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(Written yesterday)
Nov. 15th, 2006 08:43 amI was going to get to work early this morning and write an entry, and did that happen? Of course not. The thing is, I have been waking up early lately, for some reason, which is not at all normal for me, and I feel like I ought to make use of it. (However, since I went back to sleep instead, this time, that's probably a good thing. I imagine I needed the sleep.)
I looked in an old tote bag this morning and found a map to Jungle Gardens, in Louisiana. I guess it's been in that bag for nearly 3 years, since it came from a trip my mom and I took to New Orleans in January of 2004. The weather was horrible, I don't know why we picked that time, exactly - oh god, yes, I do. Some time-share company talked my mother into coming to listen to their salespitch. That part of the trip was not any fun whatsoever, of course, but it was only a couple of hours, and in exchange they gave us two free nights at the Holiday Inn on Royal St. in the Quarter. And we did have a pretty good time. We we fooled around in the French Quarter and the Garden District for a couple of days, and then we went home the "back way" - highway 90, which goes through places like Des Allemands and Morgan City, and up to New Iberia and Lafayette. And we stopped and went to Avery Island, which is where they make Tabasco. There's a little tour of the factory you can go on, which is interesting. And this Jungle Gardens place is there, too - this is the only picture I came out with because after that my batteries died, but it was pretty nice. There was a little break in the bad weather that day and it was lovely. There was a gigantic old Buddha - and I mean a really old one, 11th century or something - sitting in its own little temple out in the middle of nowhere. And there were camellias blooming all over the place; it was the right time of the year for them, anyway. And it was the wrong time of the year for alligators, thank goodness, or I probably would never have gotten out of the car to see the buddha. Apparently they are normally all over the place there, but it was their dormant season. (I didn't even know they had a dormant season.)
The thing is, apparently that is going turn out to be the last real trip I took with my mother. (Going to Bryan doesn't really count, in my mind.) Because she is not doing well. The tumor is back - and I didn't really turn a hair at that news because I already knew something was wrong, you know? Fairly abruptly, in the last few weeks, she has gotten much more out of it mentally. Her short-term memory is bad, her sense of time is almost nonexistent, and she's having trouble talking. I mean, not just stuttering like she has been doing ever since she had brain surgery nearly two years ago, but not being able to make herself understood at all, some of the time. She tries to tell us something and can't get it out and then finally gets frustrated and says "Oh, never mind." And it seems like she has lost the will to keep trying, which is what she used to would have done. It's very sad.
She is still at home with Art, but clearly that isn't going to be able to go on much longer. He wants to try to keep going through the holidays but I don't know if he's going to be able to manage that long. I guess it is going ok so far this week, and next week she is supposed to go stay with my aunt, up until Thanksgiving, and then we are going to take her home again. I hope all of that can work out.
I looked in an old tote bag this morning and found a map to Jungle Gardens, in Louisiana. I guess it's been in that bag for nearly 3 years, since it came from a trip my mom and I took to New Orleans in January of 2004. The weather was horrible, I don't know why we picked that time, exactly - oh god, yes, I do. Some time-share company talked my mother into coming to listen to their salespitch. That part of the trip was not any fun whatsoever, of course, but it was only a couple of hours, and in exchange they gave us two free nights at the Holiday Inn on Royal St. in the Quarter. And we did have a pretty good time. We we fooled around in the French Quarter and the Garden District for a couple of days, and then we went home the "back way" - highway 90, which goes through places like Des Allemands and Morgan City, and up to New Iberia and Lafayette. And we stopped and went to Avery Island, which is where they make Tabasco. There's a little tour of the factory you can go on, which is interesting. And this Jungle Gardens place is there, too - this is the only picture I came out with because after that my batteries died, but it was pretty nice. There was a little break in the bad weather that day and it was lovely. There was a gigantic old Buddha - and I mean a really old one, 11th century or something - sitting in its own little temple out in the middle of nowhere. And there were camellias blooming all over the place; it was the right time of the year for them, anyway. And it was the wrong time of the year for alligators, thank goodness, or I probably would never have gotten out of the car to see the buddha. Apparently they are normally all over the place there, but it was their dormant season. (I didn't even know they had a dormant season.)
The thing is, apparently that is going turn out to be the last real trip I took with my mother. (Going to Bryan doesn't really count, in my mind.) Because she is not doing well. The tumor is back - and I didn't really turn a hair at that news because I already knew something was wrong, you know? Fairly abruptly, in the last few weeks, she has gotten much more out of it mentally. Her short-term memory is bad, her sense of time is almost nonexistent, and she's having trouble talking. I mean, not just stuttering like she has been doing ever since she had brain surgery nearly two years ago, but not being able to make herself understood at all, some of the time. She tries to tell us something and can't get it out and then finally gets frustrated and says "Oh, never mind." And it seems like she has lost the will to keep trying, which is what she used to would have done. It's very sad.
She is still at home with Art, but clearly that isn't going to be able to go on much longer. He wants to try to keep going through the holidays but I don't know if he's going to be able to manage that long. I guess it is going ok so far this week, and next week she is supposed to go stay with my aunt, up until Thanksgiving, and then we are going to take her home again. I hope all of that can work out.
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