Prepare for the Greatest Trilogy EVER!
Well everyone, here’s the big wrap-up of February.
I know, exciting right?
For Fat Tuesday, I wanted to go to Big Y in order to buy some Paczkis. Very delicious and so far the best come from that grocery. Unfortunately we weren’t able to go because mom was sleeping on the road again. Always fun. At work, my boss bought us a cannoli cake from a bakery near her place. Oh so freaking good but a bit sweet. It was a giant flaky goodness.
Ash Wednesday was just long in general and quite embarrassing. So a month beforehand, there was an E-mail sent for the Red Cross blood drive and of course I set up an appointment to go. Being the terrific Catholic I am, I totally forgot that both the drive and Ash Wednesday were one and the same. Meaning, I wasn’t able to catch a mass to have the black cross on my forehead. I was very tempted to butt heads with peeps in order to get an imprint but I’m pretty sure that’s missing the entire message. After another entertaining yet draining stage writing class, I bid adieu to Maria and Steph to make my appointment. I left early too, straight from class which got out early at 1:30, to make my 2:15 appointment. I knew that there would be walk-ins taking up my time so I wanted to do all the procedural crap and finish it so I could leave faster. Why did I want to leave so soon after giving you ask? Well I had work from 3-7. Even though my boss took a personal day, I still didn’t want to be late for other boss (I like this one). It was pretty packed. My number wasn’t too bad. There’s also new equipment since I gave last semester. They upgraded like whoa. The only hold-up was when we were on the last stage where we were called up to have our blood drawn. There was no rhyme or reason to it which bothered me. I felt like such a dick for cutting an old guy but to be fair, I was before him. I had some foreign dude who kept laughing at everything. Glad to have such a jovial needle handler. I knocked over the ball grip by accident and he told me that I was probably trying to cause him to make a mistake. Yeah, that’s what I want to do. Have the doctor draining my blood make a boo-boo, because jokes on him if he hits an artery. Oh we’d laugh for sure. By the time I was on that table with Jokes-with-Needle, I was already 5 minutes late to work. The only thing that I had going for me was that my blood flows out pretty quickly. When I finished, he did the post-draining Q&A thing. You know, “how are you feeling, are you dizzy, wasn’t that fun,” blah blah blah. Normally, you’re supposed to wait for one of the peeps to come over and walk you over to the goodie table where the free food and beverages were set.
C’mon, y’all know where this is heading.
No one was paying attention to me at this point because hey, my blood is theirs already, so I did the only thing that seemed sensible. I grabbed that damned needle, stabbed the doctor repeatedly and then grabbed all the blood bags, threw them in the center of the theater, and performed a Pagan ritual because they’re best done during the beginning of the Lenten season. OJ I looked at my watch and saw that I was going to be 15 minutes late for work. That’s a first and it’s going to be the last, so help me. I quickly leapt off my bed (okay, that wasn’t too bright) and gathered up my bag and coat from the seats. I sped walked, after a test jog, to the book store and apologized profusely for being so late. Luckily there didn’t seem to be any customers in the store. I was stopped by the adults that I work with because they noticed my blood drive name tag and the gauze on my right arm. Oh, probably should have hidden those. Well since they didn’t know my track record with blood donations, I didn’t see the harm in telling them that I had just come from there. I headed to the back, clocked in, put my apron on, and there I see the one piece I forgot to take into consideration.
My mom.
*face faults*
I had totally forgotten that I had given my card to mom so she could buy lunch and that I was supposed to retrieve it after class. Whoops. In case this is new to you, mom hates it when I give blood. She always forbids me to do it. So when this time comes around, I usually don’t tell her and I hide the evidence of any visit to the RC. But I was caught in this situation. I did tell her the night before that I was doing it but then she might not have heard me through her chewing…or the TV…or the phone. I greeted her, she greeted me, handed me her card, told me she had to head back to work right away, then she saw my arm and then “the look” graced her features. Oh good, because my co-workers needed some entertainment. So basically the exchange consisted of me trying to convince mom that I didn’t need to eat since I was already late to work and didn’t want to take any more time. She left and when I turned to my register, I had everyone’s eyes on me. I forgot that I worked with two moms. They wouldn’t let me sign on to my machine until I promised to grab food. To be honest, my head already hurt and I was hungry earlier. It was a while since breakfast but…yeah. So after another 5 minutes of fruitless arguing on my part, the phone rang and it was my mom. One of the mom workers answered and they both were ordering me to get food. *sigh* I also had to bring it back so they could approve of it. Yay? During this time, there’s nothing in the cafeteria. I grabbed the one thing that didn’t make me want to throw up: a banana. I already had water and a Special K bar in my bag. On the way back, I had one of my momentary blackouts. I mean, phew, I was starting to think that I wouldn’t have those anymore but surprises abounded that day. They scrutinized my banana and said okay, as long as they saw me take a couple of bites in front of them. Boo. Did that, ate the rest in the back, and took a couple of sips of water before heading back to my post. I did have to endure an hour or so more of lecturing. At home, I heard the same thing.
The following week was Valentine’s Day which was pooey. Mom and I both go home late so there was no time to really plan a night out or anything. So I told her that I’d make the weekend all about her…which isn’t different from the other weekends. Friday I planned on going to the editing and the print lab in order to finish my digital photography HW, then head on the SHUttle to grab some groceries and then head back home to cook mom a V-day dinner. It all started to go wrong when I thought getting into the lab would be easy. Oh how naïve of me. Trying to get inside the room was trouble enough but luckily for me, thanks to Jen and Alyssa’s advice, I caught the professor from the previous class tidying up. He let me in and I was about to sit at my station when he told me that the MAC that I’m logged on to wasn’t working.
No please, I want to hear more jokes before I actually accomplish anything.
He must have seen the look on my face and he supplied that there’s no mouse.
What.
The.
Fuck.
There was one on Monday when I had class but of course it has to go away when I was on my own. Being the dubious person I naturally am, I had to pull out the desk in order to check. Of course he was right. Damn. Now here’s the dilemma folks. In the editing lab, students are given a log-in name created by their professor on a computer. That log-in isn’t shared with the other computers, just the one where the account was created. Now all my pics were uploaded onto the now useless computer. I mean, I still had the photos on my camera, I just have an extra couple of steps now. I headed to another computer and had to ask the very kind professor if he wouldn’t mind creating an account on that computer. He deserves a freaking pony. He helped me log on and then he left me to my demise. I even had company later on but that person is unimportant. After selecting the pics to print, I headed to the digital darkroom to find it locked. I was hoping that some idiot left it unlocked. The ONE time that I required an idiot. I call my Italian wonton at this point and she tells me that Liz, the Media Studies secretary, can let me in. Well I mosey on down to see her and find that it’s full house in her office. She yells at me to retrieve the boy that just left her office because he forgot his book. After we both chase him down, she asks what I need, and I let her know. Because of the many students that she needs to take care of, she gave me the keys and told me to return them to her right after I use them. Whatever. So I do just that and I’m all pumped because I’m almost down with my HW. Now in order to print, you need to export your pics as Tifs onto a jump drive, which I did. When I was in that room, after figuring out how to turn on the ancient MAC, I found that I had no username…something my professor said would be ready for us by that time but it’s okay, I’m sure it won’t happen again. I called my Camel Monkey again and she let me use her sn and I was in! Then I realized that my jump drive didn’t fit in their extension.
Really? Maybe my foot would fit up its…
Sorry, I digress. After much moaning in the non-satisfying way, I called it a day. I had a bit of time before the SHUttle would arrive so I hung out with Steph. Yet when I left her to catch my ride, I caught a glimpse of it driving away. That so would happen. Did I mention the rain? It was freaking raining because it makes the atmosphere that much more depressing. I came back and told Steph that I missed it. She offered to take me to grocery when she got out of work so I went to see mom to tell her not to wait up for me since Steph would be taking me. Mom said that she’d take me to the grocery instead because of something-something. So I hung out with Steph for a bit before I left with mom to the grocery. When we arrived home, I had her go get cleaned up while I cooked dinner. For those of you who are curious, I made white wine cream sauce with scallops and steamed broccoli. I also bought dinner rolls to go with it. I didn’t reduce it long enough but meh. I put it on top of angel hair pasta and called it dinner. Brilliant, right? I did send my prof an E-mail about the trouble I had with finishing the assignment so he wouldn’t think that I was being a delinquent.
It didn’t even matter since my prof didn’t even come to class on Monday. He had three former students show us their portfolios and talk about their careers in photography. We listened only because we wanted to get out early.
I know somewhere in there I was asked by my boss to work two book signings which were nerve wrecking to say the least. Mainly because I’ve never worked them before, boo.
The only part of February that I was looking forward to was the end of it because then I could see my dad in Florida for spring break. After spending more than half a grand on three tickets for roundtrip, I wanted this to be the best damn spring break. Yeah, let’s go over that interesting week.
Congrats everyone, we’re in March. March 1st, mom and I spent the morning packing, which didn’t take long since we’ve had so much practice and waited for Ninong Deo to arrive to take us to JFK. Did I mention the rain? Gosh, it was just a warning sign that things would go wrong. Any-hoo, I had already printed our boarding passes beforehand and I was trying to explain this to Ninang Cyd when she was left to “assist” mom and me. Now I know that she’s spent a lot of time in airports and she knows the ins and outs of JFK, but it wouldn’t have hurt for her to listen to me. She told me to go to the Jet Blue kiosk guy that was outside and I had to pay him tip for printing our boarding passes even though I had them already. Boo. So, we had our luggage taken and the three of us headed inside to one of the terminals. I know she was trying to help but I was so happy when she left. We stood in line to dump our stuff in the container and after all that was done, we were in the Promised Land. Well for me it was because I was hungry and there were a lot of places to see. Now our flight was at 7:10 PM so we had time. Kuya took a flight to meet us there and then we were all going to fly down together to Tampa. I didn’t even know what time he was supposed to arrive, not my problem. I paid for all our tickets so all I expected was for him to fly with us. There’s a variety of food to eat but the prices are just so extraordinary. Dear God, fries with BBQ sauce cost me about $6. So sad. Stuff in the store was also expensive but I expected that. I wanted the shirt that said “fly girl” on it because corny is right up my alley. They had an all organic food market too which was coolio because they made smoothies too.
Mom and I waited about 2 hours (so now it’s 4ish) until we received a call from Kuya stating that his flight just came in. Our flight didn’t start boarding until 6:30 so we fed the boy and talked. I had him come with me to Dunkin Donuts because I was jonesing for a coffee coolatta. And yes, I know what caffeine does to me, but I needed it, really. So there’s this stupid line that doesn’t want to move any faster and kept me away from my ambrosia. Damnit. I stayed despite Kuya telling me that it’s not worth it. *eye twitch* Not worth it? NOT WORTH IT? OF COURSE it’s worth it. You know what wasn’t worth it? The guy ahead of me that wanted a damn bagel with cream cheese. No one eats that at 5ish. Eat a real dinner you bum. The line moves, it’s my turn, and I smile, the Dunkin Donuts dude smiles and I order. He’s still smiling when he tells me there’s no more coffee. I’m still smiling when I asked him “really?” We’re all smiling as he confirms it and asks for the next customer. I was still smiling when I jumped the counter and beat his head in with the empty coffee pot as I whistled the Kill Bill theme. *grumbles* My shoulders shrank and I moodily made my way back to the table with Kuya. He did offer to buy me a smoothie at the organic place (YAY! Score one for being compassionate big bro) as long as I gave him money because he didn’t want to spend any of his…(where’s the damn coffee pot). We talked, he ate, and then we moved closer to our gate since it was approaching the 6:30 mark.
Kuya and I were people watching, looking at who would be joining our flight at such an hour. The flight is supposed to arrive around 11 at night, boo. Not too many people our age, a lot of elder people. Who knew they were such night owls. Well there was a delay and we didn’t board until 7:30 and even then, we didn’t take off until 8:30 because of congestion? Idk. I guess too many planes on the runway would hinder any flight. I ended up sitting in between mom (aisle) and Kuya (window) which was fine with me. Last time I was on a plane, I was air sick so if I didn’t need to look at Kuya, I’d be fine. As for the aisle, I just don’t like it, lol. I’m seat snobbish like that. This airline is so much better than whatever airline we went on with Ninong Deo’s family. There’s XM radio and DirectTV. If we wanted to watch a movie, all we had to do was swipe a credit card. There was a menu of snacks and drinks that we could order, all in all, pretty sweet. Unfortunately, when we did take off, I didn’t do so well. I was really tired because I’m old. I was all queasy which made mom freak out and start hitting me over and over again with the barf bag. We finally landed around 12:30 to an empty airport. Mom was on a mission to find a bathroom which stunk because Tampa seems to have every women’s room closed for repairs. There was this cool shuttle that we had to ride from the airport to the terminal, like a monorail. The door refused to close because someone was standing too close to it, which caused the mechanical voice to state such and everyone to stare at that one person. Hilariously embarrassing. When we reached the terminal, Kuya and I grabbed our luggage as mom found the bathroom that worked. I called dad and he told us to be ready outside. When he picked us up, all I wanted to do was go straight home, shower, and sleep. But nooooooo. Mom and Kuya were hungry at freaking 1 in the morning so we stopped at a drive thru burger place which is open 24 hours. All 3 of them insisted that I eat something light but I just felt like crap with the whole nauseous feeling and weariness. We headed back to dad’s studio apartment where it definitely looks like a single guy lives there. Bare kitchen, workout bench, no real furniture, and a fully equipped computer/work center-bachelor pad indeed.
Dad only had air beds so Kuya and I slept in the living room while he and mom slept in the bedroom. Oh, so mom was hot so the fans and the AC were running. Really wouldn’t be a problem if you know, he had blankets. Kuya and I each slept in a bed cover. For me, it was just terrible because the vent was facing me so I froze. Also, when dad said that he had toothbrushes ready, he lied. Yech.
Next day we went to a diner for breakfast and then to…some place for supplies. That’s sad, right? I can’t even remember. That entire week is just a freaking blur. I’ll just mention crap because all in all the break wasn’t all that great. The roads are freaking wide, my God but there seems to be a great deal of traffic. Rain seems to be a popular one.
What happened to all the sun I planned for?
Oh it said “fuck this” and went to Mexico?
Greeeeeaaattt.
People sure don’t like to cook around Clearwater either. So many places to eat and shop. Everything is Super Something. We only went to the Super WalMart and it’s freaking huge. A McDonalds and a fully stocked grocery, I almost got lost. We went to the International mall and I felt poorer than I already was. I couldn’t afford anything and I think those people knew that I was contaminating their air. I was so happy when we left. We also went to a Filipino store that sold ensaymada. Granted they’re no Philippine Bread House or even Goldilocks, but I can’t get the stuff anywhere else so it had to do. Dad also had one ethernet cable at home so when he left for work, and the three of us were left, Kuya had to share. Granted, he did hog a majority of the time anyways. Dad also had Netflix so we watched a couple of movies on the site. I didn’t get a blanket until the fourth night sleeping there (we stayed for a week). I took to sleeping in mom’s jacket…to which she wasn’t so supportive of. Most of the time was spent in a very odd routine of waking up, working out, going online, doing laundry, and just plain waiting. I finished the homework that I had brought over and that shouldn’t ever be an activity to do on a supposed vacay.
The best place was the beach boardwalk. I loved the stores there! And yeah, I’m being a real girl here so bite me. They were tourist-oriented, I know, so the prices were a bit steep but c’mon, where else was I going to find the stuff? I think the real downer was that there was a tornado watch while we there. I didn’t think it was that big of a deal since no one else really seemed that concerned. Okay, the locals didn’t seem that concerned. All the tourists were freaking out and screaming. Kinda funny. Unfortunately mom and Kuya were a part of the chaos so we had to go home early.
We didn’t get to spend too much family time together. There was no bonding, ya know? It didn’t help that the ‘rents were arguing about well everything. They didn’t cool it until we had to leave…on the sunniest day we were there. God’s joke, really. Good times. We arrive when it rains and we leave when it’s freaking beautiful.
We had an early morning flight, 7:10AM. So yeah, there was a surprising amount of people at the airport. A lot of guys in team jackets and such made up most of the line. It was sad though. No one really wanted to smile. I did, but that’s just the morning person in me. Also, I was thinking about breakfast. Tampa airport’s food options sucked though, at least in comparison to JFK. We had a choice between Starbucks and Quiznos.
Obvious right?
So we all ate at Quiznos and waited for our flight, which was on time! Well I guess it would be pretty embarrassing to be late if it’s the first one to head out. I sat in the middle again and Kuya spent a majority of the time sleeping…as did mom. Boo.
When we arrived in NY, the rain greeted us with a big fat middle finger up the ass. Oh yeah. Stupid precipitation following us. We left Kuya there since he had to wait for his flight back to Rochester. After I grabbed our luggage, mom tried to figure out where the airport limo we reserved was going to pick us up. She told me to pay particular attention to everything that she was doing so I’d know what to do when I left to visit Kuya. We ended up running around the airport for 15 minutes under various directions given to us. Mom called the company and they told us to head back to where we started.
-_-
We ended up waiting for another 15 or so minutes. When it arrived, it smelled funny. The guy drove like a maniac and mom fell asleep…again. We were dropped off at the Trumbull Marriott and mom asked the lady at the desk to call us a cab. We ended up sitting there with a bunch of college guys. Were they hot? Damn straight. Did I ogle shamelessly? Like I owned them. But then the creepy magic was broken when the cabbie came in and retrieved us. I’ve never been in a cab until that point but my God it was bleh. It smelled like old people and cigarettes. Mmm, yummy. So from the Marriott (right next to the Target on Hawley Lane) to our house, it cost about $22. It would have been cheaper if he took the shortcut but w/e. It was great because mom and I headed out again because I needed to go to the mall for a DVD. I needed something to watch for my Film Comedy course. She dropped me off at the mall and I quickly found a collection of Buster Keaton, Three Stooges, and Laurel and Hardy films for $12. And I figured, while there, I’d purchase the new Michael Jackson (well sorta) CD. C’mon, there are remixes on it. Can’t fault the remixes.
I know, exciting right?
For Fat Tuesday, I wanted to go to Big Y in order to buy some Paczkis. Very delicious and so far the best come from that grocery. Unfortunately we weren’t able to go because mom was sleeping on the road again. Always fun. At work, my boss bought us a cannoli cake from a bakery near her place. Oh so freaking good but a bit sweet. It was a giant flaky goodness.
Ash Wednesday was just long in general and quite embarrassing. So a month beforehand, there was an E-mail sent for the Red Cross blood drive and of course I set up an appointment to go. Being the terrific Catholic I am, I totally forgot that both the drive and Ash Wednesday were one and the same. Meaning, I wasn’t able to catch a mass to have the black cross on my forehead. I was very tempted to butt heads with peeps in order to get an imprint but I’m pretty sure that’s missing the entire message. After another entertaining yet draining stage writing class, I bid adieu to Maria and Steph to make my appointment. I left early too, straight from class which got out early at 1:30, to make my 2:15 appointment. I knew that there would be walk-ins taking up my time so I wanted to do all the procedural crap and finish it so I could leave faster. Why did I want to leave so soon after giving you ask? Well I had work from 3-7. Even though my boss took a personal day, I still didn’t want to be late for other boss (I like this one). It was pretty packed. My number wasn’t too bad. There’s also new equipment since I gave last semester. They upgraded like whoa. The only hold-up was when we were on the last stage where we were called up to have our blood drawn. There was no rhyme or reason to it which bothered me. I felt like such a dick for cutting an old guy but to be fair, I was before him. I had some foreign dude who kept laughing at everything. Glad to have such a jovial needle handler. I knocked over the ball grip by accident and he told me that I was probably trying to cause him to make a mistake. Yeah, that’s what I want to do. Have the doctor draining my blood make a boo-boo, because jokes on him if he hits an artery. Oh we’d laugh for sure. By the time I was on that table with Jokes-with-Needle, I was already 5 minutes late to work. The only thing that I had going for me was that my blood flows out pretty quickly. When I finished, he did the post-draining Q&A thing. You know, “how are you feeling, are you dizzy, wasn’t that fun,” blah blah blah. Normally, you’re supposed to wait for one of the peeps to come over and walk you over to the goodie table where the free food and beverages were set.
C’mon, y’all know where this is heading.
No one was paying attention to me at this point because hey, my blood is theirs already, so I did the only thing that seemed sensible. I grabbed that damned needle, stabbed the doctor repeatedly and then grabbed all the blood bags, threw them in the center of the theater, and performed a Pagan ritual because they’re best done during the beginning of the Lenten season. OJ I looked at my watch and saw that I was going to be 15 minutes late for work. That’s a first and it’s going to be the last, so help me. I quickly leapt off my bed (okay, that wasn’t too bright) and gathered up my bag and coat from the seats. I sped walked, after a test jog, to the book store and apologized profusely for being so late. Luckily there didn’t seem to be any customers in the store. I was stopped by the adults that I work with because they noticed my blood drive name tag and the gauze on my right arm. Oh, probably should have hidden those. Well since they didn’t know my track record with blood donations, I didn’t see the harm in telling them that I had just come from there. I headed to the back, clocked in, put my apron on, and there I see the one piece I forgot to take into consideration.
My mom.
*face faults*
I had totally forgotten that I had given my card to mom so she could buy lunch and that I was supposed to retrieve it after class. Whoops. In case this is new to you, mom hates it when I give blood. She always forbids me to do it. So when this time comes around, I usually don’t tell her and I hide the evidence of any visit to the RC. But I was caught in this situation. I did tell her the night before that I was doing it but then she might not have heard me through her chewing…or the TV…or the phone. I greeted her, she greeted me, handed me her card, told me she had to head back to work right away, then she saw my arm and then “the look” graced her features. Oh good, because my co-workers needed some entertainment. So basically the exchange consisted of me trying to convince mom that I didn’t need to eat since I was already late to work and didn’t want to take any more time. She left and when I turned to my register, I had everyone’s eyes on me. I forgot that I worked with two moms. They wouldn’t let me sign on to my machine until I promised to grab food. To be honest, my head already hurt and I was hungry earlier. It was a while since breakfast but…yeah. So after another 5 minutes of fruitless arguing on my part, the phone rang and it was my mom. One of the mom workers answered and they both were ordering me to get food. *sigh* I also had to bring it back so they could approve of it. Yay? During this time, there’s nothing in the cafeteria. I grabbed the one thing that didn’t make me want to throw up: a banana. I already had water and a Special K bar in my bag. On the way back, I had one of my momentary blackouts. I mean, phew, I was starting to think that I wouldn’t have those anymore but surprises abounded that day. They scrutinized my banana and said okay, as long as they saw me take a couple of bites in front of them. Boo. Did that, ate the rest in the back, and took a couple of sips of water before heading back to my post. I did have to endure an hour or so more of lecturing. At home, I heard the same thing.
The following week was Valentine’s Day which was pooey. Mom and I both go home late so there was no time to really plan a night out or anything. So I told her that I’d make the weekend all about her…which isn’t different from the other weekends. Friday I planned on going to the editing and the print lab in order to finish my digital photography HW, then head on the SHUttle to grab some groceries and then head back home to cook mom a V-day dinner. It all started to go wrong when I thought getting into the lab would be easy. Oh how naïve of me. Trying to get inside the room was trouble enough but luckily for me, thanks to Jen and Alyssa’s advice, I caught the professor from the previous class tidying up. He let me in and I was about to sit at my station when he told me that the MAC that I’m logged on to wasn’t working.
No please, I want to hear more jokes before I actually accomplish anything.
He must have seen the look on my face and he supplied that there’s no mouse.
What.
The.
Fuck.
There was one on Monday when I had class but of course it has to go away when I was on my own. Being the dubious person I naturally am, I had to pull out the desk in order to check. Of course he was right. Damn. Now here’s the dilemma folks. In the editing lab, students are given a log-in name created by their professor on a computer. That log-in isn’t shared with the other computers, just the one where the account was created. Now all my pics were uploaded onto the now useless computer. I mean, I still had the photos on my camera, I just have an extra couple of steps now. I headed to another computer and had to ask the very kind professor if he wouldn’t mind creating an account on that computer. He deserves a freaking pony. He helped me log on and then he left me to my demise. I even had company later on but that person is unimportant. After selecting the pics to print, I headed to the digital darkroom to find it locked. I was hoping that some idiot left it unlocked. The ONE time that I required an idiot. I call my Italian wonton at this point and she tells me that Liz, the Media Studies secretary, can let me in. Well I mosey on down to see her and find that it’s full house in her office. She yells at me to retrieve the boy that just left her office because he forgot his book. After we both chase him down, she asks what I need, and I let her know. Because of the many students that she needs to take care of, she gave me the keys and told me to return them to her right after I use them. Whatever. So I do just that and I’m all pumped because I’m almost down with my HW. Now in order to print, you need to export your pics as Tifs onto a jump drive, which I did. When I was in that room, after figuring out how to turn on the ancient MAC, I found that I had no username…something my professor said would be ready for us by that time but it’s okay, I’m sure it won’t happen again. I called my Camel Monkey again and she let me use her sn and I was in! Then I realized that my jump drive didn’t fit in their extension.
Really? Maybe my foot would fit up its…
Sorry, I digress. After much moaning in the non-satisfying way, I called it a day. I had a bit of time before the SHUttle would arrive so I hung out with Steph. Yet when I left her to catch my ride, I caught a glimpse of it driving away. That so would happen. Did I mention the rain? It was freaking raining because it makes the atmosphere that much more depressing. I came back and told Steph that I missed it. She offered to take me to grocery when she got out of work so I went to see mom to tell her not to wait up for me since Steph would be taking me. Mom said that she’d take me to the grocery instead because of something-something. So I hung out with Steph for a bit before I left with mom to the grocery. When we arrived home, I had her go get cleaned up while I cooked dinner. For those of you who are curious, I made white wine cream sauce with scallops and steamed broccoli. I also bought dinner rolls to go with it. I didn’t reduce it long enough but meh. I put it on top of angel hair pasta and called it dinner. Brilliant, right? I did send my prof an E-mail about the trouble I had with finishing the assignment so he wouldn’t think that I was being a delinquent.
It didn’t even matter since my prof didn’t even come to class on Monday. He had three former students show us their portfolios and talk about their careers in photography. We listened only because we wanted to get out early.
I know somewhere in there I was asked by my boss to work two book signings which were nerve wrecking to say the least. Mainly because I’ve never worked them before, boo.
The only part of February that I was looking forward to was the end of it because then I could see my dad in Florida for spring break. After spending more than half a grand on three tickets for roundtrip, I wanted this to be the best damn spring break. Yeah, let’s go over that interesting week.
Congrats everyone, we’re in March. March 1st, mom and I spent the morning packing, which didn’t take long since we’ve had so much practice and waited for Ninong Deo to arrive to take us to JFK. Did I mention the rain? Gosh, it was just a warning sign that things would go wrong. Any-hoo, I had already printed our boarding passes beforehand and I was trying to explain this to Ninang Cyd when she was left to “assist” mom and me. Now I know that she’s spent a lot of time in airports and she knows the ins and outs of JFK, but it wouldn’t have hurt for her to listen to me. She told me to go to the Jet Blue kiosk guy that was outside and I had to pay him tip for printing our boarding passes even though I had them already. Boo. So, we had our luggage taken and the three of us headed inside to one of the terminals. I know she was trying to help but I was so happy when she left. We stood in line to dump our stuff in the container and after all that was done, we were in the Promised Land. Well for me it was because I was hungry and there were a lot of places to see. Now our flight was at 7:10 PM so we had time. Kuya took a flight to meet us there and then we were all going to fly down together to Tampa. I didn’t even know what time he was supposed to arrive, not my problem. I paid for all our tickets so all I expected was for him to fly with us. There’s a variety of food to eat but the prices are just so extraordinary. Dear God, fries with BBQ sauce cost me about $6. So sad. Stuff in the store was also expensive but I expected that. I wanted the shirt that said “fly girl” on it because corny is right up my alley. They had an all organic food market too which was coolio because they made smoothies too.
Mom and I waited about 2 hours (so now it’s 4ish) until we received a call from Kuya stating that his flight just came in. Our flight didn’t start boarding until 6:30 so we fed the boy and talked. I had him come with me to Dunkin Donuts because I was jonesing for a coffee coolatta. And yes, I know what caffeine does to me, but I needed it, really. So there’s this stupid line that doesn’t want to move any faster and kept me away from my ambrosia. Damnit. I stayed despite Kuya telling me that it’s not worth it. *eye twitch* Not worth it? NOT WORTH IT? OF COURSE it’s worth it. You know what wasn’t worth it? The guy ahead of me that wanted a damn bagel with cream cheese. No one eats that at 5ish. Eat a real dinner you bum. The line moves, it’s my turn, and I smile, the Dunkin Donuts dude smiles and I order. He’s still smiling when he tells me there’s no more coffee. I’m still smiling when I asked him “really?” We’re all smiling as he confirms it and asks for the next customer. I was still smiling when I jumped the counter and beat his head in with the empty coffee pot as I whistled the Kill Bill theme. *grumbles* My shoulders shrank and I moodily made my way back to the table with Kuya. He did offer to buy me a smoothie at the organic place (YAY! Score one for being compassionate big bro) as long as I gave him money because he didn’t want to spend any of his…(where’s the damn coffee pot). We talked, he ate, and then we moved closer to our gate since it was approaching the 6:30 mark.
Kuya and I were people watching, looking at who would be joining our flight at such an hour. The flight is supposed to arrive around 11 at night, boo. Not too many people our age, a lot of elder people. Who knew they were such night owls. Well there was a delay and we didn’t board until 7:30 and even then, we didn’t take off until 8:30 because of congestion? Idk. I guess too many planes on the runway would hinder any flight. I ended up sitting in between mom (aisle) and Kuya (window) which was fine with me. Last time I was on a plane, I was air sick so if I didn’t need to look at Kuya, I’d be fine. As for the aisle, I just don’t like it, lol. I’m seat snobbish like that. This airline is so much better than whatever airline we went on with Ninong Deo’s family. There’s XM radio and DirectTV. If we wanted to watch a movie, all we had to do was swipe a credit card. There was a menu of snacks and drinks that we could order, all in all, pretty sweet. Unfortunately, when we did take off, I didn’t do so well. I was really tired because I’m old. I was all queasy which made mom freak out and start hitting me over and over again with the barf bag. We finally landed around 12:30 to an empty airport. Mom was on a mission to find a bathroom which stunk because Tampa seems to have every women’s room closed for repairs. There was this cool shuttle that we had to ride from the airport to the terminal, like a monorail. The door refused to close because someone was standing too close to it, which caused the mechanical voice to state such and everyone to stare at that one person. Hilariously embarrassing. When we reached the terminal, Kuya and I grabbed our luggage as mom found the bathroom that worked. I called dad and he told us to be ready outside. When he picked us up, all I wanted to do was go straight home, shower, and sleep. But nooooooo. Mom and Kuya were hungry at freaking 1 in the morning so we stopped at a drive thru burger place which is open 24 hours. All 3 of them insisted that I eat something light but I just felt like crap with the whole nauseous feeling and weariness. We headed back to dad’s studio apartment where it definitely looks like a single guy lives there. Bare kitchen, workout bench, no real furniture, and a fully equipped computer/work center-bachelor pad indeed.
Dad only had air beds so Kuya and I slept in the living room while he and mom slept in the bedroom. Oh, so mom was hot so the fans and the AC were running. Really wouldn’t be a problem if you know, he had blankets. Kuya and I each slept in a bed cover. For me, it was just terrible because the vent was facing me so I froze. Also, when dad said that he had toothbrushes ready, he lied. Yech.
Next day we went to a diner for breakfast and then to…some place for supplies. That’s sad, right? I can’t even remember. That entire week is just a freaking blur. I’ll just mention crap because all in all the break wasn’t all that great. The roads are freaking wide, my God but there seems to be a great deal of traffic. Rain seems to be a popular one.
What happened to all the sun I planned for?
Oh it said “fuck this” and went to Mexico?
Greeeeeaaattt.
People sure don’t like to cook around Clearwater either. So many places to eat and shop. Everything is Super Something. We only went to the Super WalMart and it’s freaking huge. A McDonalds and a fully stocked grocery, I almost got lost. We went to the International mall and I felt poorer than I already was. I couldn’t afford anything and I think those people knew that I was contaminating their air. I was so happy when we left. We also went to a Filipino store that sold ensaymada. Granted they’re no Philippine Bread House or even Goldilocks, but I can’t get the stuff anywhere else so it had to do. Dad also had one ethernet cable at home so when he left for work, and the three of us were left, Kuya had to share. Granted, he did hog a majority of the time anyways. Dad also had Netflix so we watched a couple of movies on the site. I didn’t get a blanket until the fourth night sleeping there (we stayed for a week). I took to sleeping in mom’s jacket…to which she wasn’t so supportive of. Most of the time was spent in a very odd routine of waking up, working out, going online, doing laundry, and just plain waiting. I finished the homework that I had brought over and that shouldn’t ever be an activity to do on a supposed vacay.
The best place was the beach boardwalk. I loved the stores there! And yeah, I’m being a real girl here so bite me. They were tourist-oriented, I know, so the prices were a bit steep but c’mon, where else was I going to find the stuff? I think the real downer was that there was a tornado watch while we there. I didn’t think it was that big of a deal since no one else really seemed that concerned. Okay, the locals didn’t seem that concerned. All the tourists were freaking out and screaming. Kinda funny. Unfortunately mom and Kuya were a part of the chaos so we had to go home early.
We didn’t get to spend too much family time together. There was no bonding, ya know? It didn’t help that the ‘rents were arguing about well everything. They didn’t cool it until we had to leave…on the sunniest day we were there. God’s joke, really. Good times. We arrive when it rains and we leave when it’s freaking beautiful.
We had an early morning flight, 7:10AM. So yeah, there was a surprising amount of people at the airport. A lot of guys in team jackets and such made up most of the line. It was sad though. No one really wanted to smile. I did, but that’s just the morning person in me. Also, I was thinking about breakfast. Tampa airport’s food options sucked though, at least in comparison to JFK. We had a choice between Starbucks and Quiznos.
Obvious right?
So we all ate at Quiznos and waited for our flight, which was on time! Well I guess it would be pretty embarrassing to be late if it’s the first one to head out. I sat in the middle again and Kuya spent a majority of the time sleeping…as did mom. Boo.
When we arrived in NY, the rain greeted us with a big fat middle finger up the ass. Oh yeah. Stupid precipitation following us. We left Kuya there since he had to wait for his flight back to Rochester. After I grabbed our luggage, mom tried to figure out where the airport limo we reserved was going to pick us up. She told me to pay particular attention to everything that she was doing so I’d know what to do when I left to visit Kuya. We ended up running around the airport for 15 minutes under various directions given to us. Mom called the company and they told us to head back to where we started.
-_-
We ended up waiting for another 15 or so minutes. When it arrived, it smelled funny. The guy drove like a maniac and mom fell asleep…again. We were dropped off at the Trumbull Marriott and mom asked the lady at the desk to call us a cab. We ended up sitting there with a bunch of college guys. Were they hot? Damn straight. Did I ogle shamelessly? Like I owned them. But then the creepy magic was broken when the cabbie came in and retrieved us. I’ve never been in a cab until that point but my God it was bleh. It smelled like old people and cigarettes. Mmm, yummy. So from the Marriott (right next to the Target on Hawley Lane) to our house, it cost about $22. It would have been cheaper if he took the shortcut but w/e. It was great because mom and I headed out again because I needed to go to the mall for a DVD. I needed something to watch for my Film Comedy course. She dropped me off at the mall and I quickly found a collection of Buster Keaton, Three Stooges, and Laurel and Hardy films for $12. And I figured, while there, I’d purchase the new Michael Jackson (well sorta) CD. C’mon, there are remixes on it. Can’t fault the remixes.