The time we spent in Plainview was incredibly bittersweet. It was nice to see my grandparents, parents, and cousins I've not seen in what feels like forever, but the reason we were all there hung heavy in the air. We got some bad news, which recently turned into slightly better news, but there's really no permanent good news possible right now. We're all hoping for the best and though my grandmother is bedridden, she looks better than I had expected. The hardest part of the visit was going with my mom, Aunt Wanda, Candi, and my cousin Penny to choose my grandmother's casket and grave marker. It was really, really hard, but I was glad to be able to be there for my mom. We left around 8:30pm on Tuesday night which got us home around 2:30am. It was a less, and more, difficult trip going home than it had been going there. Matt drove the whole way because I have terrible night blindness. Other than the one lapse in judgment, where he pulled us onto a frontage road in the middle of no where in the pitch black night to be serial killed, the trip home was okay.
Wednesday I was so tired... so, so tired. I got a late start of the day and didn't get much in the way of work done. At this point I'd lost nearly 2 full days of work this week, which isn't great but is recoverable. I did a little work and then went to have a late lunch with my best girlfriend, Melanie. We had a nice lunch, chatted a bit about my trip and some things that're going on with her, and then I went and hung out at her place until after midnight. She checked up on Ani and Galileo twice while we were out of town, for which I was really grateful. When I got home Matt was starving so we went out to a very late dinner, even though we probably shouldn't have because of my being behind this week. All in all, Wednesday was nice but unproductive.
Then came the day from hell: Thursday.
Matt had a test yesterday morning, but hadn't had much sleep. It would appear that he woke up and our landlord had turned off the water to fix the pipes, so he didn't have even so much as a shower, let alone a pot of coffee. So, off to his test he went without his needed sustenance (read: without coffee and sleep). I woke up about 10:20am, about 10 minutes after he left, with the phone ringing off the hook. Whoever was calling called 4 times by the time I got out of bed and answered the phone. Under normal circumstances, I'd have ignored it, but with my grandmother being sick and my folks being on the road, I thought it best to get the phone. It was Matt. Turns out he locked his keys in the car with the car running. First thought, what the hell does he expect me to do about it. So, I got angry and told him I'd try to reach Melanie to take me up there, but she had to be at work shortly after that so I didn't think that was going to work anyway. I couldn't reach her, so when he called back after his test, when the car had been idling in the parking lot for an hour, I told him to call the campus police to unlock the car. He did and got home, but by this time I'd discovered that we had no water, so I was pretty unhappy.
I was getting some work done, trying to turn the bad day into something productive, when quite abruptly the internet went off. This is the point at which I became enraged beyond reason, I nearly exploded into confetti right there. I texted Matt, who was out getting us lunch, and there were more than a few uses of the word "fuck" thrown in for good measure. I was so angry, so, so angry. He wasn't happy either, because he had things he needed to do too, but mostly it was my anger at the fact that I had already lost 2 days of work this week and suddenly, thanks to the net, I was going to lose another half day. I really can't afford it, and here I was, unable to work thanks to the damn internet outage. I tried to call CenturyLink (our internet company, who I absolutely hate!!) and I couldn't get ahold of them. I called 800-555-1212 for their number, but couldn't get it. I called the operator to connect me and they said they could, and then gave me the wrong damn number. Finally, Matt got ahold of them and it turns out it was an area wide outage, from somewhere in the Metroplex down past us. It didn't help, I was still angry. It stayed out from midday to about midnight.
On the upside, I got a book I'd started a while back nearly finished. I've not read that much for enjoyment in a while, so it was nice. Matt went to bed, so I was left alone in the quiet (or mostly quiet, thanks to the mice) to read. Very nice evening, even though I was still pissed about the net being down. The one upside was being invited to Phoena's for the 4th of July. I'm really looking forward to going out of town for fun, to see a friend, should be a nice escape, even if we'll be back here Monday July 5th for summer session two classes for Matt. Okay, I just checked the schedule, and it's not summer 2 classes we have to be here for, it's the last week of Summer session one. Either way, Matt'll still be in school so we won't be able to stay over night out there, though we were invited. This means, of course, that we get to see fireworks twice! The fireworks thing here will be on Saturday, July 3rd, because the 4th of July is a Sunday. I don't get it, but I'm also not surprised (stupid Bible belt messing with tradition). It's working to my favor, so I shouldn't complain.
Today, I'm getting a late start but am planning to try to get some work done. I'll also be working tomorrow and Sunday because I'm behind. I have writing group Saturday night, which will be a nice reprieve from work. I'm hoping to get a little bit caught up for all the days I've missed this week. I have a few pics to share, now that you've gotten through all my yammering in one piece. Here ya go:
I got my haircut before we left on Monday (the second pic is a good indication of the awesomeness of that drive)...
Matt made the astute observation that it's nice to see wind turbines on the Texas prairie rather than oil wells. We did see some oil wells, it is Texas after all, but there were just fields and fields of wind turbines. It's nice to see, it does the environmentalist in me good.
Driving into a really bad storm, this is the point at which we switched and I started driving. We switched back when hell started raining down from the sky onto us and I freaked out.
Texas is pretty damn beautiful after a storm, especially North West Texas, where it's flat and and the clouds parallel the horizon. By this point, we were in Slanton and nearly there.
Saw this awesome retro sign in Lubbock when we stopped so Matt could walk around a minute and kick his road hypnotism. I have no idea what it is, but it was in front of a broken down building.
This is part of the view from our hotel room. I loved the sign and couldn't resist taking a picture because when I saw it, my first thought was, "They spelled Endor wrong." Ha! I'm such a Star Wars nerd.
On that note, with way too much written, I'm off. I should write more often, maybe if I did my posts wouldn't come out like a short story. I hope everyone had a better week than I did. Now, it's off to eat and get some work done.
