Sadness and other things.

My husband's grandmother passed away this weekend. He is hurting, and feeling guilty that he is so far away from his family. I feel badly that I am not able to take this pain away from him, but I am moving heaven and earth to get us there for the services. Plane tickets are a fucking racket!

I checked online about grief discounts and they are most often 50% off the full retail ticket price, which would still be more than you can get it for at a travel site. Living in this crappy small town, means that everything is a connecting flight and therefore double the price it would be from a larger airport. I did find some tickets fairly good priced out of Raleigh, NC, which is a 4 hour drive from here. Once we pay for gas there and back and long term parking, it is still cheaper by about $180 EACH!!

I was thinking about asking Mom or someone else to drive us and pick us up, to save on the long term parking costs, but that would double the gasoline costs, and not end up saving anything in the end.

We are waiting to find out the exact dates of the services. There will be a small viewing this weekend, then she will be cremated. Then the real funeral will be next week, and then the family will scatter the ashes per her instructions. Next week is when Smug-Hub wants to go. He is unsure if he wants be to go with him and I understand his concerns. It will be the first time meeting most of these people and there will be family meetings to go over the will and there has already been some fighting and name calling - he is concerned about subjecting me to the darker side of his family. Smug-Hub will also want to spend time with him mother and brothers while he is there. I just want to be his support system in whatever way he needs. He is going to make a decision today.

In other news, I am finishing up the first class of my MBA program. I have been really struggling to keep up with the work required. I had gotten out of the school work habits and gotten into having a life again. I never see Smug-Sister, finding time to walk with my mom is very hard and I hardly ever see my friends! I want to go house hunting every weekend, I need a hair cut, I have got to finish Christmas shopping, Smug-Hub wants to get a tree - which means digging through the storage unit to find that stuff (which I am going to have to do anyway, as it appears that all the winter coats, hats, gloves, etc. are there). The weekend is only 2 days long, and besides all the stuff listed above, each weekend there is housework, laundry, food shopping and the like to accomplish. When exactly do I have time to read 4 chapters on human resources, read the wall street journal each day to find articles to turn in with the homework, several case studies to report on, AND work on the final team project??

I seem to have made it through this first class OK, an 85 was the lowest grade I have gotten on a paper, so I will live. The next class starts next Thursday (which I will miss if I go with Smug-Hub to the funeral) we have to read 3 chapters, have about 100 terms defined, and do a presentation on an article. WTF!! This program was supposed to be designed for working people!!

I am going to have to work hard this week and weekend to get everything finished up for the HR class and everything done for the Marketing class, just in case I have to leave town. We are supposed to look at 5 houses on Saturday (was supposed to be 6, but one of them sold). I need to go check on my dad and make sure that he is not going out of his mind. My family is trying to nail down Christmas, New Years, and Superbowl (yes, Superbowl, this fucking early!!) plans. I want to tell everyone to bugger off and leave me the hell alone! Boy, arn't I just glowing with the Christmas spirit???