The lead-up to this weekend had me frantic. With so much to do and so little motivation to get it done, I dreaded making the 4 1/2 hour drive over the Hope-Princeton to my parents' house for the weekend (with the same time lost to return home). I had a scratchy, sometimes sore throat for more than a week that made me stay home at the start of the week to try to sleep it off. After nearly crying in front of one of my profs as he assured me I wouldn't fail the class I was afraid I was failing, I had only to get through a short work day and an uneventful night before what I assumed would be a miserable weekend.
Thankfully things didn't turn out as I thought they might.
We got a late start on Friday, with my sis and bro-in-law picking me up an hour later than the outside, last-minute time departure. My sister neglected to buy Christmas presents, so we had to stop at a mall to pick a couple things up for my parents and brother. (Mine were ready, purchased a week before Christmas, yet never mailed because I'm really terrible at wrapping things in brown paper and taking them to the postal outlet.) By the time we got on the road and onto the #1 it was almost 11:30 (not the 9am Anita originally suggested). To normal people, this would be fine. To me, I kept thinking about how my parents worry when we aren't where they think we should be at a certain time. Eventually I started reading a book and lost 3 1/2 hours, surprised each time I looked up to see where we were.
The weather is nice in Osoyoos, sunny but slightly chilly from the wind. Last night after dinner I realised I was calm and all the stress about the trip was gone. We went to the crappiest bar in town to watch the hockey game, only to find it was nearly dead and we didn't know anyone there. It's weird to realise you've been away from your hometown longer than you lived there. I made my family watch a doc on Frank Lloyd Wright, further horrifying them with the story of how his lover and others were axed to death during a fire. Architecture always has fascinating stories to go with the buildings.
This morning I got up 9 hours after going to bed. NINE hours. We went across the street to the elementary school to watch the Easter egg hunt, but got bored and went for the customary drive around town to see what's changed. It makes me sad to do that drive because, almost always, the results are ugly and cold, and all comes down to kickbacks and someone trying to make a quick buck at the expense of the town's character. We stopped off at the town hall to watch our cousin get his head shaved for a cancer fundraiser. These sorts of things seem to just happen in small towns: parades break out (we missed the one this afternoon), dances are planned on the street, people sing karaoke in public... It's creepy. That these things happen also mean I can kill a bunch of family birds with one stone. I managed to talk to all my cousins from the one family branch within a 20 minute visit.
In the afternoon we went to my Legion (K. Knudson #173) for the meat draw, one of the most important parts of all visits to my parents'. I love the meat draw: 15 chances to win cuts of meat for $3, and cheap pitchers of draft with a glass (or two) of clamato for $11.40. We sat with Dick and Doreen, a couple my dad sits with weekly whom I've met a few times. Seemingly demure, these two like to play lottery-related games, playing online poker every few minutes for the first hour. They talked us into the 50/50 online draw that Keno runs, just $1 each for 6 chances to win. I'll get to the point: we didn't win meat. We never win meat when I'm there. When Peter (my bro-in-law) comes, he or my sister usually win something. Today: he won $164 in the cash draw at the end with the ticket I bought with my money. Le sigh. He and I also played a few ends of shuffleboard, but since the draw was about to start I left it as a tie, much to his chagrin. (Knowing how competitive I am with games in general, you must understand that this was a breakthrough of sorts.) I love getting tipsy drunk in the early afternoon.
We had our Easter dinner tonight because we're heading back tomorrow. We've got it down to a fine science: Mom preps things lazily so it never seems very stressful to get it all done, we help with the final stuff when we get home from the bar (we usually have to leave on Sundays when we visit), and we're seated with full glasses of U-Brew wine by 6. I also pushed and succeeded in implementing a mid-dinner break that includes putting the leftover food into containers and washing all dirty dishes between dinner and dessert. This ensures that we have a few minutes to let the food settle in our bellies and can eat dessert leisurely. Today we had the tastiest, mostly sugar-free tiramisu ever and some old dessert wine our Auntie Liz left at the house 11 years ago. Final dishes took less than 5 minutes to do.
I'm hoping that, when I finish school, I'll have more time to visit. It's been fun.
No comments:
Post a Comment