Free tacos

Needless to say, Aaron was not a happy camper about having to get up and go to band camp from 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. today. He actually lucked out because he was supposed to be there yesterday as well, but I forgot, and he was off shopping when I remembered. I got up and fixed blueberry muffins from scratch and put some bacon in the microwave. I dropped him off around 8:40 and felt kind of bad for him; not enough to not make him go, though. He has chosen not to practice that trombone all summer long, so now is his time to get back in the swing of things. I spoke to Mike's brother Jeff who says the part for my a/c is still en route to the dealership, so I'll probably have to drop Mike off to pick up my van sometime after lunch. Meanwhile, there are dishes to do and papers to go through and school supply lists to consolidate and a checkbook to balance and a library book to finish because it is due today and I cannot renew it again, etc...
Around 4:45 Mike (who had just returned with my van) & I left home to pick up Aaron from camp and Alisa from Tia's (Alisa had been summoned to Tia's around 3 p.m. to "babysit" Sasha who was whining that she needed someone to play Barbies with her).
Earlier in the day, Barrett had left multiple messages telling me to check my e-mail for a coupon Lani had forwarded for two free tacos at Jack-in-the-Box. That sounded like an excellent idea for our "Tex Mex Tuesday" dinner theme, so I formulated a plan in my head: I'd pick up the kids after band camp, get the free tacos**, come home and eat, visit Jessie, stop by library on way to Shannon's, drop off kids at Shannon's (I was working the band table at registration on Wednesday morning) & head home for the night. Well, we got a later start than I had intended. It was 6:30 before we left home. Then, it took about 15 minutes to get to Jessie's new place. The house was nice, but Jessie just sat there not really engaging in much conversation. I mean, she would respond if we said something to her, but it was really just kind of quiet and uncomfortable for the kids. Mike even admitted that it is unsettling to see his mother struggling to remember who we are and where she is. He asked her if she wanted to show me her new room, and she said she didn't live there. We just left that alone. I think one of the most difficult things about Alzheimer's disease is that the person still looks like the same person, but it is oh so obvious that they are different on the inside. There is a certain "blankness" or lack of expression about their countenance that is so difficult to comprehend when you're accustomed to seeing them smiling, laughing, and joking around. After about 30-40 minutes we went on to Shannon's. Yet and still, all was going according to plan until Mike suggested we try an alternate route leaving Jessie's to get to Shannon's house. I didn't even think about the time being close to 7:30 and the library closing at 8:00. Furthermore, I do not pretend to know a thing about directions. I have to stop and think long and hard about which way I'm heading and which way I'll be going if I turn left or right. I'm definitely one of the females that comedians love to blast about giving directions by landmarks vs N-S-E-W directions. At any rate, I was totally at Mike's mercy to get me from point A to point B and the library was forgotten. If we had just dropped the kids off (which was my intention), we might still have made it to the library before closing time, but Mike had to go in to use the restroom. I'm lingering by the doorway, not really wanting to venture all the way in. The next thing I know I see the back of Mike's peanut shaped head sticking up over the back of the couch! What was he doing making himself comfortable?! I thought this was a drop off and go deal! Obviously, I was mistaken. Derrick was watching a fight, and Mike wanted to know if the Cowboys' first pre-season game was on tonight. Shannon brought up the pictures of their trek to the Cowboys' stadium on her laptop. Let the slide shows begin...It was 8:33 when Mike & I crawled in the car and I spotted the library book bin full of now overdue books on the back seat. I was hot with Mike, but he took the attitude that I was the one looking at photos and holding up the show. I figure one day I'll use The Blame Game for the title of my blog and explore that a little further! Good night for now. Until next time...
**oh yeah, about those free tacos: we got what we paid for with that deal! I'd never had Jack-in-the-Box tacos before and don't know if I'll ever have them again if the ones we got tonight are the norm. We couldn't tell if they made lots of them in anticipation of people coming in with coupons or if that's just how tacos are coming from a burger joint. Ours were not very good--I might have been upset, except they were free!