Interlude, Part One

September

Background music: Martina McBride's Emotion

It's actually almost Christmas as I write this; the last few months are mostly a blur in my memory. September had its memorable moments in the form of my birthday and our trip to my high school reunion. October is more of a haze; I only seem to remember buying far too much Halloween candy, and having Jev's parents come for a visit. November was interesting again; we went to Missouri to visit my mom and mother a week before Thanksgiving, and then Thanksgiving we spent with Jev's parents. I started writing the occasional entry again early in December, so that's where I'll let those pick up with my story.

In between the memorable moments of this past Fall, I did a lot of cross-stitching and movie-watching -- some of the former for pleasure, but a lot of it for a project or two that had to be done. I enjoyed working on the charity afghan with the Precious Moments theme, and I got it turned in just in the nick of time... I just wouldn't be me if I'd turned it in three weeks early, y'know?

My birthday was nice... very nice. Jev spoiled me as always. I got a new laptop computer about a week or two before, and while I had hoped that it would help me do a better job of keeping up my journal, it seems to have had just the opposite effect. We're making payments on it on one of those "No Interest till 2001" plans, and I think it'll be payed off by June; paying bills is one thing I'm not a procrastinator about, which I think is a good thing. I love my little laptop, as it gives me a chance to play solitaire or goof off while Jev is web-surfing, or I can surf while Jev watches television. We bought a USB ethernet connector, which worked for a while, but then it petered out, so we can't both surf at the same time for now; Jev's looking at getting a wireless connection set up between the laptop and our Linux server (the computer we use to dial up when surfing on the desktop pc), and if we can do that, we can both surf and play head-to-head games again.

Jev's parents drove out from West Virginia for my birthday, and brought me a really beautiful windchime, and took us out to lunch at a place of my choosing. My mom called, too, and wished me a happy birthday, and my friend Dee up in Minnesota sent me a gift certificate to Michael's. Jev also got me a Cherished Teddies figurine -- only my second "couple" piece, the first having been from his sister, who had one her ex-boyfriend gave to her and had been keeping it stashed somewhere int the box since they split up; when she found that I collected them, she went and found it and gave it to me so it would have a good home.

My ten year high school reunion came up at the end of September, so Jev and I bought tickets -- we flew direct out of Roanoke, so they weren't cheap tickets, that's for sure! -- and flew out there. Dee's mom had offered us a place to stay any time we came out to visit, so we stayed with her, and she loaned us and Dee her car to get around in while we were there.

We flew out Thursday afternoon and back home on the red-eye Sunday night, and barely had a moment's rest in between, or so it seemed. Friday morning, Dee's mom asked us to come to school (she works with physically and emotionally challenged kids at my alma mater) and surprise her aide, who used to live in the same apartment complex as I did; I babysat her daughter for her (she was nine, I was fifteen, we were more like friends than anything), and we were friends. She was really surprised to see me, and she got to meet Jev, and we had a nice long visit. Then Dee and her brother (who had come along too) snagged a wheelchair that one of her former students had left, and stowed it in the trunk, for a trip to Disneyland.

Yes, I could have walked around Disneyland, but past experience has taught me that I'm not much fun when I get tired and cranky. Jev agreed to 'push me around', and while I'd first considered just hoofing it for a couple hours, we ended up taking the wheelchair right from the start. We had a little problem getting the footrests set up (they weren't attached to the chair, and had been twisted way out of position), but a lady who saw us struggling in the parking lot came over and helped us figure out how they were supposed to go, and Jev managed to twist them back into shape.

Off we went, and we were quickly picked up by a courtesy van, which shuttled us from the parking right up to the gates. I was really surprised when I saw the construction going on as we were coming into Disneyland; they're building a whole other park, with rollercoasters and the likes... trying to compete with Knott's Berry Farm and Magic Mountain (a Six Flags park... it was Magic Mountain *before* Six Flags bought it!).

We were disappointed to find that Pirates of the Carribean was closed when we went up to the ticket booth, but most everything else seemed to be open (we must have missed the sign that the Monorail was closed too), and so we bought our passes and headed in. I was stopped by a survey taker, and asked if he could ask me a few questions, which I gladly answered... far as I can remember, he just asked me where I was coming from to visit, and he seemed surprised that we came all the way from Virginia. I don't remember if I mentioned that I was from the area originally, but I'm sure I gave the bean-counters a nice little blip in their statistics.

We had a fun day, though tiring. We found the advantages of being in a wheelchair -- the lines to the older attractions, that aren't wheelchair-accessible, have a "back door", where you just go through the exit and up to the ride loading area, and you don't have to wait through the lines. The newer rides have accessible lines though, so we had to wait a while to get on the Rocket Rods and Roger Rabit, and we would have had to wait for the Indiana Jones ride too, but Dee has a friend who works at Disneyland, and she'd run into her earlier and got a few extra backdoor passes -- what they give out when you're in the front of the line and the ride suddenly breaks down.

My only regret is that Jev -- who had never been to Disneyland, but has been to Disney World in Florida -- wanted to go on Splash Mountain, and we didn't do that. Not that we didn't get over there, but by time we did it was late, and my body was starting to protest the abuse (Indiana Jones is a rough ride, and Roger Rabbit isn't much better), and I know it already doesn't handle the sudden drops well, so I decided I'd better not. Dee and her friend Lisa went on it, but Jev and I sat that one out. I should have done more to encourage him to go, but I guess it all worked out for the best. When the girls got back from Splash, we decided to split up for a while and meet at the gates at closing time, so Jev and I went to King Arthur's Carrousel -- my all-time favorite carousel -- and had a little time to be just the two of us.

As if Friday weren't enough, we had a busy Saturday, too. Dee wanted to take us down to Irvine to see her brother's new apartment, but that didn't sound too good to me. We'd gone out to breakfast with her and her friend from Disneyland, and they spent a good hour or two chatting at the table, so Jev and I were ready for a break. We got one, literally... the car broke. It felt weird when we were pulling into the lot for breakfast... like it bottomed out in back, but while we remarked on it (I think we did, anyway), nobody thought twice about it at the time.

We got back to Dee's, and I tried to call my sister out in Corona. She wasn't home, but my brother-in-law was, and he were coming out for the Elk's annual barbecue at my dad's lodge. What timing! Unfortunately, we had to be heading off to the reunion by time they would be getting there, but it gave me the idea of seeing if I could catch my dad without his wife.

I asked Dee if she would take us by the lodge, just to see if my dad was there, before we headed down to Irvine. We got there and no dad, but the car by then was really hobbling. We stayed at the lodge while Dee and her dad and brother took the car back home and tried to get in touch with her mom (who had gone to a friend's funeral). I checked inside -- the back door was open, fortunately -- and asked the guys if my dad was around, but they all told me the same thing... he was out in the parking lot. Only, he wasn't, I'd looked. I'd know my dad anywhere, honest!

So, we hung around and waited... not that we had a whole lot of choice in the matter... and eventually, my dad showed up. Surprise! I think he was definitely surprised; he said it really made his day. He'd been working on making a new wooden ramp for wheeling things up and down the curb on the lodge side of the street (the parking lot is across a small street from the lodge, which they block off for the duration of the event), and while his creation didn't quite fit the bill, between Dad and Jev and I, we got it working pretty good. Once the hard work was done, he took us into the lodge, fixed us up with drinks (diet pepsi and dr. pepper, mind you), and we got to visit for a while. Jev and my dad seemed to get along pretty well, and I think Jev liked him, even though he said my dad reminds him of his own dad, in some ways... I think it was more in the handyman ways than anything. And I think Jev saw just how much of that I've gotten from him; not to toot my own horn, but I think I was the one who came up with the final solution for the ramp.

By time Delina got back with a vehicle -- her dad's work truck -- it was too late to head down to Irvine -- oh darn! So we came back to her mom's and relaxed for a while, then got ready to go to the reunion, at The Reef in Long Beach.

I'm not a social butterfly, that much is for sure, but I had fun at the reunion. There was a sad moment, when I found that my favorite teacher, Mr. Modlin, had passed away, but mostly it was nice seeing everyone again, and just visiting. I think I visited more with the two teachers I knew who came than with my fellow alums, but that's just me... I think I knew the teachers better than my classmates, a lot of the time. I knew some of the popular kids, but they still stayed in their own little cliques for the most part, and they just said hi and went right back to their own chatting, if they said hi at all.

I won the biggest door prize, literally... it was a 60 pound fire safe. Just what I always wanted .... well, it's useful, at least; now I know where to find our checks when we need more. We didn't have to carry it home on the plane; Jen took care of shipping it out to us.

Sunday, we went out and had breakfast at Schooner or Later, at one of the marinas (I can never remember which it is... Dee's mom drove and I was in the back seat with Jev). Dee's dad came with his girlfriend, and our friend the other Dee -- who had just arrived in from San Francisco Saturday night -- came with her mom... quite the breakfast bunch. Friday and Saturday had been gorgeous, so of course Sunday had to be grey and overcast... couldn't have Jev thinking it was always sunny and warm, could we?

Breakfast was another long event, and afterward we went shopping for some La Victoria salsa, and dropped the film from Disneyland and the reunion at the 1-hour photo lab. Yeouch, I didn't realize it cost so much, but it came about $30, because we had several panoramic prints (oh yeah, we got a new camera just before the trip too... APS, zoom lens, the whole bit... like I'm sure I've said, Jev spoils me downright rotten!).

I messed around on Willa's computer, writing up some notes for her how to download pictures from her digital camera and such, while she Jev to pick up the film. Dee flew out around 5 pm, so while Willa took her to the airport, Jev and I relaxed and showered and got ready for our own red-eye flight.

Really, it wasn't too bad... for some reason on the flight out, my body had gone into panic-mode and my heart was skipping beats all over the place for a while, so I wasn't looking forward to sleeping on the plane. But really, it wasn't bad at all... I slept for most of the main flight, and was awake enough to function when we changed planes in Charlotte.

Jev slept for most of the Charlotte to Roanoke flight too... or at least what should have been most of that flight. The flight got us to Roanoke, only to find the cloud cover was too low and dense for them to be comfortable landing. They made three attempts, by which time I was just about ready to don a parachute and climb out the window... I used to love flying, but after some rough weather flying I don't particularly care for it anymore. We were in a prop plane, and they finally decided to turn around and take us back to Charlotte.

Two flights from Charlotte didn't make it to Roanoke, so the big flight in a jet around noon was full up, but we got there and Jev's mom -- who cat-sat for us -- was there to pick us up. We'd called her when we got back to Charlotte to let her know what was going on, once we found out ourselves.

So that was September. I was going to do this all in one fell swoop, but this entry got a little long, so I'll do October and November in part two. For now, I'm off to get some breakfast and play with Peanut for a bit.