Haven’t blogged for a while, due to my outside employment. We drove Lib to Tennessee Friday to stay for a couple weeks – YES, I said a couple WEEKS. Big step.
Everyone there loves when she comes down to visit, and I know the sisters really enjoy the time together.

This trip down was the worst – it was long, it was frustrating. She was so impatient – with EVERYTHING. We stopped for gas in Crawfordsville.
“WHY are we stopping already?!”
While filling up the car, I said I was going in to use the restroom.
“Well, I don’t HAVE to go yet.”

I said, “We probably won’t be stopping again for a while unless we absolutely have to, so you might want to try and go anyway.”

She did…but she wasn’t happy about it.

While inside, I was tired and I was going to take over driving, so I got a cup of coffee.

“What are you doing? What is that? What are you getting?”

“Just some coffee – do you want something?”

“Well…like WHAT?”

“I don’t know – are you hungry or thirsty?”

“NO!”

“OK”, so I get in line to pay. AFTER I have paid she says, “I want a candy bar! Where are the candy bars?”
I show her the candy bars…she is upset because (a) she doesn’t see anything she likes, (b) they are too expensive.
After a loooong time complaining about it, she chooses one anyway, hands it to me and says, “I don’t have my purse – I need you to buy it and I’ll pay you in the car.” Fine, no big deal, I get back in line. The guy in front of me has some credit card issue and line is NOT moving….oooh man, she ain’t happy about that at all. By this time Phil has gassed up the car, gone to the bathroom and is waiting in the passenger seat, and waiting...and waiting

Fast forward to five hours into the trip – none of us are exactly whistling Dixie or playing the alphabet game already anyway. The sun is shining in the side windows and she can’t get her jacket to stay in the window to block the sun. Apparently, it was a REALLY big deal. I know this because it was mentioned no less than ten times. Phil is hungry and says to pull off the highway, we’ll stop at Arby’s so he can get a sandwich, eat in the car, and I will keep driving. She does not like any of it. She doesn’t like that I didn’t park in handicapped space – I parked NEXT to it. She doesn’t like having to go in, but said she had to go to the bathroom anyway (??). Phil is irritated enough and I cannot stand the idea of waiting while she tries to decipher an Arby’s menu, all of which is more food than she will eat anyway. So I tell him (while she is in the bathroom), “Just get her a Junior roast beef sandwich, she isn’t going to eat it all anyway.” Mr. Cranky is mad because I am sounding bossy, I am NOT bossy – I am just trying to get the hell back on the road without all the rigmarole that will ensue if she is put to the task of trying to figure out what she wants. She gets out of the bathroom and gives the menu on the wall THAT look, so I tell her, we just got you a small sandwich, what do you want to drink?

“I don’t want anything.....WAIT!!…. I want water”

I get a cup from the lady and go to the pop machine to get her water, with, of course NO ICE (ask Anne Lawrence about that!)

She begins another fit because I am at the POP machine and she wants WATER.
I calmly explain that the water is also at the pop machine, relax.

We get in the doorway to leave. There is a couple with two kids behind us, also trying to leave. She stops in the middle of the exit and exclaims, “I need to dump that water! I don’t WANT it!” (I’m the one carrying it anyway, so WTF??)
We both tell her to just come to the car, don’t worry about it right now, you are blocking the door. It takes quite a while before the patient family behind her actually gets to get out the door, because she won't stop flipping out about the water and get out of the doorway.

I have been around children….I don’t say a word, I just put the water in the cup holder in the front….because I KNOW better. She still carries on until we are pulling away about needing to dump the water.
Moral of the story – not even 4 miles down the road – she wants her water. AND she was upset that her junior sandwich was SO big and neither of us would eat the other half.

That is only the low lights of the first five hours. There were still three more to go. I really wish she would have slept more.

The next morning, 15 Marshall family members meet for breakfast. It was a crummy place that Uncle Rob insisted we go to, and we had been warned by Linda. Yep, it was pretty lousy. In the middle of really bad service, where orders were literally brought out ONE at a time, with many minutes between orders being brought, Lib yells (yes yells) to the waitress, “I need some FOOD!”

Needless to say, all of us at the ‘kids table’ pretty much cracked up.

Wow, sure hope the laid back Tennessee attitude rubs off on her a bit.

It ought to be an interesting couple of weeks down there!