kitty pi

On Benzedrine, Blue Soap and Men in Black

Memorable things from my trip to Vegas...

My grandma's orange blouse. The one she bought in 1968 in a bargain bin at JC Penney for $10. She has worn it every time I've seen her. I think that is pretty cool.

My grandpa's story of walking down a street in Greenwich Village in the 50s and hearing a song called "Who Put the Benzedrine in Mrs. Murphy's Ovaltine?" I'm going to download it and send it to him.

My dad telling us that the day you stop dreaming and the day you stop learning is the day they throw dirt on your face. To that I say, "hear, hear"! Also, he melted my heart when he said he was paying for dinner. That isn't a big deal to everyone else, but in my family it's HUGE. I felt such a gush of emotion when he smiled and said "dinner's on me". I hugged and kissed him and felt like a real daddy's girl for the first time since I was five years old.

My mom's preference for non-blue soap. She has dry skin like me (from washing too much). When she walked out of a bathroom at the hotel, she said something like "ew. They have blue soap here. I don't like blue soap." I never liked blue soap either, but now I know why. She explained to me all of the different kinds of soap. White is soap with lotion and that one is her favorite. Green and blue are very drying to your skin. I forget what pink means. But everytime I see blue soap now, I think of my mom. She is so cute.

My uncle has a thing for punctuality. He gives you a hard time when you are late, but then he is always really late himself. Getting lost is okay (for him), underestimating the time it will take to pick up the whole family and drive to a restaurant (for us) is inexcusable. Okey dokey, smokey. Do we have control issues?

My cousin and her husband like NASCAR. That's all I know. I spent a whole 10 minutes (max) with them. The whole weekend. By the time they showed up to dinner on Saturday, grandma and grandpa were tuckered out and fading fast and we needed to take them home. It was like hi cousin! bye cousin! She does look hot though. The unfortunate part is that she knows it and has a hard time thinking of anything or anyone else. I don't know if it's too bad they spent the whole weekend at the races or if it was a blessing. I know my uncle and grandparents were disappointed and that makes me want to smack her!

My sister is hard to explain. She defies description! She is very tomboyish but she has long, flowing goddess hair. That's her - an enigma and a bundle of contradictions. Anyway, it was her first time to Las Vegas so it was pretty cool to show her around. She hung in there pretty well and only had one minor meltdown. I actually had a nice time with her and she wasn't too much of a pain in the ass. =) I can't wait to get her pictures because she had the nicest camera.

Mr. Q was heroic. He took such good care of everyone, especially my grandparents who are in their 80s and quite frail. I can't even begin to tell you how great he was - he was always attentive, always anticipating their needs, constantly vigilant and extremely thoughtful and generous. My dad really hit it off with him and that was a big bonus to me. My mom said he was "cultured" which I think is code for "snob" but I think she approved anyway. My grandparents fell completely in love with him (like me) and they spent a lot of time talking and laughing together. My grandpa even drew a picture of Mr. Q which I will cherish always. My grandpa just had a shunt placed in his brain to drain some fluid so he hasn't been able to write or draw for a while. He was an artist his whole life, so that's a big deal.

Anyway, it was not the redneck, white trash renaissance that I thought it would be. One of my sisters and one of my cousins were absent but it was a good family gathering. There wasn't any real conflict or strife. There wasn't any real disapproval. My parents were wonderful to be with. My grandparents are amazing. My sister was tolerable! =) (Sis, if you end up reading this: I keed, I keed!) The jury is still out on my cousin. All in all, it was fantastic.

Oh, one more thing: I love Rip Torn now. That sounds totally bizarre, but wait. Mr. Q gave me five dollars to play a Men In Black slot machine. It turned out to be a penny slot which I had never played before. When you got three flashy light thingys (you know, the neuralizers), Rip Torn would appear and point up to the top of the machine and it would tell you what you won. He did that a few times and I ended up winning $160. On a penny slot machine! It's not a great fortune but it really helped! That was almost the whole hotel bill. Rip Torn rocks!

posted by Anita at 9:32 AM