My mother and I drove up on Friday night, Saturday morning, to Philadelphia to see my family before she goes. I had no idea that seeing my family was going to be such a challenge!Not only were there mattresses on I95, a whole bunch of them, there were cones all up and down the road. It was pretty crazy. One moment, there was a mattress in the road and then a minute later there was another one ripped in half. The police were trying to pick them all up and put them on the side of the road, out of the way of traffic, and boy was it a challenge.

Then there were the flying cones! Just cones everywhere. We could not understand what was going on. We finally made it to my Grandmother’s house and I ran to bed. I woke up to find out my mother talked my Grandmother to sleep. Lol.

Sunday we went shopping for all the things that Mom needs when she gets to Iraq on Tuesday and that took hours. At least I got new clothes for school, which I am very excited about!

I had lunch at my grandfather’s house today. It was a great to see him and just have a relaxing lunch at his house. Miss Rae made a huge salad and was forcing huge mounds on all of us. It was hard to eat everything. I was so full I passed out on the day bed.

I have been truly irked by something since I’ve been home. My stupid phone! Not only have people been calling me after 9pm, which is a great insult in my family, but they get upset that I don’t have time to talk to them! I was so happy to see my grandfather but then it got overshadowed by a bunch of people calling and texting, then upset because I would rather spend time talking to my family than text them. I finally turned off my cell phone and was through with it, but later found out that my father was trying to call me. I was really upset when I found that out. I didn’t get the chance to see my dad because my phone was off and my mom’s was to far away she didn’t hear hers.

I still don’t understand why people wouldn’t respect the fact that I was with my family, who I only get to see every few months, if I’m lucky, normally it’s once a year, and then they have the nerve to get upset with me!

I can tell I am my mother’s daughter because I get upset when people call before 9 am and after 9 pm. To me, it is truly rude and shows great disrespect for some one’s house hold, which I think this problem arisen with the creation of cell phones. I got so upset tonight that I just turned it off. Its bad enough the thing never stopped ringing and beeping today.

I’ve had to turn that thing off twice today because it would not hush! I can’t sleep now since it had rang twice while I was sleeping and so now I’m up which totally sucks because my mom and I are driving back to DC at 5 am. I am so not looking forward to that drive, but we have to be back in DC first thing in the morning. My mom has a meeting at like 8 am and then she is getting packed out at around noon. Tomorrow is my last night with my mom before she goes to
Iraq. I think the cell phone finds a new setting, off.