary led me to the bedroom where her mom and step-dad were. I placed the cat on the bed with her step-dad’s body. Her mom picked up his hand and petted the cat with it.
That was a little creepy.
After all this, we decided to stay until morning, which meant no school for me on Monday.
I’m complaining. Really.
One thing really irritated me that day. A pastor came over shortly after he died and said prayer. He told Mary’s mom to take as much time as she needed. Then he walked over to the dead man’s brother. He said they needed to make some decisions. Then he asked the brother if he had any "influence" on her decisions.
My brother and I both wanted to pop him.
Over the two days I found out a lot about Mary’s family. Her step-dad was a big business man and took care of everything. Including Mary’s mom. He brought her over from the Philippines.
Mary’s mom does not know how to pay bills. Write checks. Or do anything else in the real world. Everything has been done for her.
And now that he’s gone she has no idea what to do. And he owes $45,000 in taxes this year. That haven’t been paid.
And she is helpless. Seeing this and hearing about it has made me add one more thing to my list of fears: being helpless. I couldn’t stand it.
The ride back consisted of silence. Except for the occasional:
"Wal-mart truck!"
"Fuck you!"
Score: Me-7 Charlie-8
I did better! Now hopefully I can move on and learn to never go on trips with Charlie again.
Although I did find out he has a weirder sneeze than me. While mine consists of a high-pitched funny noise, his sounds somewhat like this:
"Achooshit!" "Achoofuck!" or my favorite "Achodammit!"
Teehee.
My poems are all up.
-
My list of fears (in no particular order)
1) People
2) Failing
3) Rejection
4) Falling
5) Loneliness
6) Helplessness
posted by Tiffany at 2:49 PM
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