My life, for what it's worth, part 2

My mom.  Honestly.  I'd forgotten what it's like to travel with her. As I mentioned before, this has been a revolting winter in Seattle, and I am going to die if I don't get to see some sunshine soon.  So I told my mom I wanted to go to Maui after tax season.  She hemmed and hawed (but she doesn't have any new summer clothes!) but finally agreed to let me buy her a ticket. Then she fussed very hard, because our tickets are non-refundable and what if there's some festival in Hawaii that week and we can't get a hotel? I started looking for a hotel.  I sent her one that looked promising.  She said it looked like a fire trap, but, and I quote, "whatever you pick, I'm sure it will be fine."  Sigh.  I sent her another one.  She honestly doesn't care, but maybe she should ask her friends who stay on Maui where they go.  Fine, please do.  I sent another suggestion.  She countered with the name of the condo her parents used to stay at back wh

Last week, my business partner caught a nasty cold, and she insisted on coming to work every day.  I begged her to go home.  I told her how mad I'd be if I got sick.  And she would not leave.  Anybody care to guess where this is going? I haven't been sick in years.  Probably not since I left my former employer, where people would call in too sick to work and then come in to do their taxes and cough all over me.  I already had one cold this winter, and now I have a worse one.  Ugh.  My partner feels so sad and sorry, but I know she'll do it again.  Maybe I should get pneumonia to teach her a lesson. The good news is that I finally got caught up on all the work I got behind on when Dad was sick and then planning for the funeral.  For awhile there I was more behind than I've ever been.  Today I put the finishing touches on the last one, and then I brought myself home and put myself to bed.  I am going to go in briefly tomorrow and take Sunday off.  It will be wonderful

So much has happened since my last post.  My mom kept my dad home for another week, even though something clearly had broken in his brain.  He stayed up all night, every night, calling out, reaching for something on the ceiling, trying to get out of bed.  And of course, mom gamely "slept" next to him, telling him to settle down, keeping him in bed, not getting any sleep herself.  I went over there on Friday morning and her hands were shaking and she was gray.  I'm not ashamed to say I cried to make her call and get someone to come watch my dad at night that night. So she got a good night's sleep, which was good, because the next day she decided to take him to see the doctor.  The doctor took one look and called the ambulance to take him to the hospital, where he had every test known to man and was finally admitted.  They never did figure out what exactly had happened, but he was just out of his mind. Monday was the worst day ever.  I got there first thing in the m