Chaos Attraction

Reno

2014-12-08, 9:31 a.m.

Okay, I'm back, and I am cleared out of things I can do for the moment, so it's time to write up yesterday.

There has been a bit of drama going on between me and Mom regarding mountain driving. Every year she kind of freaks out a bit about driving to Grass Valley or Nevada City, and one year she refused to go there due to bad weather entirely. She freaks out at the idea of me driving up there alone, especially after dark. This year she even said she knew someone who had died on Highway 49, though I don't know the details of it. So far I have been all "well, I wouldn't be leaving after dark, but fine, I don't really have plans to go without you anyway" about it. But this year in her usual freakout, it was predicted to be pouring rain that night, so we left early to avoid it. Okay, fine.

Mom was planning on coming up this weekend--supposedly only Saturday because she had parties going on Friday and Sunday. However, given how late Mom tends to run, I knew it was at least 50/50 that she'd end up running so late to leave that she'd just sleep over here and leave early the next day. A few days into the week, Merry asked me if I was free on Sunday. I was all "uh, beats me at the moment, maybe" about it. She has a friend in Reno with a jewelry business who was holding a jewelry selling party Sunday. Merry has a part time job working for a friend's tea (and other things) business, which also has, of course, tea parties. So they decided to combine the two together, and did I want to go along with her?

I wasn't sure if I did or not, mostly because I sort of wanted a free day to work on sewing stuff--though I still haven't decided what I want to do with my stash yet, so it's not like I have specific projects in mind at the moment. And that would be a long day. On the other hand, I have seen Merry very little this quarter since we are on different volunteering nights now. But when I asked Mom if she was sure she was not going to be around on Sunday or not, and said why I was asking, hoo boy, did she lose some shit. She did NOT want me driving around in mountains in snow in winter. Which I agree with, mind you, but it wasn't predicted to snow over the weekend. Or even rain, for that matter. Nor was there a whole lot of snow going on right now, according to ye olde weather report and Merry's friend. Plus Merry has certainly driven in plenty of mountains and snow before and I would not be driving. However, Mom was just losing it at the whole idea and convinced I was going to die if I did such a thing.

I get really worn out of helicopter parenting at my age. I know she's WORRIED and can't help it and has no control all that jazz, but most people my age have done whopping amounts of drugs and crazy shit, and I have done very little crazy shit. She has been lucky with me. And yet, here she is losing her shit at the idea of me going to Reno.

Fine, I said, I won't go. I figured odds were high Mom would still be around on Sunday anyway, who knows when she'd leave my house and if Merry would be out the door by then, etc. I told Merry no. She was not happy.

Cut to very late Saturday night after Mom's left the house and I've spent two hours trying to fix various things on my computer, writing up the entry for Holidailies, etc. I finally check my e-mail at 11:30 and read all of Merry's e-mails....and then I felt bad and was all, "Hey...last minute change of plans...." over text....

So we left at 8:47 the next morning to go to Reno. Now I really hadn't been overly worried about driving in snow or anything when I said yes to this, but yeah, there is some snow in those mountains up there. Not on the road at all whatsoever, thankfully, but we did stop at the rest area and yes, there was snow. Merry wanted to do selfies (again, I'd post some pics but my modem takes forever and a day to upload anything) and I took pictures of the THREE snowmen I spotted in the area. The reason this is funny is that they have signs posted about NO SNOW PLAY and I spotted three snowmen. One within range of that sign--I also saw people hiking up into the hills in the snow and got some amusing framing in in my photos of this--and two snowmen that were really far out from the main drag. I see how well this is working. There's also a cheerful monument to the Donner Party. Anyway, I haven't been around snow since I was like, 30 or so, so what the heck, White Christmas 2!

The drive over was fine, and we got there early enough to hit Safeway and a Hawaiian restaurant, which was delicious AND HAD RAMEN BURGERS. So now I can say I've had one, and it was delicious. After that, we went over to her friend Rose's house and set up things and hung out with nice hippie folks for hours and had interesting conversations. It's so nice to get to hang out with those people en masse these days, since lord knows I haven't been able to get a quorum of any in my town these days. I also found Jess's birthday present while I was there, so that was nice. I drank more tea than I have ever drunk in my life.

However, since parties be parties...even if it was supposed to end at 5, we didn't leave until about 7:20. And while I was having a good time and all that, I was concerned about how late we were going to be. Especially since I usually have to call Mom around 9. I was originally hoping I could be back home by then, but HAHAHAHAH NOOOOOOOOOOOO. I also hoped Mom wouldn't try to contact me all day if she was busy with 2 parties, but of course she texted me going "Where are you?" at one point. Dammit. I said "I'm at a party, will call when I get back" and turned the phone off again, not wanting to deal with this impending dramaz.

But....I hate to say it, but I was worried at points on the way home. Not due to snow or rain, neither of which happened, but there were a few dubious drivers on the roads, saw a few crashes on the sides, and then finally The Fog Rolled In between Roseville and Sacramento. And it was a lot of fog. I looked at weather.com when I finally got home and it said "near zero visibility." I had been hoping by the time I had to deal with mama drama I'd be able to argue convincingly that "no, everything was fine," but...yeah, to some degree she was right and it was a bit worrisome. I suppose I am lucky that nothing did happen to prove her right.

But anyway, I staggered in at 9:45 and turned on the phone....and there was a text from Mom. She was still out partying at church (I KNOW, RIGHT?) and could we talk after 10 p.m.? Oh thank god, I thought, she hasn't been sitting at home Dwelling and Worrying since 6 p.m., she has been Occupied, so she's probably not losing her shit, having figured out what party I went to where I said I wasn't going to go. I had been rehearsing arguments in my head all the way home about it, knowing she'd still lose it anyway....but in the end, she didn't call after 10, and I got incredibly sleepy (didn't really sleep last night) and eventually said in a text that I couldn't wait any more and was going to bed and turned off the phone. Woot. And I was so brain dead and tired that I was having a bitch of a time just finding all of my passwords for Diaryland and Holidailies enough to post a token entry for the night before midnight. Uck.

I still don't know if I am going to tell her the truth about where I was last night, but hopefully she'll have been distracted enough by her own life to not focus on mine today.


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