Observations....

This has been a strange two weeks.  I knew my dad was having knee surgery on the 14th, so the entire family (sans older working kids) met in Terre Haute to celebrate my Teen's 14th birthday (March 1st).

3/11, Terre Haute
#1:  In hindsight, I should have switched places with my spouse, because we were in a cramped half booth/half table, and I was across from my dad, with my granddaughter at the end.  He was across the table from C, the family friend, who really doesn't care for him. 

#2:  After the stressful meal, in which Mom called me to the bathroom to express her displeasure with my spouse's attitude, I texted my BFF to meet me at McD's, so I could see her and get a sweet tea before continuing on north.  She wasn't able to, so I decided to go to her house and 'decompress'.  It was a good hour of catching up, then I headed north.

3/12-15, Lafayette:
(Mon):  Rather quiet. Dad took me out and showed me the route for where to drive Mrs. Sato on Thursday, and made a quick trip to the grocery store.  Mom and I fixed pork chops for dinner.

(Tues):  Mom's friend Remi and her friend Sue arrived for a visit, so I replaced the Valentine's Day decorations with the Easter ones, and vacuumed the floors.  Around 6:30, Remi, Sue, Mom, and I decided to go to Applebee's for dinner.  Dad declined the invitation, and we had a nice time.

(Wed):  Took Dad to hospital at 6am.  I picked up a pager from the front desk, then was able to hang out with him while they got his insulin level down.  They took him down at 8, and I went to the cafeteria for breakfast, and to find a quiet corner to read, since the waiting room was a little noisy.  They had said the procedure would take 3 hours, so I settled down.  90 minutes later, a nurse found me and told me the surgeon wanted to speak to me.  I checked the pager; it was silent.

Surgeon showed me before and after pics of Dad's aneurism, and said he'd spend the next hour or so in Recovery.  I opted to stay upstairs at that point.  An hour later, the volunteer told me Dad was alert and talking in Recovery, just waiting for a room.  Again I checked my pager.  Nada.  Another half hour went by before they told me where his room was.  I handed over my useless pager and remarked, 'Why did they give me this thing, if they weren't going to use it?'

Volunteer had no answers, but wished us well.

I found Dad's room and was told a) they were keeping him overnight and b) he would be unable to drive for a week.  No problem; that's why I was there.

(Thurs):  I drove Mrs. Sato to her Cardiac Rehab exercise and back home, then went to the hospital to spring Dad.  Got him settled, then packed my small suitcase and headed to my son's school, for a meeting about next year's DC field trip.  Afterward, I took myself to Buffalo Wild Wings (BW3) and indulged in my favorite Parm-Garlic boneless wings, french fries, and of course, basketball, since the NCAA tournament had begun.  After watching the 2nd half of two games, I drove to friend MB's house, nearly hitting a deer on the way.  I'd seen the 1st one, and stopped until it made up its mind to cross the road, but never saw the 2nd one as it passed within inches of my front bumper!  Made it safely to her house, then curled up on the bed and watched two more games before turning out the light.

3/16-17, Nashville, TN and Indianapolis:
(Fri):  MB and I left for Nashville around 8 or so, and arrived safely in Nashville, for the Weekend With The Authors.  1st person we saw at the Speed Dating was the always lovely Jean Joachim, then we spoke with several others, including Sarah Cass (whom I'd met back in Sept), Paige Tyler, and Elle James.  Went to lunch with Sandy and Shaun, Jean and Sarah, and ate off the buffet (making sure I could see the Purdue b-ball game, ha ha!).  Jean, Sarah, and I 'talked shop' until 3, and MB loved it, since she'd just completed her 1st story, and was soaking up all the knowledge she could:)  Attended the 'Readers Make The Wold Go Round' and Sci-Fi panels before saying goodbye to Sandy and Sarah, and heading back.

I was a little irked at MB on the way back.  She'd programmed her GPS for both trips, and the trip back took us a different way, esp when we were clearly close to I-64!  Why didn't she turn off Siri, follow 64-69 and back to her house, rather than follow Siri's (IMHO) BONEHEAD directions through winding country roads, when the interstate was RIGHT THERE?  To me, it made zero sense.  Especially after my near-miss with the deer just twenty-four hours before!

I'd already decided to forego driving back to Lafayette, and just buy a cheap green shirt at Walmart, then continue onto to Indy on Sat.

(Sat):  Got up at 6, and was on the way to Walmart by 6:30.  Found a cute Pug Crawlin' black and green tee in the men's section, plus green top hat earrings, and hopped on I-69 north.  Got off at Martinsville to cruise past our old church, and followed 37 to 144, where I crossed over to 67, which ultimately turns into Kentucky Ave, and would take me downtown.  Arrived at the hotel around 9:30, but the event wasn't ready yet.  Hung out with Cindy Barton, a reader I've met at several events, and her friend Denise, who recognized the Kenzie Michaels name.  Yay, I've met another Kenzie fan:)  Anyway, the room finally opened up an hour later, and I made it halfway around the room before lunch was announced.  Cindy, Denise, and I sat at the self-proclaimed 'Fun Table', and whatever spicy/dijon mustard was on my sandwich soon had my mouth on fire.  After lunch, I picked up where I'd left off, then went around with my camera and 'autograph' notebook.  Got to meet Jayne Rylon, whom I've heard about for years!

Minor Observations:
1)  Paranormal Romance and Motorcycle Club (MC) are 'hot' this year.
2)  A lot of Indie authors are writing in that horrible, 1st person, present tense POV.  WHY?
3)  One author needed formatting help.  His book had no page numbers; no headers/footers; the margins were wide; it just looked unprofessional (says the author who injected no headers/footers or page numbers until last year....*whistles*).
4)  This one blows my mind.  One author's books were formatted ALL to LEFT side!  WTH?  When I questioned her about it, she said her publisher did it, then corrected it.  I would not have let my author display/sell such a horrible book.  I told her I was interested in her story, but was not going to buy the print book until the formatting was corrected, and wished her well in future ventures.

Left around 3:30 and drove back to Lafayette.

3/17-present, Lafayette:
(Sat):  Arrived at Mom's, and ate filet mignons while watching the 2nd round games with Mom.

(Sun):  Watched the church's live stream, then spent a lazy day watching basketball.  Mom ordered Chinese; family friend CC picked it up and joined us for dinner.

(Mon):  Took Mom to Young At Heart, then to get her blood drawn.  Came home, picked up Dad and took him for his blood draw, then went to the grocery store.  Ate leftover Chinese for dinner.

(Tues):  Dad went with me to drive Mrs, Sato to her reading lesson (we went to the church for an hour to read), then to her exercises.  Came home, picked up Mom, and drove her to her Wound Care appointment (Nurse practitioner was a former student of Mom's, and we didn't know if he was intimidated by her, or if he'd neglected to take his afternoon ADHD meds....seriously, the guy repeated himself several times and seemed overly eager to be helpful!), then had lunch at Subway (chicken teriyaki sandwich and broccoli-cheese soup, yum!), before taking her to get her hair cut.  Made mine for April 10th.

(Today):  The plan is to take Dad to the bank, then to CC's to pick up a lasagna, then to Small Group Bible Study.  Mom apparently had a rough night, and needs to stay home and sleep.  So we're apparently having lasagna tonight.  I will watch Survivor and Criminal Minds, then catch up on my 70's sitcoms online.

Dad will be cleared to drive tomorrow, but he's not supposed to lift more than 10 pounds for a month, which means no taking out the trash or carrying in groceries.  Looks as if I'm elected to stay until April 11th.