parental units

the parents came down thursday. i met up with them at half price books on westheimer near montrose, sometime around 1pm. we then went and ate at angelo’s, which is a german restaurant on montrose just north of westheimer. from there we went to the holocaust museum. i’d parked near it for a year or two but had never gone. it is a pretty powerful statement about goings on before, during, and after world war ii. there’s almost certainly at least one thing there — an object, a picture, etc — that will deeply affect you. it’s also pretty amazing how easy it seems to be to get ordinary people to be involved in committing atrocities while they convince themselves they’re not culpable. we left there around 5pm, so to avoid rush hour traffic we stopped by the west alabama ice house. we hung out there for a couple of hours, then went to james coney island at the corner of shepard and richmond. from there it was off to the half price books in rice village. the evening was finished off with a cup of coffee and a slice of pie at the house of pies.
friday we got up and headed down to galveston. the original plan was to go to moody gardens, but after discussing options we ended up going to the Texas seaport museum. i was mostly interested because on their website they have a database where you can search ship rolls for immigrants, and they talk about immigration to Texas through galveston. unfortunately, the museum itself only has a very small area discussing immigration. the 1877 elissa is docked at the museum also, and that was definitely interesting. i’m not much of a fan of sea culture or the sea though. it doesn’t capture my imagination. i don’t like nautical themes, seafood, etc. after the museum visit, we headed back to houston and went to sylvia’s enchilada. the food was excellent, as usual. my mom planned a meeting with a lady at starbucks (more about that in an upcoming entry), so my dad and i dropped her off and then went by cavender’s and a barnes and noble. afterward, my mom thought it’d be good to grab some microwave popcorn. except i don’t have a microwave. so i went old school and bought a jar of popcorn and some cooking oil. the popping went well. but i didn’t have any butter or salt in the house, so the popcorn was kind of bland. (i live like a true bachelor.) my dad started to look at some of the books he’d bought and my mom and i watched the coen brother’s first film blood simple. i think it’s a great movie, but i don’t think my mom was too excited about it.
saturday we got up and ate brunch at le peep (westheimer and wilcrest). we dropped by 75% off books and whole foods as well, since they are in the same strip center. we then headed back to the house where my parents packed, loaded the water trough from the back yard into their pickup, and headed on their way.
they offered to haul off a bunch of the stuff tamara left behind, but i still feel guilty just tossing it and not going through it. i seriously think one day she may realize how stupid it was of her to leave some of the stuff she did. given what she’s done to me i should probably not care and gleefully burn it in a big bonfire, but most of the time i just don’t have the heart to do it. plus i don’t really feel like it’d give me much satisfaction. yeah, she fscked me over…and over, and over — but it just doesn’t seem to be able to make me stay a sadistic, evil b4st4rd. that only comes in fits and spurts, usually right after she’s done something new to me, or i’m having to deal with some painful issue that’s a result of her actions. but those moments don’t last, and usually i don’t accomplish much in the way of dastardly deeds during those phases — i’m more likely to just fume and scream for awhile, then break down and cry and wish this all weren’t really happening. i’m much more evil and sadistic in my mind than most anything that ever sees the light of day.