dead vampires, live memoirs& food poisoning

So, I drove to Minneapolis to see a friend's new baby. I was given a $200 speeding ticket outside of Eau Claire (Can you say speed trap) and got food poisoning that made me violently ill for 12 hours. Otherwise, I had a lovely time. Right before that I was finally told by my agent that the three years I've spent rewriting the vampire book had led to the conclusion that it "didn't work". Included with that was the information that her husband had died in May which I had totally missed probably because I was reeling from the news that Evanston had treated me like dirt. I felt horrible and also recognized how odd a relationship the agent/author thing is. I love her but I'm not like a real friend.
Then my mother called and said my father has prostrate cancer. Oh, my sister sent me a horrible e-mail with bullet pointed reasons why she feels I behaved badly over Christmas. On Monday my 16 year old announced he was buying a moped and didn't need insurance or a license. His stepfather chimed in to say he thought it sounded like a good idea. So I stomped out of the house unable to articulate my rage.
My mother used to lose it once every couple of months and get in the car and drive away. I don't know where she could have gone in the early seventies since there were no coffee shops. Maybe a bar. Maybe she sat at a bar and told the bartender how bad it was to be a brilliant architect and have everyone treat you like a housewife. Anyway, my dad would then take us to this Chinese restaurant on Route One called THE CHINA PEARL that also had a bowling alley. of course this probably only happened once but in my writer's mind it occurred a few times. It was a good memory because we so rarely went to restaurants or bowing or had my dad to ourselves.
Writing this memoir in fits and starts. I feel like I remember things vividly but then I know how it can just be a bunch of things twisted together. I had dinner the other night with someone who was at my first wedding, a very pretty wedding despite my marrying the wrong guy and being drunk and suicidal. Anyway, he mentioned the tree blooming, the tree we had planted for my sister Catherine and how it was interpreted as a good omen which is ridiculous since I spent the evening of said wedding sitting in a bar telling the bartender I didn't love my husband who was passed out upstairs and we then went to Eluthra where he tried to strangle me and nearly was eaten by a hammerhead shark. I had alcohol poisoning in the Miami airport on the way back. There was something-the world series I think-and everyone was watching this game on television and I was getting violently sick.
Hmm. Not a all sure of the point but maybe one recalls things based on triggers like illness.

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