azurelunatic

Votania's dad, Grandpa, came and picked us up at 7:30. He was supposed to come by at eight; I wasn't even out of bed yet. We left around eightish. Just before we departed, That Woman called.

For those new to my journal, a summary of who, exactly, these characters are, and what they're like, is here. It will be updated with new information shortly.

Grandpa drove us all out to Mesa, and picked up Nephew's three cousins: Jewel, Jade, and Krystal. That Woman had other things to do, and couldn't make it to the party. The original plan had been for Votania and Nephew and me to show up on Saturday, spend the day with the family, and then have the party for Votania, Nephew, That Woman, and Jewel on Sunday. Instead, the party day got changed to Saturday... I really have no idea why.

I like Nephew's cousins, I really do. They're relatively sweet little girls who have the usual share of childhood squabbles, but not much in the way of actual physical fights. The girls and I played on the computer some. The last two or so times I'd encountered them, Jade had been snuggling up to me: this time, it was Jewel who needed the hugs and interaction with a sane and happy adult.

As advertised, there was a four-foot sub. Also as Grandma had said, she'd forgotten and ordered things containing pork to up upon it, including salami and ham. While ordinarily I would have shrugged, picked off the ham, and happily eaten the turkey and salami, Votania and I are displaying an unusual level of solidarity towards her family, and boycotted the sandwich in concert. Grandma said something about having asked the sandwich makers to leave most of the toppings on the side, since she hadn't known who would eat what, and I made a sour comment about wishing they'd left the meat on the side as well. Comment from Grandma, and "Eeew" noise from me regarding the pork products. Grandma said that anyone saying "eeew" in her kitchen generally got double portions of the offending substance, and Votania gestured for me to just drop it. So I did.

I avoided the sandwich, though, and snagged myself some chips, and a salad composed of the edible elements of the sandwich fixings: lettuce and tomatoes. Mmmm.

Grandma and Great-Grandma had their usual snapping and disrespect towards each other. This is normal. The conclusion locally has been that counselling would really help them out, but Great-Grandma's too old to have it make much difference for very long with her. At least, again, they aren't getting physical with things.

Votania and I are afraid that Grandpa is dying. He's younger than my own father.

Grandma did make some tiramisu. It was good, but not on a level with the stuff that I had at the Art Institute's resturant on Friday with Dawn. More sniping and disrespect between Grandma and Great-Grandma.

Midway through the event, Glyph showed up. Glyph is That Woman's much put-upon husband, who adores his daughters as is right and proper. There is major major drama going on between That Woman and Glyph. The latest thing seems to include That Woman accusing Glyph of talking shit about her to people, when in actuality he supports her and rags on himself for stupidity, boneheadedness, etc., when people are talking shit to him about That Woman. Not that she'd believe it if anyone told her. And she's lost too much weight for it to have been natural. We're still thinking drugs.

I played computer games with Jewel. She's a bright kid. At one point, Great-Aunt asked someone to move the chair that I was sitting in over so someone else could sit in it, unaware that I was still there, just invisible with my black clothes and black hair in the shady corner. That was amusing.

At one point during the party, I had just had too much. I was overheating. I did my best to look just as bad as I felt, and I did provide a distraction for a while. I really needed to lie down somewhere cool an take a nap, but no such thing was forthcoming. I hoped to get us taken home, but no such luck. We spent the night. It had cooled off some. Grandma spent the whole afternoon bitching at anyone who was opening doors or leaving them open, because of the heat. She does not react much better than I do to the heat; instead of making her tired and faint and leaving her limping, she gets cross. She yelled at poor Glyph, just like she was yelling at everyone else, which was not what he needed at the time.

I called a few people on my cellphone.

gremliness got voicemail. Her voicemail answering message is sooo cute! I called

marxdarx, who has a new job and is psyched about it; he starts Tuesday. I called Narcissa and left a message; she called me back and we had fun babbling. Told her about

evealone and what's up there. She was amused. We giggled a lot.

Note: tea leaves in brownies makes for some rather nervous friends, after they realize that it wasn't just standard brownies that they ate.

Jewel came in for hugs, and spent the night in our room after a general clergy-sealed heart-to-heart over the situation with her parents. Grown-ups, please don't fight. It's hell on your kids. Kids: nobody's got a perfect childhood. Sorry. Wish we could.

Morning came. I slept in. Jewel gave me a temporary tattoo (Charizard) and a magazine cut-out picture of Britney with a snake wrapped around her neck. She is hot, in a Barbiesque way. After I got breakfast around eleven, it was time to get dressed -- and while I was dressing, Votania banged on the bathroom door. Grandma had said the wrong thing to Glyph, and he was pissed and sitting in the truck. Loading everybody up into the truck was a production that took half an hour more, and we finally drove back to Phoenix just before noon, loaded down with leftover birthday cake and tiramisu.

Glyph borrowed my phone to call That Woman and make arrangements for dropping the kidlings off. Votania called her when we got home, and the upshot of it all was that I really, really need to cleanse my phone.

Gods, I'm glad we're home.