Organizational meetings can be pretty dull. I went to one this morning and they typically give out a crappy little door prize. As a result, I pay little attention till today when I won! This time, it wasn't so crappy, as I scored two free tickets anyplace Southwest flies in the continental US.

May get a vaca-y this year. Yea!, me!

Too much potential drama. I journaled about losing a cousin last week. Her service was today. She was very involved with a small episcopal church near ECMC so the church elders wanted to put on a show. A nearly two and half hour service. I've never been prouder of my guys or more anxious to get out of church. Knowing that was coming cast a bit of a pall over Thanksgiving dinner at my in-laws place, where everybody was thinking about that and it was the first major holiday without my father-in-law so we didn't need extra helpings to make our shoulders sag a little. Stiffer upper lip and all that. 4th significant funeral since February. 6th overall. I'm getting tired. Must be a sign of getting older when the "inner circle" takes such a whuppin.

Further causing what's left of my mind to whirl was the fact that my folks are dealing with a little bit of health issues. My mom is dealing with another round of prednizone to combat vascular arteritis. I think I'm close on the spelling. It beat her up last fall and this is a decidely lesser battle, but still. I had to tell my Dad to mind his manners. Mom might get a little roid rage. He has issues as well. His doctor has him set for a round at Roswell in January to have a biopsy done to make sure he isn't dragging a form of lymphoma around.

I've gotten to be pretty good at rolling with the punches, but holy crap. The cherry on the cake of all this is that my sisters are sniping again. They are 9 years apart and Manhattan ain't big enough for both of them. The elder one has been out of work for sometime and the younger one has been subtly rubbing her face in it with new husband, slowly prospering career. They go in waves and I wouldn't care but we are getting way to old for this shit. Our elder brother is a special needs guy and at some point, it's up to the three of us to see to his needs. When I get that call, I'll take the ex-wife before these two lunatics. I love em dearly, but there are times when I want to slap the nostrils clean off them. Unnecessary pitiness, imagined competitions, the way they can place each other on edge are exhausting me. They can't do visits home without coating it in shenanigans. All of this with no real reason. I don't know what to do about it. It's like they are competing to see who the parents favorite is.

Makes me look forward to the estrip gathering for some agendaless good times.

The folks things aren't something I'm getting to rattled out, just haven't had a whole lot of return on anything Roswell lately (except for this community of ours), so I think I'm owed. Mom's thing doesn't seem to be too big a deal. It's just the second go round in the same turf. They said it could come back. The holiday was a little shrouded because of the absent friends. You put it all together and it does make your brain hurt. Everybody is a little whipped after the service today so I told the kids to stay home and get a good nights sleep in their regular beds. I ran to the late Yoga class to blow off steam. Literally, I got back to my car and fogged the windows without the aid of a good woman (You know any?)

So, for once, home on the couch on a Friday doesn't seem so bad. I am finally enjoying the new pc I bought on Monday. It took five days to qwell my vista fear, but that too shall pass. After all, there is Guinness in the fridge.

It will all be okay.

A unique constellation of circumstances.....

Thought I was reasonably footloose and fancyfree yesterday, so I took Number One Son to go see "Bolt" yesterday at the Market Arcade. I would have preferred the new Bond flick but whatever, Bolt was okay but all the good lines are in the commercials. We ran a couple of errands and arrived at his house at 5:30 or so. I was planning on coming back here and checking on the Lasertron outting. Instead, it got decided on the spur of the moment that we needed to go hang out with an older cousin. Last night was the night picked to gather to eat drink be merry and distract our cousin. He lost his wife earlier in the week. The funeral is Friday, last night wound up being the informal get together for family. Just wish I would have known a little more in advance. There is a small circle of folk who I was looking forward to seeing, others who I had to introduce myself too (Oh, right, the nice white boy XXXX married) and some fools. One of the latter decided it was a good time to give me some flak about what kind of father would let number one son quit Tae Kwon Do. Grrrr. I hate when people especially ones who have no business passing out parenting advice decide to start in for the sake of starting in. Pisses me off to have to stand there, pretending to take things gracefully, when I had a perfectly fine invitation to go shoot stuff from a lovely soul (thanks again, (e:imk)). Apparently, giving my son a voice in his own world makes me an unfit parent. This same jerk was the one who decided that if I was any kind of man the ex wouldn't be gay. Christ on a bike. got home a little after 9, too late to make the shenanigans.

As usual, I would have preferred to be firing lasers with ya'all.

Got up this morning with an eye toward sponging off the folks and doing laundry for free and watching the Bills game with the old man. My folks both got health news (nothing serious, just annoying) and I thought it would be a good idea to have the kids come out. Instead they were booked till 2. Not wanting to be in Clarence all night, I ran downtown stairs and the laundry there was booked. Screw it, packed up the soap, the clothes, the ipod and headed for the laundramat. Got it all done in short order, picked up the youngins and broke bread over a good old starchfest in the burbs that perked everybody up.

The weekend was like a weekday of running around, just no work involved. That will change tomorrow with an educational video shoot at the Zoo. I have to take a guy in a bear suit through the Rainforest. That alone sounds like an old Letterman bit.

Blew off morning yoga to extend the coffee and blanket stuff in front of Charles Osgood, so back on the bike tomorrow night. I was beside myself on the last class. My balance for stuff is shaky at best, but I can start to do the on one foot stuff with some ease and actually held one on the poses for the entire time frame. Nearly made an unmanly noise of surprise.

Bumming over the pistol packing good time last night but the beautiful thing about estrip. There is always next time.....

Been reading a little about all the shenanigans involving the football game on Monday night. Having worked two night games last year on the Bills staff, it was decidely nicer to spend this game on my couch, warm and with the cold beer already paid for and no line for my reasonably clean bathroom. A few years ago, for a work function, I got to sit the M&T Club. That is one of the big monstrosities at the end of the stadium. 200 people private service, closed windows. It was like being a Roman watching the christians escape the Lions. But the past two seasons found me decked out in this splendor:



That was from the hockey game, but that was also my post for football days and nights. To the left were season ticket holders and pretty consistent in their attendence. To the right was a few season ticket types, walk ups, opposing fan types. Since it was the end zone, they were the last seats sold. Never a dull moment. When ESPN came to town last year, it was for a game with the Cowboys, which brought out the inner asshole in some Bills fans. The fights were clear cut. It's the near fights that put people on edge. The bulk of the stadium is fine, but something about the end zones and near end zones that. Something about somebody wearing the wrong team colors turns the joint into Lord of the Flies.

Game still sucked, but seeing the suckitude from the comforts of home is preferred.