Banned From the Back Porch

I know I'm posting heaps, but I don't have a job right now and I wrote down like 20 entries before putting the page up to give everyone the background on me being here and I was hoping to catch up to present day fairly soon is all...
I moved in with a girl, A, whom I didn’t really know, but had met a few times as she had worked with S and was friends with his friends from the movies. She was a really nice and really quiet girl. You would describe her as sweet, in a good way. I knew we could get along at least reasonably well because we both liked the same music!
Everyone knows I’m a freak about the bathroom (like I can’t go in public, won’t go if anyone’s home, etc.) so A was nice enough to let me have the bigger room with the ensuite so that I would feel more comfortable and not have to plan bathroom trips. Believe, if I'm staying at S's or at a hotel, that shit (literally) is planned.
For the most part we got on. We didn’t become best friends, but we didn’t fight or anything either. She had a boyfriend, J, who had started to move in with us or at least that's what it felt like to me and I wasn’t comfortable with that, but could also understand that to them it wasn’t a big deal and truthfully, if S had lived near by, he probably would’ve stayed over quite a bit, too, and I wouldn’t have seen that as a big deal, either (when the shoe’s on the other foot, right?). They were in love and wanted to spend all their free time together and he still lived at home so of course, it made sense to hang at our place. I just hadn’t signed up for having 2 roommates so they were cool enough to respect that. It was not a huge surprise at the end of our year together when she wanted to move out with J, but it wasn’t done on bad terms or anything. I was bummed, but it made sense that they would live together as their relationship had reached that point. So we thought out apartment was sold and they’d find a new place and I’d find a new place/roommate. They ended up getting to keep the apartment, and I moved one floor up in the same building in the end.
At this point for school, I had to get out in to schools and start practice teaching. I was so nervous and I generally hate new things but it ended up going ok. I also had started to make friends at school (as in uni ;) ). The one I was closest to was T and she and I were bitchy and entertained ourselves by making fun of other people from our classes. I was also hanging out with S’s friends from high school a lot, but I’ll talk about them more later as they are all characters and deserve their own post.
I went back over the Californian summer and we took an awesome family trip to Mexico. We rented a house a few hours outside of Puerto Vallarta and we had the best time, eating, exploring, swimming, and laying at.
My parents loved S from the time they had spent with him and we had been dating for two and a half years at this point so they could see we were pretty serious. They really wanted to meet S’s parents and brother as they had heard so much about them and knew they had to be nice for letting me live with them when I needed to. I was doing this weight loss challenge from Mom and Dad then with the prize being a trip to Hawaii if I lost the weight. I didn’t lose as much as I had planned, but I got myself pretty healthy and lost quite a bit for doing it all on my own. Mom and Dad invited S’s family to come to Hawaii with us. S’s Dad wasn’t really in to the idea, S’s brother D said he hated America, and S’s Mom was all for it. S’s Dad and brother eventually came around and we set the trip for after the New Year.
I missed Thanksgiving for the first time ever because I had another round of practice teaching that week. I went home after it was over and this time, S wouldn’t be around for Christmas.
I worked for my parents, helping them to clean out their house as they were getting ready to move to Santa Cruz for my Mom’s work. I didn’t think that that would be the last time I’d be in my childhood home, I thought the housing market was slowing down and they’d be there for at least another six months, but I was wrong and never did get to go back to that house after I left then.

Mookie's Last Christmas

Christmas time again and I went back to California to be with my family. S had had such a good time the first time, that he very readily accepted the invitation to come over again. This time I got a job at Target. Not a glamorous job, but at least I got a discount and could go back to Australia with some of my own money in the bank. Once again, we had a great Christmas morning opening presents and everything. Nae’s boyfriend came to town and we took Dad to an art exhibit about Yosemite at the Gene Autry Museum. We got to dress up as cowboys and take goofy pictures and it was great. Mom, Nae, S, and I went to the Wild Animal Park in San Diego. We went to Santa Cruz again. I let S drive the rental car for a few blocks and he nearly killed us! He tried to turn left when traffic was coming at us because in Australia their left turns are like our right turns and you can do them on reds or whenever without problem. S and I also took a 3 day road trip through Nevada and Arizona. We had a really fun night out in Vegas. We stayed at Treasure Island and had a sweet room overlooking the Strip and the pirate show down below. We got free drink coups at the Sirens of TI show we went to. We hit up some buffet at the Rio my parents said was the best where there was big cheap drinks. Then we walked through a few different casinos. We won like $35 playing the Wheel of Fortune slot machine, I know that’s not a huge amount but it was fun and it was something. How many people come home saying they’ve won anything there? We hung out at the Venetian til 3 in the morning, just walking around near the “canals” and it was so deceiving because it was lit up like the middle of the day. The next day we drove on towards the Grand Canyon. We stopped at the Hoover Dam for pictures. It took forever to get to the Canyon. We went to dinner and then came back to the hotel and passed out. At about 4am the bedside alarm went off. The people who were in the room before us must have set the alarm to get to the Canyon for sunrise. I got up and peaked out the window and it was snowing. We threw on our jackets and shoes and went out to play in the snow. It was magical. S has video of me, I didn't know he was filming, jumping up and down saying, "Snow, snow, snow" and trying to catch the flakes on my tongue. Later in the morning, we got up and drove out to the Canyon. S was in awe of the place. He couldn’t stop taking pictures and we had to stop at every turn out. It was beautiful covered in snow. As we got farther out from the resorts it started snowing again and it swirled up from inside the Canyon. It was an awesome experience. The next day we woke up and our drinks had exploded all over the inside of the car because it had gotten so cold. There was snow for a few hours driving out of the park. We saw a huge golden eagle’s nest and then the next thing we saw was the two eagles themselves in a dead tree. We stopped at Lake Havasu to see the London Bridge and then we drove home to have dinner with my friends from the surf shop B and K. S went back to Oz and I followed shortly thereafter.

Empty Apartment

I hated living in the dorms so my 2nd year in Australia I decided I would find a place to rent. I went and saw about 15 different places, and yeah, I was pickier then than I am today, but I did put in quite a few applications and just didn’t hear back on any of them. S’s parents were nice enough to let me live with them for about a month. I finally ended up living in what we think was probably a converted garden shed or green house. I was too picky in the beginning and ended up with the crappiest place I had ever seen. It was a “studio” apartment and it was pretty miserable going. At this point I was getting serious about school (which by the way confuses people here as school is ONLY grade school and high school and college has to be called uni for anyone to know what you are talking about). S, the Red Head, and I went camping again and S and I went to lots of shows together. It was nice to have a real bed to sleep in with S, rather than the single bed that is universal to all dorm rooms. I went home on the winter break to a beautiful Californian summer. Mom, Dad, Nae and I went to Yosemite for 5 days or so and it was good fun. I hadn’t been to Yosemite in probably 10 years, then I went twice in a year, but it is such a wonderful place that I could go twice every year. Dad drove back home and Mom, Nae and I went to Santa Cruz. But first we did an overnight trip to Berkeley so that Nae could see Radiohead and we could visit our Mexican sister, BCova. I got to go to a baseball game with my Dad (Go Angels!) and that was fun. I love the Angels and I love that it is something that my Dad and I bond over. I headed back to Australia and to face the rest of the winter. I hated where I lived, it was tiny, falling apart, there was cockroaches (just a fact of life in most homes in Australia, no matter how clean), and I had noisy neighbors who were just study abroad students who lived like 10 to a house and were constantly rotating in and out. The one redeeming factor was that I had a really cool young couple living right across from me and they had a cat Chloe who became as much their pet as mine for the time I was there.

A Long December

After my parents left, S and I just continued to get closer. Bun was in love for the first time, too. She was really missing her family though and couldn’t wait to get home. She started getting depressed and though she didn’t want to leave Gangles, she also, couldn’t see herself living in Australia for any longer. She stopped going to classes and I very rarely saw her. I think Gangles was the only one who saw her frequently as she moved in with him basically so not even her roommates saw her anymore.
S told me he loved me after we had been dating about 6 months. It happened at the end of a long night out on the town for Gangles’ 21st birthday. I was in love with S at this point, too, and so excited that he had said it.
I asked S to come to California at Christmas time. He was excited as he is a big movie buff and wanted to see all the things they show in movies for real.
I left in November and went back home to work at the surf shop I had worked at for a few years before moving. I missed S like crazy, but also enjoyed seeing some old friends and coworkers. S got in like 2 days before Christmas. I was working so Mom and Nae picked him up at LAX for me, but there was a problem. First, S didn’t have our address and you need one for the Customs forms so they can track you down if they need to while you are in the U.S. Secondly, Nae and Mom couldn’t find him so it took a couple hours to track him down in the right terminal! Off to a great start! I was so excited at work all day, but my manager wouldn’t let me go home early as it was a very busy time of year obviously. I rushed home afterwards and they weren’t home. I paced until they got there. Then he was there and I didn’t know how to act. I was so awkward. I stepped on his foot when he came in to give me a hug and a kiss. We had an amazing time together. It was S’s first Christmas ever, as his religion doesn’t celebrate Christmas, and he ripped through his presents so fast and so excitedly! We went to the San Diego Zoo with my Mom and Nae (Dad was working), we hit up Disneyland and Knott’s Berry Farm, saw all the people from the travel group S had met while they were in Sydney, we drove up to Yosemite just the two of us for a few nights and it was beautiful with snow on the ground and S was just amazed by the place. We then went to Santa Cruz to visit Nae and S fell in love with the area. He loved the coast line and the sea lions and Pizza My Heart and Saturn Café. He loved staying at the Hilton in a suite with my Mom and the free breakfast that came with it.
Once again, my parents proved their awesomeness when I told them I wanted to do my whole degree in Australia and they agreed to pay for it all. I even got to go on a business trip with my Mom to Singapore for a week before continuing on to Sydney.

Sun is Shining

Four months basically flew by. Bun started dating a friend of a friend of S’s and the Red Head’s, Gangles (because he is so tall and skinny). We were having fun, we went to class (sometimes), but mostly we hung out with each other, her roommates, or our new friends and boyfriends. S and I saw each other whenever we could. He was working at the movies at the time so we saw each other through the week and stuff, too. He would soon be getting a big boy job in Sydney, though, and that led to us seeing each other only on weekends. But before then, we went and saw Green Day in Sydney, we did day trips down to the city to see the sites, we went to the Reptile Park where Bun and I got to feed kangas, we saw our new friends perform in the air guitar championships, and S, the Red Head, and I went beach camping where there were kangas all around us and where I taught the boys all about the tastiness of S’mores.
S and I were having fun, really in to each other, but hadn’t said more than I heart you, no I love yous at this point, but I still knew I didn’t want to leave here in June.
June came and with it so did my parents and our whole travel group, as planned, to work our way up the east coast of Australia and then to take me home. I asked my parents if S could come with us on our trip and they were nice enough to say yes. Nae, my sister, came in about a week before my parents, and I feel sorry for her now because we mostly just hung out in my dorm room because I didn’t know my way around the town that well yet. My Mom flew in from Singapore the day before my Dad and the rest of the travel group were to arrive so S and I took her and Nae to the Reptile Park so they could pet the kangaroos, too. We all hung out in Sydney for a day or two, then went up to the Hunter Valley to do some wine tasting (S had to work and met us on the next leg of our trip in Queensland). Then we flew up to Cairns (say it Cans though) and hung out in a little resort town for a few days before taking a boat out to one of the islands on the Great Barrier Reef, Green Island. It was a fun, but interesting trip. My Mom and I teamed up to be pissed together because one of the family friends, who is like a cousin to me, flirted nonstop with S, while still proclaiming her love for her boyfriend back home and another of the family friends kept being waaaaay to flirty with my Dad! We snorkeled a lot and saw some pretty neat things. I freaked out the last day when I chased some parrot fish right up behind a reef shark that was probably the size of me! I flew up to the top of the water, I was probably imitating Jesus at that point and actually walking on the water, and yelled SHARK! Nae laughed and said she had seen it, but it wasn’t going to eat us or anything so she stayed in and Mom, being the good Mom she is, got out with me. We ended up seeing a few different sharks (though none again that big) and different sorts of sting rays. I think one family friend, A, said she saw an octopus. And her sister, J, got her hand bit by one of the giant clams. Yet another family friend, we’ll call him Glen, since he looks like Glen from the Tom Green Show, saw a sea snake while he was out snorkeling. We then stayed in tree houses in the rain forest for a week where we had dress up parties and celebrated 3 birthdays, got leaches when we went hiking, and learned waaaaay too much about some people in the group ("I’m going to dye my bush blue", for example). It was an adventure for sure! We all flew back down to Sydney and by this time I had told my parents I wouldn’t be going home with them, that I wanted to stay to finish out the year. Once again, they were cool enough to say go for it. Keep in mind, they were footing the bill for all of this so it makes it even cooler of them to agree. Bun had also decided she couldn’t leave her boyfriend, Gangles and was going to stay the year, too. It was a tearful good bye to my family but I was stoked that I could stay with S for at least a little longer.

Hold On For Your Dearest Life

We got the call from S that he was outside of the hotel parking. I was pretty buzzed by then. I remember going downstairs and being so F*ing nervous. He remembers me seeming pretty bitchy, but then I months later told him I was drunk, and he just laughed. I think he also remembers not liking what I was wearing, though I could be making that up? I totally remember what he was wearing….A black and red surf/skate shirt that looked like an Iron Maiden Band shirt and jeans. His car was about the shittiest car I had ever seen and certainly one of the shittiest I had ever ridden in (sorry Babe! You gotta remember I’m an Orange Country Bitch, though) and Bun and I were just like “Oh My God!” We then went to a liquor store, attached to a grocery store, because here they don’t sell alcohol in the actual store for some reason and I bought my first bit of alcohol legally (I was about 3 weeks off my 21st birthday at this point). We went back to his friends’ house and hung out til like 2am, or on our body clocks, 7am California time. S and his friend, the Redhead, drove us back to our hotel, but first they took us down for our first look at the beach. It was beautiful, like Hawaii. The sand was so fine that it made a squishing noise as you walked over it, it still makes me laugh to this day when it does it. I think S held my hand in the car and he gave me a quick peck after we left the beach. The meeting had gone well and we seemed to be getting along in real life, just as we had online. It seemed like Bun and I were going to have a very fun time for the 4 months we were going to be in Australia!

The Beginning Continued

S right away recommended the school he was at. He thought it would be fairly easy for me to get in to and found all the info I needed right away. He was so open and friendly and so stoked to help me. I couldn’t believe how quickly we got the process started. I think that was like the end of July or the beginning of August and I thought maybe I could be there for the start of the fall semester, but duh it would really be like the spring semester there and school only started in July or February so I had missed out. S and I started talking every day, either on the phone, by email, or by text. He was pretty stressed out as it was his last semester at school, but he made the time for me and we quickly became close again. We liked each other but once again, we were still living our real lives as well, and it was weird cause I really really liked him, was hopeful for when we met, but didn’t really have expectations that it would be some huge love story and happily ever after and all that, and we still told each other about people we wanted to kiss or who we were dating at the time and stuff, which was kind of torture, but kind of good, too. Was that like the longest run on sentence in history? My parents would see me talking to S every night that we could online and S would webcam. It came to be a running joke in my family that a) Is that guy naked on that thing? And b) Lil D, you are talking to a 40 year old pervert on there!
My friend from high school, we’ll call her Bun, decided she needed a change of pace, too, so she decided to come along and at first, stupidly, I was a little bummed because I wanted to prove to the world how independent I was, but ultimately, Thank God Bun came because she made the adjustment of living in a new country that much easier and we had so much fun together while she was living here.
So fast forward to February….I had taken one last trip to see my sister Nae at her school, Dad had dropped me and Mom at the airport since she had to fly out for a work thing, Mom and I had a very tearful goodbye in John Wayne airport (yes, our airport is named after a tv cowboy and I knew his grandson, who was a very good bodyboarder and who got the worst sunburn on his butt in costa rica that I have ever seen!) and everyone must have thought we were crazy for all the crying we were doing, as flights from John Wayne don’t go international, thinking that we were crying this hard for me moving to Arizona or something. I got on the plane to San Francisco and cried, before meeting Bun up there. We got on, took waaaaay too many xanax and passed out for about 10 of the 14 hours of the trip. We were still so high from the stuff that when we hit really bad turbulence coming in to Sydney we were both hysterically laughing, whereas normally we would’ve been crying since we both hate flying!
It was hot when we got off the plane and we had to try and figure out the train system and how we were going to get up the coast to where our school was. In hindsight, we totally should’ve taken a few days in Sydney before going to our little hole of a town. So we figure out the trains, it was a hassle with all of our luggage, as I am not a light packer. I couldn’t figure out the payphones so I couldn’t call S when we landed. I just prayed that he didn’t decide to get on our train, as he had earlier suggested, as we passed through his town because I looked like crap and that was not the first impression I wanted to make. I was surprised when I didn’t see a boat load (or any to be exact) of koalas in the trees or kangaroos hopping along next to the train.
We got to the town we would be living in and it looked like a dump. We got to our hotel and it also was a dump. I remember I called my Mom crying, letting her know I was safe but wanted to come home. Bun and I went out trying to find food and also the beach, we ended up with expensive Pizza Hut and walking the opposite way from the ocean. S called and wanted to come over. I said “No”. He said, “let’s hang out tonight” and I said, “I dunno”. Later, Bun said “let’s get you drunk and let’s meet this guy”. So we called S and hopeful guy that he is, he had come up to wait for our call. He was on his way over and I started taking shots of vodka, good first impression I was going to make, right?