I'm Studying You

There is no estimated quantity for this.

Good evening Studyees...hope you're all having a freaking fantastic weekend. Before I step aside to watch Family Guy and call it the end of a day off, I thought I'd like to bring the mood down a little by telling you about how I spent said day. I'll try not to make this depressing...no guarantees.

When I re-reach the stage in life that I'm no longer able to make it to the bathroom at the proper time and need to have someone change my diapers, do me a favor and see to it that I have a nice burial (ie: not in the back lot of some bar that's since closed that I frequented in my 20's...pick any of 'em) and put everyone out of their (and my) misery.

We went to visit J's aunt and grandmother today. "Nonnie" is 85-ish (when you're that old, does it matter if anyone keeps score?) and suffers from advanced dementia. She lives with J's aunt, a retired nurse, so she can get proper care and treatment, and she needs almost constant supervision. She's virtually bedridden, but seems to think she can still get around just fine...until she falls. Aunt Toni's apartment makes perfect sense, besides the fact that it's a second-floor apartment. Hence the near-constant supervision.

If memory were at a comparable level of "pull-the-plug-ness" as the incapability to control one's bowel movements, I should have been put down years ago, even if my lovely girlfriend says I seem to remember everything. It's not that I remember everything...it's just that I've documented so much since we were just at the level of "customer/cashier" and it's slightly easier to recall than, say, what I had for dinner last night. She's slowly coming around...and learning not to talk to me about important things after I've had a terrible night of sleep and worked a lot of long days.

So anyway...Aunt Toni's basically been the one to oversee Nonnie the last month or two since she was pulled out of Assisted Living. Occasionally some other family members drop by to help, but it's hard with jobs and kids and crap. We were today's that set of family members to come by and babysit Nonnie so Aunt Toni could get out of the house a little and have a break. Aides are usually in and out during the week, but that's the time Toni takes to clean and stuff...and really, not that these people shouldn't be trusted, but would you want to leave a stranger alone in your house? I'm gonna guess not. So we spent a day watching a once proud and vibrant woman (who now thinks Jess is a tenth-grader) sleep. She was so medicated, so numbed from pain, that she could barely smile. She lit up when Jess and I walked in, but that faded fast into fumbling with her rosary and nodding off. Occasionally she'd mumble in her sleep about the time, but I don't think it was about asking us what the time was. And J gets eerie feelings like, uhhh, for lack of a better phrase, it's almost Nonnie's time. Her other grandmother went through it the same way. Her grandfather Pop-Pop went through it under slightly different circumstances (I forget exactly what, but near the end he was still romancin' the ladies, even though they had to cut off most of his legs...and he's got the same unusual name as I do...just another reason why J's family loves me). I can't imagine what it's like having to watch someone die. Maybe twice in my life have I been close to it, but was too young to grasp what it meant.

Today was kinda chilling...kinda a reminder, amidst the other random hecticness that seemed to occur today...

Her oldest was over this weekend and has a new "friend" in the neighborhood. He wanted to spend time with her instead of going to see his great-grandmother, so we were going to drop him off at her house before we went to visit Nonnie so they could "study for exams", as the kids in my day called it. This chick lives right by the library (The Lancaster Library, not The Library my stoggers chill at) so it was no problem...til we got to Aunt Toni's and Josh calls to say the library is closed. Duh, it's Flag Day. Snap. And we're almost a half-hour away. Guess they get to start their "after-study" date of going to the ice cream/hot dog stand a few blocks over a little early.

While this call is coming through, my dad is calling me to tell us that he'll be back in town from his convention in an hour and a half, and trying to give me directions as to where we're pickin' up Pop Diesel. All of this conversation occurred with me having the oddest, most befuddled look on my face. I had no freakin' clue what was goin' on. None. Thought maybe he thought today was Fathers' Day instead of next Sunday. J's lookin' at me like I'm crazy. Turns out my aunt called her and told her what was goin' on about today...that we had to pick him up at his buddy's house and drive him home. Which cut short our time with Nonnie, because I totally forgot about this. And why did I forget about this? Because Jess told me about this when I was not in a place to be having important conversations, and had no business being awake. Oh yeah...and he was about 20 minutes in the opposite direction of where we were. And this all happened in the driveway of Aunt Toni's, before we even walked in.

Before we even started this voyage, we stopped at Noco to get a coffee and a paper. My bitch of an ex-boss was there, which for some reason seemed to rattle the bejeebus out of me. I had to try to ignore her. I don't think she recognized me totally, but she may have. I was flustered. I probably looked like the idiot who quit on her, rather than the stable individual I've become (laugh all you will...I'm fully in a better place now, hence, "stable").

On the way home, after dropping off Poppa B, we decided to hit up FYE for some cds because we had a coupon that expires today. We wanted to get Alex some cds for his birthday on Tuesday and they had a pretty good ad in today's paper. Of course, FYE is in the third out-of-the-way direction. And as we decide to turn in that direction instead of the one labled "home"...

Josh calls and says he's locked out of the house because Alex forgot the key. J advises him to try to get into the house through the back window. Depending on who you ask, either hilarity ensues, or the effin' kid went about the whole process entirely the wrong way and heads are gonna roll. Basically, he cut the screen and damaged it, along with some other minor things, to crawl through the window. A window he had to stand on a picnic table to reach. A 5'8", 208 lb. kid. The funny's in there, Studyees. I'm gonna let you find it.

As I started this little entry, J was out picking up Alex. The interruption of all interruptions, I was pulled away from my screen over to the tv screen where I could be shown pictures of cars from his new camcorder. Pictures. Not videos. Pictures. Of cars. And his dad. I hate cars. And his dad.

And as Josh was outside grilling hot dogs for dinner, I was trying to lure the cat away from the screen door (and a potential future life as an outdoor cat on the tracks) with catnip, when I saw his fiasco of accidentally dropping a hot dog on the ground. To which I do not remember my comment, other than "I hope that's not my hot dog!!" Josh made burgers the other day while I was at work and wanted to make an extra one for me but it somehow broke apart and slipped into the fire chamber itself, so no burger for me. No biggie, since I don't much care for cow patties anywho, but I gave him fist-bump props for it anyway. However, femme feline fatale Lily was rollin' off a catnip binge while Josh and his lady-friend were eating in the living room and Josh was getting pissed. When I went to check to see if she had consumed the catnip I was chastized..."You gave her catnip? That's why she's acting like an idiot? You'll regret the next time you do that." I'll consider that a minor threat, and minor only, as if he thinks she's gonna piss me off for getting her catnip-high.

That's all I got for ya today, Stoggers. Too many cigarettes, too many miles on WNY's respected infrastructure, a lot of coffee and lotsa love. And more details than I can possibly remember. Blame it on my name, I suppose. Til next time Studyees, take care of each other like you'd want to be if you can't be taken care of...you'll never know how great it really is. GOODNIGHT NOW!!!