backyard of my aunt's house in new hampshire

yesterday i got to drive through 3 states i had never been in and today i got to check off some more from my list. we all gathered in the morning at aunt #1's house to discuss what to do. the body of my dead aunt has still not been autopsied. until they do that, we won't know when the funeral will be. so instead of tuesday, it's looking more like the funeral will be on thursday. (we have to schedule the funeral around my grandfather's dialysis sessions.) in the meantime, that's a lot of downtime. so they turned to me and asked what i wanted to do since i'm the only one who's never been to new england. they listed historical interests and shopping. i said i don't want to be a pain, meaning i don't want people to go out of their way to drive me anywhere, but i'm more interested in history and something unique about the area rather than shopping. what we settled on in a matter of seconds is that i would go with aunt #3 down to her place in connecticut. she needed to see her doctor 'cos she was really sick now. she just needed a night at home and her car is at another airport, etc. i wanted to do this so i could help my mom drive up here.

when i first woke up i checked my email and my mom had bought her plane ticket. she's flying today, arriving late, will stay at a hotel in boston, then drive up. she said she's fine with the drive because she has her gps. after the crazy drive yesterday, i think she could use an extra set of eyes! plus, i've learned some driving tips that i should pass on to my mom, namely that every construction site there is a cop paid to be there and they will give tickets for not slowing down. i guess they have nothing better to do. [example: throughout the trip i saw two different verizon vans parked outside a home to install telephone service or cable, something like that, and there were orange hazard cones and a cop!] she also mentioned her return flight and i booked the same thing so we could fly together. she's flying friday night, arriving back in LA after midnight. the only risky thing i think is that we're not 100% on the funeral happening before the flight home.

anyway, aunt #1's husband drove us (aunt #3, me, and one of my dead aunt's children that was there at the dinner last night) down to long term parking at the airport in providence, which means i get to say now that i've been through rhode island. the staff looked at us funny because who walks to long term parking with their luggage? you either bring in your car or return by shuttle. anyway, that's what we did. we got to my aunt #3's car and she had left her window open a crack, to her horror, because it had rained a bit. this is the lucky part. this is the time that my aunt's messyness paid off! she had such a fucking mess of papers on the seats that the papers got wet and not the seat! the papers were just trash for the most part anyway so that's good. off in her car to connecticut we go!

garfield has nothing on my aunt's fat cat

she first went to her doctor. it didn't take very long at all. then we went to pick up her cat who had been boarded at veternarian/boarding place. it took a very long time to pick up her cat. me and my cousin sat in the car wondering what in the hell could be going on that it's taking so long. apparently, my aunt has a ridiculously fat cat. they wouldn't give her her cat until the vet came out and lectured to her about how fat her cat is and how it needs to go on a diet, etc. when our aunt told us this, we started cracking jokes about what she should have said to the vet! "really, she's fat? well, do you think i'm fat?" "the cat's not fat, she's just big boned." etc. i can't remember the best ones. i said one that made me laugh so hard but i've completely forgotten.

after the cat fiasco, we went to get some groceries. i was paying careful attention in the aisles to see if it was possible if i could live there and shop there for groceries. for a regular grocery store, they did have several veg(etari)an options. i'm surprised even to see beverages by bolthouse farms and odwalla for sale. i didn't think they sold that far away, due to a freshness issue, but i guess that's not true anymore. (i also saw from off the freeway a wild oats and a whole foods, but i don't remember where and they weren't in the same area.) i'm always interested in other cities, just in case i like it. one day i would like to live on the east coast, only to take advantage of seeing other cities on weekends and of the discounted airfare to destinations closer to there than where i am now, namely europe. but since i'm not really interested in that side of the world right now, more interested in west coast, latin america, and asia, i can live for a few more years in the part of the country while i visit those places of interest. and especially if they call shopping carts 'carriage's, what the fuck people, besides soft drink/soda/pop can't we have a standard american lexicon?!

mailboxes utilizing connecticut numbering system

we went home and had dinner as we watched tv. (one of the things we watched was "the shawshank redemption", i guess death and prisons is the theme for this weekend.) they decided to booze it up and smoke a lot, which was too much for me. i used to be severly allergic to cats but i was fine with her cat. also, her cat is scared of people but wasn't with us. i petted her and groomed her, etc. no problems. but the cigarette smoke was irritating me in the way that cats used to bother me. my eyes were burning and my throat started to feel scratchy. when they decided they ran out of alcohol and needed more, i went along so i could get some fresh air, thinking that would help. it didn't really help. and when i returned i discovered why: i had a fucking cat hair in my eye! i looked in the bathroom mirror and removed gobs of eye junk. i could see something thin across my iris. eventually it came out, a very long thin cat hair. earlier i had removed an eyelash from my other eye. today was not a good day for my eyes!