Whew! I’m back! And I didn’t even tell y’all I was going, because I wasn’t sure until the last moment that I really would!
Mr. Rilch and I went to Vegas to visit my parents, sister and new brother-in-law. We’d originally planned to go for Thanksgiving, but Cindy* was scheduled to work that day :mad:. Plus, my car window hadn’t been fixed yet, so we weren’t comfortable going away overnight, so my parents accepted someone else’s invite and we stayed here. I had to work until 2pm Monday and wasn’t scheduled again until 5:30 on Wednesday, so the plan was to leave Monday evening and get back Wednesday afternoon with an hour or so to spare. It almost worked that way [see related rant in the Pit].
—Arrived 10 pm. First thought when my dad opened the door: “My dad is f—ing old.”
—New house (relatively) but so many familiar objects. The dresser with the red knobs that was mine when I was a kid, is now in the kitchen holding Saran Wrap and suchlike. I can remember the day my mom surprised me by putting the knobs on without telling me. We hold onto stuff, boy. Like the fridge magnets that say “Safety is no accident” from when my dad was a safety inspector, and the salad spinner, and the pottery vase my mom got in Mexico.
—My parents are shorter than I am now. These are not the same people who abused me.
—The tiny computer is on a small desk in a crowded office with a rickety chair in front of it. I checked my e-mail and that was it. Wanted to post to the LA Dinner and a Movie thread, but couldn’t remember my SDMB password!
—Cindy asked me whose hairstyle she was wearing. I knew I should have recognized it, but I drew a blank. “Betty, from the Archie comics?” No, it was Barbie! Honest to god, it was the original Barbie ponytail, with the bangs and the two fasteners. I don’t know how she does it.
—My sister’s husband is good people. Personable, hard worker, pleasant…It took four tries, but she finally got a keeper.
—If I’d been there for Thanksgiving, I would have had my last (I hope not last ever) chance to see Brad*, my nephew, but perhaps that’s as it should have been. See footnote.
—My parents are still squabbling. This morning, my mom made pancakes. She said, “Oh, I can never tell when these pancakes are done!” Dad: “Why don’t you just buy pancakes?” Mom: “Why don’t you shut up!” Me and Mr. Rilch: Silence.
—All six of us had to be at the car at one point. Parents drove me, Mr. Rilch, Cindy, and new bro-in-law, who I will call Ron, since that is his name, to the Luxor where they work. I had to be in the front seat between my parents. I did not like the idea, but I was the smallest so it had to be. Cindy reached from behind to tighten my ponytail, and squealed, “This is my baby sister!” Mom started getting uptight. It only takes that little to upset her while she’s driving. She won’t allow the radio, either.
—At the bar at the Luxor, we analyzed our parents. Cindy finally sees for herself how dysfunctional our parents are, of which I am glad. For years she was defending them, but she can’t now. She calls them “The Queen” and “The Don”. Our dad’s Italian.
—Turns out we have the same trigger! We both can’t stand whistling, because he always used to whistle before he went off. Or while our mom was going off. See? It’s not just me.
—My mom is rearranging every memory to suit her book. Example: When I was in grade 3, the bulk of my wardrobe came from the neighbors, who had a daughter 2 or 3 years older than I. My mom says “We’ve never taken charity. Besides, if they had surplus clothes, they would have given them to the church.” Cindy said, “Well, I wasn’t there, but I remember they were very giving people. Why would they have given clothes to the church when Rilchie needed them and was right next door?” My mom just remembers what she wants to remember.
—I got so much cool stuff! This was one of those “Take it if you think you want it, because otherwise it’s going to the Sally store.” I got:
*my old 45s (all, wasn’t allowed to pick and choose)
*manny, manny books
*some old papers from high school that I only took so they wouldn’t fall into the wrong hands
*myriad photos, including the one of my and my HS boyfriend, Steve the Idiot
*videos
*some liqueur glasses
*two highball glasses, frosted, each with an orange painted on the side that declared, “Orange aids a Collins!”
*the butterfly chair! And man, is it comfortable! Strictly speaking, I should have let Cindy have it, since she has the room and I don’t, but I will eventually. Friend has a cat, and the butterfly chair experience is not complete until a cat walks on the underside of it. While you’re sitting in it, of course.
*and the piece de resistance: my mom’s bottle-green suede coat. I used to watch her put it on to go out…so elegant…and now it’s mine!
—I was allergic to the blanket they gave me. Why? It was the same one I had for years when I lived with them. But it made my eyes burn.
—The house is like every house they’ve ever lived in. Junk piled up all over and no attempt at organization. You can’t turn around in the bathroom without knocking something over. The house used to be Cindy’s, and she kept it like a new pin, as she does the current one. It only took two days for my parents to pig it up. They can call themselves intellectuals all they like, but newspapers should not be strewn about to the point that you can’t expand a reclining chair.
—I brought what was left of my apple pie, and they thought it was terrific.
—Anecdote: My paternal grandma is 102. The last time my dad visited her, the attendant asked, “Do you know who this is?..It’s your son!” Grammy: “That can’t be! I’d have to be a hundred years old!”
—She’s never going to die. She was rebaptized at Lourdes.
—Mr. Rilch and I went to Mandalay Bay on Tuesday night. He had a cigar. You can’t smoke indoors in LA. You can smoke anywhere in Vegas. He looks so much like Tony Soprano when he’s puffing on a stogie. I got a dollar’s worth of nickels for the slot machines. I was going to play until I was either a nickel ahead or lost it all. I lost it all.
—We couldn’t afford Star Trek the Experience, but we went to the gift shop and to Quark’s Bar. We got a Borg teddy. Right now, he’s trying to assimilate our other animals, without much success. The only waverer is Herbie, the elf dentist, who rather likes the idea of a collective. But he doesn’t want to lose his individuality. At the cafe, we had Deanna Troi’s Chocolate Sundae (two CC cookies, ice cream and chocolate syrup) to share, and it was supergood. A Ferengi and a Vulcan stopped to ask if we’d seen the third member of their team. We hadn’t.
—It is cold in Vegas. I had the foresight to bring my thermals, otherwise I would have been miserable.
—They practically give the food away out there.
[sub]Footnote:
Brad had to leave town very abruptly. He got crossways with his dealer, who got someone to steal all his stuff, and threatened him. He had to fly to PA to live with his dad. We know he got there ok, but that’s it.[/sub]