From Here to Infirmary

It's been a pretty eventful week.  We met the favorite cousin and her husband in the City last Sunday, even though they weren't feeling so great and we had a really nice catch up dinner with them.  Monday MOTH worked from home as he had pulled something in his shoulder/back and couldn't face the train commute.  I went back to the doctor that day for a skin cancer check and because I still had a headache.  My head hurt so bad on Friday at MOTH's birthday dinner, that I was actually sick in the bathroom...not cool!  I had taken two rounds of codeine pain killers and not even they could kill the headache.  The doctor on Monday said that this was normal and wouldn't even prescribe me real migraine medicine.  He is obviously a dud and I won't be going back to him!  I swear doctor's here act like I'm some hysterical woman when I go in to see them, but I don't think constant nausea, stomach cramps and other issues, vomiting and headaches are normal.

The last week of work flew by and I was trying to soak it all up.  I didn't have any nasty customers or any really difficult situations so that was a nice way to end things on.  I just tried to spend as much time as possible with my team mates and luckily we had a few minutes available time between most calls to be able to chat.

Thursday after work I packed for our trip to Wollongong.  The plan was I'd have my last day of work and be off at 2 and then I'd drive down to Neutral Bay, pick MOTH up around 4-4:30 and we'd head down from there.  I had booked us in to two different hotels (both were booked out for one of the weekend nights) and had looked up activities nearby (blow hole, stand up paddleboarding) as well as a bunch of places that were breakfast and dinner potentials.  I'm sure I've mentioned this previously, but in the 7 years I've lived here, I've still never made it south of Sydney and I was really excited to be heading out of town (a birthday gift to us from my parents).

MOTH got home around 9pm Thursday night and he was complaining because his thumb was infected and really sore.  He had asked me to grab him epsom salt so he could soak it and he did but it didn't provide any relief.  I was getting frustrated as it was now nearly 10:30 and he still hadn't packed or done the dishes.  He decided to cut his finger to try and relieve the pressure but it didn't and nothing came out but blood.  After he stopped bleeding, I told him I'd do the dishes and he started packing.  We finally made it in to bed and for the next hour and a half neither of us slept-MOTH because he was in so much pain that even the sheet brushing against his thumb was excruciating and me because MOTH kept tossing and turning.  He got out of bed and started wandering back and forth through the house.  I suggested he try and soak his finger again.  He said the pain was getting too much to handle so I called this nurse on call hotline and the recommended we go to the ER.  After waiting for about 3 hours (there were hardly any other patients there so don't know what took that long, but anyway) they finally drew some blood to make sure the infection hadn't spread, looked at the finger, gave him a shot of antibiotics and sent us home with a prescription for more antibiotics and some codeine.  I emailed my manager at 6:15am when we finally got home and advised that I would be late for my last day of work and actually needed to take it as a sick day, but I knew my team was doing something for me and I didn't want to miss it.

At a few minutes to 9, I woke up as I heard MOTH go out to our car and come back in.  I called out to him to see what was up.  When he called back to me, I could tell he was in tears and that really freaked me out. He said the codeine was only helping for about an hour and his whole hand felt like he was resting it on a hot plate and the pain was now radiating up towards his elbow.  I didn't want to wait in the ER again so I tried calling some local medical centers to see if they could get him in, they couldn't.  I called his Mom at work and she said go back to the ER and she'd meet us there.  I called my manager and told her I had to miss my last day completely and I started crying and asked her to apologize to my team if they had gone to any effort for me and that I was really sorry I couldn't be there.  She said they'd understand and to just focus on MOTH.

We got to the ER, about a 3 minute drive from our house, and the parking lot was packed and the entrance was swamped with people in suits.  I saw someone holding a sign for one of the local politicians and said to MOTH, "Oh great, so actual patients have to hike a mile to the hospital because some local politicians is here to make an announcement about something."  We did end up having to hike about a half mile away and at the bottom of a hill, luckily MOTH was able to walk it.  We found out it was actual the prime minister who was visiting the hospital and announcing that there were plans to build a new cancer center there.  Had I seen her, I would've recommended to her that she also add a new parking structure to her budget, haha!

This time we were called back within 20 minutes of waiting, which was good because I don't know that MOTH could've waited another 3 hours to see someone this time around.  The doctor decided they needed to cut his finger deeper to get to the infection and that they would also put in and keep in an iv port on the back of his hand and over the next few days we'd need to come in everyday to get an iv drip so Wollongong was out.  We were both really disappointed but focused on getting him better.  They gave him a local shot to numb the thumb and a morphine pill, even still his Mom and I heard MOTH screaming from across the hall; poor guy.  Shortly after that, he was feeling much better and said his hand was only slightly throbbing.  We came home and MOTH slept until the next morning, only waking for an hour to eat dinner and check in with his parents.

I did manage to get back in to work on Monday to say good bye to everyone and to clean out my drawer and hand in my swipe key.  I was pretty sad to be leaving, not the job but the people there (and the pay!).  I got lots of hugs and my team wrote the nicest messages on my good bye card.  They also got me a bunch of stylish office supplies I can use at my new job which was really thoughtful of them.

It'll be weird going from a team of 16 people, in an office of about 100 people, to an office of 3-4 other people max, BUT I'm looking forward to it.  I'm nervous and excited and can't wait to see what the role is all about.  I haven't gotten official confirmation, but I'm tentatively due to start this Thursday.  I'm using these few days off to play Nurse D, sleep in, and run errands like getting my work pants hemmed so I look respectable at the new job and sending my passport off to be renewed.  Hopefully nothing more "exciting" happens between now and then.  Wish me luck for Thursday!

Wearing Your Black Eye Like a Badge of Honor

(Or: Is This the Way a Toy Feels When Its Batteries Run Dry?)

Source

Today during a guest presentation at work, the speaker told our group that overseas Australia is known as the fight capital of the world..."If you want to go to a country and get beat up, go to Australia" is what he said news programs in other countries report about Australi to which I was very emphatically (and internally) nodding my head. He later wrapped up his talk by bringing it full circle back to this idea that Aus is a perpetual fight club by saying, "Other countries who think that of us are crazy. We are about being good mates to each other....blah blah blah....built of mateship.....help each other.....blah blah blah, mates." And I was thinking, "I think the foreign news stories have got it right about it here," but of course you can't say that as the only non-Aussie in the room!

For all the shit I get from Australians about our lack of gun control in America, I can honestly say I've never felt as unsafe in my life as I have living here and no one I know back home even owns a gun. Granted, I lived in a lot nicer neighborhoods than I do here, but even walking around big cities in the States I felt a lot safer than I do here in my home in Australia.

Before living here I guess I didn't realize the polite segregation that still happens in our society back home. There you have your ghettos, your working class neighborhoods, your middle class neighborhoods, and your upper middle class and then rich neighborhoods. I don't know if city planners here are just dumb or what, but you can have a decent middle class neighborhood and then someone will decide it's an awesome idea to stick a group of housing commission homes (Aus' version of the ghetto) or some kind of pub/club on the corner so you can never just have a safe, quiet neighborhood.

MOTH Dude and I currently live in a neighborhood I'd describe as working class with the immediate houses around us occupied by families and senior citizens. We could afford to live somewhere nicer, but we're saving for the wedding and just saving, in general, for the future so we don't have to buy a place in a neighborhood like the one we are in now. And really with housing commission blocks everywhere it doesn't seem like there are a ton of "nice" neighborhoods for us to move in to anyway. We could spend $100-$200 more per week (that's how rent is paid here, by the way-still find that strange) and we'd be having the same problems we are having now. I should know, my parents' paid a lot of rent money when I was living in a nice place in Newcastle during college and I was still woken up most weekends by people fighting in the street.

This past week I've had to call the cops twice and also heard a horrific story about an incident that happened to one of MOTH Dude's Uncle's friends. Last Friday night, MOTH stayed back at work to have drinks with coworkers so I was home alone and watching a movie in bed, when at about 11, I heard a couple arguing in the street. When I first moved to Australia, it would've been something I would've really tensed up over but now it's kind of a common occurrence so I kept watching my movie, figuring they'd move on. A few minutes later I could tell that the couple had moved in to the little park across the street from us and I heard the girl yell, "Ow, stop, you're hurting me!" so I paused my movie to listen to what was going on and the girl continued to yell this a few more times so I decided to call the cops in case the girl was really getting hurt. I heard her boyfriend tell her, "I'll pull you by your f*ing hair if I have to" and it sounded like that was what he was doing. I spoke to the cops, but at that point it sounded like the couple was moving on. The dispatcher said she'd still have officers come check the park to make sure everything was ok there. I waited 10 minutes at the front door and they never showed up. I looked out the window any time a car drove passed for the next 30 minutes...still no cops! Glad the girl wasn't getting totally beat up in the park or she would have been in serious trouble. It also made me angry because it was obvious that none of my neighbors had called the cops to report the incident, either, even though they were all home, including the family who lives directly next to the park where the girl's screams were coming from.

Tuesday night we ended up having a late night since I got dinner going later than usual and it took longer to make than it should have and we decided to watch a movie while we ate dinner which finished later than we had expected. So by the time we checked emails, MOTH did dishes, and I got settled in to bed to read for a few minutes and he jumped in the shower so he wouldn't have to before his 4:15 leave time in the morning, it was after 11. At some point a car pulled up, but I just assumed it was our neighbor pulling in to his driveway which is right next to our bedroom window and that he must be saying good bye to some friends. They talked on and on and on and I thought, "Alright, Dude, it's nearly 11:30 on a Tuesday night, wrap it up" but then when I really started listening the voices didn't sound like they were coming from behind my head, they sounded like they were coming from directly in front of our bedroom windows. I got up and went to our front room and peaked out of the windows and there was a station wagon with a bunch of guys standing around it, blocking our driveway. Out of all the places to park on the street, they didn't pull over in front of the park or the vacant block/nature strip next to our house or even properly in front of our house, they parked across the end of our driveway. Something about it creeped me out and I turned on the porch light so the guys got the hint, like, "Hey, we're in here, you can shut up and leave now" and they did get in their car, but then they just sat out there in the dark. I went in to the bathroom and told MOTH about them and when he got out he went to the front and peaked out, too. We turned off all the lights to try and hint at them again that we were there and were wanting to sleep, but the car just sat there and we were like, "Are these guys the dumbest/loudest burglars alive or what?" MOTH Dude decided to go out to our laundry room and make sure it was locked up and I sat on our bed waiting for him to come back in. As soon as he got out of the back door, the doors of the car opened and I heard people walking around in our front yard. I started to panic about them going in to the backyard where MOTH was but I couldn't move. Luckily, MOTH came back in and said as he was locking up, he saw the guys walking up the vacant block all the way down to the end of it where there is nothing, but easy access in to our backyard so I said, "Okay, I'm calling the cops." So for the second time in four days, I put in an emergency call and the dispatcher said she'd have someone out here quickly. We waited 5 minutes, heard the guys throw some cans and stuff on our lawn and then their car started up and they pulled away. I started to feel like an idiot for being paranoid and called the dispatch back and they said they would cancel the call out. For the next hour, every little cricket chirp or bat screech had me sitting up in bed and looking out the window to make sure no one was out there. When MOTH's alarm went off at 3:45, I had already been lying awake for nearly 20 minutes. As it got light, I was able to get about an hour's sleep before my own alarm went off. Not a fun way to spend a night and I was a zombie at work on Wednesday.

To just pull up to someone's house and block their driveway when the whole street is wide open and full of regular spots to pull in to is just weird to me. As a teenager, I'd sometimes pull over with a friend to have a chat in front of a random house, but it was always in a spot in front of the house, not blocking anyone's driveway and we hardly ever got out of the car so the people inside the house would not be woken up by us.

Finally, the last concerning incident happened Sunday night: Before we got in to bed, MOTH said, "Oh by the way, Uncle B's friend left the local club the other night to walk his friend, who had had too much to drink, back to his house which was only about 300 feet from the club when people started harassing them from a car. They must have yelled something back and 3 people (including a girl) jumped out of the car and immediately knocked the drunk guy out and proceeded to beat and stab Uncle B's friend. He is now in a medically induced coma." The club they were walking home from is about 2 miles from our house and is in a really quiet neighborhood. I was shocked and felt sick to my stomach. Luckily, two women came out and stopped the attack and managed to get the license plate of the car and all 3 people who were a part of it are now in jail. The police think this attack is linked to another one that happened about 5 miles in the opposite direction from our house a few weeks back where a guy was walking home from another club and a car randomly pulled over and beat him with a metal bar. These people were just out cruising, purposely looking for people to hurt.

WTF?!!? I feel like at least at home if I got shot it would be because I walked in to the middle of a gang showdown or in front of a deer a hunter was about to take down, but here I am hearing about random, violent attacks like that one more and more often. I'm starting to get really paranoid. I'm afraid to go out in to our laundry room which is right outside the back door at night, even though MOTH has just installed a flood light for me. Every bump in the dark has me immediately awake and on edge waiting for someone to break in and hurt us, especially since for awhile we were having problems with people stealing stuff out of our laundry room or I'd go out there and notice something random was out of order or that the toilet in there had been used. So creepy to think someone was out there walking around our house while we were asleep!

My fears (however unfounded they may be) coupled with the stress I am feeling from work and my general blues from not seeing my sister in over a year and my parents in nearly a year have caused me to start compulsively picking at my arms in an attempt to comfort and soothe myself, something I haven't done to this degree since I was about 14 years old. My arms have multiple gaping, and in some cases, infected holes on them. I know they look awful and I know I should stop, but I haven't been able to. I've finally decided to cover the spots with bandaids and wear long sleeves so I can't get at them through the day. I still find myself unable to stop picking tiny little bumps I think I see on my shoulders before bed, though, but at least my arms are starting to heal. MOTH was getting really, really worried about me and honestly, I was starting to get worried about me, too.

I think I just need a breather. I need to get out of Aus for awhile. I need to see my family. I need to get away from customers telling me I'm incompetent or a f*ing asshole because they don't like the privacy laws I have to follow in dealing with their or their husband's or their grandma's accounts. I need to get a solid month's worth of quality sleep in a place where I can fall in to a deep sleep comfortably. I need to just get away with MOTH Dude and have some fun, rather than be like roomies who see each other at the end of a long day for an hour before passing out, which is how I feel our weeks are going right now.

I'm not sure what the solution will be once I get back here, but, for my sanity's sake, there may need to be some changes put in to place. Every day I wish the solution could be moving back to California, but that is not an option at this point so I'll just need to do a better job of sucking it up.

I also know this post has me coming off timid and weak and probably a smidge (or more?) crazy, but I'm exhausted and beat down to my core and beyond caring right now.

Four weeks from tomorrow I will be in Kauai and as I stated as my Facebook status the other day: "Hoping the next month will fly by and I'll magically wake up in a jacuzzi in Kauai with a mai tai in hand, hanging with my parents and Moth Dude."

Here's hoping for nicer, saner things to blog about soon...

Because the Positive will Always Overcome the Negative

Although my last post was fairly negative, I generally try to write about things from a positive perspective. I may talk about something negative if it has been affecting me for some time, but if MOTH Dude and I get in to a little fight or if someone at work or a friend says something that hurts my feelings, I don't come on here and lash out at them right away. I know it is a momentary bump in the road in our relationship/friendships. Don't get me wrong, there have been times I've wanted to be immature and air some dirty laundry on here, but once it's on here anyone can read it and even though I give psuedonym's to everyone, if you know me, it is easy to figure out who everyone is.

The benefit of technology is that it allows people to have a voice and to share that voice with a wider audience than was ever available before. The downside to technology is that people seem to forget that what you put out in to the internet never really goes away. So if you put something out there, you have to be willing to own it.

I'll get to the specific event I'm speaking about in just a moment here, but when called my Mom on advice on how to proceed on what I had found, she talked about how one of her friend's daughters had broken up with a boy and the boy got so mad he started a website about what a drunk and a slut this girl is. Now, whenever you Google the girl, that stuff comes up about her. How horrible, right? Even if these things were true, does the girl deserve to have that out there for future employers to see?

I, myself, Googled someone the other day who had been really, really mean to me for no reason just to see what was out there about him. With only his first and last name, I found out a ton about him and on the very first search result linked to his name found his cell number and his personal email address. If I was a vindictive person, there's lots of bad stuff I could do with that information alone.

Technology is changing so rapidly and is such a useful tool, but sometimes we get complacent about what we put out there about others and the information that we share to the world about ourselves.

So on to why I'm posting about this today: MOTH Dude and I are heading back to California in a month and a half to visit family and friends and to start looking at wedding venues and meet with potential vendors. I've made a wedding inspiration board and have a good idea based on our style and our budget on what we are after. In conjunction with the wedding planning process, part of my daily internet routine now includes checking out a couple wedding blogs to see if any of the weddings featured are using the colors or details we like in a way we haven't thought of. I also read a forum site where brides ask each other things like where to find the perfect blue shoes or what a reasonable cost in NY is for a wedding cake or what should they do to make their DIY centerpieces nicer. Part of the forum is dedicated to family topics and bridesmaids and honeymoons, as well. What I generally do is go on and look at the first 5 pages of forum topics. These are all the posts from any of the sections (honeymoons, shoes, family, etc) that have been commented on most recently.

This morning, while MOTH was at church and I was waiting on the first load of laundry, I scanned through the first 5 pages as per usual and opened in a new tab any topics that were relevant to me and a few about people venting about problems they are having in planning their weddings. One of the topics I opened was "MOH from Hell". (For those not in the throes of wedding planning, MOH = Maid of Honor.)

I'm reading through the post and the author was frustrated with her Maid of Honor because she thought she was being too controlling, too negative, and wanted to go on a $500 cruise for a bachelorette weekend (which may sound extravagant to some, but I've had a few friends in Orange County do this now, so while it does seem like an expensive party, it's not so far fetched for our area/friend group) but then was worried about how much being a bridesmaid was going to cost her. The friend asked the bride to provide her with a spreadsheet on what she should be expecting to pay to participate in the wedding, which is a contrast to being able to drop $500 for a weekend cruise, but not an unreasonable request. The bride first writes that she is unsure 12 months out from the wedding how much everything will cost, (which I can relate to because I have no idea how much I'll be asking my girls to spend, but want to keep it low for them) but then the bride writes out how much the bridesmaid dress she likes costs, how much for the shoes she wants them to get are, and how much for their hair/makeup and comes up with a figure of $256.

She then rips in to her Maid of Honor saying she thought she'd be the perfect person to pick as she works in the industry. She then starts to talk about the friend's family's financial background and talks about how it shouldn't worry the Maid of Honor as they are well off. Then things get really nasty and the bride starts to talk about really personal things that have happened to the girl, once again, on a public forum where anyone can read it.

Well, as I'm reading the post, I think to myself, "Gee, that sounds like the life of one of my friends as far as school and work goes and she does come from a comfortable family, but I have never heard a negative word from her about anything and when I showed her my wedding idea board she had nothing but nice things to say and made some cool suggestions, too." So I went on Facebook and was going to link to the forum post on my friend's wall for a laugh, but then I thought, "Nah, I'll private message her."

So I'm writing this note: Hey Hottie, How's life? You're not a Maid of Honor for anyone are you? There is a post on this website (link to website) about some girl, but I don't think anyone could ever write something like that about you. Anyway, there is someone else in your city, living your life, and they also went to your same college...Better find out who your competition is! ;)

But before I hit send, I get a funny feeling and think I should check out the bride's profile to see if there was any link between her and my friend...like same age or high school or neighborhood. I click on her Bio page and there is a description and picture of each of her bridesmaids and lo and behold, my friend is at the top under Maid of Honor. It doesn't give her full name, thank god, just her first name but there she is in picture form for everyone to see who exactly the bride has been talking about.

I didn't know what to do so I called my Mom. I gave her a general run down of what I had found and my Mom said that this was the trouble with technology and that I should just sit on it. And I said, "Really? Don't do anything? Let me just read you exactly what was written." So I did and then said again how my friend's picture was easily linked to the post. Mom thought it was pretty awful and suggested that I wait to see if the bride posts anything later because the last thing the bride wrote was how she was going out with the Maid of Honor and another bridemaid tonight, to see if maybe she and my friend get things worked out, and if not, to contact my friend tomorrow to let her know this information is out there on the internet about her.

Whether what the bride wrote about the friend is true or untrue (I really don't know), I don't think she had the right to post those things about my friend, when there is a picture that everyone can see of her on the same site.

So two questions for you:

1) How would you proceed from here? (Would you only let my friend know if they bride continued to post negative stuff about her? Or should she know what is already out there about her?)

2)Would you want to know someone had written stuff about you like that online or since it won't come up in a Google search of your name, would you rather be left in the dark?

Ok, how about a third:

Have you ever found something written online about you, bad or good, that you didn't know existed? How did it make you feel? What did you do?

Riverside, Mother F....

Where I grew up, just about the worst place in the world a person could say they were from was Riverside. The only thing as bad as being from Riverside, was being from Fallbrook, and that was just San Diego's version of Riverside.

Riverside was everything us kids from near the coast thought was wrong with the world (Have you seen the SNL skits where Gov. David Patterson always talks about "New Jersey!"? It's like that): they drove lifted trucks with big, shiny rims. They went to "The River" (aka Lake Havasu) on Spring Break to get drunk. Their chicks wore thong bikinis and had long, fake nails. They hung out in the desert and dirt biked. My friends and I were more about driving whatever our parents let us, going to our local beach for Spring Break, wearing bathing suits that were at least semi-functional while we surfed, and getting a manicure or pedicure a few times a year for school dances.

Typical person you'd see walking around Riverside or Fallbrook

We hated when people from Riverside (aka the 909) decided to come to the beach. You could always tell who they were because they had a Famous Stars and Straps hat on sideways or Famous boardshorts and sometimes they wore socks and sandals. They'd also bring a surfboard or bodyboard that someone in their extended, redneck family had and try and go for a surf. I'm not in to localism or anything (surfer mentality of- this is my home break, no one else can catch a wave here unless I know them and say they can), but I am all for respecting the rules of surfing, such as not snaking (stealing) a wave from someone who is already on it. Not being a part of the culture, most of these guys didn't seem to get the rules so we mostly had this mentality (though we didn't vocalize it-well, at least not to them):

So, how come I'm talking about a group of lame people from an area I haven't lived in for 6 years (as of today, it's my moving to Australia anniversary and also the anniversary of MOTH Dude and I meeting! This time 6 years ago I was pounding shots with Bun, hoping to get up the nerve to meet him! eeeeeee!)? Well, see, this is how my train of thought has gone...Today, I had to listen to a recording of one of my calls in the call centre with my manager and we talked about what a direct person I am and that I have a certain way with words (and then she suggested, really nicely, I promise, no sarcasm) that maybe this wasn't the right line of work for me (anyway, a story for another day perhaps? and are all of these asides in parenthesis starting to make you mad? sorry!). So then I got to thinking about a certain incident that went down at one of my sister's water polo tournaments during a game against none other than the University of Riverside. So then I got to thinking about Riverside, in general, and thus, this rambling post.

So the incident at the Water Polo Tournament...

I'm sitting in the stands with my Mom at one of my sister's many tournaments; I often went to Nae's games throughout high school and then as often as I could when she became a Banana Slug for UC Santa Cruz. The game between UCSC and UCR is on in the water and the Riverside girls are playing really, really roughly. They're winning, but they are playing really dirty and you can see the Santa Cruz girls getting dunked and punched and overpowered by these beasts from (have I mentioned this yet?) Riverside. There are people behind me who are UCR supporters and they are starting to talk crap about UCSC and I'm listening and listening and listening and finally I turn to my Mom and say as loudly as possible, without actually yelling it at her, that, "At least the one thing the UCSC team has going for them is that they don't have to live in a hole of a place like Riverside. Isn't it awesome that we don't have to visit Nae in a place as crappy as Riverside? God, Riverside is shit!" And my Mom is looking at me at first like, "Why are you saying this to me right now?" and then as the Riverside supporters start commenting back she gives me the death stare that says, "Please kid, shut your mouth before we get rolled by this riff raff from Riverside" (well maybe it was more just the "Please, shut your mouth" part. My memory is a little fuzzy,but I'm sure my Mom hates Riverside, too. Right, Mom?). I ended up getting the UCR supporters so riled up that my Mom made us get up and walk to the other side of the pool during the game so that the war of words would not turn in to a full on brawl. In the end, I think UCSC ended up getting their asses handed to them by UCR but I know Nae appreciated that I had stuck up for her and the girls and that I had put those Riverside people back in their places.

And I'm assuming after reading this, you'll all hate me (unless you're from Orange County) and think of me as the entitled and spoiled brat from the OC and I guess, in a way, you'd be right. But let's bring this back full circle and I'll finish by saying that part of the reason for staying in Australia 6 years rather than the 4 months I had planned to, other than MOTH Dude, is that coming here was a reality check. I have friends here now that dirt bike and think lifted trucks are rad (though none of their chicks wear thong bikinis, thank God) and would have fun at "The River" and that doesn't make them bad or wrong or whitetrash. They're just different. So I went away a little princess from the OC and I think I've hopefully matured in to a (not so) young lady who is more accepting of others.

Oh man, did I take that full circle stuff too far? Are you throwing up in your mouth a little bit after those last few cheesy sentiments? Well, I'll just leave you with this then: I still think, 6 years on, "Thank God I don't live in a hell hole like Riverside!"

Rude Boy Don't Cry

So today I was excited because I didn't have to wait for MOTH Dude to get home from church to go and do our weekly grocery shopping, I could just hop in his Mom's car and head down when I wanted and I didn't have to rush looking for work clothes since I was by myself. It was nice to have that freedom of just hopping in a car and going where and when I liked. I have really missed that independence. That independence will continue indefinitely now because yesterday MOTH Dude and I ended up buying the car we had gone with his parents to look at. (Well, I guess we haven't technically since we haven't got the car yet or given the guy the money, but we said we'd take it and it's ours when the guy is ready for us to take it, which will hopefully be sometime over the next few days.)

Anyway, as exciting as that was/is, that's not what this post is about. So yeah, I go down to our local mall to look for work clothes and do grocery shopping. I am all stoked because I end up finding tons of tops that I want for work and only go over budget by $10-$15 dollars. I got a bit overheated trying so many clothes on in the dressing room so I was a bit flustered as I was wondering around Target looking for dress socks for MOTH Dude when I ran in to Croc and the Teacher, but we had a good chat and made plans to get a drink later. Then I get my grocery shopping done and I spent about $50 less than we normally do so I was feeling good about that. I picked up some lunch to bring back for us and I head out to the parking lot to load up my groceries and zip home to bake cupcakes for Sunday Family Dinner. I get to the car and pull my cart close in so it's not in the road and someone is pulling in to the empty spot next to mine and it's a minivan and the woman is having a bit of trouble getting in to her spot. Then I hear her husband, in the passenger seat, say something like "It's because of how this idiot next to us has parked." I say "Sorry" just on reflex and think, "Geeeeez, that guy is RUDE" and then I think "Hang on, I double checked when I pulled in to this spot that I was between the lines so I wouldn't inconvenience anyone and I was able to get out of my car with a car next to me easily, what is this guy's problem?" So I double check, and sure enough, I'm in between my two lines. I am favoring his side between my two lines, but I'm still not even on the line at all. So I wait for him to get out of the car as I load my groceries, but he doesn't. I finish up and walk up to my door and look in his window and say "Excuse me, Hi, was it me that you just called an idiot?" And he said something like "Yeah, I guess so" or "Yeah, it'd seem so" and I say, "Well, just so you know, I'm parked between my two lines, I'm not over." And that seemed to get him flustered and he just goes "Yeah, well.....grumble grumble grumble" His wife must have been so embarrassed for herself to be married to a douche like that in that moment because she didn't say anything to defend him and it was the wife who was driving and parking the car. Anyway, I would've loved to have written "douche" on the back of his minivan in the dust on the window or thrown my Sprite on the car, but I figured just calling him out on his unfounded rudeness probably made him feel like a jackass anyway so I left with the upper hand. Plus, I had to feel sorry for the guy: he was dressed in sweatpants with the scrunchy bottoms and a fake Ed Hardy looking shirt at 2pm at the mall, which is probably punishment enough in and of itself!

I Hope You Had the Time of Your Life

Just recently Bun's little sister Mini-Bun posted her Prom pictures and gosh did that make me feel really, really old! Mini-Bun was 9, maybe 10, when we graduated from high school so it's surprising how fast the end of her own Senior year has snuck up on us. Mini-Bun looked stunning and like a true California surfer girl on her big day. She looked stylish and effortless and that's due to the fact that I believe she did her own hair and makeup and reused a dress from a previous dance. Who does that?! Who is that cool at 17-18 to say, "Hey Mom, it's cool, I don't need a new dress to the big dance because I've got one that I've already used that will work great again"? Mini-Bun=Awesome!

Seeing her Prom pictures and coupled with the fact that I just saw a friend's Facebook page that is still covered with pics of her and her old high school crew got me thinking about my own Prom night and what a blast it was. I had been to 3 other dances over the 4 years of high school and all of them were awkward/awful. As a freshman I went to the Homecoming dance with a boy I had gone to grade school with. He didn't go to my same high school and I didn't know anyone there and we hadn't seen each other in 6 months so we didn't have a lot to talk about and I can't remember if we danced or not. As a junior I thought I was asking a cute guy I had met once to the dance and my friends were going to ask his friends so we could all go in a group. They never got around to actually asking the friends so there I was again with a guy I didn't really know, but luckily he was friends with my sisters boyfriend at the time so we kindof hung with them for the night. We left as soon as we were allowed to and went back to Bun's house. At this point I kind of liked the guy, but he didn't seem to be paying enough attention for my liking. So I decided to get drunk for the first time in my life off some blue koolaid and vodka concoction that Bun and her cousin had whipped up. I ended up drinking way too much and acting like a complete tool, even saying I was going to jump off the balcony on to Bun's Mom's Navigator (3 feet) below! (What did I think I was going to accomplish, a sprained ankle?? Haha, so dramatic! I still can not talk to Bun's cousin without her bringing up "I'm going to jump on the Navi" without fail, soooooo not fun introducing her to new people, especially new boyfriends who always got to hear the story, too!) (P.S. Sorry Mom for getting drunk at 16 and you not knowing until now. I guess there is a reason for the legal drinking age not to be 16!) So the dance date took off and we never spoke again because he didn't want to deal with that kind of bullshit, rightly so. The next dance I went to was Homecoming my senior year. I thought I was going in a small group of the cool kids, but turns out it was more like the top 100 coolest kids, and me and my date didn't get an invite to their after party...ouch! I also hated my shoes, wasn't a huge fan of my dress, none of my real friends were at the dance, and my date was the Loser ExBoyfriend who didn't go to the school.

Finally, finally, for senior Prom everything came together. We partied with the football boys every weekend and I sat next to one of the team captains in Math that year and we really hit it off. We had made out one weekend (sorry, again, Mom, and it was just making out), but really only because Bun had left us alone downstairs at her house and I was too young and dumb to say "No" to a popular boy. I mean, he didn't force me or anything, that's not what I'm saying, but I would've been happy not to make out with him that night, too. Anyway, so all of us decide we should go as a group and hire a limo, do pictures together, then have an after party at someone's house. The Team Captain asked me by bringing me two different bouquets at lunch one day and I was excited to be going with him because we were really good friends by then and the Loser ExBF was out of the picture for the moment.

The night of Prom I was running late because Nae wanted to follow us over to where we were going to be taking pictures beforehand to have her pictures done there, too, but her friend was running late and I finally just had to go. I got there and the Team Captain was pretty pissed because picture time was over and we had to leave and he and I only got a snap or two before jumping in the limo, but as we were taking those few quick snaps he said something really nice- "that I looked so beautiful, I was worth the wait"...awwww!

On the ride over to the Long Beach Convention Center, we laughed and talked and had a good time and then one of the boy's pulled out a bong, nicknamed Snoop Bong, and started taking huge rips off of it. Me, Bun, and Candie (another old friend whom I've only briefly wrote about to chronicle the demise of our friendship) just thought it was hilarious, but the other girls in the group who we weren't really close to were spazzing out and saying we were all going to get contact highs or wreak of pot smoke and not be allowed in to the dance (and they were the types of girls who had those huge, poofy princess dresses so smoke probably could've hid up under one of their layers or something) so the guy put the bong away. As we walked in to the dance, we took our couples photo and group photo. The picture of me and the Team Captain is a great one- I am standing with my back to his chest and just as they were taking the picture the Team Captain whispered something really naughty in to my ear that made me laugh and that is our picture- him with a big smile and me mid-laugh. I also got a great picture with Nae- we are both in our fancy black dresses and I had her jump up in to my arms like I was a groom carrying her across the threshold.

The rest of the dance I had a great time running around and chatting with people and taking pictures with friends I was only going to see for two more weeks of school. The Team Captain was in fine form, having mixed some Shrooms in with his Mac n Cheese when we got to the dance and he was super funny to hang with. We had one dance that night and not being a dancer that was enough for me and the Team Captain being the charmer he is danced with tons of girls the whole night and it was nice to not be with a boyfriend where I'd have to care or be jealous if he spent the night dancing with other girls.

Prior to the dance, the Team Captain and I told people if they couldn't think of anyone to write for Prom King and Queen, vote us. I thought it was a bit of a joke because I was pretty anti school spirit. A lot of people in my homeroom thought it was funny so they put us down. Well, a friend of my sister's was on the dance committee or student council had come up to her a few days before the dance and told her that we had enough votes to make it on to the court, but I guess with school politics we somehow didn't make it on the ballot. Didn't matter in the end, the two nicest kids from our class won it and I thought that was pretty great.

At the end of the night we piled back in to the limo and headed out to a ritzy community in the hills above Newport Beach to spend the night at the Co-Captain's (and Bun's date) house. I must have been pretty tired because I don't remember much from the night. I got upstairs early to claim a couch because Princess D doesn't really do well sleeping on floors. After I had gotten in my pajamas, the Team Captain came upstairs and asked me if we were going to hook up that night. I said "No" and he, ever the gentleman, asked if it was okay if he went and hooked up with someone else! I said "Sure, go for it, good luck!" or something to that effect and then the Team Captain proceeded to whip out his guitar and serenade me with this reggae song that I loved how he sung before going off to fulfill all of his stereotypical Prom night fantasies. It was really, really nice and honestly, I thought it was a perfect night and a perfect Prom. I had fun, I looked good, there was no stress, and I got to spend it with all the people who meant the most to me at that point in my life.

So, did reading this bring back any fun or funny dance memories for any of you? Did anyone lose their virginity in the back of a limo or the back of a Ford Fiesta that night? Did you love what you wore? Hate what you wore? Go with someone your regretted or your future spouse? What was the highlight or lowlight for you that night?

If I Could, I Would Shrink Myself...And Remove Whatever Makes You Hurt But I am to Weak to be Your Cure

Last Thursday Mom and I got up bright and early and hit the road down to Orange County. I posted on my Facebook that I was going to be in town and got a few well wishes from friends to have fun while I was there and a teasingly angry email from my best guy friend from high asking why he hadn't been informed that I would be around and that we should head out and get a drink together. I hadn't made any solid plans to see friends, though, because the reason we were in town was not a fun one (it never seems to be these days!)- we were there because my Grandma recently found a large lump in her breast that turned out to be cancerous and she was being rushed in to surgery. She had had breast cancer about 8 years ago and on the other side, but this cancer is completely different.

Friday morning we got up and were at the hospital by 7am. Grandma seemed in good spirits considering and went in for surgery at 10:30. The doctor came out when it was done and Mom went over to see him. I thought he would just give her a general debriefing like I had seen other doctors come out and do with other patients' families so I opted to stay with our stuff and hold on to our seats. When Mom got over to the doctor, he directed her in to a small office and closed the door-"Ah, shit" I thought, this can't be good news. And it wasn't. Grandma had made it out of the surgery fine, that was one hurdle, but the bad news was that the cancer had spread in to both lymph nodes they had checked so they had had to remove the other ones and were going to process those to see if the cancer had spread.

Friday afternoon Grandma was pretty groggy, but not in a lot of pain because they had her on the good drugs. When we returned on Saturday morning, Grandma didn't remember that we had been there before and after her surgery the day before and she didn't think she had had the surgery yet, either. She told us that she was very unhappy because if she had had the surgery, she had heard it wasn't her doctor who had performed it, but an associate (which wasn't obviously the case) and she told the case worker who came in to the room to check on her just that (which we then had to correct). She was released Saturday afternoon and went from being in a lot pain and bitchy to being nice, happy Grandma who snuggled on the couch with me (a first in about 10 years since I am not the favorite granddaughter I once was since I am not skinny and Grandma has extreme disdain for anyone who is overweight) when she had taken some vicodin!

We left on Sunday afternoon to head to Cambria where we stayed the night to decompress after such a stressful weekend and Mom and I drove in two separate cars because Grandma decided she didn't want her car anymore and we took it so that Dad could sell it and make sure she got a fair price for it. It's a good thing she decided she didn't "want" to drive anymore because legally she can't. After getting in to two accidents in two consecutive Tuesday nights and taking out a total of 5 parked cars, her license has been revoked and her insurance is dropping her. We were just really fortunate that Grandma didn't hurt herself or anyone else.

If you ask me, this getting old thing doesn't sound like too much fun! I am feeling really badly for my Mom,too, because she is getting all of my Grandma's drama dumped on her. I don't mean to make it sound like we are cold, heartless people-the cancer stuff is a not drama at all and we are concerned for her about that, there is just a TON of other stuff that is drama, plain and simple, and, thus, avoidable that I'm choosing not to air on here that my Mom has to deal with in regards to Grandma all the time and it is definitely taking a toll and wearing Mom down.

We don't know the results of the other lymph nodes they removed yet, but we should know by the weekend so I'm sending some positive energy in to the universe that the cancer hasn't spread and I'd appreciate any positive energy or prayers you could send up for her, too.

Hey Now, Hey Now, Don't Dream It's Over...

Hey now, hey now, when the world comes in

They come, they come, to build a wall between us

We know they won't win...

Towards the end of Boyfriend's trip, we could not get away from this song. Every store we went in to or every time we got in the car, it seems like we heard a version of this song, which is fine because Crowded House is an iconic Australia band and we both love this song. I've come to think of it as "our" song.

Have I mentioned the fact that not everyone is excited about our engagement? It is a small faction and they are very vocal. There might be others who aren't excited by it (I'm not sure if this is true or not), but at least if those people exist they have chosen to accept it quietly and have publicly congratulated us. At 26 and 27 and nearly 5 years together, it's difficult for us to all of a sudden be finding out that there are people who don't support our relationship.

We have been told that these people don't see the "spark" between us. I guess I can see how they might not see it because Boyfriend and I aren't the type of couple to be hanging off of each other in public or kissing a lot (but then again Boyfriend used to think holding hands was too much PDA) and it's just not something either one of us is comfortable doing. When we are together and alone at our house, it's a different story; we are very affectionate. I feel the spark and I asked Boyfriend to be sure that he felt it, too, and he said he totally did. There are only two people in our relationship and we are both happy so I think that is all anyone needs to worry about. We have made a commitment to each other and I hope that eventually the doubters will see they were wrong.

Here is the original and PS 22 covering Crowded House's "Don't Dream It's Over"

Valentine

Will you be my valentine if I'm a world away?

So....another curveball. I am still heading back to Australia, I'm just not exactly sure when. Originally I thought I could get a work and travel visa for another year, but I can't. So then I said, "Ok, I'll go over on a tourist visa and get my spouse visa granted while I'm there on the other visa" but today I got back a notice from the Immigration Department stating they needed some more info from me before they'd grant my long stay tourist visa and that oh, p.s. on a 12 month visitors visa like that, they attach a stipulation that says you can't apply for any other visas while you are on that one so I'm back to square one. That means that I will have to apply for the spouse visa from here in the States and then wait for it to be granted before I can go to Australia again. The process can take anywhere from 1-6 months, I think, depending on how long it takes for you to gather all of your documents (like fingerprints that you have to send to the FBI for a criminal history check and that can take 10 weeks to be sent back) and send them in and then have an Immigration Officer assess them. Ugh!

I wish I would've known it was going to be months instead of days before I saw Boyfriend again and then I would've given him a few extra hugs and kisses before he left. We are both upset at the prospect of not seeing each other for awhile. I'm feeling sick to my stomach right now to be honest and really, really bummed. Not the Valentine's Day I was hoping for!

I'm going to try and stay positive. We have a lot of the paperwork already collected and I sent off my finger prints last week, thinking that my Mom or Dad would be sending them on to me in Australia. It is also cheaper, I've heard, to apply outside of Australia for this visa. And while I won't get to be with Boyfriend, I will get to spend more time with my family. I think I will start job hunting again so that I can earn some more money to bring back with me when the time does come.

I'm not so cheesy to say "absence makes the heart grow fonder." There is no positive to being away from Boyfriend for however long it ends up being. There is also no positive in missing out on seeing my favorite band, Brand New, for the second time in Sydney when I have tickets.

Sorry this is a Debbie Downer post. This afternoon I was totally going to post pictures of the cute little Valentine's surprises I made for Nae, the Camp Counselor, and their other good friend, D.C. Hope your Valentine's Day was better than mine!

There's a Baby, Yes, There's a Baby About to be Born

This picture really has nothing to do with this post (Boyfriend took it on our trip to Yosemite the first year he was here) but it's a great shot and looks wintery and it's Christmas, damnit, so it kind of works, right?

Unless we've missed the text with the birth announcement, Soccer Player and the Hairdresser are still awaiting the birth of their baby. I'm hoping now that the Hairdresser has gone over her due date, she won't have to go camping with the newborn on Boxing Day (or as soon as it's born if it's after that day), as was previously planned. All of our friends who have had babies so far have tried to tell her that camping with a brand new baby is not where you want to be when you've just gotten out of the hospital and are trying to figure out how to be a mom still, but the Hairdresser is a trooper and up til now has said she is going. I can't wait to hear what they've had and what they've named it and I can't wait to buy it a "Welcome to the World" outfit here to bring back with me. I wonder if she's in labor, as I write this, and is having a Christmas baby? That'd be pretty neat, but probably not the most fun Christmas the Hairdresser would ever have! Anyway, I'm sending my love and my prayers down to you guys. I hope that it is a quick and painless delivery and recovery and Boyfriend and I can't wait to meet the new little guy or girl when we are back.

In other news, Mom and Dad both got sick last week and are still getting knocked around by it. We're pretty sure that Mom has come down with the Swine, while Dad's cold or flu seems to be different. They had a not so successful, but very stressful, trip down to Orange County last weekend to see my grandparents. If you read the last post (Runaway Train) about the situation, the update is nothing has changed and it has actually gotten a lot worse. Not only is my Grandpa on a quick downhill slope, to the point where my Mom thinks we'll be having a funeral before I go back in February, but now my Grandma is falling apart, too. She's gotten in two accidents in two different cars, side swiping a total of 5 cars, in two consecutive Wednesday nights! My Mom is understandably upset by what is going on, but on both trips she's taken to see them my grandparents have ignored the help she's offered so there's not much for her to do. The light at the end of the tunnel is that my Mom has found an assisted living place in Stockton that has apartments on site that allow the tennants to keep a small animal. My Grandma's brothers all live in Stockton and we've been saying for a few years now that she and my Grandpa should move of up there so they have more people to hang out with so once he passes away we think Grandma should take her dog and move to this facility. It's a good option because she is still capable of living mostly on her own for now and she can still keep her dog, but if and when she declines, she can then move in to the main part of the facility that offers more round-the-clock care. I think she really misses her brothers and this way she can see them more often, too.

Happy Holidays, right?

Other than that, our little 5some of me, Boyfriend, Mom, Dad, and Nae are looking forward to spending Christmas together. I've had all my Christmas shopping done for a few days now and only have a few things left to wrap. Boyfriend is stressed because lots of his online ordered presents haven't arrived yet. Nae is at work now (Trader Joe's) and has a taco eating contest with her coworkers and then she's coming over to make Christmas cookies and spend the night. Boyfriend and I said way back in October that we'd like to try and make gnocchi for Christmas Eve dinner so we'll get that under way this afternoon and hopefully take some good pictures for you guys and I'll post up the recipes. Nae's in charge of the food tomorrow and she's making some kind of roast beast, yorkshire pudding, homemade ice cream, and other stuff so I probably won't fit in to any of my new Christmas clothes after the 24 hours of eating I'm about to undertake! The weather here is bright and sunny and the air is crisp so I think we'll probably get up and do presents tomorrow morning and then go for a family walk and then just hang out for the rest of the day. I like having a mellow Christmas like that.

What about you? Is all your shopping and wrapping done? Are you having a mellow or a stressful Christmas Eve/Day?

Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas! Hope you get everything you've asked for and more!

In the Aeroplane Over the Sea

It's about 8:45 Thursday morning and I'm pretty much packed. I've got to eat some breakfast and take a shower and figure out how to get the last few articles of clothing I want to take with me dry (without a dryer), as they got rained on out on the clothes line last night. Boyfriend and I found out yesterday that we will be able to stay in our place for at least the next few months so when we leave here we will go to the property management place and have him signed on as an approved tenant. Then it is off to the shops quickly to find me a cheap book for the plane since my laptop is dying and only lasts for 45 minutes so I can't even listen to music or watch movies on it anymore, some kind of tablets from the healthfood store that are supposed to calm nerves, and a pack of peanut MnMs because my Dad says you should always have one with you when you travel in case you need a late night snack. After that we are driving down to the airport, which is a big deal because Boyfriend and his family always take the train down (his parents hate driving in Sydney, and don't really even want us driving there today, though Boyfriend is comfortable doing it), but I'm a princess and really don't want to be cramped in an uncomfortable seat for an additional two hours when I can be sitting in a comfy car for only a little over an hour so Boyfriend agreed that he'd rather not train it down either and is driving me.

Ugh, I've totally got the nervous tummy thing going on! I'd like to go back to sleep until noon and wake up magically in CA somehow.

If I die, which I'm really hoping I won't, thanks for reading my blog! I've had lots of fun writing it. I love you Boyfriend! I love you Mom, Dad, and Nae! I love you friends and family! (Haha, I told you I'm dramatic, but I'm sure you knew that already as you read my blog).

Hopefully the next time I post will be from my parents new apartment in San Francisco or from their kitchen table with a view of the Bay in Santa Cruz. Wish me a safe flight!

Last Night I Dreamt You Called...Part 2

Upon waking up, we looked out to a beautiful rainforest area.  We had heard some scratching on our roof and looked up to see iguanas!  We also heard the gorilla noises and went to investigate...turns out there were howler monkeys in the trees- they have one of the loudest calls in the world I think I have read.  We had eggs and toast and fresh juice for breakfast everyday included with the price of the room and a revolving assortment of dinners was also part of the price...I think it was something like $35 a person per day...maybe $45 (http://www.amerisol.com/costarica/lasolas/index.html).  

So after breakfast we went walking through the mangrove forest down to the beach.  It was beautiful and white sand beaches stretching to the left and right of us.  We got out in the water for a surf and it was some of the warmest water I had ever been in.  After paddling for a bit, you'd be sweating.  I made sure to always have sunscreen on and I kept chapstick with sunscreen in my boardie pockets because I've got a big Bubba lower lip that tends to burn and get nasty really easily.  The water was clear, the waves were good, and the only crowd was us. We would surf, then explore, then eat, then surf, then rest, then surf, then have dinner and pretty early to bed.  Some of the boys weren't keeping up with their sunscreen applications and B. King loved the tan he was getting, every night he would come in and ask if I could put aloe on his back so the tan would last longer.

The second night we were there Mr. G said that if we wanted to, for extra money, we could sign up for a boat trip out to Witch's Rock (in the picture), but there could only be about 5 people per trip and it'd be about $50-$60 U.S. to go.  I didn't want to go as I hadn't liked jumping off a boat to surf the year before when we had gone to the Channel Islands, plus I thought the surf was fun enough for free where we were.

Everyday was perfect...weather wise and surf wise.  Photo Larry was getting some great shots of the boys and I was doing a lot of taping for our annual surf team video.  When I wasn't surfing or filming, I was hanging in the hammock or collecting shells on the beach, or bodysurfing, or hanging out with Mom and Sally, or laying out.  One day, as I was sitting in the shade between surfs a huge iguana came and stood on Nae's surf board and we had a bit of a shell near us and it dove towards the shell and we screamed thinking it was coming for us.  It didn't like the shell and ran away after I got some cool photos of it on the board.  The boys decided to have a play with the wildlife...one kept a gecko as his pet for the whole time we were there and there was one day where they caught a tarantula and a scorpion and made them fight to the death...I'm pretty sure the scorpion won after stinging the tarantula repeatedly.  The tarantula wasn't the only thing to be stung repeatedly.  Not once, but twice, B. King got stung in his room, his tongue even went numb for awhile (not a good sign) and one morning while we were out surfing Mom got stung on the bum as she got out of the shower and dried herself off (the scorpion had crawled on to the towel).  Our room was adjoined to B. King's and they found a scorpion nest in their bathroom or something so no wonder people from both rooms were getting stung.  I'm glad I didn't!

One day we did a drive in to the local town called Tamarindo I think it was just me, Mom and Sally or me, Mom, and Nae (+ Sally?  I'm amazed out how awful my memory is) and we got stuck behind guys on horses herding cattle.  It was cool to have them come out of nowhere and surround the car.  The town, I thought, was pretty jankity and for being such a famous surf spot, it was pretty flat while our beach was still pumping out some decent surf.  But we did get an ice cream and a few souvenirs and got to explore for awhile so it was worth it.

Halfway through the trip John Wayne's Grandson was painfully sunburned-the worst I had ever seen and have ever seen to this day.  His face was red and the worst of it was just at the top of his butt crack.  I'm pretty sure he wore a rash guard each day and of course board shorts, but there must have been a gap between the two.  It was so bad it bubbled.  Then the older boys got the brilliant idea to harass the younger boys; they must have been hanging around their rooms or something.  We all had duck tape with us to bubble wrap our boards for the journey home. They decided to duck tape J.W.'s Grandson to a tree!  He was a tough kid so I don't remember him crying as he tried to pry himself loose, but it must have been excruciating.

One or two groups had already been out to Witch's Rock and to another famous spot, Ollie's Point, without a lot of luck.  The next day, the final group would go out:  Bran, his random friend, Dick, the Nice Guy, Overindulged Asshole, and Doug as chaperone and driver.  That night after dinner Bran, friend, and O.A. tell the rest of the group that they don't feel like going anymore, bad luck to the guys who still wanted to go, and that's when the drama started!!

Shed a Little Light

More cryptic messages from Lil D today. Things are things and for now they are worked out. If you guessed it had something to do with the Boyfriend, then you guessed correctly. I can't or won't go in to details just now and maybe never will. I will say that I have an AMAZING sister who was willing to drop everything to come out here and rescue me and take me home if I needed it. That kind of love blows me away. To know she would do that made me feel better when I was feeling so low. My family have been great this weekend and it's their love and support through the good and the bad that make me miss them that much more. Boyfriend and I haven't been having awful arguments, we aren't mad at each other, we are super in love and are each other's best friends but when you are from different countries sometimes even all of that doesn't feel like enough to ensure that you will end up with the happily ever after you know you want and you know you deserve.