Some people were born to kill the party - and no matter how much kindness you spill over their heads - they are still going to kill the party. We went on vacation and met up with most of Scott’s family while we were down there for the final five days of the trip. Scott’s mother and father, along with Scott’s brother, Tom, and a friend of Tom’s, Susan, all drove down to Anaheim. They stayed with Scott’s grandmother at her one-bedroom apartment. I had chatted with Tom’s friend, Susan, online through AIM and was worried that spending a few days with her might be a nightmare - but, believe it or not I was trying to stay positive and think that she wouldn’t be as bad in person as she was online. Let me give you the precursor to this trip…

We had gone up to Washington State (two years ago) to visit Scott’s parents and had gone over to Tom’s place for a quick hello. Tom pointed out that he had to hide all pictures of his friend Susan. At that time we thought it was a bit odd, but whatever. Fast forward two years, Susan, came online (AIM) and wanted to ask Scott and me not to take her picture while we were together in Anaheim. Okay, fine. Then she went on and on about us not taking her picture for two fucking hours! Oh good god! She asked if I was mad at her - and thinking ahead to how we would be together on this trip, I wanted to keep the peace. Although, I let her know she was being annoying. Then another time she wanted to chat about how my in-laws were going to treat her. I guess she was afraid of them hurting her feelings? I assured her that wouldn’t happen. Although she became annoyed with me because I had to go and sign off. She wanted to set up an appointment on the AIM to ask the rest of her questions. Okay, I went along - being the fucking nice mother that I am - and planned to meet with her online. I was online earlier than I had made the appointment with her for and started to chat with her - well, that annoyed her because she would have to start the in-laws conversation all over again, since I cut her off before and she needed to recall all that she was saying. Then she told me there was no need because she had gotten all the answers she wanted in the FIRST conversation! *deep breath in, and slow release*

So, now you get a small idea why I was worried about meeting this girl and spending the week with her. Plus, she seemed to want to set down a motherlode of rules - forgetting that she was in fact coming along on our family vacation. I had heard that she didn’t like children as well, and I was a little worried she might be obnoxious about Sammy and Keirra (my niece). The day finally came to meet this girl person-to-person. We met up with Scott’s parents, Tom, and Susan in Hollywood at the very yummy Hamburger Hamlet. I had invisioned her being well groomed and petite, very precice and gentile. She wasn’t anything I thought she would look like - but it wasn’t like she was ugly as sin either. She was a plane Jane - nothing special and nothing horrific. She hardly said hello to us and sat at the far end of the table. When her hamburger arrived, she grabbed the glass Heinz Ketchup bottle and started to pour it onto her burger… You know that TV commercial that was on a few years ago, where the man put the Heinz ketchup bottle on top of the building, then ran down to the street just in time to catch it on his hot dog? Well, you know that it needs help coming out, because the ketchup is slow (or stuck). But Susan wanted to sit there and see how long it would take for the ketchup to come out without help. So she sat with the bottle at a 45-degree angle, just waiting for the ketchup to come out. And waiting. And waiting. The rest of us were just about finished with our meals and there she was, still waiting and munching on a few fries. I guess someone told her that we were almost done and didn’t really want to wait around for her to do this experiment. She had a flat-out tantrum! No, she didn’t fall to the floor kicking and screaming, but she stuffed the burger into her mouth (minus the ketchup). She was pissed off that we weren’t willing to wait there for her - ummm, welcome to reality!

Now I was a little worried again, thinking the trip was going to be filled with ketchup incidents… and more or less I wasn’t wrong. The next day we met up with everyone at Disneyland and they wanted to hit all the “fast” rides first. I guess Susan doesn’t like fast rides and Tom wanted to go on them, but not alone. Tom wanted to go with Scott and because Tom seems to be the General; he ordered that we run all over the place so that he could go on the rides with Scott. While I thought that was a bad idea, everyone else seemed to be onboard with that idea - and we ran all over the place trying to get onto all the rides that Susan wouldn’t go on for Tom (big mistake!). If you know Disneyland, you know that the fast rides are scattered around all over the place. So we had to drag our whole group from one end of the park to the other, averaging about one ride per hour. After Tom and Susan went off by themselves we thought we would do a few things we wanted to do (again, big mistake!). We went on a few rides and were paid with a guilt trip later due to Scott’s mother and Grandmother having to wait for us. First they were mad because we ran them all over the place, and then they were even more angry because all the rides we were going on were ones they didn’t want to, like the roller coasters and the Ferris Wheel. We felt like a lot of crap was brought down on our heads due to Tom and Susan and their brilliant idea to run to all the fast rides! Nice… Well, that night we told Scott’s parents and grandmother that we didn’t like the whole running around idea either, and that we wouldn’t be doing that again. They were on board with that idea. THEN the next morning they met up with us (BTW we had two day park hoppers for Disneyland and California Adventure) and the first thing they said was that we were going to run around to a few of the fast rides that Tom didn’t get on the day before. I was like, “NO.” and they tried to fight me but there was no way in hell I was going to back down! I learn from my mistakes (most of the time) and I was not going to take the heat for Tom’s selfishness - again! Of course Tom and Susan were all annoyed at this - I mean who the hell was I, making a stand against the General? I won and I have to say it felt good - and the day was a lot more relaxing - that is after we got back from meeting up with some friends…

Precursor to the friends hook-up: A few months ago we had this trip planned out, and then we found out that our friends (who have a daughter Keirra’s age) were also going to be at Disneyland on one of the same days we were! We thought it would be a blast to meet up and hang out for a while at Disneyland. I made sure everyone knew about it - no surprises.

Back to our second day at Disneyland… Our friends called us when they were in the park and we said we’d meet them. We wanted to head over to California Adventure to catch this kiddie show. We had told the in-laws on day one that we were going to want to head back to California Adventure and they seemed understanding. But once the time arrived, and we told them them we were leaving to spend time with our friends for a bit - they were all over us about not getting to spend time with Sammy and go on rides with him - they forgot to thank Tom for that! Not that Tom is completely at fault - they were the ones who went along with his orders (or plans). We met up with our friends and Scott seemed uneasy, then he started to complain about being there and wanting to go back and then he started getting loud and annoying. I knew that his parents were in his brain, their voices geting louder and louder - FINE! I explained to our friends what was going on and they seemed very understanding about the whole situation.

The rest of day two was okay. I think that not having Tom and Susan around helped a lot! We went on rides and had fun with Sammy. I was almost brought to tears at one point though - when we finally got to Toon Town (inside Disneyland) and found that Toon Town was closing for the fireworks and we only had 40 minutes to explore. This is probably the one main place I knew Sammy would have the most fun - and this was the one place we didn’t get to. Too many other things going on, too much focus on the fast rides and who wasn’t hanging out with whom. I was really upset because my heart was ripping in two. I had wanted to hang out in Toon Town and I took the only chance I had to go there… When we do go back - Toon Town will be one of the first places we take Sammy. I realized about two and a half years ago life was going to be about this little boy. So when I agreed to going to Disneyland, I knew it would be all about Sammy… That was until Tom was invited.

The next day I woke up and my body had decided to strike - and not work with me. It figured I had abused it for two days in a row and now it was payback time. The pain was unbelievable - it was all over, from head to toe. My hip really felt as if it had popped out of joint! Taking a shower and getting ready took me twice as long as normal. Yeah, I am guilty of turning off the alarm clock, but on any normal day we would have still had plenty of time to get ready and out of the room. That day we were scheduled to go over to Scott’s grandmother’s house, and then over to the senior center for a group visit with Sammy and great-grandma’s friends. I thought we were okay, because the evening before Scott’s grandmother had told me the visit was only for ten to fifteen minutes, and not to worry about it. As long as it happened before noon, because that’s when they served lunch. I thought we were safe - with enough time to try to manouver my screaming body out of the hotel room and over to the center. Scott wasn’t helping the problem with his nonstop computer addiction that morning. I’d ask him to help and he’d half-assed hear me then blow the whole thing off. So, when his mother called to see where we were I told her that Scott was causing us to be late - really I was pissed off that he was on the damn computer and not helping me out. I used him as a scapegoat - although he was guilty as charged. I was just as guilty - but it was out of my control (body pain). Then his father got on the phone and was yelling at Scott about how his grandmother was crying and that was causing everyone to become upset… Now I felt bad for blaming it all on him, so I called them back and told them what grandma had told me the night before. We blasted out of the hotel room and I zoomed us over to the old folks center within ten minutes! I was definitely speeding - but it’s southern California, no one noticed. We had fifteen minutes with the gals and it was the perfect amount of time. For fifteen minutes Sammy was all into making them laugh, but as soon as the clock struck noon he was done! He got down and ran away, and didn’t want to take any more pictures. So, see, it all worked out in the end. (When someone does something nice for you and then they expect something nice in return - let them know, “Hey, I’m buying these for you - you better be here on time for me! I think it’s not nice to do that - but if you’re going to, let us know… and we’ll buy it for ourselves in the first place.)

We went to the beach that day and had a lovely time there. We went to dinner at the Old Spaghetti Factory and I thought I had a really nice conversation with Susan. I was almost passing out from a nasty migraine I had, but with the help of pain killers and aspirin I was able to hold it together long enough for dinner. I started to think that all my worries and fears were not so real once I got to know her…

The next day - Friday - we brought lunch over to Scott’s grandmother’s apartment. We had just finished eating when Tom came into the kitchen and started to close the hall door. I asked him what he was doing that for and he said, “To keep Sammy out of the bedroom. Susan has things in there she doesn’t want Sammy getting into.” I assured him that wasn’t going to happen, simply because Sammy cannot turn the doorknob (and that bedroom door sticks, so he really couldn’t open it even if he tried). Tom shot back, “There’s always a first time and I don’t want this to be it.” He then started to close the hall door again. I told him to stop it, and if he closed the door I wouldn’t be able to see if Sammy did go into that area if the apartment. Tom yelled, “NO!” and slammed the door shut. That was my cue to get out, because I knew Sammy was not welcome anywhere Tom and his GIRLFRIEND Susan were - so we went outside. I was so pissed off because Scott and his father were sitting right next to me and neither one said one word in my defense - thanks guys!

Later that night we went to dinner with two Uncles, one Aunt and a cousin from Scott’s mother’s side of the family. Susan kept dodging out of the way of the camera - hey, not our fault you have issues. Scott loves to take pictures and his family is important to him - he wants to keep these memories. So, we ingored her and when Tom said something I told him, “Too bad, her problem not ours.” And, at the restaurant we even had a repeat of the ketchup incident! Like she had to confirm her earlier findings that ketchup will not come out of the bottle without any help. Good God. And Scott’s poor cousin had to sit next to her…you could see the pain on his face.

Then later we went back to Uncle Jim’s place for some cake, and Susan was having one of her fits - once again I was trying to be nice to her and talk her down from the “poor me” high she was on. I tried to show her through conversation that we all have issues and gave her a few examples… Oh mother of god! I don’t know who fucking told her what but me opening up only fed the fire of things wrong with me. She was like keeping some bizzare mental diary of everything she could put together wrong about ME! I guess Tom or my in-laws had told her things that weren’t adding up to things I was telling her. So, instead of saying, “Hey, you say you hate to be late but… I hear from Tom (or whoever) that you are always late.” She just sat there allowing me to talk to her like a fucking idiot. She was collecting ammo for the later attack…

That was it for the trip - but when I got home and was online Tom asked me what I thought of his friend, Susan. I told him that she seems nice and I had a nice talk with her at dinner. Then Susan came online and was like, “Hello. Tom told me I should chew you out.” I have to say that I was curious and inquired as to WHY???? She went on and on about my parenting style, things that I know for a fact she never saw me do and we did not talk about! How would she know this information if someone didn’t tell her? I asked her who she was to judge me on child raising when she didn’t have any children herself. I guess her mommie helped her to understand that my parenting was somewhat okay. Then she went into what I was talking about that evening at Uncle Jim’s house not comparing correctly with the things she’s heard about me. Needless to say I was yelling at her - and my damn brother-in-law for setting her up for the attack in the first place! Then there’s Tom… I don’t know if he was trying to impress his child-hating girlfriend or what, but the last night we were there Sammy went to give the ass a hug and he just stood there like a fucking pole! Poor little Sammy had to hug his leg - and don’t you know the assmunch didn’t even smile, touch Sammy’s head - NOTHING to show compassion back! Yeah, that right there sliced any respect I had left for him to zero. I don’t think that’ll even affect Tom - he seems to have zero respect for anyone anyway (including his parents).

I am so angry at people - I feel (right now) that there is a full-blown War On Viola. I am the enemy to so many people at this moment - and I do not fucking understand WHY!!! What can I say? Thanks for fucking up my vacation you bastards! I used to have a lot of respect for my brother-in-law for the simple fact that he is my family. He pretty much lost my respect for him. He lied and argued with me - not cool! I can understand if there was probable cause, but there was none and he should have had enough respect for me to take my damn word that Sammy wasn’t going to get into the bedroom. Then he was mean to Sammy - that right there is enough for me to be as mad as I am right now. I can take a lot of shit, but don’t dis my son!

This doesn’t even begin to explain the other crisis in my life right now, what my best friend thinks of me at the moment. I’m pretty sure that if she’s reading this she’ll say it’s all my fault for being selfish… I don’t know. I just know that life has this way of beating down on you all at once - I know I am not alone in the world here! Life is like nice and sweet with a little shit here and there, but nothing one cannot control - but good god, it’s pouring shit right now! I just need to deal with one pile at a time and hope I can dig myself out. It’s like an evil test life is giving out, “If you can make your way out of this pile of shit, you should be good for another five years.” Yeah, well bring it on! I am happy to be alive and I will not be beaten down!

I have to end with a PS - Scott’s parents apologized for the first day at Disneyland and the whole senior center thing. No one else has though… I also assured Susan we would never be on vacation together again! Tom has a long way to go before I give him the time of day… I will never go on vacation with him again either! And just so everyone else understands - I refered to Susan as Tom’s girlfriend - she isn’t, even though I think she should be! The real reason I said that is just because they get all worked up when you call them boyfriend and girlfriend.

PSS - If I made anyone cry with what I said, I just have to say you broke my heart too. My intentions weren’t to go on attack - but to express my frustrations.

I have been back for a week now and I have been overwhelmed with a bunch of stuff - therefore I have not had time to blog. I really wanted to blog the journey, but as it turned out by the time we were ever back at the hotel room it was past night-night time. We would, more or less, drag ourselves into our room and walk from the door to the bed and crash for the night. It was a vacation filled with early mornings, late nights and “what not to do again” lessons. We had fun - don’t get me wrong. It was just too much stress and crap that happened that was a massive killjoy for us. I will not focus on the negative, but on the positive things that we did while in sunny Los Angeles - don’t worry I will go into the crap - but not right now. This blog is going to be full of pictures and then a little caption to go along. Although, if you know me, you won’t be surprised if some of the picture captions get a bit long - for I love to talk! It was ten days of pretty eventful events - so I have a lot to report.

This is the waterfall we stop and check out every time we head towards Placerville. Depending on the time of year and the precipitation the waterfall can be roaring or trickling down. I love it when it’s roaring!

At the Twin Peaks in San Francisico we took a few minutes to admire the awesome view of the city below. We made a few stops in San Francisico for a few different photo ops. My niece, Keirra, (on the left above) was born in the San Francisico General Hospital, and so we got a picture of her in front of the hospital. Then we drove by the apartment where my brother used to live and then up to the Twin Peaks. We traveled across the Golden Gate on the way into the crowded city - it’s all about the experence.

We made a pit stop in Salinas, California for the night before completing the drive into Southern California. (side note: if you ever stop in Salinas do not spend the night at the Good Nite Inn.) The morning of Friday April 14th we left early, and headed west to the PCH (Pacific Coast Highway) and then south towards Los Angeles. The drive was awesome and breathtaking as the ocean was our tour guide most of the way.

Friday night we met up with some old friends I grew up with at the Cheesecake Factory. It was in Woodland Hills, CA - that’s the town we spent 3 nights at in the Valley. On the left side of the table and from from the back to the front: my niece, Keirra; Marie, my mother’s best friend growing up and our neighbor for most of the 18 years of my life living in Southern Cal.; Sheila, Marie’s daughter who is 6 years older than me and was my baby-sitter and my friend. On the right side of the table: Scott; Sammy; ME; and Jonathan, Marie’s son who was born when I was 12 years old and I baby-sat him.

Saturday was loaded with fun and a little stress as Sammy became really sick of riding in the car for hours at a time and then having very little exercise. We went to Santa Paula, California to visit with a friend of mine, Lita. We met in the second grade and had not seen each other in like 15 years! Lita’s family moved from Encino, California up to Oregon! I was 16 when they made that move and I was devastated - I lost my bestest friend in the whole world! We were the best buddies ever! Then after (I think) a year Lita’s mother didn’t like the rain anymore and wanted to move back to Southern California - so they moved back, but to Ventura, California - which was like an hour north from the Valley. So, even though she lived close enough, we never saw each other. Then a few years ago she found me online and gave me a call - I was so happy to hear from her! I was beside myself with the joy of seeing her finally after so much time!

Lita still had our fourth-grade class picture - and even though it shows what a nerd I was, I wanted to share because it’s cute! I know it’s kinda hard to see - I will not make you guess which kid is me. In the front row from left to right there is a boy, Lita and then ME! I really liked that teacher (Mrs. Dempsey) and the school was Encino Elementary. I changed schools in the fifth grade due to the fact that they changed grades around and sixth grade went up to Junior High School. So, I changed schools in order to stay at the elementary level one more year - and my fifth-grade teacher hated me and was forever yelling at me and throwing me out of the classroom. I changed schools and even though the teachers were nicer and I was able to hang back for one more year - none of the kids there ever warmed up to me… Yeah, it was sad. When I entered seventh grade - Lita and I were reunited! Then she changed schools - but this time we stuck together - talking on the phone every night and hanging out whenever possible. I hope now that we have been reunited once again - it will last forever!

Happy Easter! We had plans, but they fell through at the last second, so we spent Easter just the four of us. We drove around the Valley checking out a few areas from my past. Then we went into Hollywood and saw the new Disney movie, The Wild. We saw it at the El Capitan Theater across the street from the famous Grauman’s Chinese Theater. Disney owns the El Capitan and they put on a show before the movie (usually). I think it’s only for opening weekend, but I’m not 100% on that. The live show before The Wild was a bird show - Sammy loved that! He sat through most of the movie, had to leave once and then came back to catch the ending. He’s still a little fella and we have to respect that he doesn’t have the attention span for a full movie. We then came back to the hotel and hung out in our room for a bit before walking across the street to PF Changs for the yummiest dinner! When we returned to the hotel the kids wanted to go to the heated indoor pool - we were there until 10:00pm! It was good because we all were having a blast.

One of the places we went to see Easter Sunday was this ugly building - I called it home for 17 years of my life. I had a lot of good times there - and a lot of bad ones as well. Because of this ugly building I would never want to live in an apartment again. Although when we move up to the Seattle area we’ll probably do the apartment scene until we find a house. The difference will be it will be a nice apartment building - nothing ugly. and only for a short time - not 17 years! Although this was home, it was safe and warm and I will never forget it.

Monday, April 17th, we left our hotel in the Valley (good bye wonderful Marriott - we’ll miss you…) and went back to Hollywood Boulevard to meet up with Scott’s parents, his brother (Tom), and Tom’s friend (Susan). We met up at Hamburger Hamlet - which just happens to be next door to the El Capitan theater. That’s some seriously yummy food! After, we walked around Grauman’s Chinese Theater for a bit and then split from the rest of the family to head down into Anaheim and check in to our third and final hotel. (again, side note: when in Anaheim do not stay at the Good Nite Inn in Buna Park).

After checking into a real-life version of the Tower of Terror (that’s a ride at California Adventure where the elevator speeds up and down. Our real hotel was slightly less thrilling…the elevator doors just wouldn’t close all the way), we headed over to Downtown Disney for some dinner, walking around and shopping. We went to the Rainforest Cafe and checked in - it was an hour and fourty-five minute wait! Trust me the food is worth it! So, we went walking around during the wait. Keirra went to the Build-A-Bear Workshop and stuffed a cute little doggie, then she washed it, dressed it and adopted it. It’s truly an awesome place to go - a little costly, but worth the smile on your little girl’s (or boy’s) face. Keirra named her puppy “Miss Woof”. We also hit the World of Disney store where I got a sweatshirt and Scott got a book and Keirra wanted this little thing that when you put it in water it expands into a normal sized washcloth. We finally ate dinner and made a stop at the hair wrapping stand before leaving - Keirra got a pretty cool hair wrap. We left and went to Scott’s grandmother’s house for a quick hello and an Easter egg hunt. It was late to bed and early to rise…

5am came quickly the next morning, Tuesday - Disneyland/California Adventure day one. We were going to meet Scott’s family (parents, Tom, Susan and grandma) at 7:30am. The park opened at 8am and closed at 12am. You better believe we were there a half hour early and left about a half hour later! (about 17 hours) I made sure to find the local Starbucks to stop at on our way to Disneyland - it just is better with nice warm cup of caffeine-loaded joe in my tummy! The rest of the family arrived and we went into the park. It was a stress-filled day - I will go into that in a different post - but we had fun, saw a lot and went on a few rides.

This is the picture they take of you on the California Adventure ride Tower of Terror. It’s an awesome ride - it drops you as fast as it pulls you up. You can see our clan in the back there - ME, Keirra and Scott. Then right in front of ME is Tom and holding onto his glasses is Scott’s father (John).

Still at California Adventure we took Sammy on the carousel - yep I went on one of the fish too! It was fun - and a nice restful ride. Scott, Keirra and I had just been on California Screamin’ - the roller coaster - it was so much fun! I think Keirra was a little freaked out, but she wouldn’t say it.

While Scott’s parents and grandmother went into the 3-D Muppets show at California Adventure, we went into this art place where they show you original drawings of some of the characters from the Disney movies. It was actually pretty groovy! And as you can see Scott was getting the vibe from Tinker Bell… We headed back to Disneyland and watched the awesome Fantasmic water show at 11:30pm. The park closed after the show was over and we walked down Main Street and collected our things out of the locker and left. We were so beaten down by the day’s events (stress and just walking between the two parks) that by the time we got back to the hotel we crashed!

5am came faster this time! We thought ahead and had Sammy half-dressed the night before so that we wouldn’t have to wake him to dress him. He slept until we parked in the parking lot. We, of course, made the morning stop at Starbucks and made it to Disneyland in time for the gates to open. We had some fruit while waiting for the rest of the family to arrive and slopped on the sunscreen. (Both days were really warm and sunny - it was the most important thing to protect our skin first!) The family arrived and wanted to start off the day running around again - I had to say no to this (again, another post), so we went onto It’s A Small World - twice! The first time grandpa (above with Sammy) didn’t get the seat he wanted, so we did it again (line was short) and this time grandpa got to hold Sammy! It was cool, Sammy really enjoyed the ride.

On the first day at Disneyland Sammy and Keirra got these laser guns after the Buzz Lightyear ride - we brought them back for day two. Sammy became a pro marksman while taking out great grandma at the bench outside the bathroom. We had some friends from home who were also at Disneyland that same day - and we got to meet up with them for a small amount of time. They were so kind and took Keirra with them for the rest of the day - they have a daughter the same age as Keirra (7). I knew she would have a better time with them then hanging out with all us adults. We went back to Disneyland after dropping off Keirra - and Sammy got to go on a bunch of rides. There were a few rides we never got to go on - but that’s okay, we’ll hit them next time. We left the second day and the pain of the two days was so bad. That night was hard because of the pain, but we got well-deserved rest.

Thursday, April 20th, was the day after… The alarm went off, but I had to shut it off - probably one of the biggest mistakes I made on the entire trip (another post). We met up with Scott’s family for a day at the beach - or an afternoon anyhow. It was awesome - we went to Laguna Beach, California. The day was sunny and warm - a typical California day.

We went and played chase with the waves, fell down a few times and had a blast. It was nice to forget about all the stress from the past two days and that morning - to just sit back, relax and enjoy the beach. The beach is my favorite part of Southern California - I want to live on the beach - I hope that dream comes true someday up in Washington State - although nothing will compare to the awesome beaches of Southern California! I will forever go back to visit the beach! After the beach we went to the Old Spaghetti Factory, where I had the worst migraine! I couldn’t even eat my pasta and by the time we got back to the hotel I thought I was going to lose my cookies! I went to sleep and recovered…

Friday, April 21st, we went over to Scott’s grandmother’s apartment - This is a shot of poor little Sammy who was (more or less) kicked out of the apartment. His Uncle Tom made him feel very unwanted - so sad because Sammy loves his Uncle Tom… We brought lunch in and mid-afternoon we headed out to Scott’s Uncle Jim’s house in Irvine, California. We met up with Scott’s Uncle Ben and Aunt Linda and their son Brady. (They lost a son, Jason, last year to cancer. He was 24…) It was so nice to see them and we all went out to dinner - it was nice to sit back, relax and enjoy the company. We tried to take a group shot, but it didn’t turn out too well.

Aunt Linda brought a birthday cake for Scott’s father and Uncle Ben - from Costco… yummm!

Sammy was enjoying his cake - especally the blue balloon! Silly little guy - but it was damn good cake! You can never go wrong with Costco cakes - never!

Saturday, April 22nd, was the trip down to Universal City to see The Wiggles Live! We were so excited and everything seemed to be going well, until we were at the exit on the freeway - that’s when Scott remembered where the tickets for the show were! They were in his suitcase back at the hotel in Buena Park (over an hour away)! Everything seemed to slow down as I could feel my heart pounding in my throat! I was more pissed off than I had been the enitre trip - and trust me, I had reason to be angry this trip! I called the box office and inquired about seats still available. They had a few and they were nothing to write home about - but I didn’t care. Damnit we got my son all excited about seeing The Wiggles - he was going to see The Wiggles! I have to say that Scott is just damn lucky we were able to buy tickets for the later show - I just might have left him over this mistake.

We had gotten tickets for the second show and so we had a little time to go eat lunch at the Hard Rock Cafe at the Universal City Walk - it was hella good food! The Wiggles were wonderful! Sammy was dancing and singing along with them and he got so excited when they came on stage - the nightmare that once was, was not gone, but had diminished a lot. Sammy was so happy and that makes me happy. The show was 70 minutes long and Sammy was done by that time, he was ready to say, “Good-bye Wiggles.”

We went back to Anaheim and stopped by Scott’s grandmother’s apartment to say good-bye. We tried not to stay too long as Uncle Tom might have freaked out again. Scott’s father was brought to tears as we left - don’t worry Greempa, we’ll see you again soon!

Sunday, April 23rd, ten days after we started we were headed home. It was a long drive, but I think we were all ready to go home that no one complained the entire drive. It was a fun trip - with a few massive glitches. That’s okay, we know what not to do for the next time we go on vacation. Thanks for hopping on for the ride of this giant-sized blog! Keep watching for the next posting - of what happened, to clear all the “another post” statements I made throughout this blog.

This is the end, but for a few of my favorite pictures (88) you can go check out the gallery on Flickr.

Friday we went up to visit our little Baxter boy - as usual. We took him right out for a walk, because the weather was nice and I think it’s a good idea to get him used to the leash thing. He had fun with Ebony and Romeo (my friend’s dog - they went out of town and we are doggie sitting) running all over.

Scott made the comment that Baxter is looking more like a dog now. His eyes have started to change color, his face is maturing along with his little body. He’s such a small little guy! I don’t think he’s going to be very big. If I remember correctly, he was the smallest pup out of the two litters.

Helen (owner of K9 Fitness) pulled up when we were getting ready to say, “Good-Bye” to Baxter. We told him we would see him Wednesday - and that would be our last visit until we get back from vacation and get to take him home!

Helen had a great idea! She said, “Why don’t you take him home until Wendesday? Then bring him back and I’ll watch him until you get back from vacation.” My eyes grew wide and I think I may have started to drool! The only word I could get out was, “Really?” She justified it by saying that we were coming back on Wednesday for a visit anyway - plus he was adopting them as his family and he really needs to start bonding with us. I looked at Scott and asked him what he thought of it, and he more or less said that he wasn’t an idiot, he knew I was already on board with the idea - there was no way in hell he was going to say, “no.”

We piled into the car - our neice (Keirra), Sammy and the giant black bitch in the back seat, the far back was harboring Baxter’s crate, Scott, Romeo, Baxter and I were in the front seat… full house! We had to make a few stops before heading home, and Baxter just hung out in his crate while we were in the store. When we got back to the car it smelled pooish! Little Baxter had gone in his crate and then stepped in it and smeared it all over the place - yucky! Sammy was having a cow in the store - I think he was tired. So, we left the store a lot earlier than we had intended to. Probably a good thing we did - who knows how much more poo that little guy would have been covered in.

I bought some puppy shampoo so that I could clean the little guy up. It was the longest ride home knowing the dogs needed to get out of the car and that they needed to eat. We finally made it home and everyone was more than happy to get out of the car!

Baxter is now home - for the moment. I know that we have to take him back, and it doesn’t break my heart, because I know he’ll be safe and happy while I am away…

Welcome home little fella!

I am officially on spring break - and I couldn’t be happier it’s finally effing here!!! Don’t get me wrong - I love what I do and I enjoy the kids I work with, but good god we all needed a break! Spending every day - five long hours in their face can get very wearing on a person. We are all pretty much to a point of, “If I don’t get a break here soon, I am going to hurt someone!” A good long two-week break is just what we need.

Friday was our last day for two weeks, and you could feel the tension - the air was thick and it was hard to breathe. As soon as the bell rang at 2:06 there was a release and adrenaline rushed through the halls and poured out of the doors. I was also on a high, leaving school I had this wide grin of pure joy covering my face - it was an awesome feeling! I called Scott from the car and just let out a loud, “Yeah Baby - Spring Break!”

We have big plans for spring break and Easter. Thursday we are leaving - with a lot of hope - at the butt crack of dawn. Driving over to San Francisco for a few photo opportunities, then down to PCH (Pacific Coast Highway) and over to Monterey - where we’ll head inland a bit to Salinas for the night. Friday morning we head out and take PCH all the way down into the San Fernando Valley where will stay until Monday morning. While in the Valley (where I grew up) we are going to see some old friends and visit the surrounding areas. Then on Monday we head down into Anaheim for the rest of the week - leaving on Sunday. We are going to meet up with Scott’s family (mother, father, brother, brother’s friend and grandmother). His grandmother lives in Anaheim and we normally stay with her when we go down, but it is a small apartment and pretty uncomfortable. This time we are staying in a hotel - yay! We will be going to Disneyland with a two-day park hopper. We will also be going to the beach to play “tag” with the ocean waves - cannot go to Southern California and not visit the beach! On Saturday we have a date to see the Wiggles Live! Then finally Sunday morning we are heading home… It’s going to be an awesome trip.

Spring break is here!

We went into Reno Friday afternoon - it has become a ritual for us to go visit our Baxter (PUPPY!).

Sammy hasn’t been feeling great all week, but was doing pretty good Friday. The only thing he had against him was the thirty-minute nap he had before going into Reno. I thought he’d fall asleep in the car - nope. Then, there was the picking up of Keirra (our niece) who excited Sammy. Then, of course there was the pit stop for ice cream… You see, there were plenty of reasons he didn’t fall back to sleep. When we got to K9 Fitness I thought Sammy would be excited to see his little Baxter boy - think again! There is a toy slide for the doggies to play with - and on one of our Baxter visits Sammy was allowed to play on the slide because all the dogs were in their kennels. Ever since then - all Sammy wants to do when we go see Baxter is play on the toy slide. No interest that there is a cute little puppy that wants to play with Sammy - the only thing that has any importance there is the damn slide. Friday was no different - Sammy was screaming because he wanted nothing more than that slide - but couldn’t have it because (and this was cute) the doggies were playing on it. Scott had to take Sammy out to the car and watch a movie - this worked for a while. Poor Scottie, didn’t get to spend quality time with Baxter.

I was having a lot of fun with our little Baxter. I had put him in my hoodie sweatshirt and popped his head through with mine. We were the two headed circus freak - but a cute one!

Ebony came for the visit - and she was still unimpressed with the little puppy. I really don’t know what it is that she is so freaked out about - it might just be too overwhelming with all those kenneled dogs in the background - barking and freaking out. I know, for sure, it’ll be different when he comes home - into her house. For now, she just doesn’t feel good about anything in that place… I understand.

The weather was windy and cold Friday, so I told Helen (the K-9 Fitness owner) that I was bummed out, because I wanted to take Baxter for a walk. She said that it didn’t matter that it was cold out there - go ahead and take him - SO I did! We went for a nice walk - it was his first walk (awww). He did not like the leash thing - but he’ll get used to that. I carried him down to a lawn area and then let him down on the grass - he didn’t know what to think of it - I think that may have been his first time on grass as well (again, awww). At first I was trying to force him to stay on the lawn - but I figured I’d let him just walk and I’d follow.

He walked me right back to K-9 Fitness! He would sniff as he walked and he totally followed the scent right back to his home! Good Boy! I knew dogs did that - but I guess I didn’t expect him to be able to do that since he’s so little and young - surprise! When we got back, Helen’s husband had driven up with the horse trailer. Helen helped Keirra up to see and pet the horses and Scott held Sammy up to see them - and I held Baxter up. He didn’t seem too excited about it…

Baxter was looking in - from the outside - at the sea of doggie faces as if saying, “Look who’s outside now boys!” It was cute that he just sat in front of them as they went nuts. I’m sure it was some kind of puppy empowerment.

We stayed so much longer than we ever have before - and it was so nice. They close at 6:00 and even though Helen was still there and obviously not leaving for a little while - we didn’t want to get in her way of closing shop. We said good-bye to our little guy and he was happy to hang out with Helen - at least I know he’s in good hands.

We left Reno and headed into Carson when Sammy announced he was starving - poor little fella. So, we called Chili’s and put our name on the list - it was a 40 minute wait! So, the naughty parents that we are, we stopped at a fast food joint and got them some chicken strips to hold them over until we got to dinner. We left Chili’s and it was raining out - yay, we are welcoming of the moisture falling from the dark and cloudy sky. We were in the store less than thirty-minutes and as we were walking out we noticed there was a blizzard going on! Where the heck did this come from?!?!? We made it to the car - it wasn’t easy. Then we drove home traveling about twenty miles per hour - on the highway where the normal speed limit is sixty-five. I am not complaining - just giving an idea of how slow traffic was moving. It was so hard to see where we were going - following the mini-van in front of us. I told Scott if the mini-van were to drive off the road - I’d probably go too, because I couldn’t see jack.

We got home - finally - and Sammy was yelling at me to go to bed (poor little sleepy guy). I bought a mini leash at the store for Baxter (so cute that everything is mini) - for when we see him next week. The countdown has begun - we have three weeks and one day until Baxter comes home!

I work with two boys - one I have to Interpret for because he is completely Deaf, but the other one is Hard of Hearing, so I am just there to make sure he’s getting all the information and understands what he has to do. These two boys have grown to trust me - a lot. When they have questions they feel uncomfortable asking any other adult on the planet - they come to me. I’d be lying if I didn’t say this makes me feel really special. They have told me and asked me things that would cause a normal person to blush - but they are teenagers and going through a very confusing time with their bodies (and life) - someone needs to help them understand it’s all a normal part of growing up.

My Hard of Hearing student (15 years old) is from Mexico - he was born there. His parents immigrated over here a few years after his brother was born - they then had two more children after they had moved to Lake Tahoe. My Hard of Hearing student is very proud of where he came from - he is also very proud to be an American now. So, he is a proud Mexican/American - though this brings up a lot of problems, with racism. A few months ago he found himself in the middle of a gang-related (yes folks, we have gang problems in small town USA) issue. Both the boys found themselves in the mist of it - but my Hard of Hearing kid was a lot deeper into it than my Deaf kid. But, it’s because the Hard of Hearing boy is having a big identity crisis - a large one! He’s a Mexican - so the “white” American people don’t accept him - He’s also an American, so the Mexicans don’t accept him either. The Indians won’t accept him because he’s Mexican/American - I guess they don’t like that (I don’t pretend to understand it). To top it all off he has a disability - and everyone hates that!

On Thursday my Hard of Hearing student came into sixth period, sat down, looked at me and asked, “Why do all the white people hate all the Mexicans?” BOOM!

(Let me just give a little information here - sixth period is Study Skills and only the Deaf student, Hard of Hearing student and I are in the room…normally. Sometimes the teacher shows up. The boys won’t ask me personal questions in front of her - she is not someone they trust.)

He let the bomb down with the teacher in the room! He needed answers and he needed them right then and there! I looked into his eyes and I saw so many different things - pain, confusion, anger but mostly sadness. My heart broke into a million pieces - he was asking me the million-dollar question. How do I answer this? The only thing I ever try to be with these boys is honest and truthful. His eyes were fixed on mine - the world around him (at that moment) didn’t exist. I took a deep breath in and sighed a little with compassion - I said, “We don’t all hate you.” The mean truth is that there are too many people who hate another ethnic group - different is bad. I asked him, “Why? What happened?” Well, I guess there is a new immigration law that is in the process of being passed. (with a few others behind it just in case that one won’t work) My student was feeling the pressure from this because he is a proud Mexican and his whole family was focusing in on it with strong feelings. Plus, at school my student has heard negative things such as the old favorite, “GO HOME!” Well, he is home. His father passed the green card test - but his mother has not. His biggest worry will be that his mother will get fired (or worse sent back to Mexico - alone). He loves his family and doesn’t want to see anything unjust happen to them - I totally understand that. I tried (the best I could) to explain to him that the Mexicans weren’t the only Immigrants in the United States - they just happen to be the largest population of immigrants. He then said, “All the American people think we are stealing their jobs - but we’re not! We just want to work hard and earn enough money to live.” I tried to explain that America has only a certain amount of jobs available - more than that, there are Americans out of work - then more than that we have immigrants coming over and working for cheap and taking those job - in the end (and inadvertently) there are less job for the Americans - who are here legally.

I told him I understand why people come here - they want a better life for themselves and their families. He wanted to know why they can’t have open gates - allowing anyone who wants to come live here - where is the freedom that America promises? (oh boy) I explained to him that not everyone is good and honest - there are just too many people who have made that “open gate” deal a bad one. I made sure he understood that Americans are also at fault of that - taking advantage of other countries. There is no one country out there that is not at fault of this. I told him that slowly all countries are starting to “close their gates” to outsiders. It’s understandable though - I cannot blame them. Trust has been stepped on and ripped apart - they need to put up the forces and protect themselves.

My student wanted to join others in a “walk out” on Friday, to protest and show his support. I could not sit there and tell him, “No - that’s a bad idea.” Because, it’s not a bad idea - we are still a free nation and if he wants to show his pride and support something he feels strongly about - I would be anti-American to stop him. The teacher sitting there and listening to our conversation was quick to let him know that it was indeed a bad idea, and if he did it he would (possibly) go to jail for being truant. I assured him that probably would not happen - although I didn’t know how the school would treat it. In the end he didn’t want to get in trouble - and no one ended up walking out Friday. I needed him to understand that he’ll always feel the pull from the Mexican community and from the American community. Anyone who comes from another country and is proud of where they came from - and proud of where they are now - will always feel that pull. I also wanted him to know what an awesome thing it is to have passion and pride in his soul for something - and I told him to never let that die. This teenager could teach us all a great lesson - if only more humans thought the way he does - we’d be a more peaceful nation. He’s an awesome kid - and if I can learn anything from him, I know I’ll be a better person for simply listening…

Life isn’t fair - we all know that. Life hurts a lot - because other people make it painful. It doesn’t have to be this way - but this is a fight that will probably never end. It breaks my heart to watch this boy - who is so pure and loving - being attacked by the place he calls home.