The Legion, otherwise known as Keeping the voices at bay....

16:47

I would have posted before now but after the hellish weekend I really needed a rest.

To begin with I should say that Cape Breton has been in the middle of a heat wave for the last two weeks. Temps have been between 24-27 with a humidity percentage between 30-70%. Not to mention not only is there no air conditioning in the house but there is none in the car either.

Thursday: Woke Junior up for work at 7am, he left at ten to 8. Spent the rest of the day hiding from the heat and trying to stay hydrated [de-hydration is one of the leading causes of premature labor I've been told]. Course this means that I spend most of the day running to the bathroom every five minutes because I'm drinking so much damn water.

Junior got home at 5pm. We sat talking about his day for maybe an hour when my Aunt Mary shows up. She's stranded here because her drive took off. She wants Junior to drive her home because her soon to be sister-in-law is supposed to be coming in from Fredricton tonight. Yay. Junior and Mary leave about thirty minutes later. He gets back at 12:30am. Seems Mary decided he should stay just in case they needed to go into town for anything.

My father is out drinking at this point and comes home a few hours later drunk and proceeds to wake all of us up with his banging around.

Friday: Woke Junior up for work at 7am, he left at ten to 8. Poor guy got almost no sleep. He's got a half day today, it being friday, but we still have all the shopping to do when he gets home. 1:30 he comes home and gets a quick shower before we head into town to get groceries. Everyplace is packed and we have to go to two different malls so he can get his dress clothes for the wedding. Finally make it home at 5 after 5pm. Junior then loads the arbor he made for Mary's wedding into our friend's truck which we borrowed for the night. He leaves at ten to 6pm. He's supposed to go to the hall, set up the arbor, and come straight home.

Instead he gets talked into taking his friend Cory over to his cousin's place. He calls me at 11pm to tell me he'll be home as soon as he does this. So while I'm waiting for him to get home I've got to listen to my father and one of his drinking buddies who are being louder than usual. At 2am still no Junior. Dad's drinking buddy leaves and I decide to go lay down while I'm waiting, maybe get some sleep. 3am, no Junior yet, and my brother shows up. Drunk. With beer. For the next hour and a half I have to listen to them as well as worry about where Junior is.

Now at this point my nerves are pretty well shot. Two scenarios are running through my head. In the first one Junior has been in an accident and is either dead, seriously injured, or stranded somewhere with no way to get back. In the other, Junior let himself be talked into drinking with Cory and is too drunk to drive in which case he won't be home in time and I'll have to drive us all out to the wedding which I have no idea how to get to. Needless to say I kept having crying jags and couldn't sleep even if there weren't two drunks in the next room.

My brother leaves and dad spends the next hour or so in the kitchen trying to make himself a sandwich and making a mess. Eventually he passes out at the kitchen table. Ten after 7am I finally get a hold of Junior. He's on his way. Apparently he did drink and he passed out until five after 7. 8am Junior comes home and I lose it. After worrying all night, only an hour of sleep and having to put up with all the drunks....I cried for about twenty minutes straight. Poor Junior.

Saturday: Chris, Junior and I all get ready for the wedding. I wrapped Mary's present, did up the card, packed a few essentials [change of clothes, water bottle, snacks for the drive]. At 9am Dad wakes up and tells us he's not going because he promised Harry he'd help him today. Fine, that's one less person in the car. Junior calls my brother, who doesn't answer his phone, and leaves a message. That's another person we don't have to take. Ten minutes to 10 and Dad decides he is going to go. Great. We got him to change his shirt at least so he's not wearing something with chili down the front. Then we leave. At this point [10am] the temperature is already about 27 and very muggy.

We take the back roads so Junior can speed. Out of deference to my pregnancy I get the front seat leaving Chris to sit in the back with Dad. Poor Chris. Dad decides he's not 50 years old but rather he's a bratty 5 year old. The phrases: "Are we there yet?" and "I'm not touching you" actually leave his mouth. More than once. An hour and twenty minutes later, thanks to going more than 100kmph, we arrive at Mary's. Junior gets roped into taking George, the groom, down to the hall to drop off a few things. At 12:50pm, ten minutes before the wedding is supposed to start, Junior gets back and we're roped into going to Whycogomah to pick up food for the dinner that someone couldn't drop off.

We get to the hall at quarter after 1. Drop off the food and begin waiting, the Justice of the Peace is late. Ten minutes later the finally are ready to start the wedding. The temperature has since gone up to 31.

The wedding ceremony was very lovely. Even though I hate weddings. When it was over we all sat down to dinner. Within an hour after dinner everyone was gone. No one wanted to stay for a dance in that kind of heat. So we packed up, dropped some stuff off for Mary and headed to Cory's where Junior got dropped for the night. Luckily Dad had gotten a ride home with one of our uncles so it was only me and Chris on the way home.

Chris and I got home about 2 hours after we left and went almost immediately to sleep. I slept for six hours before waking up to close the windows, then back for another three. Chris slept straight through for about 11 hours. And we're still not caught up on all the sleep we missed.

So that was my weekend. Not fun to the tenth power.

And now I'm going to go take a nap because I still need more sleep to recover fully.