2002-08-27 - 10:34 a.m.
Okay, well, things are starting to settle down a little now. The last couple or three weeks have been so hectic and stressful I could barely breathe, it seems.
I moved on the 14th and 15th. I miraculously got the whole place clean in plenty of time and it looked completely awesome. Too bad I could never manage to get it clean when I lived there. I got all my security deposit back, which my father was sure wouldn't happen. I guess they didn't notice the broken windows after all. (I didn't break the windows... they were broken when I got there, but I didn't report them.)
Then, on the 17th, my mother, Keith, and I left for West Virginia. On the way out of town, we stopped at Country Animal Haven in Stoughton and looked at the kitty I picked out from Petfinder. There were so many tons of kitties there, running all over the place. I want to live like that when I get my own house. Just millions of cats. Millions and billions and trillions of cats. They managed to drag me away after about an hour of petting and rubbing and scratching all the kitties.
The ride in was okay. We stopped after Indianapolis for the night and watched Steve Irwin and took showers and went to bed.
We left early the next morning and headed for West Virginia.
Oh, I should mention my mouth. Well, the stress lowered my immune reponse, as stress tends to do, and I got a canker sore right in the corner of my left jaw, right behind my wisdom teeth on that side. The whole side of my mouth swelled up and the glands on that side got really big and tender and I just felt completely crappy and could barely eat or anything. My throat was sore too, which is a major sign of stress. At least it is for my mother and I. So anyway, I was pretty miserable. It still hasn't completely healed, but it's a whole lot better.
We got to West Virginia around 5 or 6 their time. They were all agitated because they thought we were going to get there around 2 and were waiting for us to go to dinner for my grandmother's birthday. So right after we got there, we had to get in the car and drive all the way to the next town, Fairmont, to go to a steak buffet thing. And the food was good, but none of us could understand why they decided to go all the way to Fairmont when there were plenty of good places to eat in Morgantown.
After that, we went back to my great grandmother's house and sat out on the front porch and talked and told stories, which is a tradition in our family.
Anyway, to put a quick recap on the whole trip, the first night we spent with my great grandmother. The second night we spent with my grandfather. The third day Keith and I went to Washington, D.C. and my mother stayed in Morgantown. My mother spent the night with her mother and we spent the night with my grandfather (her father... they're divorced). The fourth night we all stayed at my grandfather's again and left early the next morning to go home.
Keith and I had a good time in D.C., but we were worn out by the end of the day. We drove to the Shady Grove train station, parked there, and rode into the city. We went to the National Zoo first. It would take too long to detail all the things we saw, but it was very exciting in places, and boring in others. The most memorable parts for me were the armadillo that ran around bumping into things and the gibbons singing. (One person described the sound as like "Tarzan playing the bagpipes." I also really liked the New Guinea singing dogs, which were memorable just because they were so doggy looking. They looked bored, and I wanted to go in and play with them.
After the zoo, we took the train down to the mall and went to the National Air and Space Musuem and Keith had a lot of fun there, looking at all the stuff he likes. I had fun in the gift shop buying George W. Bush postcards and trying to convince myself that I did not need a shot glass with a glow in the dark thing embedded in the glass. Speaking of stuff like that, I took my first drink of alcohol ever in West Virginia. It was my uncle's homemade blackberry sparkling wine. Tasted yummy. Keith and I enjoyed playing with my aunt's goats too. They're so fun. I still have big bruises from them, though. They're very friendly goats, and not at all afraid to put their feet all over you without warning. Anyway, last saturday, the saturday after we got back, I got to go get my cat, Char. She's the sweetest, prettiest, softest, funniest cat ever, and I tell her that all the time. She also wakes me up very early in the mornings, so I'm quite tired right now. And I should go catch my bus to my other job. So yeah.
