Chrismas travails..er travels
Around the 10th, Ariana (callmesilver on LJ) invited me up to visit for a day or so for Christmas. I was reluctant to go since I wasnt sure I could find someone to cover for me on the farm from the evening of the 18th through the morning of the 20th. darkhorse and silvermane (the farm owner) said there was no problem with me going after all. She sweetened the deal when she said her bio mother, the prime renter of the property was gone, leaving just her, her son, and a roomie (brother?). This eased some of my anxiety dealing with mundanes in a crowded house. no crowd, no mundanes.
As preps proceeded, it turned out she had also talked a friend, Laocorn into making a stopover so she could finally meet him and as a gift to me so I could finally meet him too after his aborted visit last summer.
I planned to spend an evening getting there, have a full day with visits, then head back the morning after. I started out around the time Lao arrived and got there late (8-9pm?). we managed to exchange small gifts and art and spent a lot of the night drawing before much scritchies and sleep.
We were barely awake before her mom came charging in to the basement bedroom and started cussing her out, demanding she leave the house right then and there, having heard she was "parading MEN" around and shaming the family... Riiight...
She had been absent due to shacking up with her flava of the week and had slept with 3 men in as many nights the week before. She purposefully chose a time when she would find us in states of dress sure to give her an excuse to toss Ariana out. From what we could find out, she would have tossed Ariana out even if there had been only one male with her, Lao. Our theory is jealousy since 'her' BFs are ugly, dumb meth-heads, and far better looking guys traveled from as far as Japan to be with Ariana...
In any case, cops came to back off the dogpack of family mundanes the mother called in, ready to beat some "preeverts", starting with Ariana. -We were in the basement and only one exit so we were understandably scared of being trapped, but stayed close to Ariana as we packed up her stuff. We took advantage of the truce imposed by the cop and loaded her essentials and our travel luggage in my car. Good thing me and Lao had packed light, me for just a day, and him for less trouble with TSA twinks and to make room for his gifts to us. It is great fortune I had come up at all, otherwise, they would have been stranded miles from any real help.
After brunch at "Steak & Shake" for well-needed shakes, we ended up at a motel an hour from St. Louis and made plans. After calling friends who put the call for help out, we checked in with silvermane who said she could stay for a few days once Lao made his flight. All we had to do was wait a couple days untill the 21st, drawing, cuddling, watching tv, letting Ariana show us around the area since she had stayed in that motel for several months before I had ever met her. Ariana was grandly indulged in a local bar. She needed it.
One of the local game shops she took us to apparently ran impressive wargame battles since their biggest piece of Warhammer 40k scenery, a burned out factory building, was the size of 2 milk crates end to end, dwarfing the burned out cathedral I have in storage. The other shop in that town had a sword shop in back. Apparently the guy was renting space from the shop owner since he couldnt run enough overhead to lease a shop himself. At those prices, I can see why. All the stuff he has have appeared in the Edge and BudK catalogs for a 3rd of the price or less. I recognized the first set I looked at as a survival ninja-to set I've been lusting after for $19.95 in the catalog. His tag read $59... >_< The other prices werent any better...
Yesterday, we finally saw Lao off on his flight after many heartfelt goodbyes and drove on down to the farm.
While I was gone, Mischief had come back from the vets, recovering from whatever had happened, and the new foal got to know this strange 2 legger mare who had not been here when he was foaled and decided Ariana was a good herdmare. yay!
And there was bad news too, the furnace was checked in my absense, and found the damage to the vebtstack extended down to the furnace itself, and the falling rust has choked and damaged the condensers. the whole furnace has to be replaced, dammit!
At least I got a good surprise; A gift package from the creator of Namier Deiter, ordered by Lao for me. I have an idea what it is since the giftwrapping had split open from the gift shaking around in the box, but I rewrapped it with a minimum of peeking. I want to do such a gift properly and wait for the big day, after all. ^_^
And now that we're caught up, time for bed. Night... zzzzzz
As preps proceeded, it turned out she had also talked a friend, Laocorn into making a stopover so she could finally meet him and as a gift to me so I could finally meet him too after his aborted visit last summer.
I planned to spend an evening getting there, have a full day with visits, then head back the morning after. I started out around the time Lao arrived and got there late (8-9pm?). we managed to exchange small gifts and art and spent a lot of the night drawing before much scritchies and sleep.
We were barely awake before her mom came charging in to the basement bedroom and started cussing her out, demanding she leave the house right then and there, having heard she was "parading MEN" around and shaming the family... Riiight...
She had been absent due to shacking up with her flava of the week and had slept with 3 men in as many nights the week before. She purposefully chose a time when she would find us in states of dress sure to give her an excuse to toss Ariana out. From what we could find out, she would have tossed Ariana out even if there had been only one male with her, Lao. Our theory is jealousy since 'her' BFs are ugly, dumb meth-heads, and far better looking guys traveled from as far as Japan to be with Ariana...
In any case, cops came to back off the dogpack of family mundanes the mother called in, ready to beat some "preeverts", starting with Ariana. -We were in the basement and only one exit so we were understandably scared of being trapped, but stayed close to Ariana as we packed up her stuff. We took advantage of the truce imposed by the cop and loaded her essentials and our travel luggage in my car. Good thing me and Lao had packed light, me for just a day, and him for less trouble with TSA twinks and to make room for his gifts to us. It is great fortune I had come up at all, otherwise, they would have been stranded miles from any real help.
After brunch at "Steak & Shake" for well-needed shakes, we ended up at a motel an hour from St. Louis and made plans. After calling friends who put the call for help out, we checked in with silvermane who said she could stay for a few days once Lao made his flight. All we had to do was wait a couple days untill the 21st, drawing, cuddling, watching tv, letting Ariana show us around the area since she had stayed in that motel for several months before I had ever met her. Ariana was grandly indulged in a local bar. She needed it.
One of the local game shops she took us to apparently ran impressive wargame battles since their biggest piece of Warhammer 40k scenery, a burned out factory building, was the size of 2 milk crates end to end, dwarfing the burned out cathedral I have in storage. The other shop in that town had a sword shop in back. Apparently the guy was renting space from the shop owner since he couldnt run enough overhead to lease a shop himself. At those prices, I can see why. All the stuff he has have appeared in the Edge and BudK catalogs for a 3rd of the price or less. I recognized the first set I looked at as a survival ninja-to set I've been lusting after for $19.95 in the catalog. His tag read $59... >_< The other prices werent any better...
Yesterday, we finally saw Lao off on his flight after many heartfelt goodbyes and drove on down to the farm.
While I was gone, Mischief had come back from the vets, recovering from whatever had happened, and the new foal got to know this strange 2 legger mare who had not been here when he was foaled and decided Ariana was a good herdmare. yay!
And there was bad news too, the furnace was checked in my absense, and found the damage to the vebtstack extended down to the furnace itself, and the falling rust has choked and damaged the condensers. the whole furnace has to be replaced, dammit!
At least I got a good surprise; A gift package from the creator of Namier Deiter, ordered by Lao for me. I have an idea what it is since the giftwrapping had split open from the gift shaking around in the box, but I rewrapped it with a minimum of peeking. I want to do such a gift properly and wait for the big day, after all. ^_^
And now that we're caught up, time for bed. Night... zzzzzz