Life's been kind of crazy. In the beginning of July, I took Billy, Kimberly, Eli, and my mom on a vacation to the New England States. We landed in Boston (flew first class for the first time in my life), and drove to Philly where we stayed for the first half. The first full day, we were going to spend 4th of July in DC. But, between a delayed flight and trouble getting a rental car, we were up late and slept in. Then we had to drive to DC. The place I thought we could catch the metrorail was under construction so we had to catch a shuttle to another station. By the time we got up to the street level, mom was tired and needed a rest. We were going to have to walk a couple of blocks to catch the night tour. We were beginning to realize mom couldn't make it and she said she'd just sit on her walker while the rest of us went. I don't remember what set Billy off, but he started cursing and mom and I got onto him so he started cursing at us. Mom raised her hand to slap him and I just lost it and smacked him upside the head. The next thing I knew I was seeing stars. He'd punched me in the head and then took off down the street. The streets were so crowded and there was police around, I expected one or both of us to be arrested and I didn't care, but nothing happened. He texted the group that he only makes things worse, but that sounds like his dad--not sorry, just manipulative. I started crying and Kim hugged me and said it wasn't my fault. I felt bad for the car situation the night before (I had forgotten to raise my spend limit and the bank was closed) and I knew that if I'd had Scott's help planning the trip, it would have been better. By the time Billy came back, the trip was ruined for me. I didn't want to be around him and I felt I didn't even like my own son. My head hurt for a solid week. We decided to give up and go back to the hotel.
The next day we drove to NYC and rode the open top tour bus. Then we took a river cruise around Manhattan and learned a lot.
The next day, we did a tour of Philadelphia, then we drove to Hershey, PA, to see the Hershey Factory. I'd hoped one of those days we'd have time to go to Atlantic City, but we didn't. I also wanted to drive through Amish country, but everyone was tired, so we just went straight back to the hotel.
The next day, we drove back to Boston, but went through Connecticut and Rhode Island. We stopped in Mystic, CT, where they have a cute little village of shops. Then we saw some of the mansions in Newport, RI, and then we went to the zoo in Providence.
The next day, we were on a Boston trolley tour. We were supposed to go to Gloucester to do a whale watch cruise but the tour made us miss it, so we had to reschedule it. Mom and I wanted to see Cape Cod and Martha's Vineyard, but the other 3 wanted to go back to the hotel and we couldn't leave Billy in the room alone.
The next day we drove up New Hampshire and down Vermont. We stopped in Littleton, NH, and Stowe, VT. I tried to stop at Ben and Jerry's factory, but no one wanted ice cream.
The next day was supposed to be Maine, but we did the whale watch cruise in Gloucester. It was really fun. Tropical Storm Elsa had gone through the day before and they said they'd never had so many sightings. We saw 2 pods of 4, among others. They kept popping up on the right side of the boat and we were sitting on the left. We could all run to the other side, but mom couldn't. One of the crew told the captain, so he turned the boat around.
The next day, we flew home.
I started calling Billy's school, his therapist, his case worker, his church group leader--anyone to get some help. My therapist suggested that I had pretty much checked out after Scott died and let Billy do whatever he wanted. So, I told Billy I was sorry I had checked out but I'm back now and there will be rules and he will follow them or else he can't live with me. It was like he had taken over and it was all his rules. I couldn't talk to him without him yelling and cursing at me. I told him that if he had to go to Ozanam or Gillis, he'd lose his job at Chick-fil-A and his dog. He started doing better at doing what I said. He also was working almost every free moment, except Wednesdays with youth group, Saturday mornings (therapy), and when they're closed on Sundays.
At one point, he had a problem with his sister at work and said he was quitting and cussed at his sister. I told him she's protecting him from being fired but she wanted him transferred to another store. He freaked out because he likes this store and apologized to her.
Last night he was upset and wailing because he thought he was going to be fired because he was scheduled to close and I came to pick him up at 10 so they told him to go ahead and go.
I was sad I had missed going to Maine and Billy was going to go to ONEweek (church camp), so I decided to go to Maine by myself. I dropped Billy off early on a Monday morning and I went to the airport. I just took a carry-on and my backpack, I thought things were starting off great because I got to watch a Gerard Butler movie on the way to Charlotte, my layover. I kind of missed first class because I was stuck between two men and one spilled his Dr. Pepper down my pants' leg. When we got to Charlotte, there were storms there and we were forced into a holding pattern for over an hour. They were talking about landing somewhere to refuel. Finally Charlotte cleared us to land. But, they wouldn't bring out the gate because there was lightning. So we sat for over an hour before they let us off the plane. They told us not to worry about missing connections because Charlotte wasn't letting anyone take off or land. I got a text that my connection was canceled and they wanted me to rebook for the next day to Boston. I looked at alternatives and found one to Manchester, NH and booked it. It kept being delayed and then the gate changed. When I got to the new gate, they were boarding for Portland, Maine, which is where I was going to stay. I thought about seeing if I could change my ticket, but I looked up rental cars there and they were almost double the price. After more delays, I finally got on a plane. I was scared I wasn't going to make it to the rental car counter in time. Most are 24 hour, but this one closed at 1:30am. We landed at 1am, but we were still taxiing! And I was about halfway back in the plane. When I got off I asked the nearest person where the rental cars were and she said the next building over! I walked as fast as I could and arrived at 1:15. The only car left was an orange Chevy Equinox. It was better than the Ford Explorer we had on the last trip. It was uncomfortable and had more buttons than I could figure out what they did. I drove to my hotel in Portland and got there about 3:30am. The system had kicked out my reservation at 2am and the computer was down for monthly maintenance.
To be continued...
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