Friday stuff.

Denise and I had dinner here in Killeen with my mom and my cousin Trish last night. We met them at the Olive Garden, and surprisingly found we didn't have to wait for a table even though it seemed crowded. Mom hadn't been there in a while, so she was lookin' forward to it. She and Trish had the Eggplant Parmesan, Denise had the Stuffed Chicken Marsala and I went with the old standby, Spaghetti with meatballs.

Drinks all around... A big Margarita for mom, and glass of house wine for Denise and a tall chilled Shiner for me. Trish just went with tea. They probably though she was driving or something. After dinner we said our goodbys to mom and Trish got in our car. She spent last night at my place here in Killeen and then Denise took her to the Killeen Airport this morning. She's flying back up to Michigan as we speak. She's a sweetie and we'll miss having her here.

She and mom had a great time for the last two weeks, sittin' around and shopping and pullin' weeds in the back garden. I know mom will miss having her around. She'll probably be thrown back into some emotions now that she's alone in the house again. I'll make sure and try to take up some of that slack when I can.

My sister got a job in Oklahoma the other day and now is in a panic to get herself moved up there. She's gonna give me a bunch of stuff, including some huge old speakers from the late 1970s. I'll have to get one of them fixed, but they really blast the tunes when you crank 'em. Could be cool. Probably get me busted on a noise ordinance violation.

Her relationships with mom and I have been strained since dad died, with her perpetrating lots of childish melodrama, throwing fits and going into a panic when mom threatened to cut her off. Maybe in a decade or so she'll be able to look back on this and see that by cutting her off, mom got her off her ass and up to Oklahoma so she could have a normal life. I doubt it though. She has a seemingly endless capacity for self delusion and projection. I'll be glad she's gone, and I'll be praying for her to succeed.

Thinkin' about where I'll take mom to eat tonight. Maybe somewhere we haven't been in a while. I'll tell ya where we went later. It's all still up in the air. Denise and I are planning to try to get some yard work done this afternoon and then maybe go swimming at the colleges fitness center afterwords. She's been goin' out there to swim in the evenings, while I teach, for about two weeks now. We're both determined to lose weight. Well, I'm determined to eat and drink as much as I can handle and work out so as not to become a complete elephant seal. We'll see how it works out.

I also got a call from Holly yesterday, sayin' she was in town and we should get together. We'll all go out to eat, maybe BJs, on Saturday. She's a sweetie. It should be fun.

You guys have a great weekend and we'll get back into "The Woods" on Monday. I'm enjoyin' the hell out of writing that stuff. Memories are flooding back, with things seepin' back into my mind that I haven't thought about in 35 years. I think this sort of reawakening is the best, or near best thing about bloggin' about your past.

Anyway, cheers guys. we'll talk later.