today was a good day to blog

consider it my sleep-deprived gift to you, my darlings.

630 am: wake up too early so you can go get pain medicine that - you guessed it - the pharmicist fucked up and you can't get for another whole day.

845 am: go get frappaccino because you're so bloody sleepy from getting up at the crack of dawn.

10 am: learn about career paths in a department that you are trying to leave. attempt to feign interest. fail.

11 am: work?

12 pm: enjoy the aromas of Ranch 99 biological waste

12:45 pm: enjoy the aroma of some toffee crack that you didn't order (because of the earlier frappaccino), but they made for you anyway because - hello - you're there. OBVIOUSLY you need some toffee crack. get guilted into paying for unexpected crack. enjoy crack guilt-free.

130 pm: work. attempt to feign interest. fail.

3 pm: get urgent call about emergency bug going live tonight, because the original bug owner went home early. determine that the bug doesn't apply to your Favoritest Cuntry Ever. enjoy the aroma of unimpacted irrelevancies and not having to work late.

430 pm: discover need to play ping pong, or pool. waddle downstairs to game rooms. pick up paddle. move toward table. get ousted by geeks who RSVP'd the room.

431 pm: quickly jump to adjacent room to secure pool table, since primary aforementioned geek was playing pool while waiting for secondary geek. glare at annoying dude who magically took over table during the last 60 seconds.

455 pm: after narrowly losing at air hockey, emerge triumphant at subsequent round of pool, since annoying dude has left the building.

530 pm: realize it's time to go home. call for your chariot.

6 pm: chariot arrives with a wife and puppy in tow. kiss both. exit stage right.

7 pm: forage for dinner and finally settle on leftovers. attempt to feign interest. fail.

7:20 pm: write checks for bills. wish that you could pay rent online.

7:45 pm: brush my cat because she has skin issues that make her hair mat. ignore 15 minutes of wailing and hissing.

830 pm: watch min like a hawk because her dinner is causing her to have an attack. get meds and a bowl in case she throws up. pump adrenaline intermittently. wait.

9 pm: sit next to min on the couch and have her fall asleep on you while you watch surprisingly interesting little show. pet pearl occasionally after she perches on the other side of you and chews her bone.

9:50 pm: put min to bed. kiss both.

10:15 pm: attempt to feign interest in lame law & 0rder episode. fail.

10:17 pm: put pearl to bed. kiss both.

10:18 pm: get on the internets. catch up on all your reading.

11:45 pm: feel not ready for bed yet. start blogging.

12:10 am: continue to not feel ready for bed, but go anyway. wish your readers sweet dreams and happy ucmjoining.

END TRANS

oh and p.s.

i hate hormones. and ovaries.

get thee to a mummery

i know this is serious, but believe me, my mom would love that i was having fun with these headlines. after all, she came up with murrito.

so the news i have is, she's still in the hospital and they are running tests. they have two theories that they are poking and prodding to death: diabetes, or heart trouble. we will know more late tomorrow, or maybe thursday. in the meantime my mom is exhausted but fine. altho she bit her tongue pretty severely during the seizure, but they didn't have to do stitches.

also i found out that she and my dad are definitely moving up to oregon. to stay with one of my uncles, who has an apartment attached to his house. you may recall i described this a few moons ago as a deplorable sounding place. apparently it has undergone some renevation. but also, my parents are literally out of options. my dad's disability doesn't make it easy for them to get a place on their own, and they've been looking! but at least this seems to be working out, odd a jump as it is.

anyway, thanks to everyone who sent well wishes and other forms of positive vibery! both she and i really appreciate it.

moron!

undefeated champion = me.
i am a moron.
just a fyi.
sorry for the cryptic-ness, but i just have to document this moment for myself.
i now return you to the regular blend of fluff and medical reporting.

i am such a geek

this just came into my inbox, and my first thought was: cool!

Dynamic View Training on UNIX
Come and learn how you can save time by developing with dynamic views. This will be an informative training session on dynamic views. It will clearly demonstrate the benefits of using dynamic views and how to get started with them.


oh and ps. no update on my mom, sorry. my sister's stupid cell doesn't take incoming calls, and i haven't heard from her since yesterday. thanks sis!

mom's the word

please keep my mom in your thoughts. 15 minutes after we returned home, from a great weekend in bodega bay (more on that another time), i got a call from my sister that my mom is in the hospital. apparently she had a seizure (probably grand mal, from the description) while at the mall with my dad. this was about 2 hrs ago, and they'd all just gotten to the ER about 30 minutes earlier, so they have no idea yet what brought this on. anyways, any prayers or good thoughts are greatly appreciated...

sleep, data

apparently i am turning into a night owl. which is truly bizarre to me, because i friggin LOVE sleep. i guess i need an android to trick me into a forced regeneration cycle.

yesterday, redux

again, utter lack of concentration when it comes to being productive. however, i have been able to point out some flaws in other people's work. and try a new frosty caffienated drink. oh and get those itunes errors again.

my work is done.

and now, the rest of the story

it occurs to me that i haven't really updated you all on my home life. so here is an attempt at a BRIEF recap. ok. so:

1. my mom went back to my dad about two weeks ago. she says it's only for a few months while he gets settled, but he also (supposedly) only has 6-12 months left period. they have been saying that for years, but whatever. i don't mean to sound callous. altho i know i am on this point. but i guess i feel like i've heard this before and she's just getting sucked back in. her life though. oh and two bonuses:
   
   - the day after my mom left to come here, my dad apparently tried to kill my sister by throttling her. way to increase family spirit!
   - my dad was later diagnosed as being bipolar. he is on meds now and supposedly is doing much better. i hope that continues to be true.
   
   ps. we really miss her already. it was good to have someone else to bounce ideas off and just generally be silly with.
   pps. taking a break is probably for the best since we were running out of money in the 'help my mom rack up frequent flier miles' department
   
   
2. min just got out of a weeklong stay at the hospital.
   
   what? you thought her surgery was going to take care of everything? no shit, us too! i could regale you with details that min would probably despise me for sharing, but i will just say this: it was kinda scary for a while, but in the end it turned out she has extremely bad diverticulitis and will need to pay even more attention to all the little signs her body does/n't give her in order to avoid losing part of her intestines in the future.
   
   and she does feel a little better now, thanks. but drained, like me, so we're going to go up to bodega bay this weekend with pearl.

ok that's it for now. this ends the blogging tourettes portion of the evening. going to try to invoke some sleep now. later, corn!

sometimes you feel like a nut

actually most of the time i feel like a nut. and not like a Pe-can, almond or chestnut (which i just remembered was an old handle of mine - chest-nut. heh). no, i mean nut like a goofball. this is because, in case you didn't catch it between my more serious posts, i am an extremely silly girl.

and i am good company. this is a little shoutout to NUTS. you know who you are, and you:

1. are all fucking hilarious
   
2. give me a space to mock, enjoy my own wit and inadvertently vent, guilt-free
   
3. keep my inbox from being empty
   
4. make me happy when i'm bored, blue, or both

i wish i could share more of our brilliance with the world, but sadly, there are too many lawyers out there. until the world becomes a safer place, i will enjoy our wimmin's only space and say:

thank you. =)

ok fine

i have been peer pressured into not letting this blog die a quick and painless death. also, liz wisely reminded me that every post does not have to be a tome. with that in mind, and no promises about how often i will post, i bring you this:

i cannot generate any interest in working today. normally i love mucking about in the code, and the window behind me is full of it, ready for me to code sweet love to it, but i'm just bored as shit. i'd much rather look at maternity clothes liz is considering or try to buy songs on itunes but keep getting an error. excellent.

cutesy, girly shirts

are something i sometimes enjoy on other people, but have absolutely no interest in wearing myself. and the same thing holds true for blogging. there are so many blogs i love reading and (sporadically) commenting on. but clearly i have neither the time nor inclination to keep my own blog updated. which i'm sure is obvious to my 3 readers, since my posts have dwindled to nothing.

so, sorry, but consider this official notice. if you are interested in keeping up with me and don't have my email address, go here (to avoid spammers) and drop me a line.

and the rest of you who blog, keep it up! i have an self-entertainment quota to meet. :-)

i love popgadget

because i always find about such interesting things there. like:

- how to geekify your child from an early age

- making the perfect hot dog at home

and so much more! yes, i love popgadget.

and now that my grep is complete, i return you to our regularly scheduled hiatus. although i guess not before randomly saying: things seem to have calmed down with my family. my mom is still with us, and naturally there has been lots of mini-drama between today and the last time i posted. perhaps some day, when i'm less busy, i will regale you with some highlights. in the meantime, think good thoughts for me turning into a fiction writer one day. i certainly have plenty of fodder.

tangled

that's the song on right now, but it's a good description for the last few days because things have been all wacky getting ready for:

my mom to come live with us.

because she's separating from my dad.

and she's going to be here in about 30 minutes.

there's so much more i could say, and i'm sure eventually i will, but at the moment my brain feels a little too fried. i guess i'm just taking a moment to document that fact (or at least i would have completed the 'moment' last night, when the 30 minute thing was true, but blogger was toast).

ok now i'm going back to *trying* to work until i have to leave in a bit. bleh.

p.s. my mom got here fine. i have dramatic re-enactments dancing in my head but otherwise things seem relatively quiet. of course, my mom isn't up yet and who knows what exciting developments there may have been since i went to sleep!

relativity

so as i probably could have predicted, had i not gotten a little too worked up, things are not as dire for my parents as previously thought. this is, of course, the relative, hybridized truth that i've decided on after hearing conflicting stories from my parents and my sister. i really should know better, but i guess that's why i called the last one 'inescapable'. family sucks you back in like no one else.

whether my parents move or don't, where they move, when... well, i just asked my mom to keep me up to date. other than that i think i'm going to stay out of it. well, other than sending them some $. which again i never thought i'd do, but i can't stand the thought of my mom not getting medicine just because insurance won't cover it. especially if it's just $30 freaking dollars/month. an amount that is relatively nothing to me, but everything to my mom.

in other family news, min hasn't been doing so well. she's started having mini-attacks again (almost went to the hospital last week, and she's having a smaller but long-lasting one today) and is back on disability. which hopefully is a temporary thing while they try to adjust some meds, calm things down. keep her in your thoughts.

the inescapable

pearl has a hard time sleeping past 8am and today was no exception. she's fidgeting in her kennel, so fine, i get up and take her out. of course, she has no interest in going to the bathroom once we're outside, but details.

we come inside so i can have my little frosted mini wheats (and she can have baby nibbles i break off for her. and no, she's not spoiled one iota.) while i watch a little bit of the x-files bonus disc that came last night. ah, sweet gillian.

min gets up about 9 and so about 930, after we watch another featurette, i take pearl for a walk up into the hills off alum rock. she's pretty skittish in major traffic areas, so i keep to the side streets, which quickly gets so rural i feel like i'm out in the country. except that the higher into the hills i go, the landscaping and detail on each house borders on opulence. welcome to california. :-)

anyway we do a couple good, leisurely miles because it was just so lovely, sunny but a nice breeze. we get back home around 1030. i shower, lounge a bit more, eat some lunch and head off to get min some algae-eating catfish for her aquarium. since it's a petstore trip and nothing else, little pearl gets to come again. i love traveling with her so much. she either wants to fall asleep on us, or on a seat.

a little while after we get home, i decide to get on the internets. and for that i am blessed with a whopper of an email from my mom, an email that later makes me cry harder and longer than i have in years. here is my attempt at the short version of why:

my parents, who have extremely bad health, have been living with my sister katie & husband jake for about a year. my dad is on permanent disability and my mom is applying for it. she hasn't worked for about 3 years so they've just been living off my dad's $700/month plus food stamps. they moved in with my sister under the grand plan that my sister would pay at least half if not more of the shared living expenses, including rent. at that time i think both katie and jake were working, plus attending trucking school.

that plan never really worked quite right, but for the sake of brevity, let's fast forward to now. katie and jake are on the road with werner trucking and want to move up to portland, OR, closer to one of werner's main offices. there was talk of my parents moving up with them, presumably with my sister's support since they couldn't afford to move by themselves. but for reasons that i still don't get, despite a 2,965 word email, that doesn't appear to be an option anymore.

a new option offered to them is an apartment in salem, OR, on the grounds of a house that my uncle richard owns and lives in along with my mom's parents. and let's just say that this apartment, and the situation in richard's house, sounds so completely and utterly undoable (for physical and psychlogical reasons) for my parents that it breaks my heart that they're even considering it.

why do they need to get out of arizona? they don't. they do need to get out of the apartment that they're in (hello scorpions!), but since they have no money, shit credit, can't even get onto the 4-year waiting list for section 8 housing, and it sounds like my sister may be moving no matter what (leaving them with nowhere), my parents are running out of options.

let me add: my mom did not 'ask me for help'. they don't do that anymore because they used to do it ALL the time and my dad spent that money on stamps instead of rent or food. yeah. both my parents have been in therapy for a few years (government $ doing some good work) and as far as i can tell, shit like that isn't going down anymore.

so my mom didn't ask for help, but she did tell me all about their drama and conclude with comments about how she knows they're paying for their earlier mistakes, and all of this has left her so depressed she cries several times a day, and her antidepressants aren't working any more according to her pain specialist, and she doesn’t know what to do but she's trying to work on it and she begs my forgiveness for any stress this whole thing might cause me.

if this is not a cry for help, i don't know what is. how do i respond and still be a good daughter? as frustrating and annoying as they can be, my parents can also be an incredible amount of fun. i love them and don't want them to have to struggle so damn hard for their existence.

sorting through all this... that's why i spent most of yesterday afternoon crying. min and i are considering everything from committing to sending them some $ each month all the way to having them move in with us. and i have to tell you, i NEVER thought that day would come, for so many reasons that i won't get into because this post is long enough already.

i'm trying to get a hold of my sister, objectively hear what's going on from her POV and then decide what i want to do. i can't solve all their problems and i shouldn't. but i have to do something. i just wish i knew what the fuck that was.

the truth is out there

and now for my 'it only took me 3 days to do this between firestorms' post...

i don't mind experimentation -in fact i love it- but going blonde is a mistake for some people. and someone who should never go blonde is gillian anderson. at least not full on blonde like she is now.

i found that pic yesterday, after looking up the little hottie. after finally seeing the last x-files ever (i know it finished several years ago, but i stopped watching the last few years) i thought, man! no more x-ies! ok fine, what's new with that damn sexy redhead now? and then when i found her, obviously i went into Shock.

so yes, i found out she has a couple of movies coming soon, and i for that i am very glad. but i also hope that means that soon i will start seeing red. or at least, not blonde. i'm all set in the blonde department, thanks.

i rule

every quarter at work, they give an award to whoever fixed the most bugs. last quarter that was me. i rule.

i got this the day before my birthday, which was nice. but also for my birthday i got a really horrendous bug/throat infection/god knows what, of which i haven't fully recovered from (i'm 98% there tho).

anyway, to what do i attribute my bug fu success? my quality work ethic? workaholic nature? well naturally those played a part, but no. the real reason is that i was the lead on an insanely f'd up project at work that lasted for months. which led to insane numbers of bugs being assigned to me.

so, don't worry, liz. you'll win next quarter. again.

ps. sorry to everyone for the last two posts. those really were too long. i don't think i'll get the urge to do something like that again, but if i get tempted, i'll try to stick my finger in a socket first or something.

road trippin, part two

and now, i bring you the continuing saga of the Great Road Trip of 2005:

saturday, 7/23
what'd we do for breakfast? I forget. but checked out of the sheraton, went over to see wilma real quick to let our ice paks hibernate in her freezer til monday morning (when we'd have to return to tucson to get lori). then we made the trek up to phoenix to visit my side of the family. arrived around 12 and called, as planned, when we got close to see if they wanted to go to outhouse steakback for lunch.

but naturally it couldn't be as simple as that. no, my mom started crying because they didn't have enough money to go to lunch and she was embarrassed. plus they were having trouble in general because my sister/brother-in-law's (katie/jake) check hadn't arrived yet (my parents share an apartment with them) and were having to cover all the expenses. of course she couldn't say that at first, she just hinted that there was trouble with katie and that she thought katie didn't want to come to lunch.

sidebar: my sister and my parents can create drama, confusion and conflicting versions of the truth like no one I know.

so when she said that there was 'trouble' and 'did I want katie to come', I said 'if katie coming means that people are going to have trouble behaving, then no, I don't want her to come. if you don't think there will be a problem, then yes, please tell her to come.' I know that may sound harsh but it's just a defense mechanism against further family angst.

anyway, whenever my family comes to visit or we visit them, we always try to treat them to whatever we're doing - movies, meals, whatever. because even though we're faaaaar from rich, we gots a lot more dough than they do because they (the four of them) are perpetually broke. the reasoning for that is another therapy session, but suffice to say that we expect to treat them. budget for it. so when my mom started crying, I said that I understood why she was upset, but not to worry about it because we'd cover it. she replied as expected with a statement about not expecting that, and of course I responded with, 'I know, it's ok.'

and so off we went to lunch, altho naturally outhouse steakback was closed so we ended up at a mimi's café a few blocks away. after that call with my mom, min and I were both pretty anxious about how lunch would go, but it was really good. min sat near my parents and i forget what insights she found. but for me, talking to katie and jake, i found out more about their trucking misadventures. apparently they did not quit their job, but are actively looking for other trucking jobs because they've realized that the company they're with is not as above board as they thought. and i respect them for trying to be responsible (it's a lot more than i'm used to hearing).

after lunch we went back to their apartment. they moved into it in january i believe, so it was the first time i'd seen it and…my god. it was packed to the gills with all their stuff. not to the ceiling, although in some places it was very close. but it spread out so that a narrow path between boxes, furniture and just STUFF was the only way to navigate from room to room. the place was tinyish, but each couple had their own bedroom/bathroom. as a bonus, in the last 2 weeks, katie & jake's bathroom has sported the occasional scorpion. that's right! zing! apparently this is grounds for breaking your lease in arizona, if the management doesn't take care of it (which he's refusing to) so hopefully they'll all be moving somewhere bigger and better soon. needless to say, this revelation made me paranoid during every visit to their place.

we chilled for a few hours, then after much debate, went to go see the fantastic 4 which was really a lot better than i expected. really good special fx and the story - not so bad. not gonna win any oscars but it was a good way to stay cool and you know, get out of Scorpion Apartment. after the movie…hmm. we probably had dinner somewhere, but i'm blanking on it.

afterwards min and i went back to our hotel, the hilton phoenix airport, which is apparently very new. it was nice but had horribly long hallways and of course we were most of the way down. good thing we were only staying for one night. we watched tv for a little while and ordered a very yummy and cheap quesadilla from room service, then crashed.

sunday, 7/24
woke up early (730) so min could go visit her niece wendy. another very long story that i don't want to tell today, but wendy is a sweet girl who because of a minor lapse in judgment involving alcohol, is in prison for vehicular manslaughter. consider this a very brief PSA to not drink and drive.

anyway, i was supposed to call my family and meet them for breakfast, but i remembered that they like to sleep in. so i lounged around a few hours then went over to their place. after another debating session that went on entirely too long, we went to mcgrath's.

mcgrath's will always hold a special place in my heart because i went to the original and original spinoff back in salem, oregon LIKE A BANDIT. the spinoff was in lancaster mall and being a teenager, naturally i was at the mall a lot. but i was also downtown a lot, where the original is, and that one was the best. breakfast, lunch, dinner, they had it all. super yummy and not too pricey. i've been to 3 or 4 mcgrath's since (other places in oregon, arizona), but unfortunately, none of those were as good as the original. they were fine -- better than denny's or anything like that! -- but not the same. oh well.

we had a very extended lunch, chatting away. dad asked me a lot about The Place Where I Work and the Big Project i've had this year because he still trolls for stamps (the philatelic kind) at The Place Where I Work's parent company website. while this may sound innocuous, it really bothered me because my dad has an addiction to stamps. the buying, selling, collection and obsession with stamps, especially from the far east. this addiction, in addition to some other lovely personality traits, led my parents down a path of financial devastation from which they will probably never fully recover. they lost their house, cars (still have one barely functioning car) and many other possessions. my dad almost lost my mom (she left him a few times but always returned) and i lost a lot of respect for both of them (mostly my dad).

that said, i'm also really good at denial. so i answered his questions and tried not to think about WHY he was asking. supposedly he's not buying stamps anymore, he just looks at them and catalogues information about them in his billions of stamp catalogs. which seems to me like an alcoholic spending all his time with his face pressed against the glass of a liquor store, but whatever. i try to stay out of it.

min came to mcgrath's after she was done visiting wendy. min was also lucky enough to hear the tail end of the aforementioned work-stamp conversation and gave me some annoyed looks. yeah, i know.

afterwards we went back to the apartment and hung out a little but then thought hey! let's go see another movie. isn't that the best way to kill time with people you feel emotionally unsettled with who also have an extremely cramped apartment? i know we all thought so. so we agreed to go see batman begins which, except for a couple of too-long philosophy-of-war monologues and blurry fight scenes, was actually pretty good. but before the movie, both my dad, and katie & jake wanted to take naps. and they did! but min, my mom and i went to the outlet mall right next to the theater and snagged min a bunch of really cheap but nice clothing.

the movie didn't get out til about 10pm so after that we just said our goodbyes and jetted down to tucson. on the way down, i got to find out some juicy tidbits about min's family, as related to the funeral proceedings. my favorites include the fact that pam (matt's mom), a longtime drug user who just finished her last rehab stint a month or so ago: a) was caught doing drugs at the viewing, b) those drugs were supplied by a longtime friend of pam and matt's - a woman whose son matt was friends with, but that son died at age 13 (so probably about 4-5 years ago if they were the same age) after his similar death-by-cop experience, c) pam didn't need any $ for the funeral at ALL. her we're-separated-but-still-living-together husband, rick, paid for it, and despite this, d) pam apparently gave her/min's brother louis shit for not sending her more $ than he did.

needless to say, things like this made the trip to tucson just fly by! we checked into the lovely 4 pts sheraton around midnight and promptly zonked out.

monday 7/25
woke up around 9am. wanna have breakfast at the good egg again? i sure do! and let's meet up with all the family except lori so we can avoid extra drama. i hear she doesn't have to check out of the hotel until 1pm, sweet! but wait, who's this calling on the phone, as we sit here, waiting for our large party to be seated at a table? and proclaiming how she has to be picked up right now (1015) because her hotel's checkout time is 1030?

you guessed it - my favorite sister-in-law. but min just called her back and said we couldn't pick her up until 1pm and pretty much left it at that. woo! go honey!

we had a very nice breakfast with everyone else (about 10 of us total), chatted quite a bit about not much in particular. but so much that it was almost 12 by the time we finished, and 1230 by the time we got over near lori so we just went ahead and picked her up early. good thing because it took about a half hour to pack her stuff back into the car between her trips back and forth to the room, plus complaining to the manager again about some random problem with her room, bill, or whatever.

by this time lori was pretty grumpy but we cheered her up by going to the aforementioned fabric store. sas fabrics i believe. their deal is a lot of the fabric is by the pound instead of by the yard. plus, they had craploads of fabrics. wow. so we helped deplete their supply, quite admirably i might add, and then started down the Road Entirely Too Traveled.

but before we got on i-10, we stopped for ice cream at the coldstone creamery. yum yum!

ok anyway, on the way to california, min and i swapped stories about MY side of the family. min had heard from my parents that they wanted katie & jake to get their own place and to stay with the trucking company. that k&j were driving them batty in some way (probably in part because they hadn't really lived up to the original agreement to support my parents, who are living just on my dad's disability checks).

however, k&j told me that mom & dad had prayed and god told them that they should quit the trucking company and get local trucking jobs. katie also told me that yeah they were looking for another place, but for all of them because of the scorpions (bleh). but katie also said that they didn't want to do that right away so that they could keep bringing in trucking $. you know, being financially responsible (about time).

i'm sure there's more juicy gossip i don't remember right now, because it's taken me too goddamn long to finish this post (work insanity). but really the whole visit just served to remind me Why I Stay Out Of My Family's Business. oh and Why Feigning Obliviousness Is A Great Way To Deal With Conflicting 'Truths'.

we had a pretty quiet ride back to california, really. except, that is, for every time we had to burst out with "bump!" or "curve!" for lori so she wouldn't wheeze and whimper after every time we encountered such items and she hadn't noticed they were impending.

stopped at many a truck stop. truck stops are one of my favorite parts of road trips. i don't know why. i don't know if it's the odd conglomeration of options (showers, arcades, icees, down-home country cooking, dvd rentals and miniaturized appliances) or the fact that being there just means that i'm on the road. and i love that road, man!

at one truck stop we picked up an audio book that looked interesting. don't ask me to tell you the name of it - WE ALREADY SOLD IT. but it was a mildly interesting thriller. the worst part was the narrator, who had this god-awful southern drawl. it was so bad we almost called it quits after a few seconds! but it softened a bit, and thankfully there were some other characters without the twang attack.

the best/worst part was the straight sex scene around disc 3. it started up and i said, 'if this goes on too long, i want to fast forward.' min said, 'well…' yea, we lasted about 30 seconds. so we fastforward a few chapters. still heaving. skipped some more. she's feeling his… FASTFORWARD!! then, i swear to god, the lead female goes to get chicken breasts from the freezer. i said, 'what kind of crazy straight sex ritual is this?' so we rewinded just a bit… no, she was just makin her man supper afterwards. twerp.

we rolled into badass rialto, calif around 11pm and discovered the inexplicable joy of yet another best western. though dark outside, its 3 stories+pool looked nice and new. min goes to check us in and upon return we find out that the room lori so carefully coordinated ahead of time (scent free, first floor, handicapped, etc) is not available. we have a 2nd floor room.

i'm fine with that. min's fine with that. but of course lori is not, so she goes back to intimidate the hotel employee, who could clearly care less, into giving her what she wants. this is a great way to end a full day of interstate driving, in case you wondered. when you're tired, can't wait to go to bed, you should try just hanging out by the car for 20 minutes or so and watching all the other hotel guests getting impatient at the increasingly long checkin line. however, this was an opportune time to point out to min that the short flight of stairs lori would have to climb is nothing compared to the 2 miles she has to walk each time she works at the farm in fremont (which she does 1-3 times a week). but i digress.

finally lori returns. turns out all the rooms on the first floor are smoking. trippy! our room is still on the 2nd floor and way down the hallway, but turns out there's an elevator! also no more handicapped rooms left so too bad for you and your faux needs. min gets to the room first and turns on the air. i arrive second and min says, 'don't show lori the AC' and points up to the vent near the ceiling. i've seen worse, but it was pretty dirty and surprisingly old looking. there wasn't really a lot we could do about it, but thankfully lori didn't notice (or didn't say anything, anyway).

no, lori got herself bringing all her shiite up, then busy going to the jacuzzi to ease her back. sure, fine, go. inbetween lori's trips, min pointed out how stained the carpet was. at first i didn't see it but then…i didn't want to take my shoes off. so except for the vent, stained carpet, cracks in the bathroom linoleum, the lamest ppv ever, and mirror placed behind the tv so you couldn't use it - that best western was great!

tuesday 7/26
i can't wait to get home. we got up around 9, packed up, and started looking for a place to have breakfast. stupid mcdonalds stopped their bagel sandwiches! so we tried burger king, i got some egg thing i thought i could tolerate on my upset stomach. sigh. finally we get on the road.

again, today was really pretty quiet overall i think. we remained mildly entertained by our audio book. no more weird chicken sex, thank god.

mid-afternoon we rolled into gilroy and stopped at mimi's café again, but just to pick up the receipt book that lori had accidentally left there on our first visit. oh and get muffins to go, heh. an hour or so later, we dropped lori off at her fabulous semi-permanent residence: the quality inn, sunnyvale. then we scurried home to unpack and see our critters. poor pearl, she's always a bit frazzled when we're gone for more than a day or two. but we just try to spoil her with extra love. she seems to take that ok.

that's it. now back to my usual not-so-much-drama-and-i'm-okay-with-that life. i do have things to report on since that trip (that i haven't posted, in attempt to wrap this novella up), like this, but i think we all deserve a break for now. :-p

road trippin, part one

since my computer died, I have a bit of somewhat guilt-free time at work while I have to redo some clearcase/related processes. wheee. thus I bring you my arizona road trip report, part one. apparently I've had a lot to say about this trip, so I'm breaking my recap into a couple posts.

wednesday 7/20
got the rental car, went to whole foods and got some snacks. back home to pack up snacks and the rental car. then went to get lori and all her stuff at the hotel…got all her stuff in, so was a relatively drama-free experience. everything seems rosy at the beginning. we leave sunnyvale about 230pm, heading for ontario. should get us in about 7-8pm but we have to stop every 2-3 hours for food, gas or other biological imperatives. stopped for an early dinner at mimi's café in gilroy (very yummy scallop dish). later stopped for gas in extremely hot and smelly coalinga (bovine hell). so it is that we arrive at the completely unimpressive best western ontario about 11pm.

min had some minor trouble with them confirming our AAA rate, but worked it out. also lori had called ahead to make sure the room was scent-free and conformed to whatever other medical specifications she had. unfortunately the hotel van was parked in the only handicapped parking next to our room. after some wrangling, she got them to move and I was lucky enough to get to move the car closer. incidentally lori had already moved all of her stuff over already on foot. but I digress.

the room itself was pretty damn basic, but clean enough. except for the bathroom which had a minor ant problem (hi baby! bet you're glad I didn't tell you that til now, eh?). I got rid of what I could that night and didn't see any more in the morning thank goodness.

thursday 7/21
had a mediocre continental breakfast at the hotel around 9am. went to get gas before we left town and took one curve, and then a few moments later, a bump a little too quickly. lori yelps, practically screams both times. apparently she has some kind of problem with her back. which we knew about. and we'd been trying to drive carefully but … well, sometimes the unexpected happens, especially when you're driving somewhere new. and you can't remember to announce (let alone notice) every bloody curve or bump in the road that could potentially be a problem. so min asks lori to calm down a little and not shout every time we encounter something like this. lori says she can't help reacting. blah blah blah. I SO don't want to be in the car.

after a few minutes, they work it out, we get gas and get on i-10 east in relative silence (music, little talking) for the next few hours. all I can say is it's a good thing I really like being a passenger on road trips. I just zone out, appreciating the scenery whether it's the peculiarities of a small town we're driving through, watching clouds move across distant mountains, or noticing how this one type of arizona cactus and its budding blossoms look like a little tiki god. there are hundreds of them and they're all providing me the teeniest bit of comic relief. also providing comic relief is lori, talking with the oxygen tank people in tucson, trying to arrange replacements and a wheelchair since we didn't have room for all that.

we roll into tucson around 7pm and check into our hotel (4 pts sheraton) briefly before going over to lori's hotel to drop her off. then min and i go back to our hotel and chill out the rest of the night. tried to get together with her sister wilma but she was at matt's viewing til almost 10pm so just agreed to see her the next morning at the funeral. anyway, our sheraton room was VERY comfy. a big luxurious bed, lots of room, very clean. and video games, so I get my yearly fix by kicking yoshi's ass until my eyes got too blurry to continue.

friday, 7/22
went to a place called the good egg for breakfast. min can't eat a lot so we split some not-too-shabby eggs benedict. funeral was at 10am. drove up to a ton of gangster-looking types hanging outside the funeral home chapel. apparently this group comprised several of matt and jr's friends, many of whom were wearing special tshirts they'd made, with matt's pic on it, saying 'you will not be forgotten' on the front and little hands praying on the back.

we went inside but didn't see anyone we knew right away. after a minute we found vanessa (min's neice), who let us know where the rest of the family was. apparently a friend of jr's had gotten pulled over en route so jr (and friend) were waiting to proceed until said friend finished with the cop. so while we waited, we stepped into the sanctuary. matt was about 50 feet in front of us and it was (in my opinion) unfortunately an open casket. I say unfortunate not because it made things 'too real', although sure, there was an element of that. no, it's because IT DIDN'T LOOK LIKE HIM. it had nothing to do with how he died -- I just didn't realize how much embalming could change how someone looked. min wanted to sit further away because this was weirding her out (rightly so) but other family members started balking so we moved up to the fourth row, maybe 15 feet away.

within a few minutes the service started, and that itself was very weird. mostly because it almost completely glossed over his extremely checkered past and instead focussed on his recent churchgoing ways (in between prison stints, that is). all I can think is that SuperMinister (who freely admitted to not really remembering matt - a nice touch, I thought) thought that this funeral was the perfect opportunity to bring all the gang attendees to the lord. during the 20 minute service/sermon, SuperMinister informed us at least 5 times that we should take this opportunity to reflect on the direction of our lives and accept jesus as our lord and savior, because if matt were able to speak, that's what he'd tell us. the hyper-christianity led lori and her husband aaron (who are jewish) to leave about halfway through. a bit drama queenish but I expect nothing less, really! SuperMinister also closed the service with a direct altar call via prayer. very classy.

also during the service they asked the attendees to share stories about matt. several relatives spoke, and it became clear that he really did earn the nickname smiley legitimately. apparently he had a habit of smiling a lot - with certain people - especially ones that he visited/called out of the blue, just to say hi and how it was going. while very sweet, it also made me sad. he must have had a real soft, good side to him that just got twisted and shadowed by the thrill-seeking side that perpetually landed him into trouble.

afterwards, we all went outside and drove over to the part of the facility where the actual cemetary was, to have another mini-service while they laid him in the ground. amazingly it wasn't too horribly hot - around 100 but a very nice breeze. it took a while for everyone to get over there, but in the meantime I got to see min's dad's plot. her mom's name is already on the other half of it, which is a little creepy but I was informed that it's relatively traditional for spouses to do that. anyway, once everyone arrived, matt's brother jr read a few words, then everyone said goodbye by placing flowers or dirt on the casket. also they released balloons into the air.

from there we went to wilma's house (min's sister) to have lunch and reminisce. it was pretty damn mellow and many people hung out for several hours. in the late afternoon min started feeling really sick and had to lay down for a while, but eventually felt well enough for us to go back to our room. if I remember right, she got a nap for a little bit and we also watched the interpreter (pretty good!) on pay per view. later we went out to dinner (mediocre mexican) with lori, aaron, wilma and min's mother. on the way there, saw the bargain sas fabric store that we would later visit on monday. :-D

part two coming soon...