better jump down a manhole, light yourself a candle

I should go to bed, I suppose; I'm leaving for California tomorrow, which means I have to get up and dressed so that we can go to the airport (with, fingers crossed, a tasty lunch beforehand). Obviously, this means that today was my last full day in Iowa, which meant it was filled with all the things I put off until the very last minute. First, though, I had to say goodbye to my grandmother. My mother had picked her up to take her to her hair appointment, and she brought Gram back to our house so that [censored] and I could see her. So, we hung out for a bit here, answered all of her questions (high in quantity, low in variety), and then I took her into town, with a stop at the grocery store before I took her back to her assisted living place. That was, of course, all vaguely depressing, since town is vaguely depressing and dementia is even moreso, but I'm glad I got to see her again before I left.

After that fun excursion, I came home, packed my suitcase, and then packed up two boxes of stuff to mail to myself, since it was cheaper to mail them than to check an extra bag. Then I took those to the post office, came home, and spent some quality time cleaning out my mother's car (which used to be my car, for those of you who have fond (or not so fond) memories of the Pontiac Sunfire). It may not surprise you to know that my mom's car is utterly devoid of any trash/clutter/anything else out of order, since she's where I got my OCD need for order from - but it's quite dusty, which is an utterly unavoidable consequence of living/driving on gravel roads. Now it's not dusty, which is great since we're taking it to the airport tomorrow and I would rather not show up to security looking like I just crawled out of my own grave.

During my cleaning marathon, I said a fond farewell to [censored], but it's a brief farewell since [censored] is [censored]. My mother made a delicious supper for me and my dad, and then I hung out upstairs with them even though all my instincts screamed to retire to my room (and, more to the point, away from a creepy episode of 'Criminal Minds', which is the only CBS show I truly hate). But now they're in bed, I'm mostly packed up, and it's time for bed - goodnight!