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Dec. 27th, 2012 10:29 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jianantonicThe last week has been filled with goodness, and a little bit of awful mixed in to keep my head completely out of the clouds. Kelly's boyfriend Dave has been visiting, and he's super fun. We had a little gathering to welcome him, and then the next day, Kelly had to work, so I dragged Dave along on my outings. I ended up going with Lorie to the archery range. I've never done that before, and while I have no desire to ever shoot an animal, it was super fun to shoot (arch?) at the target in the range. I was surprisingly decent at it. I think I'll go back sometime.
We did family Christmas with Z's folks on Sunday, which was nice and low key. Grampa isn't doing very well, and has just been admitted into Hospice care. It's sad, but everyone, including Grampa, seems ready. It's not agonizing. Compared to my grandmother's long bout with Alzheimer's, Grampa has had a much less awful road of it. Still not something you wish on anyone, but the circumstances could be far worse.
On Monday, Kelly had to work during the day, so I took Dave around Portland for a bit. We had a food cart lunch, then rode the street car and the aerial tram. The weather's been kinda shitty, so there were no mountain views, but the tram is still the best way to see the city, and that was a fun ride. In the evening, Kelly joined us along with Mary, Josh, Chris, David, Shanon, Brian, and Jack for our first annual Christmas Eve Chinese buffet dinner (like father, like daughter...). Jack was in a great mood and a good time was had by all. After dinner, some of us went back to Josh and Mary's place to play games, ending the night with possibly the best ever Penis Pictionary. The real game is Telephone Pictionary, but with us, penises always poke their way into our drawings, so we're calling a spade a spade. And a penis a penis. My favorite one was when I started with a line from "The Thong Song." "Dumps like a truck" morphed into a picture of a girl on a toilet with an "=" and a picture of a truck. Then the interpretation of that drawing was "A penis hovercraft is basically the same as a truck." What with my job dealing with trucks every day, I can't get penis hovercrafts out of my head. It's amusing.
On Tuesday, we dropped McKenzie off at the airport and then headed to Linda's house to kidnap Dylan and go hiking. We went to Multnomah Falls, and when we arrived, we could see that there was snow on top of the bluffs above the falls. It was raining, but we were well bundled up and we started on our hike. About 1/3 of the way up, we realized the snow was a lot lower than we thought. It started with a few slushy patches on the trail, but then the last half mile or so was basically a ski slope. A pretty dangerous one. When we reached the top of the mountain, there was a sign posted that said "Attention hikers: trail conditions are extremely slippery and dangerous, and hiking is strongly discouraged at this time." Not that strongly, if you put the warning sign at the summit of the fucking trail. But whatever, we had a great time, and we all survived. We were soaked when we got back to Vancouver, and we spent the next 2 hours in the hot tub. Linda hosted a "Bah Humbug" party for us Christmas orphans, and we played some bridge and ate some noms and had a wonderful time.
Wednesday I was back at work, and with the office closed for three days in observance of the holiday, we expected a deluge of claims, but so far it hasn't really come. It's good that we weren't too busy, though, because I ended up dealing with a personal crisis most of the day instead. A friend who lives very far away is going through some bad shit, and sent me a very scary text, basically saying goodbye. I called 911, then called him, and we talked for a while. He's not okay, and I know from experience that it's all but impossible to convince someone in a depression that it really does get better, but he seemed to have perked up somewhat by the end of the day. The cops sent someone to check on him, but didn't take him to a hospital or anything. I'm still worried about him in a big way, but it seems the immediate threat has passed. He promised he would keep our plans to see each other in March, so I'm holding onto that.
This morning, I did something really stupid and I'm kind of super pissed at myself, but in the long run it's not a big deal. Perspective is key. But I need a break. Just a little vacation. Which I will get this weekend -- flying to Reno on Saturday to play three days of bridge and craps. Probably more bridge than craps.
We did family Christmas with Z's folks on Sunday, which was nice and low key. Grampa isn't doing very well, and has just been admitted into Hospice care. It's sad, but everyone, including Grampa, seems ready. It's not agonizing. Compared to my grandmother's long bout with Alzheimer's, Grampa has had a much less awful road of it. Still not something you wish on anyone, but the circumstances could be far worse.
On Monday, Kelly had to work during the day, so I took Dave around Portland for a bit. We had a food cart lunch, then rode the street car and the aerial tram. The weather's been kinda shitty, so there were no mountain views, but the tram is still the best way to see the city, and that was a fun ride. In the evening, Kelly joined us along with Mary, Josh, Chris, David, Shanon, Brian, and Jack for our first annual Christmas Eve Chinese buffet dinner (like father, like daughter...). Jack was in a great mood and a good time was had by all. After dinner, some of us went back to Josh and Mary's place to play games, ending the night with possibly the best ever Penis Pictionary. The real game is Telephone Pictionary, but with us, penises always poke their way into our drawings, so we're calling a spade a spade. And a penis a penis. My favorite one was when I started with a line from "The Thong Song." "Dumps like a truck" morphed into a picture of a girl on a toilet with an "=" and a picture of a truck. Then the interpretation of that drawing was "A penis hovercraft is basically the same as a truck." What with my job dealing with trucks every day, I can't get penis hovercrafts out of my head. It's amusing.
On Tuesday, we dropped McKenzie off at the airport and then headed to Linda's house to kidnap Dylan and go hiking. We went to Multnomah Falls, and when we arrived, we could see that there was snow on top of the bluffs above the falls. It was raining, but we were well bundled up and we started on our hike. About 1/3 of the way up, we realized the snow was a lot lower than we thought. It started with a few slushy patches on the trail, but then the last half mile or so was basically a ski slope. A pretty dangerous one. When we reached the top of the mountain, there was a sign posted that said "Attention hikers: trail conditions are extremely slippery and dangerous, and hiking is strongly discouraged at this time." Not that strongly, if you put the warning sign at the summit of the fucking trail. But whatever, we had a great time, and we all survived. We were soaked when we got back to Vancouver, and we spent the next 2 hours in the hot tub. Linda hosted a "Bah Humbug" party for us Christmas orphans, and we played some bridge and ate some noms and had a wonderful time.
Wednesday I was back at work, and with the office closed for three days in observance of the holiday, we expected a deluge of claims, but so far it hasn't really come. It's good that we weren't too busy, though, because I ended up dealing with a personal crisis most of the day instead. A friend who lives very far away is going through some bad shit, and sent me a very scary text, basically saying goodbye. I called 911, then called him, and we talked for a while. He's not okay, and I know from experience that it's all but impossible to convince someone in a depression that it really does get better, but he seemed to have perked up somewhat by the end of the day. The cops sent someone to check on him, but didn't take him to a hospital or anything. I'm still worried about him in a big way, but it seems the immediate threat has passed. He promised he would keep our plans to see each other in March, so I'm holding onto that.
This morning, I did something really stupid and I'm kind of super pissed at myself, but in the long run it's not a big deal. Perspective is key. But I need a break. Just a little vacation. Which I will get this weekend -- flying to Reno on Saturday to play three days of bridge and craps. Probably more bridge than craps.
