(no subject)
I haven't updated in a while but I guess if life could be summed up in a few days, it would be in this trip I just got back from.
On Sunday, my dad came up to my room around 4 in the afternoon and told me to start packing because my great aunt had taken a turn for the worse (she has cancer) and we had to leave for Connecticut. We were finally out the door at 7 after much scrambling and my parents decided that they were going to drive all night and get there in the morning. It started out fine enough and I even got to see Washington DC from the highway but as the night wore on, they got tired and we finally ended up stopping at a rest stop with about two hours left and my parents took a 30 minute nap. When they woke up, we hit the road again, but guess what? Mother nature was a royal bitch and it was snowing and they hadn't had a chance to clear the roads yet and we were seriously driving on like massive amounts of snow and ice and you couldn't see the lanes on the road and people were still cutting each other off like crazy. My dad was being ADD and looking around him so every five seconds, my mom was going "LOOK OUT!" and giving me a heart attack. I think I finally went to sleep just to get away from it all. So THEN about 10 minutes away, a woman walks in front of the car and this is where I woke up because my dad had to slam the brakes and skid on the ice and slammed into the concrete. Luckily, we made it to my aunt's and somehow the car was fine.
So we go inside and apparently find out that a) it wasn't AS urgent as my dad's cousin had made it sound to my dad so we could have come up that weekend instead of rushing and b) all of my dad's cousins were in the midst of World War 3 because of the situation. I flipped a shit at my aunt and my parents because trust me, you would too if you had to deal with my parents' driving and THEN find out that everything is even more fucked up than you thought. So there was a lovely fight there and then my parents and I finally passed out for about 2 hours so that we could go see my great aunt later that day.
So my aunt decided to tell me when I woke that she wants me to move to Connecticut and work for her and then I wouldn't have to pay rent and she can get my butt in gear. I agreed. So we all ate and did whatever and my aunt had her two kids with her so we piled into our car and they piled into theirs to see my great aunt. Well... I was trying to sleep again because everyone in my family had gotten four hours of sleep total and that was adding up all the scattered naps we'd each had so I was zonked. I woke up because apparently someone motioned to my dad that he had a flat tire and we had to pull over and wait for AAA to find us. That took forever and guess what? We were like 2 minutes away from like 3 different gas stations and we were trying to make it but the tire just wouldn't let us. So he finally got there and we went to Firestone where they said it would take an hour. In the freezing cold, we trudged up to the Panera to eat and sat there for an hour before walking back. They hadn't started on the car yet. We sat there for forever. Nada. Finally they got our car and said that we had to have ALL FOUR tires changed because there were no treads left on the other three. It would take an hour. So we walked down to Marshall's in the freezing cold and came back. Still not done. It took them three hours to fix our fucking car. We FINALLY left to go see my great aunt and we were still an hour away so we didn't get there until dark even though we had set out from my aunts house at about one that afternoon.
There's really no way to sum up my visit to see my great aunt. She used to weigh about 200lbs... she's down to 113. It's pancreatic cancer and my dad's cousin told us that she's already outlived most of the people that get it.
So yeah... we left a couple hours later, ate Arby's and went back to my aunt's.
The next day, I woke up and went to work with my aunt. She's a real estate lawyer but she was doing a favor for a guy so she was doing a criminal case (drunk driving) and we went to court. It was a calendar day so basically it was a SHITTON of people, like a longass line to get into the building that luckily attorneys didn't have to wait in. Then they had to go down to another room to do some stuff and you should have seen THAT line... it was basically everyone checking in to make sure the lawyers AND the clients were there for the proceedings. Then we waited and they finally let us into the courtroom and we all went and sat down and at 10, they started calling people up. It's basically like you see on Law & Order where they call people up in some order and kinda deal with little things. Everyone I saw was there on drug and alcohol charges and basically just discussed with the judge for like five minutes about whether they qualified for rehab and how long they had to set things straight. Quite interesting actually. So we left there and had to drive across town to get to an adult day care center so my aunt could get this older woman to sign all these documents for something... don't really know what. THEN we drove across another town to get to ANOTHER courthouse and OMFG THIS PLACE WAS GORGEOUS! Outside, it really wasn't much, but inside, they'd redone the entire thing. While the first courthouse was old and beat up, THIS was the kind that you would see on Law&Order. It was AMAZING. Eight floors too and everything just looked new and just omg I wish I could describe it... I wanted to take a picture but I would have felt so stupid and touristy. So we went upstairs and waited and then we went to this tiny room to have a mediation and my aunt and her client discussed a short sale with an ASSHOLE attorney who had probably only been out of law school for like two years. Even the mediator got impatient with him because he thought he was a special snowflake. So after that, we went to my aunt's office and she basically returned a bunch of calls and I met the woman that I'd be helping when I start there. We were there for like two hours before we left yet again to go to do a closing on a house which OMFG the massive amounts of paperwork involved in that... the woman signing everything said that by the time she was done, it didn't even look like her own name anymore. It was INSANE! And then we finally were done for the day and went to meet my parents for dinner.
Next day, wake up... go to spend more time with my great aunt and she tells us that she's basically realized that it's her choice whether or not she lives or dies. It really hasn't sunk in with me yet that she's not gonna be around much longer. She's the relative that, if anyone in the family is immortal, we'd all put our money on it being her so it's really really strange to think about her not being there. But her son is really pressuring her to stay alive. At least most of the time that day, we all had fun sitting around the tv making fun of Justin Beiber on The Talk. But she kinda started feeling worse a little later so we had to leave and we set out on the road to head home.
So we were on the highway and things were going good because it was the highway that avoided all the tolls since the time before, we'd had to pay fucking $35 in tolls. We stopped for dinner at Friendly's and went to get back on the highway and the damn GPS rerouted us. So my dad decided to defy it instead of connecting where it wanted us to because we figured it'd connect back to the right highway eventually. I encouraged it because he said we'd be driving through NYC. So we did it. OMFG y'all... we could have freaking DIED! NYC drivers are a whole new breed, I'm serious. They cut you off for no reason, speed up and slow down at random, blast their horns and are just all around crazy. But we drove around the entirety of Manhattan and it was BEAUTIFUL and amazing and I fucking loved it, even if my mom was getting pissed at my dad every five seconds. My dad and I were having fun because it was an adventure. It took twenty minutes at least for us to finally get out of the insanity and know that our lives were actually safe again. It was normal from there on out and we stopped at a hotel later that night.
Woke up this morning, got back in the car and I slept most of the way home. Finally back at home and am taking a breather before I start packing because I'm gonna be headed to Connecticut in two weeks. And as long as this post was, I just realized I have left out SO many other details I meant to talk about but since no one has probably read this far anyway, I'll let it be.
On Sunday, my dad came up to my room around 4 in the afternoon and told me to start packing because my great aunt had taken a turn for the worse (she has cancer) and we had to leave for Connecticut. We were finally out the door at 7 after much scrambling and my parents decided that they were going to drive all night and get there in the morning. It started out fine enough and I even got to see Washington DC from the highway but as the night wore on, they got tired and we finally ended up stopping at a rest stop with about two hours left and my parents took a 30 minute nap. When they woke up, we hit the road again, but guess what? Mother nature was a royal bitch and it was snowing and they hadn't had a chance to clear the roads yet and we were seriously driving on like massive amounts of snow and ice and you couldn't see the lanes on the road and people were still cutting each other off like crazy. My dad was being ADD and looking around him so every five seconds, my mom was going "LOOK OUT!" and giving me a heart attack. I think I finally went to sleep just to get away from it all. So THEN about 10 minutes away, a woman walks in front of the car and this is where I woke up because my dad had to slam the brakes and skid on the ice and slammed into the concrete. Luckily, we made it to my aunt's and somehow the car was fine.
So we go inside and apparently find out that a) it wasn't AS urgent as my dad's cousin had made it sound to my dad so we could have come up that weekend instead of rushing and b) all of my dad's cousins were in the midst of World War 3 because of the situation. I flipped a shit at my aunt and my parents because trust me, you would too if you had to deal with my parents' driving and THEN find out that everything is even more fucked up than you thought. So there was a lovely fight there and then my parents and I finally passed out for about 2 hours so that we could go see my great aunt later that day.
So my aunt decided to tell me when I woke that she wants me to move to Connecticut and work for her and then I wouldn't have to pay rent and she can get my butt in gear. I agreed. So we all ate and did whatever and my aunt had her two kids with her so we piled into our car and they piled into theirs to see my great aunt. Well... I was trying to sleep again because everyone in my family had gotten four hours of sleep total and that was adding up all the scattered naps we'd each had so I was zonked. I woke up because apparently someone motioned to my dad that he had a flat tire and we had to pull over and wait for AAA to find us. That took forever and guess what? We were like 2 minutes away from like 3 different gas stations and we were trying to make it but the tire just wouldn't let us. So he finally got there and we went to Firestone where they said it would take an hour. In the freezing cold, we trudged up to the Panera to eat and sat there for an hour before walking back. They hadn't started on the car yet. We sat there for forever. Nada. Finally they got our car and said that we had to have ALL FOUR tires changed because there were no treads left on the other three. It would take an hour. So we walked down to Marshall's in the freezing cold and came back. Still not done. It took them three hours to fix our fucking car. We FINALLY left to go see my great aunt and we were still an hour away so we didn't get there until dark even though we had set out from my aunts house at about one that afternoon.
There's really no way to sum up my visit to see my great aunt. She used to weigh about 200lbs... she's down to 113. It's pancreatic cancer and my dad's cousin told us that she's already outlived most of the people that get it.
So yeah... we left a couple hours later, ate Arby's and went back to my aunt's.
The next day, I woke up and went to work with my aunt. She's a real estate lawyer but she was doing a favor for a guy so she was doing a criminal case (drunk driving) and we went to court. It was a calendar day so basically it was a SHITTON of people, like a longass line to get into the building that luckily attorneys didn't have to wait in. Then they had to go down to another room to do some stuff and you should have seen THAT line... it was basically everyone checking in to make sure the lawyers AND the clients were there for the proceedings. Then we waited and they finally let us into the courtroom and we all went and sat down and at 10, they started calling people up. It's basically like you see on Law & Order where they call people up in some order and kinda deal with little things. Everyone I saw was there on drug and alcohol charges and basically just discussed with the judge for like five minutes about whether they qualified for rehab and how long they had to set things straight. Quite interesting actually. So we left there and had to drive across town to get to an adult day care center so my aunt could get this older woman to sign all these documents for something... don't really know what. THEN we drove across another town to get to ANOTHER courthouse and OMFG THIS PLACE WAS GORGEOUS! Outside, it really wasn't much, but inside, they'd redone the entire thing. While the first courthouse was old and beat up, THIS was the kind that you would see on Law&Order. It was AMAZING. Eight floors too and everything just looked new and just omg I wish I could describe it... I wanted to take a picture but I would have felt so stupid and touristy. So we went upstairs and waited and then we went to this tiny room to have a mediation and my aunt and her client discussed a short sale with an ASSHOLE attorney who had probably only been out of law school for like two years. Even the mediator got impatient with him because he thought he was a special snowflake. So after that, we went to my aunt's office and she basically returned a bunch of calls and I met the woman that I'd be helping when I start there. We were there for like two hours before we left yet again to go to do a closing on a house which OMFG the massive amounts of paperwork involved in that... the woman signing everything said that by the time she was done, it didn't even look like her own name anymore. It was INSANE! And then we finally were done for the day and went to meet my parents for dinner.
Next day, wake up... go to spend more time with my great aunt and she tells us that she's basically realized that it's her choice whether or not she lives or dies. It really hasn't sunk in with me yet that she's not gonna be around much longer. She's the relative that, if anyone in the family is immortal, we'd all put our money on it being her so it's really really strange to think about her not being there. But her son is really pressuring her to stay alive. At least most of the time that day, we all had fun sitting around the tv making fun of Justin Beiber on The Talk. But she kinda started feeling worse a little later so we had to leave and we set out on the road to head home.
So we were on the highway and things were going good because it was the highway that avoided all the tolls since the time before, we'd had to pay fucking $35 in tolls. We stopped for dinner at Friendly's and went to get back on the highway and the damn GPS rerouted us. So my dad decided to defy it instead of connecting where it wanted us to because we figured it'd connect back to the right highway eventually. I encouraged it because he said we'd be driving through NYC. So we did it. OMFG y'all... we could have freaking DIED! NYC drivers are a whole new breed, I'm serious. They cut you off for no reason, speed up and slow down at random, blast their horns and are just all around crazy. But we drove around the entirety of Manhattan and it was BEAUTIFUL and amazing and I fucking loved it, even if my mom was getting pissed at my dad every five seconds. My dad and I were having fun because it was an adventure. It took twenty minutes at least for us to finally get out of the insanity and know that our lives were actually safe again. It was normal from there on out and we stopped at a hotel later that night.
Woke up this morning, got back in the car and I slept most of the way home. Finally back at home and am taking a breather before I start packing because I'm gonna be headed to Connecticut in two weeks. And as long as this post was, I just realized I have left out SO many other details I meant to talk about but since no one has probably read this far anyway, I'll let it be.