Will, Hold the Grace

Good weekend here in Nenielandia, well- a decent one.

Friday night scared the hell out of me. Nena and I were sitting around watching TV when the phone rang. It was the Lawrence Memorial ER. "Is this Nenie? Do you know Cath?"

My heart freaking stopped.

Yeah, considering how many phone calls they make like this, they've really got to get better at not creating new patients when they inform people about their current ones.

Cath is fine, she had a slight run-in with some asphalt and she just needed a ride home, etc.

But still, fucking ER people. Could they NOT scare someone half to death when they call?

Nena and I spent Friday tending to Cath and Saturday just seemed to get away from us. We went to my dept chair's end of year party and then off to church and then Corn's birthday party over at Cheryl's. It was a good time, and it was close to 10p when we finally realized it was maybe time to go home.

Then Nena slept for 12 hours.

I didn't need nearly as much sleep so I left and ran some errands on Sunday morning. It was a beautiful morning. I'd managed to get up and out the door before it'd started getting hot. I'd forgotten that it's still technically spring out here. The biggest of my errands was going grocery shopping so I hit the Hyvee with my list and began to wander the aisles.

Lately, Nena and I have been doing our shopping together. Which means that we're in the grocery store at 2p on Saturday when everyone and their Nana is at the store. But Sunday at 8:30a was definitely not Saturday at 2p. It was pretty cool, I was pretty much alone in the store again, the way it used to be when I'd buy my groceries at 2a on Wednesdays or somesuch. Quiet aisles, bright lights. There's something surreal about shopping at times like this. It's a quietly beautiful homage to consumption. I used to see these elaborately filmed scenes in my head, someone floating through an immaculate grocery store. Their feet never touching the ground, all this food around them to be purchased. . .

It was immersed in these thoughts when I heard what I thought was my dad someplace. He has this song he sings when he goes to the grocery store early on Sunday mornings while my mother is still asleep. There are no words, just some vocables and a catchy tune. And I was hearing it, all around me in a Hyvee in Lawrence, Kansas.

I turned around really quickly and didn't see anyone else around me. Just me and the bread.

I picked up a loaf of bread and continued on my way. After a few steps I heard it again- my father's Sunday morning grocery song. Light, beautiful, dancing through the air all around me.

I stopped and turned around again. Nothing, just me and the jams.

I shook my head and kept moving and the song started up again. That's when it hit me, I was the one singing my father's Sunday morning grocery song. It was me singing along with the memory of hundreds of Sunday mornings in the Dominick's growing up flooded back to me. I looked around me and at my arms that looked incredibly like my father's did when I was young. I was buying bread and coffee on a Sunday morning for my sleeping woman just like he does. . .kind of a cool thing to realize. Well, it is if you like your father that is.

I do.

Today's been just as crazy, only in a much more laid back way. Will ('Turo's younger brother) is having some issues with his steering so Nena took 'Turo to work and I took Will to the dealer to have it looked at. When Nena took Will into the dealer in MPLS, they said there was nothing wrong. We doubted them since whenever you turn left, there is something seriously wrong. I got there around 8a and waited. After an hour and a half they told me that they had diagnosed that there was, actually a problem. And that it was the problem we'd told them about. Great, thanks guys.

Two hours later, they say they have a clue as to what the problem is and it's going to take a few more hours to nail down, would I like to go home?

Yeah, a whole morning gone. And I hadn't had breakfast. I was seriously starving when I got home. But now, I'm nourished and the dealer just called to tell me that they now know EXACTLY what the problem is. They just don't have the parts to fix anything today, but they will tomorrow. I'm going to pick Will up now and repeat this whole thing tomorrow. WHOO! Thankfully, this is under Will's warranty.