Yesterday I went with my mom and dad to Leduc to see my sister and her husband Brad off to Oman, where he got a teaching position along with several other teachers from Lethbridge. Turns out that the Omani embassy or travel agency or whatever dealt with the printing of the tickets printed my sister's last name wrong. Brad's first name was also spelled incorrectly, but since it was only a first name they were able to let him through. But they were unable to let my sister through, because last names I guess are a bigger deal. So they tried called the Turkish airlines, and they were told that they had nothing to do with it; they needed to contact Oman directly. And since they're ten hours ahead of us, it would have been around midnight when they tried phoning them. So Brad and Em had to make the most incredibly difficult decision: she would stay back with Brad's dad and try to figure out the ticket situation, and Brad would go on ahead. He had to; he has to start work the day after he's scheduled to arrive. So Emily's still here, trying to phone Oman to get her ticket corrected. They would have had to start phoning Oman around 10:00 last night for hours, but to no avail. They'll continue trying until someone picks up the phone. Someone has to. I hope.
On our way home, my dad and I stopped in Sherwood Park to visit my Oma. She used to live right across from us (when I was still living at home), but her son somewhat stole her away to live in a retirement/old folks home, and to be closer to him in the city. Not that it's made much of a difference; he doesn't exactly go visit her often. Anways, she moved I'm guessing five or six years ago. In that time I have seen her once. Yesterday was twice. She's doing pretty well, with the exception that apparently they've taken her off her medication that was helping to slow down the process of Alzheimer's. Compared to other Alzheimer patients, she's fantastic. Only thing shot is her short term memory; she mentioned my having mismatched socks about six or seven times. To a point where I sat on my feet for the remainder of the visit. Until I had to put my shoes on. Then she mentioned it one last time. But yeah, she has on-set dementia, I believe is what it's called, which is a lesser form of Alzheimer's, but it can progress. They took her off the medication because it got to a point where it's no longer helping. Since there's no cure, they just have to let it play out and see what happens. Sometimes people don't progress, which would be a blessing. Some people get it really bad. She's in her mid-80's, so in all honesty I don't see her living long enough to get it really bad. The comforting thing is that I'm not related to her biologically, which means that there's no history of Alzheimer's in my family. Heart disease, yes. Cancer, oh yes. But I would rather have cancer than Alzheimer's. So.. I guess that's comforting.
And today is my very last day of having my apartment to myself. My best friend is going to be moving in with me tonight for the next two weeks, before school starts. Then I'm off and she has to relocate, because this suite is used for student housing during the school year, and since she's no longer a student, life becomes a bit more difficult. But these next two weeks are going to be fantastic. I'm going to be forced to eat more food, because the fridge will now be for two, and I can't just store stuff in it now; I have to eat it! Go figure...
So two more weeks of normal, lazy days, and then I'm off to college. I'm scared. Excited, but scared. And nervous, terrified, trepidatious, and everything else. But everything happens for good; I just have to remember that.
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