My Trial by Water & Flame (Part 1)
Dear Journal,
So, I've been gone for the better part of these past few days. I had to take the day off of work and everything. Me and my mom started driving by 9:00 am Friday morning and resolved to get to the St. Thomas campus in minimal time. The GPS said that we would get there by 3:00. Unfortunately, it didn't take into account my mom having a water pill first thing in the morning and having to stop at the bathroom every hour. But, we had a good time on our drive. We sang along with most of the music that was on our CDs, we talked the entire way, and I actually got to sit in the front seat of the car (which is a rarity since I normally have to sit in the back. I think my mom was gladder for the company than the actual packing process, as she commented several times about the dark, rainy day and how she starts to fall asleep during those conditions. I found early on in the trip that there was a control so that there was full heating/cooling control on the driver and passenger sides independently. I quickly set mine to cold.
I actually only lost my calm once. I can take something going wrong, but not when everything happens at the same time. Mom pulled off at a weigh station for trucks and told me that I needed to get out and take a picture of the big sign that says "Welcome to Minnesota", which sits parallel to I-90. I, begrudgingly, got out of the car with my camera. As I got to the edge, I found that in order to get a clear picture of the sign, I would need to walk through the grass that rose to my knees. On this damp day, I didn't want to, but mom "needed" the picture. I walked through this grass to and back from the sign except when I got back, my pants were soaked all the way through from knee down and covered in grass seed, which my mom has allergies against. As I get into the car, my phone rings and my brother is on the other line. While talking with him, my mom is trying to figure out how to get back onto the highway, the GPS froze up for whatever reason, and my sister was also calling to see where we were. So to recap, mom panicking, brother talking, sister calling, GPS froze, and me with soaked and seeded pants. As I said, I only lost my calm once.
After we got to the campus, mom went straight up to Melinda's room while I went into the dumpster to see what goodies people were throwing out. There was a lot of legit garbage, but a couple of things caught my curiosity, so I collected them. Of these items, there was a coffee table with wobbly legs (because they weren’t fully screwed on), 3 rugs (because they appeared to be in good shape), and a Sharp TV (which, although I didn’t know how well it worked, I tested power and color in my sister’s room). We were able to pack all of that into the minivan we rented. The entire time that we were helping with the packing up, my sister was enjoying not doing much but telling us what still needed to be done. My mom also gave her a hard time because my sister has been going to this campus for 2 years now and says she doesn’t have any friends, and that, in the short time that I was on the campus, I had already talked and had conversations with 2 guys and 5 girls, either from the dumpster dive or from sitting in the elevator, the reason being that I helped them get stuff out of the dumpster or I helped them with the cart on and off the elevator (there was a little lip you had to get over). My sister didn’t like that comparison at all.
We headed off to Mall of America with what little time we had left in the day. My mom seemed keen on getting us gifts, which I told her was unnecessary, but she insisted. My sister went to Aeropostle for clothes, which my mom paid for. I saw that there was a sale at GameStop and resolved just to look. They had the buy 2 used, get one free deal going on, but I told mom I still can’t buy any games because of the deal that I have with my girlfriend. She asked if others could buy games for me, to which I said, “Yes. The point of the deal was so that I would finish more of my games, but, more importantly, that I would save money.” She told me that if there were three cheap games on the wishlist I keep in stock, she’d get them for me as repayment for being a big help and taking a day off of work. There were, surprisingly, exactly three games on my wishlist from IGN that were in stock and all priced at 18.99. I showed mom and she agreed to get them for me. So I walked out of the store with “Ghostbusters”, “Red Faction”, and “Mini Ninjas”. Oh, and I also bought the first part of “Dragonball Z: Kai” on DVD. I just thought that that was worth it. We finished off our mall trip with a stop at the food court. Having never had Kung Pow before, I figured I’d have some. My mouth felt like it was on fire and my mom said that my entire face turned red like the cartoons before the steam shot out their ears. After three glasses of water, I was finally cooling down. I’m a guy who likes the cold…not the hot.
The day was going relatively fine except for the hiccup where my sister was insulting us while we were helping her pack and how she thought that everything that me and mom took from the dumpster should have stayed there. We got to our hotel and went to the pool. First, we went into the hot tub. After about 10 minutes of that, I left the hot tub. I had, once again, turned completely red, like a thermometer showing an extreme heat wave. I decided to cool off and walked (like I was walking to the gallows) straight into the cold pool. My mom said that as I was entering, she could see the red leaving my face, again, not much unlike a thermometer and returning to its normal pale. Again, everything was going fine until we started playing games in the pool. In this one game, you have to do things underwater to try and get a specific hair-do. Well, my sister had me do a somersault underwater. When I was upside down on the very good flip, I felt the air bubbles in my ear leave me. “Crap” was the only thing I could think off. We carried on until midnight and then went back to the room. “Yup”, I thought, “I can’t hear a thing”. See, I get a really bad buildup of wax in my ears and, no matter how often I clean them, I can’t seem to make that stop. So the rest of my night had me with a left ear hearing at 75% due to the swimmer’s ear I had just gotten and my right ear hearing at about 10%. After digging in and cleaning my ear for a solid 15 minutes, I still had no change and now my ear canal was incredibly sore. “Yeah…I’m glad that this is the end of the night. I’ll just sleep on my right side and let the water drain.” That wasn’t to be either. Instead, about 10 seconds after hitting the pillow, I guess I fell asleep. I didn’t know that I did because I slipped in and out of it so fast, it felt like it was in the space of a blink. Apparently, my sister took exception to me snoring and both her and my mom were making fun of me for falling asleep so quickly and snoring like I did. So, instead of fighting about it and having them laugh at me more, I rolled over onto my left so that I was facing away from them and fell straight to sleep.
(End of Part 1)
So, I've been gone for the better part of these past few days. I had to take the day off of work and everything. Me and my mom started driving by 9:00 am Friday morning and resolved to get to the St. Thomas campus in minimal time. The GPS said that we would get there by 3:00. Unfortunately, it didn't take into account my mom having a water pill first thing in the morning and having to stop at the bathroom every hour. But, we had a good time on our drive. We sang along with most of the music that was on our CDs, we talked the entire way, and I actually got to sit in the front seat of the car (which is a rarity since I normally have to sit in the back. I think my mom was gladder for the company than the actual packing process, as she commented several times about the dark, rainy day and how she starts to fall asleep during those conditions. I found early on in the trip that there was a control so that there was full heating/cooling control on the driver and passenger sides independently. I quickly set mine to cold.
I actually only lost my calm once. I can take something going wrong, but not when everything happens at the same time. Mom pulled off at a weigh station for trucks and told me that I needed to get out and take a picture of the big sign that says "Welcome to Minnesota", which sits parallel to I-90. I, begrudgingly, got out of the car with my camera. As I got to the edge, I found that in order to get a clear picture of the sign, I would need to walk through the grass that rose to my knees. On this damp day, I didn't want to, but mom "needed" the picture. I walked through this grass to and back from the sign except when I got back, my pants were soaked all the way through from knee down and covered in grass seed, which my mom has allergies against. As I get into the car, my phone rings and my brother is on the other line. While talking with him, my mom is trying to figure out how to get back onto the highway, the GPS froze up for whatever reason, and my sister was also calling to see where we were. So to recap, mom panicking, brother talking, sister calling, GPS froze, and me with soaked and seeded pants. As I said, I only lost my calm once.
After we got to the campus, mom went straight up to Melinda's room while I went into the dumpster to see what goodies people were throwing out. There was a lot of legit garbage, but a couple of things caught my curiosity, so I collected them. Of these items, there was a coffee table with wobbly legs (because they weren’t fully screwed on), 3 rugs (because they appeared to be in good shape), and a Sharp TV (which, although I didn’t know how well it worked, I tested power and color in my sister’s room). We were able to pack all of that into the minivan we rented. The entire time that we were helping with the packing up, my sister was enjoying not doing much but telling us what still needed to be done. My mom also gave her a hard time because my sister has been going to this campus for 2 years now and says she doesn’t have any friends, and that, in the short time that I was on the campus, I had already talked and had conversations with 2 guys and 5 girls, either from the dumpster dive or from sitting in the elevator, the reason being that I helped them get stuff out of the dumpster or I helped them with the cart on and off the elevator (there was a little lip you had to get over). My sister didn’t like that comparison at all.
We headed off to Mall of America with what little time we had left in the day. My mom seemed keen on getting us gifts, which I told her was unnecessary, but she insisted. My sister went to Aeropostle for clothes, which my mom paid for. I saw that there was a sale at GameStop and resolved just to look. They had the buy 2 used, get one free deal going on, but I told mom I still can’t buy any games because of the deal that I have with my girlfriend. She asked if others could buy games for me, to which I said, “Yes. The point of the deal was so that I would finish more of my games, but, more importantly, that I would save money.” She told me that if there were three cheap games on the wishlist I keep in stock, she’d get them for me as repayment for being a big help and taking a day off of work. There were, surprisingly, exactly three games on my wishlist from IGN that were in stock and all priced at 18.99. I showed mom and she agreed to get them for me. So I walked out of the store with “Ghostbusters”, “Red Faction”, and “Mini Ninjas”. Oh, and I also bought the first part of “Dragonball Z: Kai” on DVD. I just thought that that was worth it. We finished off our mall trip with a stop at the food court. Having never had Kung Pow before, I figured I’d have some. My mouth felt like it was on fire and my mom said that my entire face turned red like the cartoons before the steam shot out their ears. After three glasses of water, I was finally cooling down. I’m a guy who likes the cold…not the hot.
The day was going relatively fine except for the hiccup where my sister was insulting us while we were helping her pack and how she thought that everything that me and mom took from the dumpster should have stayed there. We got to our hotel and went to the pool. First, we went into the hot tub. After about 10 minutes of that, I left the hot tub. I had, once again, turned completely red, like a thermometer showing an extreme heat wave. I decided to cool off and walked (like I was walking to the gallows) straight into the cold pool. My mom said that as I was entering, she could see the red leaving my face, again, not much unlike a thermometer and returning to its normal pale. Again, everything was going fine until we started playing games in the pool. In this one game, you have to do things underwater to try and get a specific hair-do. Well, my sister had me do a somersault underwater. When I was upside down on the very good flip, I felt the air bubbles in my ear leave me. “Crap” was the only thing I could think off. We carried on until midnight and then went back to the room. “Yup”, I thought, “I can’t hear a thing”. See, I get a really bad buildup of wax in my ears and, no matter how often I clean them, I can’t seem to make that stop. So the rest of my night had me with a left ear hearing at 75% due to the swimmer’s ear I had just gotten and my right ear hearing at about 10%. After digging in and cleaning my ear for a solid 15 minutes, I still had no change and now my ear canal was incredibly sore. “Yeah…I’m glad that this is the end of the night. I’ll just sleep on my right side and let the water drain.” That wasn’t to be either. Instead, about 10 seconds after hitting the pillow, I guess I fell asleep. I didn’t know that I did because I slipped in and out of it so fast, it felt like it was in the space of a blink. Apparently, my sister took exception to me snoring and both her and my mom were making fun of me for falling asleep so quickly and snoring like I did. So, instead of fighting about it and having them laugh at me more, I rolled over onto my left so that I was facing away from them and fell straight to sleep.
(End of Part 1)