Family Matters

This week was a week for family. Monday night Doug got a call from his mother regarding his grandfather - Grandpa went to the hospital that day with kidney failure. Grandpa is 90, has diabetes, major heart problems, and now his kidneys are failing him. Not good. He was admitted to ICU that night and Doug's mom decided to have him get his last rights - I guess it was that touch and go. Doug and I left early Tuesday morning to visit him - if the situation was that dire, it would be wise for us to see him one last time. We spent the afternoon at Bridgeport Hospital (not the nicest hospital experience, but then I only have a few others to go by) spending time with sedated Grandpa. It was good to see him, but he probably didn't know we were there. But at least it made us feel better, and Doug's mom and dad, that we were able to say a few words to him in case anything gets worse. Turns out that things have gotten better - he came off of the drugs and has been breathing on his own, and was talking and coherent the day after we visited him. So things are looking up. Will Grandpa ever be able to return to his house and live on his own again? I don't know if it's likely, and if he does I'm not so sure he should, but at least he is no longer in ICU. We are glad about that.

While in CT, we had an early dinner at a diner in Bridgeport, the Galaxy Diner. Doug's family are diner fiends, and I'm not talking about places like O'Rourke's or Watertown's Deluxe Town Diner. Doug's family goes to real diners, the kind that are conveniently located right off the highway and open twenty-four hours a day. They know every diner in their area, and there are a lot in their area of Connecticut. I think a diner is a diner is a diner, but they don't agree - some are definitely better than others for them. They thought the food was very good here, and they rate the food not necessarily by the quality but by the quantity (the food quantity was certainly plentiful, but for me, again, the food was diner quality - mediocre). They were not happy with the prices, though. $9.75 for a triple-decker roast beef sandwich! They'd better not come to Boston for diner food, then! Anyway, while we waited to go in the diner, Doug took a photo of Main Street in Bridgeport. Isn't it lovely? What is it about Bridgeport that doesn't appeal to me? I guess I'm just not used to it. Hartford is equally depressing, quite honestly, but Hartford holds a bit of nostalgic charm for me. It's the city of my youth, my childhood, and my heritage. I wasn't sad to leave Bridgeport.

Hartford then came to us this weekend, when my sister, mother, and brother all came to visit. My sister's spring break is this week, so to celebrate my sister came up without her husband and kids and we had a girls weekend (my brother and Doug did their own things). Saturday we went to the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. It was our first time there, and it was really great. It's just the right size for a museum - you can do the whole thing in about 2 hours or so (which is just about the most I can take in a museum at once before falling into a museum coma). I love the courtyard, too - it's a garden, with different plants and flowers in bloom each season. No photos are allowed anywhere in the museum, otherwise I'd have a few to post.

Today my mother and sister and I did the whole shopping thing. I got myself a cool pair of rain boots: and a smaller bag than the one I carry with me daily now (it is beginning to hurt my shoulder, so if I have a smaller one I'll be forced to carry less and it will be lighter). In other material acquisition news, my sister and family got me a great (early) birthday present - a grow box: I'm going to use this box to grow us some beans - hopefully I will have good luck at vegetable growing inside this contained box. Anyway, after shopping we all had pizza and then said our good-byes. Here's a photo of all of us together (minus Doug, who was behind the camera): What a handsome clan.

It was good to see my mom and sister this weekend, but it took me until this afternoon to feel "myself" again, whatever that means. I've discovered that when I'm not at work now I don't know what to do with myself, and I almost have work withdrawal. I have a hard time focusing on anything, and I get very, very tired. It's bad. But the weekend was good, and I hope to see my sister again soon. She is a hard worker, too, with school and clinical and being a full-time mom, so it's good for my sister and I to have some time away from it all. So, definitely a good weekend. Now I am going to go sit on the couch for a couple of hours before going to bed to start another crazy week at work. I'll leave you with this bit of sweetness until next weekend, when hopefully I will blog some more...