I had been in Dallas for two weeks when I found out my Grandfather had abruptly passed away. He was living in my hometown which is 510miles away from Dallas. I decided to drive to make it easier on my mom and it would give me some time to think.
On the way to my grandpa’s funeral I realized I had a solid 9hrs of driving ahead of me. I would pick my mom up half way through the trip so for 4hrs of the trip I would be left with my thoughts. After going through a catalog of memories about my grandparents and passing through the towns that all my ex’s lived in I was glad to pick my mom up from the San Antonio airport. Looking at my mom and realizing that she lost both of her parents made me feel terrible for her. I’m, self admittedly, not the best daughter. I roll my eyes a little too often, I’m not a big hugger, and I get snippy too often. These two deaths have made me realize how much I need to actually try to talk and get to know my mom rather than give her a hard time for things she did 20yrs ago. We had 4hrs left to drive down to the tip of Texas and I was all effort. We started off with a great lunch at Chic-Fil-A and then set off to chat more and catch up on what’s new in each other’s lives.
However, after riding in my car for 30min my mom and I realized that something wasn’t quite right with her car. She, not self admittedly, is a terrible car owner. She thinks oil changes are optional, food in the car is acceptable, and carrying huge pieces of raw wood in a tiny Mercedes CLK convertible is normal. At the 70min mark of our 4hr trip we realized our A/C was out. It felt like the inside of the car was slowly turning into a broiler and we were starting to sweat through our clothing. My mom has a flare for the dramatic side and after multiple huffs and puffs and threats of near fainting my mom rolled down the windows and threw her arms and almost her entire body out of the window. She then shouted over the hot wind blowing through the car “Oh my goodness….Clara….not even this is helping.” She threw her body against the seat and pushed her hair up into a pony tail and proceeded to close her eyes as if she was being tortured. "This.Is.Miserable." After she rolled down the windows any semblance of cool air in the car was sucked out the window so I too decided I had to figure something out. Skinny Jeans, button down loose silk top with closed toe ballet flats was not an ideal outfit for a 98 degree day in Texas. Seriously what was I thinking and where was I going in my fancy outfit?! I kept repeating Why didn't I wear shorts in my head. I ended up unbuttoning my blouse leaving just one button attached, and my mom said “Great idea! Maybe we should just take our shirts off we’re sweating through them anyway!” Hmmm....
You know that you might be facing heat exhaustion if this seems like a good idea. We arrived at hour 3 of heat torture and we decided it would be best if we kept our clothes since we were heading to a small town and the prospect of seeing people we knew was in the 90th percentile. Plus I have a real knack for getting pulled over and I figured the police officer, while briefly amused, still might give us a ticket for indecent exposure. We finally made it the rest of the way dripping sweat like Shaq in the 4th Quarter of an NBA playoff game. When we reached the house that I grew up in we raced inside to turn on the A/C but as we reached the kitchen we already felt extreme cold air blowing through the house.
My mom was visibly irritated and started stomping towards the thermostat “You know what I bet Uncle Robert didn’t turn off the AC last time he was here! I can’t believe it! I can’t believe it! I CANNOT BELIEVE IT! I told him three times before he left!” My obnoxiousness knows no bounds and I said "Maybe the fourth time was the charm in that scenario." She looked back at me and I realized how I so easily went pro in eye rolling. So as we both rushed over to the AC to check the thermostat we began laughing hysterically, the AC was in fact off. The temperature in the house read a cool…88 degrees.
And that my friends is how I was officially welcomed back to Texas.
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