continued from Part I
We had two whole days before the reunion, so my mom had scheduled some time with various relatives which I was welcome to come along to if I wanted.
Well ... I didn't really want to sit around and talk (or listen to other people talk) for three days straight, since that's what I was planning to do with my relatives at the reunion. I wanted something more active.
I made an appeal on facebook on our page, and one of my cousins P- responded that she'd like to spend some time with me; what did I want to do. I mentioned a number of things, and the horseback riding was one of the last ones, as I knew of only two relatives with horses (horses that you rode for fun, not horses that you used for farming, anyway).
P- asked those two if either could accommodate me, and my cousin F- volunteered. So this was all planned for Friday.
Thursday, then, I planned to go with my parents to their various meetings (my mom with an old school friend, my dad with one of his brothers) and drop them off and then drive to a gift shop I knew of and go shopping (one of my other suggestions to cousin P-).
My dad didn't want me driving his car all by myself. This shows a fundamental lack of understanding of my abilities in a car--the more distractions I have, the more difficulty I have driving safely. So basically, I'm at my best in a car by myself without any music going, which is how I planned to drive to the gift shop. However, it's his car, so I resigned myself to just staying at my cousin A-'s house for the day on Thursday. After spending the morning in bed, it wasn't entirely an unwelcome thought, either.
But no, my Aunt K-, wife of the brother my dad was spending talk-time with, said she'd go shopping with me. (Turns out she isn't really much of a shopper, so this was a really nice thing of her to do). And my dad was okay with it as long as I had someone else in the car. (Again, how long has he known me? Strange.)**See note at the bottom
So after dropping off Mom at her school friend's house, and Daddy at Uncle L-, Aunt K- and I drove the requisite 30 minutes to anywhere to get to the gift shop. (Here, where I live, it's 15 minutes to anywhere, or less. To the grocery store. To my job. To where my brother lives. To where my friends live. Somehow it's always 15 minutes. Occasionally traffic will make it 20, but you can pretty much count on 15 minutes. Where most all of my extended family lives, it's 30 minutes. To anywhere you want to go. Or 45, depending on traffic, the route you take, and, apparently, how badly you want to go there!)
This gift shop is amazing. I've been there before. There's a monster buffet restaurant on top, with a dessert bar to die for (and you'll be adding quite a few pounds if you indulge!). But I didn't want to go there; buffets aren't worth the money anymore now that I can't eat a lot at one sitting. It's huge though, like three times the size of most buffet places. And underneath, stretching the entire distance, as big as a walmart, is a gift shop.
They have everything. Toys and (genuine) Amish-made furniture and clothes (mostly shirts and pullover hoodies) and trinkets and jewelry and wind chimes (including the huge bass wind chimes I love that cost like 400 dollars and I'll never get because of that). Greeting cards and magnets and all the normal things you'd find in a gift shop. Just tons of stuff.
I wanted clothes. All my tourist-y clothes from where my relatives live are too big for me now, plus all my clothes are too big except for a few I've bought since the sudden slim-down. So I wanted tourist-y clothing. I found quite a few I liked. I got more greeting cards (last time I was at this gift shop I'd gotten some packs of variety greeting cards for birthdays and stuff and had gotten quite a lot of compliments and "where did you get these" on them, and I was almost out, so I stocked up again).
And Aunt K- patiently trailed along after me. She even pointed out some shirts I overlooked (easy to do in there) that she thought I'd like based on my other choices (she was right). And she said at one point, "aren't you cold a lot? What about these?" and pointed out fuzzy slippers. I got a pair. I wish I'd got two. These things are almost as warm as LL Bean's Wicked Good slippers for a lot less money, and they've got tread on the bottom. (The little plastic dots to give you grip).
The tread makes a funny noise on my non-carpeted floors and the cats were not pleased with them at first. They're used to it now.
Then we drove back to Aunt K-'s place. We didn't have to collect mom because Aunt K- pointed out acerbically that there were two cars at her place, one hers and one Uncle L-'s, and if the two guys couldn't manage to pick mom up with one of those, then they had a bigger problem. So mom was there when we showed up.
Well, they wanted to order pizza from a pizza place right around the corner. Within walking distance, as it turned out. But put four of my relatives in the same room and they'd discuss all night what pizza to get. I was hungry and got impatient, especially when it became apparent that they thought they'd have to order a specific pizza from the take-out menu.
I pointed out that the pizzas are made fresh, and you can mix and match the crust, the sauce, and the toppings however you like. This made their choices even larger (but more acceptable to them) and everybody got really into the discussions.
I asked for a pen and paper, and then made them tell me how many pizzas (2), and what they wanted on them and wrote it down. For myself, there was a 6.99 personal stromboli with mozzarella and steak with sauce on the side that sounded just right (a stromboli is a calzone that's shaped like a crescent moon, in case you don't know). Because I knew that most likely whatever they chose, I wouldn't (a) like it, or (b) be able to eat it.
So we had our order. And then everybody's just kind of looking at me since I'd taken charge, and I got a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach knowing they'd want me to call in the order. Which I said, mostly out loud. "You're going to want me to make this phone call, aren't you?" in a tone of voice which said the part that I didn't say (at least I think I kept it behind my teeth) of I hate making phone calls.
Daddy rescued me by pointed out that the restaurant was within walking distance, now wasn't it, and it wouldn't take that long to make the pizzas, so "I'll go with you" and off the two of us went.
The restaurant really was just around the corner, plus a short distance of like one or two small shops. They said it would be 25 minutes, so Daddy and I went for another walk just up and down the alley ways behind the houses. The shops and restaurant were at a crossroads that otherwise was surrounded by homes. Kind of cool.
The entire day had been rainy, off and on, and cool, so since this was an off period for the rain but it was still cool without a hot sun, it was a lovely walk. I enjoy spending time with my dad.
(Also, he totally got that I did not want to make that phone call, but he doesn't get the driving thing? He confuses me sometimes.)
I carried the pizzas and the stromboli back. Now, those pizzas were about 15 dollars each (large size). The stromboli was called a personal, and it was 7 dollars. I was not expecting a large size pizza folded over to be the size of this stromboli, but it was. Therefore I now had food for the next night too!
Supper was fun, and Aunt K- produced fresh fruit for dessert (with blueberries, yum).
But by the time we got back to Cousin G- and A-'s house, it was late, and so I got to bed at my usual "too late" time. I had been hoping to use this vacation as a way to get my bedtime schedule back on track! Oh well.
**After my father read this he wanted to clarify that he does too trust me with the car. He just has an irrational thing about not having the ability to leave/have a car, that's his, available. ("Irrational thing" is his phrasing, not mine.) Well, since I am the queen of irrational "things", I can hardly point fingers, now, can I.
And I understand it. I too have an irrational thing about not having the ability to drive myself places. It took a lot of trust and was part of the strain of vacation simply having gone in one car where I didn't have the option to jump in my car and go wherever I wanted to, but to depend on other people for transportation. Honestly, I'm not sure I could have done it ten years ago (hey, something that's improved over time!).
continued in Part III
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