Homecoming, and home coming to me

This weekend is homecoming. You know, the football game that I won't be attending, and that no one cares about. What exactly is the point? And what's up with the homecoming queen? It is beyond me. Anyway, Homecoming is a time when parents are invited to come see their little babies who they haven't seen in four whole weeks (and not long enough for the students). My mom is one of those caring, emotional types who just can't stand not seeing me for extended periods. It's irritating at times, but I know I'm loved when I need it.

My parents and littlest brother were going to come up to visit this weekend. My brother hasn't seen The Bonfire yet; he was going to bring his girlfriend (not sure if he's actually asked her out yet, but he has plans to). I was at least pleased to get to see him, we get along pretty well. I see my parents just to make them happy. I put on a smile and pretend like life is great here. I see it as my job to make them not worry about me.

Well, they aren't coming anymore. Mom ended up in the hospital with a seriously infected insect bite of some variety. So now her situation has taken precedence, hotel reservations have been canceled, and I will now spend the weekend alone, as usual. I'm not very happy about it though. Maybe I'm worried about mom, but that's not why I'm upset, at least not consciously. It's probably mostly stress about projects and homework at the moment. If you ever consider becoming an engineering student, consider this first: You will do projects. You will do a lot of projects. You will do projects for every single class you take, and they will all involve a group of people who don't work as hard as you do. It's quite infuriating. I end up doing about 75% of the work on a three person team. But if I didn't, then my grade would suffer, and that is not an option.


My mom is by far the best child I know. She is single-handedly taking care of both of her parents, no thanks to any of her four brothers, particularly the one who lives in the area. She has been leaving work to drive them to doctor visits, doing all of their prescription management, and filling out health insurance paperwork. Grandpa has been suffering for over a year now from a motion disorder where he constantly grinds his teeth, can't control his breathing, and can barely talk. After mom visited about 5 doctors over the course of 6 months (these things take forever), they finally identified his problem (some motion disorder). Even better, there is a simple fix for the problem. The problem is, the pill costs $4,000/month. To put that in perspective, that's $48,000/year, more than most families make in a year. My grandparents are living on medicare alone, so they of course make nowhere in the vicinity of $48,000/year, not to mention the costs of raising my cousins.

After an incredible effort by mom to fill out endless paperwork, we somehow managed to slip through all of the insurance loopholes and got this magical medicine for free, not a dime out of pocket. This is a good thing, since they don't have a penny to spare, much less a dime. The good news is that Grandpa started taking half-pills last Thursday. By Friday afternoon, all of his symptoms were gone. He is now just like the man I grew up with so many years ago. I can't wait to see him, and see his quality of life improve so much. I can't even imagine being trapped inside his body like he was. He really is quite strong and mentally capable still. I have much hope for him still.