Saga of Seattle

Twilight Oversells the Excitement of the Pacific Northwest

So it was decided that the next day Johnno would head off with his father to visit his grandfather in the hospital. Turns out that his kidneys weren’t failing but rather the doctor had changed grandfather’s meds without telling the nursing home—so when bodily fluids changed everyone panicked for no reason. What this meant for me was that I would be left alone at the house while Siobhan went to work and Johnno took off with his father.

What to do in backwoods Washington? Besides look for glitter boys and wolf abs?

No worries, I was left with a bunch of food I had to prepare for the family while they went about their day. I was a bit put out by this—mostly because I would be preparing either things I couldn’t eat or things I didn’t know how to make like chocolate fudge. Simple things like that.

So I spent the day counting the hours till Johnno would be home, watching A&E’s ‘The First 48’ (a show about real life murder investigations) because I couldn’t figure out how to change the television, and trying to figure out how to melt chocolate without melting it. And there was no coffee, the house was cold and I was in a pleasant mood. It didn’t help when Johnno texted me that he would not be back before the family dinner at 6—even though he left at 9am. I felt trapped.

So I peeled potatoes, burnt beef, made a salad by picking nuts out of a cocktail mix while resisting the urge to murder Siobhan’s loud and needy cat. But eventually Siobhan showed up and we had a nice talk about various things like her boys, Vegas, her family and where she hid the TV remote from the cat. I was still annoyed at not getting any time with the boyfriend but took a nap to try and get over it.

Eventually it was time to get up and dressed for the Christmas Eve/Johnno’s mother’s birthday dinner. I was still a bit cranky and it took a while for me to warm up to the family because I wasn’t thanked for any of my kitchen help. (Except from Johnno. And his mother much later on in the night after a drink of punch.) I was also very put off by the fact that Johnno’s dad was still not talking to me at all but yet when Siobhan’s friends Jay and Allie (From the bar two nights before) showed up—he was all about talking with Jay.

It also didn’t help things that the weird family dynamics continued to play out with Johnno’s Dad forgetting it was his wife’s birthday but instead kept wishing Siobhan a happy birthday. But it was amusing to see Johnno’s mom get a bit tipsy from one glass of punch and she loosed up enough to talk more than a few words. She was quite funny once she got started—even if Johnno’s Dad kept to himself in the living room while we all sat around the dining room table. I guess he was done dealing with us.

But at least this annoyed Johnno too so I wasn’t alone in that feeling. But once the parents left for the night, Jay Allie, Johnno, Siobhan and I got down to some drinks and shit talking which was a great time. It still surprises me how cool solider Jay was with both Johnno and I—which speaks more to my own misconceptions about the Navy than anything. But they did help relax me.

That and the fact that Johnno and I were heading back to Seattle the next morning to stay with his friends Jonathan and Pikachu until we would fly out. I don’t think I have ever been so eager to pack a suitcase in my life and was more than ready to get my Boystown on.