Smoke and Mirrors

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December 01, 2002

Happy belated Thanksgiving!

Man, that was a short holiday. I can't really get my head around the idea of going back to work tomorrow. Sigh.

I took Wednesday off, and caught the 11:45 Greyhound to Vermont. I knew it was supposed to snow that day, but I thought it was going to start later in the morning. At 6 or so, I woke up and peeked out the window, and was startled to see a few inches covering everything in sight. Eep. I figured, given the icky weather, that I should catch the T bus a bit earlier than planned, so I got up and showered and finished packing, and headed outside to wait for the 9:15 bus. And I waited. And waited. And waited. And got really wet and cold, and swore a lot, and waited. The bus showed up at 9:40, driven by a very old man who was terribly afraid of accelerating. At least the bus was warm. I was a little worried by that point, because I needed to get to the bus station early. I'd bought my ticket online, and so had to be there an hour before the bus left. I got there with two minutes to spare, got my ticket, got some breakfast, and settled in to read and wait for the bus to board. The station was a mob scene, and our bus was late -- it arrived at 11:50, and we had to stand and wait in line while the driver ate lunch, chatted with the other drivers, had some coffee, chatted some more, etc. Security came around and searched everyone, and I got a scolding for having a weapon of mass destruction in my carry-on -- that's right, I'm a terrorist. I tried to bring (gasp) knitting needles onto the bus. I know, I know -- heightened security and all that. But last I checked, knitting needles were okay to bring onto a plane. They're blunt, and I could do more damage with my fingernails (not to mention the nice sharp pens in my bags). I would have been okay with putting the knitting into my checked bag, except the security guy was an ass about it. He looked younger than me, and was all sorts of puffed up with importance. He took the bag from me, pulled the yarn out, stared at it, then turned to me and demanded to know what it was. "It's knitting. A scarf." He looked me up and down and said "You can't bring... that... on the bus." The passengers around me giggled. He made some noise about having to confiscate it, because it might be dangerous. I rolled my eyes and said I'd put it in my checked bag, and he reluctantly agreed. So yeah, that's me, a terrorist. I have knitting, fear me.

The bus, once we got on, was mobbed. We left 40 minutes late -- I read my book and had a nap, and probably snored. We got in a bit late, but that's normal, so I wasn't too worried about my mom waiting outside in the cold. When we pulled in, I saw her through the window, and noticed that she was looking at my funny. I checked my hair to make sure it wasn't sticking up any more than usual, checked my clothes... all normal. Still, the funny look. When I got off the bus, she grabbed my arm and muttered "Jjjjjffss hrrrfff." Huh? "What?" "Janet's here!" I looked over her shoulder, and there was my dad's girlfriend, apparently meeting one of her kids on the bus. Great. (Janet is the woman my dad cheated on my mom with. I have little love for her.) We hightailed it away from the bus, then got a bad case of the giggles when I commented that it was a good thing my dad wasn't there -- given my mood, after spending 5 hours on a late Greyhound bus, I'd have been spending Thanksgiving in jail. We picked up some sushi at the brand-new sushi bar (in the grocery store, of all places) and went home to eat dinner and relax.

Thursday, Mom did the Thanksgiving cooking (turkey, mashed potatoes, yams, stuffing, gravy, green bean casserole, the usual plate of pickles and olives, little tiny onions, and corn). I helped as much as she'd let me -- I put out the pickles and olives (and grazed happily from the plate while waiting for dinner) and made the crescent rolls. Mom's neighbor, V., joined us for dinner -- she doesn't have any family in the area, and is very sweet. My brother and his girlfriend had to work, so it was just the three of us. We ate until we couldn't move, and then talked V. into going to see Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets with us. We opted for a 4:40 matinee, which was a good choice -- there was hardly anyone there. I'd seen the movie once, but wanted to watch it again -- I still loved it the second time, but noticed that the editing was really choppy. No segues at all between scenes. It was jarring, but I guess they had to pack so much into the film that the segues would have taken too much time. Plus, it's a kid's movie. My mom and I were obnoxious during the spider scene -- we're both deathly afraid of spiders, so during that scene, I'd reach over and lightly run my finger over her knee, making her jump. She'd swat me, then reach over and tickle the back of my neck. Much giggling and whispers of "Quit it! Yow! Stop that!" ensued. It was fun.

Friday, Mom had to work, so I slept in, and puttered around the house until she got home. She's been looking after a very cute little stray cat for a couple of weeks -- a pretty little grey and white longhaired cat, in need of a home. She sleeps on my mom's porch in a nice little bed Mom made for her from a cat bed and an old fleece pullover of mine. The cat -- we've been calling her Porch Kitty -- is very sweet and docile, and loves to be cuddled and tucked into her bad. She was very thin when Mom found her, and is still a lit malnourished. I was planning to try bringing her indoors Friday, to see how she'd do with Mom's cat, but she'd wandered off by the time I got dressed. Friday night, we went to the mall and to the local craft store -- I bought two sweaters that turned out to be horribly ugly when I tried them on (and no, I didn't do that before buying -- store dressing rooms make me want to fling myself into traffic, what with the full-length mirrors and fluorescent lighting) and Mom bought supplies to make those little glass pebble magnets. We went home and spent more than two hours clipping little pictures out of magazines and making magnets out of them -- it was way too much fun.

Saturday, Mom woke me up an hour early cleaning the kitchen (and yes, I was snarly about it, but only briefly. My brother and I have had a running joke since high school -- Mom gets the urge to wash silverware at 6 a.m. on the days we get to sleep in. When I reminded her of that joke, she said "But I didn't wash the silverware!" I said "No, you washed everything else in the damn kitchen!") It turned out fine, though, since we got to go shopping before I had to get back on the bus to come home. I returned the horrid sweaters and got two new sets of flannel pajamas -- one of which I am wearing right now -- and we went to the yarn shop near her house. I spent a horrifying amount of money on two skeins of beautiful hand-spun, hand-dyed wool. It's got every color in the rainbow in it, and is thick and soft and fluffy... the scarf I'm making is half-finished. It was expensive, but worth it -- and Mom paid for part of it as an early Christmas present. Thanks, Mom! Shopping done, we went home and had leftover turkey sandwiches, and then I got on the bus to come back home... it felt like it was way too soon. Mom was sniffly about it, which made me sniffly. I wish she lived closer, we have so much fun together. My cat was glad to see me, though. I hope you all had a good Thanksgiving, if you celebrate it... if not, I hope you had a great Thursday!

Posted by Mary Ellen at December 1, 2002 10:54 AM

Comments

Posted by: Carrie Johnson at November 14, 2003 01:46 PM

Posted by: Amber at November 28, 2003 10:08 AM