Sunday morning, I was awake at 5:30 but never fell back asleep. So I got up at 6. I got myself dressed and ready, went down to the hotel coffee bar for 2 cups (thank you Holiday Inn Express for providing DECENT sized coffee cups!) Organized my shit. Woke up Doug.
We had to go get John for the 8am Gold Medal Hockey game.
John was very excited for it. He played hockey, he loves hockey, and he was going to watch it anyway, but probably in the big common room or on his iPad so as not to bother his roommate (He got moved into a new room, and the gentleman is very old and sleeps a lot but tells John it is okay if he lives his life).
I suggested when we were out at dinner on Saturday night that we could watch it together. I immediately regretted it. Why do I open my mouth. But.
I thought a lot about him wanting to go to a museum and me being all "fuck that shit" about it. Some of his friends took him to a Monet exhibit, and they got a nice picture after and printed it for him on a Monet print. He texted me pictures of it, and you could tell.
That meant the world to him. You could see it in the picture.
I'm happy he got that. Happy he got that with his friends. Happy they were there for him and gave him this print so he could look at it. Then, I realized I wasn't thinking about this part of his reality really, that he isn't going to get many opportunities to do and see things so. Do and see things. And my fuck that shit attitude is natural based on regular life but this is different.
We had told him we'd pick him up at 7. I had made reservations at a sports bar that does brunch, because Reddit suggested we try there for the Olympic Gold Medal Hockey Game.
Now.
He realized he probably should not wear his Montreal Canadiens Jersey, so he settled for this. I told him that no one would probably care and I think I was right but he's very opinionated about things like this and was sure someone would kick his ass or give him shit.
Dude, you're in a wheelchair. If anyone gave you shit I'd have to beat them to a pulp, on principal.
He was very talkative and excited on line and this was kind of sweet, to see him so enthusiastic. It is weird because it made me think of mom and what she's like in public. She'll totally talk to strangers, talk about herself. Here he is doing his auntie proud. So much like her sometimes it boggles my mind. Hopefully when Linda is reading this she's laughing.
Since I made reservations for us (thank you Reddit for suggesting the spot, and thank you to the girl I talked to the night before when I called to ask about wheelchair accommodations) I knew we had a guaranteed spot once inside.
The manager saw us on line and said "hey Christine! Glad you made it." I wondered how he knew me and then I was like ohhhh yeah. I mentioned the wheelchair access.
He treated us like gold.
The restaurant has this cute little alcove for kind of bigger parties, so a table for 12 was set up with one guy sitting at it, a 2 seater, and our table. The manager went to move one of the chairs out of the way and stopped. "Oh! Would you prefer to sit in the chair instead of stay in your wheelchair?" John said no - he wanted to sit in the window seat, so we parked the wheelchair on that side of the table, moved the chair away, and settled in.
Quick attention from the waitress, mimosa for me, and brunchie foods ordered, beer for John, and Doug stuck with coffee for quite a while. We watched people flowing in, and the game was underway.
And as mentioned, I normally would never do this 8am for any sport viewing thing but I have to admit, this was fun. Everyone was fun. There were Canada fans, and plenty of USA Fans (I would say an 80/20 split USA to Canada ratio). Lots of team jerseys and that made me sad I wasn't sporting a Bruins shirt. John said that people would give me shit, but I told him the vibe was not like that. No one is giving anyone shit for their fandoms.
No one was a dick. There was no fighting. It was fun. Very lighthearted. Very good time. He said disparaging things like "This is Richmond Virginia, no one knows anything about any hockey teams." Okay yeah sure. I'm sure no one in Richmond likes the Nationals or the Carolina Hurricanes. Sure. Whatever.
The table for 12 next to us was a bunch of grownups, friends/relatives, and their little kids.
I mean, little.
I don't think any of them were over 6.
There were three siblings, a boy and two girls. The boy was the oldest, and had long curly hair. John, of course, made a comment about his hair. All three of them were super curly whirleys and very cute. The middle girl had a Toronto Maple Leafs Auston Matthews Jersey on, her Dad had a Canada jersey.
The littlest one wore a Frozen Elsa dress and she was a hot ticket. The parents had their hands full, juggling all three of them. You could tell that number 3 was a little feral, and you know me. I love feral children.
Partway through the first period, the boy threw up. I thought he was looking kind of droopy. He had his head down on the table, and he'd brought a ton of hockey player cards which were in a box and stacked up on the table. But he faded fast. I thought to myself with my mom intuition kicking in, yeah. That isn't a good look for a kid who came in really excited about the game.
So when he stood up and barfed, thankfully it went STRAIGHT down between his feet. Mom jumped into action, dad swung the little one off her lap, and I went to get the manager guy to ask for towels and a mop.
"Sir," I said, "We have a small boy barf situation in the alcove."
He rushed over with a bunch of bar towels and said he'd be right back with a mop. The boy threw up again but mom was brilliant and stuck a plastic drinking cup (all the kids' drinks came in these fun cups) right in front of his face, and the kid horked into it. Second cup. Same thing. The poor little guy.
Manager was back with a mop in no time as dad and I are wiping the floor with paper towels, since the bar towels were completely used.
Of course I'm that person.
The manager said "okay parents, I got this," and he started mopping. One of the kitchen staff came out with a bag and got the bar towels and handed a bag to the mom and she was putting some soiled toys and the boy's sweatshirt into the bag. And both the employees were gloved up and that was a good sign for me. Not cleaning up barehanded. Well done, gents.
The little boy was sad and stunned. Mom was getting him organized to take him home. Dad said he'd keep the other two. His priorities satisfied, she's got the sickie and he's got the hockey game and his buddies, and well, everyone had all the kids.
He turned to me and said "thank you so much."
"I actually saw it coming. He didn't look too lively, rather wilted, to be honest."
"Yeah, he was so fired up for this game and when I looked over at him resting his head I figured something was up but ... didn't see this coming."
"Been there," I said. "My son once threw up all over the aisle at a Texas Roadhouse in Plaistow, NH after eating a giant meal so, it happens. I get it."
May I have another Mimosa, please.
Also, serving a mimosa in a pint glass, this is my kind of place. I could have done with a little less ice, but. I wasn't complaining.
The game was great. I was initially heartbroken that Jeremy Swayman of the Bruins was not going to be the goalie but hell yes Connor Hellebuyck totally kicked ass out there. I felt like it was an absolute defensive battle at times where the goalies for both teams were saving the day. But then, Canada tied it up. Oh no.
Overtime. Alright.
Part of me wanted to be on the road by 11am but. Overtime. Here we go. John was full of opinions on how we were absolutely going to lose because 3 on 3, Canada is better than us, faster than us, gonna lose gonna lose, gonna lose.
I wanted to just put him in the car and go because okay champ, we gonna lose why stay here, let's go. Why stay.
Ordered another mimosa.
Doug got a beer.
Less than two minutes into overtime, the USA Won. Hallelujah. So glad they did it. What a joy.
The bar exploded. It was absolutely joyous. I loved every second of it.
As the bar was clearing out, Canada Dad leaned over and said "seriously, thank you so much for your help today." We shook hands, and I said "I'm very sorry for your loss, but wow, what a game. Privilege to be here with you for it." This made him smile as he hoisted Elsa up on his hip and left.We took Miss Daisy back to his gulag and he fell into bed exhausted. "I didn't do much, but wow is that tiring being up and active for so long."
Tell me about it, bro.
We headed north. The goal was to get home before the snow kicked in. The forecast was for it to get serious around 4pm at our house, and Geoff said it was already snowing, but nothing was sticking.
We decided to not take the interstate beyond Fredricksburg, because it is more fun to drive up Rte 17 even if it ends up taking us out of our way over to Winchester and Rte 81.
But Doug told me that he was interested in making a side quest to Charles Town, West Virginia and that would bring us up into Maryland just south of where we live. About a 50 minute ride on two lane roads for most of it.
And the snow wasn't bad.
Abolitionist Ale Works was the destination he had in mind, and we pulled up as the snow was coming on hard. A bunch of people were inside, and the beertender welcomed us warmly. We watched the closing ceremony for the Olympics, and everyone was very entertained by what we were seeing.
Two beers and some take-aways later and we were on the way home.
There are only a couple ways over the Potomac, two of them are right in this stretch. One is through Harper's Ferry to the East, and the other is the one Doug picked through Shepherdstown and into Sharpsburg. Both towns we are very interested in seeing more of.
In fact, we jokingly thought of going to look at a Church that was for sale in Sharpsburg when we were starting out looking. I thought it would be fun to live downstairs, have a nice music hall in the sanctuary and the organ loft could be the guest area for musicians coming through. The place was mostly finished down the basement for an actual 2 bed 2 bath home, but yeah. I really would love to do that if I had the money.
If I had a million dollars, I'd buy your church...
Geoff had no dinner planned, which is weird for him. We were home by 4:30pm and Doug wanted a nap. I offered to go to the market because there was no milk for coffee for the morning.
And. I finally got a haircut. There is a market that we'd never been to (which is associated with Stop & Shop and Giant) and a Hair Cuttery next door. I called to make sure they were open, and they gladly had me come in. I'd been putting this off since my birthday. Finally.
The market was fun, hardly anyone there. I helped a guy find canned tuna fish (seriously, the young man kept seeing "Chicken of the Sea" on the label, and I said "oh honey, no. That's the name brand like Starkist." And I handed him a can to show him. I told him he should always buy tuna in water, not in vegetable oil because that's greasy and nasty and no - don't do that to yourself. He was on the phone with someone and he said "Oh this nice lady just helped me find the tuna. I'm so stupid..." and he told them about how he thought Chicken of the Sea was ... chicken. And he was laughing, so cute.
I headed out to the parking lot and there was a person trying to clean their car off but they had no scraper or snow brush, they were using the sleeve of their sweatshirt. They got into the car and started it, and I was afraid they were just going to hit the windshield wiper and start driving off.
There was a snow brush in my hatchback, so I pulled it out and trotted over and started brushing.
They rolled down the window and said profusely thanked me. "I didn't think it was going to start snowing until later, and I've been at work at CVS all day! I had nothing to wipe this off with!" So I told her no sweat, no worries, I got you. Put your defroster on the front and the back, and I'll have you cleaned off in no time. They offered to put my groceries in the trunk but I said to not worry about it. It's not a problem.
And I finished brushing the car off and they were so happy.
Driving home, I realized I was goofing off so much at the market just looking at stuff that I forgot ... milk.
I also forgot ground beef, and I got shake & bake for pork chops but ... no pork chops. Okay.
I drove over to our regular market and got the things I had forgotten. And they also didn't have cole slaw mix at the first market, and I wanted that so I got some (and dressing).
For dinner last night, I got grocery store fried chicken, fresh out of the fryer and it smelled so good. I over bought, we could have eaten one box but I got two because I should not be allowed to go to the grocery store when I'm hungry.
And as of this writing on Monday, it was another good busy working day. My northern co-workers clocked in with 18 to 20 inches of snow so we spent a good deal of time in our team meeting talking about the weather.
Digits below, here's a picture of John and Doug at the bar for the hockey game. I see so much of his mom in his face, and his dad. It is a very interesting picture to me. He said he thought he was smiling. I promised next visit, we'll bet smiley pictures if he is up to to smiling. That made him smile.
Monday digits
exercise: 12/12 hours. Treadmill between meetings (call it lunch time!) 16 min/1.07 miles. 2nd/extra treadmill time since I was short on steps for the day (and I tested the Run setting on my fitbit with the GPS turned off and it worked!) 15 min/1.05 mi. 11k+ steps by bedtime.
blood glucose:
8:45am: 140
4:45pm: 89
10pm: 160
food & meds:
8:45am: jardiance (waiting on phentermine)
8:45am: atkins protein shake
11am: Entenmann's donut
12:30pm: english muffin w/pb & low sugar blueberry j
12:45pm: met+glip
6:30pm: bowl of pasta shells w/meat sauce, 2 small pieces of garlic bread
8:15pm: met+glip
Sunday digits
exercise: 10/12 hours. Missed 2 hours from being in the car. Treadmill after dinner, 20 min/1.27 mi. No energy to run just had to get the mile done. 10k+ steps by bedtime.
blood glucose:
6am: 150
xpm: x
10:30pm: 188
food & meds:
6am: jardiance (waiting on phentermine)
exact times, not accounted for.
3 mimosas, really good breakfast quesadilla
11:45am: met+glip
on the highway (maybe 1pm?) 2 dunkin donuts
4pm: 2 beers at Abolition Ale Works
7pm: grocery store fried chicken, home made coleslaw, scoop of mac & cheese
7:45pm: met+glip
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