Heartattacks, sleep deprivation, blizzards, and glitter aka: the surreal week

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I have had a very unusual week. Fri., Sat. Sun. a week ago: Trivia weekend. My first year as phone bank operator. Trivia in and of itself is always sort of surreal - but working the phone bank really was. Restaurant food delivered every 2 hours, men in giant T-Rex costumes, men in Spy costumes shooting each other with nerf guns, combined with joking with people on the phone into the wee hours makes for surreal surroundings - a theme which would continue into the next week. Mon. and Tues. - somewhat better and by far the most "normal" days of my week. Wed. - A dance performance. Glitter, sparkles, friends and a great audience. Though I felt I just wasn't fully "there". A mystery gift from a secret admirer. These performances are also always a bit surreal. Thurs. - I don't even remember. Probably was a "normal" day. Fri. - Here's where the weirdness picked up again. I couldn't seem to motivate to do anything. My parents were coming over so we could go to a fish fry, however my dad wasn't feeling well. So I went out. Fish fry is big around here. All you can eat fish served in a big hall. The food was delicious - I went alone. It, too - felt surreal. People look at you weird when you sit alone in this small of town. I could have gone out later, wished I had - but I was too tired to do anything. I watched tv ("Austin Powers" yeah baby!) and went to bed early. Sat. - A huge snow storm was predicted... and I hadn't seen my parents in awhile, so I made the plan to go to their place in the morning and then stay until the snow started. Well, dad complained of chest pain and said he wanted to go to the hospital. This is rare from him and I knew it was bad. So - we called the ambulance and he was taken in. He stayed a day in the hospital and the nicest thing happened - he was calm and compliant. Rare for him. Usually he pitches a fit about the - you name it - blankets, food, temperature, etc... but this time he was pretty good and calm and I sincerely hope that he stays this way because he is so much more pleasant like this. Anyway - the results came back - he did have a heart attack. But no permanent damage - so he came home with a new pill to take. That evening mom and I went out to a sit down restaurant and had a drink with supper. Here's the I-can't-post-this-on-social-media bit comes in. You see - my dad doesn't like sit-down restaurants. Only fast food. My dad also doesn't like when my mom and I drink. A glass of wine with supper is out of the question unless it's birthday or special event or won free at bingo. Something as small as a glass of wine leads to accusations of "you're an alcoholic!" Then later - we went to a bar. It was a friend of mine birthday and I thought mom needed a drink. :-) See, that's another thing. Dad doesn't enjoy live music, necessarily and even if I go and don't drink anything other than juice or soda (which is what I usually do) - I get the "alcoholic" accusation. So he usually doesn't know when I go out. My mom is certainly not allowed out. So this was a rare treat for her. Of course, do I dare to mention that it was blizzard during all this? Snow plows hadn't been out - and it was impossible at times to see where the lane markers were. Every minute or so I had to roll down the window and snap the window wipers against the window to knock the ice off of them so they would work again. I dropped mom off at home after the bar and then, like a crazy person - drove back to my place to get some pills, check on the cat I am tending. I made it - nearly got shoveled up by a snow plow and nearly got flipped into the on coming lane but I made - only to get nearly stuck in the apartment building's parking lot. Then I drove back to mom's place. Why? So we could spend more time together. <3 It was a way surreal drive back. In it's own way the snow is pretty, and that night it coated things so heavily that the whole scene seemed like a place I had never seen before. Got up, took mom to the hospital, went to dance practice and did some shopping for mom and dad. Saw some friends Sunday evening - even a former love interest just because this week hasn't been strange enough. So- that's it in a nutshell. It's still a lot more wordy than I had hoped but I had to capture the weirdness of it all in writing. Ever have a surreal week? I kind of hope this week will be normal to boring.... Photo: Pixabay