I have about a week’s worth of writing to catch up on. How did it get away from me for so long… And then there’s going to be the weekly recap… >.<; So much stuff…

 

This was also written last night, but I lost steam on editing my typos (which I’m sure there are still tons of), and this morning has been super crazy.

 

Thursday

Not surprisingly Thursday is hard to recall and is most likely going to take the most time to write about as I sit here and ponder what actually happened and in what order. I had meant to write when I got to the end of my day. There was lots of anxiety over my test. I never got around to doing yoga before work, but my morning was pretty chill all things considered. I spent a fair amount of my morning stitching before biking to work.

 

I did go to Crisper’s for their Southwestern salad. It was pretty good. It wasn’t covered by their happy hour special though so I’ll most likely not be getting it again any time soon. Ideally I’m not going out to eat during the week anyway, so spending shouldn’t be happening as much in the future in general.

 

I worked up some concept designs for the character sheets during the second lab. That was fun since I got to draw on the dry erase board. I’ve filled up my artbook and haven’t replaced the one that I keep in my backpack. I don’t think I would have put a new one in it anyway with biking to work. I don’t want to run the risk of sweating through the back and messing up the book.

 

The first lab was super rough and left me drained before it was even halfway over. The turn in for the project was at midnight, so it’s not surprising that there were so many questions and minor freak outs.

 

It meant that I didn’t have the mental capacity to do much of anything else. After the little bit of brainstorming during the second lab I went back to stitching off and on between answering questions. I haven’t been able to but any real time into Clavan’s project since then, which is frustrating. It’s so close to being done. >.<

 

I want to have it done by the Tinkerer’s meeting that Bre scheduled, which is this Wednesday. I would love to be able to give Clavan his gift during the meeting. I think that would be perfect.

 

Zane picked me up from work on Thursday so I didn’t have to bike home in the dark. We decided to leave the bike at school and that we would dive me back at some point during the weekend so I could ride it home.

 

He took me out to Pita Pit for dinner as a way to get the light, leafy dinner I craved. It had good moments and bad moments. I was still overwhelmed from work and realy in the ride Zane got angry at other drivers doing stupid thigns. It wasn’t a good combination for us.

 

Things smoothed over. We sat and ate so I could be still for a little while. Originally he had wanted to eat at home, but I needed time to decompress, so the compromise was we would eat at the shop until his sandwich was done, and then we would leave. I was ok with that arrangement. Zane did finish he food before me, so I wrapped up the little bit of sandwich that I had left and finished eating in the car.

 

On the way home Zane began talking about the PS4. Since I was tired and drained I wasn’t very talkative. He ended up saying that he was going to stop talking since I didn’t care about the topic, which caused me to get angry.

 

I did / do care. I was listening to everything he was saying. Having a statement made about my feelings didn’t help our situation. He said that all I had done since he had picked me up from school was “bitch” at him, which stung because I felt I hadn’t complained about anything that had happened. I had stayed quiet actually other than to say work was rough. And all of the moments where we had smiled and laughed… it was like they hadn’t happened to him.

 

When we got to the apartment he parked and got out of the car saying he would see me inside, leaving me to walk up the pathway and stairs alone. It was super early still. Only around 9ish. I went to the room and tried to go to sleep anyway, feeling that with the weight of the test the next day that it wasn’t worth staying up. I could hear the TV in the living room, though, and after a little bit I decided to get my headphone, which were on the kitchen table. I was hoping that music would help cover up the sound and let me sleep.

 

When I went into the kitchen Zane asked me to come over to him. I did. He hugged me. We ended up talking and I mentioned the reason I had gotten angry and bothered was because it had hurt that he made it seem like none of the good interactions had happened or mattered. He said I had a point and he was sorry he had ignored those moments in his statement.

 

We mentioned again how it seems like we’re expecting the worst from each other.

 

He said that he feels like I’m still depressed a lot of the time because I’m still so quiet. He said I wasn’t like that in the beginning, before his unemployment. I’m not sure how I feel about that. I told him that in the beginning I felt like I was alone, which is why I was on the dating site in the first place. I didn’t hang out with my old roommates. I didn’t hang out with co-workers, and still really don’t. I wanted human contact, and when he and I lived apart I would go home when I needed space and silence. I was always charged when I was around him. More social.

 

Now we live together, so he sees when I am quiet and withdrawn, which has a negative connotation. So lets not use that word. It’s not the right word. I don’t feel like I am withdrawn. I feel like I am calm, peaceful. I am slower and able to go at my own pace, which lets me enjoy the things around me. I am able to do the things that I want which normally doesn’t involve other people. Watching TV and playing games and hanging out with others, that’s fun, but isn’t often restoring. TV sometimes, but not often. Same with games. It depends. It’s still input that I’m having to process, so if I’m over stimulated it’s not fun anymore. It’s more tasking that I have to do, which doesn’t recharge me. I enjoy quiet cuddles on the couch where I can listen to him breathing, where we can have random conversations as topics come to us.

 

He likes that sometimes. He would rather us be engaging in something. Maybe we can find a compromise with this. If I have my quiet time I will be more likely to do the things that he wants to do. So maybe we can have quiet time first for a little bit, then go about our evening. It is something I will bring up later tonight I think.

 

Zane ended up letting me go back to the room so I could sleep. I felt better than I had before our conversation. As it was I was so exhausted that I wasn’t able to stay awake fretting over my test. I suppose there is a bright side to everything…

Friday

Friday started sort of rough. I hadn’t set my alarm before going to sleep, figuring Zane was going to wake up at his normal time. But he didn’t. Since I was driving him to work so I could have the car for the drive to Jacksonville he thought it would be better for both of us to get more sleep. I had planned on getting breakfast from a gas station along with a coffee / cappuccino thingy when I stopped for fill the car up, and Zane didn’t want to cook breakfast for himself in the morning so there was no real reason to wake up super early.

 

I showered, looked up the directions to the testing center, which were amazing easy. Huzzah! I made sure I had everything that I might, maybe, possibly, need in case the end of the world happened, then headed to the car with Zane.

 

He wanted to stop at a gas station before work so he could pick up breakfast and lunch for himself. Wawa is a gas station chain that is popular up north, but has recently been taking over in Florida. They’re well known for their sub station, which is basically like a Subway built inside of the gas station, but better.

 

Well, I didn’t know that they do breakfast sandwiches, too. We stopped at one for Zane and when I saw that they did breakfast I guess I sort of lit up because Zane said if I wanted something that he would get it for me. He walked me through all of the options, clicking the buttons as I looked at the screen from around his arm, hugging him from behind while we both built our breakfast sandwiches. I even got to have a mint mocha coffee.

 

While Zane was waiting for the food I went ahead and put gas in the car since I was taking care of everything that I needed to in one stop. The whole experience was extremely pleasant and helped smooth out the remaining wrinkles from the previous night. Zane also got a bottle of water for me so I could have something to drink during the drive.

 

I took Zane the rest of the way to work and was able to kiss him goodbye before heading out to start my adventure to Jacksonville. I’m super glad that I’ve been biking to work. As awesome as it was to be able to take him to work and be part of his morning, I don’t think I would stay sane if I had to do that commute every morning just to drive back home. It would be over an hour of my morning, not to mention the gas.

 

I feel sort of guilty for writing that because I feel like that makes it seem like I don’t want to do things for Zane. I feel like it makes it seem like taking him to work would be “too much,” and that’s not it at all. It’s more that when given the option between driving him or being self sufficient, I’m not taking the lazy option. I’m taking the option that is healthier, more time efficient, and what I feel is the more financially responsible option. There’s no reason for me to not bike to work, or to other places that I need / want to go (with in reason). Seeing what the choice could have been made me realize how right my choice was, and I’m happy to have that validation. It makes it easier to wake up and enjoy my ride because it could be over an hour of sitting in traffic instead.

 

Driving during rush hour traffic sort of sucked in the beginning, but once I was on the interstate it was smooth driving and basically and hour and a half of solitude and good music. I feel like construction follows me everywhere I go in Florida since there were three new construction spots on the trip to Jacksonville since the last time I drove home to visit my mom, but it really didn’t affect my travel speed, so it was more just a slight annoyance of having orange barrels everywhere.

 

It was easy to find the building that I needed to be at, and the suite. They were actually still installing the test software onto the laptop that I was going to be testing on, so I had a few minutes to use the restroom and to get about five minutes worth of stitching in.

 

The proctor for the test was super nice; a guy named Seth. He walked me through the setup process, and was extremely helpful and reassuring when Maya started crashing on me.

 

Yeah… even during an exam the software is buggy as fuck. If I had been a recent graduate taking the certification and it had glitched out on me like that I would have had anxiety through the roof. As it was it was just a mild annoyance because I had to keep pausing the test software to wait for the program to re-launch, which meant Seth had to keep reading me off my sign-in number and permitting my pause in the test.

 

There were only 4 questions out of the 35 that I “marked” so I could come back to them. I ended up passing with a 94%, and I know the two questions that I missed, but for the life of me I honestly didn’t know how to find the right answers. I’m sure with more digging around I could have, but I was happy with what I had done, so not getting those two was ok in my book.

 

A lot of the questions were easy for me.

 

The test room was super amazing, too. I was in a room with rows of flat tables, much like the tables that are in the powered lecture halls at school. I had a Windows laptop, which was a little annoying since I work with Mac more often than not, but really that just means I mess up the hotkeys every once in a while. It wasn’t a big deal to be honest.

 

The desks faced a giant wall of windows, and outside of the windows was this gorgeous view of trees and a pound that had a fountain in the center with water shooting up, catching the sunlight of the autumn day.

 

It looked so peaceful, so beautiful. Anytime I started to feel frustrated with Maya crashing on me I would look out the window at the water. I would watch the branches swaying with the breeze, and I would breath as the program re-launched.

 

I would just let it all go. This test wasn’t going to define me. It didn’t really mean anything. I know I’m good. I know I’m smart and resourceful. I know I can figure stuff out and learn. This test, this program, doesn’t make me a good person. Really, it just means that I have an interesting hobby that I’m lucky enough to work in such a way to make it pay my bills.

 

There wasn’t a reason to get anxious. It was just a test. Just silly, randomly generated questions.

 

So when I was an hour into my two hour limit, I only had those two questions that I didn’t know the answer to. I was done. I didn’t want to dig and find the answers. I was confident I had gotten all of the other answers right. I only needed a 71% to pass. I was ok with not getting those two questions. I was ok with not being perfect. So I submitted the test, filled out a quick survey, and then had my results pop up on my screen.

 

Jennifer Conley, Congratulations you have passed the Maya 2015 Professional Certification with a 94%.

 

I couldn’t stop the smile on my face. And I know it was a childish, pure joy, type of smile. Almost a foolish smile. I just couldn’t help it. I felt so much self-validation. Everyone at the testing center congratulated me. Seth asked if he should play celebration music. I laughed and said no, that I was going to endure enough “I told you so”s to make up for it.

 

It wasn’t until I was halfway back to the interstate that I realized I had forgotten to actually pay for my exam. XD

 

Leave it to me to remember to pack my checkbook and then not use it…

 

It was too late for me to turn around, so I kept driving hoping that I would be able to fix the issue when I got home either by mailing a check or paying over the phone with my card. Something.

 

Before leaving I had texted my mom, Zane, and Clavan about the results, letting them know I had passed. My mom called me while I was driving home, so we chatted for a bit, which was nice. She had been at the doctor’s doing her own set of tests, unfortunately her results aren’t as instant. She has to wait for the docs to check over the scans, so it’s a bunch of hurry up and wait. She seems to be doing well. I wish I was closer to her to be more of an emotional support. I’m sure she could use some company.

 

I drove the rest of the way home listening to music and feeling pretty good, and yet at the same time sort of silly for having something pretty trivial mean anything at all to me.

 

I mean really… out of all of the things they could have asked me I simply lucked out that it was only two questions that I didn’t know. I could have had horrible luck and gotten more questions that I couldn’t answer, or answered wrong.

 

Maya is such a huge program. There’s no way to know everything for every situation. I still learn new things about it every lab. New hot keys, new short cuts, new work flows, new errors. There’s so many people out there who know so much more than me. And yet…

 

And yet, I now enough to be considered a professional. I know enough to hold my own. I know enough to hold my head a little bit higher, stand a little bit straighter, and to know that I have done something that none of my other co-workers have.

 

It makes me have pride in myself. I went through with something that I have wanted for literally years. I found out all of the information for the exam. I worked through the booklets. I found the testing center, and I took the test. I didn’t give up when it took over a month to figure out where to take the F’ing exam. I didn’t back out when I had to drive two hours to a place I had never been to take a test I might fail.

 

I didn’t back down. And I think that’s what I’m proud of the most. That I didn’t shrink away.

 

Zane asked what I wanted to do to celebrate while we were texting before I started driving back home. I honestly hadn’t thought that far. I hadn’t let myself think past the test. There was only the test. There was never results. There was never passing. Maybe failing… but never passing. There was just going there and taking the exam.

 

The end.

 

But there’s always something after the happily ever after. And here I was, in the after part.

 

What did I want to do?

 

I said that I didn’t know but that I would think about it on the way home. And I did.

 

I want to dye my hair again. It’s been over a year since I shaved my head. It has grown back to the point that I can pull it back into a small bun or a ponytail. It’s starting to hang down in curls again. It brushes the tops of my shoulders.

 

I want to dye it purple again. I want to go back to what I feel is normal for me. I think that will be the most amazing thing to mark this accomplishment. A year ago I made a commitment to myself. To better myself. To find myself and to be true to that self. And this past Friday I reaffirmed something that I knew. That I am good enough. That I am awesome, and that I am my own person. I feel like I’ve earned the right to dye my hair again.

 

I don’t know if I can explain it more than that at the moment. But I do feel like it is something that I have earned. I feel like this is the right thing to do, and that it isn’t some random “because it’s cool” thing. It means something to me. It’s a rite of passage in a way.

 

It won’t be able to happen until this coming weekend, but it will be my reward. It will be amazing, and I can’t wait to smell the Manic Panic dye again. It will most likely be an emotional thing for me, but then again, what isn’t? #INFJissues

 

When I got home I did have an email form my contact congratulating me, but also mentioned that I forgot to pay and to message her back. I ended up giving them my card information and was able to take care of the issue. I apologized over and over again, because there were multiple emails, saying how I had not meant to leave without paying. It’s all water under the bridge now though. And really, it makes for a humorous story.

 

I kept plucking away at my email since I had several messages to take care of. I also made a post on Facefail about my certification giving a special thank you to my mom, Zane, and Clavan. I told them “Thank you for believing in me even when it’s hard for me to believe in myself.”

 

By then it was time to pick up Zane from work. I headed out and still got there with enough time to sit and wait for a little bit. Once he got to the car there was an amazing kiss hello. We decided to go to a different Best Buy for the PS4 to avoid traffic.

 

Zane was super stoked for it. There was actually an amazing deal on the PS4 where he ended up getting two games free, one of them being Fallout 4. Because of that he bought me God of War 3, the remastered PS4 version, since he had budgeted money to go towards the Fallout game. I haven’t had a chance to play it yet, but I’m looking forward to when I can. I love the God of War series. Some much win.

 

We decided to go to my sports bar for celebration dinner where I ended up having a draft of Angry Orchard. Good food, and it wasn’t super busy yet since it was so early en the evening. Towards the end of dinner we were both ready to be home. Zane drove since I was still fuzzy from the drink.

 

When we got home I had another apple cider, and went to sleep shortly after, leaving Zane to enjoy his new relationship with the PS4. Though I really can’t blame him. It’s super sexy.

 

Saturday

Friday was a super full day, and Saturday was along the same vein.

 

It started with making breakfast. Not sure if I ever mentioned it or not, but one of the things Zane bought while we were at the produce store was quail eggs. Since they had been in the fridge for a while I used those for breakfast. The eggs are so small compared to normal chicken eggs. They’re cute.

 

There’s not much of a difference in taste, so I don’t think we’re going to go out of our way to buy them again unless we’re doing something that specifically calls for them.

 

Anyway, breakfast was awesome. Zane and I ended up going to the Verizon store to look into setting up a new account, which took about an hour and a half. I had to play around with the new iPhone since the design is different. I actually really like the size of the iPhone 4. I’m not into having a giant screen. I just want to be able to check my email, and text. Making phone calls, maybe… Only if I really, really, like the person though… I don’t need a 64 gig Swiss Army computer in my pocket…

 

I also looked at an iPad since I was there. Frank lets me play on his every once in a while and OmniFocus works on it. It would sort of replace my notebook, but I’m not sure I’m ok with that. So I don’t think I actually want to get one. It was nice to poke at it for a bit.

 

Turns out I wasn’t able to open an account right away due to the $90 charge that ERS keeps bothering me about. I went ahead and paid that. I’m happy that I paid through Verizon itself though rather than through ERC. It feels more official that way, and with all of the negative content I found for ERC I don’t think I would have ever been comfortable working with them.

 

So, with all of that squared away we should have been green-lit to get the new phones and set up the account. For some reason it wasn’t letting us do a monthly payment plan. The associate we were working with spent a lot of time talking to various people and various departments trying to figure out why in one system we were approved, but on his system we weren’t.

 

Come to find out it was because of the charge. Because it had defaulted the system thought Zane and I wouldn’t make timely payments. The associate said that he could fill out a form to request an override from his district manager (or someone like that) and that he would let us know when it was approved.

 

I asked what would happen if it was denied, because you know, I can never accept that something is going to work out to a positive conclusion.

 

He said that if it was denied we would have to pay more for the phones up front, but that would make the monthly payments less.

 

Since we couldn’t do anything until we knew about the approval, which since it was Saturday could take a few days, Zane and I left to go to Travel Country to see about exchanging my running shoes. We thanked the associate for his time and away we went.

 

I was so nervous about the exchange, but it was one of the most amazingly fantastic experiences I have had as far as returning an item. I walked in and was greeted warmly, which is normal for the store. Their sales team is always super friendly.

 

I sheepishly said that I sort of needed to see a manager. One of the girls who was at the counter said she could help me, so I explained that I had bought the shoes last weekend, and had even worn them around the store, and that they had felt fine at the time, but when I got to the gym and tried running on the indoor track that they were too loose and that my feet kept slipping inside of the shoe.

 

I didn’t have the box the shoes came in or the receipt since Trevor had taken the trash out. I said that I had called and talked to someone during the week and they said to come talk to a manager since it would be up to them to approve the exchange.

 

The manager was so nice. She said that as long as it was within the return time frame (30 or 60 days, she couldn’t remember which) that the store would take the merchandise back, no problem. She brought down two different sizes for me to try on, but the first pair worked great. It feels like my feet are being hugged. Not too loose and not too tight. It’s the first pair of Vibrams I’ve owned that cover the entire top of my foot. I really do like the style so far, and I especially love them since they fit properly now.

 

To make it even better, the shoes were on sale so they credited my account back $25 from what I paid when I first got the shoes. I absolutely love this store because every time I go there it is a fantastic experience. I had been worried that I would be stuck with a pair of $170 shoes that I couldn’t use. Instead I got the perfect pair for cheaper. I was so excited to try them out. I couldn’t wait to get to the gym.

 

Zane and I went home. I had an apple with some peanut butter, changed, then took the car to the gym since I still didn’t have the bike. I ran the track doing minute intervals. It’s the most I’ve run in a while. I had muscle soreness but my shines seem to be fine. I also did two sets on the upper body machines, which totaled out to 4200 pounds.

 

I felt like I could go for more, but I’m pretty sure that was my runners high, and I didn’t want to risk pushing too hard, which I’ve done a lot of in the past. So I stopped at two. Next time if I can make it through three then I’ll up my weights.

 

I came home and showered. When I looked at my phone I saw that I had a message from the Verizon guy. We were denied for the payment plan. I got a bit more information from him and thanked him for his time. I let him know that once Zane and I figured out what we wanted to do that we would call him back. I’ve thought of a few more questions to ask him, but we’re not going to do anything with the phones until Friday, so that’s on the back burner for the moment. And I’m totally ok with that.

 

Zane had another session for his Pathfinder game that evening, so he left shortly after we talked about the phones. I napped while he was gone. He was supposed to be home around 8, so when I woke up at 7:40 because my roommates were being super loud I didn’t think I would have to suffer for long. Zane would be home and I could go to school and work on podcasts, or we could be irresponsible and go out for dinner, or something. Bottom line, we would be able to get away from the noise.

 

At 10:30 I still hadn’t heard from Zane. He hasn’t responded to my messages. I didn’t know what to think or do. I didn’t have the bike, and even if I did I still didn’t have a new head light for it, so riding at night was going to suck hardcore.

 

It got to the point where I couldn’t stay in the apartment anymore. It felt suffocating. I needed to get out. I needed to breathe, to think. I needed to be away.

 

So I started walking to school. If nothing else I could get the bike and ride it home. Hopefully with it being so late it would be easier since there wouldn’t be as much traffic.

 

I was also sort of angry. Zane and I had talked about how things would be once he was mobile. I told him that I didn’t really mind or care what he did, but that since we’re sort of a unit, looking out for each other, it would be nice to know a basic idea of where he was or if he wasn’t going to be home so I would know not to worry.

 

This sort of felt like a breech of that. He had said he would be home around 8 because that’s when the place they were holding the game closed. He said when he got home we could try the chia tea shisha that he had ordered. But after two and a half hours I still hadn’t heard from him.

 

I felt like that was inconsiderate, and instead of letting myself stay at the apartment stewing in an environment that was already frustrating I decided to go outside and walk instead.

 

About halfway to school I saw a text from Zane on my phone while I was skipping through my music asking where I was. I replied that I was walking to school and said what street I was on.

 

A little while later he pulled up next to me, opening the door for me to get in.

 

I was nervous. I didn’t know if he would be mad. I was still sort of unsettled because of the lack of communication, and feeling trapped at the apartment. It’s not like I could have been angry at my roommates. Well… I mean… I could have been, but realistically it was 8pm on a Saturday night.

 

What am I going to do? Rain on their parade? It’s not their fault my past two days have been fairly busy and that what I really need is absolute silence. It’s not fair to them to say they can’t use the living room, a communal area, for social gathering and enjoying the weekend. I felt the better solution was to remove myself since I was the one with the issue. And while I was sort of frustrated with the lack of communication, I super, seriously did NOT want to mess up Zane’s night.

 

Zane explained that the place hadn’t had wifi, and since his phone still doesn’t have service he hadn’t been able to send or receive messages. He said he had stayed afterwards to chat with Hana in the parking lot. I said that Trevor, Danielle, and John had woken me up by watching stuff in the living room and then John had started playing his music super loud and that I needed to get away. I said I had been going to the school to get the bike.

 

Zane drove me there. When we parked the car he got out and hugged me. He had asked first and I said that I might cry. He said that was ok and hugged me anyway. I didn’t cry, but we did hug for an extended period of time. Eventually the tension I was feeling melted away, leaving me tired again. Biking home wasn’t going to happen, but we did check to make sure the bike was still there. I lock it up pretty well, but I didn’t like how it had been left all by itself for so long. I don’t want it to develop abandonment issues.

 

It was still there, with all of its pieces. So that was nice. I guess I really should figure out a name for it. Because I’m weird like that. I also feel sort of guilty that I think of the bike as “my bike”. It’s a lot like this image… Mine, rawr.

 

 

Zane and I ended up going to the McDonald’s on campus since their lobby is open 24/7. Neither of us wanted to be at the apartment with everyone being social. We chatted more about his Pathfinder game. We talked more about Hana, the server from the sushi place. I explained my feelings of third-wheely-ness.

 

It was a good conversation. We ended up sitting outside on the sidewalk in front of the building for a bit, still chatting where we had a bit of a spat. Zane had said something about how I was only going to vote for Bernie Sanders because he had told me to…

 

*digs heels into ground*

 

Hold up. I do not do things simply because I am told to. And that is actually not why I plan to vote for Bernie. It was a lot like his comment about how I didn’t care about the PS4. It was an invalid statement about my feelings, and it upset me.

 

I mentioned how it seemed that he was doing that a lot recently. How it feels like he keeps making assumptions about my feelings or actions, and that those assumptions makes the feelings I do have seem invalidated, which is where the angry and upsetted-ness comes from.

 

It was a situation which could have turned into a huge fight that messed up the night, but I think we actually recovered from it, both of us understanding the other’s perspectives a bit clearer, and both of us agreeing that instead of assuming things, we’ll start asking for clarification instead.

 

When we got home everyone was in their rooms. Well… John was trying to sleep on the couch, which was lame because that meant Zane couldn’t play on the PS4. We ended up chilling in the bedroom for a bit, trying out the chia tea shisha like we were supposed to. I like it, but I think it would taste better with a bit of mint, or maybe some extra vanilla in it.

 

John ended up going back to his room after about 30 minutes so Zane went to the living room to play Fallout 4. I stayed curled up in bed. I don’t remember hearing him turn on the TV that’s how fast I fell asleep.

 

Sunday

 

Man… I’m already at 10 pages and I still have all of today to get through. >.<;

 

I feel like I’ve been typing for hours. Today has been an amazing day though, and totally deserves to be written about. Zane came into the room around 7am. He had fallen asleep on the couch while playing his game, and he was sorry for that because he had said he would sleep in the room with me last night. I wasn’t bothered by it though. I had slept solid the whole night and was ok with that.

 

I ended up getting up and moving out to the couch myself. I was up, but not really ready to start the day. I guess I ended up falling back asleep because the next thing I knew Zane was waking me up around 9 saying that we needed to do the grocery shopping.

 

Um… shouldn’t we meal plan first?

 

So we figured out what we wanted for food this week. Sriracha chicken rice bowls, since that didn’t go according to plan last time, and leek soup with salads. We also still have burger for sandwiches.

 

We made the shopping list and figured out how the day was going to go. Since Zane hadn’t gotten much playtime in on the game yesterday I offered to do all of the shopping on my own. He let me take his card since it’s still his turn to do grocery. We had breakfast together, after which I showered, then headed out on my own.

 

I went across the street to the produce store again. I got everything we needed from there for $25. Awesome sauce. From there I went to the bike store to get the head light.

 

I actually was rung out by the same associate I had spoken to when I bought my helmet. He was super awesome once again. He took the light out and showed me how to attach it to the bike along with a few tips and tricks since it’s the same light that he uses on his bike. I also asked him a bit about attaching the bike rack to the bike, but he said without seeing everything he really couldn’t comment much.

 

I’m most likely going to get the bike tuned up in January, so I might look into it then.

 

Anyway, another really awesome experience there. I stopped at the bank to withdrawal $20 to put on the laundry card. Then I went to Publix for the rest of the items we needed. Another $20. So as far as grocery goes, we only spent $50ish.

 

I chatted with my mom for a bit on the way home. She had a bit of gossip to talk about. It was on the short side as far as our conversations go, but it was good to talk with her again. I told her about going out to dinner with Zane and how I was going to dye my hair again.

 

When I got home I showed Zane all of the loot I had gotten since he had felt like $25 wasn’t going to be enough. He was impressed. I spent the next while prepping all of our food for the week. I made a batch of egg mix for my breakfasts. I cut up the chicken and put that in the freezer. I cut up the onions, broccoli, boiled eggs, cut up lettuce, made salads. All sorts of stuff.

 

I cleaned out the fridge too. John’s bacon had mold on it, and there was a bag of lettuce mix that had spoiled and was super icky. No wonder things smelled off… Normally it would bother me to throw other people’s stuff away, but when it’s that spoiled I have no mercy. I spent so much time cleaning the kitchen during my week off, including scrubbing every inch of the fridge. I’ll be damned if I let other people mess that up.

 

Zane and I had the rest of the cheddar broccoli soup with toast and a bit of salad for lunch. It was super awesome. Filling but not super heavy.

 

Around three Zane and I got ready to head out. He was going to drop me off at school so I could bike to the gym, lift weights, then bike home. Good thing I checked the gym hours before leaving. The YMCA closes at 3pm on Sunday. Soooooo much laaaaaaame. Arg.

 

Well, I had to get the bike regardless, so Zane still dropped me off. Luckily the bike was still there. That would have sucked. We actually joked, saying if I wasn’t back at the apartment in 40 minutes that he would have to come pick me up because I wasn’t going to walk all the way home.

 

I actually made it to the apartment before Zane did since he stopped at Publix on his way back. Since we were so under budget he wanted to get snacky stuff for his lunches. Crackers and cookies. I’m ok with that. He set aside $100 for this week and we had only used half of it.

 

Since the bike was back home safe and sound I broke out the tools and started playing with stuff. I took off the front reflector since it was where I wanted to put the new head light. I played around with snapping the light on an off the mount. It charges via USB. I also tested out turning the light itself on and off and switching through the different light settings. I think it’s going to be awesome. I love it at the moment, but I haven’t ridden with it at night yet, so we’re still in the honeymoon phase.

 

I also ended up switching the seat on Zane’s bike with the one from Frank’s. It took me a little while, but I figured out how to do it, and rode around the apartment’s parking lot once. I had to adjust a few things, but on the second ride around everything felt great. And I felt super savvy for having taken care of it myself. Go me!

 

I showered once I was done showing off to Zane my handy work. I took the laundry down to be washed, but wasn’t able to dry it at the apartment. We only had $1.25 left on the card, and with the higher prices we now need $1.75 to use the dryer.

 

It’s actually to the point where it would be cheaper to do the clothes at the laundry mat. It will be something I mention to Zane later. Not tonight though.

 

While the clothes were in the wash I began working through my emails since I hadn’t done anything with them since Friday afternoon. I still had a fair amount to read by the time the wash was done. I packed up my backpack, kissed Zane goodbye, then took the wash to the laundry mat to dry. I finished going through my mail while I was there, even taking the time to write a pretty long email to Chrys since I had a message from her.

 

When I got home dinner had already been cooked. We had the last bit of steak with mashed potatoes and the green beans I had made earlier. Since then I have been back in the room writing.

 

Normally Sunday is game day, but Bobby originally wasn’t going to be able to make it due to family being in town, and John is hardcore sick, again. I also never got around to being able to make the new character sheets. So the game got canceled in favor of being normal hang out time. Bobby was able to come over after all, so he, Uke, and Zane have been having bro time out in the living room while I write.

 

I really ought to put the clothes away, but that’s not going to happen.

 

Zane and I also talked about rearranging the room tomorrow. I’m excited about that. But right now I’m tired. I’m not even going to worry about making a to-do list I don’t think.

 

I’m just going to finish writing this, do my pre-bed chores, and then go to sleep. I’m super tired, I’ve had an amazing weekend full of productivity, communication, and adventures.

 

Tomorrow I’m going to wake up, have breakfast, go to the gym, then go to work. Once I’m there I can figure out the rest of my day.