Well, it was a pleasant enough day, EXCEPT...

I'll start with the good stuff first: went to Scottish Games, where I bought a bunch of stuff: (a) Three Faire pins, one having Baby Yoda on it, one having a dandelion on it that says "Blow me," and a butterfly quote from Betty White (bought it for Mom, then she didn't care) (b) A rainbow ribbon flower and barrette. (c) A peacock hair clip. (d) A rainbow flower headband (e) Some English candy. (f) Another pocket belt-half-skirt thing--purple/lavender lace with a blue pocket. (g) A green and blue long skirt made out of sari material. I tried to talk myself out of this because the dang thing is see-through and you have to wear something under it. I tried on two XXL wraparound skirts (really too damn use for wear) that were very pretty, but ended up still loving the green/blue skirt and buying it anyway. The lady shopping near me got one of the skirts I considered and we were all happy for her.

I ran into Jean (costumes) while I was there! Hilarious that we ended up in the same costume booth. She said her husband used to be the fire(?) chief there and she even had a badge for it, saying her name was "Jeannie." I asked about that and she said she goes by both and would kind of like to go by it at the theater because "Jean" sounds like "Jan" (I said, "same, that's why I go by Jennifer there"), but Steve can't deal with changing it now. Then we talked about clothes, of course. She said Andee from the show was there too, but I never spotted her. Kind of hilarious that she recognized me, I guess--I had on a hat and mask and clothes she hadn't seen before. Mom said it must have been the eyes.

Other than that, we had pizza because Mom wanted pizza. It was wood fired pizza, which I hate for two reasons: (a) LIMP AS FUCK, (b) frequently burned. (Why do people do this to pizza?!) But it was the only pizza option, so there you go. The Dole Whip we had for dessert was much better. We didn't watch the Games much (we don't really do that at this faire, it's hot for that), looked at raptors a bit, briefly went through the history area/concerts for same reason...mostly just shopping indoors there. Watched bands a bit. We ended up leaving around 3:30 both because we ran out of things to do. It was apparently only 97 here and not the 106 that TV news said it would be, so yay for that. It was fine, though I feel sorry for the people in heavy-duty costumes.

Then we went to Barnes and Noble because she had to buy a baby book for some reason. I bought myself two books and then a "care kit" of sorts for Dawn, consisting of a national park perpetual calendar map, a sticker, and two Knock Knock "self-therapy" and "paper tantrum" notepads.

Then we went to El Torito with Jackie, which was so busy we could not park in their parking lot and had a very hard time managing to park in the NEXT parking lot. I never saw a shopping center so packed in my life. Jackie got lucky and got a good spot right off like 10-15 minutes later, go figure. We had flautas, which were good, and I ate way too many chips. Jackie is having the usual family difficulties with people, told us that she's been playing the stock market since age 16* and well, that explains a lot! Also, she showed us some pretty well near-naked photos of a former coworker of hers that she puts on dating apps** while asking to meet a quality, intellectual man who can get her pregnant. Naturally, she is getting fuckbois and married men and can't figure out whyyyyyyyy. I was all "how has she not been kicked off Tinder for prostitution?! (Former Redhead) Sarah got kicked off for making reference to daddies!" I ended up telling them about the job, sigh. I really didn't mean to tell either of them, but the subject came up, sigh.

* Very Turtle Wexler, I thought, but she wouldn't have gotten the reference.
** I'm talking "wearing a ribbon" and "only wearing nipple covers," I AIN'T KIDDING.
So that's the good stuff of the day.

Jackie gave us enormous amounts of baked goods and ice cream, and apparently some random food? I literally cannot bring all of it into the house overnight, so I'm going to have to get up early and drive it all home.

Mom was only mildly problem-y (with one exception, see below) today. She did gripe about people having brown lawns and she "doesn't want to look like we live in a state with no water," and I pointed out that the drought is the worst ever and we ARE a state with no water. She didn't rag on me much. However, she did literally WALK IN THE MIDDLE OF THE STREET today and I had to tell her multiple times NOT TO DO THAT and then later while we were circling in another parking lot, got annoyed and said, "Why do those women have to walk in the middle of the street?!" Me: "I literally told you NOT TO DO THAT EARLIER TODAY." "Well, no cars were around." "Well, SOME CARS COULD HAVE SHOWN UP. THAT'S THE POINT." I also made comments about oh, PAYING ATTENTION, which she ignored. Oh, and I paid for lunch and dinner today (she got the show tickets and dessert), so there's that.

Here's the bad thing: mid-morning or so when we were at the Games, Mom starts sneezing a lot...and coughing...and at one point looked at me and said she felt weak, and I had to park her to sit down for a bit... SO GUESS WHAT I'VE BEEN WORRIED ABOUT ALL FUCKING DAY, AFTER HAVING SHARED A BED AND TOILET WITH HER WITH MASK OFF, NOT TO MENTION CAR.

I found out later that oh, she's had "stuffy nose" since THURSDAY. "IT WAS JUST A STUFFY NOSE!" she said. I said if I had known, I wouldn't have come down here and gone around without a mask in the house. I tried to keep that polite and not scream, but...jesus christ, Then I was all, "yeah, but now you're COUGHING a fair amount and you're blowing your nose kind of a lot and you said multiple times that you were tired." She said, "yeah, because I've gotten six hours of sleep the last two nights." Okay, and she did rally for the rest of the day and didn't collapse. But that said, we did drive by Roger's to pick up tests. He took the news well (really, we all need a Roger for when you have to deliver bad news: he keeps his cool instead of yelling, unlike my gene pool) and handed over six, then said Mom has no idea how to do them and I'm going to have to show her. I asked her NOT to take it tonight because at this point it's after 9 and I canNOT deal with her coming up positive because I'd have to start driving right now, get home at 1 a.m., have to haul all that shit into the house, and oh, START SCREAMING.

I didn't tell Jackie. I feel awful about it, but we ate outside, Mom had her mask on when we were briefly in the restaurant (she sneezed and coughed a bit but nothing super unusual compared to oh, IN THE CAR) I hope nothing happens. At this point it'd be too late for me anyway, but I'm stupidly wearing a mask in the house now and found Mom's air purifier in the living room and turned it on. I'm going to have to try to figure out how to sleep in a mask tonight (HOW?!?!), but it's probably too late anyway...Roger said he feels fine, had the "stuffy nose" but nothing else, she wears a mask to work at the theater and was only around him...I kinda doubt some of that.

I'm so angry and I can't show it. I wanted to be in the show. Hell, I wanted to get my fourth shot on Friday and if I get it, then I can't get it for MONTHS. GodDAMN IT, she goes around with free face, she free faced it all over the fair (I did not), she coughed and sneezed and....now of course I am starting to freak out and wonder if I am getting a sore throat.

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