Lines

When Jeri was 5, and David (#5) was a baby, we decided to take her to Disneyland for some one-on-one time while we enjoyed the park together.  It was such a great idea that we decided to take each of the kids on or about their 5th birthday so they could have Walt and me all to themselves for a weekend.

When we took Paul, it was a particularly busy weekend at the park and every ride we wanted to go on had long switch-back lines.  I remember toward the end of the day, an exasperated Paul screaming ... "NOT ANOTHER LINE!!!!!"

That's how I felt this afternoon, zipping home at a speedy 2 mph over Highway 37, which normally takes half an hour or less to cross from Highway 101 to I-80.  Tonight it took 2+ hours because of rush hour traffic, then I decided to take my favorite "back road" and avoid some of the I-80 traffic, but so did most of the other cars so there was a backup on that.  Then soon after getting on I-80 there was a backup, and there is always a back up going through the Travis AFB area.  By the time we got home what had taken an hour and a half to get there took nearly four hours to get back.

I knew just how Paul felt.

This was another day I had looked forward to which didn't quite work out the way I expected.  My mother's hair has been looking just horrible and she is overdue for a permanent.  The woman who does hair at Atria just doesn't do her hair right.  The last two times she had a permanent, she came out looking like a q-tip.  I decided to call her old hairdresser in San Rafael.  She went to Hannah every week for some 30 years until she moved to Davis.  In fact, the very last thing she did on her last day at her old home was to have Hannah do her hair (my ploy to get her out of the house while the rest of the family cleaned it out without her interference.)

Before I made the appointment, I asked my mother if she'd like to go and she said that yes, it would be fun to see Hannah again. After I made the appointment, I told my mother that she had an appointment and she was pleased and said again how much fun it would be to see Hannah again. I wrote it on her calendar and reminded her it was there.  I told her two days ago, when I left, that I would be back on Wednesday to take her to Hannah. 

I decided to go early and bring along a small lunch, since she wouldn't have time for lunch in the dining room and there is a beautiful lagoon near Hannah's house and I thought we could eat there.  Knowing she doesn't eat much, I made a small cottage cheese and peach salad and bought a pastry and packed all in my new insulated bag, replacing the one I left behind on the bus bench last week.

When I got to her apartment, she wasn't there.  I went looking for her and found her in a corner near the dining room with a cup of coffee and 2 cookies.  Breakfast.  I said I had come to take her to see Hannah and get a permanent.  She grabbed her hair and wailed "do I have to???"  I'm afraid I wasn't very nice about it. She can't help it but I don't know how else to help her.  I could have called her from the Atria parking lot to remind her and by the time I got to the apartment she would have forgotten.

But she reluctantly agreed to go and then kept a stoic silence for the first 20 minutes or so, by which time she forgot where we were going and why--and that she was angry with me for making her go, so the rest of the trip was answering those questions.  We were so late leaving Davis that we barely got to Hannah's in time and had no time for the lunch by the lagoon I had packed.

I dropped her off at Hannah's salon (which is attached to her house) and asked how long I should give her.  She said a little over 2 hours.  I went and found a Chinese restaurant for lunch.  They had a lamb with ginger and scallion that was to die for.  I don't know why more Chinese restaurants don't have lamb dishes.  They are my favorite!

There was so much food, I had enough left over to bring home to Walt for dinner (good thing, since our Blue Apron box never arrived today!)

When I returned to Hannah's, my mother was still under the dryer and Hannah and I chatted...she told me that where I ate lunch was the place where her beauty shop had been before she moved it into her house.  Serendipity.

When my mother's hair got all brushed out, I could see why I was willing do drive so far to have Hannah do it  She looked like a different person.

I think the visit with an old friend --whose name she knows!-- was a great tonic for her as well.

Then there was that horrendous drive home.  By the time we got to Atria, every bone in my body ached and I just let her out so I could drive home.  She was upset that I wasn't coming in and asked how she would find where she was supposed to go.  I suggested she head for the apartment she has been going to every day for the past 3 years.

A very long day and lots of frustration and biting of my tongue, but in the end, definitely worth it.

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Interestingly, when I checked my entry for this date last year, I see that she had her hair permed on this date in 2015 too!