Wednesday, September 22, 2010

Changes

Life is so very un-plan-able sometimes. Amanda's weekend (the first one where Brandon was taking off two days of work instead of one) was supposed to have consisted of going to Niagara Falls on Saturday and then the local theme park with him and his sister and brother on Sunday. Then they found out that one of Brandon's cousins was graduating high school that Sunday back home in Kansas. Brandon looked up flights and found that tickets were as reasonable as they would ever be.

"Is it okay with you if I go?" he asked Amanda, standing behind her with his arms around her waist.

"I'll let you go." she replied.

"But is it okay with you?"

"I'll support you if you decide to go."

In all reality, she was not okay with the idea. Her flight home to go to her own brother's graduation had been booked for two weeks and Amanda was already partially dreading being away from her husband for the first time. Now, if he left, he would be gone Saturday night through Monday night. Amanda was leaving Thursday morning and not coming back until Tuesday.

She growled inwardly as he bought the plane tickets. It's not fair. We finally have a real weekend and this happens! She blinked back tears. Stop it, Amanda. You're being a brat. You should be thankful that he has today off and isn't leaving directly from work.

Amanda knew God's hand was in this. Brandon had a peace about going and if she would stop and admit it to herself, she did too. It was hard not to hang onto her grumpiness though, as they finally got on the road and realized they didn't have time to  go to the Falls and make it worthwhile. But she didn't want Brandon to leave on a sour note, so she sent a quick prayer asking for help with an attitude adjustment. They changed course and went to a mall just a few minutes away from the airport. They were going to try to answer the question : Cuisinart, KitchenAid or Rachael Ray? JCPenny carried all three cookware sets they were looking at online and Amanda wanted to look at them in person.

As she let go of her irritation, they were able to enjoy the couple hours they had left before making sure Brandon caught his flight. Brandon even bought Amanda a piece of cheesecake from The Cheesecake Factory (peanut butter fudge ripple!), saying he was "bribing" her with it to be happy.

She managed to send Brandon off with a smile and hug. It was a deja vu moment, remembering how often she had to say goodbye the same way while they were courting. She reminded herself that it was just a couple days this time, not a couple months. On her way home (thanking God for GPS and a F150 to drive instead of a huge dually) she changed her mind about staying at home by herself the next day. She called her sister-in-law when she got home.

"Hey! Do you want to come over and spend the night? You can bring Austin and we'll watch a movie or something. Oh, did you measure him to see if he's tall enough for the rides at the theme park?"

"Yeah, he is except for three of them. Sure, we'll come over. It'll be 7 or 8 though, I'm helping Mindy with her business cards tonight."

"That's fine. We'll do breakfast in the morning and head over to the theme park when we're ready."

"Sounds good. See ya in a bit."

"Alright, talk to you later! Bye."

Pizza Hut pizza, The Princess Bride and Bride and Prejudice made for a fun and late evening. (Bride and Prejudice can't be started and not finished when someone hasn't seen it before! Even if it does mean staying up until 3am. "Marriage has come to town! Laughter, color, light and sound!")

The next day the three of them headed over to the theme park. Amanda was excited about going to her first real theme park, since she didn't think Joyland in Wichita probably counted. She was also cautious, knowing her tendency towards motion sickness. Carefully choosing which rides to go on would save her from crawling back to the truck and feeling like she was going to die.

"The Viper" rollercoaster was their first stop. Austin's mouth was running non-stop, he was so excited. "I don't get to do this very often! Sorry!" was often repeated as he bounced along. Amanda looked at the multiple loops and twists, wondering about the wisdom of this. Well, it doesn't have too many circles. Surely I can handle going upside-down...six times? Her guess of enjoying the ride but being done with it afterward proved accurate. The blast-off at the beginning caused a half-laugh, half-scream to come from her. And the six loops and black tunnel at the end caused her to say, "Um...let's go try something else" as she and Amanda Beth walked slowly, dizzy and Austin ran ahead, ready to go again.

The afternoon consisted of a ride, a break, watching the other two on a ride, a ride, a break, watching the other two on a ride, et cetera. One of the best times was Amanda's fake freak-out as they rode the coaster "The Predator" for the second time, while Amanda Beth laughed hysterically in the next seat.

"Oh-my-gosh. Oh-my-gosh. I can't do this! Let me off, take me back, we're gonna die, I know it! Please stop, stop, I can't handle it....AAAUUGGGHHHHH!!!"

Soft-serve custard was a highlight and people-watching provided some entertainment. All-in-all, a very good day. But she shouldn't have gone on her last ride. The "Ride of Steel" had two circles that went 'round and 'round...and 'round. Amanda was ready to go straight to bed when she got off of it. And as soon as they were back to her home, she did.

Okay, that was really awesome. Her eyes closed as she tried to hold very still. But I don't think I want to do it again for awhile.

Friday, September 17, 2010

Ordinary...

Ordinary life. Normal life. Phrases that have a unique meaning for every single person on earth...

She sat in the truck, drowsy as the sun warmed the passenger side. It was 2:30 in the afternoon and so far it had been one of two kinds of a "normal" day. Amanda had come to work with her husband Brandon, which meant for her sitting in his Dodge from 7am to ... well, whenever they left. Amazingly, there was a possibility of leaving early since this particular job site would be finished quickly with the joint efforts of Brandon, his dad Stan, and his sister Amanda.

Father-in-law. Sister-in-law. Being married still had its strange moments for her. But Amanda was surprised at how quickly her new life felt "normal". Two months didn't hardly seem long enough for that to happen. She grinned as she thought of a conversation with her friend Mel, who was in Liberia.

"How's the family?" she had asked.
"Um...which one?" They had both laughed at the confused answer Amanda had given.

It showed a truth, though. Her mom and dad, brothers and sister, were close to her heart, but 1,200 miles away. The family she saw almost every day was just as much a part of her now. She hadn't felt welcomed into Brandon's family because it felt like she had always been a part of it. It was as if she stepped into their hearts only to find she was already there.

Melanie, Brandon's mom, and Austin, his 9-year-old brother, had made it to Batavia, New York the night before. They had been home to Wichita to take care of Melanie's mom, who had had double by-pass surgery and who was now recovering well. Everyone would probably go over to Amanda and Brandon's home that evening for supper. Amanda grimaced as she remembered the dishes on the counter. Oh well, she thought, it won't be the last time there's dirty dishes in my kitchen. Besides, it's the fridge and mattress that add the most interesting character right now. 

She had asked the owner of the campground they were staying in near Batavia (at least, she assumed he was the owner) where a local landfill might be, so she and Brandon could get rid of the old, possessed refrigerator and the cardboard-like mattress they had replaced. He had suggested instead to take the refrigerator to a junkyard down the road and to put the mattress outside, he would "have my guys pick it up and put it on our burn pile".

Four days later, after it had rained on everything, the mattress was still leaning against the end of the 5th-wheel and because of late work hours, the refrigerator, with both doors ripped off, sat on a piece of cardboard in front of the door. If it hadn't been so funny (and it did look funny) it would have been irritating. Amanda thought it was probably better to be amused than mad.

She turned her attention from home back to where she was. She might as well get a couple things done before they left work. There were wedding pictures to go through, the audio book The Count of Monte Cristo to listen to, and a blog to set up.