I’m going to take a stab at catching up to the present from my last real blog post in my old blog in June.
Last time I wrote a post, I was depressed and mildly suicidal and wondering if any of this would be worth it. Then Sam kidnapped me to her apartment and shoved some friendship and tacos down my throat, and made me spend time with her husband, Wolf, her, and their roommate, Matt.
Well, things have changed drastically since that night, and I couldn’t be happier. Matt and I started “going out” in early July (we consider our anniversary to be July 7th), and we are still doing very well six months on. He has completely changed my life. He stopped letting me walk home from work (even though this made me gain weight from the inactivity), and insists on driving me everywhere. He’s calmed down a little bit about that now, but he still doesn’t let me walk home for the most part. Anyway, it’s January now, so if I wanted to walk home from work, I’d have to plan it ahead of time and bring the proper outerwear so I wouldn’t freeze to death on the way.
About three weeks after Matt and I started dating, (we haven’t been on that many dates, actually, but I’m not sure what term should be used), Sam started harassing me about college. Then Wolf chimed in. Eventually, they browbeat me into applying, though I stopped short of paying the application fee, as I didn’t have the money that day. Once I did have the money, Matt took me up to the college and nearly hog-tied me and carried me into the admissions office. I was really reluctant to actually take the step to get the process of starting college started, because it was terrifying and unknown and I didn’t feel ready. It was scarier to me than the concept of becoming a parent.
Long story short, I was admitted and enrolled and attended college for the first time this past fall. It wasn’t what I expected, the classes I was taking were shockingly easy – I don’t know if that’s because I’m ridiculously smart or because I picked classes that happened to be easy, but I did very well, except for the amount of stress I was under. Unfortunately, most of the stress was self-inflicted, because I was so paranoid about doing well, about not failing. Basically, I’m Hermione Granger. I even finished the semester with a 4.0 grade point average. I have never had a 4.0 in my LIFE. I’m so proud of myself.
Heather moved out a week before Christmas and I both miss her and enjoy not having to share the apartment with anyone. I've turned her old bedroom into my office. The closet is currently exploding with crap I’m storing in it (I never finished organizing that), I have my desk, computer, filing cabinet, and printer all set up in here, a table for my plants since I took up THAT hobby, and enough books stacked in the corner to justify a new bookcase. Crap.
The last few months living with Heather were turbulent. She and I are not meant to cohabitate – she needs everything to be completely clean and spotless all the time or it severely adds to her stress, and I thrive in chaos. I mean, I prefer things to be clean, but it’s not the end of the world if the place is a little messy as long as it smells okay and it’s not TOO bad. I figure it doesn’t look like a place from Hoarders, so I’m good. And I’m trying to keep it nice here, too. At the moment, the office and the kitchen are probably the two most chaotic rooms, due to a lack of storage space on both counts. It doesn’t look the way it did when Heather lived here, but at least now if I put something down, it will still be where I put it and not stuffed into a pile that accidentally gets thrown away in a vain attempt to force neatness out of me. (This happened on a regular basis with things that were often rather important. This frustrated me very intensely.) In any case, Heather and I spent about half the time living together being angry or frustrated with each other or fighting over stupid shit because we annoyed each other so much. I still miss her, though.
I spent Christmas with Matt’s family this year. It was really nice; I think the ones I met liked me. I already know the names of the 13 people I met, and apparently it took Matt until he was 16 to accomplish this feat, so I am incredibly amused and proud of that. I still have to meet one uncle and his family on Pat’s (Matt’s mother) side of the family, and I haven’t met either of Norm’s (Matt’s dad) sisters or their families yet. Christmas was really good, though. We had a private family gift exchange in the early, early morning, and then for the afternoon, we had Christmas dinner with everyone but one cousin and her boyfriend who turned up late because they got lost. Then we played a trivia game that was Wizard of Oz themed, and then we had a family gift exchange that was Wizard of Oz/home themed – stuff to use around the house. I was misinformed and told it was a white elephant exchange (thanks, Matt), so Matt and I bought a chicken kitchen timer (mine) and a Mater (from Cars) liquid soap dispenser (Matt’s). Everything else was much nicer than that. However, there wound up being a very happy uncle who got the Mater soap dispenser, so I guess it all worked out. I was so embarrassed, though. Next year, I’m making absolutely sure that it is or is not white elephant, straight from the source. Anyway, Christmas was really good. The day after, we went to James and Sondra’s for Christmas with them. We did the Ugly Mug exchange (though mine wasn’t ugly because Sondra couldn’t resist the cuteness of the owls telling me “good morning”), Sondra was sufficiently horrified by the mug I got for her (there’s a picture of her face upon seeing it, it’s stupendous), and Sarah was equally horrified by the mug Sondra and I bought for her last year and saved for this year (we got her two at once because there was a really good selection of horrible mugs). (Sondra’s said “Get Well Soon” spelled out with medical equipment, and Sarah’s had some geese on it and it said “Proud Grandpa”.) Joseph has gotten SO BIG. I can’t believe it. And James was there, and it was just awesome. The only person missing was Magus, who was still asleep and I was really sad that we couldn’t go wake him, I really wanted him to open his present right then.
Anyway, that was the short version of Christmas. We drove up to his parents’ house Christmas Eve after Matt got off work, and we drove home late the day after, arriving home around one o’clock in the morning. Matt had to work early on the 27th, so we couldn’t stay longer. It was a terrific visit, though, and one of my favorite Christmases. (Not that I can remember most of the Christmases from my childhood, since they were all a blur.)
New Year’s was spent here, at a mutual friend’s house. We played Castle Panic, watched the ball drop, I had my first ever New Year’s kiss, and then we played more Castle Panic before driving home in the ice. I even dressed up and I wish I’d thought to have Matt take a picture, because I looked TERRIFIC.
Now the holidays are over, and I’m still on break from school, so I have a lot of free time, especially since I kept my school work schedule, which I just changed to reflect the spring semester, but I’m still not at the mart of walls very much these days. I’m okay with this, except for the money aspect (I don’t have any!), and when I do, I’m being all responsible and paying bills and crap. Being an adult isn’t very fun sometimes. Last night, I was all freaked out that I have this whole apartment that is mine. Who the hell thought it would be a good idea to let me have an apartment? I’m not that responsible. It’s terrifying. I hate living alone, being the only person responsible for everything that goes on in these walls, the only person responsible for paying the bills. Who thought this was a good idea? Ugh, being an adult is the scariest thing in the world.
Anyway.
Today and tomorrow, I will be working on getting the place cleaned up some more (the kitchen needs help, as does the office closet), and getting my backpack ready for school to start NEXT WEEK. Oh god. I’m taking twice the credit hours this semester as I did last semester because I’m a crazy person, and considering how stressed out I was about school last semester, this does not bode well. I also am going to think about buying real Brie at the store next time I go – I bought Brie from Aldi’s last night, and discovered that cheap Brie just tastes like feet. At least it was only two dollars. I love Brie, though.
So, here’s hoping I can post more often – I’m hoping to manage something like maybe once a week, writing what has happened over the course of the week, and maybe what I plan to do the following week or something. I’m unsure, it depends on how difficult school is for me.
