Exorcising the Kidlet

Ms. B. and Kidlet looking mysterious. Or something.

The circumstances weren't exactly welcome, but my daughter's visit was. Due to a serious situation here in Greensboro (the details of which I'll skip for discretion's sake), Allison came down from New York City and spent a few days at Casa de Rodan with the old man and, for a portion of that time, with Ms. Brugger. She also got to spend some much-needed quality time with her mom. While there was some distress about the situation at hand, we did manage to enjoy ourselves immensely, with movies, popcorn, fine wine, and first-rate vittles.

She arrived early afternoon on Saturday, and the first order of business was dealing with the business that brought her here. Not a fun part of the day, to be sure, but with evening came some nice mellow time, including dinner at Sushi Republic and a showing of The Exorcist, which is apparently one of her favorite filums (mine too). We accompanied the movie with popcorn and a fine Bordeaux, and afterward, a pleasant bit of reminiscing about certain childhoods spent in certain houses.

Come Sunday, we decided to continue with more things Pazuzu and watched Exorcist II: The Heretic, whose outright weirdness has always appealed to me, far more than to the world at large, which clearly does not so much approve. Certainly, it's many steps down from its predecessor, but if nothing else, its stylish cinematography and wonderful score by Ennio Morricone make it a rather creepy treat. After a necessary interlude with more personal business, we settled in front of the TV screen once again, this time for Exorcist III, the second best entry in the series, and another of my favorite horror movies (though with some caveats). For dinner, we hied our asses over to Ms. Brugger's for pizza (store-bought but doctored-up bigly) and a bit more of the fine wine.

On Monday, Allison stayed with her mom, but on Tuesday, she was back here, and what should we do but watch Exorcist: The Beginning, which I can't utterly poo-poo, though it is inferior even to Exorcist II. It's marginally better than Exorcist: Dominion, from which it was actually derived, but we did not sit through the latter, as time was too short, and I really had no interest in looking at it again anyway.

So Wednesday morning, while I was at work, I got a message from the kidlet, which went more or less as follows:

Kidlet: "So I walked to/from Jay's gas station to get allergy meds. I forgot allergy meds. Can you stop and get Claritin on the way home?"

Dad: "How you walk for allergy meds and not get allergy meds?!"

Kidlet: "I got snacks."

Dad: "Yes, I will stop for allergy meds but when I get home, I may only have snacks."

Kidlet: "Daaaad!"

"I am the god of hellfire!" Or something.

Wednesday evening saw both Brugger and Allison at my house, where Ms. B. prepared a fabulous dish of lamb and couscous, topped with cucumbers, grape tomatoes, and tzatziki. Rather than plop ourselves in front of the television screen, we went out into the suddenly all-too-warm evening air and made ourselves even warmer by way of the fire pit. Fortunately, the temperature cooled down enough so we didn't sweat our asses off, but good lord... until yesterday morning, I've been wearing my heavy coat, and as of today, I'm running the fucking air conditioning. I so miss having real seasons, like we used to.

With our local issues under control, at least for the time being, this morning, I dropped Allison off at PTI, and she winged her way back to NYC — hopefully not for the next two years without a visit, as her last trip here was almost exactly two years ago, in Spring 2016. I really hope she didn't forget her allergy meds, though, because I'm not much inclined to run up to the city to drop them off.

Kidlets!

A misty nighttime view from Casa de Rodan

Women wearing weird oxygen masks