Hey yall! I thought this past weekend was going to be one from Hades cuz of all the travelling, but it actually turned out to be pretty cool.
My parents and my stepsister arrived in town while I was still at work on Friday afternoon, but I’d given my mom a key so they were able to chill and eat everything in my fridge until I got there. Once I got home, we packed up my stepsister Debbie’s truck and got on the road to NC where my cousin’s funeral was being held Saturday. I was knocked out for the entire 4 hours it took to get there. It’s a normally six hour drive, but Deb thinks she’s Speed Racer and her truck is the Mach 5 so it only took 4. I guess she figures she won’t get a ticket since she’s a cop too. Ehh, whatever.
Saturday morning, just before the funeral, my brother in Bmore called me to tell me that I needed to get my arse home as fast as possible afterwards. When I told him that I didn’t drive and that I drove with Deb and our parents, he told me that he’d get me a flight from Raleigh to Bmore for that evening since it was important. All I could do was say “fine”, especially since I truly didn’t want to be around my cousin’s family in their grief. She was actually my step-cousin-inlaw, so I knew her and not her family, so it was awkward for me to be there for anymore than the wake and funeral. So he made the arrangements, called my mom, and told her to find a way to get me to the airport around 6. She was kind of pissed at first, but he told her why I needed to go home, and she understood and agreed that I should go. She wouldn’t tell me at that point though, all she did was say, “You will understand when you get there”
7PM and I was on my way back to BWI where my brother picked me up. He and I aren’t thisclose or anything, but we can read each other’s vibes and can tell when some mess is up. Just from the way he was answering my questions I knew something was really bugging him.
Bro: “It’s better I don’t tell you now”
Me: “Is someone dead?”
Bro: “No. You’ll see when we get to my house”
Me: “Okaaaay…”
When we got to his house, he told me to take a deep breath. I just knew some ninjas were about to come flying out the door or something or like I was about to see James Brown’s non-buried body sitting in his livingroom. Umm, not quite. Our father was sitting on his sofa looking rigid. Most of you know that my history with my father is not good at all. I’ve forgiven and moved on, but this was the first time I’d seen him since my grandmother’s (his mom) funeral in April.
I’m not going to go all into the discussion, but I’m surprised at how honest he was in answering a lot of the questions I had for him. My brother was worried that I’d be ready to haul off and shank them both for bringing me into this conversation, but he and our father have been trying to develop some type of civil relatiohship and I respect that. I don’t think I can ever get to the point of being like “awww, that’s my daddy”, especially since I call my stepdad daddy and regard him as such, but there’s hope of a more involved relationship. Like I’ve said, I could be extra bitter to him, but I’m not, life is too short, and I could stand to learn a few things from him. We all talked for a few hours, then my father went into Bmore city to visit the people he’d originally come to see, and me and brother went to dinner.
While at dinner, PoliceBoy called me to check on me cuz I called him while I was getting ready to head to the airport to let him know I’d be home sooner than expected. Brother and I had just sat down, and PoliceBoy wasn’t even all of a mile away so he joined us. That was the first time they’d met and they got along so well! They talked typical man stuff and then discussed PoliceBoy’s time in the Army and his Afghanistan tour. Brother wanted to join the military, but had so much going on with school and football that he missed out, so he’s always ready to talk about it. Watching them interact was so nice. I’m glad my brother’s cool with him, since he can be difficult to get along with at times.
PoliceBoy brought me home and helped me straighten up a few things at my place. We got into a deep discussion about “us” again, and we both realized that trying this whole “let’s just date and not be in a relationship” thing wasn’t working for us. We spend so much of our time together and all that other extra smushy stuff that I know yall don’t want to hear about, that trying to act like it’s something non-serious is so pointless.
Our convo was really long, and halfway through I wanted coffee, so we went up to a cute little diner near his place and kept talking. One of the waitresses there thought we were the cutest thing ever and said she was a photography student at UMBC so she asked if she could take our picture. She gave us what seemed like every piece of contact info under the sun, and invited us to take a look at the pictures on Wednesday after her trip to the darkroom. We said we’d go and hopefully get copies for ourselves. We They’re black and white pics, so it’d be nice to have something so classic.
On Sunday, PoliceBoy, Brother, Brother’s girlfriend and I hung out. We saw “Ghost Rider”. That mess was scary and bad all rolled into one. Thank goodness we had free tickets otherwise we all would have been trying to get our money back. It was that bad. After the movie, PB and Brother wanted to do some man bonding so they went to the ESPN Zone and me and Brother’s girlfriend did some shopping. I hadn’t really gotten to know her before then, but she seems like a nice girl, and I hope her and my brother stick it out. Once we left, we went back to his place and took a nap since he had to work that night. I volunteered to stay awake all night and chat on the phone when he could so that way our sleep schedules would be the same.
Yesterday morning, he picked me up after he got off work and we had breakfast with his mom and sister. The whole morning, they kept saying how happy we look. That was definitely nice to hear. They were so nice and we got along well. His sister and I will be going out at some point this week.
We went back home (to his place…I’m there so much I may as well call it home), slept for a while then went out shopping for a new livingroom set for him. I was pleasantly surprised to see how much of my input he wanted in picking it out. “Well, you have to sit on it too, so you should be comfortable and your back should be good”. Rarely do people take my bad back into consideration when they do anything, so seeing that he put that much thought into what he was doing was so refreshing. The first time I told him about how I broke my vertebrae, he told me that he’d always make sure that I don’t do anything to hurt my back again.
Once we left there, we went to dinner at a small italian restaurant. It seemed strange that he just knew where he wanted to go since he’s usually so indecisive, but I went with it. We’d just placed our orders, when a waitor came to the table with a vase with a dozen roses and a card. He handed both to me and I saw hunny’s face light up. He told me that he hooked the surprise up while he was at work…I guess one of his fellow officers has a brother who works there so everything was able to fall into place well. I was just beside myself happy. I could get used to stuff like that, lol
I got word from my parents and Debbie that they made it back to NY from the funeral safely, and of course they wanted to know the deal with my father. I explained what went down, and they were happy that it didn’t turn ugly. I’m happy as well.
After that convo, it was off to bed, and now back to work. I need another day off! Hope yall had a good weekend
