Okay, so…in case you didn’t know it, last Thursday was Thanksgiving.
Yeah, I know they celebrate Thanksgiving in October in Canada, but I don’t live in Canada. So, there. Anyway, as is my normal tradition, I went home to Birmingham for Thanksgiving. This is my story.
I left work early on Wednesday. My reasoning for this was two-fold. Firstly, I did it because I had to take my wife to a doctor’s opponent where we’d hear Megan’s heartbeat. Secondly, I did it because my supervisor let us off early – or earlier than I would have originally gotten off. So, we went to the appointment, heard her heartbeat for a few seconds, and left.
*PAUSE*
About that heartbeat…Megan would not sit still long enough for us to actually hear it. We heard it for about a second and a half before she moved. She moved around so much that she shorted out the batteries in the Doppler. She even kicked the microphone in protest. Bear in mind that this is the same child who – on her second ultrasound – decided she didn’t want to give us a second profile picture; in fact, she started shaking her head no and moving her mouth as if to say “I ain’t doin’ it!”
*RESUME*
I dropped my wife off, and I was on my way to Birmingham. Normally, the trip takes me about three and a half hours, but I think it took an extra 45 minutes this time due to traffic. I finally got into town at about 8:30 and had to immediately go to the airport. Why? I had to pick up my mom, who was flying in from (deep in the heart of) Texas. Sorry, I had to do it. (SIDENOTE: While I was waiting for my mom, I ran into Navy quarterback Ricky Dobbs. He seems like a good guy, and he’s going to be one hell of an officer.) While I was excited about seeing her again after a long time, I was a little apprehensive as well. I didn’t quite know how she would react to my new vehicle.
Did I forget to mention that?
Well, I got a new vehicle. I now drive a 2009 silver Ford Escape. I like it; it’s roomy, and it’s not gonna threaten to fall apart every time I hit a pebble on the ground. It’s also pretty safe as well, and that’s important to me now more than ever before.
So, I pick my mom up and we walk to the Escape, and I really thought she was gonna freak. Instead, she was calm and said she expected me to do it. She said it drove well, and she understands why I did it. With my having to drive across the Mobile Bay Bridge every day for work, it only makes sense for me to have a safer car. We finally get home, I unload the car, and I almost immediately go to sleep.
I wake up the next day and I feel like someone bashed my head with a hammer. Somehow, between driving up to Birmingham and waking up on Thanksgiving morning, I got sick. I don’t know if it was a cold or the flu, and I really didn’t give a damn; I DIDN’T LIKE IT. I just knew that it would impede my enjoyment of the food that I was about to eat. Thankfully, it didn’t, because that was some delicious food. I would post pictures, but I was too busy eating it to take pictures of it. I will say this much; my stepbrother’s girlfriend made some macaroni and cheese that rivals my sister-in-law’s, AND she made a mocha cake. Good Lord, that cake was awesome!
I then did something I haven’t done in years, and that’s visit my dad’s side of the family. I have no animosity towards them; on the contrary, I love them dearly. It’s just that I have so little time to see everyone that I just can’t seem to squeeze everything in during what amounts to a day and a half. I sat and talked with one of my aunts and one of my cousins and we had a good old time. I was expecting some of the other family members to come to her house, but I guess I waited too late. Maybe I’ll have another chance soon; who knows, right?
After I left her house, I went back home. I didn’t stay up too late on Thanksgiving, because I was sick and we were driving to Huntsville the next day. I figured I’d be okay when I woke up; after all, rest does tend to cure what ails you, right?
WRONG.
I woke up on Friday and wanted to run headfirst into a wall. I was so out of it that I could barely function. It didn’t help matters that it was frigidly cold, either; the temps dropped from the mid 60s to the high 40s. In fact, it was in the low 30s when I woke up – at 3:30 in the morning. Why? Black Friday shopping, that’s why. My brother and I drove to Best Buy because that’s our tradition. We go, we laugh at people standing in line (this year, the line was stretched out past Bruno’s), and we get in and out in almost record time. This year, I bought myself season nine of Smallville, and he got himself a car stereo for his car – Roxanne with the Black Dress. Yes, that’s what he calls his car. We were in and out in less than 30 minutes, and we drove back home so I could go back to sleep.
When I woke up again, I felt even worse; I felt so bad that I was having second thoughts about doing the driving to Huntsville. I didn’t wanna do it, but I had to drive that trip. So, after a stop at the Dollar Tree to get some snacks to ride to, that’s what we did. Now, let me just go on record as saying that I love this time of year because I love Christmas music. We listened to Christmas music the whole way, and my brother “serenaded” us with every song. EVERY song. It was in his usual off-key singing, but he did it anyway. I was a bit annoyed, but I was also going between swigs of Tussin, Sudafed, and Halls cough drops. You’d be surprised how well that combination doesn’t work. We made it up to Huntsville and my aunt’s house in time for them to watch the “Iron” Bowl. I amused myself by going on Twitter.
When my cousin Kelvin came around, we went on a multi-faceted tour of Huntsville…as usual. He showed me his new house, we went to try to pick up one of my cousins, we went to visit another one when that failed, then we went back to my aunt’s house. We left shortly thereafter to try to pick up the cousin we tried to before, but he was so engrossed in the “Iron” Bowl that he couldn’t be buggered. So, he got a little upset, but we left anyway. We came back in time to see Auburn score the winning touchdown (yay…… :/) and eat dinner. I got to see some folks I hadn’t seen in years, and it was a lot of fun. We drove back down with me doing the same routine that I did on the way up and it surprisingly had NO success whatsoever, and I bought some NyQuil and was ready to fade out for the night, which I did…
…two hours later.
I woke up on Saturday feeling a bit better, but not well enough to forgo my regimen from the prior night. I spent the day with my family and the evening with the fellas. We watched the LSU-Arkansas game, went to Hooters, and came back to watch Scott Pilgrim vs. the World. If you haven’t read my review on that movie, please do. Sunday, I went to church and I was able to announce to my church family back home that I had a baby girl on the way. After church, I left about three, got to listen to the Grey Cup, and made it home just in time to watch Darian Durant throw the interception that cost the Roughriders a championship to the Montreal Alouettes.
All in all, it was a great time at home, and I look forward to getting there again. Hopefully in better health.