, i don't understand her. on monday we got a phone call that grandpa was back in the hospital because he had some fluid in his lungs, so we go there and he's in the emergency room and he's looking bad. his eyes are open but he's not blinking or responding to anybody and his breathing racks his whole body. the doc says he's on his last leg. we sit in the emergency room for a while and there's this guy brought in next door who had had a seizure, they leave the room and then he starts shaking and i think he's having a seizure so i go call the doctor/nurses and they come in and give him some meds. they move grandpa upstairs and uncle cee, grandpa's brother, comes to see him and sit with us. a few hours later a preacher comes up and says a prayer and right after that the last breath leaves my grandfather's body. everyone cries and its horrible because old/grown folk aren't supposed to cry. its heartbreaking to see them cry. gwen [aunt minnie's daughter] was coming up hallway when we stop and tell her what happened, then she goes to tell her mother. we go outside to get some air and to call my aunts and uncles and cousins to tell them to get down here as soon as they can for the funeral. me and my mom walk down the street to krystal's [my new fav. burger place; man i wish they had those up here] and grab some grub. tuesday, i dont remember what we did in the morning but aunt sheila, uncle norman and shalea flew in from springfield. then in the afternoon we drove to memphis to pick up my aunt helen from north carolina. on the way back to greenwood, the woods along the highway were full of lightening bugs. it looked like christmas lights in the summer, i wish i could've taken a picture. the next day, me shalea and aunt sheila hung out around the pool reading. then shalea got me to go swimming. the other adults arranged all the details for the funeral. we went to lunch at shoney's which was next door to the hotel and when we came out my cousin darren and his wife eryka and his dad, my uncle robert and his "friend" barbara had just pulled up and were checking in. whew barbara looks country [springfield country not country country], she has this gold tooth with a star in it. i didn't think that was my uncle's type of person but whatever floats ya boat. they all get checked in and all of our rooms were in order from 107-111. my cousin cory was comng from detroit later on in the day but meanwhile we [i forget who exactly] i think i went with barbara and uncle robert, and uncle norman n'em went in their car, to aunt minnie's house. we talked, we ate. since me and shalea were the only ones on our age range, we went outside and sat on the patio swing under the carport. we just sat and enjoyed the silence of the night. then it got too quiet and so we brought out the radio and talked. when we got finally in at the hotel, my cuz had arrived. that night uncle robert felt the need to go out and throw some trash in the dumpster. i aint sure what happened but a cat ended up scratchin him around his eye. my mother is the family health consultant so he came to our room and asked her about it. he went to the hospital down the street and was given some antibiotics, in the end he was ight. so altogether all but one of granpa's children and half of his grandchildren had come down. the wake or viewing was set for thursday morning. we all had breakfast and got dressed and got into our respective cars and drive to the funeral home. the way we walked in then were ushered into the viewing room but the owner of the place, i ended up being first to see granpa. he looked... nice. he didnt look all emaciated like he did at the hospital. he was in his favorite white suit. i kept expecting his chest to move, like he was breathing but it never did. my uncles teared up. everyone but the guys openly cried. i think it was easier for me, mommy and aunt joan cuz we were there when he died but it was still hard. aunt helen called me back into the viewing room and i looked over at my grandfather lying in his casket and expected his chest to move again. man letting go of the notion that someone is no longer living is hard. aunt helen told me that i was gonna be responsible for collecting the cards that came with the flowers we received. we left the funeral home half an hour later after taking pictures outside. kinda morbid huh? taking pictures outside the funeral home? but yea everyone had a camera. we get back to the hotel and everyone changes. me and shalea go play raquetball for the second time that week. it gets hot as fuck hella quick in that closed in cement box that they call a court. then she convinces me to go swimming. we stay in the pool for a while. oh yea i forgot to mention that it was the hottest day of the week, like 95 or so, it had been in the upper eighties since that first day we got there. anyways it was hot as fuck outside so i go and get my book cuz we were gonna sit outside for awhile to dry off. we end up falling asleep outside and i get sunburnt. all the skin on my nose turns raw. i never want to sunbathe again lol. later on that evening we go back out to the funeral home, we sit and talk for awhile, look at the homecoming celebration [aka funeral] program, i collect some cards and we head on our merry way. that night some people head to the local bar to watch the pistons/miami game. others go to uncle c's house to watch the game over there. i went to the bar and eryka [my cousin's wife] keeps eggin me to order a drink while my mom drops my aunt back at the hotel. i didnt want to run the risk of gettin carded tho so i didnt lol. this asian guy, who i'm sure is drunk, is standing like 5 ft away from me talking to this chick at the bar and somehow gets bumped back so he keeps backing up and eventually his ass is in my line of view. i'm trynna watch the game on the tv in the corner but his ass is in my line of sight. so i tap his back and i do this shooing motion like get the fuck away from me and he's lookin like what i do? so i do the motion again and he goes back near the bar. my cousin darren [he's big he aint fat but he looks like you wouldnt wanna fuck with him or his familia capish?] was looking over and i forget what my mom said but he was like i was gonna let her handle it. we just laughed and went back to watchin the game. after we left i was kinda mad @ myself for not goin with aunt shelia uncle norm and shalea to uncle c's house. i prolly would have had a better time cuz that restuarant was smoky as fuck. friday: the day of the homecoming ceremony aka the funeral. we wake up as usual, go to the complimentary breakfast that i've slowly been gettin sick of, i see my aunt helen, uncle norm and aunt sheila eating. i grab a bagel or whatever and join them. we head back to our respective rooms and get dressed. we meet up in the lobby and wait for the limo to pull up. i'm expecting this modern limo, ya know a caddy with a/c and shit but this old large car comes up to the door and it has no ac so we're in the car sweltering, yes sweltering. i felt beads of sweat on my back it was that hot and when everyone piled into the car it was even hotter -_-. so we drive to the church where the service is gonna be held and we get a police escort along the way. as we are abotu to cross the highway-like street this car tries to get past us before we go past and it would have to pause for all of maybe 20-30 seconds [impatient niggers i swear] so the dude in the truck ahead of us cuts infront of them and they try to drive around the truck and i could've sworn there was gonna be a collision but the car finally stopped and we drove on. when we get to the church i see whole bunch of people. there's this large mass of harrises that i've never seen and the folks that i've met over the past couple of weeks plus the people who go to the church where my grandfather was a deacon. the funeral directors line us, the family, up so we can go inside and sit but they line us up wrong [and i discussed this afterwards with some people and they agreed.] but yea it was the children then his extended fam then his brothers and sisters then the grandkids. IMO the immediate family i.e his brothers and sisters and us grandkids shoulda been in front of the extended family but whatever. the service was nice, the preacher was good. my aunt got up to say thank you to all who attended and that made me shed some tears. seeing my aunts and uncles cry is hard. when everything was over we filed out again. got back into that hot ass car and rode for what seemed like forever to the cemetary. the cemetary was all bumpy and the ground was soft and everybody who had thin heels kept sinking into the ground. there must have been 30 cars that pulled into the cemetary behind us. there was 6 or 8 chairs under the canopy thing and we sat for the presentation of the flag [cuz he was in the service] then people started grabbing flowers off of the flower holders. i grabbed a few live lilies, other people mostly grabbed the fake ones so they last longer. after that we drove back to the church and ate and ate and ate. then we took pictures of everybody [that reminds me i need to go get those developed...] and went back to the hotel. i don't recall what else we did but i know we had started packin later on then everybody ended up in our room and we joked and talked for a few hours then they left and we went to sleep cuz we had a flight the next day. when we woke up, got dressed, and etc we took our stuff to the car then met some of our fam at shoney's for our farewell breakfast. i stuffed myself 
we said our goodbyes and have-a-safe-trip-homes then we got in the car and i promptly fell asleep as my aunt "drove" to memphis. when i woke up, we were an hour away from memphis, gassin up the car and my mom had bought some krispy kremes 
so we get to the aeropuerto and we check our bags and they're overweight. now i dunno how that happened cuz we aint really buy shit during our stay so i dunno what the fuck happened but i put some of my shit in my mom's bag so she only had to pay for that one being overweight. we go thru the metal detectors and the dude checkin my id starts this convo about school (which was funny but i forget why...) anyways we get on the plane and flew for about an hour when the pilot starts talking about a storm over chicago and we circle around for about 45 minutes then we head over to kalamazoo airport to get refueled. we stay there for 30 minutes then get back on the plane and fly into the infamous O'Hare airport. o'hare is HUGE and slightly confusing. since we have obviously missed our flight, we go to the nearest ticket counter to see what's up. me and my mom were rescheduled for a later flight and my aunt wasn't and they didnt know what flight she was gonna be on so she started panicking and shit (she's the BIGGEST hypochondriac). after she semi calms down we start walkin towards our terminal which is like 15 minutes away (again, this airport is large as fuck) we stop at some expensive sammich place get some food and go on our way. we go past mad restuarants and stores and shit, its like a mall inside this damn airport. we finally get to our destination after switchin my heavy ass bag ( i just HAVE to bring my cds everydamnwhere) from shoulder to shoulder and resting like twice (old people i swear lol). after i dunno 20 minutes of rest, this announcement comes over the speaker: "flight yaddayadda chicago to hartford is now boarding at terminal H" meaning we have to move again thru the thousands of people there. thats another thing i forgot to mention the many many many many many many crowds of people. we had to form a human chain while walking thru those crowds. and some people can't fucking walk, man i was turning evil (which i become when tired) so i was walkin on niggas shoes and shit, pushing into folk, i did not care as long as i got to where i needed to be. as we approached our terminal for the 5th time that day, i spot starbucks coffee, i drop my bag with my mom who found some seats and get a venti (large) creme frappucino that shit was good as fuck and i got my mom somethin too. my aunt was at the counter askin about where or not she would be on this flight, just aggravatin the mess out of some employee. blah and so forth and so on we (mother and i) board the plane and we end up sittin way in the back in front of the toilets and next to the turbine but this is on a big plane so i get my proper leg room i pulled out my cd player and my book, let the seat back and get comfortable, i even kick off my sneakers. my aunt ended up on the same flight so she calmed down i'm glad she was sittin way up in front tho. this lil boy and his mom were sittin in front of us and he kept turning around and touching my knee 
and played peekaboo with me. he was cute, it was night time and his mom keep giving him oreos and soda. i thought that was weird considering sugar would tend to make a child hyper and night is for sleeping i dunno...Labels: life
the sudden craze for sneakers at
1:10 AM
. grandpa's sister eveleana was also in the hospital because she had just had her legs amputed due to diabetes. the next day we see him at the hospital again, then we went to aunt minnie's house who is my grandpa's sister. another thing, i haven't been in mississippi in 16 years. my aunt charlie mae, whom my mom is named after, was there [visiting from chitown] also. immediately they became my two favorite great aunts, they are so real, i just like their energy lol. they both tell it straight but aunt minnie is more blunt with it. then we see grandpa again, this twice a day visitation becomes tiring to my mom and i and also to granpa cuz he becomes less receptive to us, mommy and i can both see it. then we head to walmart which is the biggest store in greenwood. they don't have any real malls, and what they do call a mall consists of piggly wiggly, jc penny and cvs. so yea we go into walmart and my mom keeps gettin stared at, now i, being the possessive child i am, stare at these country ass fools 
and my mother accuses me of blocking, i'm like "so what, you aint gettin a country husband." we go back to the hotel with the ac on low and its deathly hot but my aunt doesn't like all that cold air on her 
. the ac at the hotel is on low as hell too cuz "its so cold" man i swear my aunt brought her sweater with her everywhere and wore it like 85% of the time we were down there. i would turn it up at night cuz we can't sleep when its warm/hot. on thursday, we saw granpa and he was getting discharged so we waited for him to get shipped back to his house and to get the hospital bed set up. now he's technically still married to my grandmother but he left springfield about 40 years ago and moved in with this other lady and her family, becoming commonlaw and all that. now he was living with just her fam since she died and they've been taking care of him. anyways after he was settled back home we went out to the casino's in greenville. at the first one the security chick at the door was like "you can't bring any cameras in here and aint no use puttin them in your bags since i've seen them already". she was just mad she had to stand outside in the heat. she also wanted to see my id so i knew i wasn't gettin in there. my aunt stayed at that casino and me and my mom took the cameras to the car and drove to this other casino where i snuck in and ended up winning 40 bucks. while my mother cashed out, i got some nickles stuck in another machine and an attendant came over to get them out, i could've sworn i was gonna get kicked out for being underage . we drive back to our hotel and take a nap then go by mamie's house [mamie= granpa's mistress's daughter] to check on grandpa again. they had him all cleaned up and stuff, he looked better. we sat outside on the porch and mamie's husband starts talking about fashion and other shit i didn't pay attention to, i think he was hitting on my mother but he aint got no teeth and he has the same clothes he had on 2 days ago and he just look nasty and he's MARRIED . on saturday there was a cookout at aunt minnie's and all of aunt minnie's kids and grandkids and greatgrands where there along with some other cousins. so we went over there and ate and tried to remember everyone's names and talked and laughed til the sun started to dip down. then aunt joan jumped up cuz she doesnt like driving in the dark and it was NOWHERE near dark but we went back to the hotel anyway. the adventure continues...Labels: life
the sudden craze for sneakers at
12:34 AM
