The 10-Day Gap

Mike reamed me out for not posting all week and letting you all know how I was doing. So, I'm back, I'm alive, and I have stories.

Last week, Nipissing University gave it's students a week-long break for the Thanksgiving holidays. That week felt like 3 days with a month crammed into it.

I drove home by myself for the first time. That was exciting, though uneventful. I couldn't get over the sense of accomplishment I had just for making the journey without getting lost. Well... Until I got to Stratford, which I've been traveling in all my life. Go Figure. Anyways, I really enjoyed going it (partially) alone. I mean, Ducky was an awsome traveling companion, but nothing beats cranking up the tunes and singing along in the car for 2 hours. My throat was raw when I got home!

When I did finally get to the house, I had about half an hour to get ready for Thanksgiving dinner... Which was ok, but I did feel that I needed a nap after. Lots of Turkey, Lots of Talk, and Lots of happy faces when I started showing off the ring Nathan bought for me. Yeah, it's soon, but it's just a promise ring. And it's not like there are diamonds, it's just a little silver ring. And it makes me happy! :)

Anyways, the next day Mom, Ash, Josh (Ash's boyfriend) and Sam (Ash's roomate) piled into my car and we made the journey to St. Catharine's ON (2 hours there, 2 hours back) to drop the girls off at Brock. That's a lot of highway driving for me, which is cool. It's relativly easy to find, but the way back can be trickey. Josh made for a good Navigater though.

Next day (Monday, I believe), I followed Mom into work because her car was "making a funny noise" and dad believed it was the timing belt on the car. We were wrong, and it was a good thing I followed her in: she broke down on the edge of Hwy. 7. Blarg. Aparently there was a banging noise, then the oil light came on. We later noticed oil dripping from the underside of the car. So, I took mom to the garage their warrenty is through, called CAA (awsome people, btw), and the car was towed. We later learned that the warrenty isn't covering replacement of the engine, even though it should...they'll only cover part, which puts us out about $1,200-ish. Grr.

Skip ahead to Thursday, the day Heaven and Hell collided. The day started on a shakey note: Dad has been having issue with my sister not looking for rides back from Brock, so he didn't want us going to get her that weekend. So that morning before I drove Mom to work, we had to tell her no. There was crying, and mom said she would work on it. Then Nan and I went into the Heart of London ON to pick up Nathan. Yup, that's right, he spent $100 and 10.5 hours on a bus to come down and see me for a few days! Idn't he da awsomeness? *squee!* Anyways, upon getting home we find out that we are, infact, driving to St. C to get Ash. That put us (me, mom and Nathan) in the car for another 2 hours to get to St. C. Mom and Nathan bonded. It was great! And it would have continued to be great if we hadn't gotten lost on the way home. We should have been home by 10pm at the latest... We were home by 11.45pm. But on the up-side, mom drove home, so I slept through the worst part!

The rest of the week involved drama, familial visiting and mall-crawling. Nothing too-too exciting. And nothing that even came close to the purpose of the week off, which was reading. Yeah, I didn't get much of anything done. I read the Symposium, and I read the first 3 pages of Otranto, but that was pretty much it. And, I got part of the new Emerg. Procedures for Clubs written up, but still... I was hoping to have all of Otranto, 2 essays and Sing Song read, as well as some journal entries written up and my seminar partly prepped. But, I will get caught up... I think.

See, on the ride home, I decided that Nathan should go home for the night. We had discussed it, and he was happy with the idea of coming home with me for the night. As was I; it didn't bother me, but still... I felt the need for a night alone to do things like the work mentioned above, some article writing, and well...what I'm doing now: blogging. So I said that I was going to drop him off at his uncles instead, just so I could have a night to myself. Well, this lead into a bit of a discussion. I could tell he was dissappointed, but I mean, Sometimes you do just need a bit of personal time, and I haven't really gotten any in a week. Plus, I'm going to be heading to the school early and coming home late tomorrow (I'm steaking out a spot in the Library to get at least one project done), so I was going to bus it. Gas money is killing me, and I can't park the car up at the school for 8 hours without a permit and NOT get ticked for it.

Anyways, I guess I just wasn't explaining myself well... I mean, I know he wasn't mad, but it just seemed like he was really disappointed/upset that I wanted him to go home; like I was shutting him out. I know he has abandonment issues, and I know he's gotten used to sleeping beside me (I've gotten used to being with him too), but I just needed to get things done. I mean, Mike is getting worried that I'm not spending enough time on my work, and with Wierd Kid rehersals starting this week, MakePovertyHistory.com week events going on, work and classes... it's going to pile up on me again, and this time I'm going to get buried.

So, I don't know... do I maybe need to talk to him about personal space again? I don't know... I don't want to tell him we need a break, because we don't, really. This is just a lot of relationship crammed into a month and a half. I'm sure it will work itself out though. I know it will.

Anyways, I should be oft now, I have work to be done, and plants to water... That's right, I bought myself a Mum, and Nathan bought me roses!

Horray for Plant Life!!

(coming up: the Aberdeen debate...stay tuned!)