2004-03-04

I'm in love with my life

And so, I'm home. I have been invited to move in with Michelle and her family (they live in Daphne, which is near Mobile; that's where I've been for the past week and a half or so). Considering how I've been planning on moving to Mobile this summer anyway, I just may take her up on that. My newest best friend is my four year old cousin, Durand, who's ridiculously adorable and lots and lots of fun. I miss him. I talked to him on the phone yesterday, and he was like, "You come 'home' now!" I really regretted having to leave, but my boyfriend was issuing threats if I did not come home soon. Plus, I needed more birth control pills and clothing, so it really wasn't an option.

James has been wonderful. We talked every night for a few hours while I was gone. Tuesday he met us (me, Michelle, and the kids) at one of the Pensacola malls. At first, Durand was very jealous, but then he decided since I was friends with James, James was his friend, too. I told you that kid is adorable. When Durnad first saw my skull and crossbones belt buckle, he was amazed and asked if I was a pirate. It was really cute. James has this really phenomenal pirate belt buckle, so when we met him at the mall, I showed him that, and James's skull and stars tattoo. Later, we went to Hot Topic, and Durnad grabbed James's wrist and pointed to every skull he saw and then to James's wrist. He was very excited. I miss my little bebopping Durand.

After we packed all of my things in to James's truck, and bid everyone goodbye (Durand was quite upset), James surprised me with a present: the Kanye West cd I have been wanting since my New Orleans trip (he's soo good). If that wasn't enough, he swept me off my feet by getting us a beachside suite for the evening (ridiculously nice, tres cher), and taking me for seafood at this super nice place down the street. We had a dozen of raw oysters (James's second time *smiles*), we both had clam chowder, and James had a shrimp plate while I had the Surf and Turf; lobster and steak. Might I mention he missed me a lot, and this was all for our 9 month anniversary (which was Monday). We also ordered some key lime pie to go, and went back to our room and had mind blowing sex, which I was quite dizzy after. We got up early (5:00!) and after some deliberation and a bath, had breakfast outside near the pools and beach. James spotted a Marine fresh out of boot camp, and pointed out al the different ways he could tell. Sure enough, when we left later, there was a Semper Fi sticker on their car. Hehehehe, I love my boyfriend. After breakfast, we took a nap, and then checked out at 11.

The weather was very nice yesterday, very spring-y. Somehow while playing our Punch Bug game, we took a wrong turn and got lost (which we didn't notice until later). We kept driving along the road we were on (and saw some rather odd things, one being a real live woman working in her garden wearing a bonnet. Not too long afterwards, we came upon a sign: Coffee County. (That's where I live). I have no idea what happened, but somehow taking a wrong turn shaved off two hours off of our drive home. How crazy is that? Dad was off, so he was home when we got there. How did my missing-in-action-for-a-day-while-I-was-with-James stint go? Perfectly. I just said that James had offered to drive to Pensacola and meet us there (true) that morning (false) so we could celebrate our anniversary (true). No questions were asked. I win.

So this year was my first time ever going to Mardi Gras, and it was a lot of fun. Supposedly, Mobile started Mardi Gras, and then New Orleans caught on and made it bigger (because it is the 'Big Easy', after all). There was no flashing (it's illegal, and one girl did go to jail for it while we were there; ah, Cops: Mardi Gras. I got a ton of beads, some of them really nice. They also threw other things, like Mardi Gras cups, stuffed animals, flowers, doubloons, and of course Moon Pies and other goodies. I can't even begin to count how many Moon Pies I've consumed over the past two weeks. All the guys on the floats wore very scary masks which reminded me of something a serial killer might don. Michelle's husband, Cliff, is in one of the Mardi Gras societies, which was neat because he was on a float one night (however, his crewe's masks were nice and gold and not very scary). His dad has an office RIGHT near where the parades were, so we had easy parking, nice bathroom to use, and free drinks/food. I met a lot of neat people, to include an older guy that kept flirting with me. He was actually good looking for his age, and had a nice personality, and could cook really well. However, James is already older than me, good looking, cooks well, so I'll stick with him, hehe. We went to the day parades on Fat Tuesday (we went to the night parades before that, and it was going to be raining on Tuesday night), and there were super neat Dr. Suess floats. Surprisingly, I caught the least that day, but it's all good. I came home with two big bags of all the things I had caught. Also, on Fat Tuesday, during the last (day) parade, this guy kept pointing to Michelle, who was standing right beside me. He kept pointing, and wanting us to follow his float since it was about to stop, so we did. Michelle went up to the float, and the guy shook his head, and apparently he'd been pointing to me. I went up there, and he dropped a huge bag of medium-large silver beads in my hand. I was so surprised. After all the guys got off the float, one got off (I don't think it was the same guy) who was fairly attractive and kept trying to chat up Michelle. It was funny. I got blown a lot of kisses from men on the floats, I must say. But nothing gross or anything. I must say, Mardi Gras is a lot of fun. Especially with the kids. Those boys will dive after things, and come home with tons of great stuff.

The day I went to Daphne, my grandmother went into the hospital with complaints of chest pains, not being able to breathe well, and increased sleepiness (she would sleep for three days in a row). They're not sure what she had, but gave her a heart catheter and found that 3 of her 4 arteries were heavily clogged; one of them 90%, the other two 60 %. If she were younger, she would have had open heart surgery, but she's not and would not have made it. Her heart itself is very healthy, but her arteries are all clogged up. They can't put stints in there and do the balloon procedure, because instead of it being 3 or 4 stints, it would be more like 13 or 14, and that's just not good. They let her out of the hospital yesterday, and I am proud to say that I went to see her as often as I could. I'm very worried, especially about my grandadd. He's taking it pretty hard, especially since my aunt Edna just died last month, and that was my grandmother's twin sister who lived with them for a while, so the three of them were very close. Also, he has diabetes and is struggling to keep weight on right now. In other words, I'm very worried about them. But I did go see them as much as I could.

While I was gone, I finally took my driver's test. And failed. What the fuck is a safe sudden stop?! I know now, but had no clue what the woman was asking me to do then, and thus failed. That, and my turns are too wide and she said I changed lanes once without turning my blinker on, but I think this was when I was turning too wide. Yeah, I cried. I'm nineteen and still do not have a license. However, James is registering the Focus this month, and is taking me soon. So there's hope after all.

And for the best news yet: James and I are either moving to Birmingham or Mobile soon. By soon, I mean when he returns from his Boston trip this summer. At first, he only wanted to move to Pensacola (which I wouldn't hate at all, but then I would have to pay out-of-state tuition, which is a problem), but then when he saw how happy I was in Mobile Daphne, he agreed to move there, too. Suggested it, actually. That boy is amazing. He has no doubts this time, or anything, and is quite serious about it. I still kind of want to move to Birmingham, but I'm thinking the Mobile area might be a better idea. I'd be closer to the people I love (Durand, Michelle, Uncle Donald, etc), plus hello: SEAFOOD. Cliff found out I loved seafood and bought 10 pounds of fresh, spicy crawfish while I was there, and it was divine. I'm very excited with where my life is going right now, basically. While I still want out of my house asap, I'm no longer depressed (well, if I am, it's a significantly lower amount of depression), which is a pretty big step for me. I'm happy, which is something I haven't been able to say for quite some time. I'm more optimistic, and I actually feel more independent. This month has taught me a lot, being away so much. I love my (immediate) family, but I don't need to be here anymore, and am taking conscious steps to remedy that and to get back into school. I'm very happy. Also, my hair looks quite nice lately. Even though I am growing it out, I have found a new style for it. How great is that? I've gained a little weight the past month, but I can work out and fix that. Despite pre-period breakout, my skin stayed pretty clear while I was gone. I look good. I'm proud. I guess I have more self-worth and confidence, too. And I'm motivated, which is ALWAYS good. I thank God I have such a patient, loving boyfriend who has helped me so much. Really, what would I do without him? And I'm also super thankful that I do have other people that care so much about me and have helped me in ways that my own parents have not. If you've been in this situation, you know what a relief and a fresh breath of sparkling, clean air that is. I'm so happy and optimistic right now. Also, hanging out with Durand has made me want kids one day after all. That kid was a lot of fun, and so sweet. He was wild, don't misunderstand, but I was firm (read: not harsh, but not letting him control me, either) with him, and he was good (with me). I need to send him some Silly Putty soon. He begged to come home with me, but he has a trip to Disney World planned for this week, so he could not. Anyway.

Alright, the house has not been touched (though it has been vacuumed) since I was gone, so I'm off to clean parts of it now. While listening to either Kanye West or Liz Phair, of course. I did not take my music with me and instead listened to all the local radio stations. Okay, quick story: Durand is obsessed with my Hello Kitty ring, and likes to hide it from me, and if I ask him about it, he grins and says triumphantly, "I tricked you!" He's so funny. When we went to Hot Topic, I showed him all the Hello Kitty goodies, and he was very excited. He's so cute. Anyway, Michelle also became enamored with my Hello Kitty jewelry, so one day when we were shopping, I showed her some Hello Kitty tees I found. One of them said Bling Bling, another said Fo Sizzle, etc. etc. Michelle was very confused, and had no idea what Fo Sizzle meant, so I tried explaining Snoop Dogg and everything. Even my dad knows who Snoop Dogg is! Anyway, I made her listen to rap, and showed her different ways to attach 'izzle' to things, and how it was used, etc, etc. I also taught her the elements of crunk, and made her identify difffernt crunk songs and how she could tell it was crunk. I'm very proud of the progress I made with her, hahaha. In other words, I had LOTS of fun while I was gone, and lots of fun with James too, of course.

While I was gone, I had a cup of (drip) coffee every morning, and occassionally we would go to the PJ's down the street (yes, they have a PJ's too) and get iced mochas or whatever. For the last two and a half days, I've had terrible headaches. This morning, my friend Dave suggested I drink some coffee, and badabing, it worked like a charm. That's right, the caffeine headaches have hit again. I had two cups of coffee and now I'm very wired. Sidenote: In New Orleans, I saw a coffee place called Espress(o?) Yourself. I thought it was very cute.

Anyway, on to unpacking (eek!) and using my wiredness for good. Holla back.