Ok, now REALLY we need to go back to work, k?
Good morning it’s us again. We only have about a half hour left before work, so we’re going to hold back on Facebook and MP.com. Need to do something of our more ordinary life. I will have to go back to work and we’re having sticky feelings about that. I don’t want to necessarily go to work, but I’ve run out of excuses for not going. *Sigh*I did get a message from Thom last night. It was more though of a carrier pigeon … he spotted me on-line and figured I could connect him to Alexis. He didn’t have a phone, but he was on AIM. So I called her and asked her to sign on and then I let the two of them go. There was a little conversation between one point and another, but not much.
We know he’s safely in Japan and that he was doing pretty good and that for the most part he was just checking in. He thought the trip was long, but ok. He said he hadn’t had a chance to be off base to see if there would be culture shock – my term not his and he said that Alexis is going to take the Airforce officer test, but if it didn’t work out she might go to Japan. Then he told me that he loved me after we’d said the same to him and that was about it.
It was something. It told me of the intensity of needing to be with Alexis. I tried not to feel used just to get to her. I know if any other family members would have signed on, he would have asked the same from them, and I wouldn’t have gotten to talk to him. I feel bad about that, but yet appreciative of hearing something from him – especially that the communication set-up is working already. I don’t know though if he’s in his permanent place because I believe there is like a week or two of going through some sort of orientation before things settle in.
So that is that of that … He had contacted us about 9:30 pm, so it was 11:30 am his time … That part seemed to work out just fine.
Rich and us left for his mothers yesterday about 2:15 pm and we got back at about 8 pm. Yes, there was a little Tom Foolery afterwards, but that was like the intermission. In general though … during the visit we had a good time. I think I was a little more tired than normal and Rich was really tired, so I was worrying over that. Bud and Rich were still being argumentative toward Rich’s Mom and I didn’t like that part. They both insist on telling her every time they think she is wrong and they are pretty adamant about doing it. Sometimes they seem to Gang up on her and then I feel bad, because they are presenting her in a bad light especially in front of me who might be someone she would like to impress more for the positive.
She carries on a lion’s share of the conversation, but then for parts of it Bud and Rich talked more between them. I’m the conversational lightweight. I tried several times bringing up conversation, but it then quickly steered away from me. The best conversational piece I had was that my son was getting to Japan that day. Rich’s Mom and Bud then started talking about everyone they knew who had gone out of country as a service person and then that was pretty much that. I have to remember they are older people and live a lot by associations. My mother and John wouldn’t have done it any differently and maybe it’s part of human nature.
I didn’t try too hard after that to be imitating conversation. I just listened and asked questions.
The dinner was very good, though way too much food to eat. Bud had a small chicken dinner, but the rest of us had corn beef, cabbage, boiled potatoes, beans, carrots, and rye bread. Hmm, one more thing we had Keyline pie. That was very good too! I thanked Rich’s mother for the dinner, but then Bud came in and wanted to claim that he’d cooked a big part of it too, so then I spread the credit. I’m glad he corrected me, but I didn’t like that it was at the sake of Rich’s mother.
There was one point where she had left her foot out and he sort of tripped, though it was more of a shuffle, but then he pushed her foot intentionally and snapped at her. These are the warning signs I have that he’s being pretty tough on her. He’s very cranky sometimes with her, but very sweet to the company. This makes me worry about her on her own. I wish I could convince Rich that when she complains of Bud, that he should be listening to her. We’ll bring up the conversation again with Rich tonight if he’s not as tired.
His son had called on the way back wanting to have Rich pay for a riding lawn more for him. Rich said that they didn’t need a riding one an that it was just 1/3 acre and part of that was the house itself. I think Chris was pushing his dad because Rich said that he was too tired to argue. And, then when I said something about the son inheriting Rich’s life at Rich’s expense and in asking what the son was investing then Rich cut me off with the same tired statements. It only took me a moment before I was paying attention to his statement. Yes, I knew he was tired, and I knew that it wasn’t any of my business. So we backed off and instead at Rich’s suggestion focused more on just massaging his hand. *Sigh* I’m much better at this department.
So that about gets me to today … I’m really not happy about having to work, but I know that realistically I’ve got many years to go. I think that if I can use more time in the evening for getting some writing done with Facebook and MP.com then that would free up my morning time to be doing this kind of writing, which I enjoy so much. But, it might mean spending less time with Rich and that’s really not a good deal at all. I like my time with him, so maybe what I’ll have to do is compromise the hours in that when he’s in a position to just snuggle even though we might be watching one of his shows, then that would be the priority, but if he’s focused on something else then we should be here and we shouldn’t worry about responding to everyone every day – unless of course it’s the weekend.
So, that’s what we got for this morning. I’m going to need getting dressed and heading out the door. I think I have enough gas to get past filling it up today, but pretty soon that will have to be done and the time adjusted for. But, for now … It’s about that time … so we’ve got to bite the bullet. There’s one thing to be grateful for and that’s that we don’t have to be doing Group 1 and the trainers are doing good enough so that I just need to stop by and ask questions, otherwise I can be using the time to get some of my other responsibilities cared for. WooHOO!!!
Ok you … let’s then be productive!
posted by Ann Marie @ 3/18/2009 06:57:00 AM
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