Week 15 Revision

We were driving to Bar Harbor to see my grandmother and her friends, Nita and Suzie. I had heard of them when they went on a wild drive across the country in an RV with my grandmother.

When we got to the apartment they were staying in, my grandmother took my mother in, as Nita and Suzie were not dressed yet.

They entered the rented room, where Suzie was getting things ready, and Nita was still in her nightgown eating a sticky bun.

"Oh, hi!" she said, "Come in, I'm just eating one of Jean's cookies."

They talked for a moment.

"I think I should get out of bed soon," Nita said, "I wonder what I should wear?"

"Clothes," Suzie replied.

"Yes, that sounds good," Nita replied.

"Better than that saran wrap you wore yesterday. People stared."

Once they got ready, they came outside. Suzie rode with my grandmother in her car, and Nita ended up coming with us.

Nita walked over and entered our car. She is about 84, and lively for her age considering she just recently had surgery. 

"Hi!" she said, "I've seen you a lot in the pictures."

Felicia commented about how it has not been picnic weather.

"Yes," Nita replied, "But I prefer eating inside anyhow. Away from all the ants. And uncles. Oh, I'm going to love you, you haven't heard all of my old jokes."

Several minutes and jokes from Nita later, we arrived at the restaurant.

"Suzie and Jean aren't here yet," my mother said, "They should be here soon-"

We turned around, and Nita was already off into the restaurant. We hurried in after her.

"Table for seven," my mother said.

"Six," I corrected.

"That will be just a minute," the cashier said.

We stood off to the side so that people could get by us, and Nita found an empty seat to sit down in next to us, with her back to someone else. We stood waiting, and then my grandmother entered.

"You should come in a little farther, away from the doorway out of people's way." Felicia said to her.

She moved in closer to us, smushing me between her, my mother, and a vending machine. We stood like that for five minutes or so, until they got a table, with me standing on one foot trying to do my best "I'm as thin as a pencil" impression. I had had bad experiences with vending machines before, but this one certainly made the top five. 

Nita sat at the end because she was claustrophobic, across from Suzie. 

Suzie had long grey hair, and is in her sixties. On the RV trip, she refused to sit down, and ended up getting hurled into and taking out a table when they stopped suddenly. They ended up taping the leg of the table back on. They also ended up taping the RV together when it started falling apart.

She ordered pancakes and eggs, and was disappointed that I wasn't going to help her eat them, as if I didn't help her, she was afraid she would eat them all herself. Which she did.

My grandmother stretched her surprisingly long legs out far enough that I ended up sticking my feet as far under my seat as possible to avoid hers. My grandmother seemed to enjoy being with Nita and Suzie a lot. She usually is talkative, but when they were around she seemed to just be fascinated listening to their back and forth joking attacks at each other. 

"Where are the straws?" Suzie asked, and they all fell to laughing. In New Mexico, Suzie had stuck the paper package from the straw up her nose, making my grandmother swear violently in surprise.

Nita went out to take a cigarette.

"I'm down to one a day," she said. "I've quit tons of times. I'm an expert quitter."

"You must also be an expert starter," I said.

"We don't talk about that part," she replied.

When we left, Nita wanted to brush her teeth, so we went back to their apartment, where I fixed Suzie's ipad so that it connected to the internet. Which was somewhat ironic, as I had never really even seen one before.

We left to my grandmother's apartment, and on getting out, Nita borrowed my arm, to walk to the building.

 It was the first time I had ever leant my arm to someone, and it was a little different.

"Make a muscle," she said. "Come on legs."

She was panting a bit, so I asked her if she wanted to rest for a minute.

"Oh no, I'm fine. I'll make it. I'll just pant a lot, like this."

She started gasping really heavily on purpose, as a joke.

"Come on legs."

We reached my grandmother's apartment, and Nita sat down in a chair. Suzie showed us her iphone's radar application, that showed that the rain had just passed over us.

Nita requested a sculpted bear that she had made out of wood that she had apparently given to my grandmother at some point. I retrieved it for her, and she looked at it.

"What is it supposed to be?" Suzie asked.

"It's a medicine bear," Suzie replied. "It helps you when you don't feel good."

"Does it help mentally ill people like me?" Suzie asked.

"Maybe not for a case so severe as yours."

Suzie went on to tell us about how her husband had been accumulating cats. He had found one that was not doing too well, then found another one. He had named them all and could not go away too long or he would be afraid the cats would get hungry.

"My husband doesn't have any cats," Nita said, "We just have each other," hugging herself.

"Oh, isn't that nice," Suzie said.

"But he isn't that good in bed," Nita added, "Oops! I didn't say that!"

We were sitting on the couch, Nita was at a chair at the table, and Suzie was in a chair next to the couch. Nita was still gasping pretty badly, and my grandmother offered her something to drink.

"No, I'll be fine. I just need to rest."

"You could rest on the couch, you could lay down on it."

"No thanks," Nita replied, "All those legs would be bumpy. I could just lay down here on the table with my medicine bear."

After talking with them a while longer, they left to go shopping and whale watching, and that concluded my interesting elderly person watching for the year.