Jacquelyn's Space

We did go up north last week-end to visit my nephew, who lives in Lake Ann, near Traverse City. My sister-in-law, everybody’s favorite Aunt, was in town from Nebraska and she and my other sister-in-law and my grandniece went up there to visit so we did too.

Truth to tell, I wasn’t excited about going up because we had plans to go up Labor Day week-end. Also, Kitty was sick (didn’t have a diagnosis yet, she just wasn’t herself) and I was super worried about her. But we had told everyone we’d be up so up we went.

My nephew Dan is gay and lives with his fiance Derrick. My niece Erika, who is a nurse, got a job in TC and recently moved up near Dan. She started dating a guy up there who has a young son. Then I found out a friend of the family, Rosemary, whom I love, was in the process of moving up to Lake Ann too. She will be working in the same hospital as my niece. Like, everyone is moving up there! I want to too!!

We all, sans Rosemary, went out to dinner and it was good, had fun, ate lots of food. I thought we’d go back to Dan’s and relax but he had plans to meet up with some friends after his fiance got of work that evening. He invited us to come along. We all demurred. I had a headache and just wanted to chill out after the big meal. I wanted to play with my niece, too. This was the niece I had spent some time with when we went to Kentucky last year.

So Dan left but his mom was like, “I think he really wanted you all to go.” So we all started feeling a little guilty…we eventually decided to go except one sister-in-law stayed home with my niece (her granddaughter). I am so glad we went. We met at a restaurant in TC that Dan likes–he really likes their drinks and had been telling me about them earlier in the day. The drinks were good but his friends were even better. Of course they were gay, they were visiting from metro-Detroit area. One of the friends is a drag queen–Miss Bouvee–and performs in Royal Oak. He was so interesting and so much fun. We laughed and laughed, and people watched, and laughed some more. We had the sweetest waiter too. I really would like to do that again sometimes. Really do up Traverse City! One of these days me and my husband will do…we aren’t to far away when we go see my parents up north.

And I really want to go see Miss Bouvee perform. Something to look forward too.

It was fun seeing my sister-in-law from Nebraska too, and we got to talk to her one on one, which is rare. We took a little drive through the haunted Sanitorium up in TC (they made it into shopping and condos) so that was interesting.

Sunday morning we all went to breakfast and we met up with Rosemary. So glad she is back in Michigan–she had been in Texas. She is the sweetest person!! I miss getting the whole family together like the old days…

All and all, it was a fun trip, a good quick trip.

On the way home my husband and I took the scenic drive down M-22 and stopped to see my mother. That was kind of sad and stressful. That and the fact I was worried about my kitty was the only poopy aspect of the trip.

This is the first Labor Day week-end in a long time my husband and I have stayed home. It’s kind of depressing. We had plans to camp at the Straits and walk the Mackinac Bridge this year but the annual bridge walk was cancelled due to the pandemic. It sucks. We could have went and still camped out but chose to just cancel our trip. It is cool this week-end anyway, with gale warnings on the Great Lakes so I suppose it’s for the best.

We had a plan B, to go up to Kaleva, near Manistee, to spend time with my dad and visit my mom in Onekama but we had to cancel that too. My poor baby kitty has been sick and we needed to stay home to give her medicine. Thankfully, Kitty is on the mend but I didn’t want to stress her out by trying to take her on a long car ride up north.

So home it is. My husband has been working in the yard. Apparently our yard needs a ton of work, lol. He always finds a ton of shit to do out there. I know there is plenty to do inside the house. I’ve been trying but the more I try to do the more I realize how much I have to tear apart and organize to make more room, and to just be able to find things when I need them. This is overwhelming and discouraging. I’ve gotten a little done but I am depressed and fatigued so it is slow going. It has not been a fun Labor Day. I would feel better if I knew I could make a ton of progress on this house and get it all organized but Monday evening but it would take a miracle and a true feat of labor to make that happen and I just don’t have it in me.