42 Dreams of Arizona Bay

1364: Number of cell phone minutes used this month. Out of 1,500. I actually used so much during my vacation that I had to put the brakes on and save the last little bit in case I really needed it. My minutes start over sometime today or tomorrow. My all time previous high was 1281.

4: Number of times I’ve already lost my temper. That vacation euphoria keeps getting shorter.

1: Panera Bread discovered in neighboring town. So my desperate dash to Panera in Mishawaka was for nothing. Well, not really. I still like the food. I discovered the Panera yesterday on my way back from the DMV. I read that it was coming to town, but figured, like everything else, that it would never come to pass. Yay! Anyway, that’s where I’m heading for lunch today.

30: Minutes I spent in the DMV, trying to get my title transferred for my car. Heather getting the title to her car reminded me I still hadn’t transferred my title after paying it off last September. The California DMV direly warns you to do it within 30 days. So I didn’t want to do it by mail. I needed to talk to a real person. The real, bored person with the nose stud didn’t seem phased by my very tardy title transfer application. Took my money. Done. Why I decided to show up to the DMV in Clovis, instead of setting up an appointment, I’ll never know. It was a much better experience than one of my last DMV forays. I still want to know what’s up with the bingo numbers.

600: Money that needs to be deposited in bank, thanks to that little economic stimulus thing. Finally got my check. I was pretty honked off when I found out that my money wouldn’t be deposited in May as promised by the clueless H&R Block guy who messed up something else on my return. No, if you have your tax preparer deduct their fees from your return, you wait for a paper check until July. And I just got mine.  It’s a good thing I didn’t buy the camera lens I wanted. Note to self: don’t spend money you don’t have.

0: Amount of money that will be spent stimulating the economy. I really wanted an oversized recliner. I was within inches of buying one. I almost bought a camera lens when I decided that a recliner would be too hard to move. But then I thought, I’m probably going to need that money as a safety cushion in the next few months. So reluctantly, very reluctantly, I plan to deposit that money and leave it alone.

I’m back. Many days away from work, and now my last day is winding down. I don’t want to go back tomorrow.

The wrapup:

Thursday night, my aunt and two cousins came for a visit. I impressed them with my culinary skills with potato soup. My dad impressed them with his car, taking the girls for a ride.

After they left, Dad and I took the Vega to a park by the river and took lots and lots of photos. We snuck the car onto the grass and imagined what would happen if we got caught.

Friday, I had lunch with my friends from my old job. Rachel, John and PD met me at Panera. Panera is a seldom-enjoyed pleasure because the nearest one I know of is a good 1.5 hour drive away.

It was hard to cut the visit short, though John and I spent a little more time chatting. Then I sped off to pick up my dad. And then ended up spending the rest of the day with my friends Leigh and Dale, who needed my help with a project.

I stayed there way longer than I meant to, but a swim in an indoor, heated pool was too tempting to pass up. Though I didn’t pack a suit, Leigh had one I could borrow. Luckily, I have a friend just about my size.

And that’s about it. The visit went so fast, and it seemed so short. My dad told me that he had been wishing to have just one more day, but realized that if I had one more day, he’d want another, and another.

I could have spent one more day there, but I felt like I would need some chill out time as a buffer between my visit home and a return to work.

My flights home were uneventful, except for the first leg, the hop from South Bend to Chicago. Where the older flight attendant was generally quite nasty, and flustered me enough that I lost my boarding passes for the next two legs of my flight.
Luckily, once I found a ticket counter that was actually open, I was able to get new ones printed.

I got home, ate well (pot roast, ftw!) and lazed around. Caught up on some sleep. Today, more of the same.

I got what I wanted when I went to Michigan. Saw more rain than forecast. Got my thunderstorm. Got a ride in the Vega. Hung out with my family. Ate good food. Saw some of my friends.

Everything seemed the same, even when things had changed. I suspect it will always be like that.

It makes you appreciate the place you called home, and the place you call home now.

I know everything would settle down to a normal, dull routine if I lived there full-time. So it’s nice to be special on a visit. And it’s nice to know that I won’t be taken for granted, and that I won’t take my family for granted.

I just wish I could visit a little more often. The visits are always too short, no matter how long they are.

It’s Thursday now, which means my lovely week is inevitably winding to its end. I never have enough time for all the things I want to do.

Tuesday:

We had a family cookout. My brother and his wife came over with their kids. Full and always sleepy, I wanted to lay down on the ground, and grabbed a comforter. The baby, Hannah, kept visiting me briefly. Dad snapped some pics and then I was fair game as the rest of the kids used me as a jungle gym.

“Want up!” Hannah demanded, climbing on my back. As soon as I got up to give her a horsie ride, she wanted back down. Several times.

The other kids wanted rides but my back has really been bothering me this whole week and I didn’t feel up to lifting anyone other than a two-year-old who felt as light as a feather.

So the other kids settled for jumping on me, hitting me and rough-housing. When I saiy the other kids, it was mostly the boys but Alley joined in occasionally.

I also chased them around while growling in a Hulk-like manner. Sometimes with Hannah on my back, which usually prompted more “down, down” shouts from her.

I eventually had to call the hitting off, but they didn’t listen to me, so I made my brother intervene.

A particularly fun part was when I was messing with Hannah’s head. She wanted her Dora chair but nobody would get it for her. I told her that I had my own Dora chair, but that Grandpa J had sat on it and broken it.

This apparently translated into toddler brain that Grandpa J had broken her chair, so some time later, my brother came out with her Dora chair and told me to stop telling his daughter lies.

Read the rest of “More good days” »

Dad’s fourth child, Vega

Originally uploaded by jon72vega

Today, my dad and I were supposed to take his beloved fourth child, Vega, to have its new hood painted.

The guy who was supposed to paint it for him flaked out on him.

Dad took the day off, so that part was wasted.

What wasn’t wasted was good father-daughter time.

We took the Vega out for a drive. I miss the smell of the high-octane exhaust pumping out. I miss all the people in town craning their necks around to stare at that wonderful, tempermental machine as we drive past. I miss the heavy purr of the car. I miss the burnouts.

It was awesome. He took it out on the highway and gunned it a couple of times. He did grin a bit as I requested a burnout and complied as we got home. He complained it was a weak sort of burnout, and I sorta egged him on to do it again, but he didn’t.

Many years ago, on Good Friday, and I think my dad’s birthday, my brother and I egged him on to do a burnout, just a little bit from home. Then I told him to do another. And then another. The third one burned out his rear end.

We still talk about it, joke about it. I brought it up today.

So when I egged him on to do just one more today, he declined. And I laughed, and understood.

I love that car. It formed such a big part of my childhood that it really is another part of the family. A high-maintenance, sort of unpredictable beast. But I love it. I miss it.

Dad and I also went to a restaurant and had a good nice meal, that was probably $15 cheaper than if we’d eaten the same meal in Fresno.

I miss that. I keep noticing the prices out here, even milk, and sometimes wonder if it isn’t better here.

No mountains. No ocean. No mild winters with rain only.

But the air here is fresh. And it was so lovely today. A few clouds in the sky with a slight breeze. Just perfect. Not too hot. Not too cold.

Everything just the way I remember it, and like it.

Even down to the pizza. Dad made his special homemade pizza as a cap to a perfect day.

I know things wouldn’t be so perfect if I was here all the time, but I’m glad I have the ability to appreciate it now. Sometimes you don’t know how much you love something, someone, or someplace, until you’ve been apart for too long.

Well, I finally sorta caught up on my sleep. Even though I stayed up really late, Michigan time.

I’m enjoying my family so far.

The highlights:

• Pretending that my niece and nephew were scaring me with a couple of skeletal-like hands that their Grandma D scares them with.
• Pretending that I stole my two-year-old niece’s nose. She totally didn’t believe me until I told her to ask Grandpa J if she didn’t believe me.
  “Hannah, where’s your nose?” Dad asked.
  In a very crestfallen, upset voice: “Aunt Melissa got it.”
  I was hoping he was going to tell her to get her nose back. Instead, she stole my nose and then ate it. And refused to give it back, undigested or otherwise. As far as I know, I may never see my nose again.
• Running out in the rain for a little soak. Then going to Dairy Queen much later in the day, I got my much-wished for thunderstorm. Lightning and everything. My stepmom and I ran out with our ice cream and in the few steps to the car, we were soaked. It was great fun. I insisted on sitting on the enclosed porch for the rest of the storm.

When 3 a.m. is not a bad time to be awake: when you still haven’t gone to bed, after playing video games all night.

When 3 a.m. is a bad time to be awake: when you went to bed two hours ago and your plane leaves at 5 a.m.

You’ll sleep on the plane: No, you won’t. Or not long enough to be useful.

Later!

In a few hours, I will be on a plane, heading to Michigan to visit my family and friends.

I’m sorta procrastinating on the whole packing business, which I didn’t intend to do. I did all my laundry earlier. Now I have to see if I can cram everything I want to bring in one suitcase. I’m cheap and really don’t want to give the airline any more money on top of my expensive ticket.

I technically can bring my second, smaller suitcase as carry-on luggage, but I’ll also have my backpack, which will have my camera bag, reading material and other entertainment. I really don’t like carrying that much stuff around and I’ll be on a couple of small planes, which would probably involve checking that second piece of luggage planeside. Is it worth it? I dunno.

The airline I almost always travel with recently announced that it would soon be charging for a first piece of checked luggage, too. At least my trip was booked before the charges go into effect.

Should I bring my Nintendo DS this time around? I find I’m too fidgety to play DS for long in the airport and I never know quite whether I can play it on the plane.

I do have some audiobooks to listen to, as well as books to read. I need to try to not pack so much. Especially when I don’t need most of it.

All right, back to packing and to see whether I can do it right.