More Tennessee Adventure!
Wow, is it really January 2010? Where does the time go? Anyway, here there be ramblings about Christmas and New Years' and coming home again from Tennessee.
We had my Ohio grandma up for Christmas, and before that my cousin Cassie and her daughter Lindsey came up to visit. Jordan brought MeMaw with him from college (she lives like an hour away from where he's at), and they got to our house on Wednesday. Thursday we all hung out, and then on Friday it was Christmas.
As per tradition, my siblings (namely my brother) got me up at a ridiculous hour, 7AM. We were all sitting bleary-eyed around the Christmas tree, clinging to stockings stuffed with goodies and waiting for the cinnamon rolls (a Christmas breakfast tradition) to finish baking. I unwrapped a new iPod Nano (so my precious Noah has been passed on to my dad, and my new Ezio took his place), and a used PSP. I also got Loco Roco 2 (for the PSP) and a bunch of random iPod accessiories, from a plastic snap-on case (that I had on for a few hours, then took off, since it kept randomly turning it on...) to a plug-in-the-wall charger and a car adapter charger. ...Which is kind of baffling, since I have a laptop I use to charge. Jordan and I messed with the video feature of it, and then Mom and Dad went back to bed. Jordan and I played some Left For Dead 2 on his teeny-tiny TV, Heather played with her new laptop, and Jordan fangirled over his new iPod Touch.
Grandma and Grandpa called, and were whining about the weather, and so Dad said we could just do Christmas with them some other day. Then Great Grandma and Cheryl called, and whined, and Dad told them the same thing. A few hours later (at like 11), they call back again, saying they'll be over soon, and that we're doing Christmas today. Mom goes into an absolute panic cleaning and cooking and setting up. The guests arrive, it's cold and wet and rainy, and everyone complains about how shitty the drive home is going to be because of the rain/snow/freezing whatever. Endlessly complaining about it kind of ruined the day. So we exchanged cards, and they left, and Christmas was over. I finally finished packing just before I went to bed, and pretendedto sleep.
Saturday I got up with my Dad's alarm at 7AM, and he and Franky and I all crowded into the truck with my bags, and we arrived at Flint at 9AM. The flight wasn't scheduled to leave until just before 11, so I sat around at the airport, waiting. And then the fun shit happened. They started delaying the flight. First half an hour, then another fifteen minutes on top of that, then another half an hour, then another... It was finally just before 2PM when they called me up to the counter (and I was like, "OH MY GOD WHAT DID I DO!?!?!?!") and informed me that the flight I was supposed to take from Chicago to Nashville was cancelled. And that there were no other flights available to Nashville for that day. If I wanted to, I could get on the flight to Nashville tomorrow at 8AM. I said that was fine (I mean, what the hell else was I going to do?).
Then I had to wait for them to find my checked bag and return it to me. And I had to call my dad and ask him to pick me up again, to which he replied, "You're not serious. That really sucks." For the record, Flint is a two hour drive from where I live, and so I got to sit on the really confortable metal chairs and wait for him to come get me. I ate at the only food place they had, some little grill, and then went home. We had steaks for dinner, and chocolate pie for desert. I threw my clothes in the washer so I could wear them again the next day, and went to bed at like 1AM.
Sunday Dad's alarm went off at 4AM. I waited around half-asleep for twenty minutes before I got dressed and sleepily stumbled into the car. Franky arrived to keep Dad and I company on the drive, and we set off for the marvelous town of Flint. At four freaking AM. And about an hour into the drive, the car starts making weird clunky noises, and Dad pulls over. He discovers we have a flat tire, and he and Franky check the trunk for a spare. We had a spare, but no jack to fix it with. After sitting on the side of the highway for ten minutes or so (and the people are just rudely passing us, not even bothering to help), Dad starts to cautiously drive on the side, looking for some place to change the tire.
We drive in one direction, then turn onto the opposite direction highway thinger for an exit. We arrive in the town of Pinconning, (they make cheese!) and find a gas station. That doesn't open until 8AM. Dad keeps driving slowly, making a hell of a lot of noise and vibrating the hell out of the car, until we arrive at another gas station that was miraculously open. He borrowed a jack from some guy across the road at a diner (at 5AM, really?), and we set off on our way. I was very very nervous and heart-broken. After Saturday's cancellation and waiting around all day, it would have been just my luck to miss the second flight and not get to see Nik at all.
We arrive in Flint at 7:30AM. I make a dash for the plane, which the boarding person said I absolutely certainly was going to miss if I didn't hurry hurry hurry hurry hurry, and waved good-bye, promising to call if things got shitty and cancelled again. After the screening BS, I sit at the gate for another twenty minutes before they even start boarding, which makes me very angry with the Hurry Hurry Guy. We board, I'm sitting next to a huge guy who takes up a ridiculous amount of seat. The flight is short and uneventful, and the Detroit airport is way less confusing than Atlanta's. They even have a neat underground passageway thinger with music that has lights to go along with it, and it was awesome. Unfortunatly my iPod failed to video capture just how awesome it was.
The flight to Nashville was fucking confusing as fuck. This chatty little boy sat next to me, and talked the entire way about how he wished we were there yet, and were we leaving, and was it close, and ohmygodpleaseshutup. The plane had to get inspected and de-iced before we could fly, so we departed about 45 minutes late. And then the captain couldn't make up his mind about how long the flight was going to be; it changed from 45 minutes to 60 minutes to 90 minutes. Once we finally landed I had a hell of a time finding and following the signs (there were a fuckton of people there), and after I finally found the baggage claim place I was super confused about which of the conveyer belts were going to be giving me back my bag.
So I'm staring at the screens, trying to make sense of it, wondering how I'm going to find Nik, and he jumps out at me from the side. I don't even remember what he said, except that it scared the hell out of me. We wait around for the bags to come, and he takes my things like he always does. He complains (jokingly) about how late the plane was, and about how the pizza they ordered was going to be cold and the pizza people were going to be upset. After we pick up the pizza we drive to his parent's house, where we're staying, and I'm greeted by his family again.
After we hang out for a bit, and I throw my things into the room I'm "staying" in, Nik informs me that it's his aunt Di's birthday and we're all going over for the celebration, then a movie. I go along with it, since he'd already said I had to meet his aunt Di (and he threw in something about his family being happy to discover he's not gay (and he totally is)), and his mother, sister, brother, mother's friend and I all pack into the ...minivan thing.
What Nik forgot to tell me was that it wasn't just an aunt Di's birthday thing, it was also a meet-the-grandparents-who-didn't-know-about-you thing, and then a meet Di's not-boyfriend-thing. We had some delicious pizza (there was other stuff, but I didn't want any), watched Di open presents, and then went out to watch Sherlock Holmes. It was an interesting night, with interrogations all around (everyone wants to know how Nik and I met, and why the hell I live in Michigan), but the movie was good. After we get back to his house, Nik's friend Wes stops by.
He was an interesting guy. Very friendly but in a rude sort of way, but funny while being rude. If you know what I mean. And I'm sure you don't because that doesn't make any sense, but that's how it was. I even got a hug from him as soon as we met, which was awesome. And then he commented about how sitting on Nik's lap was the "best seat in the house" and ... Well, that's typical of him, I suppose. After Wes (jokingly!) called me a cunt, he left, and Nik and I went to sleep. I didn't even sleep in the guest room that first night, though you didn't hear that from me. ;3
On Monday Nik went out to lunch with Wes and a bunch of his other friends. I was invited, but I was a.) tired from getting up so early so many days in a row, and b.) not really up to meeting all of Nik's friends and embarrassing the hell out of myself in front of them. And so I slept 'till 4PM (because I'm AWESOME!) and Nik and I watched a marathon of Dirty Jobs with Mike Rowe. One of which we saw SO MUCH MORE of Mike Rowe than you would EVER EVER EVER want to see because he was in a towel for a mudbath and the camera zoomed into the bath but GUESS WHAT WAS RIGHT ABOVE THE CAMERA BEING POKEY IN A TOWEL. I mean, I love Mike Rowe and all, but... Eesh.
Monday night Nik's dad arrived home (he was hunting turkeys on his farm), and we all played board games. Or rather, we all played board games except for Nik's dad who didn't want any part of our "being happy," and Nik's brother who left after the third or fourth game to go play video games online with his imaginary friends. But Nik and Jessie and Nik's mom and I all had fun playing Sorry! Sliders and a game called FLAPDOODLE which you should all own right now. Like really. What are you waiting for. Go get it. Now. I had to sleep in my own bed, since Nik's dad was home, and it was fucking COLD AS HELL. D: I dunno why, either, 'cause Nik's room and every other room except mine and his mom's were freezing fucking cold.
Tuesday Nik's mom made us go out and eat, which was nice. We went to a place called "Urban Flats" which had wonderfully yummy flatbread like pizzathings. Our waiter was this spritey little guy who was dancing and singing all around, and he made the whole thing more fun. Then we picked up the "second" mattress for my bed, since Nik's dad apparently threw a shit-fit about me sleeping on just the air-mattress in there. None of us bothered to tell him that I'd only slept on the bed the one night, and he wouldn't hear me when I said that the mattress was fine. Nik set it up when we got home, to appease his father. Wes came over again to hang out, and Nik had him play through two demos of games he'd downloaded for the xBawkz; Dante's Inferno (which sucked! D: It had a gonkable ammount of nudity (and rape!) and the gameplay was so simple a child could do it) and something about a witch girl, but I cant remember what it was called. She was partially nude too, but only once, and had very pretty pink pistols that she used to shoot things with.
Wednesday Nik invited me to go grocery shopping with him and his family. I politely declined, faked tired, and trashed his house. Later, Nik's mom took him, Jessie and I to see "It's Complicated" which was... Cute, but quite bad at moments, with lines like, "Thanks for the hot coffee!" and "I prefer a lot of semen." We went back to their home, ate Thai food that Nik picked up for us.
Thursday Nik's family was having a sort-of New Year's Eve party, and Jess's'ss' friends came over. Before that, Nik took Jessie and I to Dollar General, and explained to me a neat game called "the bag game." We were all to pick out five one-dollar items, and they had to be funny or random. When we got home, we took all fifteen items (along with the others that Nik's mom had already gotten) and put them into brown paper lunch bags. I went upstairs after that to have some quality "Elysse-Time" which I sort-of missed; just being home along in the quiet. You know, with a side of depression, the occasional tears, and Nik nagging me every five minutes with his, "Are you okay, are you okay, are you okay?" Not that he's a nag, I just... Sometimes need some time to just sit and cry and be alone.
He came back a second time to plead that I go downstairs and meet the guests with him to play the bag game, and I was going to refuse until he mentioned that his dad was going to come and get me if I didn't go down with Nik, which would have been... Just, unexplainable. I mean to say that Nik's dad is a good guy, and I like him a lot, but there's no way I'm going to explain to him that I really just felt like being alone and being miserable for an hour. I came downstairs like a good little girl, and we played the bag game.
I ended up with five pairs of pantyhose, a pair of shoelaces, party-poppers for the new year, a bag of mints and some gum. Nik took the pantyhose and placed them all over himself, from his head to his arms to his feet. He looked ridiculous. Then all of us played Flapdoodle on teams, until we were laughing so hard we could hardly breathe. The ball dropped, we rang in the new year, and went to bed.
Friday Nik's parents made him take me out to lunch (they're... weird like that. I guess his mom was worried that I wasn't eating enough?), and so we went to Steak & Shake. Nik called my parents to wish them a happy new year, and I got some sort-of depressing news. The place where my mom works, Nokomis, is "officially" getting closed. They're going to take the kids from there and ship them to other "juvinelle corrections facilities" and Mom's going to take a job at the "nearby" facility called Showano (I'm probably spelling that wrong). Which is in Grayling. Which is like an hour away. Mom and I talked about random crap, like we usually do, and then we got food and I hung up on her.
Then Nik's daddy decided it would be an awesome idea for Nik to take Elysse to the mall, because girls like things, and things come from malls and therefore girls like malls. (Which is untrueee I hate the mall so bad when I have no reason to be there.) Fortunately, the mall was PACKED full of people, and so Nik was like, "Heyyyyy, do you wanna not go here after all?" And I was like, "Oh that's fine with me holyshitthankgod." We went to a GameStop instead, to look for games (...wow, it's amazing, right?) and Nik didn't find anything he liked. So we left, talked about Patapon and Loco Roco, and went back to his house.
And his dad was all, "Hey, you didn't go to any mall! You're home too early!" And Nik wasall, "The mall was packed and I dinnit wanna go there so THERE." And then we did nothing for the rest of the day.
Saturday Nik took me to meet another one of his friends (or he just wanted to see his friend and didn't want to be like, "Hey, you stay here, hokay?"), and we hung out at his friends' place for a while before Nik decided it was NOMZ time and he coerced his friend into driving him to get food. I, like an idiot, forgot my coat in Nik's car. We walked into Barnes and Noble's to kill some time and look around, but I pretended like I wasn't interested in books because I'd forgotten my coat with my money in iiittt in Nik's car. After dicking around in there for a while, we stopped into a place called Qdoba and Nik got a fucking gigantic burrito.
And so we went back to Friends' House (I forgot his name, by the way. I'm an idiot... :/ ) and Nik ate his gigantic burrito, they played some pool and watched ridiculous videos on YouTube, and I "beat" Loco Roco 2. Turns out there's an alternate ending if you collect EVERYTHING. And since I'm obsessive like that... Well, you know I'll at least try.
AND THEN IT WAS HOCKEY TIME. Nik's dad, probably on a whim, got tickets for all of us (including Tyler, who apparently refuses to do anything with anyone) to go and see a Predator's game. Against THE MIGHTY FUCKING DUCKS. Now, I'm assuming none of them had ever been to a real game before, but they at least knew a little bit about hockey. ...Sort of. While Nik knew what a zamboni was, he asked after the first period if it was "Half Time." Just... no. xD Predators won, 2 to 1, and I got to see some nice fights. Which is what hockey is all about. Except for all the mean shouting from the Predator's fans, it was a good game. I've never heard hockey fans be so... just plain rude. While they were doing the Ducks' line-up, after each name the entire stadium would shout, "--SUCKS!" There was also some other rude shout about how it was "ALL YOUR FAULT, ALL YOUR FAULT, ALL YOUR FAULT," which I think was directed at the goalies. Like... really.
The one funny thing out of the game, though, was during "The Hey Song." I'm sure you guys remember it from band, right? The one that the brass section plays and everyone else just gets to yell "HEY!" at the appropriate times? Well the Predators people added another line to it. Nik and I weren't sure if it was, "you suck" or "what's up" or " 'sup?", but we spent the rest of the night going, "HEY! ....'sup." Maybe you had to be there.
On the way out, Nik's mom got Tyler and the rest of us some cotton candy, which was fun to play with and led to many jokes about unicorns that aren't really funny out of context. We played a game called Pictureka, which I am awful at (...I'm awful at like, all games. Ever.), and then I went to sleep in Nik's bed. But you can't prove that. ;3
Sunday Nik's parents, (or Nik, I'm not really sure), made us go out to lunch again. We ate at an adorable italian place, though the waiter we had was eerily creepy. He had such an "Edward Cullen" vibe about him that it was... Just icky. I had some lasagna, Nik got something different, and we ate. Then we went home, and Nik's mom took us out to see Did You Hear About The Morgans?. It was a good movie, and it had its touching moments. No really-really gross moments like It's Complicated, which was good. I slept in Nik's room again, but you didn't hear it from me. ;3
Monday (which is yesterday, now, since I type sloooowww) I got up way way too early because Nik is a dickface. I took a shower, cried a lot, said goodbye to his family, cried a lot, got to the airport, cried a lot, left Nik at the airport, cried a lot, arrived in Chicago, cried a lot, got a Cinnabon, cried a lot, boarded for Flint, cried a lot, arrived in Flint, cried a lot, found my dad, cried a lot, got my bag, cried a lot, drove home, cried a lot, got home, cried a lot, called Nik, cried a lot, and got on my computer and then cried a lot. And then I started typing this. Right now I'm so so tired that I'm not quite sure any of this makes any logical sense, but oh well. And I'm sure that some of the stuff is on the wrong days, but that's as best as I could remember.
Now for one more random exchange before I go to sleep, alone, in my own stupid bed in Michigan.
I'm standing in the screening line, trying not to cry, and the security guard guy looks at me and says, "Hey little lady, are you all right?" I nod to him, trying to just get through it, knowing that I can't talk when I'm crying because it never comes out right.
He gives me a look and goes, "You sure?"
This time I try to speak, try to tell him that I'm fine. "Y-yeah," I half manage. I know I'm not convincing, as I start shoving things to be screened into the little plastic bins.
"Well who are you leavin' behind?" He inquires, which just makes me cry a little bit more. I'm sure he only noticed I was leaving someone behind because Nik got me a ridiculous bouquet of flowers to take along with me, which I was sure were going to be crushed and wilty by thetime I got home. (And they were.)
"My bo-" and my voice cracks, just like I knew it would. "My boyfriend," I finally manage to stutter, but it sounds stupid even to my own ears. Boyfriend is a stupid word. It doesn't say anthing about how much it hurts to leave him behind again. Before, we were even; I'd left once, he'd left once. Now we weren't. I was leaving again.
"That's too bad," the guy said, looking concerend. I wonder just how many crying people he has to console a day. Just how many people leave their loved ones behind, crying all the way? "Well when's he coming to see you?" The guy asks. I'm sure he was trying to cheer me up. You look awfully stupid crying in an airport, anyway. Probably look even stupider talking to a guard and crying.
"I'ono," I half-manage. This doesn't stop Mr. Cheerful Guard.
"Well when are you coming back to see him?"
"I'ono," I say again. I know I must sound completely stupid.
"So when are you two gonna be together again?" He looks flabbergasted, and concerened.
"I dunno," I half-shrug, trying not to cry more. I have no idea when I'll see him again. No idea how long it'll be.
"Well it sounds to me like you need to get on the telephone, little lady, and set up a day. You have a nice day now," he says, as I slide my possessions along in a succession of stupid plastic bins.
"Yeah, you too," I squeak. And for a little while, I stopped crying.
TEH END.
Now there are wilty flowers on my counter and a bed that doesn't have a Nik in it, but at least I'll be able to sleep and not cry for a little while.
So long and g'night.
We had my Ohio grandma up for Christmas, and before that my cousin Cassie and her daughter Lindsey came up to visit. Jordan brought MeMaw with him from college (she lives like an hour away from where he's at), and they got to our house on Wednesday. Thursday we all hung out, and then on Friday it was Christmas.
As per tradition, my siblings (namely my brother) got me up at a ridiculous hour, 7AM. We were all sitting bleary-eyed around the Christmas tree, clinging to stockings stuffed with goodies and waiting for the cinnamon rolls (a Christmas breakfast tradition) to finish baking. I unwrapped a new iPod Nano (so my precious Noah has been passed on to my dad, and my new Ezio took his place), and a used PSP. I also got Loco Roco 2 (for the PSP) and a bunch of random iPod accessiories, from a plastic snap-on case (that I had on for a few hours, then took off, since it kept randomly turning it on...) to a plug-in-the-wall charger and a car adapter charger. ...Which is kind of baffling, since I have a laptop I use to charge. Jordan and I messed with the video feature of it, and then Mom and Dad went back to bed. Jordan and I played some Left For Dead 2 on his teeny-tiny TV, Heather played with her new laptop, and Jordan fangirled over his new iPod Touch.
Grandma and Grandpa called, and were whining about the weather, and so Dad said we could just do Christmas with them some other day. Then Great Grandma and Cheryl called, and whined, and Dad told them the same thing. A few hours later (at like 11), they call back again, saying they'll be over soon, and that we're doing Christmas today. Mom goes into an absolute panic cleaning and cooking and setting up. The guests arrive, it's cold and wet and rainy, and everyone complains about how shitty the drive home is going to be because of the rain/snow/freezing whatever. Endlessly complaining about it kind of ruined the day. So we exchanged cards, and they left, and Christmas was over. I finally finished packing just before I went to bed, and pretendedto sleep.
Saturday I got up with my Dad's alarm at 7AM, and he and Franky and I all crowded into the truck with my bags, and we arrived at Flint at 9AM. The flight wasn't scheduled to leave until just before 11, so I sat around at the airport, waiting. And then the fun shit happened. They started delaying the flight. First half an hour, then another fifteen minutes on top of that, then another half an hour, then another... It was finally just before 2PM when they called me up to the counter (and I was like, "OH MY GOD WHAT DID I DO!?!?!?!") and informed me that the flight I was supposed to take from Chicago to Nashville was cancelled. And that there were no other flights available to Nashville for that day. If I wanted to, I could get on the flight to Nashville tomorrow at 8AM. I said that was fine (I mean, what the hell else was I going to do?).
Then I had to wait for them to find my checked bag and return it to me. And I had to call my dad and ask him to pick me up again, to which he replied, "You're not serious. That really sucks." For the record, Flint is a two hour drive from where I live, and so I got to sit on the really confortable metal chairs and wait for him to come get me. I ate at the only food place they had, some little grill, and then went home. We had steaks for dinner, and chocolate pie for desert. I threw my clothes in the washer so I could wear them again the next day, and went to bed at like 1AM.
Sunday Dad's alarm went off at 4AM. I waited around half-asleep for twenty minutes before I got dressed and sleepily stumbled into the car. Franky arrived to keep Dad and I company on the drive, and we set off for the marvelous town of Flint. At four freaking AM. And about an hour into the drive, the car starts making weird clunky noises, and Dad pulls over. He discovers we have a flat tire, and he and Franky check the trunk for a spare. We had a spare, but no jack to fix it with. After sitting on the side of the highway for ten minutes or so (and the people are just rudely passing us, not even bothering to help), Dad starts to cautiously drive on the side, looking for some place to change the tire.
We drive in one direction, then turn onto the opposite direction highway thinger for an exit. We arrive in the town of Pinconning, (they make cheese!) and find a gas station. That doesn't open until 8AM. Dad keeps driving slowly, making a hell of a lot of noise and vibrating the hell out of the car, until we arrive at another gas station that was miraculously open. He borrowed a jack from some guy across the road at a diner (at 5AM, really?), and we set off on our way. I was very very nervous and heart-broken. After Saturday's cancellation and waiting around all day, it would have been just my luck to miss the second flight and not get to see Nik at all.
We arrive in Flint at 7:30AM. I make a dash for the plane, which the boarding person said I absolutely certainly was going to miss if I didn't hurry hurry hurry hurry hurry, and waved good-bye, promising to call if things got shitty and cancelled again. After the screening BS, I sit at the gate for another twenty minutes before they even start boarding, which makes me very angry with the Hurry Hurry Guy. We board, I'm sitting next to a huge guy who takes up a ridiculous amount of seat. The flight is short and uneventful, and the Detroit airport is way less confusing than Atlanta's. They even have a neat underground passageway thinger with music that has lights to go along with it, and it was awesome. Unfortunatly my iPod failed to video capture just how awesome it was.
The flight to Nashville was fucking confusing as fuck. This chatty little boy sat next to me, and talked the entire way about how he wished we were there yet, and were we leaving, and was it close, and ohmygodpleaseshutup. The plane had to get inspected and de-iced before we could fly, so we departed about 45 minutes late. And then the captain couldn't make up his mind about how long the flight was going to be; it changed from 45 minutes to 60 minutes to 90 minutes. Once we finally landed I had a hell of a time finding and following the signs (there were a fuckton of people there), and after I finally found the baggage claim place I was super confused about which of the conveyer belts were going to be giving me back my bag.
So I'm staring at the screens, trying to make sense of it, wondering how I'm going to find Nik, and he jumps out at me from the side. I don't even remember what he said, except that it scared the hell out of me. We wait around for the bags to come, and he takes my things like he always does. He complains (jokingly) about how late the plane was, and about how the pizza they ordered was going to be cold and the pizza people were going to be upset. After we pick up the pizza we drive to his parent's house, where we're staying, and I'm greeted by his family again.
After we hang out for a bit, and I throw my things into the room I'm "staying" in, Nik informs me that it's his aunt Di's birthday and we're all going over for the celebration, then a movie. I go along with it, since he'd already said I had to meet his aunt Di (and he threw in something about his family being happy to discover he's not gay (and he totally is)), and his mother, sister, brother, mother's friend and I all pack into the ...minivan thing.
What Nik forgot to tell me was that it wasn't just an aunt Di's birthday thing, it was also a meet-the-grandparents-who-didn't-know-about-you thing, and then a meet Di's not-boyfriend-thing. We had some delicious pizza (there was other stuff, but I didn't want any), watched Di open presents, and then went out to watch Sherlock Holmes. It was an interesting night, with interrogations all around (everyone wants to know how Nik and I met, and why the hell I live in Michigan), but the movie was good. After we get back to his house, Nik's friend Wes stops by.
He was an interesting guy. Very friendly but in a rude sort of way, but funny while being rude. If you know what I mean. And I'm sure you don't because that doesn't make any sense, but that's how it was. I even got a hug from him as soon as we met, which was awesome. And then he commented about how sitting on Nik's lap was the "best seat in the house" and ... Well, that's typical of him, I suppose. After Wes (jokingly!) called me a cunt, he left, and Nik and I went to sleep. I didn't even sleep in the guest room that first night, though you didn't hear that from me. ;3
On Monday Nik went out to lunch with Wes and a bunch of his other friends. I was invited, but I was a.) tired from getting up so early so many days in a row, and b.) not really up to meeting all of Nik's friends and embarrassing the hell out of myself in front of them. And so I slept 'till 4PM (because I'm AWESOME!) and Nik and I watched a marathon of Dirty Jobs with Mike Rowe. One of which we saw SO MUCH MORE of Mike Rowe than you would EVER EVER EVER want to see because he was in a towel for a mudbath and the camera zoomed into the bath but GUESS WHAT WAS RIGHT ABOVE THE CAMERA BEING POKEY IN A TOWEL. I mean, I love Mike Rowe and all, but... Eesh.
Monday night Nik's dad arrived home (he was hunting turkeys on his farm), and we all played board games. Or rather, we all played board games except for Nik's dad who didn't want any part of our "being happy," and Nik's brother who left after the third or fourth game to go play video games online with his imaginary friends. But Nik and Jessie and Nik's mom and I all had fun playing Sorry! Sliders and a game called FLAPDOODLE which you should all own right now. Like really. What are you waiting for. Go get it. Now. I had to sleep in my own bed, since Nik's dad was home, and it was fucking COLD AS HELL. D: I dunno why, either, 'cause Nik's room and every other room except mine and his mom's were freezing fucking cold.
Tuesday Nik's mom made us go out and eat, which was nice. We went to a place called "Urban Flats" which had wonderfully yummy flatbread like pizzathings. Our waiter was this spritey little guy who was dancing and singing all around, and he made the whole thing more fun. Then we picked up the "second" mattress for my bed, since Nik's dad apparently threw a shit-fit about me sleeping on just the air-mattress in there. None of us bothered to tell him that I'd only slept on the bed the one night, and he wouldn't hear me when I said that the mattress was fine. Nik set it up when we got home, to appease his father. Wes came over again to hang out, and Nik had him play through two demos of games he'd downloaded for the xBawkz; Dante's Inferno (which sucked! D: It had a gonkable ammount of nudity (and rape!) and the gameplay was so simple a child could do it) and something about a witch girl, but I cant remember what it was called. She was partially nude too, but only once, and had very pretty pink pistols that she used to shoot things with.
Wednesday Nik invited me to go grocery shopping with him and his family. I politely declined, faked tired, and trashed his house. Later, Nik's mom took him, Jessie and I to see "It's Complicated" which was... Cute, but quite bad at moments, with lines like, "Thanks for the hot coffee!" and "I prefer a lot of semen." We went back to their home, ate Thai food that Nik picked up for us.
Thursday Nik's family was having a sort-of New Year's Eve party, and Jess's'ss' friends came over. Before that, Nik took Jessie and I to Dollar General, and explained to me a neat game called "the bag game." We were all to pick out five one-dollar items, and they had to be funny or random. When we got home, we took all fifteen items (along with the others that Nik's mom had already gotten) and put them into brown paper lunch bags. I went upstairs after that to have some quality "Elysse-Time" which I sort-of missed; just being home along in the quiet. You know, with a side of depression, the occasional tears, and Nik nagging me every five minutes with his, "Are you okay, are you okay, are you okay?" Not that he's a nag, I just... Sometimes need some time to just sit and cry and be alone.
He came back a second time to plead that I go downstairs and meet the guests with him to play the bag game, and I was going to refuse until he mentioned that his dad was going to come and get me if I didn't go down with Nik, which would have been... Just, unexplainable. I mean to say that Nik's dad is a good guy, and I like him a lot, but there's no way I'm going to explain to him that I really just felt like being alone and being miserable for an hour. I came downstairs like a good little girl, and we played the bag game.
I ended up with five pairs of pantyhose, a pair of shoelaces, party-poppers for the new year, a bag of mints and some gum. Nik took the pantyhose and placed them all over himself, from his head to his arms to his feet. He looked ridiculous. Then all of us played Flapdoodle on teams, until we were laughing so hard we could hardly breathe. The ball dropped, we rang in the new year, and went to bed.
Friday Nik's parents made him take me out to lunch (they're... weird like that. I guess his mom was worried that I wasn't eating enough?), and so we went to Steak & Shake. Nik called my parents to wish them a happy new year, and I got some sort-of depressing news. The place where my mom works, Nokomis, is "officially" getting closed. They're going to take the kids from there and ship them to other "juvinelle corrections facilities" and Mom's going to take a job at the "nearby" facility called Showano (I'm probably spelling that wrong). Which is in Grayling. Which is like an hour away. Mom and I talked about random crap, like we usually do, and then we got food and I hung up on her.
Then Nik's daddy decided it would be an awesome idea for Nik to take Elysse to the mall, because girls like things, and things come from malls and therefore girls like malls. (Which is untrueee I hate the mall so bad when I have no reason to be there.) Fortunately, the mall was PACKED full of people, and so Nik was like, "Heyyyyy, do you wanna not go here after all?" And I was like, "Oh that's fine with me holyshitthankgod." We went to a GameStop instead, to look for games (...wow, it's amazing, right?) and Nik didn't find anything he liked. So we left, talked about Patapon and Loco Roco, and went back to his house.
And his dad was all, "Hey, you didn't go to any mall! You're home too early!" And Nik wasall, "The mall was packed and I dinnit wanna go there so THERE." And then we did nothing for the rest of the day.
Saturday Nik took me to meet another one of his friends (or he just wanted to see his friend and didn't want to be like, "Hey, you stay here, hokay?"), and we hung out at his friends' place for a while before Nik decided it was NOMZ time and he coerced his friend into driving him to get food. I, like an idiot, forgot my coat in Nik's car. We walked into Barnes and Noble's to kill some time and look around, but I pretended like I wasn't interested in books because I'd forgotten my coat with my money in iiittt in Nik's car. After dicking around in there for a while, we stopped into a place called Qdoba and Nik got a fucking gigantic burrito.
And so we went back to Friends' House (I forgot his name, by the way. I'm an idiot... :/ ) and Nik ate his gigantic burrito, they played some pool and watched ridiculous videos on YouTube, and I "beat" Loco Roco 2. Turns out there's an alternate ending if you collect EVERYTHING. And since I'm obsessive like that... Well, you know I'll at least try.
AND THEN IT WAS HOCKEY TIME. Nik's dad, probably on a whim, got tickets for all of us (including Tyler, who apparently refuses to do anything with anyone) to go and see a Predator's game. Against THE MIGHTY FUCKING DUCKS. Now, I'm assuming none of them had ever been to a real game before, but they at least knew a little bit about hockey. ...Sort of. While Nik knew what a zamboni was, he asked after the first period if it was "Half Time." Just... no. xD Predators won, 2 to 1, and I got to see some nice fights. Which is what hockey is all about. Except for all the mean shouting from the Predator's fans, it was a good game. I've never heard hockey fans be so... just plain rude. While they were doing the Ducks' line-up, after each name the entire stadium would shout, "--SUCKS!" There was also some other rude shout about how it was "ALL YOUR FAULT, ALL YOUR FAULT, ALL YOUR FAULT," which I think was directed at the goalies. Like... really.
The one funny thing out of the game, though, was during "The Hey Song." I'm sure you guys remember it from band, right? The one that the brass section plays and everyone else just gets to yell "HEY!" at the appropriate times? Well the Predators people added another line to it. Nik and I weren't sure if it was, "you suck" or "what's up" or " 'sup?", but we spent the rest of the night going, "HEY! ....'sup." Maybe you had to be there.
On the way out, Nik's mom got Tyler and the rest of us some cotton candy, which was fun to play with and led to many jokes about unicorns that aren't really funny out of context. We played a game called Pictureka, which I am awful at (...I'm awful at like, all games. Ever.), and then I went to sleep in Nik's bed. But you can't prove that. ;3
Sunday Nik's parents, (or Nik, I'm not really sure), made us go out to lunch again. We ate at an adorable italian place, though the waiter we had was eerily creepy. He had such an "Edward Cullen" vibe about him that it was... Just icky. I had some lasagna, Nik got something different, and we ate. Then we went home, and Nik's mom took us out to see Did You Hear About The Morgans?. It was a good movie, and it had its touching moments. No really-really gross moments like It's Complicated, which was good. I slept in Nik's room again, but you didn't hear it from me. ;3
Monday (which is yesterday, now, since I type sloooowww) I got up way way too early because Nik is a dickface. I took a shower, cried a lot, said goodbye to his family, cried a lot, got to the airport, cried a lot, left Nik at the airport, cried a lot, arrived in Chicago, cried a lot, got a Cinnabon, cried a lot, boarded for Flint, cried a lot, arrived in Flint, cried a lot, found my dad, cried a lot, got my bag, cried a lot, drove home, cried a lot, got home, cried a lot, called Nik, cried a lot, and got on my computer and then cried a lot. And then I started typing this. Right now I'm so so tired that I'm not quite sure any of this makes any logical sense, but oh well. And I'm sure that some of the stuff is on the wrong days, but that's as best as I could remember.
Now for one more random exchange before I go to sleep, alone, in my own stupid bed in Michigan.
I'm standing in the screening line, trying not to cry, and the security guard guy looks at me and says, "Hey little lady, are you all right?" I nod to him, trying to just get through it, knowing that I can't talk when I'm crying because it never comes out right.
He gives me a look and goes, "You sure?"
This time I try to speak, try to tell him that I'm fine. "Y-yeah," I half manage. I know I'm not convincing, as I start shoving things to be screened into the little plastic bins.
"Well who are you leavin' behind?" He inquires, which just makes me cry a little bit more. I'm sure he only noticed I was leaving someone behind because Nik got me a ridiculous bouquet of flowers to take along with me, which I was sure were going to be crushed and wilty by thetime I got home. (And they were.)
"My bo-" and my voice cracks, just like I knew it would. "My boyfriend," I finally manage to stutter, but it sounds stupid even to my own ears. Boyfriend is a stupid word. It doesn't say anthing about how much it hurts to leave him behind again. Before, we were even; I'd left once, he'd left once. Now we weren't. I was leaving again.
"That's too bad," the guy said, looking concerend. I wonder just how many crying people he has to console a day. Just how many people leave their loved ones behind, crying all the way? "Well when's he coming to see you?" The guy asks. I'm sure he was trying to cheer me up. You look awfully stupid crying in an airport, anyway. Probably look even stupider talking to a guard and crying.
"I'ono," I half-manage. This doesn't stop Mr. Cheerful Guard.
"Well when are you coming back to see him?"
"I'ono," I say again. I know I must sound completely stupid.
"So when are you two gonna be together again?" He looks flabbergasted, and concerened.
"I dunno," I half-shrug, trying not to cry more. I have no idea when I'll see him again. No idea how long it'll be.
"Well it sounds to me like you need to get on the telephone, little lady, and set up a day. You have a nice day now," he says, as I slide my possessions along in a succession of stupid plastic bins.
"Yeah, you too," I squeak. And for a little while, I stopped crying.
TEH END.
Now there are wilty flowers on my counter and a bed that doesn't have a Nik in it, but at least I'll be able to sleep and not cry for a little while.
So long and g'night.