Travels with my mother and bother - I mean brother - Part 4

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Wednesday, day four started with my best night’s rest since I got up on Sunday in my own bed. My sister had told my mom that since we had to get up SO early the next morning to drive to Philly to catch the plane and because she was going to have to leave herself that morning to go with my brother back to go thru more paper work with my cousin’s widow, she was going to do her shower in the afternoon. My sister’s friend, my mom & I hung around the hotel room until it was time to go meet the rest for lunch. We watched Rachel Ray - not too bad since she was freaking out over animals with one of those zoo guys that guest star on shows. I tried to read my book, but that didn’t work, mom kept talking to me. I also knew that stitching wasn’t in the picture, she’d want me to do things like move her around, look for something or change the channel - even tho she had the remote next to her. When it was time we went down & drove to Tuckerton to meet the rest. On the way my sister called and told me the restaurant had buffalo on the menu! I knew what I was eating for lunch! Now, if you EVER have a reason to go to Little Egg Harbor or Tuckerton in New Jersey, go to the Dynasty Diner. Its not a Chinese (old style) place, its decor was sort of Greek/Italian, but the food would be considered American mix. My brother had a gyro, my mom had a tuna stuffed tomato and I had a buffalo burger - they asked how I wanted it done and I said as rare as they’d fix it. It came out RARE!! It was YUMMY!!! They also had nice fat fries and excellent ice tea. Only my mom failed to clean her plate, but she’s got a rather small appetite. Even at that, she made a valiant effort. My uncle, brother & sister had an appointment to meet the social worker at the center and they had to leave before mom was done, but we finished up and joined them about the time they finished their meeting. The meeting was to change so that they were in charge of my uncle and his money instead of my cousin’s widow. Then my brother & sister went back to drop off the car & tell her. Now, I don’t know the whole history of the situation, but I do remember when my cousin married his wife, my aunt HATED her. And she let her know how she felt about it. My uncle, I don’t know if he felt quite as strongly, but he was from the old school that the man does the money and the woman runs the family. He never said anything different about how he felt about her. After my uncle’s stroke 5 years ago, he came to live with his son & things really didn’t improve. She hadn’t worked in years for whatever reason, and every time my sister & mom went up to visit, she’d not come out to talk, she’d be laying in her room. One time my sister told about how they decided to go eat & at the last moment she decided to go too. It took an hour, after the rest were already in the car, for her to get up, shower & dress! All I can say, is that she was not happy with the change, but my sibs were afraid that she would spend all my uncle’s money. My mom & I said good bye to my uncle and we went to pick them up. Don’t you know, my sister went to find her phone to call for some flowers and discovered that it was missing. I pulled out my phone & called it, it seems she had left it back at my cousin’s. We went back, and also got the phone number for the florist so she could make the call. We dropped my brother off at my aunts & went back to the hotel. We had thought we’d have some time to rest before getting ready for dinner with my other cousin & her husband. I rested while my sister gave mom her shower & they got dressed. In the elevator going down, we ran into an assistant manager of the casino. My cousin used to be a dealer at Harrah’s so we asked if he knew him. Turned out that he had only been there a short time, so he hadn’t known my cousin, but he was sure that the others that had been there longer had probably seen the obit & knew about his death. My cousin & her husband picked up my aunt & brother & brought them into Atlantic City. We meet at the casino & went in. This was a restaurant the Italian way. My cousin’s husband is Italian decent, his father was the second of the children born in the States after his parent’s came over. He says that the way they fix and serve the food is the way he was brought up. First came the appetizers, we got the hot appetizers and a big Caesar’s salad. I only had the salad, but all the appetizers and the salad were eaten. Then came the pasta dishes. He ordered a ragu with meatballs & Italian sausages. There was also the day’s special that was vegetarian, with pieces of eggplant & I don’t remember what else in a very nice, not too spicy tomato sauce with dollops of cheese on it. We ate about half of that & they packed it up for them to take home. Then came the meat dishes. A stuffed veal & very nice chicken dish. We’d’ve done that course proud if the manager hadn’t talked my cousin’s husband into ordering what he thought was an extra large piece of meat and instead turned out to be 2 of the stuffed veal shanks! They ate most of the first & never touched the second. Most of the chicken was also eaten & the rest was packed up. Now it was time for my cousin’s favorite part of coming to this restaurant, the dessert. This was an ice cream & whipped cream confection piled on a chocolate fudge brownie, with fruit “portholes” banana “life boats” those curled cookie “smoke stacks” and called “The Titanic.” Needless to say, none of this was left! Well, I left the brownie on my plate, but ate the rest. I have to say that we waddled out of the place in pain. In all, the 8 of us drank 3 bottles of wine, my cousin had 3 beers, I had several glasses of tea & I was probably the only one not in acute pain! Well, the ones that drank most of the wine probably weren’t feeling any pain either, but I really didn’t feel I over ate that much. I probably should’ve passed the dessert, but why? I’m already fat! We went back to the hotel & fell into bed like snakes around our stomachs! Well, my sister’s friend stayed down to gamble some but we went up to the room.