I’m feeling much better than I was a few days ago. Thank you to all who commented or e-mailed me on/about my situation. Though we’re still not out of our financial rut, I’ve realized we could be worse off than we are, and I should be grateful for what I do have. I always used to see it that way but I’ve let myself become a pessimist. Gotta think positive or else I’m gonna be grumpy all the damn time.
The last time I blogged, Mario was off with Jorge installing electrical wires and doing other electrical things at Jorge’s sister-in-law’s house and Mario got paid some much-needed cash, thank goodness. We got some things we needed like house supplies and pet supplies. Mario’s also been selling movies/shows to his friends, so that’s been bringing some income in. I wasn’t too thrilled with Mario that night though…because even though they got done early with the job, he didn’t get home till 11pm and I was having a horrible day here at home. The boys were terrible all day long and the in-laws were basically letting them get away with everything. Jorge and just gotten his Orange County Choppers dart board in and they stayed there playing. By the time Mario got home (around 11ish), I had a splitting headache and didn’t even kiss him goodnight and headed straight to bed.
Friday night, Mario made the bacon-wrapped-chicken he’d been planning on making. It was SO GOOD. I made mashed potatoes and he made some avacado/pico de gallo dip to go along with it. John described it as “orgasmic” and oh.my.God…it totally was! 😛 Aunt Nora called me that day also and told us how she visited Gramma at the rehab hospital and she was crying and upset because we hadn’t gone to see her and she missed us. She also wanted to see John very badly, because he’s only gone to visit her once. I felt horrible, but Aunt Nora explained to her that our cars were broken down and we were having to borrow Mary’s van which she needs most of the time. We made it a point to see Gramma on Saturday, which is when we’ve been going.
Saturday, Mario went to pick up his new glasses, which he’s having trouble with right now. Later, we (Mary, John, Yazmin, the boys and I) all got in the van and went to pick Mom up. She got out of work 30 minutes late. Then we went to Target so Mary could meet Noelia who needed money for some sorority thing. Her friends took forever to get there so we wasted another 30 minutes or so. We finally went to see Gramma around 5:30…which would leave us only half an hour to visit. We sneaked Jaylen in last time to see her for a few minutes and were going to try to do the same this time with Eenan. So we went…John, Mom, Eenan and I. We got into the elevator, down the hall across the nurse’s station and then to the other nurse’s station which is right across Gramma’s room. This Erik Estrada looking man yells, “He can’t be here TAKE HIM DOWNSTAIRS!” in a very rude and grumpy manner. I tell him, “Can he visit my grandmother for just a minute, sir…she misses him.” He retorts, “NO! Didn’t you read the huge sign when you came in?! TAKE HIM BACK DOWN!” I tell him, “Well, obviously I didn’t see the sign.” and then I whisper, not so quietly, “Rude bastard. Talk to me like that…” And we walk away and I take Eenan back with Mary who was in the van. He felt really bad and said, “I never get to see Gramma!” 🙁 We come back up and I notice Mr. Estrada look-a-like isn’t in his seat. He’s across the hall talking to a security guard and he slinks away into a room. We go in, the three of us, and greet Gramma. The security guard appears at the door and tells us, “One of you has to leave. There can only be two visitors at a time.” I tell him, “We can only be here for a little while sir, is it OK if we all stay and visit for a bit?” He says, “No, only two of you can be in here.” I say, “Um, I’ve seen 3 or more people in patients’ room at a time, why don’t you tell them anything?” He says, “I’ll take care of that later, right now I’m telling you one of you has to leave. They also told me that you had a little boy with you. That’s not allowed ma’am.” I tell him, “I know that, that’s why I took him back downstairs.” He then says, “Yes well, I was told he was running up and down the halls and we can’t have that here.” I feel my blood start boiling. I try to stay calm and through my teeth I hiss, “Excuse me? He was NOT running around. That man told me VERY RUDELY to take him back downstairs and I did. My boy wasn’t running in the hall. That man was extremely rude and I don’t appreciate that.” He gets tired of making an ass of himself and says, “Well, one of you still has to leave.” I give a frustrated sigh and look at John and tell him, “Can you believe this? One of us has to leave. These people are idiots.” (Hey, you’re gonna talk to me like I’m some moron, then hell yeah I’m going to do the same to you.) He gives Gramma a quick goodbye and ‘I love you’ and excuses himself. I was so pissed. The CNA who was feeding Gramma when we arrived rolls her eyes and says, “Ugh, they’re like that here.” I tell her no kidding and we start to joke with Gramma. She was so happy we were there. I told the CNA she could take a break and I’d feed her. I spoke with Gramma’s nurse while I fed her and she told me Gramma doesn’t have diabetes! Her wound is healing very well and she’s doing good…I’m so glad :). She even got to have a Diet Coke after about a month without LOL. She was so happy :). They told her just to ask when she wanted a Coke with her meal and she’d get one. I told her not to feel bad or worry when we didn’t visit her. That we didn’t forget about her, we just don’t get to visit as often because it’s so far and our cars are broke. Of course she tells us not to worry about her LOL.
I decided the next time we go back and have more time I’m going to report those two men. Both were rude and very unprofessional. They need to get their attitudes in check.
Mom watched the boys for us that night while we went to watch Ladder 49. (Mary treated us.) It was one of the best movies I’ve watched. I had a lump in my throat throughout the whole movie and I exploded in tears at the end. I had images of 9/11 in my head and kept thinking about how families and real fire fighters go through this in real life. *sigh* Ugh…I can’t think about it without becoming emotional :(.
When we got back around 10, Eenan went to sleep over at Mary’s and Jorge called us to go over. We took Jaylen with us. He fell asleep about 20 minutes into our visit and Maggie’s boys were asleep, so we got to play darts with no interruptions from screaming babies LOL. Mario taught me how to get the hang of the darts…and at first I had no idea what I was doing…but I won my 1st game :). Then, the 6 after that! I won 7 in a row, then Jorge beat me. He beat Mario and then Maggie and then I beat him and won the next 5 or so games after that. I am the reigning Queen of Darts. I was getting so tired (it was almost 3am when we played our last game) and everyone else was getting tired but Jorge said, “I’m playing one more…someone has to play.” So I stepped up. And won *beams* :D. He tells Mario, “Don’t bring her here anymore, man!” LOL Maggie kept saying, “We need to take you to a bar and make some money! Pretend you don’t know how to play and then bet like, $20 or something!” It felt awesome…I never thought I’d be good at playing darts. I just couldn’t get it when I started playing. I don’t even know how I did it half the time! I needed to get, say, a 3 or a 1 so I could win and I’d aim and hit my target each and every single time. Everyone’s mouths were just hanging open LOL. I want to play again! I think Jorge sort of meant it…about me not going back ROFL. He didn’t call us tonight and that’s because he got out of work at 6pm! All I’ve been thinking about is playing darts…it’s so fun!
We got home around 3am and didn’t fall asleep till 5. Needless to say, we were exhausted and slept in. Well, I tried to anyway. Either people were calling or knocking on the door since 9am…and since I’m a very light sleeper, I kept waking up. Mom came over around 1 and told me Aunt Nora called and wanted me to call her back. I did, and she said she was cleaning out the room Mom would be staying in if she were to move in and had a chest of drawers she’d like to give us. We made plans to pick it up before we took Mom grocery shopping. We went over and spent about 2 hours there. Aunt Nora gave me a tour of the house–they’ve been painting and decorating…everything looked SO nice. She has a rustic theme going on and it looks so fancy. She gave the boys juice and Cheetos and we talked about the pros about Mom and John moving in with her. As much as I didn’t want them to, I really do think this would be a great thing. Mom won’t have to worry about rent and utilities or about who’s going to take her to work. Aunt Nora already worked out a schedule. Mom would actually have money to save and spend and could get John his driver’s ed classes and could fix up the car. John would hopefully be less anti-social since Justin, David and Art all live there. Plus, it would give us an excuse to visit more with Aunt Nora. I loved today. I loved spending time with her and actually talking. We’ve never had that…a close-knit family. Not like Mario’s…they’re super close. I never knew what it was like to have “family” till I met Mario. We’ve only ever been to one bar-be-cue at Aunt Nora’s. As we were leaving I told her I’d love to visit another time and she said it would be great…that she’s there all day on Sunday, almost hinting that she wanted our company. I can’t express how awesome it felt for all of us to be sitting there talking like we did today. It’s about time!
We took Mom grocery shopping and we picked up the ingredients for shrimp cocktail. We went over to Mary’s and started preparing everything as soon as we got home. It was DELICIOUS! Mario made catfish too…everything was so yummy. We called Mom over and Big Mario, Mary, Mario, the boys and I all ate and talked. God I love my family :).
And now, here I am, Mario’s at Chris’ (he took him some shrimp cocktail LOL) and I need to get to bed. I’m *still* tired from last night. I’m turning into an old lady :P.
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) LOL. It was SO good! There weren’t even leftovers this time. We all got some (Mario got two huge servings), then Noey came over with her friend Amber and ate some, Big Mario and Ricky had some, then Mary, Mom and John had some. It was SO good! I could so have gone for some leftovers right now *sigh*.
…and there were people on both sides of us…