Erin's Blog

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More boring stuff about my life....

Well, since my last entry, "drama" is the word of the day.

The next morning, Casey and I awoke at J and V's place, but neither J nor V were home. They said they would go out and come back, but they weren't yet back. Time goes by. More time goes by. Still no J or V. Finally, J comes home. And tells us that V was in a car accident. :-( And that J's tire has a nail in it and it is rapidly deflating. :-(

Luckily, the accident was minor and nobody was injured. In fact, it didn't even damage the other person's vehicle. Just V's. :-( V told us that she had a dream about this type of accident with her car -- because the visibility towards the rear is awful. Looks like her dream became a reality.

After things calmed down a bit, we all ate lunch together. Mmmm... cheese-laced hot dogs. Yummy. I don't know why, but I really like the hot dogs/sausages that have "things" cooked inside them. Cheese.... Jalapenos.... ::drool::

After lunch, more drama: Casey checks her voicemail (her phone has no signal at J and V's) through the land line. She says her roommate Brenda is kicking her out of the apartment. Bleh. :-(

We drive back to Philadelphia right away, barely having time to say our proper goodbyes to V and her son. It is already too late to say goodbye to J, as he has left for work.

The drive back was even more dramatic. Whilst I drove, Casey talked on her cell phone (which had signal once we were near the highway). She talked to her husband. Or, I should say, _screamed_ at him. They get into an argument (I won't get into what it was about here) and through 6 or 7 phone calls (they kept hanging up on each other), they decide to divorce.

At this point, Casey shut off her phone and took a nap. I don't blame her. I would have been exhausted, too.

We got to Philly and I dropped Casey off at her place. I offered to help move her out, but she insisted I go see my family. I left and drove the 2.5 hours down to my dad's house. I picked up some dinner at the Delaware I-95 rest stop. I ate Roy Rogers, which I hadn't had in _forever_ because there aren't any on the west coast.

I arrived at dad's house, the house in which I pretty much grew up, at 8:30 at night, just when I had planned to be there. I entered the house with my heart beating like crazy. I guess I didn't know what to expect. Luckily, I got a hug from dad, and my stepmother said hi. We sat down and "caught up" until 1 in the morning!

I was ready to leave when they asked where I was going. Since I was going to try to find a hotel, they offered the guest room. I accepted. The guest room was my old room when I lived there. It is completely remodeled since it was my room, though.

I awoke, showered, and went to meet my friend N (from my old place of work) for lunch. The meeting went very well -- it was good to see him again after the two years since I left the DC area. He had just had surgery, and wasn't feeling too well, so I appreciate the time he took to spend with me.

After lunch with N, I drove around the DC area. I went and saw the places where I used to live -- in Arlington, Alexandria, Bowie, and College Park. The Arlington and Alexandria place haven't changed much (at least from the outside), but both the house I lived in in Bowie and College Park have changed quite a bit.

The house in Bowie is now a pale yellow. It was originally this color when we moved into it, but we quickly painted it a more subtle color -- grey with white trim. I was surprised when I visited, that is for sure. I also went to the old gas station in Bowie where I had one of my first jobs. It hasn't changed much, really. Of course I didn't recognize any of the employees there, they were all teenagers, much like I had been.

College Park has seen many changes -- campus is similar in many ways, but different in many, too. The student union looks like it was gutted and completely redone. One thing that hasn't changed since I was there is the McDonald's in the union still serves Pepsi products. Yes, you can still get a Mountain Dew with that number one meal. I visited my old dorm, which still had the Apple Computer sticker I placed in the window back in 1994 or so. I also took pictures of the buses that Shuttle-UM has now. They still have the buses I used to drive, as well as many new ones, too. I even took some pictures of them, and managed to see the bus I liked the best.

After driving around campus and reliving some memories, I drove into DC. I went to meet my friend M for dinner at a bar we used to hang out at. I left way early, thinking I would have time to drive around DC and to get re-acquainted with the streets. I should have known that even leaving 2 hours (of what I thought was) early, that I would have just enough time to get to the bar, LOL. Welcome to DC.

The dinner with M went extremely well. I was worried about his response, considering I hadn't heard from him since The Letter(tm). OK, that's not fair -- he did send a response to an e-mail I sent him, but it didn't address the GID issue at all.

We discussed our lack of communication, and enjoyed a few beers whilst chatting. We had a great conversation, and agreed to keep our lines of communication open.

After dinner with M, I hopped back in the car and drove back to Philly. Only to find that Casey wasn't home. I called her cell -- she was staying with friends in Lancaster. I asked where a Motel 6 was, and she told me King of Prussia. That's right, I'd even stayed a night there with Mel way back when. I drove out there and they were booked. So then I started working my way back to Casey's place, only to find that all hotels were fully booked, or were way too expensive for my budget. I ended up sleeping in the car in Casey's parking lot.

When I awoke, Casey wasn't yet around. I drove to the local gas station to use the restroom, only to find theirs was out of order. Doh. I ended up driving to a local mall, using the restroom there, and getting breakfast at the food court. When I got back to Casey's apartment, she was there. I helped her load most of her stuff into her car, leaving only the large things that wouldn't fit, behind.

After that, Casey and I drove over to our friend Megan's place (she's on the right in this picture). We said goodbye and Casey then drove me to the airport.

I got to the airport around 2:00pm, which was good, because I thought the flight took off at 4:05pm. Thought, is the key word there. It turns out, that was the time that my flight to PHL was scheduled to arrive. Luckily, my flight out of there left around 5:30pm, so I was more than 3 hours early.

I checked my bag, then went through security. I got some lunch, then sat down and listened to my iPod and played Tetris on my phone until the plane boarded.

The flight home was uneventful -- they served a snack and three rounds of drinks. Yes, there were a lot of people getting up to use the restrooms.

When I got to the airport, Jackie was there waiting for me. How sweet. We stopped at a Chipotle on the way home, as I was hungry.

When I got home I set my alarm for the morning. I had to get up to go to work. Fun, fun, fun.

Well, that is pretty much what happened. I am sure I left some details out, but oh well. If I gave you a second-by-second accounting, you'd surely be bored stiff.

'night.

_erin

More boring stuff about my life....

Well, I am on the east coast. Specifically, here at my friend J and V's house ("predijes" and "have inner lady" on the chat page) in Virginia.

My flight to Philadelphia on the 9th was uneventful. I sat in the aisle seat. There was someone in the window seat to my left, but nobody in between us, which was nice. I listened to my iPod most of the way. Frontier had TVs in the headrests in front of all of the seats where you could watch DirecTV. I didn't feel like paying the $5, and besides, I was tired. I wanted to get some sleep, because I only got like 3 hours of sleep the night before the flight.

Wanted to get some sleep is very different than actually falling asleep. I didn't get a wink.

My flight was about 30 mins late arriving in PHL (we were 10 mins late leaving DEN, for some reason). As I walked off the plane and into the terminal, I heard my name being announced: "Erin Ward, meet your party in baggage claim 1." I was surprised, but I figured it was because they didn't know the flight was late.

I got to the baggage claim and I met Steph, Casey and Aubrey. We all hugged and picked up my fluorescent orange bag, and headed outside where we met Suz. We followed Suz back to her place where she had some munchies in wait, as well as some more friends.

We munched, caught up and had dinner. Suz made me a cake for my birthday, too.

After dinner, Casey, Aubrey and I went down to South Street. On our way to South St. we called our friends Megan and Chrissy, and setup a party over at Casey's place. After we walked around South St. a bit, we piled back in the car and got to Casey's place. She has a nice two-bedroom apartment. We got to play with her cat and her ferret once we were there.

When Megan and Chrissy showed up, we started pouring the drinks. After one margarita I was passing out -- not from alcohol, but rather from pure exhaustion.

When I woke up on the 10th, I took a nice long shower. That felt _really_ good. We then got ready for the Pennsylvania Renaissance Festival.

The festival was a lot of fun -- I hadn't been to one in quite a while. We all went around, checked out the various shops, watched a few shows and ate the over-priced food. Afterwards we all went to dinner, and then went home.

Today, Casey and I got up and drove from Philadelphia to the Virginia mountains. It took 4.5 hours. We arrived at J & V's place around 6:30pm. The drive was nice and peaceful. Casey slept for most of the way while I drove.

J and V were waiting for us, and were preparing dinner when we came in. V gave me a super-huge hug. It is nice to see them again after so long. After dinner, we hung out a bit and talked and played a game called "Therapy" which I had never heard of. It was actually a lot of fun, and we ended up learning a bit about each other from the zany questions it asked. We got all therapizated, yo. :-) We played the game twice we liked it so much. V won the first time, and J the second.

After the game, they showed us to our rooms. I got the room with the computer, so here I am, writing this blog entry. Fun! :-)

Well, it is late and I really should get some sleep.

'night!

_erin

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More boring stuff about my life....

Today was just wonderful!

I got up at the buttcrack of dawn to work -- on my day off. I worked. Came home and slept. Went back to work. Work went fine.

Afterwards, I went to Cherry Creek mall, and waited for Jackie (see post below) to show up. She got lost. Way lost. She finally showed up at 7:25pm, when the movie was supposed to start at 7:00pm. Doh. So we went up to the entrance, showed them the pass, and they said the theater was already full! Bleh.

So, we went to dinner at California Pizza Kitchen in the mall, and we got to know each other a bit better. I had a great time! After dinner, we went out to our cars and talked a lot more. I invited her to my birthday party on Friday. Schweet. I wanted to hang out with her some more, but I have to get up at 2:15am to be at work by 3:45am. Again, I am working on my day off.

I dunno, I guess I haven't been this excited in quite a while. I just _had_ to write about it before bed.

'Night!

_erin

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More boring stuff about my life....

It's been too long. I really need to work on updating this thing. I mean, what's the point of having it if I don't write in it?

Therapy progresses. I have only one assignment left of the homework I was given.

My trip home draws nigh. I have made plans with many friends and several family members to get together. I am pretty excited about it all, really. It will be interesting to see everybody in person!

One of my ex-girlfriends and a friend whom I haven't had the opportunity to visit for quite a while, Aubrey, has her own blog now. She is one of the people I will visit on my trip out East. I figured I'd link to her blog for you because: a) she is sooper-kool, b) she talks about me sometimes in there, and c) she has some interesting opinions, and she knows how to write about them. Enjoy.

I am working on my two days off this week. I figured it would make up the two unpaid days I am taking to go on the trip East.

I have a date tomorrow night. I am psyched. Her name is Jackie. We are going to see a movie sneak preview that I got passes for. This will be the first time we will meet in person, so hopefully things will go well. :-)

I am still working on cleaning the apartment. I need to do some last minute things before I leave on my trip, because my friend D will be staying here whilst I am gone.

I am compiling a list of all the things I am missing from Mel's place. It is getting longer and longer. ::sigh::

Oh well, gotta get up to go to work tomorrow at 3:45am.

Night.

_erin