Ok. But I feel like I should give you some background on my family first. Its a little unusual. However, that would be a very long entry in and of itself, so I will just start with today and you'll have to just sit there and be confused.

So Friday V and J and baby Sai leave for the mountains. They are going to a wedding of V's best friend Carrie. I go to see Matrix Reloaded with Ry and Jess. Me love them long time. Yeah. Go friends. But I digress.

So Saturday rolls around and My aunt, uncle, mother and I are packing the van we borrowed from a family friend. We borrowed a van because V and J had my aunt's car and also because my mothers car is very old and unreliable. Not good for long distances. In any case we get packed up and on the road around 9am (only after my aunt has packed up every food item that would fit into the cooler and three shopping bags) [remember, we are only going for the weekend. 3 days!!!]

Ok, so we're driving along and about 30 minutes out of the city the battery light goes on. My uncle notices it and says "we'll get to a gas station and I'll check it out" and about 3 minutes later there is a big bang and smoke coming out of the hood of the car. So we pull off and he opens it up. Yep, fan belt blew to shreds. Lucky for us a nice woman happened to be driving by this little side road as we pulled over. My family doesn't believe in technology. Apparently cell phones give you brain cancer. But the nice woman drives my uncle to a phone so he can call a tow truck. The rest of us wait in the car.

5 minutes pass and my aunt and my mother have to pee. So they decide to go in the "bushes" which are actually all of 5 or 6 small trees and tall grass on the side of the highway. If you've ever seen two plump 55 year old women squatting to pee in the bush, you know it's not a pretty thing to witness. I am embarassed and refuse to leave the vehicle.

So finally my uncle returns and we are to wait for the tow truck. The nice lady leaves. My uncle, being a very mechanical guy, is very aggitated about having to call a tow truck. He would much rather fix it himself. However he has no tools. So he's ranting about that and my aunt says "So how are we all going to get back to the garage? I guess we'll have to hitchhike" (yes she really was serious)

So the tow truck finally comes and he calls a cab for us (more waiting). Then my aunt and uncle grumble about having to pay for a cab and the towing and the fixing of the car. So we take the car to the one garage that is open in the closest small town and it gets fixed as we go to Smitty's and eat lunch. So eventually it gets fixed and we are going back on the road, at which time it is about 4 hours later than it was supposed to be. In theory we should be at our destination by now.

In any case, we are moving again. My uncle is grumbling about how they charged him for three belts instead of two because they said they had to "service" one of them. I am frustrated because I am hanging out with these cranky annoying old people.

So we get to the site where V and J are staying for the wedding and I am dropped off. I am supposed to babysit while they are enjoying the wedding. V is in the bridal party and J was alone with Sai all day. So it's after the actual wedding, and before the reception. J hands off Sai to me and goes to the reception. Just me and the baby in a hotel room in the mountains. No TV, No phone. just beds a window and a bathroom. Hooray!

This was the crappiest Hotel I've ever been to. The toilet wouldn't flush unless you pulled off the lid of the tank and pulled the chain up. The shower was a hand held that didn't attach to the wall at all. the mirrors were so low that you had to bend over to look in them. And I found out later that one of the other bridesmaids came to her room only to find a live squirrel and a bunch of beer bottles strewn around the room. Which means either the room wasn't cleaned before they got there or that is one drunk squirrel. Not only that but when they asked for a refund because they were going to stay elsewhere, they were told only the manager could give refunds and he was away, with no means of contact for several hours. When they finally did talk to him he refused to give them a refund. All of this would not be so bad except that we paid about $130 for the room. I mean what the hell?!

Anyway so the night with the baby was fine. We bonded and I love him more than anything. I was really tired by about 10pm and Sai was already asleep. Being that I couldn't turn on any lights (except the bathroom one) and there was nothing to do in the room, I was starting to fall asleep. The only problem was that I am such a heavy sleeper that I was afraid I wouldn't wake up if he started crying. So I had to walk around the room to keep from sleeping. Finally V and J came back to change and they wanted to talk to some friends in the lobby for a bit. I gave them the monitor and went to sleep. Or tried to. Sai woke up soon after and wouldn't stop crying unless his mommy was holding him. He hadn't seen her for the whole day and was having abandonment issues. The only way they could get him back to sleep was to sleep in bed with them. They only figured that out after 15 minutes of crying.

Next day (Sunday) we pack up and are supposed to go meet my aunt and uncle and mom at the cabin we're staying at for the rest of the long weekend. Only we can't find the car keys. We look for 30 minutes, unpack all our bags and finally find them in J's backpack.

Then we get over to the cabin. It is really nice. Log cabin with fireplace, kitchenette, two bedrooms and a pull out couch. I share a room with my mom, V, J and Sai get one room and my aunt and uncle get the couch. We spend the day siteseeing my aunt and mother are constantly nitpicking at eachother everything one says the other takes to offence. In other news, my aunt is photo happy. We go places to take pictures rather than taking pictures in the places we go. But it was fun.

Then this morning we get up and pack up again. While we are packing Sai found out that the doors lock and has fun playing with the locks. Which is fine because someone was in every room. Until he goes into the bedroom by himself and locks the door behind him. It's not a key lock. It's one of those latch ones. It can't be opened from the outside and theres not really another way in. So J and V are kind of freaking out because their only son (17 months) is locked in a room by himself. We are all trying to figure out how to get him out while J keeps saying "open the door Sai. Unlock the door please." Sai just kinda kept playing with the lock, not noticing anything was wrong. Eventually (probably about 5 minutes later) he opened it up on his own. VERY smart baby!

So we do more sight seeing today and start for home. Sai was sleeping in the car, then woke up crying and we couldn't get him to stop crying. V wanted to pull over and see if she could get him to stop. J was driving and trying to flag down my uncle in the other car so we could get them to pull over too. We couldn't but we were pretty close to our lunch stop so we just kept trying to calm him down.

As soon as we got to our stop V starts telling my uncle how we were flashing our lights and honking so they would pull over and then they looked all guilty. Sai was fine, he was just feeling a little sick. (He still has that virus or something.) Anyway, after lunch all was well with him again. Just hungry and over tired I think.

So we just got home. everyone is resting and I am writing this. So in short my weekend trip to the mountains: Car trouble, aggitation, crappy hotel, time with my favorite nephew, lost the keys, sightseeing, mom and aunt arguing, baby feeling sick, driving home, writing journal entries.

Sounds fun huh? I don't want to spend so much time with my family ever again. More on this later.