In the land of one armed bandits, the man with two quarters is king.
A while ago, a few months at least, I decided that I was going to fly down to Arizona in October, rent a car, drive to Glendale Community College, walk into the High Tech Center, find Kimi typing away at a computer, and surprise her with a back hug. I would do this on a Friday so I'd be able to stay for the weekend.
My plans changed when Kimi told me she'd start having class Friday mornings starting October 18th. If I started working for Saffire on the 1st I may not be able to take a day off to fly to Arizona after such a short employment time. Then one night I was sitting at my computer, thinking about how I didn't know when the next time would be that I could drive down to AZ for a week like I did so many times in the spring. Then the thought occurred to me, "Hey, I'm unemployed. I have all the time in the world right now." So I decided to drive down to AZ and make my surprise visit a little sooner than planned.
Several times during the next week I almost slipped and told Kimi I was coming down. "Yeah, I was talking to my sister and asking her if she'd look after my rat while I'm down there--uh, for Thanksgiving." My plan was simple, deal with Melissa's wedding on Tuesday, work for Kris on Wednesday, clean and pack on Thursday, go to bed early and get five hours of sleep before driving through the night.
The driving through the night part seemed sketchy. I debated calling Sammie and asking her if I could drive down on Thursday and spend the night at her place before presenting myself to Kimi on Friday morning. But sometimes Kimi hangs with Sammie until late hours on weekdays. Plus, letting people in on the secret only increases the odds of the cat getting out of the bag. No, I couldn't risk it.
My Xterra is coming up on 60,000 miles, at which time it needs to be serviced. I was going to take it in in October, when hopefully I had a job and money, but I decided that getting it serviced before driving 1700 miles wasn't a bad idea. So I took my vehicle into a Nissan dealership. While working on it, mechanics noticed a leak in the oil pan and that the front brakes were close to needing to be replaced. I knew the brakes were getting thin, and leaking oil is never a good thing, so I gave them the go to fix everything. When I picked up my car the total for parts and labor came to $932.70! Owning a car is expensive. Ugh...
I wasn't going to let that get my spirits down. I was going see my Kimi, and that was happiness. Like always, though, I'm late. I wanted to go to bed at 5:30, but my car wasn't ready until 4:30. I was getting ready to take a shower at 6:30 when Kimi called me. That ended up being a good thing because she casually mentioned that she was only going to do half of her math homework that night, and the rest in the morning. I asked, "Where will you be doing your homework?" To which she innocently replied, "In the library." That was a good thing to know. I would've been wandering around in the High Tech center only to find disappointment. I didn't get to bed until 7:30, which limited my sleeping experience to four hours, and it was restless sleep at that.
At 12:30 in the morning I loaded up the wagon. Part of my pack included a cooler containing dry ice and four bottles of the uber chocolate milk that Kimi likes. I pulled away from Van's house and was on my way.
I had been telling the people I knew in Utah that I was going down to Arizona. "I'm heading down to Arizona on Thursday." "Is Kimi excited?" "She doesn't know I'm coming." "Oh, I bet she'll be surprised." "No, she'll probably be mad at me and say something like, 'Why are you here?'"
At 10:00 I arrived on the GCC campus. I pulled my hair back and put on a hat to reduce the chance of Kimi recognizing me should she see me before I reached her back. I grabbed a bottle of chocolate milk and headed for the library.
I entered the library at the front. (I'd never been inside before, but luckily I had been on campus months earlier and Kimi pointed out which building was the library.) I casually walked to the back, scanning for someone with long red hair, or I would've had Kimi not told me Sammie was going to dye her hair black the night before. I didn't know if I'd be able to recognize her with black hair. I arrived at the back having not spotted her. I turned and walked back on the other side of the books, looking over the tables near the windows. At the last table I spotted someone with long black hair and glasses. Was that Kimi? Would anybody else be wearing funky raver pants? Nope, that was her. I walked back, came around behind her, and plopped the chocolate milk on the table. She looked at me and said, "Why are you here?" Not the squiddly joy bubbly response I would've liked, but it was the one I predicted.
After about ten minutes she concluded she was happy to see me and gave me a hug.
Next I needed to decide how to approach Sammie. See, when I plan surprises like this I put a lot of thought into them. Many of the hours I spent driving down to AZ were thinking about how to approach Kimi. "I'll hug her. No, I'll say, 'Mine,' and hug her. No, I'll sit down and say, 'You said you wanted some uber chocolate milk so I brought you some.' No, I'll give her the chocolate milk then hug her." Well, anyway, you can see how I cope in these situations.
Back to Sammie. I needed another witty way to approach Sammie. Kimi's idea was to put all my stuff inside Sammie's apartment and wait for her to come home, since Kimi has a key. I thought that might be kind of freaky. You know, walk inside and see someone's stuff strewn about your place. I decided that I would call Sammie and act like I wanted to reminisce about old times or something, then I'd nonchalantly ask if she'd be interested in playing DDR in the morning. While she was confuzzled by the question I'd knock on her door.
Well, that's what I did, and it turned Sammie into a laughing lunatic. And we did go play DDR in the morning.
Originally I was going to put myself up in a hotel and stay for the weekend, but once Sammie found out I was in the area she wouldn't stand for that. I stayed at her place until Thursday, which was very nice.
Now I'm back and I miss Kimi terribly.
My plans changed when Kimi told me she'd start having class Friday mornings starting October 18th. If I started working for Saffire on the 1st I may not be able to take a day off to fly to Arizona after such a short employment time. Then one night I was sitting at my computer, thinking about how I didn't know when the next time would be that I could drive down to AZ for a week like I did so many times in the spring. Then the thought occurred to me, "Hey, I'm unemployed. I have all the time in the world right now." So I decided to drive down to AZ and make my surprise visit a little sooner than planned.
Several times during the next week I almost slipped and told Kimi I was coming down. "Yeah, I was talking to my sister and asking her if she'd look after my rat while I'm down there--uh, for Thanksgiving." My plan was simple, deal with Melissa's wedding on Tuesday, work for Kris on Wednesday, clean and pack on Thursday, go to bed early and get five hours of sleep before driving through the night.
The driving through the night part seemed sketchy. I debated calling Sammie and asking her if I could drive down on Thursday and spend the night at her place before presenting myself to Kimi on Friday morning. But sometimes Kimi hangs with Sammie until late hours on weekdays. Plus, letting people in on the secret only increases the odds of the cat getting out of the bag. No, I couldn't risk it.
My Xterra is coming up on 60,000 miles, at which time it needs to be serviced. I was going to take it in in October, when hopefully I had a job and money, but I decided that getting it serviced before driving 1700 miles wasn't a bad idea. So I took my vehicle into a Nissan dealership. While working on it, mechanics noticed a leak in the oil pan and that the front brakes were close to needing to be replaced. I knew the brakes were getting thin, and leaking oil is never a good thing, so I gave them the go to fix everything. When I picked up my car the total for parts and labor came to $932.70! Owning a car is expensive. Ugh...
I wasn't going to let that get my spirits down. I was going see my Kimi, and that was happiness. Like always, though, I'm late. I wanted to go to bed at 5:30, but my car wasn't ready until 4:30. I was getting ready to take a shower at 6:30 when Kimi called me. That ended up being a good thing because she casually mentioned that she was only going to do half of her math homework that night, and the rest in the morning. I asked, "Where will you be doing your homework?" To which she innocently replied, "In the library." That was a good thing to know. I would've been wandering around in the High Tech center only to find disappointment. I didn't get to bed until 7:30, which limited my sleeping experience to four hours, and it was restless sleep at that.
At 12:30 in the morning I loaded up the wagon. Part of my pack included a cooler containing dry ice and four bottles of the uber chocolate milk that Kimi likes. I pulled away from Van's house and was on my way.
I had been telling the people I knew in Utah that I was going down to Arizona. "I'm heading down to Arizona on Thursday." "Is Kimi excited?" "She doesn't know I'm coming." "Oh, I bet she'll be surprised." "No, she'll probably be mad at me and say something like, 'Why are you here?'"
At 10:00 I arrived on the GCC campus. I pulled my hair back and put on a hat to reduce the chance of Kimi recognizing me should she see me before I reached her back. I grabbed a bottle of chocolate milk and headed for the library.
I entered the library at the front. (I'd never been inside before, but luckily I had been on campus months earlier and Kimi pointed out which building was the library.) I casually walked to the back, scanning for someone with long red hair, or I would've had Kimi not told me Sammie was going to dye her hair black the night before. I didn't know if I'd be able to recognize her with black hair. I arrived at the back having not spotted her. I turned and walked back on the other side of the books, looking over the tables near the windows. At the last table I spotted someone with long black hair and glasses. Was that Kimi? Would anybody else be wearing funky raver pants? Nope, that was her. I walked back, came around behind her, and plopped the chocolate milk on the table. She looked at me and said, "Why are you here?" Not the squiddly joy bubbly response I would've liked, but it was the one I predicted.
After about ten minutes she concluded she was happy to see me and gave me a hug.
Next I needed to decide how to approach Sammie. See, when I plan surprises like this I put a lot of thought into them. Many of the hours I spent driving down to AZ were thinking about how to approach Kimi. "I'll hug her. No, I'll say, 'Mine,' and hug her. No, I'll sit down and say, 'You said you wanted some uber chocolate milk so I brought you some.' No, I'll give her the chocolate milk then hug her." Well, anyway, you can see how I cope in these situations.
Back to Sammie. I needed another witty way to approach Sammie. Kimi's idea was to put all my stuff inside Sammie's apartment and wait for her to come home, since Kimi has a key. I thought that might be kind of freaky. You know, walk inside and see someone's stuff strewn about your place. I decided that I would call Sammie and act like I wanted to reminisce about old times or something, then I'd nonchalantly ask if she'd be interested in playing DDR in the morning. While she was confuzzled by the question I'd knock on her door.
Well, that's what I did, and it turned Sammie into a laughing lunatic. And we did go play DDR in the morning.
Originally I was going to put myself up in a hotel and stay for the weekend, but once Sammie found out I was in the area she wouldn't stand for that. I stayed at her place until Thursday, which was very nice.
Now I'm back and I miss Kimi terribly.