1.30.2006
I'd better be happy now that the boy is going home.
Steven is gone. I saw him to the security checkpoint at the airport and we exchanged our goodbyes. It was an interesting night. Here's hoping I can recount the whole thing.
I left Orlando at 11:30 in the morning, mostly because I was too antsy to sit around and wait for it to be time to leave. I arrived at Steven's house almost exactly at two. Unfortunately, I forgot to call and let him know I was leaving, so he had decided about an hour before that to go into Jacksonville to run a few last-minute errands. I left and ran my own errands, dropping off my guarantor form at my house for my mom to sign and picking up Erica's shoes from Drew.
I spent an hour or two reading over my notes for Anthropology and talking to Brian while I waited. Around four I call Steven to find out where he is, and he says that he won't be home for another hour or so. I smack myself in the forehead and then take a nap.
Five-thirty rolls around and I get a call to head over to Steven's house. He invites me to come to dinner with his family, mostly to piss his mom off. I get there and find out that they're not actually going out, they were just talking about it. I had planned to get some breadsticks from Pizza Hut so that I could snack on something, but decided not to since I thought a real meal would be forthcoming.
Steven says he still needs to pack. What? Yes. Pack. So he gathers up all of his bags and stuff and we sit in the living room with his checklist, going through everything. It takes us about an hour and there are still some things he needs from Walmart. Seven-thirty sees us at Walmart after stopping by Pizza Hut to get me my food (I was quite ravenous at this point). After Walmart, Steven is driving so I can eat and get a nap.
Five minutes into driving my car, we've gotten onto the on-ramp for 295, the rationale being that we can just hop onto 95 and go from there. Except we forgot to go to Robert's house first. Right after this realization, Steven slides my car into a guardrail. We suspect a combination of a LOT of weight in the trunk and very little in the front as well as slick roads. The car is fine.. front quarter panel and bumper need to be replaced, but that's all.. And the door won't really open all the way on the driver's side. Steven is paying for it, once he gets to Missouri, so its all good.
Off to Robert's for a little while, and its almost nine o'clock when we start on our way down to Orlando. I'm driving because Steven doesn't trust my car and he's tired too. Ten-thirty, we arrive. No nice dinner for us. We get some ramen and rent March of the Penguins.
March of the Penguins is an absolutely ADORABLE movie. Everyone should see it. I was making happy cuteness noises the entire time. Morgan Freeman is the shit, btw.
Before we watch the movie, Steven has to check on his departure time since he's not sure. We realize he has the wrong ticket and a quick call to his mom assures us that she's lost the proper one. So we call around a little while, and Steven rebooks a new flight for three in the afternoon. That's fine. Then movie time, more food for me, and sleep. Unfortunately for me, its around 2:30 before we retire.
This morning, six-thirty, I'm awake, getting dressed, grumpy as hell 'cause I'm tired. I make it to class, however, and even stay for Trig. I come back home and sleep until noon in order to be able to function for the rest of the day. Steven keeps waking me up 'cause he's not tired at all but I finally got him to let me sleep for a little while.
Noon comes and we load up. Its off to Broadway for a quick lunch and chat. Its only now, with three hours left before we part ways for three years that we're able to talk openly about anything beyond small-talk. Subjects include his family's running semi-serious joke about his potential marriage to Janice, his crush on some other girl in Jacksonville, and other such things. I asked if his mother wanted grandchildren, and he said that she did and when he mentioned that Janice refuses to have children she said that he had better talk to her about that. I laughed, because when he and I were planning such things, I had wanted (and still do want) a whole houseful of kids. Its funny because Steven's mother HATES me and adores Janice.
I finally brought up some issues that had been bothering me for a while-- namely that he has never bothered to tell Janice that one of the main reasons I dislike her so intensely is because he encouraged me to. She does that to her boyfriends regarding him as well, apparently. I also brought up the time that he told me, basically, that I wasn't worth giving up Janice, and he apologized for the things that he had said and done before leaving for the Marines. He said he had had a lot of time to think about things and really regretted the way he acted. He says he's the first to admit that I shouldn't forgive him, but I do anyways.
It felt good to talk without recriminations and accusations but still get to the root of the issue. I don't hold a grudge against him, nor he against me, and I think we both feel a lot better about everything now.
He still owes me a dinner, but it won't be for another three years before I get that.
Not a whole lot of these two days went according to plan, but I'm glad it happened. Its over now, and things can continue as normal.
Time to go to work now.
-shae ¶ 15:32
I left Orlando at 11:30 in the morning, mostly because I was too antsy to sit around and wait for it to be time to leave. I arrived at Steven's house almost exactly at two. Unfortunately, I forgot to call and let him know I was leaving, so he had decided about an hour before that to go into Jacksonville to run a few last-minute errands. I left and ran my own errands, dropping off my guarantor form at my house for my mom to sign and picking up Erica's shoes from Drew.
I spent an hour or two reading over my notes for Anthropology and talking to Brian while I waited. Around four I call Steven to find out where he is, and he says that he won't be home for another hour or so. I smack myself in the forehead and then take a nap.
Five-thirty rolls around and I get a call to head over to Steven's house. He invites me to come to dinner with his family, mostly to piss his mom off. I get there and find out that they're not actually going out, they were just talking about it. I had planned to get some breadsticks from Pizza Hut so that I could snack on something, but decided not to since I thought a real meal would be forthcoming.
Steven says he still needs to pack. What? Yes. Pack. So he gathers up all of his bags and stuff and we sit in the living room with his checklist, going through everything. It takes us about an hour and there are still some things he needs from Walmart. Seven-thirty sees us at Walmart after stopping by Pizza Hut to get me my food (I was quite ravenous at this point). After Walmart, Steven is driving so I can eat and get a nap.
Five minutes into driving my car, we've gotten onto the on-ramp for 295, the rationale being that we can just hop onto 95 and go from there. Except we forgot to go to Robert's house first. Right after this realization, Steven slides my car into a guardrail. We suspect a combination of a LOT of weight in the trunk and very little in the front as well as slick roads. The car is fine.. front quarter panel and bumper need to be replaced, but that's all.. And the door won't really open all the way on the driver's side. Steven is paying for it, once he gets to Missouri, so its all good.
Off to Robert's for a little while, and its almost nine o'clock when we start on our way down to Orlando. I'm driving because Steven doesn't trust my car and he's tired too. Ten-thirty, we arrive. No nice dinner for us. We get some ramen and rent March of the Penguins.
March of the Penguins is an absolutely ADORABLE movie. Everyone should see it. I was making happy cuteness noises the entire time. Morgan Freeman is the shit, btw.
Before we watch the movie, Steven has to check on his departure time since he's not sure. We realize he has the wrong ticket and a quick call to his mom assures us that she's lost the proper one. So we call around a little while, and Steven rebooks a new flight for three in the afternoon. That's fine. Then movie time, more food for me, and sleep. Unfortunately for me, its around 2:30 before we retire.
This morning, six-thirty, I'm awake, getting dressed, grumpy as hell 'cause I'm tired. I make it to class, however, and even stay for Trig. I come back home and sleep until noon in order to be able to function for the rest of the day. Steven keeps waking me up 'cause he's not tired at all but I finally got him to let me sleep for a little while.
Noon comes and we load up. Its off to Broadway for a quick lunch and chat. Its only now, with three hours left before we part ways for three years that we're able to talk openly about anything beyond small-talk. Subjects include his family's running semi-serious joke about his potential marriage to Janice, his crush on some other girl in Jacksonville, and other such things. I asked if his mother wanted grandchildren, and he said that she did and when he mentioned that Janice refuses to have children she said that he had better talk to her about that. I laughed, because when he and I were planning such things, I had wanted (and still do want) a whole houseful of kids. Its funny because Steven's mother HATES me and adores Janice.
I finally brought up some issues that had been bothering me for a while-- namely that he has never bothered to tell Janice that one of the main reasons I dislike her so intensely is because he encouraged me to. She does that to her boyfriends regarding him as well, apparently. I also brought up the time that he told me, basically, that I wasn't worth giving up Janice, and he apologized for the things that he had said and done before leaving for the Marines. He said he had had a lot of time to think about things and really regretted the way he acted. He says he's the first to admit that I shouldn't forgive him, but I do anyways.
It felt good to talk without recriminations and accusations but still get to the root of the issue. I don't hold a grudge against him, nor he against me, and I think we both feel a lot better about everything now.
He still owes me a dinner, but it won't be for another three years before I get that.
Not a whole lot of these two days went according to plan, but I'm glad it happened. Its over now, and things can continue as normal.
Time to go to work now.
-shae ¶ 15:32
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No, it may not have been malicious, andI thouroughly expect this kind of crap from Steven, but Daniel is actually pretty pissed off.
Neither of us care that he couldn't manage to see us in all that time. What we care about is that when he was telling us he was coming down, never once did he mention that you were driving him. He said something to Daniel aboput maybe he would "see Shannon too" while he was down here. Until about 6, he was still telling us that he would be leaving soon and that we would see him soon, and we didn't get any more information. Between 7 pm and 2 am we called him about 5 more times, and his phone was off. He STILL hasn't called us back.
What sucks isn't that he was too busy, what sucks is that he couldn't even bother to call us and tell us he was too busy. If I didn't have the link to your blog, we would probably have worried all night that he had died in a horrible flaming wreck on the way.
Not having time for us is one thing, an acceptable thing. Leaving us completely bewildered, not knowing what the fuck is going on is another. Of course I realize that Steven is an idiot and all and this is just what happens, but Daniel feels really slighted, hurt, and angry.
Neither of us care that he couldn't manage to see us in all that time. What we care about is that when he was telling us he was coming down, never once did he mention that you were driving him. He said something to Daniel aboput maybe he would "see Shannon too" while he was down here. Until about 6, he was still telling us that he would be leaving soon and that we would see him soon, and we didn't get any more information. Between 7 pm and 2 am we called him about 5 more times, and his phone was off. He STILL hasn't called us back.
What sucks isn't that he was too busy, what sucks is that he couldn't even bother to call us and tell us he was too busy. If I didn't have the link to your blog, we would probably have worried all night that he had died in a horrible flaming wreck on the way.
Not having time for us is one thing, an acceptable thing. Leaving us completely bewildered, not knowing what the fuck is going on is another. Of course I realize that Steven is an idiot and all and this is just what happens, but Daniel feels really slighted, hurt, and angry.
Sorry about the spelling mistakes/typos, I'm using this insanely crappy keyboard at work with like a crazy case of key-sticking.
Also, March of the Penguins is totally like this:
"And then the cute little penguins went for a walk (visual: cute penguins)... But it was a cold, hard walk, and not all would make it (visual: dead penguins)."
"And then the cute penguins laid some eggs (visual: cute penguins hangin' out with eggs)... but it was a cold, hard egg-laying (or something) and not all would survive (heartwrenching visual: penguins crying loudly over busted eggs)"
"And then some penguins went to get some food... but it was cold, hard food (?) and not all would survive (penguin=dinner for sea lion)"
"And then there were some baby penguins... but it was a cold, hard winter..."
...I think you get my point. Morgan Freeman, stop toying with my emotions!
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"And then the cute little penguins went for a walk (visual: cute penguins)... But it was a cold, hard walk, and not all would make it (visual: dead penguins)."
"And then the cute penguins laid some eggs (visual: cute penguins hangin' out with eggs)... but it was a cold, hard egg-laying (or something) and not all would survive (heartwrenching visual: penguins crying loudly over busted eggs)"
"And then some penguins went to get some food... but it was cold, hard food (?) and not all would survive (penguin=dinner for sea lion)"
"And then there were some baby penguins... but it was a cold, hard winter..."
...I think you get my point. Morgan Freeman, stop toying with my emotions!
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