Ain’t It Good To Be Back Home Again?

I got up and torched today – before unpacking. I was afraid I had forgotten everything! Then, I took Mabel on the longest hike. The creek is flowing and so full. Even the upper creek has water.

Mabel was just stir crazy from only having left the house once for a play date while I was away. We followed the creek upstream and then down, taking the rocky path beside the water instead of the steady inland path.

We went to the waterfall where Mabel ran down some great smell and I sat a spell on one of my favorite boulders and just listened to the water. Since many tiny streams converge at this point, I love to sit and stare at one and try to isolate its sound based on the rhythm of the water falling. It’s a mesmerizing game. And peaceful…

I lingered, pondering how long it had been since I spent any restful, quiet time with my dog. With God. With me.


The Trip

The trip home was fairly nice. There were the usual family squabbles… We all sure know how to push one another’s buttons. It’s really sad that people who love each other can’t really get along for any length of time.

So, while I was overwhelmed with Mama drama, Mabel decided to be a brat. The coons were coming in my yard at night and apparently, Miss Piss barked all night long for two nights before the neighbors weigh-laid the babysitters and gave them an earful.

We ended up locking her in the house at night. The Rhodesian’s mom gets off late and would bring the pups over for a midnight romp and then lock Mabel in my room. The morning crew would let her out around 7:30. That seemed to be working but when I arrived home, I found she had been peeing on my carpets in there.

I tried to show no negativity as I cleaned up the mess but Mabel would not stay in the room with me as I cleaned!

But back to my visit home…. There was something fun to do every day. A craft fair at Oak Alley Plantation (with more good food than my brain could process!) and another at the casino. I got to visit with one of my favorite cousins and her three-year-old twins.
My sister turned 65 while I was there and she and I had a great dinner, just the two of us (Mom got side-tracked at the casino.) and then I spent the night with her.

I also got to meet my personal blogger hero, Velvet. I know I quote her here often but she is such an inspirational person to me. I wish I could write like that! And she’s just as wonderful and eloquent in person.

Boo

Trick-or-Treating with my cousins in Watson was a highlight. I’ve never seen anything like it. People would pull a hay trailer with a four wheeler. The trailers were all decorated with lights and pumpkins and hay. They would pile on the kids and dogs and make the rounds… and this is not a rural neighborhood!

The streets were packed with people. And everyone giving away candy was usually sitting at a decorated table in their front yard. Trick or Treat is only two hours long there but people were telling us they had bought $350 worth of candy and were running out!

I got to spend several blocks of time with my cousin and his kids. One of the best was the night before Halloween. There is an all you can eat pizza buffet in Denham Springs we all love. The food is wonderful and a steal at those prices but… There is one of those game rooms for kids attached. My sister had handed me a $10 for the kids to go play and I thought it would be strange to hand two kids one ten. So I pulled out another $10. That has to be the best ten bucks I spent all week! My little cousin just adores the Sponge Bob game there. He’s quite good at stopping the wheel on 125 points… the max.

He recruited me to be his assistant. “When I hold my hand out, you put another token in it, Aunt Holly, OK?”

Every time he hit 125, he would throw his hands in the air and scream “JACKPOT!!!!” Which I had to do as well…

And when he didn’t hit a high score, we would swing our arms and scream, “DOH.” Everyone was staring! We didn’t care!

The Bad News…

I did return home to some bad news. My friend Kat’s son was in a horrible brawl at USC’s homecoming Saturday. He never saw the attack coming. They just jumped him, took him to the ground and stomped and kicked the crap out of the boy.

This boy – (it’s so funny, but he was on my mind all day Sunday. I kept thinking of the day he was born and getting to hold him – something his mom allowed very few to do.) – is one of the most peace-loving people I know. He is kind and gentle despite being 6’6”. And while he does have a black belt in judo… he was never one of those boys that loved to fight. He deplores it.

His mom had spent the day at the huge apartment he rents (7 roommates) near USC and had a wonderful day. The boys got ready to go to the game and she drove the 20 minutes home. The phone was ringing when she arrived. Her boy was in the hospital.

He apparently fought the firemen, nurses and doctors helping him… thinking he was still being attacked. And while unconscious, he kept screaming, “Get off me!” and “HELP! Somebody, help me!”

But there is good news. This boy who started accumulating concussions before the age of two managed to get through this beating without one! Lots of bruises to his rib cage and chest and his face is a mess but no concussion. He does have severe damage to his eye and we are waiting to hear what’s next… He needs surgery; it’s just a question of when.

And while his parents had the most acrimonious, drawn-out, nasty divorces I’ve ever been a witness to, Kat, her ex and his girlfriend have been an amazing team. The girlfriend is a nurse at Cedars and has put some of the best eye doctors on the case. Kat stays with her boy dealing with day to day medical and keeping ice on him to help with the swelling. The ex is all over the legal end. No two ways about it – we all want somebody to pay for this!

I’m just so sad that this could happen to such a gentle 19-year-old. I hate to see someone so young become afraid of the world.

Wrapping it up…

So I have a lot of blogs to catch up on and a ton of stuff in the shop to get done. Not to mention, I sold a bunch beads from wearing my own stuff around Baton Rouge and got home to orders for those. My best friend’s mom is in from Hungary and I know I’ll need to spend some time with Kat and her boy but hopefully, I’ll get back into t he swing of things soon.

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