I started to feel sick the Sunday after the Becoming the Archetype concert. By Monday I had a fullblown cold. I also had my mother coming to visit.
My mom showed up Monday night, right in the middle of Anna and me frantically trying to clean out the Explorer so it would be presentable for her.
She got to meet all the critters. She was not aware of the existence of either the guinea pigs or Chief (or the fish for that matter). This didn't bother her too much though, in fact I learned things about her that I didn't even know. For example, I learned that her family became the crazy cat people while she was in high school and at one point, probably had eighteen or so cats. I had no idea. I had grown up my entire life not having pets. Apparently though, this excess of cats influenced my mother's decision to never have cats in her own house.
I think that she and Chief got along wonderfully though. I can still hear her lovingly saying "NO,NO,NO!" to him as he tried to eat her clothes as they hung in the closet, and I can still see her throwing him out of the room and shutting the door in his face.
Howie, on the other hand, spent pretty much the entire week in hiding, as usual. His first instinct, no matter what, is to hide under the futon.
So as I was saying, by Monday I had a cold and this lasted pretty much all week. My mom also started getting sick toward the end of the week though we are still not sure if that was from me or something she had caught back in Colorado that had made its slithering way from the country of Japan through a very logical though hard to explain series of circumstances. Needless to say, my mom was hoping it was just a cold and not whatever funny Japanese disease with which she had come into contact.
We really didn't know what to do with my mom while she was here, but she pretty much took care of that problem herself. She spent nearly the entire time reading. She brought something like thirty library books, and I think she may have read three or so a day while here. Anna had been nervous about seeming smart and stuff in front of my mom, but I think she felt better when she discovered that my mom's reading preferences include trashy romance novels and lame detective mysterys. My mom has horrible taste in literature.
We did mingle a little bit with Anna's family. Sarah came over a couple of times during the week, and my mom actually helped her with her chemistry homework.
One night my mother and I decided to make pancakes for Anna's family. We had found a great big bunch of blueberries at Sam's Club, and so we made a great big batch of blueberry pancakes for dinner. It had been a long time since I had had my mother's buttermilk pancakes, and it was a nice opportunity to eat something made from scratch and not out of a mix.
We tried to do some stuff with my mom, but none of that really went anywhere. We took her to Nashville, Indiana, where Anna found a really cool music shop, but my mom didn't really seem all that interested in much there. I guess it was fortunate for us that we were rushed, and we left quickly. This was on Friday night, the third.
Because my birthday was on the fourth and I was going to a concert in Indianapolis on the fourth, they celebrated my birthday on Friday. We left Nashville early and came back to Anna's parents. Her mother had grilled up some pork thingies and made a cake. They also got me the now traditional DQ ice cream cake. So we ate pork and cake, and then they gave me presents. Anna's father gave me a bunch of targets for use with my handgun, and my mom gave me Guitar Hero world tour. My mom and Anna both found me awesome birthday cards too. Anna's had to do with my plumber's crack, and mom's was a card with a couple of rednecks on it playing "Banjo Hero."
I shot up some of my targets that night, but I didn't have much ammo. So I didn't shoot as long as I would have liked.
Saturday, being my birthday and the day of the second Scream the Prayer concert deserves its own post so stay tuned in eager anticipation for that story. Keep reading this awesomeness of a blog, and you will continue to be a better person.
Oh and by the way, they are gray.
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