Tuesday, Sept. 05, 2006 - 7:45 p.m.
November 2005 started with a great big annoyance. I decided to go ahead and apply for a full time position at the company I'd been temping at - Olympus Surgical America. When I accepted, they had me sign a disclosure form and I crossed out the part that said that they could check into my records (including bank statements, etc) at any time and changed it to one time. I figure, they only need to check my background *before* they hire me. I didn't like the lack of privacy. But they had a policy in place where they wouldn't allow it to be altered in any way.
In the end, I had a very condescending meeting with one of the VP's and ended up signing it and attaching a letter of disagreement to it for my file.
This job has since done very little good for me except add to my bank account.
On November 23rd I drove to work right after work. It was probably the worst drive, anywhere, ever that I've ever had to make. It was a horrible snowstorm. I could only see a little ways in front of me for most of it and it was slow moving. My trip time was almost doubled (on top of the day of work I'd already done). I was very tired when I got there, sporting a huge headache.
Uncle Jimi was wonderful though, put me to bed and fed me in the morning, although I still didn't sleep long enough. But it was Thanksgiving day and everyone was going to come over in a few hours. I wanted to get ready.
I helped with what I could and waited. In the afternoon Grandpa showed up with my mom and sister (Matt couldn't make it). He looked worse than I'd seen him in a long while and his hair was very very thin and completely white. This is a strange observance for most people make of a 79 year old man, but my grandpa's hair was completely black until only a few years back when my grandma died. And he still had almost all of it, a full head, until he started the chemo.
It was slightly unnerving to see, but it came in handy being completely unexpressive, for once. I didn't show that to grandpa.
Heather showed me her new photographs - it was so nice to see her photographing again.
And then my Uncle AJ, Aunt Wilma, David and Melanie came. Melanie brought her boyfriend, Ray (a shy smily kid).
My Uncle Butch and his family didn't show up for some reason (I honestly don't remember the excuse)...and of course, the older aunts were not invted because of the family split that's been in place for many years now.
I honestly didn't mind. Actually, I had all my favorite family members there.
And it was nice. Too much food, hanging out, teasing each other. There was this perfect moment, right when we were sitting down to dinner, that was like something out of a sitcom. We were teasing my mom and my aunt or something, and passing the food around, and everyone was laughing...you could just feel the affection alive in the moment.
Nothing perfect lasts long.
It wasn't a few minutes after dinner when grandpa was in the bathroom coughing up blood and unable to get his breath. He'd been starting to use oxygen, but stubborn as he is, he'd not brought it with him. We had to call the ambulance. He ended up in the hospital for the rest of the weekend.
The doctors thought that he might have had a small heart attack. They did a test to check the heart and found that there was no blockage and that it was strong. Any problems were caused by lack of oxygen.
I spent the weekend in the hospital. My older aunts came and visited. It was a little awkward.
And then, the day after grandpa got out, I drove home, still exhausted, but glad I'd been there.
