2000-12-27 - 23:59:35

A (very small) Xmas Miracle

When I last wrote here I was going down south with Lily to visit her folks, and I was not really looking forward to it. Well, to my surprise I had a pretty good time, and I actually liked most of Lily's relatives. Will miracles never cease.

The whole clan was over at Lily's grandmother's house for the holiday. Even though in the past Lily has had some problems with her grandmother, I took an instant liking to her... or maybe it was an instant liking to her cooking. Damn, that woman can cook! Of course, the downside of this was that after Xmas Eve dinner my blood sugar went spinning out of control. I have to keep remembering that Diabetes never takes a holiday, even if I do.

I also got a chance to meet Lily's parents. Her mother is an invalid, who has to stay hooked up to an oxygen tank. The poor woman has been totally betrayed by her body and looks older than her own mother. She was too weak to enjoy the holidays much, but she very much appreciated seeing Lily again.

Lily's father was the one that I was most concerned about meeting, but he seemed surprisingly mellow about everything. In fact, now that I think about it, everybody seemed on their best behavior around me. The main thing that I thought they wouldn't like - the fact that I am so much closer in age to Lily's parents than to Lily herself - that subject never really came up. I guess it isn't as big a deal as I thought.

I found Lily's relatives to be pretty much a likable bunch. Hey, feed me, buy me presents and treat me nice, and I may actually like you! Who would have thought it?

It seems very odd to say this, but this was probably the best Xmas holiday that I've had in a very long time - at least ten years. Sad to say this really isn't as big a compliment as it sounds: my Xmases in the recent past have really sucked. They mainly consisted of me hiding out in my apartment, pretending that I didn't know what time of year it was.

However, there was a bad part of the whole venture, and that was truly hellish: the long drive. What I thought was going to be a ten hour drive was 14 1/2 hours on the way down and 13 hours on the way back. Folks, stay away from long drives down I-95 if you can help it. The traffic will drive you to distraction.

I swear - is everyone else that drives a car an idiot? There were several times where traffic was backed up for 20 minutes, and it turned out the reason was that there had been an accident or some other distraction in the OTHER LANE, but everybody in MY LANE had to slow down to rubberneck and gawk. Keep your eyes on the road in front of you, people! If you want to see auto accidents, go home and play Carmageddon(TM), for Pete's sake!

The main reason for the difference in the times down and back was that on the way down we had the bad luck to hit Washington, D.C. during the evening rush hour. We spent over an hour creeping along at about 2 miles an hour - all the while my bladder was about to burst. Who says I don't know how to have fun?

The trip down utterly exhausted me - I needed a full day to recover from it. The trip back home, however, should have been less strenuous because we planned it better. While it took less time, it utterly wiped both me and Lily out. Now we are both sick with terrible colds, and I think I have the flu. Lily seems to have done something to her back as well, and the long trip made it much worse. Right now we are hobbling and sniffling around the apartment like a couple of old pensioners. It's quite pitiful.

It's a little ironic - before the trip I was mainly concerned about how my somewhat-elderly car would make the long trip, now I realize I should have been more concerned about the car's somewhat-elderly owner.

So I'd certainly go down and visit Lily's folks again - but next time I'm taking an airplane.