Home

I'm home now, the flight was awful - mostly turbulence, but the flight was empty. The flight crew allowed us to change seats if we wanted to, but I stayed as I had a special meal. I had the vegetarian pasta

I went through security pretty quickly at Boston, I wanted to go, because I was about to breakdown and I wouldn't have been able to leave. I thought Myriam's mum and dad would've said something to me, but they were sitting down and waved at me - so I reluctantly left.

I bought a bottle of coca-cola and dr pepper (for harry) and some vitamin water (revive/fruit punch) for me, which I drank fast as I started crying waiting for the flight to board. I also found my headphones, and now I know why it's called Taxachusetts... But yeah, I have new headphones that are the same as the ones I had (Sony MDR-Q68) but these are black and "iPhone compatible"

Customs was fun, just flashed my passport, grabbed my bags and wandered out - the airport was so insanely busy, there were literally hundreds of people, but I survived and waited 20 minutes for mum and dad to turn up as the flight had arrived early.

I miss being there already, mum asked me "what are you looking forward to now you're home" and I simply said "going back to America" I can't explain how I feel at the moment, but mum's making me feel better by making chili con carne which is nice :) However it doesn't hide this horrible feeling of wanting to cry that keeps washing over me... I want to be with Myriam so much, I feel that the last week was too short, that we didn't have enough time, I don't understand it.

I got home after a stiff, bumpy ride in the car and had a sleep after breakfast (mum made me a bacon and egg sandwich) and I woke up disorientated, wondering where the hell I was, it was horrible - and now I'm not allowed to sleep or I won't sleep later, so I'm tired, very tired. Myriam's internet has crapped out, I hope it's just the cable coming loose from the cable modem - but I'm not sure :\

Harry's coming over tomorrow which should be nice, then it's back to work on tuesday - yay... but it pays for me going to America...

 

He's Gone.

(Feel free to ignore this first bit if you don't want teen angst type whining)


Sam is going back home now and I'm still here. I miss him already. It's hurting so much that I want to die. No more kisses and hugs and chatting for long hours together for ages. Tuesday is back to the daily grind for the both of us and I don't want it. I don't want to go back to school. I don't want to write another set of articles for the magazine, I don't want to work tomorrow or ever again because I'm hurting too much.

The oddest thing is that it was like he never left. It was as if 18 months had never passed. He stepped off the plane and back into my life so smoothly it wasn't a hassle to rearrange anything at all for him, like he was meant to be with me. Only the scenery was different. Everything else was the same.

I was afraid that after 18 months I wouldn't feel the same, I wouldn't love him anymore, everything would be awkward, and we would end up breaking up but the opposite is true. I love him more than I can say, more than I can show it, more than anything else in this world. I would give up everything I have here to live there with him. Everything. So that we could have our life together. God, I want that more than anything, to spend my life with him. No more of this bullshit of having to see him walk away from me again. I just want him to be with me, forever.

(Back to your regulary scheduled post)

Dinner today was ok except the roast pork was dodgy. The meat was a dark pink around the bone but the rest of it was fine so we ate around the pinkness. Both of us suffered some gas from it I think. Dessert was the danish ring and steamed chocolate nut pudding with orange liquor sauce. Then we finished The Dark Crystal and relaxed on the couch, talking and cuddling. And then it was time for him to leave.

On the drive down I fell asleep and woke up with the beginnings of a migraine which worsened steadily over the next hour and wasn't improved by my parents disappearing to Dunkin Donuts downstairs in the terminal without telling us and not answering their phones! All of us were upset at each other, but oh well. Sam and I had a few last words, a last hug and a last kiss before he went off through security. I watched him. One last kiss blown and he was gone. Mum and dad were a bit upset because they wanted to tell him a few last words before he left but he went off too quickly. We headed back to the car and I had to keep my eyes closed because the lights from everything were starting to be like laser beams in my eyes. How I survived the trip home I don't know. Mum gave me a Tylenol and I had a lay down and I feel better now. Apart from the whole angst about Sam leaving, of course.

And so the world turns. I wish it would stop.

At Myriam's!

With Myriam's new router and wireless network I can actually use it - where as before it would error!

We're about to have a nice meal in about an hour - roast pork with potatoes and vegetables and a raspberry danish for dessert!

There's not much to say about today - not much has happened, stayed at the hotel for a bit then came here - I'm eating an orange at the moment, it's so good!

I have one more photo to put up - so I'll grab my camera and stick it on the Picasa!

The last night

Instead of writing about what happened today (it wasn't a lot - basically went for dinner then shopping before getting Myriam from work, everything else Myriam wrote) I'm just going to write something else.

I've got HBO Family on at the moment and Edward Scissorhands is about to start - I've never seen it before. I like this hotel, it's been a good home for two weeks - it's been comfortable and a place I want to stay, rather than 'just a room'. And this week has made me question a lot of things, the weather here is cold and I mean cold - this morning was -23˚C, it reached -9˚C as a HIGH midday. The UK will feel like a tropical paradise for a while when I get back, and as stupid as it sounds, I'll miss the snow.

I'm going to miss Myriam, it already feels like I'm leaving something behind that should be coming with me and I haven't even gone yet. I can't explain it at all, I also have no idea where all these tears have suddenly come from - at least there's no blood yet! (bonus!) I want to stay, but at the same time I want to go home. What I really want is to take Myriam home with me, have her to talk to on the flight, have her company - that's the difference between the flights, going there, there's the anticipation and the excitement, but coming home is so lonely.

I want Myriam to see the UK before we decide what we're going to do, I really wouldn't mind moving here - but at the same time it's a bit alien. I hate this feeling of being torn apart - it just makes me want to cease being, it's stupid  - but I'll deal with it, I have to. Well, there goes the bonus. I hate nosebleeds, they hurt so much, companied with this horrible feeling of sadness isn't making this easy.

Well, I'd better pack, I might put up another post before I depart from Logan, in fact I probably will.

And So It Begins.

...The tears, the angst, the wailing, all of that fun crap. Sam is going back home tomorrow and it's already breaking my heart. Why am I over here and Sam is over there in the first place? I wish I could reach up and grab God by the throat and give him a good hard shake for doing this to us.

But nevermind.

Sam and I spent the entire morning in his room because a.) we wanted to and b.) it was below freezing out there, easily -3 this morning. Mum got a flat tire a short walk from the hotel (no idea what happened, the car felt funny and then I heard the tire on the groundd and felt it shuddering) so I abandoned her and walked to the hotel while she called Dad to pick her up. In the five minutes I was outside during the walk I lost feeling in my cheeks and thighs. We watched a bit of TV and also some of Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya while we ate pizzas we ordered from Caesario's for lunch. I had BBQ chicken and Sam had Meat Lover's, plus we ordered fries to go with it, which were antastic even though they forgot the ketchup. Oh well. We decided to brave the cold and walk to my house around 2 before I had to go to work. Dad picked us up about a 2 minute walk away and I was happy for that because I was half frozen even though we stopped into CVS and Neotokyo on our way for a few minutes to defrost.

At work today I was in a pissy mood for because it was robbing me of my chance to be with Sam and my mood darkened because Hera wasn't there. I cheered up a bit/got over myself when I saw Audrey coming in and working with me. Also, I got to do some truck! I did some cosmetics with Sachiko and Amy for a bit. A bottle of concealer broke open in one of the totes so we removed the stuff that was covered in makeup and put away the clean stuff. Otherwise I was trapped at that register for all 5 hours.

I came home, gargled with Listerine and had some ranch Doritos, chocolate and ginger tea and effectively sent poor Sam scrurrying away because of my horrible breath. *laugh* I brushed and flossed and he liked that better. We watched House and Monk and Dad gave him his last ride to the hotel. =/

Tomorrow...is going to be one of the hardest days ever, I think.

Hold on, where's my kleenex? I need to blow my nose!

Well, I managed to give everyone a panic this evening - had a massive nosebleed while at Myriam's - she was really worried and wanted (wants?) to take me to the ER... It really, really hurts, like my head is on fire. I'm wondering if it might be nasal septum deviation? I think I'd call this nosebleed chronic as it's been twice a day for 14 days...

Anyway, today was nice - Myriam and I had breakfast at Ate Doors Down, I had an Egg McGala (basically an -awesome- and fresh bacon and egg mcmuffin, but on an asiago bagel) Myriam just had an asiago bagel with fresh creamed cheese.

I bought a new suitcase, which again went on the credit card, $24.99, not too large as well as $3 toothpaste for mum - cinnamon whitening! and the tube is huge! I also bought some tictacs. After that it was lunch, which was at Peking Garden where we had the buffet - it was fantastic, I really enjoy the buffet there!

Then Myriam went to work and I bought a lipton pureleaf lemon ice tea and a cherry coke (which I later gave to Myriam as I should really be avoiding caffeine, shame though as I really wanted it...) The iced tea was fantastic, and for some reason I've really been craving water (as well as iced tea)

Dinner (sans Myriam) was at the Puritan, we got there early, and we still had a 15 minute wait for a table - I had the chicken tender parmigiana which I ate a little bit of (as it came with soup AND rice) so I took it back to the hotel and have just finished it - it was great.

After dinner, it was back to Myriam's (sans Myriam still) where we watched NCIS (I'm really getting into that now) then lots and lots of House (in the middle of which I had my epic nosebleed) Now I'm here and craving some iced tea...

The Register Ate My Drawer! And Other Stories.

Today was just beyond freezing cold, staying at a toasty 20 ish degrees (Farenheit) with a windchill of minus 10 before dipping down to around 3 degrees. No wind but it's still very cold outside. And I'm trussed up in here feeling miserable and coughing because Sam's cold is out in full force. >_< Tomorrow, lots of liquid and ginger tea and vitamin C booster packets so I get over it faster. Plus me having a cold and being exposed to the cold = not good for my asthma.

Sam and I had breakfast at Ate Doors Down again, I had my same bagel with cream cheese except I asked for some fruit jelly with it. Fresh cream cheese. FRESH cream cheese, that is phenomenal. Fresh bagel with so much flavor and with cheese stuffed into it too, and the jelly....oooh. Sam had an Egg McBagel with bacon and loved it too, all of it was fresh and homemade.

After breakfast Sam brought himself a suitcase at Miller's General Store and some cinnamon toothpaste for his mum from CVS. We nearly froze half to deah wandering from the hotel to eat and back again even though it was about 4 blocks up. We had lunch at Peking Garden (again) because Sam wanted to, he had two heaping plates of chicken and spareribs and pork fried rice and tempura battered chicken finger and eggrolls and scallion pancakes from the buffet while I had a bowl of hot and sour soup, bit of broccoli, chicken, spareribs and an eggroll and scallion pancake. And then we walked back up from the restaurant in the freezing bloody cold to my house. We kicked back and watched The Dark Crystal for a bit before I had to go to work.

I dragged myself into it because I was scheduled for it. I had to go even though I wasn't even supposed to be there. So I resigned myself to being bored and ringing up customers and trying not to say "Damn it I QUIT". So I rang up people and felt my mood slowly brighten up during the 5 hours I was there, especially when Jenn came in and then when Sam came in with my lunch, which was chicken tenders, bread and a Greek salad from the Puritan. Course he came in when the line was 3 people deep so I had him just drop it off the side. Sachiko, food hound that she is, took my bag and ran off to the breakroom with it and unpacked it for me and so I gave her a chicken tender and some bread. *laugh* Easy women to please but a pain in the ass whenever there's food around. Shana came in while I was putting the returns away.

Around 7:30, before I had to leave, guy decides to pay with a check. I hit the "check payment" button and heard the register make that noise when it won't write a check properly, so I called Jenn and Andrea back up to ring and Shana for fighting with the check machine. I was right, check printer fucked itself and made the register freeze so I had to reset it, which took 15 minutes. When it came back up it was quarter of 8 so I asked if I could pull it. I punched in my code, hit "enter" and..............

Nothing happened except the printer went offline and the code switched from being active to saying "Log In". The register didn't pop open for me to take out my drawer like normal even though the code had changed, it still blinked "Log In" at me. Ok. Shana tried rattling it, punching it, yelling "open sesame!" at it before punching in Shauna's numbers to get it to open up (she's NOT supposed to do that but night shift are a different sort). Finally it did, Shana opened up the register and I was able to go out on my merry way.

Sam had a nosebleed tonight at home. =/ This is the third he's had today and I'm worried. *sigh*

Yeah, I was naughty...

It's a nice, toasty 10˚F outside at the moment and I just got rushed out the door - I spent god knows how long setting that machine up - presentation too so it's all hidden away! Gah, it's annoyed me a bit, but anyway enough of that!

Today was quite a strain, I don't know if Myriam felt that way or not, but I sure did. I got picked up at 9:15 this morning, then we went to pick up Myriam's mum's friend, Louise, then we went straight to the mall. Myriam and I had breakfast and waited for Myriam's mum and Louise to join us from parking the car. We headed to the Apple store to look round - I glad we didn't buy a Mac - or I'd have had to have spent all day teaching everyone (I spent all day sorting the machine that we got, anyway, but yeah) plus Myriam wouldn't be able to help if something went a bit wrong... After looking around the Apple store, I've fallen for the Macbook Air and I will save for one and buy one when I can, it's the form factor I like, the smallness of it, and the fact I can take it anywhere! I'll relegate the Macbook Pro to a desktop replacement machine, and reclaim my computer desk...

Anyway, after that Myriam and I went shopping, headed to F.Y.E (For Your Entertainment) where I found something I had to get for Harry - I had to use my (gasp) credit card, but all he needs to get now is the last part and he has the set. That was the naughty part, using my credit card to buy something! I'll photograph it later and stick it on the Picasa - along with what I bought Ted, which I'll talk about in a minute. (edit: photos up!)

After F.Y.E. we went to the Borders as Myriam pointed out that the manga/graphic novels were all buy one get one half price - so we went in and looked. I looked and my eyes caught The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya volume 1, so I had it, taking note that it had only just come out - and we looked for another, but there was nothing that leapt out (except ones I already had), so I only bought the one book and we headed out.

Next we went to the sweet shop and I bought ted some more jelly beans and a cigar - I'll put photos of them up too! (edit: photos up!) Myriam bought some maple candy as she said I had to try it - they sell a lot of English sweets in that shop! We then went to Gamestop where I found Lost in Blue for the DS, without a box, for $20, so I grabbed it and bought it as soon as I could - we'd been in 5 gamestops looking for that as well as 3 electronic boutiques... Anyway, she has it now! After the purchasing, we went back to the food court and got lunch - I had a burrito and a gourdita crunch from Taco Bell - it was interesting (but its agreement with my stomach didn't last...) After lunch we met up with Myriam's mum and Louise once again and headed to the Salem Best Buy.

At the Best Buy, we looked at the computers - I really like the netbooks (not enough to go back to using Windows again though, and I like the MacBook Air more) and I picked out a very decent desktop machine, which although wasn't the cheapest, it had the best price/performance - the 'sweet spot' basically. It's a slate grey Dell Studio Hybrid, 3gb ram, 2.16ghz intel core 2 duo, 250gb harddrive, dvd rw drive etc, a nice budget 19" monitor (as the plastic was matte and didn't reflect - which was what Myriam's mum was worrying about) as well as a nice printer and a new Netgear router, which - can go fuck itself. Ironically - the Studio Hybrid is the only Dell I would ever consider buying, I've always said that since it was announced.

During the arduous task of buying the thing (that alone took over an hour) I was struck with a massive migraine, vertigo, etc - I didn't make too big a thing of it, except taking some of Myriam's mum's aspirin and buying a bottle of vitamin water- to which I complained about the price - they advertised $1.49 and charged $1.69, not on really - it would've annoyed me for the rest of the day, so I moaned and got a refund of 20c. (Myriam's note-tsk, 20 cents. And I worried about him with the headache, because even though he tried to downplay it, it didn't quite work =/). When we got back to Myriam's, she grabbed the computer out of the back of the car, the handle tore through the box and it dropped to the ground - no-one's fault (and nothing was broken), but damn, makes your stomach twist, we managed to get everything inside and set up. The machine itself is quite nice, very fast, makes Vista look quite lightweight which is impressive!

The machine itself was set up and running very nicely, the router however took hours, but at least I know what needs doing now if I come across it again. If you have cable internet that uses a DHCP based connection and you buy a new router, you spoof the MAC address of the old router. If only I knew that before... We had dinner in between, which was nice - beef, jacket potato and sweetcorn with gravy - I was the only one who ate the skin of the jacket potato, weirdly enough... Anyway, the computer was finally done after dinner. I got a thanks from Myriam's mum and rushed out the door by Myriam's dad... What an interesting day...

Also, a strange thing to note, I want a puzzle ball globe weirdly enough! :3 maybe for my birthday?

Of Macbook Airs and Dell Hybrids.

Right, remember that I said on Tuesday that our old computer was barely hanging onto life support? Well, Mum took the two of us plus Louise (family friend who suffers from Alzhiemers) to the mall in Salem with the Apple store. Sam and I had some cinnamon sticks with frosting from Cinnabon first (mmm) before all of us went to the Apple store. We were bugged by no less than 4 different people asking us if they could help us but we were free to browse about. Mum was suitably impressed by the sleekness of the iMacs and the tininess of the Mac mini but otherwise she was "nngh" about it, especially when I told her that Sam would have to train all of us on how to use a Mac. Sam drooled over the Macbook Airs for a bit but winced at their price. And so we left.

We browsed FYE for a bit and found a DVD boxset of an anime for Harry (I was feeling a bit devilish and told Harry that we brought him one, heeheehee, sorry). I brought a keychain camera thing, raspberry mints from Jones and a manatee Webkin for school. We went into Borders bookstore and Sam found the graphic novel for Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya (!!! The look on his face was priceless). We also went into the sweet shop and Sam brought a box of jelly beans for Ted and something else I forgot. I brought some maple candy for him. Oh! Sam also found Lost in Blue for me when we wandered into Gamestop. He just bent down and ran to the front desk with the box while I just went "What? What? What?" and when he told me he found it I gave him a giant hug and kiss. ^_^ Then we had some lunch and met up with Mum and Louise. Mum was keen on going to Best Buy to look at their computers, so we said ok.

Long story short, we ended up with one of these: http://www.dell.com/hybrid?ST=yssp_feed&dgc=ST&cid=35219&lid=885461 which came with a Canon Pixsmart MP240, 19" Dell somethingish screen, the computer and a wireless mouse and keyboard. Mum was impressed with the size and the package deal of everything, since the printer is an all in one printer, scanner, photocopier and picture printer. I also convinced her to buy a new router since our old Linksys one is literally held by duct tape. The package deal thing was already $50 off but the guy was willing to knock off an extra $50 since he found an opened Dell Hybrid in the back. So we took it and ran with it.

4 hours later? Sam's still setting up the computer. Because the computer was a return, everything already came installed on it. Vista, drivers, all that, so that's not too bad. What's pissing him off the most is fixing the new router to connect to our cable modem. Coupled with a bad headache from the...what is it...14th nosebleed he's had so far, he's not in the best of moods. I've given him tea and asprin, he just needs to destress. I've been playing Lost in Blue and it's starting to piss me off a bit because my two characters are dying of hunger and thirst and there's nothing to really eat at the moment. Well, the game's premise is that you washed up on a desert island and you need to survive long enough to be rescued.

So, yay. Lots of new stuff today but both of us have been spending money like water unfortunately. =/

Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner.

Today was interesting. Mum dropped us off for breakfast at Andy's, I had blueberry pancakes with bacon and Sam had an omlette with cheese, bacon, sausage and mushroom, homefries and beans. Then Mum dropped us off at Van Otis. I told Sam that all of the chocolates they had in the place were way too expensive for the quality you get. 2 lbs of fondue chocolate? $35. A pound of assorted chocolates? $23, with gift wrapping $1.50 extra. Mum remembers back when chocolate was $15 a box and the wrapping was free. Sam ended up buying two chocolate lollies (Christmas ones, BOGO) plus a chocolate covered pretzel. Came to $5 ish. We walked back up the road in the freezing cold to the hotel and "defrosted". We went to Quizno's for lunch, Sam had a meatball sub with pickles and a bowl of chili with a root beer. I had a flatbread sandwich (a chicken bacon ranch thing) with baked bbq Lay's and a raspberry flavored water. The water had ice chips floating in it (!!!) so that was nice if a bit odd. We went back to my house and rested for a bit. Then I had to go to work.

Work was busy ish. busy enough so that I couldn't leave the register to do truck, and the amount of truck left to do by the time I came in was about 15 totes, so it wasn't worth it. I was stuck behind the register all day ringing up sales. Sam came in to buy white chocolate pretzels and some iced tea and other stuff and to replace the bag of jelly beans he got for Ted because it sprung a leak. He also popped in with my dinner about 6:15 and I ate it at a quarter of 7. It was BBQ turkey tips with rice and coleslaw. I ate most of it, left the coleslaw and went back out to work until 9, when I pulled my drawer and left.

Not much happening these days, honestly.

I'm never eating another hamburger again.

I just can't face it after that thing. It wasn't exactly the largest burger in the world, staring at you ominously as though it was more likely to eat you, but it was incredible. Myriam simply said "oh, it tastes like lean beef!" but she doesn't eat many burgers.

The fries were amazing, freshly cut and freshly fried, some still with skin on them, but they tasted fantastic, then there was that burger. I almost mourned for it's passing when I finished it - I'm ruined! I can't eat burgers any more because they won't be anywhere near as good. Luckily Myriam spilled her lemonade over my plate of fries (I had about 7/8 left) and the waitress came and brought us some fresh fries for free! Fantastic.

Before we went to the "world famous" Red Arrow Diner, We had breakfast at Dunkin' then we went to Best Buy where I picked up some more DVDs and Myriam and I wandered about the mall where she picked up a few things, we also went to the pet store and had a look at all the puppies and mice!

I'm down to $44.25 now - DANGEROUSLY low - I'm not going to put anything on my credit card, as I've already put $200 on it that I wasn't expecting! But that's done now, I'll just have to stop ordering from Domino's (to my disdain!) I don't like worrying about money, especially when I'm here!

Aside from the money, it was a nice day today, relaxing evening of watching movies and tomorrow American Idol starts, and I'd quite like to watch the 2 hour special thing...

Of Computers and Epic Burgers

I think I'll let Sam wax nostalgic about the buffalo burger he had at the Red Arrow Diner this afternoon for lunch. :) He highly enjoyed it.

Today I woke up a bit late, at 8, had a bath and rushed about to get dressed and fix some cereal. I met Sam at 9, we cashed my paycheck and had breakfast at Dunkin Donuts. I had a croissant with strawberry jelly and a Milky Way hot chocolate, Sam had coffee (!!!) and a bacon, ham and egg sandwich on a bagel. We hopped the bus to the mall and had a browse around the shops. I brought a webcam, vitamins, chocolate from Lindt (Peruvian chocolate and milk chocolate with sea salt) and a DVD for Sam. >_< I feel uncomfortable in lingerie stores for that reason, because it's all the commercialization of women, like I'm still some sort of chattel and thing to be used for easy sex. Blegh, blegh, blegh. We also had a browse at Spencer's. Think of it more like an adult joke shop, with rainbow cock pops and vibrators and beer bongs. All the tasteless things you can imagine jammed into one place.

We hopped the bus back to the hotel, dropped off Sam's stuff and walked up to the diner for a very late lunch. After lunch we went back to my house where Mum asked us to look at the desktop to figure out what was wrong with it. An hour later, with the computer in bits across the sunroom floor being vacuumed, reassembled and everything checked and double checked again and many cracks about how shitty the computer was, Sam basically pronounced the thing dead and said there was nothing he could do. Dad was a bit harder to convince until I said it would cost more to fix it than to buy a new computer. So sometime this week, we will have a new computer. Maybe a Mac, on which Sam will have to train all of us. (I get the feeling that my parents are a bit too computer illiterate for one, though...but it would be near idiot proof and I think they might need that. I wouldn't have to worry about maintaining the thing, which is something I despise. My mother can make my blood pressure go from normal to boiling in under a nanosecond).

We watched the end of Casino Royale (Bond's bollocks being crushed was nothing as bad as I imagined) and the whole of Chocolat. ^_^ Sam fiddled with my computer and got back everything that was eaten a while back, like the volume control button and some of the games and system restore and calculator and paint. Yay!

^_^ Tomorrow we're going to have breakfast out and then I don't know what until 4 when I go back to work. Bleh.

Quiet Day.

Because of the snow we had today the store was dead until noon and even then it was nothing compared to what we usually had. I was able to do the candy and stock the cigarettes in peace. I was given the crappy register with the card reader that doesn't work right, so that somewhat sucked. Then the lady who wants us to do her shopping for her called. Pain in the ass woman. I don't know if she's disabled or lazy or what but she calls every so often and gives us a list of stuff to buy, sends in the cab driver and pissily demands the receipt. She has a knack for calling me when I'm stuck up front and gets huffy when I tell her I can't leave the register areas unless I have someone else watching the registers. I lobbed her off onto Kristina when she came in, mwee hee hee. Also, Dollar Guy came in. He has an actual leather pouch and he pays in actual dollar coins. I have a Martin Van Buren Presidential dollar coin now. I love the little Regency style hairdo he's got. Apparently when he was alive Van Buren was quite a hunk, rich widower and all that. So I've been told. He doesn't do anything for me. *laugh*

So when I came back Sam and I had lunch, it was leftovers from last night. I think something in them was dodgy because I still feel like shit, I have headaches and nausea and extreme tiredness. Then we basically chilled aroudn the house. I watched National Treasure while Sam played on his DS. I played a bit of Hotel Dusk on my DS and restrung Sam's rosary. We sat on the living room couch and watched Ultimate Recipe Showdown and then Globe Trekkers and then CSI:NY. Then we brought him back to the hotel.

Nothing exciting as per usual. Tomorrow I need to cash my paycheck and we're going to hop the bus to Best Buy and browse for a bit.

I Warned Sam!

>_> I warned him that my family was loud and obnoxious and annoying but I think in the back of his mind he was thinking they can't be. *grin*

Yesterday was FREEZING cold and we walked outside during it, needless to say the both of us were pretty chilled when we came to the museum. We made fun of the art for a bit, especially the contemporary art. They had one of those gigantic paintings where it looked as if someone stomped on a giant tube of paint and splotched it all over the canvas (but it wasn't a Jackson Pollack, it was someone else imitating him), Japanese characters on blue, a painting that was just brown and a few other colors smashed together on a giant canvas, a sculpture called The Family that was just UGLY and, I guess worst of all, a giant installation by a woman named Kristie Renolds called The Former Mistake. Yeah, it was a mistake all right. Think gigantic pieces of wood, nails, painted canvas and weird little clay sculpture things that looked like bananas, piles of shit and pieces of cloth scattered all around a giant room and sticking out from the wall at all angles. Supremely UGLY. Sam got snarked at by a guard when he tried to get a picture of it...yet he was able to get a picture of everything else. We looked at the other collections of modern, European and American art as well. As Sam said, lunch was too expensive for what we got in the end. My panini was nice in the end (it was tomato, basil and mozzerella with a lemon basil aioli) and so was the soup but yes, too expensive. Plus I was still overstuffed from breakfast and feeling a bit dodgy.

We went back to the hotel to defrost for a bit before we went to CVS so Sam could grab a few things. He brought iced tea, milk chocolate Flipz (chocolate covered salted pretzels) and some tissues since he's been suffering from nosebleeds quite a lot lately. =/ Maybe it's the pressure? Maybe the air? Maybe a cold? I don't know. Anyway we went home, and chatted with Lindsay for a bit and watched National Treasure before the guests arrived.

Poor, poor, poor Sam, is probably the best way to start.

Everyone arrived almost at the same time, grabbing us and kissing us on both cheeks and being loud, loud, LOUD, especially Sue with her piercing voice. Everyone shuffled into the living room and into the sunroom to grab beer and drinks and Sam just sort of sank down into the green leather chair, getting up every few minutes to greet the new guest that was arriving. My aunt Angela and Mum were in the kitchen, cooking the meal. Sheryl Ann actually peppered Sam with questions the most, I think, and she was asking us what our plans were, I was telling her about them (maybe marriage and children but college FIRST) and poor Sam just sort of slumped down in the chair and sipped his Coke and tried to look as inconspicuous as possible. We had dinner, during which my aunts Angela and Monique were singing drinking songs or else songs to hail the New Year, I couldn't tell which. Just before dessert, Cedric decided to be a jerk and cook up the rumor that Sam and I were engaged so we had a dozen people crowding us and saying, "Is it true? Are you engaged? Did you get engaged today? When's the wedding? What are those rings on your hands?!?" and doing a big "AWWWWW" when I said that they were promise rings, with a promise to love each other.

"Can I melt into the floor yet?" I asked Sam.

Dessert was nice. Chocolate cheesecake, pumpkin and pecan pies, orange jellow mold, chocolates, cookies and candies. Sheryl Ann and Al left shortly afterwards because I could feel that they were uncomfortable. We munched on dessert and Sam got a bit cornered by Nick and Joe (Sue's sons) with asking questions about him and his family and so forth, which he obligued by telling a bit about his parents met. Sam cornered me afterwards.

"PLEASE can we have a small wedding?" he begged. *laugh* I told him this is nothing, wait until he meets Mum's family. He hadn't even met all of the cousins and the others from Dad's side either. Poor Sam just sighed.

Lindsay, Sam, me and baby Isabelle hung out for a bit in my room to get a measure of peace. Julie came in and begged Sam to look at her computer because it blue screened, typical Julie behavior, begging for things from family members! Mum poked in and snarked at me to get out there and entertain the guests! So we picked ourselves up and plopped ourselves on the couch in the living room, trying to stay awake before the party broke up at 10. Sam was grabbed and hugged and kissed again and everyone was shooed out the door. Ooops! Julie forget Isabelle's Dora the Explorer cup so I gave it to her and finally she left. Cedric drove Lindsay home and we drove Sam to the hotel. I had some of Cedric's vitamin C booster thing (you know that powder that comes in packets that you stir into a glass of water) and fell into bed, still feeling a bit nauseated and stomach crampy from the breakfast this morning. I know I've crossed Julien's off the list of breakfast places I'm going to.

Today I work 9-2 again, blegh.

Meet the family...

So, apparently this evening there was an engagement party! The last people to know about it were Myriam and I - we knew there was a big family party today, but I think everyone got the wrong end of the stick! But anyway, back to the beginning.

This morning I woke up pretty late in the grand scheme of things, 8:30. Myriam called me at 8:35 when I was getting into the shower and told me her dad was going to pick me up in ten minutes, so I rush and I get ready and get to waiting outside with damp hair, bluegh! Myriam's dad arrives and takes me back to the house. Myriam and I sit for a bit and head out to breakfast - we went to Julian's (I think that's how it's spelt, Myriam will correct it) and I had a "New York" omelette - it was nice, but something fishy there... I think Myriam was hit hardest though - We've both suffered a bit from the eggs, Myriam more so than me though.

We walked from the cafe to the currier art museum and we wandered around for a good few hours and grabbed lunch (an expensive lunch - $12 for soup, half a sandwich and a drink!) it was ok, but not the best lunch ever, we both had chicken tortellini (which was a bit cold for soup), I had half a meatball sub and Myriam had a weird panini - hers had a lot of vegetables in, she didn't enjoy it that much I think, but she had already started suffering from the french toast this morning.

We left the museum and walked back to town, stopped in CVS to grab some things and then Myriam's dad came and collected us. Lindsay was already back at Myriam's, it was nice to see her again. We started to watch National Treasure on Myriam's laptop, and we got a little into it when the family started arriving - it was chaos. I'll probably write more on it tomorrow, but damn. Damn, loud and rowdy and questioning and geez! I was completely wiped after about an hour and then completely exhausted after the dinner, which was fantastic - we had all sorts, stuffed mushrooms, olives, pickles (sweet ones though - which I'm not that keen on) pie, turkey, a gammon, potatoes, bean casserole (basically green beans in mushroom soup with french fried onions as a crust on top, lovely) and much more. It was great. I was prodded, probed, hugged and kissed by lots of loud french canadians - I was worried about how I'd deal with it as I don't do so good with people, but everyone enjoyed it and talking to me, so I'm glad!

I've been naughty and ordered a sandwich from dominos as although I ate at dinner, I feel so drained of energy. tsk! naughty naughty! never mind though :)

Edit: Oh GOD, the domino's sandwich is amazing, it's like god in sandwich form. Oven baked too! I think Myriam would die if she had one of these!

Insufficient Funds(!!?)

Well, this morning was a shock, in many ways - Myriam was feeling a bit sad so we skipped breakfast and had a talk - I think she's feeling a bit better now. We went to the bank and I only had $226.25 left on my card, so I took $200 cash (I found the actual value later on when I called mum). We went to Fedex my wallscroll as well as the cheezits and the jerky and damn. $193 in total, $130 of which was for the jerky and cheezits - the $60 for the wallscroll was because of it's size and shape, so there's the ONLY use of my credit card this holiday.

Peking Garden for lunch, it was so good - except the soup seemed a bit off, but never mind. As with all buffets, I wanted to eat more, but I couldn't - I couldn't even finish my (second) plate! haha!

Anyways, after that we went to Castro's Backroom, which I can only describe as a smoker's den. sofas and tvs all set up so you can light up, it was intimidating to say the least. I went in there to get mum a cigar or two as a gift of something different - I asked the owner what he recommended as well as traveling advice for cigars - I picked out 4 cigars, paid for them and we got out before the smell could cling to us, ick! Everything in there was nicotine stained and hazy, except the cigars which were in a special conditioned room.

After that, we rushed back to the hotel to drop off the cigars as well as grab my DS and the rosaries as Myriam wants to restring them. We then rushed back to her house and I prepared for the long 5 hours alone (well, I felt alone - if that makes sense) First we dropped Myriam off at work and I grabbed some more vitamin water, jellybeans for ted (I'll grab some more sweets for him next week), and some white chocolate and fudge covered pretzels for myself - getting 'family' discount, hehe!

We headed back and I looked at Myriam's computer again, tried to do a driver/application restore - but the archive is damaged so that's a no go - we're going to look for a cheapass webcam tomorrow from BestBuy! Dinner was from Papa Gino's, I had the Meatball and penne pasta and Myriam's dad also bought a 'meat platter' pizza too (as well as a regular cheese) so I had a slice of that. Myriam's dad then asked me to 'make the DVD work' so we could watch the end of Casino Royale. I felt more comfortable after watching the torture scene, as we were both cringing at the thought of it, is that weird?

Anyway, we watched NCIS and then House started so Myriam's dad darted off to collect her from work. We watched the rest of House and a bit of Monk then it was time for me to head back to the hotel - I have HBO on at the moment and Gladiator is on, I also have some slices of the meat platter pizza, thanks to Myriam's mum.

I know this sounds weird, but I'm happy here, yet I'm also happy back home too - I prefer home as it's familiar and I find it an easier place to live - but I like it here because of how different it is. I'm just enjoying the moments as they come - that's probably why I have less than $200 left for this week, hmm? haha!

Slight Misery.

Today was a bit miserable for me. Sam and I hung out in his room at the hotel for a couple hours instead of going out for breakfast as we had originally planned and chatted and watched Lucky Star for a bit. (No, seriously.) We went out to get some money from Sam's card and found out he didn't have enough (!) so he took out a bit less than he planned. We went out for Chinese again at Peking Garden and had the buffet. Their food is not as good and fresh as Thousand Crane. I finally had my tempura battered chicken fingers. ^_^ We also had a wander into Castro's Backroom, the cigar shop on Elm Street. Everything there was a man's world. Men on old, faded, secondhand, 60's style furniture smoking cigars with deep drags. Pinups on the walls, back issues of Playboy stacked on the table, a TV blaring House, everything faded yellow with nicotine, even the owner. Loads of smoke in there. We went inside the glassed in walled room where the cigars were stored and the air was fresher and smelled pleasantly of tobacco. Sam brought 4 cigars in tubes for his mum, he paid and we left, the smell still clinging to us like a last kiss. It's gotten into my jacket, into my hair, my sweater, everywhere. >_< I am quite glad neither of us smokes.

I bought a hairbrush at CVS since I needed one and we went back to the hotel. Sam gave me his rosaries and his scissors so I'll restring them tomorrow. Then we walked back to my house so I could prepare for work. Work today was busy. I was given my drawer to ring on and I stayed up their mostly all day, not getting the chance to work on putting away truck delivery until I switched with Hera, or tried to. Then Hera said that she's leaving in two weeks, which I'm near devastated about, because I'm going to miss her horribly. I counted down my drawer and grabbed some M&Ms and some gum for mum (we had no sparkling cider left which was bad) and then Sam and I watched House and part of Monk for a bit and then we dropped him off and here I am.

Tiring, Down Boy, Heel!, Epic Icecream with a SPLAT.

Man I haven't walked so much in forever practically. I know I've lost a good few pounds, I can feel it. And consequently I'm exhausted.

Today proceeded pretty much as Sam described. Mum needed 40 of each of dinner plates and dessert plates and some cups at the dollar store. Sam found a jerky snack pack with cheese and pretzels and bought it. At Best buy, we saw the same snack pack, exact same thing, for $3.19. So yeah. Sam grabbed Casino Royale and National Treasure and the complete set of The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya and some games for Harry at Best Buy. At the Sketchers Store I swear to God the salesman was hitting on Sam. He was falling over Sam going "Oh yeah, those are GORGEOUS" and doing all of the stereotypical gay mannerisms that you see (the gestures, the voice, the everything...even looked the part with his bleached hair and trendy clothes). I also get the feeling that the salesman flipped the CD in the backroom when he went to grab Sam's shoes because the music suddenly went from "normal" pop to Leona Lewis and other British bands. Sam did walk out with a sweet deal on his shoes. Beautiful boots that look similar enough to his old ones, all waterproof and gorgeous greeny-gray sneakers which are also waterproof by happy accident. >_> Cost him just under $100 so, awesome.

I was only going to buy jewelry wire to restring Sam's rosaries at the bead store but I got suckered into buying more beads when Donna told me she was having a bead liquidation sale. I wish I had brought that strand of potato shaped pearls I was running my hands over, maybe I'll grab them tomorrow. I loved their feel, silky, cool and rough from their imperfections. I have three beads of lepidolite (soft gray-purple) a weird blue speckled stone I bought for its cool lookingness and three electric blue stones. I think I might pair the pearls with the electric blue stones somehow. Making rosaries/prayer beads is a hobby of mine, which is weird. And the bracelet I hinted to Sam to buy for me as subtly as a train wreck is gorgeous, it's got this repeated Celtic knot design around it with a small malacite set into the center of the design. And it's only just big enough to fit me. ^_^

I found the wall scroll that Sam brought at Neotokyo, he was chatting with the owner about the Lucky Star DVD he picked up when I was inspecting the wall scrolls against the wall, one with Haruhi Suzumiya was just at the end, I picked it up and gave it to him, he was so happy. ^_^ They messed up Sam's order a bit at Panera, they gave him a tomato soup instead of a chicken with wild rice. It got sorted easily enough. Sam brought a copy of Hotel Dusk (he somehow lost his brother's copy) and another one that I forget now. Sam's icecream at Coldstone Creamery was EPIC. Chocolate dipped waffle bowl with rainbow sprinkles, filled with chocolote, coffee and French vanilla icecreams. The thing was MASSIVE. I gave him a bit of my cinnamon icecream and the flavor was AWESOMEness. The minute I walked out of the shop, though, Sam was saying "Oooh, watch out there's i-" and bam, I went down. Landed on my right knee at least, which got a bit scraped up. >_< What in the heck is this? Me falling down is an annual tradition thing? *sigh*

Came home, watched Ratatouille and most of Casino Royale. The exhaustion sank in during the poker scene in Casino Royale. Ah well.

Oh yes, Sam says for you lot to check his Picasa daily! My camera's gone for a extended stroll somewhere. =/

Thursday! Tiring but with new shoes!

A tiring day today, but a fun one none the less!

Started off with Myriam getting to the hotel at 9:15, then we rushed about getting ready to get the 9:30 bus, we got to Stop&Shop and Myriam got some mints her mum wanted and called her to ask what she wanted from the dollar store - she wanted a lot!

We headed over to Newbury Comics, where I bought Ratatouille on DVD for Myriam, and an action figure of Toro (the Sony cat!) we then grabbed everything needed from the dollar store and grabbed the bus to the mall. By this time my feet were already wet and icky, so I wasn't too happy about that. We stopped at the mall and it being just gone 11 we stopped at de angelo's and grabbed a bite to eat, wasn't bad - I would've liked my sandwich hotter, because it cooled down thanks to the salad.

We went to EBGames and I got a DS game (Final Fantasy IV), then to Best Buy and spent an undisclosed amount of money (DVDs and some stuff for Harry), then we headed to The Walking Company and were disappointed. $170 for some boots that were, to be fair, rubbish. Then we went to Sketchers and I was hit on by the salesman, well anyway, I found some boots AND some trainers (as you buy a pair get a pair half price) and felt quite pleased with myself!

We darted back to where the bus collected us, carrying all our stuff and dropped it off at the hotel, I promptly changed into my boots and we went shopping again. Myriam took me to the bead store she goes to and hinted at a bracelet, well I say hinted, I mean blatantly expressed her want for it, so I bought it for her, it's very pretty!

We then went to NeoTokyo again where I found a DVD I wanted to grab in BestBuy (but they didn't have it) and Myriam also found a wallscroll, which I had to have. After that we treked in the snow back to hers and watched Ratatouille, before scooting off to Panera for dinner, where I had half a sandwich and a small bowl of soup. Myriam and I then darted off to Gamestop where I got two more DS games, then we went for icecream (I'm sure Myriam will explain the icecream!) After that we headed back to hers, watched the end of Ratatouille and watched about 2/3 of Casino Royale before I was dropped off back at the hotel.

Edit: I thought I'd be clever and add links to the items!

The day it all went wrong!

Ok, that's a bit dramatic, but this morning was crappy thanks to a storm of icy rain - ended up watching The Golden Compass (it's not a compass, ffs.) on HBO waiting for Myriam to finish work.

Myriam arrived and we went to Thousand Crane for lunch, I had the 17 piece epic sushi platter for $12.50 (also included miso and a salad which Myriam had as it had a ginger dressing) it was -amazing- squid, haddock, jumbo king prawn, tuna, salmon, egg - even crabstick (well, surimi, but you know what I mean) it was amazingly fresh and tasted wonderful - they don't call it edible art for nothing.

Myriam had the sesame chicken, with next to no rice, and a sad excuse for a spring roll - she also had hot and sour soup - she seemed to enjoy it, so that's the main thing! I think we both enjoyed the crispy noodles and orange sauce more though - haha!

After the $26 meal at Thousand Crane we hopped on the bus to Wal*mart - neither of us wanted to go to Wal*mart, but thought the other did - I wanted to go to Newbury Comics near Stop&Shop - never mind, we grabbed a bite to eat in Barnes and Noble and hot footed back to the bus stop. The driver decided to stop at the Mall for 20 minutes so she could take her children and get a mcdonalds. Yeah, leaving her PAYING passengers on a freezing bus, nice. Anyway, we got back outside the park/hotel where the buses stop, and headed back to Myriams.

My feet at this time got a bit wet and still are a bit damp (Sorry Mum, the ice/snow/whatever managed to cut through - not too much, but enough to make my feet a little wet) so the walk to Myriam's wasn't fun. I'm buying some more shoes tomorrow, when we actually go to Newbury Comics and then to the Mall after. Myriam's mum had made spaghetti for us and kept it hot (as Myriam's dad had left earlier to go to work) it was good, very similar to it is back home but less herbs! (I don't mean amount, I mean types)

After that, we watched Wall-e and I kept falling asleep on Myriam, but I kept getting woken up, which wasn't very nice! Oddly enough I'm not tired now and I'm eating salsa and chips. This salsa is amazing, it's like the UK Doritos one before they changed it and made it rubbish!

All in all, I spent about $35 today, so quite a slow day in terms of money flow! I must try not to spend so much, leave some to last me until next week! tsk!

Route Failure Day

>_< I suppose it had to happen that we would have a shit day but I didn't expect it to be quite this bad. Long story short I worked, I got blisters and cuts, it snowed and iced, COMPLETELY wrong bus route to Newbury Comics and then we got chased by a plow and became exhausted. Short story long....

Woke up at quarter of 6 to get dressed and go to work. Didn't appreciate getting up at the "buttcrack" of dawn (I am not much of a morning person!) to go to work. Went in, was given my register, stocked cigarettes and got a nasty, deep paper cut in the bottom joint of my index finger on the palm side (and scared Sophie because my "ow!" echoed across the store and she came running with "What, what, what?" until I said it was just a paper cut). I also was given the most HORRIBLE broom in the world to work with to sweep out the rugs for the District Manager's visit. Seriously, the bristles were so stiff they stuck to the rugs like Velcro and made that exact same sound that you rip it off with. I had better success working with the smaller broom we had. I got a small blister on my hand from the sweeping, and it seems to have gone down quite a lot so that's good. Amy and the Lays chips delivery guy were both surprised to see me at work so early today. I tried putting out some of the candy today but we didn't have much to put out, it got busy and Amy loves doing the candy so I left it up to her. :)

I was quite keen on eating lunch today because I ate at 6 and I didn't take a break. We were supposed to go swimming in the pool today but my bathing suit is WAY too small (ugh) so no swimming for us today. Instead we went to eat at Thousand Crane, having an epic meal as Sam described. My dinner was quite nice, and actually quite filling. Well, the soup was and so was the salad. SHAME Sam hates ginger and wasabi and spicy things in general, I really do think so, it's quite nice. I had a bite or two of the pickled ginger and a taste of the wasabi off his sushi plate and the salad with the ginger wasabi dressing. He was whining about his cheddar pretzels that he brought yesterday being spicy. It was just a tingle! Spicy should make you gag, choke, cough, your eyes water and your nose drip like a faucet! But the spiciest I will go is up to jalapeno heat. Habanero pepper was too much.

What else. Ah yes, the bus hopping to Wal Mart thing. The bus driver nearly didn't stop until Sam pulled the little cord to make her stop. We got off the bus and froze in the snow going "Well I thought you wanted to change your traveler's checks!"
"No, I said I could change them at Newbury! You said you wanted mints for your mum's party!"
"I could've gone to the grocery store right next door for them!"
"Damnit, we're stuck here for how long?"
"Urm...any hour ish? *checks schedule*"
"Let's go to Barnes and Nobles...this sucks."

So we got a snack and a drink and sat in the Starbucks. Sam had a stuffed pizza pretzel and some tea and i had some water and a cookie. The driver who picked us up on the way back was a douchebag, quite honestly. The drivers here DO occasionally stop the buses for less than 5 minutes to either use the toilet, have a quick smoke break or grab a snack from a local store. (Yes, shocking and stupid, but anyway). The lady who drove our bus did leave us on a freezing bus to get McDonald's for her children. For godsakes. LEFT us there.

We walked back to my house when we finally got back to the front of the hotel and nearly got run over by a guy plowing the back alley near my house. Talk about ominous sounds, I had to shove Sam to the side to avoid being run over. How on earth can a guy miss two people walking in the middle of the road in a semi brightly lit alleyway?

Mmm, dinner was good, it was mum's pasta with her homemade sauce. I know she only uses a few herbs and spices but it's still quite nice. We watched Wall-E, we watched House, we chatted about yesterday's escapades and today's disappointment and then we sent Sam back to the hotel. And that...was about it.

The Epicness of Sam day.

Quite a few epic things happened today, all of it centered around Sam.

1. Sam woke up with a nosebleed this morning all over the place, he ruined a pillow and his bedsheets. O_o >_> So he left a hastily scribbled note on the pillow and the dirty towels and pillowcase in the bathtub. I felt bad for the poor housekeeper. And bad for Sam because a nosebleed is never fun.

2. Sam had an epic sandwich when we went out shopping today. He had a chicken parmesan sandwich at Ate Doors Down (the new cafe that opened in the place of the old Gala Cafe). Apparently everything was fresh and homemade, down to the bread, the panfried chicken fillet, the sauce. I had an asiago cheese bagel with cream cheese and it was very nice, all fresh too.

3. Sam found a few figurines at Neotokyo, some Yotsuba figurine with interchangeable faces and hands and a Gurren Lagen (?) figurine for Harry with ratchet joints and he browsed the Macworld conference when we came back to his room to drop off our packages and gasping over it. >_> I called him a geek for that and I think he deserved it. *laugh* ^_^

4. Sam met everyone at work today and everyone was making fun of me when he left. "Ooooh, so that's your man? Oooh, wowie! He's so sexy! And that accent! *kissy noises*" that sort of crap. Hera was picturing somebody only a few inches taller than me so she was a bit surprised when she saw Sam and how tall he was. She kept grinning at me so I finally threw up my hands and shook my head at her and ignored her. At work today was busy busy busy busy busy to the point where I barely was able to take a breath. Though I did sneak away around 6:30 to eat a cheeseburger Hot Pocket. *grin* And I switched shifts with Kristina so I could be free on Saturday. So tomorrow I'm working 7-noon and then we'll go for lunch and go swimming in the hotel pool. ^_^

5. Sam fixed my computer. He threw in 2 gigs of RAM and cleaned up the drives and changed some settings around. It's quite scary how fast this thing is now. O_o REALLY scary. >_> I must load up the Sims one of these days. Oooooh! He fixed my camera and the graphics card issue, too! ^_^ Yay.

6. Sam brought a load of snack-y things. Smoked salmon and cream cheese and pimento stuffed olives and chips and pretzels and cheese-its and jerky and sweets and so on. He brought half the store for Chrissakes.

^_^ So that was our day.

(I know I have quite plain titles for these, I'm sorry!)

What a funny day

I'm not so keen on Myriam's laptop, no matter what you do to it, it's still slow - it's baffling! Still, I gave it a go and gave it a good clearing out!

Anyway, back to today. This morning, I awoke to a shock of a nosebleed, ruined a pillow, my sheets, face cloth, etc - I left a note for the housekeepers, asking them if any cost was involved, but nope, brand new room - I think they'd seen worse!

Anyway, after Myriam appeared at the scene of my massacre, we went for breakfast which was at a new cafe, it was very good. I'll let Myriam fill those bits in! We then went to the library for a bit where I took a whole HEAP of photos, then we went to Neo Tokyo, where I bought Harry another gift (as well as a couple for myself), I'll put a couple of photos up of those.

We headed back to the Hotel (where we found a brand new room) Myriam had a nap while I had a chat with Harry on MSN (he's ill) then we darted off for lunch (again, Myriam will fill that in) We got back to hers and I spent a while taking a look at her computer, I've enquickened it some, but I'm still not happy with it (sometimes the windows wireless thing disappears for no reason which is plain odd and she's lost paint/calculator/etc) I think it works a bit faster, but it's up to her to decide really!

We took Myriam to work and I briefly met a few of the people she works with, I also got to buy some vitamin water (5 for $5), snapple iced tea and $40 of jerky for dad. I then went with Myriam's parents back to hers and looked at her laptop more - then we all left for dinner. Went to T-bones, and I had teriyaki steak tips with rice pilaf, it was very nice. We hopped off to Stop and Shop where I bought some nova scotia wild salmon, philadelphia cheese, olives, apple juice, salsa, baked crisps, pretzels, some fruit snacks and a luminous GREEN plate - oh, and Cheesits, can't forget those now...

Went back to Myriam's and poked her laptop some more, damn thing seems to get slower... Anyway, time to get Myriam, so we go, and now here I am - as I was dropped off after we got her, I've stuck the salmon and cream cheese on ice and I have the plate prepped - hah! I'll get to uploading photos of the day's catch in a few!

Waha! I'm exhausted

So, today was fun, went shopping and took home most of the mall! I bought a watch, I saw it and fell in love with it, no excuses for it, I wanted it, I bought it and it's STUNNING. I've never seen a black and gold Seiko Kinetic watch before (or a watch that was $450...), nor a sale like that, 60% off! There are photos of it on the Picasa.

Anywho, I got the games I was after, as Myriam said, and I got Harry something as nowhere sold the thing (the PS3 wireless keyboard thing) I said I'd get him - I took some photos of it for him, I hope it compensates! I saw Disgea 3, but I felt he'd want what I got him more, if that makes sense - this is something that will never come out in the UK.

I got my adapters/power thingies too and I also bought Myriam some DVDs, Mulan (which we watched), Wall-e 3 disc edition and The Dark Crystal. There's a couple more we wanted (well, one we couldn't find and one we forgot about) so we'll look for those some other time.

I've also decided that I -never- want to eat at mcdonalds again, it's just rubbish! I have a domino's pizza right now (yeah, pizza numero dos - I never finished the first to be honest) it's a "bacon cheeseburger" pizza and I added mushrooms. I know it's really bad eating pizzas (well, not entire pizzas, bits of), but tomorrow afternoon I'm going to go swim and go to the 'fitness room' at the hotel - as Myriam will be at work. As much as I like her parents, I feel as though I have to stand on ceremony all the time and it's really draining, so I'm finding other things to do when she's not there.

I wanted to buy Myriam something today, but she didn't want anything - but I guess I ended up buying the dvds for her, so that's something! And I'm really sleepy now, so I'm going to head to bed I think

What an exhausting day.

Well, for me mostly, since I'm not used to so much walking, but today was very nice.

I met Sam around 9 so that we could go to the mall. We took one of the buses around 10:30 and arrived around 11. We did a bit of exploring the hotel first and finding out where the pool was. It hasn't really changed from the last time I was there. I didn't remember the fitness room or the more secure entry where you had to use the room keycard, plus they retiled it, but I remembered the pool and the jacuzzi. The pool's only about 5 feet deep. Anyway.

We had McDonald's for lunch and it honestly sucked. I told Sam that it was usually a safe bet that their food would be hot (mall food almost never is) and today my instincts were wrong. I had their chicken selects with a Sprite and some BBQ sauce...they were ok. Sam's Big Mac was cold, his Coke wasn't mixed properly and his fries weren't salted enough. We went to Best Buy and Sam brought all sorts of things, like a charger for his PSP, some DVDs, things like that. (Yes Harry we saw Disgaea 3 that you wanted; however Sam brought you something more awesome. *grin*). Sam brought himself Castlevania and Chrono Trigger for the DS and a charger for his iphone from Electronics Boutique and At&T respectively. We looked around for his Ugg slippers but didn't find any. But! And a big but this is, Sam found himself a watch on megasale from Zales! It's quite gorgeous, too, it's a Seiko kinetic on clearance reduced from $450 down to $212.55. Oh hell yes. He'll have pictures up, definetly. I didn't buy anything except for lunch, a calendar and some water. Sam wanted to spoil me but to be honest there's really nothing I want or need or anything that I can think of. Well, there's a few rare games but I can grab them on ebay. >_> I'd like a pair of diamond studs but blimey they're expensive so I doubt I'll ask for them. =/ We browsed for them, yes. I wanted to give Sam a sample of the perfume I liked and wanted, Ur by Usher but they had no samples out which was bad. They had one called Alien by somebody but damn, $450 per bottle!!!!!!

We took the bus back to the front of the hotel and walked back up Elm street to look at NeoTokyo but they're closed so we'll go back tomorrow. When we came back home we watched Mamma Mia and Mulan (which has got to be one of my favorite Disney films) then House again for a bit before we dropped him back off.

It's weird...time seems to have slowed down for me. It's only Monday, I kept thinking it was Tuesday but it's not. I like the slowed down-ness of it. =/ Because at the end of it Sam gets to go back home and I effectively "lose" him for another unspecified amount of time. =/ I just hope not for another 18 months because it SUCKS.

Mmm.

I don't know what it is, but I feel off today. I don't know if it's stress or an illness coming but I have a major headache and I'm exhausted and I'm starting to have Sam's cough. LOTS of ginger tea and orange juice and rest for me tonight I think. Tomorrow we're going to hop the bus to the mall and shop for a bit, Sam needs some chargers and some warm slippers. Our floors get pretty cold.

So, work. I was a cashier again today as I am every Sunday. I rang up people, mostly buying the Sunday news and leftover Christmas items. This one woman brought literally a full, overflowing cartload of Christmas bags, paper, candy and toys, coming up to over $80 (since a lot of it was 75% off) and it was just gah. Another old lady gave me 2 ancient coupons (I'm talking 15 years at least judging by the yellowing and they still worked!) and wondering why they didn't take the dollar off her Cheerios until I physically pointed it out to her. "See? Here is your cereal here and here, now look, $2.50 times 2 boxes makes $5, yes? Ok, you gave me two .50 cent coupons...that makes a dollar off, right?" (the problem with the coupons was that the coupons were a few items up on the receipt above the Cheerios so she didn't see them).

"I don't understand!"

Repeat the above conversation for ten minutes until she finally got it. *bang head on wall*

In between ringing up I stocked up the cigarettes behind the counter and put away the baskets we collect behind the counter. I watched Jess and Kristina working with the Telzon guns doing the Christmas recalls (where we send that crap back to the warehouses to be destroyed or held onto for next year, today's things were mostly perfumes and decorations) and the cycle counts (counting how many we have of different items and checking if they're on recall or not). I wasn't terribly pleased because I had asked for Telzon training on my self evaluation and Kristina got it today. But oh well. I was waiting for Sam to appear through the door at any moment until it came a quarter to 2 and I realized he wasn't coming. So I counted down my drawer and went home.

You know the one thing Sam was all shocked about? How almost nothing is open downtown on Sundays. Apparently in the UK everything is open but here next to nothing is except larger stores like my pharmacy and the grocery stores and chain food stores like Subway. We still operate under the "blue laws" mentality. As far as I know there is no actual law saying stores have to shut for Sunday but many still do as it's the Sabbath day/day of rest. LOADS of people go to church, it's mainly the upper middle age/elderly who mostly do, though. Hence why every Sunday morning the place is nearly dead from 9 just about to noon. There were busy spots but after noon it was as if a switch had been flipped. We went from no people to loads.

Sam waited for lunch for me, which I was surprised since I thought he would've long ago eaten and was waiting for dessert or something. We had honey dill chicken with green beans, squash and mashed. we sat around and talked over lunch before going to the living room to hang out. We watched Pearl Harbor while my parents were gone to work and had a nice long chat since both of us were feeling a bit down. Sam ordered a sausage, onion, mushroom, parmesan, ham and bacon deep dish pizza with extra sauce. It was nice, I had two slices. >_> ^_^ Om nom nom.

So that was our day. Nothing truly exciting to report.

Sam's edit: Piccy of the pizza (well, what's left) on Picasa!

Myriam's edit: Because I forgot the mushrooms and onions!

Sunday! (updated)

Well, it's 8:20 sunday morning and I'm awake! (I'd set an alarm!)

I realised a fatal flaw I have - although I have all these fruit things, I have no forks to eat them! So in a minute I'm getting dressed warm (apparently it's -8˚C at the moment with highs of 1˚C...) and I'll be heading out to the shops and I think I'll grab a breakfast from somewhere as it's my first day :3

Not sure what the plan is for today, Myriam wants me to go to her work and meet everyone - but I don't want to cause any problems for her!

I got some lovely presents from Myriam and her mum and dad - sweets and jerky mainly (!) but Myriam's mum and dad bought me a very nice sweater from Macy's and a nice 300g bar of lindt chocolate with hazelnuts. Short entry this morning, but I'll fill it out later - check out the daytime view from my window on Picasa! 

Update: It's 11am now, I went out and grabbed a chicken and bacon ranch sub from subway and it was good. I also bought some hair gel, deodorant and some plastic knives, forks and spoons! it's very, very cold out there - especially on the ears, but nothing I can't handle! Also, I have to add, that ostrich jerky is very nice!

Made it! And the internet works! (well, mostly)

Macbook Pro says 2:26am D:

But I'm in my room, with 10 bottles of orange vitamin water, some fruit snacks (yes, fruit!) Anyway, back to the beginning! I landed at 4something in the afternoon (this is Eastern time now) waited an hour to get off the plane, then an hour for bags!

The flight wasn't bad, but wasn't -fantastic- either - getting kicked in the head and hit with things by a little 3/4 year old flying with mum and dad, they apologised, a lot. My headphones were phenomenal, literally not a sound other than the movies (in case you wondered, Hellboy 2, Mummy 3 and Deathrace I watched) and seeing people move their mouths at me was weird.

The special meal was given to me FIRST! Even before upper class! :3 it was nice too, spinach/wheat risotto with roast vegetables, a salad, a small loaf of bread (with a small butter knife and stick of butter!) and oddly enough, a block of cheese... Didn't I have the lacto-free meal? Anyway...

After being accosted by FOUR police officers and three security checkpoints, I finally got into America. It's so weird being back, because it's not like I've been gone - both Myriam and I were a bit hesitant, so we didn't make a 'big thing' at the airport. Also, it's not that cold, even with the snow, dunno what they're all whinging about!

I had dinner at Blakes, and had a breakfast omelette, it was good, left the toast, just scoffed the omelette and potato - it was wonderful. Everyone ribbed about having a burger! tsk, not this time - I'm going to eat properly (hence the fruit I bought and vitamin water, and grape juice!)

Anyway, I've tried to take a picture of the view from the Hotel - it's not great (I had to turn all the assists off as the AF lamp reflected in the window, same with the flash etc) I've also taken some of the room and some pine cones for mum, check the Picasa link!

Oh, I had a problem with the internet too - had to phone tech support, god that guy sounded bored. "what operating system are you using" "Mac OS 10" "err, can you say that again?" "Mac OS 10" "ah... what browser does that use?" Yeah, fun, anyway, it all works now :3 I just hope I can upload to picasa!

Right, I'd better get to bed, I am absolutely shattered! Not doing much tomorrow as Myriam is working, boo. Oh, she also has a key to the room too - they asked how many I wanted! Also, as you can see from the photos, yes, my hotel room has a lounge, bathroom (with a coffee machine and coffee in it!) and a HUGE tv. I thought I didn't get a bible, but yeah, it's there, hiding - what is the deal with that?

I also have lots of presents to open, which I might do now, then go have a shower... Ah crap, forgot deodorant, well, I can pick some up tomorrow!

Update: Looks like that was short lived, I managed to get 5 pictures uploaded on to Picasa then it decided it didn't want to upload anymore - upload limits I guess?

Arrival and Room

Well, Sam is here, safe, whole and in one piece and his luggage is the same. Thank God, I was praying for it last night.

I was nervous and panicky all day, watching Sex and the City on DVD with Cedric (older brother) and Spongebob and Destroyed in Seconds. The last show actually helped calm me down even though it showed pretty horrific plane, car and motorcycle crashes and such. Really weird.

We went to the airport at around 3:30 after I had walked and fed the dogs. Cedric had hooked up his Garmin thing for Dad to use and Dad was enchanted with it, going, "I love this thing it's so nice I won't get lost, blah blah blah". Well, we got lost. First time was in that giant tunnel that goes under the Charles River that I can't remember the name of because Dad missed the exit and the second was inside the airport itself because Dad took a wrong turn for a second. Both of those were sorted out, obviously.

Waiting for Sam at the airport I felt my panic just rising and rising and rising. Cedric was being a jackass y imitating a violent plane crash and Mum was saying, "Well what if he missed his flight? What if customs detained him? What if..." and I finally told the two of them to leave me alone because I was starting to cry. Eventually the panic subsided and then faded completely when I saw Sam again. His accent threw me for a loop for a bit but after a few minutes it was as if he had never left. *grin* He was surprised by all the "piles of salt" on the ground until I said, "Sam, that's the snow." (Geez. >_> ^_^)

We had dinner at Blake's here, I had a waffle with apple cinnamon topping and he had a bacon, cheese, sausage and ham omlette with homefried potatos and toast. We went to the Rite Aid next door and Sam picked up a few essentials like toothbrush, razorblades, bottled water, all those. I used my discount (*grin*) and he got it for quite a bit less than it would've cost him if I hadn't given him my discount. He came back home with us for a few minutes so we could exchange gifts and so the dogs could bark at him. (Charlemagne wasn't terribly impressed but we had him locked away in Cedric's room so he couldn't bite Sam, ha ha ha)!

We went to the hotel next. I had seen it before so I wasn't terribly impressed but Sam was. There's wood paneling and granite and carpeting and other richy-rich details. Check in took 5 minutes (probably because they had a competent person instead of at the Econo Lodge where they didn't) and we went off to Sam's room. To me, even though it was a four star hotel, the hotels and the room itself had that same aura of cheapness from the Holiday Inn that it used to be (two star hotel) even though it's been remodeled. (Maybe I'm just equating it with the Econo Lodge? I dunno). Sam's room is quite large. Marble counters, floor and tub tiles, complementary coffee maker and coffee and bottled water and little shampoos. A comfy looking couch and bench and king sized bed. Hell the bed was comfy since we both flopped down on it. Sam was all impressed by the remote so that you could adjust the bed to being as soft or firm as you liked. He was impressed by everything. *grin* And I have to say it is a nice room. I just think I'll always equate it with being a cheaper hotel in my mind.

As Mum and I were leaving there was a wedding reception just coming in. Mum saw the bride and groom but I didn't, she said the dress was GORGEOUS. The police were blocking off the road in front of the arena and next to the hotel for some reason. I was thinking there was an event going on at the arena and mum did too. Probably there was.

=/ What sucks the most is that I work tomorrow, my usual 9-2. Blegh. Ah well, I'll have time with Sam after I'm done working. ^_^

That Time Again!

Nerves and anxiety, those sorts of things. I don't know why I'm nervous at all, I'm excited about going back and everything is ready to go as of now (I even got mum to call hotels.com just to make sure the hotel was sorted) I can't wait to be with Myriam again, I don't quite know how I survived 18 months - I guess it's because I had no choice?

I felt it was a bit of a rush this time, because even though I had everything booked and paid for, months ago, it didn't hit until yesterday. And today there's paperwork and making sure I have everything... But long story short, this time tomorrow I'll be back in America and I can't wait. I don't think I've been this excited about anything before, I couldn't sleep last night as my heart was pounding so much!

I don't have a "shopping list" (iPods etc) this time, so it's going to be $1500 (ok, $1496.50) of impulse buying and spoiling Myriam (and myself of course!) I've been given a list of things to get, jerky, jellybeans and cheesits, which aren't that expensive - so I'm going to go to town and try to come home with as little money as possible! Oh yes, Harry has asked me to look for Disgea 3 and a PS3 thumb board thingy - so I guess I'll buy everything asked for first, then start spoiling!

I can't wait to see inside the hotel, this time it's The Radisson I'm staying at, a gorgeous looking hotel that I said I wanted to stay at when I was there before. I've heard good things about the hotel, how big the rooms are, how comfortable the beds, etc, etc - but all it comes down to is that it's a place for me to stay at night! Plus there's a swimming pool (I hope it's heated!) and there's also a gym too!

I can't really explain how I'm feeling right now, but I hate the waiting, I hate it so much. Even though I know it's not going to be hot and sunny like it was when I was there last time, I still have that expectation. I expect it to be blisteringly hot when I get off the plane, I expect the beautiful blue skies and the purple sunsets - I almost expect to step back into the memory I have of 18 months ago, but at the same time, I know it's not going to be like that.

I know it's going to be cold, and I hope I get used to it quick, if not, there's always jumpers, gloves, scarves and down coats! :3

Sam's Second Visit!

...Weirdly enough, all of the old posts in here somehow got deleted. I have no idea what happened. Hm.

Anywho, tomorrow Sam is coming back and I can't wait. He's staying at the Radisson, a 4 star hotel which is located near downtown and not too far of a walk from my house. Unfortunately, I will have to work a few days during the 2 weeks he's here. =/ I'm not too happy about it but there's nothing that I can do. Last time it was nice because I didn't have a job then but now I do.

^_^ I can't wait for him to be here again with me, we haven't seen each other for 18 months and I'm half expecting us to smother each other for a couple days. *laugh* Ah well. Everyone at work went goggled eyed when I told them I haven't seen Sam for 18 months. "O_O What?!? How can you stand it? I can't stand not seeing my (boy/girlfriend/fiance/e) for a week!" I just tell them, "I have a lot of patience."

As far as plans for us, I only have a few things planned. Going to the museums around here, hopping the bus to the mall and Barnes and Noble once, having dinner and a movie out a couple times, possibly going to Boston with Lindsay. Mum is throwing a New Year's/Get To Meet Sam party for my aunt and uncle, their family (including my cousins and their children) and a couple family friends. Twenty one people crowded into our eensy wittle apartment, and I think I've said that that's only about 10% of my family. (My family on both sides comprises nearly FOUR HUNDRED PEOPLE. No I am not joking. But do we see them all? Of course not!) My family is VERY LOUD especially when there's alcohol and strange people involved. >_> I've told Sam to expect to be poked, prodded, backed into corners, asked hundreds of revealing questions about everything from where he was born to his shoe size and to be the complete center of attention. *grin* I'll make sure to whack my relatives off with a broomstick if they get a bit too personal, don't worry.

The house is spotless, the fridge is stocked with Coke, I have copies of Mapquest and his plane tickets, all there is to do is wait. And I don't wanna wait! Gah!