Dad @ MindSay

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------


-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Whatever Sarah was off with last Friday, it must've been pretty bad - as the media studies lesson this morning was cancelled too. I had like two hours to spare as a result, so I went into the LRC and booked myself two hours on a 1st floor PC. Naturally, I got one with the dodgy spacebar and one with a foot missing. Chavs simply delight in snapping them off and stealing them. Lord only knows what they do with all of these hoarded keyboard feet like. I had to resort to using Lisa to prop it up. The iPod Classic is simply the perfect width. :)

Instead of updating some old blogs like I'd planned to - I ended up browsing Wikipedia's list of Xbox titles, looking for any that interested me. For I cannot have a mere two games for Mr. Hunk. I've accumulated a list of around 30 titles - and the best news of all is - the avarage price is £4 per game. :D
I can't wait till I get some Christmas money like. Play.com shall be getting a slew of my orders.

English was a strange lesson - simply 90 minutes of the old 'let's-look-at-a-past-exam-paper-and-whinge-about-how-to-write-an-answer-for-it' lesson. Not at all stimulating. But I did draw some sexy spider diagrams, so. :P

I met up with Shelly at lunch and we sat in our usual spot on the 4th floor stairs. We couldn't sit at our preffered end by the printing rooms - some other random dykes had stolen our idea. So we sat at the other end instead. I was in a cuddly mood - which is rare. I don't seem to be as lapsed as I have been for the past few days. I ate some BBQ Rib flavour Walkers crisps - then proper stuck my tongue down Shelly's throat - because they're her favourite flavour. I felt it was fitting. :P

Photography was yet another lesson of photo editing.
Seriously, if Paul fucking thinks I'm going 25 fucking A3 pages of sketchbook in TWO weeks, he can shove it right up his arse. We told him he doesn't set enough deadlines - and the one time he does set one, it's fucking ridiculous and unachievable. So we've all made a pact to refuse. :)

After college, I took the shuttle bus into town then went to Forbidden Planet to get some presents. I got Ian some Star Wars plushies - a Yoda and an R2-D2. It's tradition - every year I'll get Ian some Star Wars mech. Every year, I'll get Lisa some make-up. Every year I'll get dad some Toblerones. I might get him those new ones that are being advertised. And of course, I got something for Adam. But he's a blog reader - no mentioning of it here. :P

Forbidden Planet is proper expensive like. Not that I'm a tight arse - well, I am a bit - but they charge daft prices for shitty little things. I had to have a serious mooch before I decided on my purchases. :P

When I got home, I watched Miranda with mam - she had it recorded on the DVD harddrive.
Oh, why have I never watched this programme before?! Oh, it's HILARIOUS. :D

In the little gap between this and I'm A Celebrity - I snaffled some wrapping paper and wrapped up what I had left. Now all I need are some boxes of chocolates to go with their gift sets, something else for Mam, something else for Dad and something else for Ash.

Gah, then there's the matter of the bloody CARDS. ARRRGHH.

Mom made chicken soup. :)

My Mom doesn't really do soup from a can. We have canned soup. It's for scavengers that invade the house and don't know how to cook. Or, in the case of my sister, know perfectly well how to cook, and just don't want to. But when my Mom makes soup, this involves separating a chicken, and cutting up vegetables, and choosing spices, and simmering for a few hours.

So, she's upstairs practicing (her band has a gig coming up soon), and Dad and I are sitting at the table - I'm working, he's having his third bowl, we're lightly discussing news articles.

Dad commented, "Watch. I'm about to make history."
I raised an eyebrow, glancing up from my laptop, as he left the table and sought out the cupboards. "People have been doing this for years. You put croutons in your salad, crackers in your soup - just watch. I'm going to be a trendsetter."

Today, November 11th, 2009, I watched my Dad put cheerios in his soup.

"It's going to sweep the nation. Except for California - they'll hate it. Remember this day - you saw it here first."

I feel dubiously privileged.

Woke up at six. I like getting up early. And doing things that allow me to watch the sunrise.

Went to the gym, lighter workout. Still aching from previous kick-butt workout, but it feels good to push a little.

Got home before anyone else was up in the main part of the house. I don't know why, but this makes me feel good.

Had shower to myself. Didn't have to work around anyone else's schedule.

Had breakfast, cleaned up kitchen. I'm very much a breakfast person. I can skip any other meal of the day, but I'm rather cranky without breakfast. Also, the kitchen looks nice when it's clean, and makes my Mom a little happier when she comes down in her getting-ready-for-work mode, and that makes me happy.

Time to talk with Dad, made plans for lunch. Yay Dad, yay us-time.

Got to campus twenty minutes early. Yay having time to mentally prepare for class.

Fairly focused in class, (this is a new one)

save for occasional interactions with Scooter. (secretly suspect that instructor is happiest when I show up to this class either depressed or sleep-deprived, because at least then we don't talk. He doesn't care if I'm surly.)

Met with teacher, chatting over plans and paper. He's nice to talk to, and interested in my plans for the future. Pretty good about remembering who I am and what I'm doing, considering how many students he has.

Borrowed Scooter's Bible (mine went missing, but a lot of the camp staff carry one in their backpacks), read a bit, learned a bit. I'd been a little concerned, (I liked that Bible. It was small enough to fit in my pack, and had this nice soft leather cover that felt good in my hands, and it was a gift from a friend. Also, it was the last Bible I had left, and I really can't go through very much of my life without one).

Played a bit of piano. Piano always makes me feel better.

Driving with happy ska/white-boy-reggae. Warm day, windows down. I don't care if I'm wearing jeans and a sweater, I am a foxy babe. :P Or not. I'm actually almost everybody's Mom/Big Sister-figure, but I'm okay with that, and I still like being me.

Met my Dad for lunch. This is a very happy thing - Dad and Phirefly time.

At Noodles! (Nom nom Noodles.) Dad keeps introducing me to places that he likes to eat, and this was the first time I'd mentioned one that he hadn't had.

Came back on campus, tried to track down Sport. I have news, he has news, and we're both excited for each other. It's normal for us to meet up in the afternoon and go hang out under the oak trees for an hour or two.

Missed Sport (by about half an hour), but ended up talking on the phone for about twenty minutes (usually, our phone conversations are less than five). Made me smile.

Bright sunny fall day. Crashed around in the leaves under the oak trees for a bit, thinking happy-play thoughts.

Working on paper. Well, it's not coming so well, but at least I have time to work on it. This is good.



And, hopefully, for the rest of the day;

Getting time to go up on Quarry Hill (woods and trails time),

Having time with friends at Fusion tonight (only time during the week I get to see these guys. Also, doggies.),

Getting time for a proper workout after that (endorphins and being responsible!),

And maybe getting to share a few words with Mom (mmm, Mom is great)

Before getting to my own bed (snuggle warm soft safe).


My life is so blessed.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------


-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------


For the majority of the day, I've not felt the best. I've been slightly lapsed for a while now - but Shelly did manage to cheer me up slightly. We played Canis Canem Edit together and Guitar Hero 5.
Shelly came at about 3 in the afternoon because she was spending the night after coming with us to Ian's Halloween party.
Mam had bought mini bags of Haribo Starmix for the brats who knock on the door and she said I couldn't have any - but I snaffled some when she wasn't looking. :P

Although the party was pretty good - I had a laugh with Christine, talked with Laura about film-making, talked with Mark about games - had a laugh with Lisa and her friend in the kitchen - drank a few bottles of iron brew WKD and cuddled up with Shelly on the sofa for a while - it was dad who had to go and ruin it.

And he didn't just ruin the party for me - he ruined the whole of tonight. He's SUCH a fucking ARSEHOLE.
He's starting to make me hate him again. A while back I disliked mam for being bitchy all the time, but she's settled down, she's just a knob when it suits her - but dad's a total fucking prick all the time.
And this is tripled, maybe even quadrupled when he's drunk.

He ALWAYS, without fail - will upset me when I'm drunk - but apparently he upset Christine as well - he upset Shelly by being a general arsehole, touching her up - and not just her, Lisa and Amy as well - and I know that mam wasn't best pleased with him either.

Not only this - but when we got home - Shelly and I were cuddled up on the floor and duvet pile together - some chavs had set fire to a car outside, so we had mam mooching about being generally nosey - all these fire engines and police cars going by at two in the morning with their lights and sirens going - then this inflamed car decided to start randomly EXPLODING. Shelly and I were just like SERIOUSLY WTF.

After this drama, we all settled down and tried to get back to what we were doing - dad decides to blunder about naked on the landing, throwing up all over the carpet and the suitcase by the ottoman. So he's being noisy, as well as flashing everything to Shelly who was unfortunate enough to catch a glimpse when she was going to the toilet.
And as a result of him throwing up everywhere - he kept mam awake as well as us - he was pissing about mopping everywhere up with toilet roll for about 45 minutes - then there was the racket of mam getting the mop bucket out.

It was like the first time in ages I was in a reasonable mood, I wasn't TOO depressed - thus rendering my sex drive reasonably okay - and he just had to go and turn me RIGHT off. Vomit is one of my phobias, for a start - but I couldn't feel at all comfortable knowing he was falling about like a twat on the landing outside the door and mam was dragged away to clean up after him.
I felt really sorry for her actually - I'm just glad she didn't have work on Sunday and dad did - ha, the twat, that'll fucking teach him.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Party photos:



Me, as an evil deranged jester - and Ian as The Crow. :D



Shelly and I. :D



Mam, myself, Shelly and dad - as Yoda. :S



Amy, Dan, Ian, Mark and Laura. :D



Christine and Roger. :D

Got an email from an Alex Hodge yesterday morning. He said he knew I was Ken's daughter and Tracy's sister and that he'd been looking for me and Tracy for 7 years. Said his mom was Ann Hodge and she and my dad dated before my mom and my dad did. And he's Ken's son. My first instinct--like yours--might be to scream "STALKER!" and block him from every method of contact. However, my dad was well-known for his womanizing ways. So I called my mom and asked if it were possible, and as soon as I said, "Could Alex be my--" she stopped me and said "I ALWAYS SUSPECTED!" I went online, looked at his pictures. He's a fucking spitting image of my dad at 19. Like, if I didn't know better, I would have thought I was looking at a picture of my dad.

Talked to him on my lunch yesterday. He's very smart. Super excited to meet me and Tracy. Tracy's all over an LA trip soon. As much as I don't want to give up any hours or leave Grass Valley (ok, mostly I don't want to leave Jake), I really think Tracy and I should meet Alex together. He didn't know that my dad had died until he talked to Tracy. I just...cannot fathom. He's known about me and Tracy since he was 5. He's been looking for us for the past 7 years. I assumed that the 7 years correlated to when my dad died (he died in December of 2001, and I figured maybe Alex didn't know until a few months later), but no. he just got old enough to wonder who his family was. I guess that makes me pretty lucky. The only reason I found out about my dad dying--and thus meeting Tracy--was because my mom filed for child support. CPS contacted us to let us know we qualified for Social Security payout for survivors. But because Alex's mom never filed for child support, Alex wasn't in the system as Ken's son, and nobody knew to contact him or his mother. Tracy only found out about me when CPS contacted her for a copy of the death certificate. And she jumped on contacting me.

You know, I've always joked that I'm probably related to half the blonde-haired, blue-eyed kids in my county. Totally different when you find out you actually are related to one of them. I'm a little mind-blown.