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Sep 12, 2005 15:35


A Long Weekend
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This is pretty much one long entry, but divided into a couple of different sections to make each event stand out a little bit more. It has been a long weekend to say the least, and this coming weekend will give me a chance to relax before starting off Bartender's School part time on Monday in Fairfield. So, with that, I give you some details of this past weekend. I'll warn you ahead of time that I'm pretty descriptive in this one, I must be in a story telling mood today.

An Unexpected Meeting

My father came to me with some distressing news on Wednesday or Thursday, the news being that the husband of one of mom's friends that she had lost touch with had suddenly passed away at the age of 45. It was a shocker to my dad that someone younger than him could go after a massive heart attack. And after talking it over with him and my mom, my mom and I decided to at least go to the wake to pay our last respects to him.

Like I had said before, the wife was close friends with my mother, but had lost touch with her over the years. It had been a while since they've spoken, it stretched all the way back to before my grandmother passed away, and that was in 1997 or 1998 when we vacationed in the Bahamas. She had a daughter my age that I expected to be there, and we were almost an item the last time we hung around, but the time in between then and now surely had faded away that feeling, or had it?

Feeling like I had some last chance effort to reach out and buddy up with her again, I went through a transformation for the ages to prepare myself for the encounter. I had heard when mom talked about her last that she was seeing somebody, but I hoped that the relationship was now possibly over, after all it had been a year or so since I heard that news last. So with my heart racing and with my eyes locked on the latest picture I had of her, her blue eyes staring right into my chest cavity and her blonde locks flowing in the breeze, I set off to change my look to try and get the look back that she was used to:


Before:




Midway Point:



After:



And to quote dad's slight innuendo when he saw me, "bring them to their knees", that brought a laugh out of me.

With the transformation complete on Friday morning, I had to wait for my mom to finish her errands around town to show it off. When we got to the parlor in Westport, there was something very off about the setting. It's amazing how Westport and Norwalk are so close together, but for some reason everyone thinks they are better than you. The whole time I felt the cold stares around me from classmates from her high school, and it really bothered me to feel so out of place.

My mom and I paid our respects to the husband, and went to the wife and consoled her for the time being. I talked to and hugged the daughter, it had been too long since I held her. One of her friends that I remembered from the Bahamas trip was there too, and I gave her a hug at the end of the day. I wished that I could have asked for either of their numbers to keep in touch, but it didn't feel right at the place and time, especially with all the cold faces staring a hole into me no matter how welcoming I was to them.

I took many trips back inside the room to get away from the chill of the waiting area, the daughter didn't want to go near the room and I didn't blame her, she was always close with her father. The wife wouldn't sit down when greeting people, she didn't want to leave her husband's side. When the day was over, we said our respects again and I held the family again, not knowing when I'd see them again. I met the daughter's boyfriend, and told him that she was in good hands with him, and walked away with my head down and my hoped shattered, but it was restored with the happiness just to see her again and know that she was all right.

The next day we were up early and at the funeral, and I got to see the daughter and friend again. It was the same type of cold feeling, but after a talk with my parents who pretty much told me 'fuck them, it's the ones that talked to you and didn't turn away that you should worry about', I didn't even care about feeling out of place. The mass was saddening, I couldn't bear to see her cry during the eulogy, which took her a lot of courage to speak. Mom showed some tears upon hearing Ave Maria, and all I could do was put my arm around her and try to console her as much as I could, that was the song the church used to say goodbye to my grandmother.

Afterward we went to the house for a get together, and there was plenty of liquor to drown out the tears. I talked to the daughter and friend more, but again couldn't find it in my to ask if we could do something in the near future, they both had grown up more beautiful than I could imagine and I couldn't say anything without feeling out of place, so I let them both slip through my grips until I see them again. I don't know if that would count as being respectful or dumb.

We left after a little while and said our goodbyes again, and mom told both the mother and daughter that if they needed anything, they knew who to call. I just assured the daughter to take it one day at a time, and she just kind of brushed me off, but not before I kissed her lightly on her soft cheek. It was painful to be restricted to that, but then again I was lucky to get it. I don't know when I'll see her or her friend again, and that might be the emptiest feeling of them all.

Oyster Festival '05

With the hard part of the weekend still in the back of my mind, I needed to get out or something to enjoy the beautiful weather. I was lucky enough that Damion still wanted to go to the Oyster Festival, and it was only a matter of figuring out when he was going to head down there. When we finally figured it all out, Damion and Chelsea along with her sister all came to NCC to meet up with me. We took the bus down to Veterans Park since it was easier than trying to drive down there, and ended up getting there a little bit after 4:30.

Luis wanted to meet up with us and kept giving me a hard time during the week and complaining until he got his way (me saying that he could come). He kept saying that I was mad at him and didn't want him to go and all this other stuff, when the real issue was if he was going to come down here at 7:00 since he worked until 5:30 and we were already there and might be getting ready to leave, how was he going to find us or meet us there? He came up with every excuse, wanting us to wait for him at NCC instead of just getting the first bus, wanting me to drive down to SoNo which wasn't happening, and all of these other dumb ideas. When I told Damion he wasn't too happy, and told me that he’d probably be annoying us the whole time. I told him about how he spent $50 last year in a half hour then wanted to go because he didn't have any more to go on rides or do anything else, and I made him stay anyway hah.

So Luis ended up calling me and I just didn't answer it, and he left a message on my regular phone that was kind of dumb and his AIM away message was saying how he was all mad because he couldn't come, I told him that it wasn't worth it and he just kept complaining anyway. But yeah, back to the fun stuff. The Oyster Festival on Saturday was great, we walked around all of the arts tents and went to all of the tents to get free stuff, mostly a lot of Frisbees. Damion and I did pull-ups and pushups, and my arms are still sore today from that. The Marines kept bothering me to fill out information and I had to put my phone off the hook when I got home so they wouldn't call me, I did like 5 pull-ups when they wanted 20 and they are all like 'ooh sign up'.

So here's what I had to do to earn all of my prizes, because I got a whole lot of them. Damion climbed the rock wall to get some kind of expensive hiking bottle, but I didn't do any climbing this week hah:

. Bibles: They were just giving them out to students, but now I don't know what to do with them
. Commerce Bank Frisbee: Given to me because I asked for it
. Geicko gecko beanie baby: Spun the prize wheel, it's cute
. Kool 96.7 t-shirt: High-low card game. I had to say whether the next card was higher or lower than the last for 7 cards in a row, it was hard
. Marine's keychain: 7 pull-ups, then 5 later on that night (I didn't win anything for that, but got yelled at to do more by the girl Marine hah)
. Navy water bottle & Frisbee: 30 pushups
. News 12 Frisbee, pencil, and Quassy tickets: Kept bothering them until they gave me the Frisbee then complained because I work there and didn't get a hat but they were giving them out
. Star 99.9 t-shirt and Frisbee: Answered a trivia question about one of their artists before anyone else could for the shirt, caught the Frisbee when they were throwing them out to people
. The Hour pen and Frisbee: Missed throwing all of the papers into the slot for the pen hah. The next day I got all three papers in and got to pick a prize for the Frisbee and got to enter to win a TV

So Saturday and Sunday were both great days to go to the Festival, but we didn't end up staying for any of the entertainment. I wouldn't have had a ride back home on Saturday if I would have wanted to stay to see The Village People, and Sunday I just couldn't stay because I had to do my weekly grandparents visit. This weekend should be even more amazing, I already can't wait, hurray for guy's weekend out! Plans include hiking up Mount Beacon and going to the Renaissance Faire in Tuxedo Park. I'll update before and after next weekend is through, expect a lot of pictures!

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