Janvier En Masse

I. Trip with Mom :

About two days before Mom arrived, Martin got hit with a flu-type of illness. He felt it coming and tried to load up on heat, fluids, medicine, and even soup (we don't have Cambell's here, so we have to makeshift our own and I didn't have the stuff for home-made chicken noodle.. So basically, soup consisted of vegetable bouillon stuff), but to no real avail and was sick for the entire trip. Wouldn't believe how many apologies I received before, during, and after her trip for basically being bed-ridden except for a few bursts of energy he had.

But, it worked out well because the point of the trip was for Mom to visit me, rather than a get-to-know-Martin kind of trip. Most of her visit consisted of talking, specifically about me being an adult and how to handle specific situations.

There was contention about the 'state' of the house here, and I discovered that under no circumstances will I allow Tom to come stay here. I still buckle under parental pressure, which thankfully both Martin and Mom attempted to stop me from doing, but I know Tom would relish in it. I would find myself agreeing to whatever he said was best for me and wouldn't be able to have a voice of my own. Guess some of my emotional scarring hasn't faded, but at least I'm reassured with the idea that it's fairly normal for kids growing up to buckle. I guess I just don't trust Tom to push me to be a person rather than a robot.

It was really good to see her again, and it's actually kinda made me miss the rest of the family even more. I really appreciate the support both Mom and Carl have given me in becoming a real person, and regardless of familial drama and differences of opinion, I cherish the nurturing parenting they've both given me. I honestly can't wait to go visit and see that stupid impish grin creep over Carl's face as he makes a (usually) bad joke at my expense.

The stuff we did while she was here was more or less inconsequential, partially due to funds, partially due to Martin being sick, but mostly due to my wanting to just take it easy and be relaxed while I saw my mother for the first time in years. I'm sure if anyone were curious, she would be happy to talk about the stuff we did, but it really wasn't the highlight of the trip for me.

II. Post-Mom

After she left, I caught Martin's flu. Basically got bed-ridden (more or less, I hate staying in bed all day, much to M's chagrin) for two weeks, which stuck my job application stuff on hold. As a result, I probably won't be hearing anything from anyone until late February at best, since school terms just started and they're not exactly looking for anyone to fill any teaching slots just yet. Not much to say about this, really, just 2 weeks of misery that put things on hold. Kinda pissed me off.

III. Lorraine's Wedding

Odile and François made the trip back about a week and a half ago to attend their niece's (Martin's cousin's) wedding. Thomas, Martin's brother, was supposed to attend, but hurt his leg and couldn't get on the train for a few days. They "hinted" that I should go, but I refused on fairly legitimate grounds. It was Lorraine's wedding day, it was not a "meet and greet the American immigrant". I wanted no attention on me on someone else's wedding day, it just didn't feel right. So I spent the day alone, which is when I worked on my resume, and sent a couple out (I plan to send more, but getting to that). Not much to say here, aside from hurray for Lorraine? xD (Having never met her.. yeah.)

IV. Post-Wedding

After the wedding, it was a fairly typical "Odile and François are here" week. Arly and Taran "mentioned" Diablo II, and the next day, Martin was all over it. I was actually fairly surprised, since the last time we'd talked about it, he wasn't all that interested. Yes, it's pirated (Kinda.. Martin has purchased the game twice, but we'll be damned if we know where the boxes are). No, we can't play on B.net, don't even ask. However, we can host games from Martin's computer, and we've helped Arly set it up so he can host. Since we currently can't afford either of our MMO vices, this is what we've been doing the last week when not playing Rockband (which we could only do once.. But again.. Getting to that).

On a less-happy note, Mistee and her "family" can no longer afford internet, so she is "stealing" wireless from her Aunt's work when she's able to. Next time she can will be Thursday/Friday, so I expect those will be late nights for me, as she's apparently going insane with only being able to talk to Dwayne and her Aunt.

Yesterday, Thomas came to stay the night, which is the night we played Rockband. Thomas kept saying (in French) "this is so cool!" as he kept failing out on the guitar. It was fairly comical, but amusingly.. We did not actually "fail out" of a song, so he did better than Mom. *hides*

V. February

And then today, everyone left. So now my life gets to start again! Yay! It's been a fairly weird month, and between visits and being sick, I felt like I've spent the month doing practically nothing. It was busy, but not necessarily productive. Aside from discussing in depth with Martin's parents about dropping the apartment. We're waiting on locating the original contract for the apartment to know when we can declare that we're moving out, but frog-leap trips to Renens are on the menu for February, to clean and pack shit. We can't both go because someone has to stay and take care of Aglaé, but that's okay. While one is in Renens, the other will be working on organizing all of our shit in the bedroom downstairs, along with bringing stuff upstairs to place in other rooms. So either way, we'll both be working. And to be perfectly honest, I'm almost glad we're doing it this way. There are a lot of Martin's memories, and I don't want to influence him into getting rid of something important to him which looks like junk to me. This arrangement will let me take care of what I'm comfortable taking care of, and let him handle his stuff.

Aside from that, I'll be looking more in-depth into sending my resume out to the private schools in this canton. Along with spending time (2-3 hours a day) in front of Rosetta's Stone. If by the 15th I'm not happy with my "forming sentences" progress, I'll be attending the course at the UP for level 5 French.

And that... Was January.