On Friday night, because Tamika and I decided to stay for an extra day, we were invited for a dinner party at the Hastings. Ron and Anita Hasting have been friends and supporters of my parents for a long time. When I was little, I would go over to their house, and play with their boys Aaron and Ryan, and hang out and eat sandwiches with Binky and Gram, their grandparents, who lived in the house next door.
It had been years and years since I had been to their house, and couldn’t even remember exactly where we were going when we got invited over for dinner. Aaron and Ryan and Ron have even friended me in Facebook, but it wasn’t until I was going up the steps to their house that everything began coming back to me. Though Ron and Anita’s house had been completely rearranged, with a new kitchen, walls knocked down; Gram’s house was still exactly the same, save for it being a lot smaller than I had remembered.
And I fit right back in.
It was like putting on an old glove, everything seemed so familiar. I began joking with Gram and Ron, and reminiscing with Anita. We dined on garlic bread and spaghetti and had a really good time.
Saturday morning, after packing the car and a few false starts, we were on the road, headed toward Pennsylvania. The Black Marks had a show New Years Eve at Joe Squared, and Tamika’s parents agreed to watch the kids for us. By the time we had hit 95 South, it had begun to snow bit fluffy flakes. By the time we reached New York, it was a full blown blizzard. Everything turned white, and we were sprayed with sand by plow after snowplow. We had a couple close calls with some on ramps we had to handle, but despite an aging set of tires and the questionable handling of a Ford Taurus, we made it through ok.
At some point, however, the transmission gave a small lurch and the engine began running rough whenever we had to go up hills.
We pulled into Perkasie where my in laws house is with the snow still coming down heavily. The engine hadn’t improved much, so I unloaded the car and went back out into the storm in search of answers. I made it to a Pep Boys before they closed, and got them to read the codes. Cylinder misfire. Nearly every car we had ever owned had this problem at least one time or another, with most of the solutions being minor (spark plugs, wires or coil pack), so I’m praying this will be one of those. Pep Boys wanted $45 to do the full diagnostic, but weren’t able to do it that night anyway. We’d make it home ok if we went slow.
As the night went on, a minor toothache Tamika had started to feel n Friday become a full-on excruciating pain, to the point where she was in tears. Motrin only slightly deadened the pain, so she tried some Vicodin. That helped a little. Her mom called their family dentist, and made an emergency appointment for Sunday morning.
She finally was able to get some sleep, and I stayed up doing Zerflin work.
They let me sleep in while Tamika went to the dentist. He pulled her wisdom teeth, alleviating the pain, and wouldn’t take any money for it! He even gave her some painkillers and antibiotics, after hearing we didn’t have insurance. It’s something that’s been eating away at the back of my mind for a while now, I haven’t been able to go to a dentist since I had lived with my parents. And even then, because we were so remote, we didn’t go very often. I’m kinda worried about what they’ll find.
After she got back, we loaded up the car with Christmas toys that her parents had given the kids, and set off. Tamika spent most of the trip sleeping off the effects of the drugs, and I used Stitcher
Radio to keep me company.
We were due to meet up with The Black Marks for a 3pm practice, but as the traffic got thicker, it was apparent that wasn’t going to happen. I dropped Tamika off at Sam & Carol Wylie’s house and went home to clean out the car and feed the cats. The house was in really good shape, thanks to our friend Adam Scott taking really good care of it while we were gone. I emptied the car of presents and sped to meet Ryan at the church to grab my keyboard, and hightailed it back to practice.
By the time I got there, they were mostly done with the set, unfortunately, so I played a couple songs with them and we left.
Tamika and I decided to go out on a mini date, and had dinner at the Bohemian Coffeehouse.
We cleaned up the house a little bit, and then headed to bed. We watched the 2011 movie Love in bed. Though it had won a lot of awards, I didn’t care for it. It had no real plot line, unfortunately. Just a series of mildly connected ideas. The camera work was really incredible, but it was just missing something.
Monday morning, Tamika went out with her sister to Target, and I stayed home and cleaned some more. She took me out to Target after she got back, and got me a new jacket and hoodie for the show tonight.
I was feeling really down, because I can’t seem to loose weight. The clothes that did fit me were chunky and odd on me. We found a nice military style jacket and a dusty yellow hoodie. It was a little on the pricy side, but I did feel better. We need to go back to juicing…
We’re waiting around in Joe Squared to go on, a band that sounds like a Quentin Tarantino movie is just finishing up.
