So I am
finally back from my trip to California. It wasn’t a business or really even a
pleasure trip; it was more of a small family reunion for my grandfather’s 100th
birthday. As with any time family gets
together there will be drama. I only
regret not taking more pictures.
As many of
you know I left on Thursday, thus the early Friday rant. I have never been so thankful that my dad
flies so much; he got my mom and me first class tickets down and back. Holy crap, I will save up money to travel
just for the leg room alone.
 |
| Such Leg Room, So WoW |
We also
were able to sit in the Alaska
airlines board room. It was nice and quiet;
we even had breakfast in there. The
flight it’s self down had quiet a bit of turbulence, my mother griped my hand
so hard I thought it was going to fall off.
When we landed and went to pick up my parent’s luggage my mom’s bag was
missing. They had lost her luggage and
later we found out it went to Newport
Connecticut. This is why I packed everything in my carryon
backpack. Good news is it did arrive to
the original airport but not until the next day. This meant my mom’s cloths for the family
portraits the following morning were MIA and we had to go to Target for
replacement clothing.
Aside from
the lost luggage, we had a shitty hotel.
The only upside to this place is that it was only a five minute drive
from my grandfather. The walls were
thin, twice we had loud neighbors waking us up early in the morning (think 2am
and 5am), the beds were a sleep number bed that would only inflate or deflate
on one side, and the sink and toilet were so low you might as well be on the
ground to do your business. The name of
the hotel was the Radisson. Do Not Stay
Here!
The
majority of our time was spent at my grandfather’s house socializing with
family and plotting on how to escape conversations that were lasting a tad too
long. The great grandchildren had fun
together and acted like they have known each other all there lives. Overall everyone got along well. There were only 3 planed out events that
everyone had to participate in. They
were the family portraits, church lunch-in, and family only dinner.
The portraits
were the first time I saw my cousin N since he got married. He seemed very stand offish and didn’t
socialize with anyone other than my grandfather and his family. I guess that is the east coast arrogance
peaking its head out. His wife seemed
nice, a little shy and skittish but nice.
After the portraits everyone went back to the house and had lunch. One kid broke there arm and that killed the
mood for a good 5 minutes then everyone went back to talking and playing.
Church
gathering went well; it was good to see so many people out to celebrate my
grandfather. My sister was so surprised
that I didn’t catch on fire for entering a church, and I had to remind her that
I only catch fire if there was service going on. Lucky for me everyone had speeches and no
prayer was given. It was kind of touching
to see my dad get choked up when he gave his speech to his dad. Afterwards a majority of the people went
back to the house to continue to celebrate.
The next
day my parent and I meet up with my sister and her family at Knott’s Berry
Farm. I only went on a few rides since
my intestines finally decided to give me a bowel movement after 3 days of
nothing. But I did go on a few:
Montezoom’s Revenge, Jaguar, Hat dance (my sister could not stop laughing on
that ride), Dragon Swing, and the Log ride.
Monday
night was my grandfather’s official birthday and we all had a lovely dinner at
Cedar Creek. This was the final good bye
greetings to all the cousins and other family members. My parents and I left Tuesday at noon on a
bitching plane:
With some noms on the plane:
When I
arrived back home I was exhausted and thus the much delayed “Monday” post. Now I stated earlier that there was family
drama but I have only reported happy greetings and family bonding. Well here is the drama behind the scenes.
The drama
started back last two Monday’s ago right before we were all leaving to fly down
to California. My uncle sent out an email asking my dad, my
sister, and I for pictures of us growing up and our families to use in the
slide show for the church gathering. The
big issue was that my sister was driving down the next day and did not have
time to dig threw and send down pictures.
My mother and I scrambled and did send him some pictures for the slide
show, but did anything we sent down get used, nope. The only saving grace was the photographer
used some of the portrait pictures of us in the slide show. The shittiest part was for my sister. Her oldest child died young (only 7 years
old) and it would have been nice to include just one picture of her in memory
of or something.
Next up we
have my grandfather’s second wife stirring the pot like she always does. She
tried to plan (without telling anyone) a day where my grandfather and her were
going to go visit her kids (they were married in there late 80’s so her kids
are my parents age) who only live an hour away from them. The issue was my cousin N, who came across
the country, wanted to spend the day with him and have his kids write a report
on there grandfather. They would be able
to ask questions and get to know him better.
Once the news of my grandfather’s wife plans were for that day came up,
my uncle quickly squashed them and N and his family were able to spend the day
with there grandfather. Sorry bitch,
maybe next time.
The biggest
drama had bee bubbling up for over the past 15 years between my father and uncle. When my grandmother past away 20 years ago,
she told her boys to split up her jewelry between them and the
grandchildren. So for 20 year my uncle
was responsible for the jewelry and he was suppose to divide it out with my
father. For 20 years this has never
happened and my father was getting upset.
He would always ask my uncle for the jewelry and for them to go threw it
but he would blow it off.
The tipping
point on this trip was one of my cousins was wearing one of my grandmother’s
rings. When I complemented the ring
knowing full well that it was grandmothers she said thank you and that the ring
was inexpensive and not worth much. Here
is the thing about my grandmother, she did not wear cheep or costume jewelry. That ring sitting on my cousin’s finger was a
gold and jade with diamonds around it.
Sorry cousin but I call you on your bull shit.
So that
ticked off my dad. He gave his brother
one last warning to hand over the jewelry so he could at least pick some things
out for my sister and I. Well the last
night we were there he handed off the boxes of jewelry to my dad so he can look
threw it. When we returned back to my
grandfathers house (just my parents and I) we went to the back room to look at
and pick out some pieces. When we opened
the boxes what did we find, spoons. Lots
and lots of silver and some gold spoons.
We did find some jewelry but
according to my dad this was not the completed collection of my
grandmother. If my uncle had said he had
already given it out to his kids or needed the money, then just tell us. Don’t string us along for 20 plus years on
soothing that is there no more. Even my
grandfather was disappointed that my dad’s family got screwed over.
It’s not
that my sister and I really wanted the jewelry; it is the principle of the
matter. I can only hope that my father
keeps in mind of what my uncle has done and when my grandfather passes will
have lawyer present with him so he doesn’t get screwed again.
So that was
my trip. Still very tired and trying to
catch up on sleep. I am suppose to go to
a networking thing tonight but I don’t know.
This week I plan on taking it easy and watching the big game on Sunday. GO HAWKS!!!!
See you on
the other side
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