I got to fly into Newark at night. I was in a window seat, but I couldn't figure out if I was going to get a good shot of Manhattan or not. And then I saw it. We were farther away than I wanted to be, but wow. Wow. You could see all the streets going east to west and they were all completely lit up with car lights, white one way and red on the other, and in the middle of the city you could see Times Square like a big pinball game in the middle. It was just around dusk, with everything lit up, but everything also lit by the setting sun. It was cool.
I had an okay flight to Newark. There was hardly anyone on the plane and it was one of those small ones that has just one seat on one side and two on the other. The flight from Newark to San Francisco was pretty good, too. I got to sit next to a pretty lady with no one in the middle seat. I got to watch 30 Rock and Rise of the Planet of the Apes. I had planned on drinking, but the drink cart only came around once. I was going to go back and ask for a drink. They're usually pretty good about that. But after Rise of the Planet of the Apes, I did not want to push my luck. So, still, it was kind of a long flight. But it could've been worse.
A week earlier, my flight to New Hampshire was cancelled and I had to reschedule. Sonny can tell you that this is true. In the Chicago Airport, my connecting flight was late, and then it just kept getting later. They kept adding hour after hour onto the arrival time. I walked up and down the airport terminal. I had some beef and some beer. But then the whole being-in-the-airport thing got old. I started thinking that I had never gone on a plane with anybody else. I've always traveled by myself. (It turns out that this is not true). I can think of three times I've flown with others. Once when I was fifteen to San Antonio, Texas. Once to Hawaii, and once to Los Angeles.
Still, this did not feel like a vacation. I was, at the time, kind of dreading seeing my folks, and the shape they were in. And it seemed like the airline (the gods) were making me wait and wait to get there. An airport layover that keeps getting later and later when you're dreading the destination is, I think, what the Catholics call Purgatory.
Now, let me sum up. My dad, as I think I've mentioned, has cancer, and they've given him a short timeline. And, he is looking a little bit worse for the wear. My mom was moved to the recuperation place when the blackout occurred on the east coast. When they went to bring her home, somehow, she fell out of her wheelchair in the ambulance and broke her leg. So, when I got there, she was in the hospital, and during my visit, she was moved back to the recuperation place (this time without incident).
Both my folks are troopers. Except for a broken leg, and being immobile, my mom seems to be in hardy shape. I got to spend a very nice amount of time with her where we would talk for awhile, look at photo albums, then she would read her kindle and I would do some crossword puzzles. It was relaxing and very, very nice. I do not get to see her very often, and it was nice that both of us did not feel the need to do anything but be in each others' company.
My dad looked a little smaller, and he had shaved the beard he's had since, I don't know, maybe forty years ago? That can't be right. I think he was around forty when he had his appendicitis. He was in the hospital getting his appendix out, and he grew the beard. When he went back into the hospital for the cancer surgery, he shaved it off. He's a bookend kind of guy like that. I appreciate that.
Since my mom got all messed up with her back, and the pain, and the medication and the immobility, my dad won't go out to eat or anything. He says it is unfair to her. You can try and reason with him, tell him that my mom would want him to go out and enjoy himself, that it might be making her feel bad, his staying home like a martyr. But he won't hear of it.
But then, things have changed for him. When I complain in my head, I think things like how my parents have never seen an apartment of mine since I was in college, that I missed many, many years with them and that I missed a lot of stuff, like having a drink with my dad somewhere.
But, this time, he let us take him out. Three times! Me and him had a steak dinner, Italian(Greek) and Mexican. He had a martini! He is charming and just awful at the same time. He and I played roommates for 6 days. It was crazy and really nice. The first night I was there, we stayed up 'til 6 in the morning, just talking.
My parents are going through some rough times, but they are still very nice to spend time with.
I look forward to seeing them both again in January.
