KshGoddess's Journal: Yep, my mother's still insane.

So, I'm back from Maine yesterday, and at work today. I'm sore from sleeping on the "guest bed" at mom's house. I twisted my ankle tubing (and bounced on my tailbone), and have a huge bruise on my leg. Oh, and the face-bite. Frostbite on my face from tubing. Not too bad, but my cheeks are a bit red.

Mom can't drive. Well, she *can*, but not well. She's one of those 'the gas pedal is an on-off switch' drivers. She doesn't get rotaries (or roundabouts, I guess is another name for them). She came to pick us up at Portsmouth on the day we flew in (and took the shuttle bus). I assumed it was because she wasn't paying attention to the car, because she was chattering on to us (VROOOOMM-vroom-VROOOOOM-vroom), but no, that's her normal way of driving, I guess.

On Christmas Eve, we went to the shops at Kittery. It's like ... um... 8-10 little outlet malls along a road. Ben & I managed to finish out our shopping (fondue kits for Travis, a cabled sweater, a turtleneck, and a grey 1/4 zip shirt for Jeff), and we wrapped presents.

On Christmas Day, we opened presents. From Ben, I got a garage-door opener, a spinning wheel, and fiber. From mom, I got a Best Buy gift cert, and some fancy soap [philosophie?] (which had a warning that prolonged exposure could cause urinary tract irritation -- I'm assuming because it's peppermint). Oh, and a spa headband thingy. My brothers gave me a cookbook and a cute denim apron. Jeff got me Eddie Izzard's "Circle" DVD. Ben got Harvey Birdman (1st season), The Greatest American Hero (1st season), the 2 Alton Brown "cookbooks" that we didn't have, and Photoshop Elements from me, and shirts from Matt & Travis. I think Mom got him a $50 Best Buy gift cert.

We bought the boys new beds. They should be delivered in 8 giant boxes via UPS tomorrow. They generally slept on the creaky poky awful thing that Ben & I shared, and since mom had forgiven some of our debt to her, we spent that money on Christmas.

Then we went to LL Bean's Flagship Store. In Freeport. On Christmas Day. My brother Jeff was disgusted because they didn't have men's sizes smaller than a "Small" (he's rail-thin), I was disgusted because they didn't have women's sizes bigger than "XL". [Men's sizes ran to XXL, with some XXXL able to be found.] So, with my part of the giant gift cert granddad sent, I got a 1/4 zip orange sweater (men's XXL), and a purply-grey sweater (men's XXL).

We ate at Denny's that evening, because we were starving to death on the way back from Freeport. I think mom has something against lunch. Breakfast most mornings was from Dunkin' Donuts (which I cringe at now because we ate there so much).

Oh, and as badly as I eat, mom eats worse. I was craving veggies and water a couple days in. We did end up buying bottled water about 2/3 of the way through our trip. Mom drinks mostly diet sodas. In part because their tap water was grey and fizzed, but mostly because she likes them. We were offered some "Fruit 2 O", but they were still awful.

We went to the Christa McAuliffe planetarium on the 26th, which was another 1.5 hours away. All our trips seemed to be that distance. It was Me, Ben, Mom, Matt, & Travis. Mom bought tickets to 2 shows. Trav was good through the first one, but started acting out during the second, and had a freak-out once we were out of the building.

We went tubing on the 27th (Ben, Matt, Jeff, and myself), which was totally fun. You get dragged up the hill in the tube, and the course was like a twisting half-pipe, I guess is the closest I can get. On one run down, I climbed every wall, and caught air at the top of each. And lost my hat. Sometime during the day, I twisted my ankle but good, and limped to the car.

Yesterday, we got up at 2:45 AM so we could drive to Logan. Our flight took off at 5:30, arrived at CVG at some point, we went across the weird terminal C and waited for ~10 minutes for our plane to start boarding. We got to denver at 10AM, and were eating at one of our favorite places at 11:30 AM, and home by 1 PM.

Oh, and I played The Sims 2. That is an addictive game. I'm sure it's got to be more addictive than WoW, because it's not online, and there are infinately many outcomes. I want to get it for my iBook. :D

And my mom kept trying to get me to "accessorize". At least it wasn't her normal "you'd look better with a little makeup" speech. She kept trying to loan me some of her earrings. I took a pair of silver ones, but refused any of the ones with the 'french hooks' as my ears are pierced unevenly. Sigh. The more things change, the more they stay the same.

I missed my dog. And my cats. And my bed. I'm glad to be home, but wish like hell I weren't at work. For the next 6 days. Because I had to swap with someone to get Christmas off.

Sigh. Next Thursday can't come too soon.