Lavender Fields Adventure
Jul. 9th, 2015 09:20 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
grimrose_eilwynnFun fact: I have panic attacks!
So today, my aunt offered to take me out to some local lavender fields. Lavender is supposed to be soothing and she wanted to buy me a few things from the lavender farm's gift shop.
Now, here's a little background on my aunt -- she's a complete flake. Half the time you invite her she doesn't even show up, and the other half of the time she shows up two hours late and only stays for an hour. She has little to no capacity for rational forethought, wears really bright floaty clothes, has an alarming capacity for mood swings, and is really into eastern spiritualism.
But this time, she really seemed to be trying, so I agreed to go.
At first, it all seemed to be going rather well. Not only did she show up, she showed up on time! Wonders will never cease! As we drove, she got really into talking about ancient eastern philosophy and the all encompassing fear of death. (Apparently, "we're all dead, and death is where life begins.")
That's about when we found out we were lost.
It turned out, dear Auntie hadn't printed out Google directions, and she'd thought today would be a great time to figure out how her car's navigation system worked. Yay!!! We were lost for nearly an hour. ("I'm too fat for this!" my sister was shouting as she ducked underneath the car seat for the hundredth time to pick up the phone for directions.)
Eventually, we just stopped off at the nearest pizza place to have lunch. It was really small and cozy, with hand made pizza, and it had lots of band posters on the walls. The food was pretty good. That was basically the coolest part of the afternoon.
My aunt wanted to quit and go back home to have "me time" right there, but she remembered she was trying, so she gave it one more go. We wound our way down lots of rural back roads lined with trees, before eventually -- miracle of miracles -- we found the lavender farm. Aaand it was closed.
So many disbelieving questions ran through my mind: Why had she not bothered to call and verify the farm was open? Why had she not bothered to check whether lavender was even in bloom? "Closed for the Season," read the sign posted at the head of the road. Yeah. No kidding.
The guy at the cute little cafe next door recommended we call them and see if there were any chance we could stop by. I suggested we take a drive by, take some pictures of the fields, and ask if we could take a closer look at how lavender was planted. My aunt refused both suggestions, drove us home, dropped us off outside our house, and drove away.
Thanks, Dear Auntie. Great.
Even when she's not a flake... she's a flake.
So in the end, my sister and I went running screaming back to our parents, who took us out to the movies to see Jurassic World. So I got to watch dinosaurs eat people and blood go everywhere, which actually kind of made it all better. (Watching Spielberg and Stephen King movies with the fam? Best thing ever!)
We had burgers and nachos afterward and my sister won me a little pink dragon from the claw machine. I named him Freckles!
I am so glad my mother is my mother, and my aunt is my aunt. It really shouldn't be the other way around. You know why? Because Mom would have called to verify, printed out directions, and had the patience to drive to the end of the road and check out the lavender farm.
UGH.
So today, my aunt offered to take me out to some local lavender fields. Lavender is supposed to be soothing and she wanted to buy me a few things from the lavender farm's gift shop.
Now, here's a little background on my aunt -- she's a complete flake. Half the time you invite her she doesn't even show up, and the other half of the time she shows up two hours late and only stays for an hour. She has little to no capacity for rational forethought, wears really bright floaty clothes, has an alarming capacity for mood swings, and is really into eastern spiritualism.
But this time, she really seemed to be trying, so I agreed to go.
At first, it all seemed to be going rather well. Not only did she show up, she showed up on time! Wonders will never cease! As we drove, she got really into talking about ancient eastern philosophy and the all encompassing fear of death. (Apparently, "we're all dead, and death is where life begins.")
That's about when we found out we were lost.
It turned out, dear Auntie hadn't printed out Google directions, and she'd thought today would be a great time to figure out how her car's navigation system worked. Yay!!! We were lost for nearly an hour. ("I'm too fat for this!" my sister was shouting as she ducked underneath the car seat for the hundredth time to pick up the phone for directions.)
Eventually, we just stopped off at the nearest pizza place to have lunch. It was really small and cozy, with hand made pizza, and it had lots of band posters on the walls. The food was pretty good. That was basically the coolest part of the afternoon.
My aunt wanted to quit and go back home to have "me time" right there, but she remembered she was trying, so she gave it one more go. We wound our way down lots of rural back roads lined with trees, before eventually -- miracle of miracles -- we found the lavender farm. Aaand it was closed.
So many disbelieving questions ran through my mind: Why had she not bothered to call and verify the farm was open? Why had she not bothered to check whether lavender was even in bloom? "Closed for the Season," read the sign posted at the head of the road. Yeah. No kidding.
The guy at the cute little cafe next door recommended we call them and see if there were any chance we could stop by. I suggested we take a drive by, take some pictures of the fields, and ask if we could take a closer look at how lavender was planted. My aunt refused both suggestions, drove us home, dropped us off outside our house, and drove away.
Thanks, Dear Auntie. Great.
Even when she's not a flake... she's a flake.
So in the end, my sister and I went running screaming back to our parents, who took us out to the movies to see Jurassic World. So I got to watch dinosaurs eat people and blood go everywhere, which actually kind of made it all better. (Watching Spielberg and Stephen King movies with the fam? Best thing ever!)
We had burgers and nachos afterward and my sister won me a little pink dragon from the claw machine. I named him Freckles!
I am so glad my mother is my mother, and my aunt is my aunt. It really shouldn't be the other way around. You know why? Because Mom would have called to verify, printed out directions, and had the patience to drive to the end of the road and check out the lavender farm.
UGH.
