February 13, 2011 – 1:23am – Couch York City, Burnaby, BC

It’s been forever since I wrote a new entry. A lot of stuff has happened since I posted last, probably the biggest of which was my holiday trip to Louisiana. I was gone for 23 days, which seemed like an eternity. I usually feel like there’s not enough time when I’m down there, but this time, I was counting the days til I could come home.

I went down on December 16th and came back on January 7th. I hung out with Trudy the day after I got there and drove her (and her son) to do some errands around town. She was still cute and still has that something that I can’t quite figure out that has always made me be into her. We went with Will to Crazy Horse Too Friday night and, in spite of my intentions to the contrary, I got absolutely trashed and ended up making out with not only Trudy, but one of the strippers in the middle of the club. I got a little miffed when Trudy was very into chatting up said stripper and my making out with her (the stripper) was done to make her a little jealous. haha  For some dumbass reason, I decided to ride in the back seat on the way home and by the time we got to Walker South, I had to get Will to pull over and I got out of the car and decided it would be a good idea to climb over a gate into someone’s cow pasture and wander around. I think it was because I didn’t want anyone to see me puke or pee or whatever I was going to have to do when I got out of the car. I was so wasted and I almost walked right into an electric fence wire and then I – for the first time EVER as a result of drinking – threw up. I climbed back over the gate – which, it should be noted, was one of those 6ft metal gates – and, miraculously, did not sprain or break anything.

We went to drop Trudy at her house and I was feeling sick again, so I decided to get out and walk around a bit. I walked down her street to Juban Road and then, in another flash of brilliance, decided it would be a great idea to walk to my Mom’s house – drunk, in the cold, on a dark road. Very smart! It should also be noted that I didn’t bother to tell anyone where I was going (not that I even knew myself until I was on my way). I ended up at my Mom’s house, banging on the door and window for Emily to answer the door. By the time she finally woke up, I was in a heap on the doorstep, bawling – because I was there and my Mom was not. I had driven by the house earlier in the day on the way to pick up Trudy and I was crying when I left for the same reason. Will pulled up in the driveway and was really pissed off that I had taken off without telling them where I was going. The next day, I felt like crap and spent most of the day lying on the couch regretting all the booze I had imbibed the previous night. I believe the tally was around 5 beers, 1 shot and some stolen sips of Trudy’s vodka drinks. UGH.

I watched the Saints game with Carol on Sunday and was getting increasingly anxious about going to Mississippi and posted a status update on Facebook that said, “Heading to Mississippi tomorrow. Hope it goes well. If not, I’m ready to throw down. I’m done being treated like a scolded teenager. F’n bring it on!” I got up on Monday morning, packed all my stuff into the rental car – a Chevy Malibu that was quite comfortable – and called my Dad to tell him I was on my way. He answered the phone and was all upset. Turns out, much to my surprise and chagrin, he had re-joined Facebook (though I was not notified of this by him OR Facebook) and he and Marlene had seen what I had written. OOPS!  We talked for a while and I asked him what he wanted me to do since it was clear Marlene now wanted nothing to do with me. He said he still wanted to see me, so I told him I’d see if I could stay with Pasha and Shannon. I felt really bad for having upset him, as it was really just me spouting off at the mouth because of how I always feel I have to do and say the right thing while I’m over there, lest I be disapproved of. I drove to Mississippi at record speed and cried most of the way there.

I stopped at the cemetery to put out the wreath that I had made for my Mom’s grave. It was really pretty and I was really happy with how well the headstone turned out. I didn’t stay long as I had decided on the way to Mississippi that I would go to the police station where Marlene works and ask her to come outside so I could apologize. I wanted to be the bigger person and try to set things right. I didn’t know where the police station was, but Heidelberg is such a small town that it wasn’t hard to find. I pulled up, rang the doorbell and she answered, obviously shocked to see me standing there. I asked if she could come outside for a minute and she stuttered a bit at first and said, “I’m busy right now…” and then got a bit more assertive and said “I can’t talk right now…no…nah-uh…” and slammed the door in my face.  I started to cry. I turned around and set the car alarm off on the car parked next to my rental because it was the same color and in being flustered, I was trying to get into the wrong car.

I got to my Dad’s and I asked if she had called him and he said yes and that it was a bad idea for me to go see her at work. He said he knew my intentions were good but that it was just a bad idea. I couldn’t even look at him for most of the time I was there. I gave him the painting I did of the photo he took back in the 70s of the shack and trees with a sunset behind. It didn’t turn out like I had hoped, but the second iteration was way better than the first. When he was opening it, I told him I was curious to see if he would know what it was supposed to look like. He said right away that he knew exactly what it was, which was cool. I stayed for a while and headed off before Marlene got home from work. I tried to get in touch with Pasha, but she and Shannon were in Florida dealing with Shannon’s Dad’s stuff, as he had died a couple of weeks before. So, I ended up at the Travelodge in Laurel for Monday night after having met Aunt Betty at Ryan’s for dinner. Tuesday, I went up to Dad’s and hung out with him for the day. We played Wii and had a freaking blast! I kicked his butt in swordplay and we videoed ourselves playing a couple of times, which was hilarious. We went in the boat to the other side of the pond and walked around a bit and I took some cute pictures of him in the tall grass. Again, I took off before Marlene got home. I had gotten in touch with Aunt Betty and she told me Pasha said I could stay at their house, so I got the key from her and went to their house and all was good until their friend Mandy showed up at around 11:30pm. I stayed up until about 2:00am or so talking to her while she was chattering away, drinking beer and smoking cigarettes. After she lit up the first one inside the house, I told her “You’re killing me with that cigarette” and she stood at the door with it open for subsequent cigs. Ok, fine. Reasonable compromise. I went to bed and woke up at around 5:30am with the room – which had no door, btw – filled with the smell of smoke and my throat and nose burning. She was still up, chain-smoking in the living room. I was LIVID. All my stuff was there and I was like, great, now all my stuff is going to smell like cigarettes. I laid there for half an hour or so, stewing, on the verge of deciding to pack my stuff and drive back to Louisiana. I came all that way, spent over $1200 on plane fare and a car rental, to end up having to pay for freaking hotels and be stuck in the house with a chain-smoking insomniac!

Dad came by around 9:30am to pick me up to hang out and do some stuff in Laurel and I told him that I had a really shitty night and that I was really pissed off. I told him that it wasn’t fair that, even though I made an attempt to apologize, I was having to put up with these sorts of conditions after how far I’d come and how much money I’d spent. We went to Waffle House for breakfast and then by Sawmill Square Mall. I wasn’t feeling well due to lack of sleep and I told him I just wanted to lie down. He said he was going to pay for me a hotel room for that night so I could get some sleep. I checked back into Travelodge and he hung out with me for a bit and then left so I could rest. It was his and Marlene’s anniversary, so it worked out OK. Aunt Betty came by and we went to Ryan’s for dinner again and then by Uncle Dennis and Aunt Debbie’s house. Uncle Dennis has been really sick for a while with his pancreas, which basically exploded inside his body. He’s been in and out of the hospital a number of times and nearly died. Coupled with Craig being killed in a car accident and Aunt Debbie’s problems with her eye, they’ve had a really shitty year.

I was prepared on Thursday to get up and go to Dad’s for a while, then get back on the road to Louisiana. He called me that morning at the hotel and said that he had talked to Marlene and that she wanted to set things right and for me to come stay with them so we could enjoy the rest of our visit. I was like, “Oh, great.” because I had resigned myself to going back to Louisiana, so having to deal with whatever drama might come was not on my agenda. But, I went and it turned out to be quite a nice visit. I helped Dad make cornbread and a cake and we went outside to shoot some guns and when Marlene got home, she came over to hug me and I said, “I’m sorry.” and she said, “Me, too.” and that was that. Nothing else was said. It was like nothing had ever happened. Bizarre. We all played Wii for a couple of hours and it was hilarious. Friday was Christmas Eve, so we had a nice Christmas lunch and then I got on the road to drive back to Louisiana. Before I left, they gave me a card with $140 in  it. I stopped by the cemetery and sat out there for a while and I felt a certain sense of closure. Even being there with her name and death date carved in stone, I still can’t believe it really happened. I wonder if everyone feels that way in a similar circumstance.

I drove back to Denham and on Christmas Day I had a nice lunch with Will, Mrs. Lynnda, Carol, Kevin, Brandon, Heather and Mrs. Joan. Will, Carol and I went out to find a few geocaches and Denham and both of them got their feet tangled in some grass vines and hit the cement. Ouch! I spent the next few days out geocaching with Will and we had a good time. I kept trying to get in touch with Trudy, as she said she wanted to hang out again, but it never panned out. Oh, well. Carol and Rachel came out with us geocaching and we went to the Rural Life Museum off Essen in Baton Rouge, which was really cool. I’d never been there before – didn’t even know it was there, actually. It was neat – I got to see some real cotton plants, which were fascinating and I’d never seen any before. I took a lot of nice photos there. I got together with Tisha and had a nice afternoon hanging out with her. We went for a walk at the LSU lakes and then out to Tanger for lunch and to look around some of the shops. I have to say she has turned out to be probably the most normal, chill person of all the people I went to school with and I really like her as a person.

Deidre arrived on the 30th and Carol rode to New Orleans with me to pick her up at the airport. We stayed at Carol’s house while she was there and I was so run ragged by the time she got there, that all I wanted to do was lie around, so I was a bit annoyed at having to tour her around Baton Rouge and stay out all day when I didn’t want to. I took her back to the Rural Life Museum and we got a ton of nice shots while there. Carol came out with us one day and we went to California Pizza Kitchen at Perkins Rowe which is this cool community-style shopping center in Baton Rouge. I took Deidre to all the usual places – the State Capitol building and up into the viewing tower, down around the levee and the USS Kidd. It was getting dark pretty early, so thankfully I didn’t have to be out too late each day. I spent a lot of time on video chat with Laina, who I was missing pretty badly by that point in the trip. I drove Deidre out to River Road and we stopped to take pictures at Bocage (from the road) and then went on a tour of the grounds at Houmas House, which I’d always wanted to see since I’d met the old guy that owned it when I worked at Marchand’s. We got a lot of great pictures in the 45 minutes we had before they closed and got some awesome sunset shots to boot. The day before she left to go home, Deidre and I went to  New Orleans for the day. By this time, I was pretty pissy because I was tired and she kept me out in New Orleans ALL FREAKING DAY. We walked down to the French Market, had beignets at Cafe Du Monde, (mais, bien sur!), walked down to Bourbon Street, had dinner at Margaritaville and saw a bluegrass-style band play at a place on Bourbon. We were going to stay at Stephen’s B&B, but I didn’t want to deal with it and wanted to stay someplace where there was WiFi – priorities, you understand…lol We got up the next morning and, with very little fanfare, I dropped her at the airport and headed back to Baton Rouge. It’s not that I wasn’t happy to see her – I totally was. But, I felt she was a bit rude with some of her comments about the toilet running at Carol’s and just being very…presumptuous or something? I felt like we just didn’t get along that well or something, but I think mostly it was just because I was tired and didn’t want to be dragged around everywhere, but felt obligated to do so.

I was supposed to have dinner with Erick the night I dropped Deidre off – and I had bad intentions! – but when I got to his house, he had forgotten we were supposed to get together and his kids were there and he was in shorts and a ratty t-shirt. haha So, we sat and chatted for a couple of hours and then I headed back to Carol’s. Laina had texted me a bunch of times while I was there, so I wrote back to say that I was just leaving Erick’s and that nothing had happened. I didn’t get to see Bonnie, but I did have a nice afternoon with Leah (Genusa) going for lunch at Piccadilly and then by her Mom’s place. I hadn’t seen her Mom in ages and she looked exactly the same. Leah’s little boy is soooo cute! Probably the cutest of any of my former classmates’ the kids. He took some pictures of us with her DSLR, which actually came out really nice!

The night before I left, Will, Mrs. Lynnda, Carol and I went for dinner at Lone Star and Emily came by for a bit while Will and I were watching a movie. I took off and went back to Carol’s to finish packing and got up ridiculously early on Friday to head to the airport. The trip went smoothly and I – once again! – lucked out to be in one of the few rows on the plane that had no one sitting in the middle seat (same thing on the way down, and the plane was nearly full). A couple of days before I was heading home, I got an email saying that the Saints were playing the Seahawks in Seattle on the 8th in the Wild Card playoff game and I jumped at the chance and bought tickets. I had asked Tracey if she wanted to come and she said no, so I bought a pair for Laina and I. So, I got home on Friday afternoon just after noon and we ended up driving down to Seattle that same night. We got a room with a hot tub in the same hotel we’d stayed in when we went down to see her brother, Darren the previous February. We had breakfast at the hotel and headed down on the shuttle to the game, dressed head to toe in Saints gear. We got heckled plenty, mostly in good fun. We had a blast at the game even though the Saints didn’t win. We went to Babeland and then to dinner at this Japanese place that had the best tofu/veggie yakisoba EVER. On Sunday, we had breakfast at the hotel, packed up, went by Pike Place Market and then headed back to Vancouver, making a stop at Walmart (and spending WAY too much money!) on the way back.

It was good to be home after all that globetrotting!