Texas: Day 3

I went down to the hospital and visited for a good long while today. My grandfather isn't able to talk right now, but he can nod yes or no and obviously understands pretty much everything that's going on. He was awake when I got there and stayed awake the whole time I was there.

It's funny, but since I have a child who is non-verbal I'm very, very comfortable with keeping up a one-woman monologue. I told him all about Jer leaving for Afghanistan, family news, how my garden was looking-- I basically rambled on about anything I could think of. I told him to blink or nod if he wanted me to stop. Occasionally he'd close his eyes and I'd think he was falling asleep so I'd stop talking, but then he'd open them up again and when I'd ask him if he wanted me to keep going, he'd nod. We're going to bring him up an audio book to listen to tomorrow; he nodded when I asked him if he'd like one and it's got to be terribly frustrating and boring being in there and not able to move around or hold a conversation with anyone.

This evening my mom was sweet enough to watch Connor again for me and I went out with my brother and his wife to sing some karaoke. We picked the wrong night and the wrong bar for it; I have no idea where these people came from, but there wasn't a single person who got up in front of the microphone that didn't sound like they could sing for a living and actually make money. It was terrible; not a single group of drunk women singing "Baby Got Back" or "I Got You, Babe"-- I got sandwiched in between the guy with a voice that was a dead ringer for Eddie Vedder and the chick who sounded exactly like Patsy Cline. I love to sing, but I get nervous even on a typical evening when I'm following the Baby Got Back Chicks, let alone when I'm by far the worst singer getting up on the stage, and being nervous never does good things to your singing. I have a decent voice, but these people were good. At any rate, we enjoyed ourselves (and listened to some ridiculously awesome people sing) but I think I'm more comfortable with private karaoke rooms and tiny little dive bars.

They did have this longhorn head mounted on the wall that blew steam out his nose when the DJ pulled on a rope, though. That was pretty cool.

~Jess