Steel, Limes and Berries

Today was weird. I ended up sleeping until 10. When I had woken up, and given my mom birthday presents which were a book called Rediscovering Catholicism and a box of chocolates, I drove my siblings and grandmother to Hannafords to buy a cake and flowers. After we had done this, we went to Friendly's for breakfast. After we had ordered, my brother left to go wander around the plaza. Our food soon arrived, and it turned out to be delicious. My brother's food ended up sitting on his plate for five minutes before he saw it, which gave my grandmother the "aggita". After he had come back, hardly touched his pancakes and wound up my sister, my grandmother again lambasted him about not going to church, and built a wall of menus and ketchup across the table so he could not possibly tease his younger sibling.

When we had arrived back home, I left to go pick up my dad from Hartford. His plane was supposed to land at 3:25, and so I left at 1, in case I met traffic around Springfield. I made very good time, and arrived almost an hour early. I did not go into the airport, because I did not want to pay for parking. Unfortunately, the 2 extra large vitamin waters I had drank on the way down were beginning to take their effect at this point. I drove anxiously around the countryside of Connecticut for about 20 minutes looking for a deserted stretch of road, when all of a sudden a Stop N' Shop appeared out of no where. I went running in looking for a bathroom, and I was lucky enough to find one at the back of the store. Unfortunately, I still had about 40 minutes to kill and so I continued driving. I ended up sitting in a Catholic church a few miles away, with an angry lady staring at me. I later realised that the reason she was angry at me was because I was wearing a hat.

When my dad's flight was due in, I headed back to the airport. I drove to the small barn on the far side of the airport, that serves as international arrivals. When I walked inside the building, leaving the car illegally parked outside, I found out that the flight was 20 minutes late. This was an unpleasant surprise, as my timing from the church to the airport was perfect. I prepared to complete another few circuits of the airport, but I did not end up doing this. On the exit ramp, I pulled over and asked a TSA agent if there was anywhere I could park without paying. He told me to back up the one way ramp I had just come down so I could go into the restricted parking area. This was most convenient. As I was parking the car, I saw the plane come in to land. however, I still had to stand and wait for over 45 minutes before they let my dad through customs, with his semi legal green card from the 80's.

The drive home was simple, and took an hour and a half exactly.

When we got home, I found out that we would be going out for my mom's birthday. We went to Chilli's, and I got ribs, which were delicious.. Something I learned, and that I already knew, is that the Italianness among certain members of my family is not cured by tequila.

I was up very very late last night, and so after cake I decided to write to you before retiring. C ya palz..