23 July, 2011
Ooo... I have no idea how I finally got the text to work but yay... I am writing from my phone for the first time since I got it... I am sitting at Brian's parents waiting for I dunno what, I guess for them to finally finish loading the truck or something. We got here and
2 August, 2011
Obviously I have written since that up there, but I had it sitting unfinished so I figured I'd use it to write this entry...
*sigh* this is going to be a very long story.
So, starting from that point up t here... I really wanted to write a little every day to at least keep track of what, when, who, etc., but I didn't ever have the time, Brian hates my journal shit and Facebook, so the least I got in was "checking in" on FB so I could at least keep track a we bit on what was done on what days. So. Like I was saying up there, we got there, and I guess what happened was that his sister-in-law had just started packing that morning and wasn't near to ready... We ended up leaving I think after 9. We stopped at McDonalds and a gas station, and of course my order got fucked up. The kids, who take two bites and want no more, theirs are always right... I gave Paige the sandwich that we both ordered, I got to the last sandwich, which should have been the same as that one, and it was wrong... and I couldn't eat it. She ate like 2 bites of the sammich, literally, and because she is 7 and teeny, it looked totally intact... So, eventually a little while later, Brian stopped and got me the correct sammich, as I was digging around in the junk food bags for something to eat because I was so hungry.
Well, we drove and caught up to his parents and brother and them, when we stopped for that McDonalds, he told them to keep going... then, they proceeded to stop every freaking hour... gas, bathroom, and like over an hour at lunch time... because they were just all disorganized and shit... I get frustrated because I have made heaps of long car trips and I have learned how to minimize stops... food, bathroom, gas - ONE STOP. I know with little kids that isn't always possible, but I gave allowances for that in my mind... often it wasn't the kids... And the lunch break was way too long because his mother wasn't ordering her food until we were done with ours pretty much! On top of the stopping, they drove the speed limit (his brother and dad took turns driving) and their van was slow going up hill so though they had on cruise control, as did we, we'd catch up to them on hills and Brian would have to hit the brake, reset cruise after argh.
It got close to time to stop, and though Brian had a town and a tentative hotel chosen, they passed right by it... We were on a limited budget and didn't want to pay more than a certain amount for a hotel... the further we drove, the more expensive and less frequent hotels became... We ended up at a place that was more than we wanted to pay, wasn't the worst place ever, but it was in a dive of a town. We had almost no choices for food, and ended up at a Shoney's for dinner. Meh. When we got back from dinner, our room was still not cool, and since there seemed to be trouble with it before we left, the girl had said if when we got back it was still not working right, we could switch to the room downstairs, we called to do so. Of course, the two rooms she mentioned were no longer available, and they switched us around the back to a suite. We ended up with Elle with is for the night, and she ended up in the bed with us >.< The other two slept in their grandparent's room. The trip the next morning was only about 2 hours. We ate the breakfast at the hotel before we headed out, and then we were on our way. Ummm I thought there was more about the ride that I wanted to mention, but I can't remember now...
(oh, the kids didn't bring anything to do in the car, like he asked her to pack... Paige forgot her DS and Devon brought his whatever he has... The sis in law made them all up little travel bags, coloring book, crayons, a few little pieces of candy, and I think some stickers or whatever, each catered to the child and age, it was a nice thought. We brought tons of snacks, and I brought a couple things for Elle to do, but the other two have almost nothing at the house that would have worked in the car...)
We arrive at the house, and it looks really small from the outside... I didn't get too freaked out, as I thought there were four bedrooms... We get inside and people are everywhere, and I stand off in the kitchen a bit out of the way while the bags are all being unloaded and brought in... Brian finally shows me where to put the stuff of ours I wanted to put away and I stood there with my eyes bugging out of my head... He was like "what's wrong?" And of course, I am all "nothing..." and finally shortly later, it came out... but... The room had nothing in it but a couch and a side table. I mean furniture-wise. I knew it must be a pull-out couch, but I was like wtf? We don't even get a real bed? And then I realized... One of the walls was a HALF-WALL... one that opens to the living area, so I guess it used to be a formal dining room or something? It had these little accordion shutters that went across it, but the shutter thing didn't even reach close to halfway up to the ceiling... And the shutter things really weren't made for privacy, so you could see through them for the most part... I literally threw a shit fit... I could not even function. Also, the room was teeny and if the bed was folded out there was no room to open my suitcase.
I know, be grateful blah blah blah, but really, I was under the impression that we were going to have a room, with a BED and a WALL... I could not let it go, and the headache I had got worse and worse, and it was overcast out and all I wanted to do was sleep. Some of them headed for the pool I think, but I stayed behind, and I was so upset about it all, that at one point, I was actually crying... I feel like a big baby, but I felt so fucked up... Brian apologized all day, he thought there was a bed in there, etc... And I tried to explain that I wasn't mad at him, but he felt horrible because I was so upset... He told me I think later that night, or the next day, that he struck a deal with his parents, that they would sleep in that room the last three nights... I said don't worry about it, they paid more than us for the trip, why should they suffer, etc...
So that first night... Paige slept in the room with her grandparents, I think, and Devon in the living room, and Elle with us... This is pretty much the pattern for every night... Elle slept with us every night... Yes, every night in a full size pull-out bed...So, Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday... it rained... So there was no beach. We did manage to eat out some, and do a few things... On Monday, we ordered tickets to Pirates Voyage, which is like a Medieval Times, but with, well, pirates... It is produced and written by Dolly Parton, so we groaned about that, but we still thought it would be good. We got some kind of deal, and got tickets to Ripley's Aquarium when doing so... Sunday, the night we arrived, his sis in law and his mom went to the store... so Brian and I decided we'd go Monday... We went to pick up the tickets to the Pirates thing and for the aquarium, since we figured since it was crap out, we'd do the aquarium... We get all the way down there and they tell us that each person who charged tickets to their card had to be there, with card and ID... *sigh* way to mention that over the phone nimrod! We stopped at the store on the way back... His mom rode with us and Paige and Elle did as well... He and I headed off to pick up a few things, and the kids stayed with his mom at the deli counter to order that stuff... We got our groceries, and a few other things, and headed over to the pharmacy section to see if they had my fave nail polish color (didn't) and while we were over there, his mother called and said that Elle had a diaper emergency.
We headed out to the truck, the diaper wasn't an emergency, and waited. We waited and waited... He finally called her and she said she was checking out then... It took forever! We headed back, and all together went back to the pirate place, everyone who needed to go in, went in, and we headed to the aquarium. Right before we got there, Brian pointed out a place we were going to eat afterwards... It was called Captain George's Seafood Restaurant... I was like "Wutttttt?" Because I really dislike fish, and often, the smell makes me gag... I wasn't happy... We were barely ever consulted about food choices I guess, though when I said something about their menu, Brian said something questioning about me not liking fish, which puzzled me, since I was pretty sure we had had that conversation on many occasions, though I had said there are a few fish things I will eat... and he is pretty much the same? I dunno why that was even questioned... It still puzzles me... anyway...
The aquarium was seriously so packed you couldn't walk... I questioned the safety, as I thought max occupancy must have been reached 2000 people ago... We weren't there all that long, but we saw a chunk of the place, and then we headed to dinner. We walked into the restaurant and the smell of fish, indeed made me gag... >.< I HAD seen there were a few non-fish items on the menu... It was a complete buffet. The place is huge, and pretty nice inside. The buffets are enormous, and there are at least two that have huge sails on them so they look like the front of ships... Not cheesy at all, done really nice... I ate plenty and escorted the (older two) kids to the buffet and bathroom when called for, and in all, it was a nice meal. Not sure we did anything that night...
I can't remember much from Tuesday, another rainy day... I think we actually may have done the SkyWheel that day? Giant ferris wheel that seats like 6 in each enclosed, air conditioned car... Forgot Brian doesn't like heights heh... was pissy we were going at all, as it was overcast and shitty and spritzed on and off... preferred to go on a nice, clear day so I could see for miles! It was fun, nonetheless. We headed to House of Blues for dinner. It was meh. I had been to one I think in Chicago before... and seem to remember it being better, food-wise. Not that it was bad. Not sure we did anything that night either, or any other night really... The next day I think it was, we went to switch our tickets for that Pirate thing from Thursday to Wednesday, since we saw Thursday was meant to be nice out, we figured we'd the store to get a few things, I forget what, specifically... and when we went to check out, I used my food stamp card to pay for the juice, and the bank card got declined. Twice or three times...
Brian pulls up the bank account on his phone, and sees that the money that we had an issue with: the day we originally ordered the tickets, the guy on the phone made a mistake and charged ALL of the tickets to his card, instead of three separate cards... it was charged back immediately, and they even worked with the bank to expedite the money being charged back in less than three days. The night before, he was assured it was in the account. It was NOT. I called and for some reason, though I filed a day late, my unemployment was on the card (a day early)! I used that to pay and we went to the parking lot, meanwhile, he was on the phone with the bank already and stayed on with them for ages. He got a manager person on, and they were speaking directly (again) with the people who did the overcharge and the woman who was working for that company went to bat for us, fighting with the bank lady!!!!! Our bank sucks dick apparently! And then there was this whole thing about the money being tied up for like 10 days, and so the lady from the Pirates thing dealt with the bank card people and got it squared away by the next morning!
We headed to the house, and went to the Pirates thing. We got swapped from the third row to this like tossed in table at the very top... the lady assured every seat had equal viewing and she was wrong... they gave us that table and it was harder to see over the row in front of us than if we were in the tiered seating >.< It was enjoyable though, and the food was really good! After, I think we went home =p
Tomorrow: We finally get to the beach, Other people parenting his kids, Setting a date, Dramazzzz! |
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