September 2007
Sunday, September 30, 2007
So yesterday I neglected a lot of things since I was so happy to see that poster for Prince Caspian. lol I've been working a lot this weekend on getting Harmony Alley moved to a new server since there is a new owner taking over. It's almost all ready to go, with some new cards decks being released, too. :) Makes me feel a bit accomplished.
Yesterday I went and had dinner with Emily at our usual place. We ate and chatted, and then when it was time we went to the theatre and watched 3:10 to Yuma. I must say that I didn't dislike it, but I didn't really like it either. It was one of those strange "I'm just not sure" kind of movies. There were some funny parts and some interesting things and certainly a lot of shoot-em-up action, but the ending was just really weird. lol Totally didn't see that coming and it seems like a bit of a cop-out to me, especially since I have no idea why the character(s) did what they did. *shakes head* Whatever. lol
Also saw two people at the theatre I wasn't expecting. The first was Wes, who told me he's engaged! lol Dang. Only saw him for a minute, but it was nice to say hi and I told him congrats and all. Then, after the movie was over I saw this lady that used to help out with youth group ages ago, so I said hi to her. Totally wasn't expecting either of those people. lol
And now I'm trying to decide what to do with myself since I can't re-watch the season premiere of Atlantis since the stupid VCR only recorded fuzzy snow for some unexplained reason. *shakes fist at VCR* They're not going to air that episode again for like three months! Gah. Can't do anything about it though. Tested the recording and it worked today, but just not Friday night. Weird. So, anyway, now I must go and attempt to decide between reading a book or watching a movie, and then once I decide that I have to choose the book or movie. lol
Saturday, September 29, 2007
*swoons* Prince Caspian one-sheet!!! Gah! So pretty! Want to see! Can't articulate in full sentences! lol The poster for the first movie is lovely, and now they've done another lovely poster as well. I am beyond happy that they're planning to do all seven Narnia books into fabulous movies! Excuse me while I jump around. :D
Friday, September 28, 2007
Wow, the season premiere for Atlantis tonight was awesome. Very suspenseful and jam-packed. And, of course, funny Rodney moments. Just wouldn't be a good episode without great, funny Rodney moments. lol Of course it had to also be a "to be continued" episode, though. Man, I don't want to have to wait another week to find out what happens next, can't they air it now? lmao
Today mom and I went out shopping. Thought I wasn't doing too bad at Wal*Mart, but managed to spend about eighty bucks anyway. Owie. I got some really cute shirts though... lol I did good the rest of the places we went to though and didn't buy anything. Good thing we didn't end up having time to go to Barnes & Noble though because I may very well have been tempted to buy a book if something caught my eye. I've been doing pretty well not buying books lately. I'm trying to go with borrowing them from the library first to see if I like them. Still need to read a book I got back in July though. lol
Let's see, I think it was yesterday that I got the last three Star Wars soundtracks I needed to complete the collection. :) Haven't had a chance to listen to them yet, but should get to this weekend. Oh dear, lots planned for this weekend already. How is this happening where I'm all of a sudden feeling quite busy and I go through stretches of being extremely not busy most of the rest of the time? I think last time we got back from a trip I felt stressed from a lot of things as well. That didn't used to happen. Must stop that. Also discovered yesterday that my car has another leak in it, so that's a bit of stress, but I'm going to try to stop thinking about that for now at least.
Thus far this week I've worked on my writing everyday. Not sure if I'll get the one done for today, but that just means I'll transfer it to tomorrow since I was going to give myself weekends off anyhow. I'm not real far, but some writing is definitely better than no writing. I'm trying to work on just writing and not feeling the need to make sure it's perfect right off the bat. I've also been struggling with how much needs to be told at the beginning of the story about my MC's younger years before it gets to her current age when the main part of the story exists. There is definitely one thing that has to be there, I'm just worried I'm putting in too much and making it too scattered. But, as I told myself last night I should just write down every scene that I can come up with and decide what should stay and what should be left out in the final draft, when it comes to that. I just need to keep telling myself positive things and gently nudging myself forward. :) At least I'm feeling better about it now than I have in the past, so I'm going to continue praying to God that I don't regress back to how things were. If anyone else is working on writing and finding it difficult, keep plugging away. I've also found a tip to do 3 pages of writing whatever's on your mind each day (from The Artist's Way by Julia Cameron) to be helpful. :)
Sunday, September 23, 2007
Well, I didn't get things accomplished today like I'd originally planned. Still need to put laundry away and still need to unpack my carry-on. I did get a number of the chores done yesterday evening at least, so it's not terribly bad. *sigh* One of these days. lol And, I really need to get some new organizational stuff for my desk and get it cleaned up. I was hoping to have it finished before now, but oh well. Speaking of the desk...
Tomorrow I officially start work on my novel. Well, one of my novels. It's been lightly in the works for a long time and I've actually got a lot of notes and things figured out, but I've sort of just been working on it here and there and that's not helping me progress a lot, so... I'm officially kicking it into gear tomorrow! :D I'm excited/nervous. Trying not to think what a large task it is, but, really, I'm only going to do an hour a day for starters and that's super doable, so it's good. :) Giving myself pep talks. lol I'm feeling pretty good about this though, and I'm going to be asking God for a lot of help with it, so hopefully it will go well, in its time. :) If you'd like to say a prayer for me, that'd be great. :D
Can't remember if I remarked or not in the last entry that I've been doing really well writing three pages of whatever's on my mind almost everyday since the beginning of the month. It was a suggestion in the book The Artist's Way by Julia Cameron. I think that's been quite helpful, and God has shown me some stuff through it already, which is definitely good. :)
Saturday, September 22, 2007
It's been ages since I've blogged, and this time I would have liked to, but was unable to. In the space of the two weeks I was gone, I think I was able to access a computer and the internet for about a total of two hours, maybe just a few minutes more. Definitely survivable, and for the most part I was quite occupied, but it would have been nice to had a few more times to jump on and check things or blog, etc. Anyway... on to the rather long story.
Labor Day we got home from dinner at a family friend's house. (Surprisingly, we were invited to three different parties that weekend... weird. lol) Not long after we had all gotten home, the phone rang. It was my dad's brother calling with bad news that their mother--who's had advanced Altzheimer's for a while--had taken a turn and it didn't look like our planned trip for late October would be at all soon enough to come down. So, I got online and started looking at flight times. About an hour later we had booked our tickets to fly out the next day. Talk about a last-minute trip! I'm used to months, or at least quite a few weeks before a trip to think about what I need to bring and prepare myself for kitty cat deprevation. I only had a few hours, and, of course, I had rented TMNT on the way home! For some strange reason, I watched it, which I didn't really have time for. I thought it would relax me because I was getting very frazzled over everything that had to be done. I was sort of responsible for taking care of a lot of the preperations, which I thankfully managed, praise God. I even remembered things my mom didn't that had to be done, so I felt kind of good, but still frazzled. The movie didn't end up helping. Haha.
Tuesday morning I began the day with my normal breakfast drink and two tylenols. I got a headache before I'd fallen asleep, had a LOT of trouble sleeping, and then woke up with the headache still there. I don't think it's a good sign to start the day out with medicine. Hallelujah, though, because a couple hours later the tylenol had done the trick and I felt a whole lot better! The flight went good. We went from rainy and 65 degrees to sunny and 99 degrees though, so that was a bit of an adjustment. Heh. That made me realize I don't want to go live in California for a few months, so it was rather a good thing, really. We got our rental car after we landed and went straight to the home to visit my dad's mom. She was doing better than the previous day, but she definitely looked worse off than when we saw her a few months ago. The rest of the day was spent there.
Wednesday was mostly spent at the nursing home as well. My mom and I went out and did some shopping for part of the time looking for shorts/capris since we were not prepared for the very warm weather. Finally had some luck at the last place we went too, then a little more luck at another store later, so that was nice. Thursday was some more visiting at the nursing home, but I also got to go watch Stardust for a while. It's hard to sit in a room for hours at a time with someone you can't communicate with just watching them and waiting for them to die. After the first couple of days I tried to stay away from that for as much time as possible.
Friday was a very frazzled day filled with "adventure." I wasn't able to get to my Uncle's house down the street the night before to update the theatre site because he was at a party, so we went around eleven Friday morning... and it wouldn't work on his computer. *throws up hands* His computer wouldn't even let me view the source of a web page! I was so confused! So, we went back to my grandparent's house (where we were staying) and tried calling two of my other Uncles. One didn't answer, and the other one did and had me tell him how to get into the FTP over the phone so that they could make sure it worked before my mom drove me all the way over there. It wouldn't work. (Turns out I told them the URL slightly wrong. Oops.) I then tried to call a couple people back home who I thought MIGHT know HTML and MIGHT be able to help, but I had to leave them both messages. So then it's getting later and I've got no way to update the theatre site with the first showing of the movie only a few hours away. AHHHHH!!! lol I was definitely frazzled. So then I get a hold of two of my cousins that I was supposed to get together with later and ask if I can do it at their house and at first they say yes. Then they call back and say that the kids their mom babysits are all really sick and they just remembered their internet isn't working at all at their house. lol So, Jessica, the older one, said they'd take me by her college and I could try to use a library computer there (which I didn't think would work since I have to be able to temporarily save files on the computer). However, she forgot that since she's not going there this quarter, her password is locked out. lol Then we were going to drive to her younger sister's (Shay's) high school and use a computer at the library there, but thankfully Jessica remembered she has a laptop and there was a Panera bread place nearby that had free wireless access! lol We swung by their house, grabbed the laptop, and went to the place and got food while I updated. Then we sat and chatted for a while, and that was the end of my visit with them. *sigh* They had plans for later and were feeling really tired, and I'd taken up a good 45 minutes or more with the running around and updating the website thing. So, I got to see them for a few hours and that was it. :\
Saturday was extremely eventful, so this may be a few paragraphs long. My Uncle was having a party at his house, and my cousin Steven was even driving down pretty much just to see me there. No way I was missing that. The party was mainly because a cousin from Canada was down visiting, but then my family and I were going to be there, and another Uncle was coming from Northern California, so it turned into a way bigger shindig than originally planned. lol Oh, yes, and I've told people I'm related to like half of the people in Canada (mainly eastern), and to give you a little idea, the cousin that was down, Wayne, is one of about 60 of my mom's FIRST cousins. I don't even think she's met them ALL! lol I think it's awesome. lol I've got 11 first cousins, so quite a bit less than my mom and Uncles. ;) But yeah, lots of ping pong, pool, talking and eating throughout the day. I beat Steven at pool, but only because he scratched on the eight ball. Dang, he's a LOT better now than when we were little... I haven't really improved at all. Haha. It's fun though; and sometimes I get lucky. About half-way through the evening, Steven's daughter Emily got over her initial shyness and decided I was cool again! :D There is at least one person in the world who thinks I'm really cool to hang out with. I love Emily! She's the cutest little thing. She's four and half the stuff she says is way too old for her and it's funny. We were talking and making up new names for new Care Bears when her dad came over and she told him we were having girl talk and he was a boy and wasn't allowed and had to go away. *giggles* She monopolized my time for quite a while and had me follow her around the house and the yard. Good fun. I'm not very good with kids, but it's a lot easier with family, and Emily's generally pretty well behaved, though certainly capable of getting into trouble or back talking to her father and grandparents.
I had a tiny sip of my cousin Don's beer at the party. I don't like beer. lol That's what I learned. Nasty crap. Yuck! Don't know how they can all drink bottles of that stuff! Anyway, Don invited Steven out for the night, and Steven said that I should go. I was like, "well, what are you guys going to do, go bowling?" Steven just got his ninety days sober, so they couldn't go to a bar or anything, right? Turns out they were going to go to a house party down at Huntington Beach. That doesn't sound too appealing. Steven wasn't thrilled with it at first just because he thought it'd be kind of lame, but then he decided okay, he was going. And then everyone looked at me. Holly, you're coming, right? To a house party...? Uh, I don't think so. I think I'm too scared for that. Oh, come on Holly, you'll like it! Will I now? *rolls eyes* Why can't we just go bowling or something? lol
So, most of the guests were gone, and the rest was mostly family who was all going to be staying there for the night. Don and Steven are getting ready to go and trying to pressure me into going with them. I asked when they thought they'd be back and they said 2 AM. I wasn't willing to be out at a house party for that long, plus I'd been getting up before seven almost every morning as that's when my grandma got up and turned on the TV. I was considering it a little, and then it happened. Everyone in the room at the time started chanting something along the lines of "Go, Holly, go." Don stands right in front of me and goes, c'mon Holly, peer pressure! Wow, talk about an honest statement. lol After the crowd ceased the chanting (went on for a good minute or two), I asked Don and Steven if they were going to be good, protective, older cousins? They said yeah, but it didn't sound that convincing. Then I asked, if I absolutely hated it and really wanted to be brought back, would they bring me back? Don said something about I could just watch TV in one of the back rooms at the party, and then my Uncle Jerry said Don'd call a cab and pay for it. First option doesn't sound fun at all, second one is just plain stupid and crazy. Me, in a cab by myself at night? NO. Shortly after that I finally firmly said no, thanks anyway. It was nice of them to try to include me, but that's not something I want to do. They said I was going to miss out and would regret it, but even if a Backstreet Boy had shown up at the party, I'm pretty sure I still wouldn't have liked it and would have felt beyond wrong being there.
In the morning I got to hear what happened. LMAO I made the smart decision for sure! Turns out there was no house party. One of Don's friends was punking him or whatever. They walked into the house and there were a dozen gay guys and no one else. Then, one of the gay guys leaned over to another and remarked about this brush cowboy hat Steven was wearing that it was "delicious" and my cousins turned tail and ran the heck outta there. Ha ha. See, I knew intuitively. lol But even if it had been what they were expecting, I still wouldn't have wanted to be there. They then went bar hoping until they found one they liked. Steven asked for a coke at one of them, and the stupid bar tender gave him a coke with alcohol in it! Good thing he'd decided that any time he was going to be in a bar, he'd only take a half sip for starters. He spit it out and gave the bar tender a talking to. He felt really bad/upset about it, but I told him he didn't swallow it or anything, so he didn't mess up his 90 days thing. Though, it still would have been better not to go into any bars at all. Apparently the two of them also got up and did kareoke at one place. That's the only part of the night that I would have wanted to be there for. That was probably pretty darn funny. I'll survive having missed it though. ;)
Sunday morning was a brunch party to celebrate my Uncle Jerry's birthday. Then, as per his request, we went down to a tall ships festival at Dana Point. It wasn't as cool as I hoped because all the vessels were teathered together at the dock and the sails were all furled. Then, you had to pay to go walk on them, so we didn't do that either. Later they were going to do a mock battle out off the shore, but we didn't have time to stay for that. Some of the booths were really cool, and there was lots of pirate stuff, but it was still not like I thought it'd be. I got to talk some with my cousin C.J., but she was really tired from before school gets back in partying.
My mom came and picked me up later that evening, and then we went to visit my dad's mom for a bit before going back to my grandparent's house. That was really hard. She'd started what they call the "death rattle" the night before and hearing that was worse than seeing her. It's a creepy sound. I wasn't able to stay in the room for very long with that, but I touched her hand and mentally said good-bye. About an hour after we'd gotten back to the fort, my parents got the call, that she'd passed away. It was really a blessing in that now she's no longer suffering and is in a much better place with God, but it's still, of course, sad to hear and deal with.
Monday I found out that we would not be leaving Wednesday as originally planned because the funeral wasn't going to be until the next Monday so that the final one of my dad's siblings could be there. Then I all of a sudden had a lot of time to fill.
Monday morning was also when I went with my mom, Grandpa, and an Aunt and Uncle to visit Aunt Jean (who's my mom's Aunt) and other extended family. I've seen them all a number of times, but it's not been often enough to remember them all by name. lol After a while, I chatted some with my mom's cousin's sons, Tim and Chris (not brothers). I remember Tim from last time I was over there, but Christ I couldn't remember for the life of me, which is weird since he's the same age as me. He remembered me after a bit from being at my Grandparent's house when we were really little and picking plumbs and eating as many as we could. I remember that, but I did that with pretty much all of my cousins and probably most of my friends so I can't differentiate. lol Nice little chat with him before he had to leave for work though. Tim was not as talkative, but I got a thumbs up when I asked how he's been doing. lol
Tuesday (the 11th, that would be), I went to Knott's Berry Farm with Mike. I promised him I won't make him go to Disneyland with me anymore, so instead we went to Knott's. Poor Mike is apparently not a roller coaster person though, so I had to go on a few without him. It was a nice day though, and I got to reminise some. My very first "big person" roller coaster was Montazuma's Revenge, so I went on that. Fun! Then, I also went on Boomerang for the first time ever! Last time I was there I was finally ready to go on it (previous times I'd still been really young), but the line was really long or it wasn't running or something like that, so I didn't get to go. It was a good one. I was so bummed that Ghost Rider was closed that day though, and so was the stage coach and the Western stunt show! Blarg. The only good thing was that there were NO lines. Actually, I had to sit on Boomerang for about five minutes because I was the only one there and they needed at least six people to run the ride. lol That was my longest wait time. It's kind of sad. lol I think my favorite ride there is Xcelerator. Well, actually, it might be Ghost Rider, but I've only been on that one once and can't remember it all that well, I just know it was really fun. Before we left for the day (we'd already done all the open rides that we wanted to and left a couple hours before closing), I went back into the glass blowing shop and purchased a pegasus sculpture and a little fox one, too. Every time I go in those stores I think how someday I'd like to get one, but I could never bring myself to buy one until then. The pegasus one just looked so cool and then little fox one was only six dollars and also really cute, so I went for it. Actually, I haven't opened the box since we got home so I hope they both made it in one piece.
Wednesday I went to DCA and Uncle Jerry and Aunt Terry went with me for the earlier part of the day. I got a great deal on a 4-day ticket for only $130! It's a southern california resident only thing so I had my cousin buy it, reembursed him, then my Aunt got the actual ticket for me since all you get first is a certificate and then you have to show ID to prove you're a so. cal. resident at the Disney ticket booths to get the actual ticket. They had her print my name so they could put it on the ticket, and then the first time I went into a park each of the days I had to show them my ID to prove I was the rightful owner of the ticket. Crazy. They're cracking down on some of the re-sale schemes I guess. There were basically no lines there and we walked on most of the rides. Uncle Jerry could only go on a few since his leg was broken, but he was just happy to get out of the house and they have annual passes, so it's no big deal for them to go whenever for just a little while. They took me to lunch, and then we parted ways with me going back into the park and them going home. I watched the Aladdin show, which is AMAZING every time I see it. And, every time I see it the Genie has new jokes so it's sort of new each time. :) The sets for that performance are just SPECTACULAR. If you're going to be in California Advenutre on a day that show is going, go and watch it!
After that I was going to hop on the Tower of Terror, but there was a 50 minute wait! What the heck? Everything else was like a max of 10 minutes. Strange. So, I decided to go into the animation building instead and drew a profile of Winnie the Pooh at the Animation Academy. I felt really cool too because when you're finished they always tell you to sign and date it and one of the animators gave me a compliment on my signature and it being all fancy. :D Yay me! lol I do like my signature. ;) When that was done, the park was about to close, but they usually let you get in line for rides right up to the closing time, so I thought I'd go try Tower of Terror if the wait had gone down some. It still said 50 minutes. I was pretty sure they didn't do single rider passes for that ride, but I thought I'd ask the cast member there anyway. He said no and I asked if the wait was really 50 minutes and he said yeah. I said thank you and started to turn (I wasn't going to stand in line that long! lol), and then he said "just go" and waved me through the fast pass entrance. I walked straight into the library to watch the video, and then into the inner line. I was hoping and praying a cast member would call out for a single rider and after a few minutes, one did! I shot my hand up in the air and yelled to get his attention, then made my way through the light up to the front and only had to wait a minute or two before the "elevator doors" opened. So, instead of 50 mintues, it was about 10, which I was MUCH happier with. It never hurts to ask. ;)
Thursday the 13th I took a break from Disney to attempt to help my feet recover before the next three days at the parks. They didn't really get as much of a break as I'd planned though because I ended up helping my mom and dad to re-do the bathroom at Grandma and Grandpa's house. I helped get things taped off and then did a lot of the edging before I had to get ready. My mom took me back to Uncle Jerry's house earlier than planned because Aunt Terry had called saying they'd mixed up the night of the Ducks' hockey game and it was that night instead of Friday night. The game was pretty good, but it was pre-season so not all of the regular players for either team were actually playing. It was against their arch rivals The Kings, though, so that made it a little more interesting. They lost by one point. Bummer. At least I didn't get beer spilled on me from the annoying guys behind us. I did get spit spattered on me from the guy behind me yelling too much, apparently, and then later he kept dropping his peanut shells down my back. Rawr. Should have turned around and yelled at him, but then I thought he'd purposefully pour beer on me, and I really didn't want that to happen. lol Aunt Terry and I were supposed to sit with Don and his girlfriend, but they went to a lower section and so we ended up sitting next to Kevin's friend Sunny and his friend who we happened to see as we were leaving the house and found that we were heading to the same place.
Friday I went to Disneyland. I was a bit bummed because the Haunted Mansion was closed since they were putting up Halloween decorations and also the Disney Gallery was closed. There's a really nice little area with tables and chairs in the Disney Gallery and it's a nice quiet place to sit for a while, but I couldn't get there. Major bummer. The lines were pretty good early in the day, and with the fast passes I did pretty well getting on most of the rides. The only ride I didn't go on in the the three days I was there was the new Finding Nemo Submarines because there are no fast passes, no single rider line, and the wait was an hour and a half. Didn't want to go on it THAT badly. I'll be there again within a few years in all likelyhood, so I'll just go when it's not the new thing that everyone has to get on. Even the wheelchair entrance for that was really backed up! Crazy. I tried to get into the Blue Bayou for lunch that day, but they were all booked up, so I managed to get a reservation for Sunday at lunch time. It's cheaper then and they have more non-seafood options. Finally, I was going to get to eat in there! Overall, it was a good day at Disneyland, and I got to watch the fireworks, which I realy enjoy.
Earlier that day I'd also managed to get the theatre site updated in the morning. At least this time I was at someone's house who had the internet, and their computer worked for what I needed to do! lol Much less trouble than the first time, but I've learned a valuable lesson: I must bring my laptop with me on future trips. I figured I'd have to be at someone's house to be able to connect to the internet, so I might as well just use their computer to do it, but that didn't work out so well. lol Next time I'll just have to lug my laptop along with me and find a place with free wireless access if I have to. While I was on there, I checked Facebook real quick to see if any of the people I knew who live in So. Cal. had replied to my message that I was going to be down, even though none of them had called me. Surprise, surprise, my old friend Keith from preschool had replied! He said he might have time, so I wrote back and told him to call me.
Saturday was Disneyland again. Got a little bored that day. The lines were longer since it was the weekend, and I'm so spoiled to mostly go there when the lines or short or get fast passes for everything, that I didn't want to wait in line for a number of rides. lol I've decided not to go to Disneyland by myself again for a while. Every once in a while it's kind of cool or okay to go by yourself one day, maybe two, but three days in a row is not so fun. lol That's what I learned. I tried to watch Fantasmic in the evening, but I walked by the area three hours before the first show was supposed to start and there were already people staking out their places! @!*#^$ Holy cow people! THREE hours early?! There was no way I was going to camp out that long by myself and be even more bored to death, which meant I wasn't going to get a good place, or be able to sit. *sigh* I tried to stand for a while right when the show got started, but I was so far back and could hardly see that I decided it wasn't worth killing my feet more. There was another show after the fireworks, but I was just kind of tired and burnt out, so I called to get picked up. Should have gone into DCA that day after all. My pass wasn't a park-hopper, so that was a bit of a bummer. I reasoned there was more to do in Disneyland than DCA, but I think for that day I would have been better off in California adventure. Well, learned for next time. lol And learned that park-hopper passes are much nicer than only one park per day ones.
Sunday was Disneyland again because that was my Blue Bayou day! I tried to get up early to get into the park at opening in order to get on the Finding Nemo Subs before the line got huge, but that didn't happen. lol I got there in pretty much perfect time to go straight to check in for lunch. I got to the Blue Bayou and waited a few minutes before I could speak with someone only to hear that they were having "techincal difficulties." How does a restaraunt have "technical difficulties?" They said they'd probably be open later and I'd probably still be able to get a table, but they didn't know when or even have an estimate. K... Figures. lol I walked away and past the line for Pirates, which wasn't moving at all so I thought it must be the ride having a problem, but why does that mean the restaraunt can't open? Still confused over that, but whatever. I wandered through the park for a half an hour, then went back and the restaraunt was open and I got in! :D Yay! I thought for sure something would happen where I wouldn't get to eat there at all yet again, but it didn't. Now I shall elect not to eat there again for quite some time though. lol It's expensive. For my sandwich and soda, plus tip, it was $31... just for me. Ouch. The Monte Cristo sandwich is REALLY good though, and it's cool to say I finally got to eat in there. Had to do it at least once, right? My waiter was very nice and took pity on me while I was waiting for my food to come and talked to me for a bit asking how my day was going. That was nice. It's a little hard to eat by yourself in a restaraunt, but I've done it plenty of times. You just gotta suck it up. I decided a while back that I wasn't going to miss out on things just because I couldn't get people to go with me, so now if there's a movie I want to see, or I want to go to Disneyland and no one else wants to go, I just go anyway. I'm a self sufficient kind of girl.
I only went on one ride that day. Sunday was way busier than Saturday and all the lines were long. They even opened up with upstairs portion of the Jungle Cruise line! You know it's a busy day at Disneyland when there's more than a five or ten minute wait to get on the Jungle Cruise. I love that ride, too, so I was kind of bummed I didn't get to go on it again, but I'd already been on it three times over the previous two days, and I just couldn't bring myself to wait that long. lmao See, I said I was spoiled by shorter wait times. ;) I ended up getting picked up around five because my mom wanted to get me early so that we could be back home with rest time before the funeral on Monday morning. I was ready to go, so it was good.
Monday morning was the funeral. It was Catholic, so we had a private mass at the beginning. Now, I was baptized at a Catholic-Christian church and I went to masses a number of times when I was little and still living down there, but it's been a while, and I'm really glad not to be a Catholic now. There are all these things you're supposed to say after the priest says certain things. I knew one prayer, but that was it, and I'm not crazy about the older style hymns, though some of them are very nice. It's just a little too pomp and circumstance-ish for me. I far prefer the more laid back approach of our church. I was also really glad I didn't have to go to the vigil and viewing the day before. The viewing part would have been optional, at least, but still. I'd really rather not see a dead body. Not at all prepared for that kind of thing. So, at least the casket was closed the entire time on Monday. After mass was a little brunch, and then we had a police escort for the caravan to the cemetary. First time seeing that, too. I had to go with the other older cousins to put a rose on the casket before it was lowered, which was fine. We all stood in a line after that, and it was hard because Morris was nexted to me and was crying and having a hard time, so I put my arm around him and rubbed his back, which I also did for Kenny when he came to stand on my other side. I felt a little weird inbetween them because they'd known her their whole lives. I'd met her a long time ago, but I never really got to know her, and I don't really have any memories of her before she started to lose her memory and go down hill, so it doesn't hurt as bad for me as it does for them. Hopefully everyone's doing okay--as okay as they can be.
We stayed for the lowering of the casket, and then my mom and I got up to go to the car because we thought everyone was leaving, but they weren't. I needed to use the bathroom, so mom drove me to the main building and we were going to just pick up dad and Kenny afterward and then go to the gathering at Uncle Ken's house. When mom and I drove back over everyone was still there, though. They all stayed until the ground was completely covered and the grass had been rolled over it, etc. Mom and I sat in the car because that was a little much for both of us to want to stand and watch. Neither of us want to be buried either, so that made it a little weird for us as well. I don't think anyone faulted us for not wanting to watch until it was completely finished.
We went to the get together after that and ate and everyone just chatted and tried not to let things get to sombre. Then there was family picture time since it was a rare occasion when everyone was together. After that mom and I borrowed Uncle Ken's computer to print our boarding passes for the next day. Then I checked Facebook and had another message from Keith. His Grandfather passed away just a few days before that. Weird that he had someone pass away right around the same time. I called him and left a message with my condolences since the computer I was on didn't support the javascript to send a reply online. I had given up hope that Keith would have time to get together since it was my last night there, but he called me on our way back to my Grandma and Grandpa's house, and he said he had time! Yay! lol He said he'd call me back after he ate and whatnot and we'd figure out where to meet and chat for a little while. He never called me back.
I considered calling him back after a while, but I didn't because last time we were supposed to get together he didn't call me back either, even after I tried him again, so I figured it was the same sort of thing. I found out after I got home Tuesday night that he'd sent me a message on Facebook Monday evening saying he couldn't find my number anywhere and he didn't want me to think he was a jerk for not calling and to call him. Well, at least he wasn't just being a jerk. Maybe next time I'm down it will work out. *shrugs* We'll see.
The flight back on Tuesday went really well. There was a little issue before then when we returned the rental car, but mom did good and got it resolved. Then there was a little issue when we went to pick up my dad's van, but we jump started it and all was okay after that. It was so good to see my kitties when we got home! I missed them a lot!
Wednseday was spent doing laundry and trying to get things done, then Thursday was about the same until in the evening when I went to my first dance class. The first one was actually while we were gone, but I didn't miss too much. It was okay. The combo we worked on is fun. I'll probably just do it for a few months, though, just because I don't think I want to spend more money than that and it's kind of far away. Some is better than none though. :)
Yesterday I went down to the theatre and watched Stardust. :D I'm beyond happy that we got it and now I can go watch it a bunch more times! Yay! lol It's a really good movie.
Today I'm just hanging out at home. I did some website work this morning, and then I spent like an hour and a half typing up this gigantic entry. lol Still have some unpacking to do and some chores to get done, but that should hopefully get all finished by tomorrow evening and then it will be back to the normal swing of things. Now I am going to go call and order a pizza for dinner!
Saturday, September 1, 2007
It's a new month, and I began the cleaning of my desk today. I say began because if you hadn't seen it before and saw it now, you'd think I hadn't started, but really I have! lol I had to figure out where to put a lot of stuff which led to clearing out a drawer (or two) as well. One would not know, but I actually made quite a dent. Anyway, while cleaning I went though lots of things and have a well-stuffed bag filled with paper for recycling now. I found one thing in particular today, which I found to be quite funny.
Years ago I fancied myself as a budding pop star. Certainly don't now, but then I thought I had a chance, etc., etc. I even joined a "group." And, what I stumbled across while cleaning today, I wrote out album thank you notes. Funny in itself, but even funnier being that the "group" never once actually sang together... at all. Haha. I ripped that up. ;) I'll stick mainly to singing in my car now, I think.
Not much else to report. I'm doggedly watching the prices for flights right now, praying for them to go down. My mom happened to look the morning of the day where they spiked up an extra $100+. They were good in the morning, but when she went to book the flight in the afternoon... WOAH. Big ole difference! So, hoping and praying they will go back down to a more reasonable price, because right now they're just outrageous for a flight during the fall off-season. *shakes head*
