I started the day pleasantly enough, by getting in touch with Frank. He came over for a bit, and if things didn't go as well as usual, it's always good to see him. When he left, I started getting ready in earnest. Eve had contacted me yesterday to tell me that Lisa wanted to meet earlier for lunch than we had planned. I was immediately uneasy, since Lisa (who is always, always late) wanting to be anywhere early is one of the signs of the apocalypse, but I was at Dad and Eve's more or less on time to leave.
The weather was overcast, drizzly yuck. We were about halfway there when I dug my phone out. Lisa was calling in full melt-down. Their power had gone out. Cole hadn't had a shower yet. Ava was running through the house screaming. Lisa's hair was still wet (presumably the outage occurred during the Memorial Towel Hour, which is observed daily). I calmed her down as best I could, relayed the info, and we continued driving. By the time we got to the restaurant for lunch (Lisa wouldn't be joining us, being in the midst of moving the entire operation to Mom's house), we got the message that Cole had arrived at mother's, and was getting ready.
We had lunch. Now I had intended not to go into all the PET scan stuff. I thought if Dad and Eve would just leave for vacation, then in three weeks I would have the results for them one way or another. There was no point in putting everyone through the ringer over what is quite possibly nothing. But Eve asked about the PET scan over lunch, and pretty much grilled me like a POW until she had every detail. She tried to extract a promise that I would call them on their vacation with any news, which I refused to do. So she pouted and was unhappy about that. I ended the subject by instructing her not to say anything about this to anyone else today. Today was COLE'S day, and I wasn't having some stupid kerfuffle or upset disrupt it.
We checked in with Lisa & Co, none of whom were ready to do anything. Because we had arrived so early, we had time to reconnoiter the Carolina Coliseum. It looked like something from the End of Days. There were seemingly millions of people milling about. Of course the year that Cole graduates is the year that all of Columbia (and specifically the sections and all roads around the coliseum) is torn to pieces with construction. It was a nightmare.
We went back to the restauarant to meet Lisa, Mom, and Ava. We were going to take one car to the coliseum. Ava was screaming because she hadn't been fed. None of them had eaten anything. So we went through the drive-through and got some food. There was no problem with them having time to eat (except for Ava, who, like her mother, eats in super-slow motion) as we crept back into the trickle of traffic around the coliseum. There were no entrances marked very well, and after cirumventing the place once, we pulled in to the wrong parking lot on purpose to get someone to tell us where to go. The attendant started out "handicapped parking is two blocks away..." Really? Really? Because that is almost completely un-helpful. But once we actually found where to go, they had set up a golf cart relay to get people up the hill. Once you got into the thick of it, it was fairly well organized, and we got up the hill before the doors even opened.
When we got in at 2:45pm on the dot, we went immediately to the handicapped seating to secure our place. There were then 45 minutes to wait until anything started. But Ava was fairly well behaved, everyone had made it, and we had the best seats we could get, so it was worth it all, I guess.
I had thought that I would be really upset. I was carrying two hankies. But the speakers were so boring (with the exception of the student body president, whose strange speech was delivered in such an unvarying sing-song rhythm that it almost lulled you to sleep), and the band was so bad that it pretty much pulled me out of myself. The virgo/critic couldn't let go long enough to get all weepy, which I guess was just as well.
Cole with Lisa
Cole with Mom
Eventually, it was over, and we reversed the process to get back to the cars. We had all been invited to a post-graduation party hosted by Zack's parents. Zack is Cole's best friend, and his family are apparently swimming in it, to be blunt. Zack's graduation present was a 2006 Corvette. (Yeah. The little check I had written {with some sacrifice} to put in Cole's card suddenly seemed ridiculous.) So I had been expecting something, well, a bit posh. I had been careful to dress in something that could go up or down. The party venue, when we arrived, was a wangs place. Not a wings place. A wangs place. Now I am not a food snob. If the food is good, I'll eat at a flea market (and have). But my feet (and my chair) stuck to the carpet. Truly. But it was Cole's day, and they were very nice to invite us. They have been very good to Cole. I was going to be pleasant no matter what.
As if to tempt my resolution, the karaoke machine came on about that time.
Now I understand that karaoke is the language of heterosexuals. I have sang on one myself. But the heteros have a passion for these only rivaled by their endless delight in a 'live band', another 'attraction' that leaves me cold. As per usual, the person most in love with the karaoke machine was the person least equipped to entertain. The moment the switch was thrown, he was up there yowling. The only thing I could think was 'cat birth control' - I have no idea why.
About the same time, Zack came in. He, being the polite and super young man he is, came over to greet my Dad and Eve. He and Dad started talking about Corvettes - and Dad took our guest of honor back out to the parking lot to see the car. After the briefest of hestiations, I followed. In my naivete, I figured at least the 'entertainment' would have changed by the time I got back. So we went and looked at the car. And after a discreet interval, I reminded Dad that he had absconded with the guest of honor - at his own party - just as he walked in. Dad got the hint and we headed back inside, but on the way, Zack saw some other people coming in, and stayed to talk in the parking lot with them for another ten minutes or so. I had done what I could.
I arrived back inside to hear the last of the karaoke enthusiast's second number end triumphantly, to a bewildering show of support from the assembled. Cole hadn't arrived, having gotten lost en route, so Lisa went outside to talk him in on the cell phone. Mother and I took Ava to get food. I was starving, and chicken wings are my very favorite. It was a special occasion, and having been issued a special invitation from the graduate himself, I could hardly continue to resist temptation. Of course just as we got back to the table with our food, Ava had to go to the bathroom. This is an extended process. Mom took her. So I sat at the table. With Zack's grandfather. We'll call him grandpa letch. He is purportedly quite the lady's man (appearances to the contrary, if you get my drift - the man is short, built like a capital 'D', and had false teeth, although there was an undeniable twinkle in his tiny blue eyes), and had immediatly glommed onto Mom. But when she left the table, he and I had little to say to each other. I finally just started eating to break the uncomfortable silence.
Eventually Mom came back, Lisa came in, and Cole finally got there. We were settling in to eat when in walked Saucy Rosita. She was obviously a young girl, but she looked like she had come loaded for bear. Micro short skin-tight shorts, carmine lips, after-five eye makeup, complete with a silk flower stuck into a mass of cascading curly hair. I couldn't keep my eyes off of her. She minced in and sat down right next to Cole. Cole, my nephew, who thinks that no girls like him. Or at least that's what he says. If he's too stupid to pick on those kinds of messages, well, maybe he might not be smart enough to go to college after all. I'm just sayin'. Hello! On the other hand, he could just be keeping his light under a bushel.
By this time, I was ready to go. The wings, though excellent, had been consumed. There was obviously not going to be any structured present opening thing. We didn't know anyone there. Zack's family were celebrating together, and Cole and Zack were sitting with their friends. It was their party. I felt increasingly out of place. We decided to head on.
We left the restaurant, which was out on the BFE side of Columbia. I had no idea where I was or how to get back. That shouldn't have been an issue with three GPS's in the car, but Eve was doing the navigation. Every time she would give me one direction, she would turn off the GPS to do something else on her phone. Consequently I missed turns. By the time we got back on track, we were way out of our way, and ended up going home the long way around, going around the south side of a lake to get back to the freeway.
Now Dad and Eve had done pretty well about getting along and all today, but they had been cooped up for about ten hours or so at this point and tempers were starting to fray. I kind of refereed (and drove) back to Greenville. Eve cleaned out their fridge into mine, so I had a lot of food to haul home and put away. When I walked into my house, I could have kissed the floorboards I was so glad to be home.
It had been a 11.5 hour day, door-to-door, but I had a busy weekend ahead, and decided to put the food away, and get the carrots (along with another pound Eve had given me) into the crock pot before I went to bed. My latest idea to use them was to make them into soup. But I had text messages coming in. I was trying to answer those, get soup started, and get ready for bed all at the same time. When the phone rang, I just let it go to voice mail. It was after 11pm for heaven's sake. But it was Adam, and he was impatient.
I got the soup in the pot, and was almoooooost in the bed when the phone rang again. My overwrought patience was just at the limit. I picked up the phone and begged "Adam PLEASE! I know you're twenty-five and you can go all night, but I CAN'T! It's almost midnight, I'm exhausted, and I NEED TO GO TO BED!!!" There was a little silence, and then he told me that he had hit the wrong button on his phone. He rang off.
I went to bed. I felt bad about what I had said, but not bad enough to call back. I had just had all I could take today.
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