On Friday I was awakened by a loud noise I did not recognize. Later, I found out it was some kind of vacuum cleaner that looked and sounded like a lawn mower and maintenance was vacuuming the parking lot. (I kid you not.) The kids upstairs were running and hollering and throwing ice cubes off the balcony. Mama was yelling at them, and the two dogs next door were going wild barking and jumping against the window. Situation normal.

I hurried to get dressed and take Dixie out before she went potty inside again. While outside, I found a snack machine and a microwave in the laundry room. But it is Friday, and the week is almost over. I have all my groceries and snacks from Walgreens now, so I fixed cereal for breakfast and ate snacks for lunch. Mo sneaked out early this morning and I’ve not heard from him since.

On Saturday he left before I woke up and there was no word from him all day long. I was supposed to know he was eating tacos supplied by the bridge club for dinner. Well, I’m a little slow but by 7:00 pm I knew he was not coming back, so I ordered dinner from Cracker Barrel. It took me about two and a half hours to get it delivered. I ordered a lot of food as I wanted enough for the next day too while ordering.

When I finally got the food and started to eat, you guessed it. Dixie got sick and I had to clean that up. This dog has been housebroken for 14 years and never does this at home. I was pretty fed up with it all by the time Mo came in. But he said he was not playing cards Sunday as everyone else was going home. So, we could do whatever *I* wanted to do. Hooray!

I thought it would be nice to go for a drive in Smoky Mountain National Park as the town was crawling with tourists and I didn’t want to shop for souvenirs. It was a nice drive even though the trees were not green yet and the azaleas were not bloomed. I didn’t see many of those wildflowers they were talking about on TV either.

When we got back, I had the leftover food from Cracker Barrel, so Mo walked to a restaurant and got food and I warmed up leftovers in the microwave that I found in the laundry room. Not to disappoint, Dixie once again went to the bathroom while I was trying to eat even though Mo had walked her before he left.

Something went haywire with the TV remote Saturday night and the TV would not turn off. In addition, some loudmouth people checked in next door and talked and talked until 3:00 am before finally shutting up, so sleep was hard to get. I finally got up and pulled the plug to turn off the TV.

I woke up Sunday morning with a migraine, took a migraine pill and went back to sleep. Mo took a shower and loaded his stuff in the car. I got up and took another migraine pill and finished packing. The traffic getting out of town was bumper to bumper, horrible. When we finally got home, Mo wanted to go to go out to eat.

Although I have not had a bath in a week and probably stink, and my migraine was coming back, I didn’t care. At last, I would have food on dishes instead of in Styrofoam boxes. But, while we were eating, Mo got sick and had stomach cramps, so we got “to go” boxes and came back home. The tension of playing cards 14 hours a day for 6 days, eating different food, and all the driving probably wore him out. I was sure he would recover in time to play bridge at the Senior Center Monday, however.

As it turned out, he was still sick Monday and had to go to the ER. It seems a lot of the people at the conference were sick and the Health Department is investigating. I knew he must feel really bad if he was willing to miss another bridge game. At the ER, they x-rayed and found a gallstone and recommended he have surgery. I guess there are worse things than spending a week alone in a motel room with a sick dog. If I was not such a nice person, though, I would call it karma.

Anyhow, the reason I wrote all this down is the fact that I usually journal trips and had plenty of time on my hands to do so. Also, in case he ever wants to go to another bridge convention, and I forget and think it might be fun, I can read this.

Copyright 2022 Sheila Moss