“Just because we all live within an hour of each other doesn’t mean we get together all the time.”
I’m quoting a relative totally out of context but it’s true. I have plenty of far-flung relatives but a lot of us live right here in the godforsaken southeast part of the Great Lake State. As in, will the last person to leave Michigan please turn out the lights? Do we see each other all the time? Well. No! We are all going around hucklety-buck working and going to the grokkery store and cooking and cleaning and shoveling snow and, well, you know, taking care of whatever business is on our plates. Little kids or grandkids, octo-folks, college-type kids. Okay, we’re paying for our college-type kids’ tuition, they aren’t very high maintenance otherwise. (Thank you very much.) But we are tired. When we get out of work every day we don’t usually feel like going home and putting our dancing shoes on. Or driving an hour to whoop it up with relatives, only to have to drive another hour to get home. And then get up the next morning and go to work. We are not 20 any more. That doesn’t mean we don’t all love each other. Or that we can’t whoop it up pretty darn well on occasion. Just check out some of our holiday parties. Or spend a weekend with us at the HL Group Home or Fin Family Moominbeach.
But *this* weekend, DogMomster came for a visit! I was just about brain-dead after a week of going hucklety-buck to get my portion of a prodject (intentionally misspelled) done so other people could do theirs. I’m not sure DogMomster is *ever* brain-dead but she has her own stresses. So. What did we do while she was here? Restaurants. Knights for dinner last night. Northside for breakfast this morning. And two trips to grokkery stores! Yes. Two. Why? Because we are mooooooooms and we *like* grokkery stores. That’s what we DO! Fer Kee-reist, what were y’all thinkin’? Yes. Walked to the Plum Market yesterday. For the walk and so the GG could buy all kinds of snacky-type stuff that’ll prob’ly still be here in six months. Trader Joe’s after breakfast this morning. Because TJ’s is *always* fun!!! In between all that, me and Dogmomster (yeah, I know it’s bad grammar, moom), hung out on them thar tubes, twitterin’ and whatever. Because we are geeks. The Engineer had good taste in wives, I must say! Er, “wives”? Make no mistake, he was only married once. Anyway.
And then. Today, I carried my grokkery store addiction further. I ended up going out to the Jackson Road Meijer. And, wouldn’tcha know it. In the late afternoon, I was over at the Plum Market. Again. Why? Because grokkery stores are just part of my existence. What did I buy there? A package of linguine and some fresh rosemary. Hey, I walked there!! And I even brought (took? Mrs. Commander?) my own bag.
Love you, DogMomster. The Engineer did a good thing hanging out with you.
March 21st, 2009 at 8:03 pm
I think The Engineer picked a damn good family to have been born into, “ferkeerist”!! I was just lucky to have stumbled into him lebbenty-lebben millenia ago back at Da Tech!
Thanks again for a nice break this weekend – made a very NICE ending to an otherwise odd week of getting myself into proper “laid-off” mode via unemployment, Corrected FAFSA, submitting taxes, and trying VERY hard to feel “motivated” to do the drudge work that HAS to happen around here. Along with a few unexpected “adventures” along the way, too 😉 .
March 21st, 2009 at 8:16 pm
Oh… and FYI? I have PLENTY of instances of being “brain dead” or similar veins of mental afunctionality!! Sometimes after a particularly draining day at work, sometimes “just because”.
March 21st, 2009 at 9:13 pm
It sounds great, but as you noted, it would be exhausting to do so much EVERY weekend. We aren’t 20 and need time to recharge our very weak batteries. It doesn’t mean a thing about how much we love our relatives. All of mine live in a one hour radius from my house, some about 3 minutes away. But we don’t hang out all the time either. We need our private time!