I'm just plain going to stop scheduling myself to work all weekend on holiday weekends. It just doesn't work for me, ever, and I can't think of any way to change that. Unless I can get my friends to come and scrub my woodwork with me. Any takers? I didn't think so. Hee hee.
Saturday I slaved away, though, and had the house looking respectable before Forest got home from the Store. The counters and sinks were gleaming, and I scrubbed the bathroom. I'm not sure what Forest said that caused it, but Kirstin cleaned her room, top to bottom, and did a wonderful job! I was so pleased. We went in to Lansing to get some supplies we needed, and visited Forest while the Store was dead. Business was so slow that he had sent all his employees home, and was watching movies while waiting for someone to come place an order. Happily, Forest's mom came by with his neice, Briana! Briana's going on 6, and is actually only 4 inches shorter than Kirstin, and reminds me very much of Alex. The girls hadn't met before, but instantly made friends. We no sooner walked into the front room to get them each an ice cream cone when they had piled up into a chair together and were sharing jewelry. Forest's mom was taking Briana to Caesarland, and invited Kirstin to join them! I was really glad of that. Kirstin was supposed to get together with Alex to play this weekend, but I was never able to connect with Jeff on the details. It was going to be a real bummer for Kirstin to have a whole 3-day weekend with no one to play with.
I stayed with Forest at the Store during this unexpected turn of events. We watched Men In Black, and snuggled a bit, and were generally our usual doting selves. I really do love him, a lot.
I went home after picking the very happy Kirstin up from Caesarland, and finished cleaning up. Before Forest arrived James and Vicki came by, and brought his friend Jay with them. We've all made characters for a game called "Feng Shui" which is really a lot of fun. Basically, you get to be a canned character out of a silly action-adventure movie. I'm playing an 'everyman hero' who is basically a bored secretary who is always stumbling into trouble. Forest is playing an ex-special-forces flashback-suffering retired war hero; he's hilarious. Vicki is a ninja, and Jay is playing the jaded ex-cop. True to action movie style, the bad guys are incredibly easy to knock down, which the good guys can get hit by a speeding bus twice and not take noticeable damage. It's really fun. Forest was incredibly fried. Apparently after a long day of having no customers, he planned to close early, but just as he did so, he suddenly had a line all the way to the curb. Apparently everyone in town wanted ice cream in his last hour of the day. He was alone at the store, and actually ended up coming home late because he was so busy. Yeek. Well, I guess you get what you ask for, hmm?
Sunday morning Forest had planned breakfast with his dad, but wasn't sure if Kirstin and I were invited or not, so he left home quite early on. I started back up with the laundry, and began trudging about trying to accept the tasks I had laid for myself for the day. Soon, though, Forest called; his did hadn't come to breakfast, so he invited Kirstin and I to join him. We did, and actually had a very nice breakfast as a threesome before heading for the Store. Forest and his dad were playing in a golf tournament that day, and had to leave around noon; which meant someone had to stay and open the Store. I volunteered, and it worked out pretty well in the end.
We were there early enough that I could get out the TV/VCR, and Kirstin watched The Princess Bride while I was working. There really wasn't anything I had to do for most of the time, but I wanted to clean the bathroom and scrub down the counters. I also did the crossword puzzle in the Sunday paper and read the funnies! Woo hoo, hard work.
I opened right on time, and it was dead as it had been. When the movie was over, my relief had arrived, so Kirstin and I went back to the house, and the excitement for the day ended. Or so we thought.
I was bummed, because I was missing Forest quite a bit, and he didn't arrive home when expected. In fact, he ended up staying out until after 9:30 PM, two hours later than he thought he would be. I tried really hard to not get depressed and lonesome, but was just plain out of luck in that regard due to my own poor planning. Happily, he purposefully rearranged things so he could come home and see me before hitting the road to take Wayne back to Chicago. We snuggled, told each other funnies, and I was in much better spirits when it came time for him to leave. I had gotten him a present for no particular reason (a black belt with korean stitching in it) and it made me feel good to give it to him. I think it made him feel good to cheer me up. Gads, we're good for each other that way. It's like a breath of fresh air.
After he left I stayed up, determined that I would find something positive to do to end the day. Ah hah! Sleepless in Seattle was on TV, and that's a nice happy movie. I watched it, then I stayed up late reading a book. At about 1 AM as I was crawling into bed, the phone rang. How odd.
It was Forest. His car had died completely, and he needed me to come pick him up. I was flattered that the first thing he did was call me. That's before calling his dad for advice, or calling a tow truck; before even trying to figure out what was wrong with the car. Awww. I told him I'd bring my AAA card, and use that for towing. After a short debate with myself, I bundled the sleeping Kirstin into a blanket, then into the backseat of the van. She only roused long enough to say "Mama? Why is it the middle of the night?" before she started snoring again. Poor punkin!
Forest and Wayne had gotten quite a distance on the way to Chicago. I got there at about 2 in the morning, and my the time the tow truck guy was done, it was almost 3. After much thinking, we decided that the best thing to do was to take Wayne the rest of the way to Chicago, turn around and drive back to our house that same night. We were already about a third of the way there, and even the earliest we could have gotten home would have been 5 AM AM, since we would have had to go out of our way to take Wayne to his mom's. So on we went. Kirstin woke up during the end of this debate, and was actually really polite, and good, and not the least bit whiny. She was glad to have come to Forest and Wayne's rescue, and was really REALLY excited to see Chicago.
I figure, how often does a kid get to go on an overnight road trip with her mom?
So off we went, hitting I-94 around 3 AM, and putting the pedal to the metal. Happily, we were the only people on the road, and were able to fly along without interruption. I had a bunch of CD's in the car, including some of Kirstin's. We listened to one of mine first, then she very politely requested one of hers. She was so good on the trip is was downright wonderful. Most of the time I think she watched out her window, marveling at the new sights; even in Indiana, when there's nothing to see. Forest was sleeping in the backseat, since he planned to drive all the way home, and she was very considerate about not disturbing him, and I watched her tuck him in a couple of times with her blanket.
As we came in view of the big city her eyes got wider, and it was Wayne's turn to pick music. He was impressed that Kirstin sang along with Sisters of Mercy just as happily as she had sung along with the Mulan soundtrack. Go punkin go.
I always get off the Ryan expressway and drive into the city on Lakeshore, so Kirstin had a great view of the water, and the skyscrapers on the way into town. We also drove past the Field museum, Shedd aquarium and Navy Pier. Kirstin really wants to go back and tour the city to see some of these things sometime. She is particularly enthusiastic about riding the El. Forest and I determined not to take the charm out of it, and told her we'd take her out on it someday. Eeek.
We agree, she really will have to get a special trip to Chicago sometime soon. She was SO good. We made it to Chicago in record time (no traffic at ALL). It was about 5:30 Michigan time when we pulled in. We stopped there long enough to use Wayne's bathroom, and as we were driving away on Lakeshore, the sun rose over Lake Michigan. It was stunning, and I made sure Kirstin saw it before wishing her well on her way to sleep. She was out cold by the time we passed Soldier Field, and didn't wake up until we got home.
I wasn't such a good sleeper. I tried, but the sun was full in my face, and I kept waking up. By the time we got onto I-69, 45 minutes from home, Forest and I were both completely exhausted and fighting to stay awake. No amount of caffeine was going to save us. Happily we made it home without incident, and piled into the house with great plans for bed at exactly 9 AM. It was an adventure.
Kirstin actually understood that we needed to sleep, and for the most part left us alone. I think she watched a movie, then went upstairs and crashed, too. Forest and I got up around 2 PM, and realized that we really wanted to reward Kirstin somehow for having been so great all night long. All weekend, really! She cleaned her room, too, remember.
Kirstin isn't into material rewards; she really doesn't care much about money or toys. What she loves is if you take her out and DO something with her; and we were eager to do something before taking her back to her dad's that night.
So we decided to take her to a movie. We had already seen the only kids movie out right now, so after a little thinking, we decided on Shanghai Noon, the new Jackie Chan movie. I knew it was rated PG-13, but I knew it was language and slapstick violence; no gore or anything like that. She had never seen an action movie before, but I know Jackie Chan's work, and thought she would probably like it.
She LOVED it. It took her some time during the first part of the movie to get used to the type of humor involved, but pretty soon she was laughing along with the rest of the audience. It was a really good movie, and all three of us had a great time.
Soon it was time to take her back, and we dropped her off at Bill's with all her stuff and wished her well. Only a couple more weeks of school, thank heavens.
Then Forest and I were off to my folks house for a bonfire. Karen and Jim just got back from their three week trip out west, and had lots of stories to share. It was also Jim's birthday, and my mom had made a great raspberry cake. We cooked hot dogs on sticks, laughed and caught up, and generally relaxed together, it was great. Laura came by later on, and we all roasted marshmellows and made s'mores. Forest and I were pretty tired, and left around 10:30PM, but I was a very happy camper. I love to do stuff like that with my family.
Forest felt bad, because he hadn't been in a very social mood. I don't think anyone noticed; if you let her Karen talks enough that other people don't really have to. Still, I was sorry that he was stressed out. He spent the whole day really worried about his dad. The Store was supposed to be open, it was a beautiful day, and they needed to make a lot of money. Instead, Forest discovered that the store was deserted, and he couldn't get ahold of his dad to find out what was going on. He was left to worry about the Store's finances, and about what might have happened to his dad to cause him not to open the Store.
The bonfire distracted him a bit, but I know it was on his mind all night. He had nightmares and didn't sleep very well at all. I'm a little irritated at his dad about this. If he just would have let Forest know what was going on, he wouldn't have been so worried, I think. It's not knowing that sucks.
I still don't know what happened. This morning when I dropped Forest at the Store, everything seemed to be fine, and Chuck wasn't forthcoming about why they'd been closed. Forest is really upset, because he thinks his dad might be trying to get back together with his mom, and all the kids agree that it's a terrible, very painful prospect. Honestly, I agree with the kids. They really ought to just call it quits and get on with their lives. They are two of the most miserable married people I have ever known.
Forest is having a terrible day again today. On top of his dad not talking to him about what's going on, he got a call from the car dealership. They looked at his car, and said that the water pump blew, as did the head gasket, and they are going to have to charge him $1000 just to take the engine apart to determine whether it needs to be replaced.
That is a MAJOR amount of money for us. We can handle up to about $200 in minor repairs without freaking out. $700 we can put together by pulling in all our resources, and making minimum payments on a couple of things. A thousand dollars just for diagnosis is impossible. Replacing an engine is even less possible.
Forest likes that car a lot, but I'm not sure whether it's going to be worth what it costs to repair it.
Luckily, his brother offered to take a look at it, and even up to replacing the engine, he's willing to help Forest fix it. At the point where we're talking engines, though, that's some REALLY serious money, even for parts.
Forest is very VERY unhappy. Needless to say. Cars suck.
So he's working as much as he can. Originally we were going to camp all weekend this weekend... and I'm incredibly flattered that he's taking part of Saturday and all of Sunday off after this little episode. I think the plan right now is that I will drive up there on Friday night and set up camp with Karen. He will join us Saturday night after work (at this point in his dad's car, most likely) and then stay with me all day Sunday. Karen will drive the minivan back whenever she needs to leave, so that Forest and I can ride home together.
It's going to be tough, because he's not going to see me Thursday night because he's taking his cousin to a movie, and Friday night because I'll be camping.
But we'll get through it. I just hope the car doesn't upset him too much. It really does suck, especially since he's still making payments on that loan. Ugh.
Gaming with my friends is tonight! I can't wait. I miss everyone.
So basically, part of my weekend sucked, but it sure doesn't suck by comparison to Forest's.
