Family Disco-function

Over the holiday break my niece Hunter walked up to me and said "Aunt Pauline, can you please show me what disco dancing looks like?". I immediately struck a perfect John Travolta Saturday Night Fever pose and began to move my hips in proper disco fashion. She and other niece Jordan joined right in like perfect copy cats. Once done with the lesson, I questioned the basis for the inquiry and she giggled saying "Jordan said you would know what disco is..." Followed by a trail of laughter. They are 7 and 10, respectively. This among several other events during the tundra trek were experienced and I will do my best to explain them here.

Miss B and I left for the airport on Friday, December 16th. We were scheduled to take a redeye out of SFO to Midway, the world's jankiest airport. Upon our arrival ATA was taking volunteers for getting bumped and the package included a $300 travel voucher. Miss B jumped at the chance because in essence, it really only shortened our trip by 6 hours, which meant that much less time in the cold and a free trip to the middle of the US of A. What resulted was an evening of sleep (or should I say dozing off here and there) on benches in the main lobby of the airport. Have you ever spent an evening in the airport? It's strange. Everything shuts down and there are janitors everywhere. We couldn't wait by the gate either as it was too early to check in for the flight. Eventually we boarded at plane at 7am and off we went to Midway. Upon our arrival we found temperatures in the single digits and snow everywhere. The car rented was a Chevy Cavalier. Miss B and I are pretty much destined to renting these wherever we go. They appear to be the cheap deal of the week, all the time. Off we went, driving through the south side of Chicago. Which, by the way is dilapidated and gross, and it appears is the last part of the city to become gentrified. There were all these once gorgeous brownstones just crumbling to pieces. Sad to see. After a 5 hour drive and one stop at a subway (the only fast food in the midwest which is palatable) for a tuna sandwich and a gas fill up, we made it to Chelsea, Michigan, just outside of Ann Arbor. Miss B's parents live on a lake and I must admit, it was beautiful, even for winter time. Skeets, her mom, filled us up with yummy food and we hung out with them for the evening while recuperating from the long day of travel.

While there we spent a lot of time with her niece, Bella, and two nephews, Mason and Zachary. (And of course the parents of those children, her brother Scott, and sister-in-law Deanna.) We had a Christmas celebration with lobster tails and lots of other great food. It was so fun to watch the kids open up gifts. Bella shocked me when she was so excited about a new shirt and jeans Grandma and Grandpa got for her. She held it up and squealed in excitement "CLOTHES!". Cute. Mason was obsessed with the paper airplane building set we got for him and we spent the day making planes and trying to follow the obscure directions. I swear, they were written for engineers only. Zachary spent hours with the fish puzzle as well. It came with magnetic pieces and a fishing pole. If I was three, I would love that too! The best time spent with them was an afternoon of play at their house. At one point we were having wrestling contests in the basement. VERY FUN! Becky was never the rough and tumble aunt, but she is now! What a crack up. The bummer of the Michigan portion of the trip came when Miss B got the flu. It wiped her out in a big way. What this meant...me spending lots of "quality time" one on one with her parents. Let's just say her mom talks a lot. At some points I just wasn't sure what to listen to and what could maybe be tuned out a little, but somehow managed to get through. I was every excited the next day when Miss B bounced back and I had my sidekick to field 50% of the questions. Guess we should have known seeing as Scott's entire family had gotten the flu the week previous. Oh well. The chances you take. I managed to make it out alive.

Due to the flu, the trek to Wisconsin took place a day later than planned. Upon arriving at the farm we found my mom to be worn out from the drama of the few weeks previous. My older brother Greg is amidst a nasty divorce and isn't handling the transition to single fatherhood very well. He's the kid who never really left the farm. Although he did go to college and graduate, he didn't get out in the world like the other three Lohr kids have, it's always been his choice to stay there. Since his ex-wife has moved out, it appears he is perhaps avoiding the fact that he actually has to start cooking, cleaning, and taking care of things on his own. The current tactic used is to have my parents do all the babysitting while he works, have mom prepare all his meals, and let his house corrode. It's hard for me to wrap my brain around how someone can be the age of 40 and still not understand how to do these things. But then again, I chose to get away from the farm as soon as humanly possible. He does feel and always has, an obligation to the farm and that he needs to be there for mom and dad. However, at this point, he needs to be there for himself too. It's just really sad to see this all going on and how much it delays the potential opportunity for my parents to retire. That's not on the horizon anytime soon. It's all pretty fresh and with any luck or an intervention, my brother will snap out of it and get his act together. Miss B and I did whatever we could to help mom out while we were there and we also got to spend time with my older sister and her family which was really fun. Needless to say, we were so glad to get on the plane to get back to San Francisco. Family is nice and all but it's great to be back in our home with the cats, doing what we do.

Overall, it was time well spent as I had not been back to the midwest for 6 years at Christmas time. Oh, and Miss B has decided that it is not the best time of year to visit...Something I figured out 6 years ago but I thought to let her come to her own conclusion on that one and she did. We now will visit during the summer months which makes me jump for joy!

One of the major highlights of the Wisconsin portion of the trip was seeing Miss B sing in the St. John's Lutheran Jubilation Choir with my mom. Apparently one of the other members was unable to make it so B stepped right in and sang soprano. Mom introduced her as "Pauline's Friend" which in midwestern terms = gay partner. Pretty big step for my mom, that is for sure. And we made it out of church without getting struck down by lightening bolts. So god must really like the gays after all.