Be careful of what you wish for…
So despite what I have written recently, we really did have a decent vacation. OK, I had a decent vacation. TheWife had a fun time. LatteGirl, however had an all out blast.
Last Year, we enjoyed going to this place, but one of the few problems we had was LatteGirl and her being shy. It was like she was attached to our hips the entire time. She wasn’t interested in playing with or getting to know the other children at the resort, and we had to keep her “entertained” the entire time.
We were detemined to try and help her get past this when we went on vacation this year. We planned, we schemed, we had everything all set and agreed upon so she couldn’t play one parent against the other. We accounted for every possible scenario. Or so we thought. There was one situation we had not taken into consideration, and it took us by surprise.
As it turns out, she was ready to spread her wings and start embarking on her own adventures. No prodding necessary. As a matter of fact, we had to strain a bit to reign her in, as she started to show some signs that she was actually getting annoyed and felt we were “cramping her style” and wanted us to just “leave her be.” I had to actually restrain (no not physically) and occupy TheWife at times to keep her from constantly “checking up” on LatteGirl. TheWife wanted LatteGirl to find some friends and be more social, but she was not prepared for this and it showed. (OK, full disclosure. I am not sure I am(was) ready for this either, but I was certainly better prepared for what we encounted than TheWife was.)
Suddenly, the little girl that wanted us to play games with her, and swim with her, and had to have us within an arm’s reach, no longer cared to have us around. She did crafts with one set of friends. Played sports with another. Karaoke made her one of the most popular kids on the resort as everybody wanted to borrow her High School Musical Karaoke Disc, and at the evening “dances” the only time she wanted to know we were there was when she needed something to drink. Heck there was one evening when we were tired, and she told us we could go “home” (back to our room), and she would “see us later.” No, we didn’t allow that… not at 7 (TheWife says not for a few more years, I say not for another 20 years)
So in the end as the old adage goes, be careful of what you wish for… you just might get it. And if it involves your child growing up… you might get it far sooner than you hoped for.
Knock, Knock, Knockin’ …
Death and dying is a subject I have broached more than I care to admit on this blog. My father’s passing, dealing with LatteGirl and her understanding (or lack of) on the matter, my mother’s tenous health, an uncle that had to be placed into an “induced coma” because of the pain (but somehow managed to turn it around and survive it).
Death for me has come, for lack of a better word, “easy” to some degree. From the time I was 9 through about 13 I spent more time in funeral homes than I think most people should have to for their entire lives. It seemed at the time that I was back at the one place that both sides of the family used as their “regular” funeral home. By the time the “older generation” was done dropping like flies, I knew the place intimately. The smoking lounge (hey this was the late 70′s early 80′s and yes you could actually still smoke indoors), where they stored extra boxes of tissues, where the office was, the water cooler, which rooms were the bigger ones, how many displays it actually took to make a flower car look full, and so on.
However, none of that prepared me for what I was to face on the first day of our vacation, in which we had to make a detour to my in-laws for a family reunion, hastily put together when it was discovered that my step-father-in-law has lung and kidney cancer (just found out about the kidney part).
This may have been the single most uncomfortable event I have ever attended. The tension was amazingly palpable as everybody was keenly aware, but very few were willing to mention that big pink elephant in the middle of the room. The only way I can describe it, would be attending a funeral repast, and the deceased sitting there dining with you. Oh, my step-father-in-law was acting cheerful enough, and generally smiled most of the time. But you knew he didn’t look quite “right,” not sick per se, but certainly frail for a man that has never looked that way before.
Conversations were guarded, and many abruptly ended when talks of things like “future plans” accidentally came up, presumably people feeling (and probably rightfully so) that it was rude to talk about what you plan to do “next year” when you are at a party for a man that may not see the end of this one.
We did not (at their request), inform LatteGirl of “Pops” condition. Which was probably a smart move with her being as over-sensitive as she is. However this was also cause for some confusion for her later. Since we still needed to get to the Poconos and check in, we were the first ones to leave. It was at this point that some of the masks started to drop. Tears were shed as who knew when or if we would ever have an opportunity to see him again. Of course LatteGirl, without knowledge as to why people were crying, was quite confounded by it all. She couldn’t understand why people were sad that we were going on vacation.
TheWife has never been particularly close with her step father (she and her sisters all wore black when their mother married him), but he is a jovial and likable fellow (particularly now when he is sober), and a lot of bitterness is now of course being overlooked, and I guess, it is tough to hate somebody who you are watching slowly die. (Well, I can think of a few cases where I could hold my anger but that is for a different day and post).
I don’t know that there was any way to make this any less uncomfortable, or if I had to do it all over again that I would (or could) do anything different. I don’t know what if anything we should do now. All I know for sure, is no matter how confident I feel that I have “seen it all”… something will come along to prove me wrong.
He’s baaaaack
Sorry, my plans to update as this vacation went along were dashed along with a lot of hopes and dreams and plans I had for this vacation. I’d like to say no worse for the wear, but that simply isn’t the case. Vacations are supposed to be fun, and refreshing, and relaxing and other such happy things. Right?
Well, they were… for TheWife… and for LatteGirl. Me, not so much. As I noted in my last entry, things got off to a rocky start. Well, from there things only seemed to go downhill. The upside, is that the MCL is not torn, so no surgery is in the (immediate) future.
The symptoms of concussion though became more clear once I was no longer so focused on the pain in my knee, and I got the joys of all of that for a day or two. Fortunately Monday and Tuesday were complete washouts thanks to the rain, so it gave me little incentive to do anything but try and rest up. However a little tickle then hit the back of my throat. Didn’t think much of it at first, but it got progressively worse as time wore on.
By Tuesday evening, I could no longer swallow anything solid. By Wednesday I could no longer even sip on water. And I was starting to feel warm. Yup, 104 degrees warm. And that being after moutains of Tylenol and a cold shower. So we seek out whatever doctor we can find in the “Greater Swifterwater, PA” area. They originally said could not take me, but after me then asking where I could find the closest hospital or morgue, they took pity on me and found me a slot.
I started to question the decision, when the doctor finally came in. Now, I am in no way a racist person, but this lady doctor was such a stereotype rolled up into a person, I would classify her as a Chinese Characature of Chinese Stereotypes. Not that this is necessarily a bad thing, but as she looks at my chart, she looks at me and says (say this too yourself in your favorite “chinese restaurant voice”) “ohhhhh…. you sick. You have big feevah. I bet you no feel good.”
But, mannerisms, and smirking over this, she was fine, and the diagnosis came down that I was expecting. Strep Throat. I had strep throat plenty of times as a child. Not once do I remember being as bad as the two times I have contracted it as an adult.
So I spent a Rainy Wenesday and lousy chilly and damp Thursday peering out the window of out room, watching others at the resort passing by from one event to another. With the ocassion visit from the wife and daughter, checking in to ensure I was still alive, before they too headed back out to have some fun, and stay as far away from me and my germs as they could.
By Friday I was well enough to at least get out doors and enjoy the final day before departing for home again. But all in all, it is definitely a vacation I would rather forget on a personal level.
TheWife and LatteGirl? Well they had a great time. More on that to come, as well as my previously mentioned trip, the “family reunion” with the terminally ill in-law to come.
Get your vacation off on the wrong foot in 5 easy steps
1 – Forget your cleats home when you know you will be playing softball.
2 – Insist to your wife (husband/significant other) that number one is no big deal when she points out it rained over night.
3 – Play softball, managing to twist you knee and smack your head on a rock on the same play.
4 – Spend your your first night of vacation icing your knee that has swollen to the size of a baloon.
5 – Only after the swelling goes down and your knee begins to feel better do you notice the the ringing in your ears and other symptoms of a concussion.
It has been a good vacation thus far, I only hope I survive it.
Stop the clock
It never changes. The more I try, the more I fall behind, or something sneeks up and kicks me in the behind. Going on vacation is supposed tp be for de-stressing isn’t it? So why is it that trying to prepare to go on vacation is always fraught with obstacles, and tons of last minute things to do? Is it ever really possible to tie up all those “loose ends” that need tying? Or is it just a useless tradition we put ourselves through to sort of make ourselves feel less guilty about all the people we are leaving behind?
TheWife and LatteGirl as I mentioned on Tuesday have been packing for two days. Me? I haven’t even thought about it yet, and have a business trip tomorrow, which leaves me getting up entirely too early on a Saturday morning, racing around to try and pack while hoping I don’t forget too much.
Why am I not doing it now? I’m not home yet. This post coming to you live from the fine New Jersey Transit system. By the time I arrive home eveybody will be asleep, thus curtailing my packing possibilities.
Earlier this week I was trying to figure out if I could get some pre-posting done. As it turns out, I couldn’t even get my regular posts done.
Anybody got a few spare hours that I buy?
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