Present for Sis and Summer Vacation with Dad

My sister, the fundamentalist Christian who always told her children that Santa was a sort of clown stores had around Christmas to sell toys, called me yesterday and said, "Santa's real! I never believed it, but he's real! Guess what he sent me?"

I guessed right and said, "So they didn't put in the card?"

"Well, there is a blank card, but it doesn't say anything! I knew it had to be you though. You are the only one I told."

What she told me was that her big worry, at that moment anyway, about school was that she had developed pains in her neck and wrists and didn't know how she could and read her text books when she starts school. So I sent her a book stand for Christmas, birthday, and congratulations on going back to school. (Yes, my sister and my husband's birthdays are immediately after Christmas.) She loves it. It can be taken to pieces for storage or carrying, and sets up quickly. She says she started reading some of her texts, even though classes don't start for another week, and she loves being able to have the book on one side and a notebook to write down all the words she doesn't know to the other side. I'm glad she liked it.

She also told me that our father has bought her plane tickets for the vacation this summer. So I guess the trip is on. The good news is that it is barely a week. My sister who will be going to classes this summer has only two weeks off and her children are unwilling to give up all time at their regular vacation spot, so they are splitting it. So they are flying in on a Monday and out on a Sunday. I doubt they will be able to fly into my father's town and make the drive to the lake in the same day. So that means Tuesday through Saturday.

It is 600 miles for us, so I suppose we will drive.

With that amount of time I suppose Andrew might even be able to get off and come along. He could help with the driving. I wonder how long it will take him to call us to confirm the dates. I know, I could call him, but see... I don't call my father. ESPECIALLY, if I think he may be drinking.

Bad memories of calling him and cathing him drunk...very bad memories.