Tuesday the 21st, my poor mother’s birthday, was spent in a hospital. I had my tonsils extricated from my throat because they were a problem. I wasn't feeling very well for several days - slept for 3 days straight - and wandered around in a fog for another few days. Apparently, liquid Percocet affects short term memory. Also, although anesthetic often makes people say ridiculous and inappropriate things, when the nurse asked if I needed anything, I said "If you could fly Joe from Ohio to here, that'd be great." Alas, she could not.
Christmas occurred with my complete inability to make witty and charming comments, but it was a beautiful and happy Christmas. This is the first time I’ve seen my brothers since Thanksgiving and the time before was the Fourth of July. We have a good time together; most of the time we are incoherent.
There is no good explanation for this.
One of the most prevalent things in my life – my family and our adventures – is wonderful inspiration for creative writing, so I gave this as a gift for Christmas. I’m told to pursue this, but I’m not sure if I want to try to craft a living out of a creative writing lifestyle. I want horses, man!
A week after my surgery I was feeling fine, decreasing my pain meds by leaps and bounds, and eager to Skype with Joe, since it would be about 5 weeks of separation this time around.
I turned Skype on in my bedroom and watched as Joe’s little face popped up, framed by my parent’s leather couch and the garland adorning the soffit in our family room. I immediately thought, Joe doesn’t have coffered ceilings in his house, nor garland, nor a leather couch, nor anything that resembles my family room.
“What the hell are you doing?” seemed an appropriate response to this. I hung up on him and sat down trying to come up with some horrible scheme they could be playing on me. Nothing made sense and I went downstairs to see that he was indeed sitting in my family room.
I hate surprises. Even fantastic ones. I don’t jump around or shriek or cry or anything; I just soak it in.
After dragging him away from my smirking family, I found out this little excursion had been planned since DECEMBER 2ND. And every one of my family members knew, including my cousins whom I had just talked to days before. Ridiculous.
Well Joe spent almost 5 whole days here and it was awesome. We spent a long time walking around Oconomowoc because it was 50 degrees, visited the horses when it was 15 degrees and windy, drove past multimillion dollar homes, photographed the foggy lake, and took turns destroying each other in various games.
I'll put more of these photos in a separate post.
New Years Eve was spent playing games and laughing with my parents, my brothers were elsewhere. But one of my best friends, Kayla, stopped by for a really nice visit. We toasted with nasty champagne and crashed shortly thereafter.
Joe flew home on Sunday. It sucked. But, it was the best few days we’ve had in a while, and certainly the longest time we’ve spent together since summer. It’s strange when you get used to spending a lot of time with someone, as in every single day, and then suddenly having each visit reduced to a couple days. You forget what it’s like to be together for longer than a couple days. Thankfully, it still felt normal.
Up next: Christmas Part 3: Governor's Inaugural Ball and The Ville.
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