I woke up really early Tuesday since Mom had an 8:30 doctors appointment. It took forever. I hate when you show up on time for a doctors appointment and the doctor isn't there yet and you have to wait for them. When I managed North Charleston Internal, Dr. Eads did that all the time and I felt so bad for the patients because they had to wait so long. It's quite irritating on both ends.
Mom had another appointment this afternoon and instead of waiting with her I went to the Hamlets subdivision around the corner where I did a cache the other day. There was a sign that said "5 minute walk to to Crowfield ruins." Again, if you really know me, you know that I love historic places and any kind of abandoned structures. I decided to take the 5 minute walk to the ruins which actually was more like a 15 minute walk one way. It's hot in Charleston and I was wearing jeans and a black t-shirt - ugh. Before I went to the ruins I walked back to the lake. There was a really nice dock and a lake with a sign that said "Please do not feed or aggravate the alligators!" Ahhh, to be back in South Carolina! You never see signs that warn you to not aggravate the alligators in Dayton!
After taking a couple of pictures, I followed the path to the Crowfield Ruins which ended up being in the middle of the Hamlets subdivision golf course. Gee, that was nice of them to not over-develop the land and leave the ruins for people to enjoy... they could have built a million-dollar house on the property, after all! The whole thing was pretty anti-climactic. I think it was because while I was enjoying the ruins, I had to deal with golfers, which took away from the experience. I went back to pick Mom up, who had been waiting. Seems that podiatrists are much faster at seeing patients than opthamologists!
I asked my Mom is she wanted to drive by the Commissary to see if we could spot Traci's car. Mom said it was a green Subaru. We drove around and didn't see it. I decided to drive through Traci's apartment complex. I spotted a green Saturn and Mom said "Oh yeah... it's a Saturn, not a Subaru!" Ugh. I told Mom to stay in the car while I made nice with Traci since I knew that she would just bitch and it would get ugly. I walked up to the quad of apartments and knocked on the first door. Traci answered and looked really surprised to see me! We had a long talk about Mom and I told her that I didn't want to move back to South Carolina just yet and that we all have an obligation to help Mom. I told Traci that she is the reason Mom doesn't have a car and that I didn't give a crap that Mom was a pain in the ass, completely negative or a mega-bitch... she has an obligation!
I told her to suck it up and devote one afternoon to Mom for errands and appointments. I also told her that she needs to get a phone of some sort for communication. In the middle of me talking to Traci, Mom walked up - Ugh! I turned to her and said "I told you to stay in the car!" I felt like I was dealing with a child!! I suppose she doesn't understand how much she pisses people off and how much we resent her negativity at times! I told Traci that even if she didn't do it out of love, she needs to do it because it's what Dad would have wanted her to do... Hopefully that will work and I won't have to come back like this again! Mom told me this morning that Traci called after two months of being MIA - so far so good!
Later in the the day Mark called me and said he wanted to go geocaching. I met him at his house and we set off for the first cache at West Ashley Park. The cache was almost a quarter of a mile from the parking lot. When we got out of the car, the first thing we noticed was another alligator sign. We crossed the bridge and headed off on a trail. We actually found the cache with no problem... I was actually looking more for snakes than the cache again! We headed back to the car and started to drive off when I noticed that the next closest cache was 2 tenths of a mile away... close! We parked the car and headed off on a trail. I had started to get dark and by the time we were a good ways into the woods it was really dark! I took my flashlight out of my bag so we could see where we were going (actually it was more for snakes!) The cache said it was dead to the left of us, where there was no trail. Mark decided to go through the weeds (while doing a snake dance) and he said he could see another path. I was wearing shorts so I was very cautious about going in the weeds. Mark told me to run, so I did... sort of. When I got to Mark he said "oh, it's not a path." I could have killed him because we were standing in a VERY swampy area. We decided to go forward since we had come this far already. It was so swampy!
When I say swamp, I really mean swamp... like in the movies, kind of swamp. There is weird noises... things splashing in the water... mist rising from the water... mosquitos - the whole deal! Mark kept telling me "Pam, please be careful about what you are stepping on, especially near the water!" That, of course, freaked me out totally! We got within 70 feet from the cache, which was located in the middle of a dense wooded area. Mark decided to go in, with the only flashlight, leaving me on a alone. I stood on the trail, next to the swamp water doing a smaller version of my famous snake dance. Since Mark had already seen one snake on this particular cache, I just knew it's snake friends were waiting nearby to bite me. I started to become really uncomfortable because it was so dark. I started to wonder how Adrienne Barbeau managed to survive in the the swamp without getting eaten by snakes and gators. I called out to Mark several times to come back - I was done with this cache! He finally came back and we headed out. It was soooo dark! I was in the front with the flashlight and again, Mark was in the back scaring the hell out of me. He kept saying that because it was dark, it wasn't the snakes he was worried about... it was the gators. OMFG! I was freaked out. It was near hysteria! I was cussing at Mark and telling him he was buying me dinner for this! He told me "I hope you don't bring Justin caching if you are always this mean!" Ha!
We finally made it out of the swamp without being eaten by critters. Who the hell puts a cache in a swamp?? Mark and I decided that we deserved Andolini's since we had survived the worst cache ever! Andolini's is my favorite pizza on this earth. There is no equal in pizza as far as I am concerned, so I was in heaven.... dirty, stinky and sweaty... but in heaven!
Yesterday I did errands with the Mom and then went downtown. I stopped at Bob Ellis Shoes to see Troy and he invited me over his house. He said he was making fried green tomatoes, which I had never had. I told him that I would meet him around 7pm at his house. I walked around downtown and took a bunch of pictures - mostly in the Unitarian, St. Philips and Circular Congregation Church cemeteries. I miss Charleston in that way... I love walking the streets of this city. I originally intended to go to Morris Island, but it had been raining all morning and I really didn't want to hang on the beach in the rain - I'm not sure if I will have time to do that tomorrow, which is sad.
I headed home to change clothes then headed to Troy's, who lives in James Island. His apartment is awesome with two screened in porches and an amazing view of the river. Troy made fried green tomates, as promised. It was Paula Deen's recipe (who doesn't love Paula Deen?) We sat and chatted all night and watched TV. We watched a bizarre documentary about a crocodile name Gustave who eats African villagers and we watched Dateline about the slutty teacher who slept with her student. I was waiting for the rain to let up before I headed home - I hate driving in the rain!
Today I arrived at Mom's at 10am since she had an appointment. I asked her where the appointment was and she said "West Ashley". I asked her where in West Ashley and she didn't know. This is what frustrates me! She tried to call Lois, who didn't answer. I ended up calling the doctors office who said she didn't have an appointment today - it was on October 20th. I did an amazing job at biting my tongue and not bitching. Instead of the doctor, we ran errands... craft store, cemetery, etc. Jonathan called me while we were out and wants me to meet him in Orangeburg at 5:30, which is where I am headed now.
So much to do...so little time.
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