Not Enough Vodka

As I was rushing the kids out the door this morning, my brother called to inform me that my grandfather had just passed away.  While his health had been declining somewhat rapidly, we still though there was some time left.  A birthday party for him was in the works for the end of the month, and while we were expecting that it would likely be our last visit, we were comfortable that there was that much time left.

Minutes after learning about my grandfather, I spoke with my mother who informed me that they were intending to transfer her to a hospital here within the next day or two to remove and replace her knee. She is in a  contamination ward at the hospital and will not be attending her father's funeral.

I was left trying to figure out whether to make travel arrangements to attend the funeral, or to stay here for my mother's surgery.  And to complicate matters, I already had an out-of-town hearing scheduled for Friday.

The funeral is scheduled for Thursday, and I decided that it was unlikely my mother would be transported and her surgery scheduled before then, so I went ahead and booked the flight.

And now my 4-day workweek has been condensed into a day-and-a-half. I have a hard deadline on Friday for my pro bono case that left me sending an affidavit to my client this morning, begging her to get it notarized today, and then driving half-way across the world to retrieve it from her so that I can file it in the morning. This is a perfect example of why procrastination is bad!

I fly to Hometown late tomorrow afternoon and back out early Thursday evening. Then I have an early morning flight on Friday for my hearing, and will hopefully be home again by early evening.

Tonight I have to pack and finish up a couple of research projects to hand off to my bosses before I leave tomorrow. And the kids and I all have colds and feel crappy and cranky.

To top it all off, my brother just texted me and said that when he tried to visit my mother this evening her husband tried to start a physical fight in the hospital and in front of my nieces and had to be pulled off my brother and  escorted out by a hospital aide! WTF?! And then my aunt told me it was the other way around.

If I wasn't convinced that my family was white trash before, this definitely seals the deal. Without question, the smartest thing I have ever done in my life was to get the hell out of Hometown.