*Way Beyond The Wonder Years*

Friday, 1:18pm

Let’s see if I can write this in a timely manner. No guarantees. I guess I can continue later if needed.

It’s Friday and I kinda want to go to the gym early… like at 2 would be ideal so I can be home a little after 4 and can give the dog his meds. I do have to run by the grocery store too, but only for a few things.

I want to go to the river tomorrow. Like very bad. But I have nobody committed to going with me and I also haven’t really went out and asked many people.

I was hoping Danila and some of the kids possibly. But Danila is having her uncle come into town and she wasn’t sure whether he wanted to go. She also didn’t want to “celebrate.” I don’t want to celebrate per se either… that’s kinda why I like to go off the grid and into nature for the vast majority of the day.

I’ve said for decades the 4th is my favorite holiday, but not because of anything to do with what most people celebrate. I love it because it’s the only holiday in summer, my favorite time of year. And usually by this time it’s finally getting a little warm here too. It’s been a day I want to be in nature and be with as many friends/family as possible. If fireworks happen, cool. But I prefer to stay with the dog. And watch from my window or security camera. 😂😂

Although I do consider myself very much a “patriot”, we know the conservatives hijacked that term a long ass time ago. Now being a patriot is something more along the lines of religiously devoted and blindly allegiant. And to a delusional version of history and reality. A white washed, Disneyland version.

I am absolutely a billion times opposed to the Disneyland version of history being pushed and taught in educational institutions and public monuments, etc. I feel this with every bone in my body. There ARE plenty of things that could make people feel bad by what their white ancestors did but so what? We need to sit with that. We need to be humbled. I hate how we act on the world stage like we’re some perfect and moral country. Look at the disgusting things we’re doing right now right in front of our eyes! Even if you ignore history how can you ignore that???

But I believe in the constitution and the civil rights we’ve hard earned. We have the legal rights to insist on the ills of society being remedied. But as we see right here today that there are a lot of bad actors in the way, with a lot of money behind them. The money is currently winning and trying to bring us under their control like the 1950s. Like Russia now.

We’re already in reality brought to our knees. Which is why they’ve gotten so much power- we’re all in debt to just our living expenses and the desire to fill our lives with joy by experiences and things. We get in debt that way, just trying to enjoy life enough to get through the ever increasing difficulties of the mandatory.

Every year I think I can’t get in a worst mood about the holiday than I have before but it never fails that I do. It seems especially and painfully ironic so much fuss is being made that we’re 250 years as an independent country or whatever when we’ve never lost so many rights in such rapid succession in modern times and we’ve never been so close to fully moving out of a democracy. We’ve been creeping closer to an un functional democracy for some time now but now the government has become basically useless and Trump has taken nearly full control.

I dread every day that passes. I don’t think we’ll take the midterms, even if we have an astronomical turnout. The ending of the voting rights act basically made it inevitable we will not. This will beat us down… or maybe (hopefully) be a big incendiary motive in moving us forward to what probably is an inevitability now. A very violent confrontation. January 6 will look like preschool. Possibly the end of our country as we know it, and it’s Trump to blame. Him and those who have quid pro quo’s with him to get what they wanted out of the deal. The republicans that have done nothing to stop him. The billionaires that have spent countless dollars to support the fall of democracy so they are allowed to get richer.

And when the country has an astronomical amount of debt and they’ve broken everything, them rich fucks are taking their money elsewhere. Good luck cleaning that mess up.

Fuck the whole entire country if need be.

They’ve fucked the whole entire country to this point.

I have been thinking more and more how maybe it’s time we just split in 2. Fuck them red states. If they want an authoritarian leader who funds nothing and a society that’s completely ruled by their version of Christianity, then maybe we should let them.

Like really, don’t let the door hit you on the way out. Just kidding, please do.

Of course the process would be an absolute mess and disaster. Trying to reorientate everything. People trying to get from blue states to red and red states to blue. It would be a fucking mess for the rest of the majority of our lifetimes. Nothing would ever be the same.

Even if they hand over the reigns with no drama what so ever, we will never be the same as we were before Donald Trump in most of our lifetimes. The cleanup will take decades, if ever at all.

It’s hilarious to me that they were so hysterical with both Obama and Biden and they never did anything even close to the damage and evils this man is doing.

Conservatives barely see it coming. Even though many are starting to and I’m sure it will be all liberal’s fault somehow.

Donald Trump is ruining the country and overthrowing democracy and throwing an extravagant party to celebrate it. Hope you enjoyed the last 250 years because from this point forward your democratic “rights” are truly an illusion and rapidly disappearing everyday.

Most have no idea until their life encounters the new walls.

I need to go to the gym.

Will I go to the river all by myself??

I will celebrate summer and nature, best things on earth.

There’s a bbq at my sisters that we will be going to.

After I will stay home with the dog and watch the city fireworks from my bedroom window.

I started thinking about Seth and the 4ths we spent together. Getting sad. He left early today and i hoped he left town, but he didn’t. So now i get to see and wonder who he goes to spend time with. The bitch at Applebees certainly.

On Wednesday when I went to the gym I saw him parked at Applebees and I got in a bad mood. I kept saying to myself let him eat that food and work on his dad bod with that bitch and I’ll work on getting my body better. Not like anything is really happening.

I have kandys family shoot on Sunday and I’m kinda nervous about it. Not sure why. I bought Lightroom for the year and I guess I’m kinda nervous about using it. It’s different on the Mac.

Monday, 11:28am

CAMPING WEEK IN REVIEW

Monday- although I’d worked getting ready a considerable amount and we could show up at noon to the camp ground, I still didn’t leave the house until like 130. There is just so much to remember when you’re going camping.

It was cool to have two cars going, now that Mariana has her license and car. Made it easier to fit everything that we needed.

I mixed up all the meals for the dog and divided his meds up into little plastic bags and labeled them with the time and instructions. His heart and mine were both broken when I left him with my dad. I had to tell myself it’s like only a little over 24 hours.

We were sharing the camp location with Danila, she always chooses the same spot. But we got there way before her. I was stressed out because even though I have set my tent up many times and by myself, I was having a hard time this time. I was sweating like crazy! With the help of Mariana and her friend we finally got it up after about half an hour.

I finally got myself a battery powered air pump, so that helped get the air mattresses up and the whole camp to the best my ability. It was sunny and I could see people were already at the river but I knew I probably wouldn’t finish everything in time to go out there that day.

After I was done getting everything ready I decided to hit the dab and eat my first edible. I made sure to buy lots of weed products for the trip lol. I also got a really big bottle of fireball.

I kept expecting Danila to show up but she didn’t. After I smoked I went to check out the river and I was stoked to find that it was much better than the year before. It was fuller and there were several swimming holes, thankfully. I suppose it helped we got out there a month earlier than last year. Although I’d prefer later on in the summer, so we had a better guarantee on the weather.

Danila didn’t show up until after 5… which surprised me. I tried to help her carry some of her shit from her car to our table and camp and she got annoyed I was messing up her organization. My bad… I was overwhelmed earlier and could have used more help so I figure she must be even more since it’s so late. But whatever. She allowed me to help her carry wood to the fire. After that I left her to do it all herself. That’s what she wanted 🤷🏻‍♀️

First night’s dinner was bbq hamburgers and hot dogs. I helped the best I could because I didn’t help much last time as I was always holding the dog. And soon I would be again.

Dinner was good. We made a huge bonfire, as per usual.

I realized with some sadness that this years group camp was different. There was the fact Danila’s youngest wasn’t coming at all and Kandy’s oldest was acting kinda weird and refused to stay the night even though she came and stayed until well after dark. Danila’s oldest daughter couldn’t come until Tuesday and neither could Francisco.

There was some drama last year between Kandy and two of the families that always come and so this year neither are coming at all. I’m kinda disappointed about one of them because I’ve became pretty good friends with them over the years through this yearly camp.

Also one of the girls whose whole family always comes is not coming as she’s getting a divorce and just moved and can’t get away from the business she pretty much runs for her dad now. It was nice that she did come out for the day on Tuesday. Another one of the friends and her large family weren’t staying because she had to go mid week for a biopsy on potential cancer. Plus work as she runs a family business too. She was able to come in the evening several evenings for dinner and fire time. One of the days she got some river time too.

It’s hard as time goes by and people grow up and transition and nothing can ever stay the same.

Idk why, but I felt not good and that I was so full of air… maybe from all the huffing and puffing from setting up the tent and all that? I couldn’t get the feeling to reduce, so in the end I didn’t drink at all- I also didn’t smoke anymore either. I’d take an edible so I was really high but I was offered like 400 times to hit a bong or joint or pipe and I was didn’t feel like it. It also kept the hunger away. I keep having issues with this being full of air.

I stayed at the fire until a little after midnight and decided to go smoke before I went to bed. But once I felt how cold it was I decided to hotbox the car instead of smoke outside or in my tent.

I was really tired but once I hit the bed I felt awake. I couldn’t really fall asleep and I was awake when Mariana came in the tent at 330 am. I’m not sure what time I finally fell asleep as my watch died during the night without being charged.

TUESDAY:

It was slightly overcast when I woke up, but it quickly cleared up. Since I didn’t sleep until late I didn’t wake up until 10. I slowly got up and went to smoke and decided to start with drinking a coke. On vacation I can have plenty cokes, I’d decided. In the end I don’t think there was any more than one day I had more than one.

I came late for breakfast and help a little with the cleanup. It was getting later so I knew I better get my ass together and get down to the river so I could enjoy hours upon hours of river time. I’d been waiting anxiously for this since the last river trip I took last summer. As I be every year.

I got dressed and blew up some floaties with the new machine, which was nice. I took a sizable edible and filled an empty water bottle with a large amount of fireball and some strawberry lemonade. I wasn’t sure what I should mix with fireball and if that even went but it was alright.

It wasn’t a super hot day but it was warm enough. There was wind too but it was warm, so not a problem.

Most of us were out there on blankets. Talking, joking, laughing, having some heart to hearts, drinking, smoking, pigging out. I was depressed because I forgot all our salami and cheese for our Sandwiches. At least we had chips and other munchies.

I sat out and warmed up for at least an hour before I finally got my floaty and got in when most the others also went in. The river is fuller but it also has a slightly stronger current than usual which meant I had to be constantly fighting it with my floaty.

Not usually an issue but the first time I floated from the shallow part to head into a deeper part and I went to kick my left leg to swim against the current it immediately went into a spasm. Omg 😳 ! I immediately switched my leg to stretch the opposite way to counter the spasm and it seizes… but any movement that is not flexing the opposite way of the spasm sends it right back that way.

I was scared as I’ve never had any spasms in water and I didn’t expect this one to come on. I was still in the area I could touch and planted my right foot on the ground and used that to navigate me back up from the deep part. I was scared thinking if I hadn’t had a floaty it would be dangerous… even with the floaty it could have been. I probably would have had to ask for help if I’d gotten into the part I couldn’t touch.

I did not like that one little bit.

I’m a decent swimmer and I’m not scared of the water in normal circumstances. Now I’m seriously nervous.

I stayed down at the river well after everyone else went back up besides Danila and I. We got out there later and I missed Monday and I’d miss tomorrow. I needed as much river as possible!

When I get back from the river Mariana informs me that she went to the store and got a message from Francisco that they aren’t coming that evening after all, rather the next day. This stresses me out because we need more ice. And Mariana just literally came from the store and got none.

Day two dinner was tacos (American) and burritos… I helped cut some of the ingredients. When it was time to eat I was again not too hungry but I wanted to eat before I had to leave. I’d decided to leave at 730ish but because dinner was late to be started and done I didn’t go to leave until 815.

I really didn’t want to go at all but I definitely wanted to see my dog. It had been a nice time setting up and not having to worry about his needs for the time I’d been there but I missed him so much. I knew every second that went by he was waiting for me to get home and wondering when that would be.

Mariana’s boyfriend showed up and he didn’t have an air mattress, so I had to take all my stuff off. I packed up as much as I thought I would need, hoping not to forget anything necessary.

As I was trying to leave I discovered I’d killed the battery in my car so I now needed a jump. Fuck. I finally remembered to try to use this flashlight thing (and remembered to charge it) that my grandma got me years ago that was supposed to be able to jump your car. But- it absolutely did not work. Damn it.

I had to go get Mariana to jump me and it started up pretty quick and then my not wanting to leave switched into let me get tf up outta here. I’m thinking the whole ride home how I can’t wait to see my pooch.

He was super happy to see me and me likewise. I made my way home and immediately took a shower and chilled the rest of the evening. I tried to make a list and prepare things so that I could go back after watching grandma on Wednesday. I had originally doubted I’d want to go back that night but after spending the time I did there I knew I definitely did. If I came Thursday I’d probably waste time in the morning and miss river time.

And honestly I wanted Seth to see me gone more. Did he notice I was gone? I’m sure he did but anything past “notice” wasn’t happening I’m sure. I did my best to not look and see what he’d been doing the time I was gone.

I managed to go to bed at the decent time of midnight.

WEDNESDAY:

Wednesday felt like a special kind of torture. Waking up at 7am and having to go watch grandma was close to the last thing I wanted to do.

And grandma was being difficult with her balance, so it was even more challenging. Then she pooped a whole lot every single time she went. And one time she went in her diaper right when we went to leave the bathroom from going and getting cleaned up.

UGHHHH.

And all I can think about is how my friends were most definitely sitting by and in the beautiful river enjoying warm air. In town it was cold and overcast. Overcast turning to look like imminent rain. Ew.

Mom got home at like 230 and I hoped it would translate to me getting the things I had to do finished quick and off to camping asap. But of course it didn’t.

I ended up helping my mom buy something off Amazon prime. Then I went and did several errands and ran home and had to do the dogs medicine and have him eat there. By the time all was said and done I didn’t take off until a little after 6.

I’d heard it was to be a grand feast of steak, ribs and chicken and there was “plenty.” I hoped so since I decided against getting anything to eat before I headed out. I did stop to get a queen size air mattress because Mariana’s boyfriend was staying there tonight and we didn’t have enough. And now Francisco had his own tent I could fit a bigger one.

What I didn’t get is ice because Mariana text and said that she was getting 8lbs from the store. I thought that would be enough since I originally got 3 bags of 2lbs each and it filled the chest.

As soon as I got there I tried to get everything situated asap. Luckily Mariana was close by to help hold the dog.

Dinner still wasn’t ready when I was done so I hit the dab and ate an edible. I was ready to drink that night, made sure to bring the bottle with me to dinner.

Dinner was really good and we ended the night at the bonfire again. I had a blanket to cuddle with the dog.

When I was doing something before dinner the dog was walking around free (leash was on but I temporarily let it go) there was some sort of scuffle with him and another little dog that was his size. All I know is I saw him flip upside down and I ran as fast as I’ve ever ran to get him. By the time I got there he was right side up and I pulled him away and looked him over to see if he was hurt. I couldn’t see any thing. The other dog owner made it sound like my dog was the aggressor but I know that wasn’t the case. He was very passive as soon as we got to camp with all the different people and dogs.

He was actually letting everyone pet him and even going up to a few people himself.

I stayed up as late as I could at the fire with the dog- around midnight. I wanted to get him to have his snack and I needed to smoke and take out my contacts. I was dragging my feet to bed someway because I realized Mariana’s boyfriend had went to bed in the tent and she went to party it up at her friends camp spot. So that meant I’d have to go lay in the tent with him without Mariana. Felt weird about that but it is what it is.

I hotboxed the car and it was around 130 when I got into the tent. I tried to be as quiet as I could being I had to get the dog situated and take my meds. But he was snoring away (luckily not loud) which was actually better because I knew he was really asleep. Less awkward that way lol.

THURSDAY:

Got up slow Thursday too, but not as slow as Tuesday being I had the dog who needed his meds and to go out and use the bathroom. I discovered the best place for doing his slurry medicine was the car or the tent and those were the same places that worked good for him to eat.

I smoked it up and talked to Danila about politics and everything else. It was cloudy and cool until about 1230 and finally some sun came out. We decided we should get ready and get to the river.

It’s stressful trying to bring the dog. I had this beach sun tent along with several other things. Luckily I had Francisco help me and it wasn’t too hot so the dog could actually walk down to the area near the river we were sitting at. Last year it was too hot and I had to carry him. Plus we hung out where it was a lot rockier and I didn’t want him hurting his little old legs on all the rocks.

The sunny day was short lived and once we got out there it only lasted like another hour. It never got warm enough for me to consider getting in, and I was sad about that. The dog didn’t hold back however and got in several times himself.

Although it didn’t end up sunny and warm, it was relatively decent. I stayed out there longer than anyone else except Danila and she was ready to go in before I was. But I went in about the same time since it was time for the dog to have his medicine.

I knew Mariana was leaving back home but I wasn’t sure what time. I’d been trying to think of all the things I wanted her to take home to make sure everything would fit into my car the next day. After all we came with two cars and I came back out with more stuff for the dog. I was surprised as fuck when I got back up from the river I realized Mariana had already left.

I was pissed off. Why didn’t she even say anything??

All her friends left and a little after that Danila’s daughter and her man left too. Now the only campers left on the lower level was me and Danila.

I started to feel tired and as I waited for the time to feed the dog after his meds I decided to lay down. Both the dog and I cuddled up in the tent and I did fall asleep some. The dog was out so hard that he didn’t hear the alarm or me even getting up to get the food ready. After he ate we ended up laying down again and I de decided I wanted to nap.

But I couldn’t really fall asleep and so around 830 I joined everyone up at the kitchen area to have some dinner.

During dinner it was discovered that this big bag of weed that Kandy’s boyfriend had on one of the tables had disappeared. At first we all took a casual and comical approach, it had to have been dropped somewhere. Or accidentally picked up and moved. But still, nobody could find it.

After dinner we all joined in with flashlights and looked everywhere on the upper level of the camp. Kandy’s boyfriend joked there was a 20 dollar reward. I kept joking my dog would find it, he knows the smell very well.

But still it was missing. The vibe kinda went down… but at the same time nobody could imagine anybody actually took it. Why? Because outside us all being good friends and good people who aren’t thieves, everyone had an abundance of their own weed. There weren’t even that many minors that might have snuck some but they would have snuck SOME (easily, it’s everywhere and we’re all intoxicated) but more than likely would have just asked.

Realistically it was probably dropped somewhere or thrown away. Maybe even a crow, we reasoned, since they’d gotten into Francisco’s stuff and ate a loaf of bread and a whole French bread. Idk. It was really bizarre that the next day in the light it wasn’t located either.

I stayed up there through the bon fire and didn’t go down to my camp until around 1, when most people went back to their camps to sleep. I again decided to hot box the car to warm up and put the dog out hard. Not that he hadn’t been cuddled up in my lap and bundled in a blanket as we sat by the fire for hours.

After I was done smoking I took out my contacts but when I was done I realized I couldn’t find my glasses. I’d been keeping them right there in the car for when I removed the contacts, there they were. But they were not there.

And my vision is absolutely terrible. Like dangerously terrible. Like natural selection would have taken my ass out many years ago without the modern technology of glasses.

I assumed they had to be in the tent, so I got the dog out the car and made my way in the pitch dark to the tent. But when I was in there I couldn’t find them at all either!! OMG!! They must be in the car? Or out on the picnic table?? I had to go look. I wished so hard there was someone around to help me with actual normal vision, but Danila was still up at the bonfire.

I had to lock the dog in the tent and he kept trying to get out but I didn’t want to worry about him running off or whatever when I can’t see. I went out to the picnic table and looked around… nada. I had wanted to pack some of that shit up but now that was not happening. I went back into the car to look again and couldn’t find it. What the actual fuck??

I thought it was possible Mariana somehow grabbed it with her stuff. I sure hoped I didn’t permanently lose them because they are my only decent pair of glasses I have. Also considered putting my contacts back in and sleeping with them but I knew that would be miserable. And a struggle getting them back in considering how dark it was.

So I went and laid back down and decided there was nothing left to do but go to sleep and hope super hard nothing happened that required vision until light again.

Of course I had to pee at 3am and there was no way I was walking to the bathroom without vision… so I went out and popped a squat not too far from the tent. I thought about how anything and anyone could be out there right near me and I wouldn’t have been able to see them. Well if this is how I go I guess this is how I go.

Luckily no emergency happened but I did wake up at 8am to the sound of rain. OH NO! And I can’t even see!!

I planned on waking at 9 to get the dog his meds and then pack up. Carefully so everything could fit. But now there’s no time for meds or careful. All the stuff on the table is getting wet and so I throw the dog in the car and start to get everything that shouldn’t be wet out of the wet. Then I have to put my contacts in because it’s impossible to do much.

Then as I go to move my car closer to the camp to be easier I realize my battery is dead again. You’re fucking kidding me! It must be about to die because there’s no reason it should be dead. Danila jumps it and I get closer to the camp and continue to pack up as fast as possible.

I went to roll down the window of the car some for the dog and discovered the battery had died again. WHATTTTTTTT??? Omg.

I packed up everything and had Danila try to jump me again but the car wouldn’t start. I get super upset thinking I have to have someone drive me into town to get a new battery, drive me back and then help me out it back in. As everyone is trying to pack up themselves, it’s raining and we have only a short time. Oh and I have the dog to handle too. Nooooooo!!!!

Luckily after leaving it to jump for like 5 minutes it started!!! Damn. I drove straight home.

Unpacking wasn’t fun of course. But I did it immediately. Although it’s now Tuesday right now and I finally have my tent drying on my front lawn.

We debated on not doing the group camp ground to save money the next year but in the end it seemed we decided to do it again because the benefits are worth the cost.

I hope next year to go everyday and not work any of the days. I do think bringing the dog half the time was good for both of us.

Oh I forgot to say as soon as I jumped back into phone service I got a message from my mom informing me that the new teenager we hired for Sunday put in her two weeks. Yes the one we hired like 2 months ago. The one that wanted 6 Sundays off between now and September.

Luck has fallen again on us because the fill in girl we hired said she would take Sundays and still fill in. PLEASE POWERS THAT BE LET THIS WORK FOR THE LONG TERM!!

-- Saturday, 9:15pm

I am writing this once again on my new laptop. Figured I better turn it on since its been a few days lol.

Really all I did was scan three pics I found in my pics that have my fourth grade teacher in them, since tomorrow is the funeral. I absolutely despise funerals, but I feel like I really must go. I want to go, to pay tribute to a really extraordinary dude.

I had been thinking of the fellow students I may see but it occurred to me I will probably see all the living ex teachers that are still around. I am hoping to see my 6th grade teacher, who I suppose I can label as my second favorite teacher of all my years. He is married to my fifth grade teacher ha ha ha and that happened later on after i was gone from the school.

Tomorrow is also father's day and ive completely disregarded that in my mind... plus I have no idea what to get my dad anyways. I would vote to end mothers and fathers day if they gave us a chance ha ha ha.

I can't do emojis on the computer as far as I know.

Ive been pretty productive the past two days. Yesterday I picked up almost 200 bucks of meds from the vet... like all his meds were up to be refilled at the same time, which has never really happened. Plus I had to get one month of a flea/tick/heartworm prevention since we are going inland and there is more danger of that. I put it on my care credit, which id managed not to use for 3 consecutive months. This took about all the progress I made paying it away. But whatever. We got what we needed.

I did some Safeway shopping, which is pretty much all junk. But they have the best deals on junk food and are too expensive to buy much anything else thats not on a good sale. I got chips, crackers, cookies, bread, peanut butter and a big ass bottle of fireball. That seems to be a favorite drink of this specific group of friends.

I still need to go to the regular grocery store to get the list of things we need to contribute to the group and stuff for lunches/munchies for my kids and i. I met with Francisco and Catalina on Thursday to spread out who buys what.

I was surprised to hear Catalina say that she had gotten a new job... and it was at the agency that I used to work for for about 11 years, that runs head start. It sounds like she will be an early head start teacher. That is pretty bad ass plus she will have a regular schedule and not have to work nights, holidays and weekends like she does currently at the group home she works at now. She will be working with Kandy and Kelli and others of my ex coworkers.

I went to the gym and got that over with on Friday for the first time in awhile. I will be taking a whole week off to go camping. It did occur to me if I decide to not go out there on Wednesday evenings and instead go thursday I should definitely go to the gym. For that alone I may just go out there.

Luis came over too... id wanted him to come over on the weekend past and that didn't work out. We attempted during the week, but the times didn't work out unfortunately. It was a good time, yet again.

I am pretty sure Seth didn't go to the friday night festival, but not sure. He didn't drive there at least, maybe he went on foot.

Today I cleaned the kitchen and vacuumed the whole house. I finally cleaned out 1 of the 2 closets down stairs, the one ive been wanting to do for a few months now. I brought down my two totes dedicated to balloons and two that were for photos that had been in my son's old room. I threw out quite a bit of things. Yay for that.

After I went to pick up meds and to the grocery store to force myself to cook the chicken I had from the large pack before it went bad. I decided to do garlic sweet Thai chili chicken, one of my favorite recipes. I been putting off making the chicken because I really couldn't think of what I wanted to even eat. I also got some corn to try and make imitation cajun corn and the cob from wingstop, since I been kinda hooked on it.

The corn turned out ok... kinda too salty but it was ok. I had finished almost the whole prep for the sweet chili chicken when I realized I didn't have enough corn starch to fry the chicken so I had to go back to the stupid ass store.

Food ended up pretty good and I cleaned up the kitchen. I wanted everything clean so I can get ready for camping and have room to do it. I still have to get the stuff outta storage and blow up the air mattresses to make sure they're not flat. Im not even sure where the air pump is... that is the electric one... I really need to find one thats battery operated... which I also have but never, ever find when it counts.

So yeah... tomorrow is the funeral and I plan to do all the rest of the shopping. Check all the supplies and get them ready. Pack clothes and everything else. Get everything ready for the dog to be at my parents for Monday and Tuesday and then prepared to take him with me for the last days.

Tuesday, 4:49pm

I had another scary event with my body and it was possibly worse than the worst spasm I had on Friday. Worse because it happened with the right side and thus far all the issues have happened on the left side.

I’d felt some twitching in my right leg, also pretty unusual. Then Saturday night after I spent 20 minutes icing and then 20 minutes with the heating pad on my aching feet I move to pull my leg off the heating pad and right then my big toe on the right side started to move upwards, away from the toes and in a way nobody can willingly move their toe. WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK IS HAPPENING WITH MY BODY????

I had no control over it with my own muscles. Any attempts to move it down were like I wasn’t doing anything. The only thing I could do was grab it with my hand and push it down. It wouldn’t hardly go down but once it did it wouldn’t stay there. Whenever I took my hands off of it, the toe still went straight up. I didn’t even know what the fuck to do besides cry and be hysterical by myself. I tried massaging it but it didn’t seem to respond. I flipped my foot over so the toe was pushed down by the bed.

I have no idea what finally worked but about ten minutes later it finally went back to normal. I’m crying and super scared. What the fuck is wrong with me???? Nobody’s foot moves this way! This is unnatural as hell. Something is absolutely wrong and it’s now wrong on the right side. I googled shit for hours after and again it reads plenty about Parkinson’s and multiple sclerosis. The movements look like dyskinesia it seems. The cause?? Often one of those two I just mentioned.

I am scared. I had put in a request via the Internet for an appointment but after the toe thing I called them early in the morning. Unfortunately because I only have the availability of Tuesdays and Fridays I can’t get in until mid August. So I’ll have to just deal with whatever scary shit happens in the meantime I guess. Definitely depressed about waiting that long. They tried to get me in next Thursday but there’s no way I can get there in time from grandma.

I’ve upped the gabapentin and the muscle relaxers, like the doctor told me to do. Since then I’ve held off all other spasms and such. But I feel so out of it, so forgetful it’s borderline dangerous.

Friday after I wrote the entry I sent a text to Danila to see if she wanted to go see the pulpo magnifico, which is a large octopus on top a truck shaped like a fish that moves and blows fire ball’s from all its tentacles and the top his head. Designed and used at the Burning Man festival. She said she has that night off and was down. Ok- it’s set, imma make myself go.

I tried to invite Teresa too but she was in Canada lol.

Saturday I had to go to the gym since I didn’t Friday due to the major spasm. I was careful starting out on the treadmill to not activate anything. Everything was sore and somewhat painful for the first several minutes but after like 10 minutes all the pain was gone. Score. Saturdays are really the shit at the gym because there’s barely no one there and I got to use all my machines in the exact order I prefer them in. I love it so much but not enough to permanently change when I go on a normal basis.

Afterwards I got home and took a shower and did my hair and makeup so I would be essentially ready for the octopus party even though it wasn’t until 7. I chilled with the dog until then. I brought some Bacardi in a water bottle to consume there and share with Danila if she wanted. She did lol.

I got there about 15 minutes after it started and then delayed heading over there because I drank some in the car first. They had blocked off a couple streets and the mechanical octopus was in the middle of this large parking lot with one of the towns best and largest murals was behind it. On the side of the lot there was an alley and that was being renamed after the dude, Duane Flatmo that designed and created the octopus- among many other artistic contributions to our area and just in general.

The octopus was motionless at first, but it needed to be powered up and then be lit. This took awhile and probably like 45 minutes it started to move around and then BAM… music blasts and so does the fire. Everyone goes crazy.

I did bring my camera and spent a lot of the evening photoaging it from different angles I could get. Finally I got right up next to it and got some good pics and videos.

They had food trucks and we got some tacos and then went back to my car to have some more Bacardi. My edible kicked in and I was feeling good and so was about 100 or so other people from my town that stayed until after 10pm, dancing to loud music, surrounding a fire blowing octopus 😂😂. I was like it’s like burning man came to our town 😮😮. I am pretty sure I’ll never go to that festival so I’m glad to have the experience.

It felt good and fun being out there and I got good pics and videos- I was glad I committed to getting out and doing something. I know I need to do more of that.

Sunday was the protest. Saturday evening I was super tired, but I started thinking about adding some more stupid shit Trump has done in the last month since I made my sign. Obviously some good/horrible shit like the slush fund for his homies and insurrectionist. The “I love inflation.” What feels to me like he just set a cease fire indefinitely and isn’t actually trying to settle the war. I feel he wants to slowly and inconspicuously back away.

Of course the next day he announces there actually is a peace deal and Iran confirms they intend to sign. What the fuck it says? Nobody outside him and his closest villains are privy to that at this point. Ive heard it is pretty much the same as Obama nuclear deal that Trump tore up and then justified starting the war because of it.

I guess we’ll see, but I bet it’s bull shit. Now I hear Iran wants commitment from Israel to stop their bull shit before the sign, and that seems unlikely. That fool can’t seem to stop being aggressive to anyone he can push around. Look at Gaza.

I wrote several ideas to change the sign but then I just went to sleep. I’d been sleeping like shit but with the added gabapentin and muscle relaxers I was about to fall out. I slept for almost 9 hours 😮.

I was revved up to add to the sign but of course that always takes longer than I want to. I added stuff to the sign as quick as I could, let the glue dry and went upstairs to get ready. I was super disappointed to see once I got there that several parts I added ran the ink with the glue 😢😢. I felt disappointed because before it was like perfect. At least I know I can easily fix it by reprinting it and glueing a new one over it but with much less glue and more drying time.

Protest was good. Danila was there, of course and Francisco and Catalina decided to join us. I was happy, felt bad I forgot to bring signs for them to hold. Catalina was wearing the pro immigrant shirt I got her for Christmas.

I heard there was some confusion with people about whether the protest was even happening or not so that may be why the turnout was small. First Sunday protest. And there was, for once, lots of other things to do this weekend. Also the first one where a cop didn’t hang out and we saw a lot more aggressive acts by cars. Luckily it was mostly just revving engines hard and driving away fast, as opposed to crossing lanes of traffic in a way to look aggressive- like they could just decide to kill us whenever they want and they want to remind us.

Well works the other way too, bastards.

There was maybe more than usual yelling obscenities and obscene gestures. Those I’m ok with, after all it’s “peaceful” and first amendment protected. But best believe I yell comebacks and gesture right back at them.

I’m done with the high road long ago. These fuckers don’t respond to that shit anyways.

Damn I just remembered I should have added something with the interview he had with that lady who talked back to him so he flipped out and left the interview. Next time. If there’s room with whatever else he manages to do in the meantime.

Seth was gone a lot this weekend. He went to the Friday festival. He was gone several times and most the day Saturday, at who knows where, but there were so many things going on this weekend. Sunday he stayed home, but when I was at the protest I saw his car coming to drive by… it’s easy to spot. I instantly looked in the passenger’s seat to see if a bitch was in the car but I recognized his homie from down the street. Probably went to disc golf but who knows. I didn’t look at him to see if he looked at me, I assumed he didn’t, when he was right near me at least. But he knows I always go and he’s spotted me before so I feel he probably did.

But doesn’t matter for shit. Last night I was thinking intensely about him and missing him and shit but I couldn’t even concentrate on the stuff I love because the fucked up stuff seems so overwhelming. I know this is a good thing but fuck.

So my mom has this kid she works with (he’s like mid 30s but she speaks like he’s in his early 20s, which is what I thought until just recently) and he has this girlfriend and apparently the friend wants his girlfriend to work more. They just moved into a rental but it’s a house, so it’s expensive. And i guess she does caregiving.

We wanted to include her in the interviews we did previously but she was being wishy washy and I told my mom to just forget it, we had others who seemed willing. We got who we got. Although my mom is obsessed that once she starts school she won’t be able to work for grandma so there’s an impending crisis. Well there’s always a pending crisis with this in home caregiving. I told her we can’t ever expect we’re gonna find anyone who’s gonna be around long term. It seems like we actively look hard for those people- I’ve even taken to mentioning wanting a person intending to be long term… to no avail.

So anyways my mom informs me she wants to hire her work homie’s girlfriend to be basically an on call grandma babysitter. For example, the two days I want off to go camping next week. And she wants to start taking Fridays away from grandma more often, especially in summer. Absolutely understandable she’d want an actual day off on her day off. So yeah, I’m down with this idea for sure.

But we must interview her and mom sets that for Monday, aka yesterday at 4pm. Ok… my interview questions are now permanently on my phone. So yesterday my mom gets home around 3 and we discuss shit and we prepared for 4pm. At about 350 my mom received a text saying she’ll see us soon.

At 4pm, nothing.

At 405, nothing. My mom remarks and I say I can’t trip about 5 minutes. You just never know… could be having a hard time finding the house, there’s no street sign. Probably hard time parking as it fills up when people get home from work around that time.

At 410 I then remark what the actual fuck? We watch my mom’s phone for a text or call. At 420 I’m like dude I need to go home and get high, where she at? And who is 20 minutes late for an interview?? Psshhh real story is that anyone and everyone, from my experience over the past 7 or so years hiring people.

It’s unbelievable to me and like the premises for countless nightmares. Who hasn’t had a nightmare at least once they miss an interview or they’re ridiculously late for one?? Obviously nobody searching for a job in the last decade.

It’s a thing of the past!!

Might change when the economy crashes!

Ok so I tell my mom to wait until 430 and then call her and see if she still intends to come because we’re trying to do other things? I have her refrain from calling until then but before then she calls and claims she’s gotten lost. My mom describes how to get here from wherever she is and from there she finally gets here around 440.

40 minutes later people! Last interviews I did someone tried to come that late too but I stopped them. This time though there is some desperation in this attempt.

So when she knocks I let my mom answer the door and I stay sitting down at the table. My dog flips his lid but I assure her he’s all bark. But as she moves down the long hallway to where I am I can’t believe my eyes because I’m 99% I know who this woman is. I stand up and walk closer to her and she stops and talks to my grandma. I have to walk to verify her face.

Out my mouth pops “oh shit I totally know you” and she turns to look at my face and instantly recognizes me too. Oh damn. My first thought is “fuck no” on hiring this bitch. I see a slight acknowledgement on her face she may have lost out before she even started.

So ima her a name, Alison, from here forward. Hopefully I won’t have to write about her again, lol. But anyways, I know Alison because she used to be my neighbor, she lived directly behind me, upstairs. Her stairs to her apartment start in my back yard. She lived there for quite a long time… like 5-6 years? It seemed a long time.

Well anyways, Alison and I always got along just fine. She never gave me any drama, but she was a lot of drama. Her alone. Her and her boyfriends. Her and her mom. Her and the neighbor below her all the time, occasionally other neighbors. She was such a belligerent person because she was an alcoholic. Terribly. And her kids dad like knocked her up and took her to Mexico as his wife when she was like 14. She spent a lot of her childhood in foster care, she calls one of those foster mom’s her mom. But she has a real mom who I’ve also seen the psycho in her.

One night Alison knocked on my door and asked for ice and Tylenol and to take pictures of her fucked up face. Why was it fucked up? Her mom beat her ass, and bad. Both her eyes were black, nose swollen and bleeding. She couldn’t take pics as her phone was ruined in the brawl. She said she didn’t fight back even though she could have. She wouldn’t call the cops even though I felt I thought she should.

Eventually she got in a terrible car accident, oddly enough ended up not her fault, considering she was a drunk. But she broke like her whole leg and the whole thing was casted up and it took her forever to be able to do things. She stopped drinking. The drama over there evaporated, but she still didn’t get along with her downstairs neighbor so they moved her to another project up the street. I can’t remember when that was but like 3-4 years ago?

Hadn’t seen her in a very long time but I did at my friend’s Thanksgiving party. She has gotten so freaking skinny I didn’t initially recognize her at all. Only by her voice. She said she had been struggling with some health issues, we both talked about the fucked I/O experience we had with that. I can’t remember what she said was wrong with her.

So my first reflex was a hell no, we are not hiring her. But of course we did the interview (I’m the one that asks the questions) and as it went on the more I thought about how it’s been a long time since she’d been sober and I hadn’t heard or seen her get into any trouble for a long time. I did remember she had done caregiving the whole time she had a job and wasn’t injured. And she had good answers to all the interview questions.

So I told my mom everything after she left and said I was willing to give her a chance. After all she’s gonna be on call so it’s not like we depend on her all the time. I sure hope we can depend on her for the times we need though. I am very motivated to have days off next week lol.

So mom called her and told her she’s hired… to come Thursday and I will train her. My third training day in like that many months. Ugh.

So even though I wrote another novel I have to add that Luis came over today and DAMN. 😈😈. I wanted him to come this weekend, he had talked about coming Friday so I was ready to fit him in. But then he said nah, Saturday is better. But I heard nada that day and I knew he was busy Sunday. He tried yesterday, but I had gym day and the late interview. So today was the day.

He joked he was gonna call in sick when he heard I had the day off. But he didn’t. He got off early and ran home QUICK… for once. That’s always the issue he goes home and stays too long and it’s late and he needs an excuse. Before 530 no explanation required.

He made it at 230 and we were slow, which isn’t often the case. Almost as soon as he walked in the door we started touching each other. It felt super good to again be having a regular sexual relationship even though it’s not exactly normal.

It was good and I could go for more lol.

He sent me another song that reminds him of us and this situation. A few days before he sent me the one that he’d dedicated to us back in like 2004 or something. I have to admit I enjoy the attention when I have the extreme lack there of.

Well, I guess the novel should end at some point and maybe that’s now.

Friday, 10:38am

I said in the last entry I needed to be outside at the same time as Seth to gage how likely it is he’s gonna try to talk to me again. Well like 20 minutes ago that happened and it felt cold as ice.

He left as like 730 am. I happened to be awake and I heard his car turn on… only the thing is with that is that one of his tenants has the same fucking car and it sounds the same fucking way… so now I never really know. Except the tenant leaves at 730am for work most days as I’m up getting ready to leave myself.

So I figured it was her but then checked and it was him… followed by the tenant. I was thinking maybe another race for his god daughter will take him out of town? I had kinda been hoping for that lol. But nah, he pulled up when I was sitting outside with the dog.

He parks on the side which means he’s leaving again. Tonight the city wide Friday market happens again and I know he’ll be there. But that’s not until later.

He does something weird when he parks, almost like something is off with his car. He doesn’t get out for awhile and I can hear his music playing… sounds like Bob Dylan lol. It’s weird how long we’ve been in this relationship and I don’t really know his music tastes. He doesn’t always listen to music in the car… also weird.

As soon as he hops out, my dog starts barking. Seth does his loud sigh and like talks to himself a little… which he sometimes does when he’s about to say something to me. (I don’t know your music but I know your mannerisms)But he walks behind his car, to the sidewalk and quickly into his driveway and disappears as he gets closer to his door. It was fast. I felt it. It was the first time I’ve felt that actual pain inside for awhile. I’ve been kinda numb.

Counselor says well… you’re getting more detached. Yes, that is true. I could completely detach but he’s right there. There’s no abuse between us but leaving the relationship is kinda the same process. The things against us have grown enormously, like often it does with couples. So much hurt has been accumulating and you can’t even justify it. It can’t be repaired. At least without professional help.

If he was just capable of even the slightest amount of emotional conversation things would be so much better. But he’s not, at least not now. And he’s not doing anything what so ever to try and improve his skills.

99% of relationships that I’ve been in and been completely and utterly in love with the person it always comes down to something like this. And it always seems like the dude could make the changes if they really wanted to. If I was actually worth it to them, but they never do. They don’t even like take serious steps… eventually I have to walk away. And they always come back and say they changed and they never do. They have to just rub me so much the wrong way that I can’t take it anymore.

Maybe Seth got there before me. But at the same fucking time how ironic, right? The problem himself has reached his limits with ME and my responses to his off the wall behavior. Or maybe not even behavior but utter inability to communicate about emotion.

I know from his view, I went off my rocker that day with the intensity of text and the mean shit I said. Especially on the first Mother’s Day after he lost his mom. This is only if the dude I saw at Applebees with that bitch wasn’t actually him.

I told my counselor the only reason I feel bad about that reaction if it wasn’t him because of the mom thing. Otherwise, I’m just reacting crazy to a man who drives me crazy with his hot and cold bs.

I want to tell him that he’ll never not get crazy if he chooses to enter romantic relationships when he can’t feel love and can’t communicate anything about feelings. I will definitely tell him that if we ever speak again lol.

I was also thinking that if we talk again and I explain what happened with the understanding I agree it wasn’t him (only chance ima talk with him long term) I would say the truth; I was absolutely certain and both Mariana and Francisco thought it was you also. It wasn’t just me. But… I thought I’d throw in a little lie with it and say I saw a flower on the table, like it was clearly a date these people were on. Of course I didn’t see that, but if it was him he would know that.

It’s not that I think he would admit right then it was him and he definitely had no flowers, so why am I lying? But I would watch his face to see his reaction. And if it wasn’t him for reals, no harm, no foul.

I’m so pathetic, I swear to the fucking powers that be.

Last night when I finally decided to cook something for dinner I was listening to Mexican music. It started with me just singing this one super sad song that I’ve always loved but for some reason I was drawing a blank on some of the lyrics. How can this be??? So I looked it up and it was false panic, the words were all there in my head 😂😂. Just needed the music. But anyways iTunes busts with a whole playlist of Mexican hits from my days (late 90s-early 2000) that were on the subject of love, mostly the depressing parts.

I started to remember how intense the songs are. Like you feel something for someone and you want to find a song that says what you’re feeling, right? But idk comparatively the majority of songs in English are lacking.

I also got that feeling of remembering how intense the relationships with my Latino exes were. I get all wrapped up in how I could easily find somebody to date. Easily. But I want substance and potential for serious longevity at this point. Like I’ve done reached the top of the hill in life and now I’m on my way down that hill, for fucks’ sake. And then I remember I have to have the herpes talk, and really that shuts down all the good feelings about going out there again.

And you know it’s not even necessarily the potential rejection in of itself. It’s what I see is an inevitability a encender un fuego de chisme. To light a fire of gossip. And this is a small fucking area. The Latino community is even smaller. 😢

And then I remember the call from Michael, accusing me of not disclosing to him I have it before I slept with him. Except I didn’t have it then… but the larger issue is that he knew and I’m not sure how. And that means the word is already out there.

I’ll just stick with Luis for my physical needs. I been just thinking maybe I’ll just encounter this person in life. Then I remember that’s the exact mentality I thought before I met Seth and I thought he was the natural “encounter” I had been waiting for. 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂

Estúpida

I’m awaiting Francisco’s visit, he is coming on his lunch.

I have a dentist appointment at 340.

Must do the gym today.

I have several chores that really need to be done this weekend and I just want to be lazy.

Weather has been nice and actually warm (by warm I mean 62-65 degrees) and sunny all week. Bizarre lol… even the weather reporter guy was remarking this. Usually it’s “June gloom” all month long. I’m knocking on wood.

Last night I didn’t get a chance to work on the new laptop with my old one to attempt to transfer Lightroom and whatever else I could until like 930. I had to download this program on my old laptop and I did it with little problem, but then it wouldn’t open. I tried for like 30 minutes to get it to open! I was infuriated. By that point it was like 1130 so I just shut it all down and hope to try today. I want to dedicate a lot of time this weekend to it.

I need a distraction.

I must force myself to go see my grandma. I need to do it tomorrow but I may wait until Sunday. If I go tomorrow I could potentially get food from my favorite restaurant 😂. They are closed Sunday.

This morning I heard a ruckus out back and sounded like people yelling and I looked and it was the neighbor getting beat up on by her boyfriend. This is the neighbor who had me do the balloons and senior portraits for her family. Although this has happened several times before, it’s been a long time since I’ve seen it happen. When I saw him smack her I opened the door and yelled at him to take his hands off her and he ignored me and yelled at her and she yelled back and told him to leave and if not her neighbors would call the cops. Something about him ruining her car.

What felt really bad about it is that the little girl next door must have seen it happen too and she ran out as soon as the dude was out the yard and asked the neighbor if she was ok. The neighbor said yeah and went in and I told the girl try to not watch the ugly if she can help it.

The awkward part is I know the dude is gonna be back here in a few days again. And I’ll have to see him all the time and have to be “cool” with that after I yelled at him too and accused him of man tantrums.

I just don’t understand what the girl thinks she needs in that dude. He definitely has no job and obviously sells drugs. But not over here so idc. He’s ugly and he talks super fast and intense. But like all the time so it’s not like drugs. Her daughter has seen him beat on her and most the neighbors. Now the new neighbors, including the little girl watched it happened and it obviously disturbed her.

I wonder about the little girl and where her mother is. Not anywhere around here. At least now I know through talking with her that she was in fact in school, even though it was an independent study program. She seems far too social, inquisitive and articulate to be wasted not in school, sitting at home.

It sounds like she’s going to in person school next year, which is good.

I don’t know where her mother is but she’s definitely seeking out my attention and I’m trying to give it to her. Most the times I’m outside she is too. A lot of the neighbors have kids so they play outside more. She adores my dog (her and all the kids) and many times she’ll be inside and hear him barking and come out. He’s finally getting used to her and letting her pet him more.

She’s knocked on my door asking for recyclables… always after trash day lol. Her and the other neighbor girl knocked and asked me to throw water on them on a rare hot day with these little buckets they had. She knocked and showed me a swan she carved out of an apple, which was pretty impressive. She’s always excited about all my decorations. And she’s came and helped me cut the grass in my little back yard when it gets too tall for the dog to like to go back there. And when I say cut the grass I mean with actual scissors and I use hedgers lol.

I am continuing this entry at 711 pm.

When I was working on the floor with the computers my leg went into the worst spasm it has ever went into. So fucking intense, it’s never felt like that before. It was like stuck solid in this weird way… the muscle looked visibly odd and my foot kinda curled to the side and my toes were weird. And the scariest part was how stuck it was. Like I get spasms all the time these past couple years but never did it get like a rock hard.

I was sitting cross legged and went to straighten it and it hit. And so I desperately tried to get away from the computers to have room and it was like an inflating balloon into the straight and spasm weird position. Usually I start to try and pull my foot back but it wouldn’t respond. It was stuck straight and I could not easily stand up to try and stretch it out that way. I tried to massage it out but it was like trying to rub a rock. This point I start crying intensely.

I frantically grabbed one of the dogs toy ball and began to push it into my leg and try to massage it. I put it under my calf and moved my body to move my leg over it and that finally started to release it slightly. It took awhile to work enough to where I could stand up and begin to attempt to stretch it out like it usual.

But it did not go down very easily still and then it felt weird and weak. It was sore. And the twitching fired up and hasn’t stopped ever since.

I’ve noticed the leg firing up over the last 24 hours. My ass was twitching intensely and then it went all over the back of my leg throughout the day. My feet have both been hurting a lot but then my two middle toes just felt weird and then the bottom of my foot felt just like somebody took their finger and pressed it hard into my foot. It felt so much like that it was a trip nothing was actually happening at all.

Even now my left arm and hand/wrist feel kinda weak and shaky. My right arm was shaking slightly.

Super scary.

I decided to not go to the gym today, rather rest it till tomorrow. Even though I feel lazy and unaccomplished as a result. But I could make shit worse and there’s no reason why I can’t go manana. After all it’s always very slow on the weekends and we know in love that.

Still I wanted to be done.

My feelings were hurt when a half an hour before the Friday night festival I see Seth is already gone. I keep hopefully checking to see if he came home here soon and reason he really didn’t go there. But I know he did and he won’t be home until near 9.

What on earth does he do there every single time??? The whole time?? I think I remember he once said someone he knows runs a bar down there and he goes to support them? Idk. I shouldn’t care but I’m still sad. I imagine him strolling around town with the bitch I saw with him at Applebees. No shame with that old lady, but me yes.

I tried to move my photo editing program over to the new computer but I was right initially, it’s never gonna work via these different platforms. It’s not gonna work with any of those programs.

I need to download and pay. I need to add the cricut machine, the printer. I need to go take some pics so I can edit them And see how it plays out. Hopefully easily.

Tomorrow the “pulpo magnifico” will be down town to celebrate the dude who made him and I kinda want to go. I’ve always wanted to see it in person. You should look it up if you don’t know what I’m talking about. Which most don’t unless they’re in the know with burning man.

I have to visit grandma manana cause Sunday is the protest I temporarily forgot about!

UPDATE, 7:51pm

Thursday, 11:09 am

Well guys I'm typing this on my new computer, which arrived yesterday but it was like 7pm and it came to my parents. Crazy I used to only type my journals out on my computer and now I'm doing it I'm a little rusty. Not sure how on the computer to do the fonts and make it look like I do on my phone.

So yeah Monday after my mom got home from work she said let's look for computers and I said I already found the one I wanted after much research. And then she surprised the fuck outta me and was like saying shed just pay for it. And I'm like uhhh it's like 1650 bucks and I don't think she realized that but said she would pay 1000 and I could pay the rest. I was absolutely blown away and felt kinda bad. Like why would you just gift me 1k???? She's like "well you could vacuum or something for me." And then I'm like well what will dad do then since thats one of the few things he does. LOL. I will do whatever she wants me to do.

I had the 700 (tax and shit) and I gave it to her yesterday. She put in 120 more into it for training the new worker. She was like "how do you have all this money?" and I'm like dude I said I was saving for my eyebrows and just kept saving because I realized I needed a computer asap.

I still have about 200 saved and I decided I'm using that for camping because I don't really have any money left and my check will most likely come after I'm camping. Then I will save again to have the eyebrow money ready and for a new mattress that I desperately need.

So far I've done okay with the Mac but I definitely had to look up "how do I scroll??" lol. Also as I was setting up it said you can transfer things from your pc to this and I had no idea. Of course my other laptop is at home but ima try that later. Maybe I can just transfer my Lightroom over here that way and avoid subscriptions and all that bull shit? It seems like you can do that according to google, so lets hope. I also hope to move over my old ass program that I use for graphic designs. I also have tons of sims games but I'm not sure ima move those over since I pretty much never play them. But now I got a better computer I might just start.

Im getting back in the groove of typing hella fast with a keyboard. Yay.

Yesterday Luis messaged to check on how I was and mentioned he wanted to see me. But unfortunately we're still in the wrong time of the month so I said you gotta wait like another couple days. Okay he said. Then like ten minutes later I see he text and asked if I wanted anything from dutch bros coffee... at first I thought he had accidentally sent me that and meant it for his wife or kids. But no... he meant me lol. I joked "do they have cake pops like Starbucks?" Since I hate coffee... he said he didn't know. But then he said he would just go to Starbucks instead and get me some. Say what?? lol. I said "you know you'll have to deliver it to me at my parents, right??" He said "no problem."

That was crazy to me, but he actually did it. My mom came home before and I was like omg what excuse am I gonna give walking in with cakepops?? She was in the bathroom with grandma so I just went outside and grabbed them. He gave me a weed gummy too. It was kinda crazy seeing him pulled up to my parents house and brought back memories of when we were kids. The last time he came to see me at my parents I don't think he even had a license yet.

When I went back in my mom was kinda confused and I said "a friend brought me them" and I would have actually said who but then she got distracted and the convo ended. Good. I think she already gets a little sketch when I mention how we text semi regularly and have a smoke session every once and awhile. Of course she don't have to know its regular smoke sessions that end in sex sessions. hahha

Not sure how to do emojis on here.

It did make me feel good that he went out of his way for me like that. I remembered how good it feels to have that. Now to just find a non married man that is a good potential partner. Not gonna happen when I'm off social media and don't really go anywhere.

So it seems our new worker girl won't be able to fill in for me on Thursday for camping. But my mom has decided we should interview the wife of one of her coworkers who does caregiving. Originally we were gonna interview her for the position but she was wishy washy. But we are thinking to try and take her on as a fill in. For days that we need a break or something comes up that both my mom and I want to do without Grandma. An on call grandma babysitter.

So next Monday she's supposed to come and interview and hopefully Wednesday I can train her. If that works out then I can go Thursday camping too. I almost thought well shit I might as well see if she can just take Wednesday and Thursday and I can go the whole week! But then I remembered how I don't want to leave the dog the whole time but also don't want to take hi that long either. This way I can leave him with my dad on Monday and Tuesday and when I go back either Wednesday night or Thursday morning I will bring him.

Looking at myself in the mirror yesterday I was disgusted even more by my bright red/orange eyebrows. Ive decided I do not want to wait until the end of summer to get them laser removed. I think I will take a week in July and just suck it up and stay home that week. I find I often forget they look so dumb but then every time I see the mirror I remember. This way that at the end of the summer I will be ready to have them redone.

Ive tried to reframe my thinking on missing last Friday's appointment that maybe the powers that be prevented it because they were gonna mess up. Maybe I avoided more problems lol.

I have a dentist appointment tomorrow that I made when I was having issues with one of my back teeth and gums. But it went away... but I'm still gonna go because it went away before and happened again also. Plus I think they are gonna fit me for fake teeth, which I really do want.

I have been thinking about Seth a lot but have had no contact. Idk why I keep looking at my phone wondering if there's a text. But I know logically he's not gonna text. I know I want him to, I know I want him again but the feelings are mixed. Like the inevitability we've really got so much issues its really not gonna be salvageable. He doesn't love me and never will. But I still be pathetic as hell and want to be around him again. I want to tell him if he wants to touch me he can't unless he agrees we date too. I have a fuck buddy I don't need another one.

I know it's doomed and it's just asking for more hurt but it hurts so much being so close with no contact. He has been at home pretty much every moment he's not working so I don't think he's had a chance to spend any time with his girlfriend if he in fact has one. Good. let her feel how terrible he is as a partner.

I wont know if he's interested in talking again until I see how he acts when we're outside at the same time. See if he's feeling it out again if its safe to speak to me again.

Well it's my Friday so thats a positive. Tomorrow Francisco is coming to visit during his lunch and I need to talk about camping plans. Also he's wanted me to go with him to sneak into an abandoned logging town for awhile. He went with his friends before and knows id love it, and I will. But they snuck in at night and he says it's best to do it that way and I haven't wanted to go when it's cold and wet. Well now we're moving away from that so I'm about ready. I was gonna propose around the 4th because law enforcement be busy lol. Not like we would really get into trouble for going out there they'd probably just tell us to leave.

I have to force myself to go to see my grandma J.

Monday, 1:23pm

Monday reset.

As the day went by yesterday I kept getting more anxious… he’s got to get back any time now. But as the day got later and later I thought well maybe he’s not coming back today either. Maybe he changed his plans which is why he took his car. Maybe you’ll get your month away.

Last time I looked it was like 1145. I felt like it was clear he wasn’t coming tonight. I went to go upstairs to get ready for bed around 120 and decided to take the dog out in the backyard instead of the front. I’ve been seeing lots of skunks out there on our camera.

Closer to 2am I got was finally done with all my night activities and went to close the window and I glanced out and saw Seth’s drive way empty except the tenants car. I went to close the shades and realized a car had parked in front of my daughter’s car across the street. I closed the curtain and walked away but then thought about it again and wondered if that was Seth’s car??

I went and looked again and it did look like his car, but kinda hard to tell being it was so dark. I finally opened the window to try and get a clearer look and realized YES it was Seth. He was back. He hadn’t parked in his driveway because the tenants car blocked the way. Funny she’d been parking that way the whole time, but Friday she didn’t. And I had thought oh, maybe she knows he’s coming back today then so she left him room.

I had to look on the camera to see what time he came back as I’d just been looking in the driveway for his car all night. Turns out he got back just a little before at 115. Like five minutes before I went to bed and a big chance I would have been outside with the dog had I let him out from instead.

Waking up I instantly remembered he was back. I watched him leave for work on the camera because I wanted to see him after 17 days. I want to see him with my own eyes. I’m still pathetic. The 17 days didn’t cure me. But at least it doesn’t feel the same intensity. The same ache.

For no good reason I stayed up too late last night and now I’m super tired. of course it’s a gym day so it will be like 9pm once I’m done with all that and showered. Boo. At least tomorrow is counseling and not work.

There is one housing worker dude that’s Mexican and I see him frequently at the gym. I never really looked at him but I’ve realized he’s in pretty good shape. I was surprised the last time he came to fix stuff he spoke to me completely in Spanish but as far as I could remember I never let it be known I speak it.

I feel like I see everyone at the gym. 😂😂

I keep trying to think of a time I could go get my eyebrows lasered off. I really didn’t want them to look like they do.

Kinda bummed that my check from grandma was way lower than it has been. I knew it would be some since I’m not working Sundays anymore. I missed one day for the baby’s graduation. But still it was lower than I’d expect. I was hoping to add 200 to the computer fund but it will have to be just 100. My mom messaged this weekend we could talk about that more on Monday. Hopefully she’ll be down and won’t think it’s too much.

I’m kinda afraid to hold on to the money much longer because something gonna come up and take it from me.

Sunday, 12:54pm

This weekend did not go as planned. But, ultimately I’m glad it played out when it did because waiting longer would have been worse.

So maybe like a week ago I noticed the dog’s butt stinks a lot. And this is not normal. I do not see anything on it. Several weeks before this same thing occurred and I took him in to get his anal glands expressed an they said “oh he was pretty empty.” And I mentioned he’d had a bad smell and asked if they could tell if there was an infection? She said yes they could and he didn’t and it’s possible he expressed his own glands and got some on himself.

So this time I thought maybe that too because he wasn’t scooting or anything. I washed him off at my parents using their little nozzle to hit directly on his butt. It seemed to do the trick but a couple days later it was back. Everything about him was normal although for some time I’ve felt he’s had some constipation. And I’ve noticed he’s taken to standing around and staring at me. Even after he’s been fed and been taken out and went… he kept doing it. I was having low, but persistent worry that what if something was wrong. What if he is infected and that’s why he smells?

I realized this late Wednesday and it was problematic because both Thursday I ended up staying with grandma until after 4 and that’s when they stop doing anal glands. So I decided to wake up early on Friday and go early before my eyebrow appointment. It was the only time, unless I wanted to go with my eyebrows bleeding and scary.

I made it there at 10am (little later than I wanted, of course) and I wanted to leave to my eyebrow appointment at 11am. Latest 1115. That means dog is home too. And when I got there I saw it was really pretty busy and I’m like fuckkk. Well ima try. The receptionist says there are way understaffed so I could wait until I can’t and they’d charge me after if they did. They always charge you before for services like that.

I was surprised after only 20 minutes they came out for him. Like 5 minutes later they come back out with him, only they’re holding him with a towel under him. Not usual. And they say his anal glands are impacted and he needs to see the vet on emergency. That the vet already agreed to fit him in, although there would be a wait. She said the vet would determine whether it needs any sort of surgical intervention.

Oh my poor baby. And oh shit, I have my eyebrow appointment in like an hour. And money?? Well- I have all that money saved for my computer (previously for eyebrows) and a check coming soon so ok… whatever he needs. Damn it though, they charge 75 for missed appointments for the brows and that’s the same amount of the procedure. Plus the 10 deposit when you book.

The vet worker says I can leave him and go to my eyebrow appointment after dog’s appointment if he needed to stay for more care. I felt bad that it sounded like that was more important to me and so I say “sorry no, the dog is the most important, I don’t want him to suffer. I was just thinking out loud. I have to cancel that appointment and see if I can access the funds.”

I temporarily thought about having Mariana come and be with him if they had to keep him after the appointment and it wasn’t for anything like a surgery. But Mariana said she had a hair appointment and that was something she was looking forward to. I thought harder and was like no… even if he has to stay longer I want to be here waiting when he’s done immediately. He would be ok with Mariana but he would be looking for me and very sad I wasn’t there after something so scary.

The only issue I felt upset about with cancelling the eyebrows was the 85 I had to hand over anyways. Especially when the vet appointment was gonna cost significantly. And of course that emergency appointments (during open hours) were like 399 or some shit. Plus whatever else.

Good thing I got child support.

They put the dog and I in a room to wait for the vet to have time for us and I called the eye brow people and canceled. Quick and easy.

I sat on the floor and pet and hugged the dog and cried some. Feeling bad that he was potentially very sick and I was only slightly elevated in my level of concern with him. I just didn’t think it was his butt that was bugging him as much as it must be.

They said he even had a slight fever. My poor, precious baby.

When the vet came in she checked him over real good. Looked at his butt. I asked her to check his new lump that just appeared also. It seemed to me like a fat cyst or tumor or whatever but I was still worried. I pet him all the time and it felt like it came from nothing to something in .2 seconds.

She said she thought it was probably a harmless cyst. They could remove it whenever if he needed to go under anesthesia for anything. Speaking of that she didn’t think he needed any surgery, but he did need like some sort of injections in that area. My pooor baby 😢😢. They said then they would send us home with medicines like antibiotics and pain relief. Ok. Whatever they say, I’m on it!

When we left the room to the waiting room we had to sit and wait awhile for them to put together our bill. As I was waiting I saw a familiar, but unwelcome face outside in the parking lot. It was Tasha 😂😂. Stupid ass Tasha. And some dude who looked significantly older than her, maybe that was her boyfriend? 🤔😂😂. I think she must have saw my car in the lot. I watched her walk around the area with her dog and I thought what would i do once she got in here? After all, in the parking lot of this very vet’s office is where I confronted her last time and she like cowered away and didn’t fight back at all.

I was hoping they’d be ready for me to pay before Tasha got inside but it wasn’t to be. So when she walked in I just looked at her directly in the eyes and laughed. I looked her over and then held a stare at her face and laughed a little more. And she went to let her dog meet mine, but then they called me to the counter to pay and so I lead my dog with me.

I lucked out and they didn’t charge me for an emergency visit, just a regular one. Which saved me like 220. I was super surprised and thought did I make it seem really dramatic about this surprise? Like it was just devastating economically? I mean it probably would have been, but I never try and let them know that. I’ve seen people have breakdowns and comment how they wouldn’t be eating that month now and I empathized. I’m sure the vet workers do too, but my bet is more people struggle than easily pay.

I’m always very nice and patient with them, and I think that is part of the reason I get “hooked up” on occasion. Occasions when it really counts. The other reason is probably because I spend tons of money there regularly lol.

So afterwards we went home and hung out, being lazy. But since my face wasn’t gonna be bleeding I decided I wanted to go to Kandy’s daughter’s graduation party that night with Mariana. I had been super bummed I was to miss it. I felt bad and a little worried to leave the dog, but he had been chill since we got home.

I made sure to put the camera that’s now in the house to be able to see him by the door and anywhere downstairs and we’re headed out. For a good while now when I’ve look in at him when we’re gone he is sitting on the blanket I put down near the door but he’s not howling in sadness. Maybe he’s used to me leaving with going to the gym and then the chunks of time when I was going to Seth’s. He is regularly being left in smaller increments. Makes me feel better, but still bad.

The party was fun.

On Saturday I went to the gym, since there was no reason to skip it now. I didn’t want to go on the weekend but I did anyways.

I’m bummed about the eyebrows and went to see if I could schedule it this Tuesday… but none available. And really every weekend this month I have shit to do and it’s summer so I don’t want to commit a week to healing and being into hiding for this either. So I guess I’m gonna delay the brow removal for awhile also then. Damn it. Orange red eye brows for summer.