I got home from my family visit about six hours ago

but I needed a little time to process my day and get back on my normal emotional track before writing. I love my family, but visits there can often bring up troubling emotions and it's usually best to kind of keep to myself afterwards and give myself some time to destress. I'm sure there are others out there who feel the same way.

While there were some negative things about the trip, which I'm not going to focus on here, there was a lot of good stuff, too. Among other things:

1. The ride down was quite nice, although it rained a little. Everything is very lush and I saw a lot of cattle in fields, although no tobacco to speak of yet.
2. My aunt and her husband were able to come up and so I got to spend time with them. We don't see each other much, as they live in another state, but my aunt and I are enough alike that my grandparents and my mom often call me by her name. She also works in a library, too. :)
3. I spent some good time with my grandmother, who was sleepy when we got to the nursing home but perked up over lunch. She will be 90 in a few days; she amazes me. I wish she could be home with us, and it terrifies me that I will most likely wind up in a place like that (and don't get me wrong, it's a nice facility, I'm speaking in general) as unlike most of my cousins, I didn't have children. But she's in a good place, and my mom visits almost every day.
4. My mom and I had some quality time. We went shopping at Burke's Outlet, and I found a few nice things that were very reasonable.
5. We had a nice meal at Applebee's. I got an appetizer and shared it with my mom and stepdad, and my aunt and uncle shared theirs as well, and then there was a salmon dinner. The little bit of vegetables that come with it could have been better (the peas were shrivelled, and there was just a little bit of spinach and potato, as it was on a 'bed' of them, rather than as a side, but the grilled salmon was very good, as was the queso I got for the appetizer, and the service was decent in terms of refills, etc.
6. My mom's dog has warmed up to me. She really liked being petted, although she goes off every time someone hugs someone else, or if you get up like you're leaving the house. I think she misses my grandmother's dog, Bo, who died in March. Momma showed me where he's buried.

I do wish I'd gotten to see my other uncle, my mom's brother, but apparently there was a fire in Chicago that affected air traffic and cancelled his flight. My aunt and uncle were driving, so it didn't affect them.

The ride up was a little more stressful, particularly as I had someone ride my bumper from Danville to Jessamine County, where I finally stopped at a station right before Nicholasville for a drink so I could get them off my tail. Mind you, I have a pretty strict rule of going no more than 5 miles over the speed limit, but this meant I went about 60 the whole way. Highway 27 is not an interstate.

After that, the trip was better. I called my mom when I got home so she'd know I was safe and then called a friend who'd called about some medicine and also to see if I was back in the city as he'd worked late and it was going to be very late before I got home by bus. Unfortunately, that was right after we'd gotten back from Applebee's and I hadn't left yet. So he wound up getting home just a little before I did (it about takes an hour to get to my house from Danville, at least obeying traffic laws), even though he was just going a few miles. I wasn't up to going over there tonight (I'd have had to shower and get the smell of cigarettes off me (my mom smokes) because YKWIA dislikes it a lot), and I was wound up and a bit murbly emotionally. So it was better to stay home. I'll be over there for 'Grimm' tomorrow and can pick up his prescription then and get it on Saturday morning, we decided.

Another good thing about today is I was able to keep my partials in till past 8 pm and ate well with them, although my mom had a little trouble with the speech impediment they give me. But overall they weren't as uncomfortable as they are sometimes. I will get used to them eventually; I just need to wear them regularly. I've already set them in their bath to clean, and I took my contacts out when I got home, got into something comfy, and then I put in some Loreena McKennitt, whose music is probably as efficacious as Prozac and is very relaxing. I got online for a little while and then put the computer down and went to sleep for awhile. I awoke to cramps and pain going down my legs (I'll start my period within a few hours), so I got up and took my long-acting insulin and took my blood sugar while I was at it. And I decided to write this post.

I should probably head on back to bed. I have to get up at my normal time tomorrow for work, after all, and that's five hours away. But I feel a little better now that I got some things down about the trip.