Today was a good day, although come tomorrow, it’s back to the usual grind – working for the freeloaders, getting up when the freeloaders say so, going places because of the freeloaders, doing things because of the freeloaders, etc.

I realized that this year I couldn’t be happy that we weren’t stuck being 3’ away from them during this Fourth of July holiday. We may as well be. At least then they didn’t cost us $40 a month. They didn’t cause me to have to scrape labels off of hundreds of bottles. They didn’t steal half a year of my freedom. They didn’t cause me to have to go places, do things, and spend money on account of them. The only thing they caused was for me to be severely annoyed by their noise, and stressed out over the prospect of them making noise when they weren’t. They may’ve made my life hell and really disturbed my peace, but initially, they didn’t own every aspect of me and my life.

Anyway, instead of bitching about shit that can’t be changed and that I’ve bitched about a million times before, I’ll get into today’s events. I got up around noon and we were out the door by 1:00. We went straight to Mary’s.

It was so good to see and hug mom after so long. She was glad to see me, too. They all were, and they treated me just like always. Ma looked better than ever. She was walking without her walker and was hardly shaky at all. She can now crochet and do puzzles. She had about 8 puzzles to give me and I chose 3 of them.

Their house was the neatest I’d ever seen it. It wasn’t nearly as cluttered as it normally is. Mary’s so with the times, though, overall. She doesn’t cook, doesn’t clean, and works.

First we all sat and talked. Dave was his usual goofy self. After chatting for a while, we all hit the pool, except for Mom. There were half a dozen pool noodles and balls that we each threw at each other. Well, Dave and I did most of the throwing. Dave and I are more alike, whereas Tom and Mary are more alike, which meant Tom and Mary preferred to float on noodles, for the most part, and chat, but Dave and I were rowdier. I jumped off the diving board several times.

Before hitting the pool, they gave Tom his birthday presents, and I’d say that if you asked Tom, he’d say this was the best birthday present he ever got. First, he got a check for $44 from Mom that was inside an awesome, sparkly card. Fireworks on a cake that’s so glittery. From Mary and Dave, he got a new computer! One way was better than he said he was going to get as soon as we had a spare $400 which probably wouldn’t have been for 5 years. I’m going to get a CD changer then, as soon as we can get me one!

After we left, we stopped at the grocery store for a few things, then went through a fast-food drive-thru, then home.