Trip to Indy Highlight Reel

3-31 – Trip to Indy

Ok, so my trip to Indy just ended in a sunshine stroke of “you bet your ass.” Allow me to explain.

Me, Enterprise Rental, 7:30 am, 3/26. I pick up the car, opting for no insurance because funds really are that tight. They say the car has a ding, but we (the rental guy and I) can’t find it. We sign, I get the keys, and drive to work. I get nothing done. I’m far too excited. Work ends none too soon, and I hit the road with my lease, a series of burned CD’s, and a potted plant in tow. It’s a good time.

The trip takes both too long and surprisingly not long at all. I only go through one of my CD’s fully while drifting in the nebulous space of no decent radio stations between Chicago and Indianapolis. I get to Mom’s at 2, which is SICK, wake the dog thus waking the house, and crash out after the obligatory converse with Drew, my invalid stepfather. I haven’t killed him yet. Everyone should be VERY PROUD OF ME…..

Morning, 3/27, I grab Lexie, my sister the birthday girl, and we go have lunch with Mom. We’re late, which is my fault for being an idiot, but no matter. After lunch Lexie and I run errands before the party, heading to roll call to scare people with the ‘Lexie clone’ (me). Not many people there, but more on THAT later. We get booze and make 10 minute Guacamole that will make you weep with taste bud joy, and I manage not to get us killed TWICE on the road while driving through Indy (I swear that guy needs to be sidelined from humanity, to say nothing of the road), and we head out to Shelbyville for the party.

Amazing. Not a fan of using gasoline to start a bonfire, but then again, it took my hand to move the stick in place to get it going, so I guess the men need us little girl after all for their manly ways and means. What the fuck ever, these guys were sweethearts all around. A bunch of people I didn’t know, but worked with Lex, so they were righteously FREAKED when they had to look up see who was talking. Lex and I sound alike, look alike, speak in the same structure, so it’s always been difficult tell us apart without looking at us. I played the Japanese tourist with Lexie’s camera while she got brightly sloshed. She needed it, it was healthy. I stayed sober to keep watch and drive us home, both of which went off without a hitch. An amazing night under the stars, mapping the constellations with drunk people, and enjoying simple company without pretense. Made a couple new friends, too! Heidi… damn it all, she’s straight and married. Oh, well…

Morning, 3/28, I’m not lucid much, but we have cake and ice cream for breakfast. Lexie, Bert (her husband) and I took off to bookstores and things, just hanging out, then came back to Mom’s. I had wanted to see Michelle, but I was tired, so I opted for an evening with Mom. And the idiot man she married. I haven’t killed him yet. I’m proud. Aren’t you?

Morning, 3/29, and breakfast with Grandma. Note, I haven’t’ seen her in months, but she’s gone downhill. She’s getting thinner, and looking paler than normal. She seems to gain years as months go by. I don’t know that she’s long for this world. I also think she’s been here too long, but enough about her.

MY MOTHER IS A FREAK OF NATURE. I can’t believe I have this to look forward to in my Golden years. She uses colored toothpicks to make arms and feet for my cousin Josh’s sausage links at Denny’s every Sunday. EVERY SUNDAY. In public, and without remorse. While I admire her for that, JESUS, Mother…

But Sunday was relatively lazy, just me and Mom bumming around the house, making soup for dinner, and talking. Ti was so nice to just talk to her. I don’t get enough of that, I admit it, and when it happens, I try to savor it. Not that I’m planning on moving back for these talks, mind you, but I enjoy them, and I wish we had more of them. If we had more, would it mean as much? I honestly think it would…

Morning, 3/30, the day I go home. I head to Crown Hill Cemetery to visit my grandmother (my father’s mother, who died in 1989), and of course, I can’t find her. 3,000 stones in her section of the cemetery alone, and I can’t remember where she’s buried. I’m a bad grandkid. I’m going to find it, though, and make time to see her the next time I go, so help me. I drove to Broadripple for the hell of it…

And that’s when I realized I’d left my phone at Mom’s. Like a dumbass. So I drove back, managed to have very little further contact with Drew (he’s still alive. There’s pride here.), filled up my tank, and hit the road. I don’t remember much of the trip back, which is just as well, and I got back without much trouble. I missed having a car at my disposal before I had completed the walk home. SAD…

The 'you bet your ass' moment? The ding was found on the car, and they didn't charge me for it. Hotness.

So endith my trip play-by-play. Now that wasn’t so hard, was it?

NEW KITTENS!! News at 11…