2003-02-02 - 11:13 p.m.

Jennifer's Birthday

This weekend was spent driving.  My niece Jennifer's birthday is Monday so my mother, my sister and I drove up to South Carolina to have dinner with her and to wish her a happy birthday as she turns 20 years old.  It is a nice drive. Kind of boring .  It takes about 5 hours, and although South Carolina is North of Georgia I had to head south to get to the town where she lives. If that makes any sense.

Basically I headed toward the coast and then went north.  I like the town where she lives.  It is a military town. There is an army base and a marine base there.  There are a lot of trailers and poor little ratty houses.  But there are lots of palm trees and sand.  This town is surrounded by rivers.  The water is dark blue.  The air is clean smelling.  I always feel comfortable there.

My sister and I went to my mother's house on Friday.  The woman who lives in the house with my mother and my aunt would hardly look at me.  She has a crush on me and I think she feels very shy around me. (My aunt lets women in trouble live in her house while she helps them.) This woman is a basket case, but she is getting better.  She saw me being nice to her 2 year old daughter and now she wants to marry me.  Also, as a side note, this woman has been in prison and was married to an abusive drug dealer.  I'm sure I look like a prince to her.

Anyway, the next day my mother and sister and I got in the minivan and drove to South Carolina.  We talked on the way.  My sister sat in the back and knitted.  She has been knitting lately.  She made herself a scarf.  I drove and my mother sat up front with me.

Oh!  Before we left town we went over to my brother's house to pick up Jennifer's birthday card.  When we pulled in the very long driveway (it is about two acres long if that means anything) we saw my father walking toward the highway to the mailbox.  I stopped and rolled down the window.   He said he was on his way to mail Jennifer's birthday card.  I told him we were going to see her later that night so he gave the card to me to take to her.  He did not talk to my mother.  They didn't speak to each other.

My father's face looked puffy and red.  He did not look well.  I asked him if he had a cold because his voice was hoarse.  He said he had just gotten up and his sinuses were draining.  I noticed that he had a small drinking cup in his shirt pocket.  I didn't ask him about this.  I suppose he had booze in it.  It was, after all, almost 10 a.m.

We went to my brother's house.  It is a trailer, smells like cigarette smoke.  I hate to go in there because I know the odor will permeate my clothes.  He smokes, his girlfriend smokes, everyone who comes over smokes.  It is horrible.  He gave us the card he got for his daughter Jennifer and we were back on the road again.

When we got to South Carolina we got rooms at a motel called Comfort Inn.  My mother said she had stayed there before and it was cheap.  Since we were only staying for one night we did not really need some place that was great.  That was fine with me.  This town is not really known for its fine hotels.  But it is near Hilton Head which if filled with expensive resorts.

So we got rooms. The woman behind the desk was Hispanic, a cute young woman, very attractive, and she had a malformed arm.  Her left arm sort of tapered right below the elbow and at the end of it there was a tiny little deformed hand.  It was kind of cute.   She used the tiny hand to steady stuff she was holding in her good hand.   And she was not self-conscious about it at all.  She was wearing a short sleeved shirt.

My sister noticed that the birthday card that my brother got for Jennifer wished her a happy 21st birthday.  My brother was very proud of the card and had insisted that we all look at it.  It was when we got to SC that my sister noticed the glaring error.  She and my mother went into a five minute routine about how old Jennifer really was and how old her brother Jason is.  I told them that she is turning 20 and Jason is a year younger.  But they kept trying to figure it out anyway.  I stopped them and repeated their ages again.

We went to the store to buy a pen with blue ink to match the ink on the card.  My sister and mother wanted to correct the card and the envelope so that Jennifer would not know that her father does not know how old she is.  I can't blame them.  I hope my mother remembers to tell my brother that he messed up.   He really is out of it.  How can he not know?  How on earth can a man not remember that in 1983 his second daughter was born?  I remember it and I was not even there at the time.

No wonder his wife divorced him and went off with a man who pays attention to her and the children.  My brother's ex-wife, Dianne, has always been like a sister to me.  I felt bad that she fell in love with such a crappy guy like my brother.  But, I guess it was meant to be.  They had three children, and after a few years she realized that my brother was not going to do any better so she found someone else.   That someone else is Paul and he is a great guy.  He is English and is a very resourceful man.  We all get along very well with him.  And he is a much better match for Diane.

After correcting the card we went over to their house and sat around with Jennifer and Jason. Jen was in a good mood. She seemed happy to see us.  Jason looked clean and happy.  I have not seen him like that for a while.  From outward appearances he is doing better.  I suspect he is either behaving himself or he has a girlfriend.  I did not get a chance to talk to him about it, though.  I was just happy he was looking well.

Jennifer said that the Christmas present I got her, a small knickknack that is a cow with a frog on her back (long story) was the same Christmas present her mother got her.  Now she has two frog cows.  Ha ha.  I have a pattern of picking presents for people that other people give them.  Very interesting.

A little while later I noticed she was wearing a watch. I asked her if I could see it.  She said it was her Fossil watch.  She bought it for herself after Christmas and it came in a special tin.

It was the same watch I bought for her a few days ago!  I did it again.  So I told her I'm glad she likes it because I got her the same thing.  She thought I was joking because we had just been talking about it.  But I was not joking.

But I also got her a stuffed toy I knew she would like.  And she did.  We gave her the cards with money and the gifts when we took her to dinner.  She wanted to go to Ruby Tuesdays. That's where we always go with her.

Dianne and Paul were not back from the airport yet so we had dinner without them.  And dinner was nice.  We all joked and had a good time.  It is a wonderful treat to be with these people I love so much all at once.  My dear, sweet mother.  My wonderful sister.  My little Jen Jen who I have watched grow up before my very eyes.  And my amazing nephew Jason who I worry about but am still very proud of.

I really like talking to them.  I always have.  Just sitting around jabbering about nothing in particular, movies, songs, and memories.  Jennifer did like the movie Amelie.  She had the same reaction to it as I did.  And Jason really liked the dvd of Momento I gave him for Christmas. He did not know who gave it to him, but I reminded him.  I knew he would like it.  They had never heard of these two movies before I gave them to them.   But that is what I wanted to do, show them something new.

We went back to the house after dinner and Dianne and Paul were home.  We all sat around talking for a few more hours.   Paul finally admitted that his is a big believer in ghosts.  He said that one of the reasons he started his own business was because his grandfather who has been dead for 60 years came to him and had a long conversation with him about it.  He says he normally does not tell people stuff like this because he does not want to look like a nut case.  I told him I understood completely.  My sister and mother also took this information for what it was.  All of us have had too many personal experiences like that to judge others.

No, it was not crazy.  He and Dianne told me half a dozen stories of weird happenings in their former house and their current house.  We all know what it means.

Back at the motel I read for a while and fell asleep quickly.  The bed was very comfortable, more comfortable than any other motel sleeping experience I have ever had.  I guess that is why they call it the Comfort Inn.

And this morning we went back over to their house.  Sat and talked for a while.  Played with their dog and their cat.  Then the other grandparents came over and we had cake and ice cream and sang Happy Birthday.  Then we got back on the road around 1:30 and headed home.

So I did a lot of driving.  I am tired now. Tomorrow I go back to work and I will be on call.  That sucks, but I'm looking forward to my next acting class on Wednesday.

Jimmy
 

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