A post in which it is an exceedingly long day

The alarm went off at 6am, as usual, this morning.  The dawning awareness that I didn't have to go to work was of limited comfort.  I got up, had my coffee, and got ready to face the day.  Eve had wanted me at the house by 7:30.  I had a call at 7:39am wanting to know where I was.  I was in the car and on the way at that point.

My slight lateness aside, we got on the road with no incident.  Dad's back had been hurting enough that he asked me to drive, which was no problem.  At least it was something to do.  Since I hadn't seen them on Tuesday night, we had the beach trip and things to catch up on, and we chatted down the road fairly well.  It was a gorgeous day, and although the traffic was pretty heavy on highway 77, we made good time. 

We got to the home, got the tons of stuff out of the car, and started getting set up.  Grandma knew we were coming, and was sneaking up the hall.  Since it wasn't a surprise party, she came on in to watch the proceedings.  I had brought the beans, and was shaking the pot to 'stir' them, her technique to stir the beans without breaking them.  Dad said that pleased her as much as anything else we did. 

Eve had gone to a lot of trouble putting things together, and the party was very nice.  We had Grandma's Chicken Delight casserole, green beans, three-bean salad, potato salad, Grandma's pineapple topped sweet potatoes, scratch lemon meringue pie, and chocolate cupcakes.  She had bought some pink table-scatter plastic jewels, which Ava had a great time rounding up into a party favor bag.  My Uncle Chris and Aunt Pam were there, and they brought my cousin Mark, who was having a good day, and seemed pretty much like himself. 

Lisa, Ava, and Grandma at the party 

Cole, Ava, Grandma, and Dad

Various friends from the nursing home came by to say hello, and wish her well, and the odd resident wandered in occasionally to see what all the commotion was.  Overall, it was a success, and she seemed to enjoy it immensely.  She loves to get presents, and if she thought mine was something she wouldn't use, well she would never have let on, and she could tell that I had put some thought into it.  My beans were too salty (and seemed to have become more so during the re-heating process), but everyone ate them and said they were good anyway.  All the food was tasty, and it was shared.  I sat at a table with Lisa, Cole, and Ava, so it was a bonus visit to get to see them.

I cut the pies.  Bless her heart, Eve had worked for three weeks on the homemade lemon meringue pies (doing trial runs, perfecting her meringue, etc), which she made from a recipe given to her by a one of Grandma's friends.  But sadly, being made for 24 hours and traveling for about three of them in the trunk of a car is hard on a pie.  When I cut into them, they had sweated all over themselves, and were pretty much a mess under the meringue.  The crusts had all but dissolved.  But they tasted great, and everyone ate them.  But Grandma is, after all, 91.  She had a great time, but all the excitement wore her out pretty quickly.  I hope that all the rich food didn't make her sick. 

They took her back to her room, and we loaded the cars to go.  We left earlier than I had thought we would, and I was thinking I might have a bit of time to myself tonight.  Then we hit miles and miles of backed-up traffic on highway 77.  But we still made it in by about six.

After helping Eve get the car unloaded (Dad had to go to bed with a pill as soon as we got in), I called the boys.  I had completely forgotten we had a bear dinner tonight.  So I headed home, unloaded my car, and headed right back out to go.

Dinner tonight was at Stax Omega, which was fine with me.  I was in my camouflage pants (the only ones I can comfortably sit in at the moment that aren't work pants), so I had one of their huge salads.  It was delicious, and I sat at the end of the table with BooBoo (one of the guys from the group) and his lover Ronnie, alternately conversing with Ronnie and flirting with BooBoo (who is very flirty).  One of the guys brought his wife (that's a long story), but she was very nice, and I enjoyed talking to her.  She laughs at my witticisms, which I of course find irresistible.  The service was excellent, and the company was congenial.

So it was a nice meal.  I had kind of had in mind that I would go back to RBL's after the dinner to hang out, but they had plans, and truth be told, I was wiped.  It had been a very long day, and it was just as well that I went on home.  By the time I got home I was crashing and burning.  I was so tired I just went to bed on a Saturday night. 

Gigi was showing on TCM tonight, and I turned it on (it's one of my favorites), but I was asleep almost before the first song was over.