While back with the family I did my best to earn my keep with them. I cooked nearly every night and cleaned up nearly every day. I was a bit of a monkey butler for them, but they were footing the bill when out so I felt obliged.
We started out going south and stopping at Sikeston, Mo and hit the home of throwed rolls. Despite my complete lack of athletic ability I managed an over the shoulder no-look reception and earned the laurels of the bread chuckers. Go me. Stayed at a Holiday Inn in which the sink was plugged with, well, someone else's party leavings. Yuck.
The next day we made it to Mandeville La, where my folks were wintering away the season in their normal RV fashion. Much BBQ was ingested, as was much home cooking. It was the first time I've been with family for a holiday since 2004 and it felt good to do so. More-so it seemed necessary as my father is declining in health a lot more rapidly than he used to and I think his time is limited. It's become apparent, but not something I'm stewing on.
Returning to Iowa we stopped for some time and took part in the Kentucky Bourbon Trail. Six distilleries in two days. Woof. Wild Turkey, Woodford Reserve, Four Roses, Jim Beam, Maker's Mark, and Heaven Hill. And because my brother was driving and my sis-in-law is a total lightweight I had my fair share of bourbon to drink. I was ok with that. All in all a good time and I'm looking forward to my free t-shirt!
On the way up we also stopped in Lynchburg Tennessee to visit Jack Daniels. A good tour overall, but the town was holding onto their rebel heritage a little too much. While at a cafe I observed a rack of bumper stickers and that sort of stuff. Now, you know me. I'm not easily offended. At all. But the slogan I saw on one sticker really stuck in my craw. It made me sad and mad. Said slogan is spoilered below because it's one of the more awful things I've seen.
It said:
I was actually in shock from that. Not just that someone sold something like that, but that someone would buy it and display it. It reminded me of why I hate society so much. If I saw that on a car, I'd have a hard time not defacing it.
New Years was spent in a hotel room with the family, drinking expensive beer and giggling at the idiots on Moonshiners. Thankfully I only sent one drunk text. Sorry, Vivid. My bad.
So it was a nice trip, and it was good to reconnect with my brother a little bit. I was a little disappointed that he didn't compliment me once on my weight loss, and still made fat cracks at my expense, but it doesn't bother me at all. Mostly because he's swelled up to the size I used to be and is in total denial of it. His sleep apnea is approaching lethal because of it. Hopefully he'll change his ways. If not, I hope he has his will in order.
So what's in store for 2012? A proper beard, first of all. I'm growing it, nurturing it, and grooming it as I should. Mostly an experiment, but we'll see. The second thing will be sticking up for myself and my feelings. No more letting people railroad me, or including energy vampires in my life. Basically, no more being a pussy.
About time.
