A Weekend in Ohio
Friday night, I had to hit the Target for a few things before my weekend away. Afterward, I went to Dick's to try on a pair of hiking sandals I'd seen online. It's a good thing I checked in-person because, actually, I didn't like the way they fit at all. Hooray: More money not spent! Then I went home to get ready for the trip. I packed, and I made some dinner, and I made sure the DVR was set up to record the appropriate Doctor Who-related things. I'd been chatting online with salami_salome for a bit before I logged off at the end of the workday, and so I called her and we got together at the Marshall's in Laurel to ultimately not find any interesting shoes. I did find a Nike sports bra (mine, in a thematic chorus, are all too big) on the cheap, so that was a plus. Clearly it's just not time for me to buy shoes. I keep looking, and just not seeing any I want. There's not really a downside, it's just...odd. Anyway, S. and I walked to the 24-hour CVS for something to do, and I started getting really, really sleepy. It was after 10 on a Friday, go figure. So I bid her adieu and drove home. Had a little bit of quality cat time but not that much, 'cause I had to get up at 7 a.m.
And so I did. Got up, fed the cats, breakfasted, showered, and finished packing the last-minute stuff. Mom and Dad were supposed to be there at 9, I was ready precisely at 9. Mom's tendency to run late won out this time over Dad's tendency to be early, so it was about 10 minutes after 9 when they knocked on my door. They came in, said hi to the cats (well, to be accurate, they said hi to Desmond, because Oz dove under the bed as soon as they knocked on the door), used the bathroom, and then we hauled stuff downstairs. For three days, I had a small suitcase...and a laptop bag and my guitar. But it was good to have all those things!
The drive up was nice, not too much rain - maybe a bit going over the mountains. The temperature dropped from balmy at home to cool and pleasant in Alliance. We got to the hotel and went to check in. My Dad had made the reservations a week or so before, and had informed me that they only had smoking rooms left available at the AAA discount rate. I wasn't too thrilled, and said I'd be willing to pay the extra to have a non-smoking room. Dad started to explain this to the manager and BOOM, she confirmed there were no regular non-smoking rooms left at the AAA rate, SO she would put me in a suite. At that rate. Rockin'! Now, upon examination, it wasn't precisely a suite. It was a slightly larger room with a big desk in the corner, but importantly? It featured a bedside huge Jacuzzi tub. Score. I "unpacked" in the sense of getting out and hooking up the MacBook and hanging up the one skirt I brought to try to keep it from getting too wrinkled. Otherwise, on a trip this short? I didn't really move out of the suitcase at all.
My family, as frequent readers may know, plans things far ahead. My father carries this out into having many, many travel "routines" established, so that (theoretically) things go as smoothly as possible. Every time we visit Ohio, we go to the same Italian restaurant on Saturday night, taking out my aunt and uncle and grandmother. It's very close to my aunt and uncle's place and they like it, but my grandmother rarely seems to find things she likes there, and it does leave me wondering if there aren't other places in town. Well, this time we had a fly in the ointment of the plan! The phone rang while my father and I were at the desk at the hotel, checking in, and the manager was like, "Oh, he's actually standing right in front of me." It was my aunt. She wasn't feeling well and wasn't up to dinner. She suggested Grinders as a place to take my grandmother, while she and my uncle stayed home. We were sad to miss them, but we packed into this place and it was actually quite nice. And different! Exciting times for a family trip. Afterward we took grandma back to the nursing home and went back to the hotel.
Knowing I'd be eating out all weekend, I brought workout clothes, because there was a fitness room at the hotel. Once back, I was too full to work out immediately, so I camped out in front of the laptop and watched Thursday's Lost online. Then I changed and went downstairs. At 9:45 p.m. on a Saturday I figured I'd have the fitness room to myself, but I didn't. And the guy in there had the TV on. I sighed (internally!) and turned up the iPod. That guy left halfway through my workout so I turned the TV off and finished in peace. Apparently the Holiday Inn Express decided to keep the fitness room a nice balmy 90 degrees, so that sweat would start arriving in copious quantities as soon as one raised one's heartrate. So I did a pretty easy workout and came out looking like I'd just run a freakin' marathon.
"I definitely need a bath!" I said...not that my arm needed twisting. I went upstairs and filled the huge Jacuzzi tub and fell into a state of bliss for a brief period of time. Then I got out and toweled off and went the heck to bed, where I slept deeply. Usually my first night in a new place, I don't sleep that well, but not that night! I was out like a light.
On Sunday morning I got up around 7 and hit the breakfast bar. My eyes were bigger than my stomach, whuf. Holiday Inn Express has a very substantial breakfast bar. I showered and met my folks at 9 a.m. in the lobby. We drove over to grandma's and went to Mass with her. The nursing home she lives in is a Catholic home, and there are various retired religious there along with all the other residents, and Mass is available right in the on-site chapel on Sundays and feast days and some weekdays. After Mass we sat with her in her room for a while, and then we went up to eat lunch in the cafeteria with her. It was all of 11 a.m. and I really wasn't hungry after all that breakfast, so I ate sparingly. Then we left grandma and my folks took me to my aunt and uncle's place. They were going to go back to the hotel and take a nap and then take my grandmother out for a trip to this nearby grotto that she wanted to see. One grotto more or less looking like another grotto, and me not being the biggest grotto fan, I elected to hang out with my aunt (who was feeling much better) and uncle that afternoon. We had a good long catch-up chat. She had a recent scare with skyrocketing blood sugar, but now she's totally stable without medication and her A1C is 5.6, so no signs point to her actually being diabetic. We still had a good talk about diet and nutrition and handling the changes of a diabetic diet, because while they figure out what the heck is wrong with her she is making strides to eat better.
Eventually Mom and Dad and Grandma arrived, my uncle made turkey burgers on the grill, and we all had dinner and chatted. By about 6:30 we left to take my grandmother back to the nursing home, where we said goodbye for another six months. In October-ish, we'll be back again - to celebrate her 99th birthday. Yow! Then it was back to the hotel for the last evening.
On the agenda: new guitar strings. The last time I did this Desmond was still just a wee kitten, and it was a huge pain. So I took advantage of a cat-free weekend to take care of it. That went without issue (no repeat of last fall's humorous bridge pin disaster) and I practiced a bit. It was a bad week for practicing for me. I blame my stupid finger injury (as of today, my finger is STILL bruised - though they're fading - and sore to the touch and stiff) and the trip. Ah well. After that, I went downstairs and worked out again, this time with the room to myself! And they fixed the climate control, so it was actually a comfortable temperature in there again! Hooray! Afterwards, upstairs for yes, another bath. Hey, one does not often have access to a huge bedside Jacuzzi tub, so when one does, one should take advantage of same! Then I watched Enchanted on the laptop, which was my latest from Netflix. Verdict: Fun! Funny! Not bad! At least Disney is willing to make fun of themselves, assuredly in a way that will still guarantee them huge profits. Susan Sarandon was awesome.
Then, *zzz*. So sleepy. I got up at 6:30, had a far more reasonable breakfast, and got showered/packed up/ready. Met my folks in the lobby just before 8 and we were on the road in no time. The trip home was smooth if through way too much freakin' rain. We stopped at Starbucks. We stopped for gas and a bathroom break. We stopped at Roy Rogers in Hagerstown for lunch. These are all our standard stops, down to the same rest stops most of the time. Did I mention my parents were into routine? Boy howdy. Still, they got me home by 2:30 and loaned me an umbrella so I could hump all my stuff inside and not get soaked.
The cats were very pleased to see me, though they were in the excellent care of msteleute and necrocannibal for the weekend. Desmond managed to splash all the water out of the dish, silly cat. I fed them and watered them and unpacked and unwound. I took the phone call from Mandy and Breezy about their joyous news, very exciting! Then it was time to go out and grocery shop. Which apparently also meant a stop at the Marshall's. Where I might have found a pink dress - with sequins - to wear to the Eddie Izzard show on Friday. Fabulous!
New Bones and House last night, and I liked both, but this has gone on long enough, so maybe I'll talk about those later. Or just skip it. Anyway, it was a nice long weekend but now I'm back at work where things are excitingly annoying once again. Woo!