Camping, My Old House, Starting All Over Again

The camping trip was interesting, that’s for sure.  Steve came to pick me up on Monday morning and I was a bit unsure how we would get along, after all, he was my ex.  And we haven’t seen each other since we broke up, so I wasn’t really sure how we would get along.  We get along fine when we talk to each other online, so I was hoping that we’d be okay in person as well. I woke up really, really early that morning, I think I got up at 6 am and couldn’t go back to sleep for a couple more hours because my head was just continually spinning with what would happen, how we would get along, and I hadn’t been out camping in ages, so I was a bit unsure how it would be. The week before we were supposed to be camping but because of the weather we changed it to the next week and we booked it for that week instead.

So I got ready, finished up with my packing, and waited for Steve to get to my place so that we could pack up his car with my stuff, and go grocery shopping for food for the next four days, and so when he got here, we kind of didn’t say too much to each other, except on what to do in packing up his car with my items, bags and stuff that we needed for camping.  He started to pack it all up, and thought it’d be fine…so we got settled and headed off to Walmart and then shopped around there for items we needed for groceries and food for the week.  We gathered up all the items we needed, and then went to pay for it.

Then we were on our way.  It was a nice Monday afternoon when we left to go on our way to Sharbot Lake…very nice.  The roads to the campgrounds were a bit rough, but that was to be expected, and once we got to our campground, I was amazed to see that the trail leading to our campsite was quite…steep?  I was like, I’m not going down there! *laughs*  I could see myself falling down it…it was steep and had very little steps to go down.  Wow.  So Steve loaded me up with bags and items, and I took my time trying to get down the huge hill, and near the bottom I actually fell and started sliding down the hill.  Ouch!!  I stopped and realized that I had scraped up my arm and hand going down the hill.  That really did hurt. :S  It was just so steep and because I hadn’t been down the hill before I didn’t know where to put my feet down on, and I just ended up stumbling and then sliding down. *laughs*  Owwww.  After my fall, Steve made me stay down at the campsite and he’d get the rest of the stuff. *laughs*  I slowly began to learn how to maneuver the hill after that fall, and started to be more cautious and careful when I went down the hill…going up wasn’t too bad, it was the going down that I had some trouble with. *laughs*  And the craziest thing was, there were two hills I had to worry about…the one from the car and outhouse to the campsite, and the second one to the lake.  I was like, really?  There’s hills both ways?  Grrr. *laughs*

So when we arrived, we were hearing that it was supposed to rain sometime in the afternoon/ evening so Steve worked on setting up the tent so to have it ready for when it rained and so on, and then when it was done, we then started putting stuff away and since the weather was cooperating, we decided to check out the area, the water and the such like…I checked out the water and it felt quite nice actually. *laughs*  So after a bit, Steve was like, okay, I’m getting hungry so we started putting supper on, we had steaks and started BBQing on the firepit, so that was interesting.  He brought his BBQ as he wasn’t sure if there was a grill over the firepit of any kind so…he has camped there a few times but couldn’t remember if there was anywhere where we could BBQ food over.  But there was a removable grill that you could move over the fire when you wanted to make food, and remove it when you wanted the pit for just the fire.  We had the steaks and some pasta salad that I had made up for the week, and then mellowed out.  It was good, though very, very filling.

After supper we were talking and checking out more of the area, him showing me different areas of the campsites around our campsite. *smile*  He normally doesn’t drink since I have known him and when we were shopping for food and stuff he said he wanted to pick up some booze for himself and I was surprised that he did, as I didn’t know he drank at all. *laughs*  I told him to go ahead and do that…so okay then. *smile*  He opened up one bottle of booze to have in front of the fire and was all relaxed…it was funny to see actually.  He just had one bottle that night.  I then decided to put a dare on him, as I had been told by a lot of people online that I should go skinny dipping when I camped and I was like, pfft, that’s not even happening as I had figured it was a public campground…and I decided to just dare him to try it.  The campsite we were at was pretty private anyway, and it was late then and pretty dark out, and no one, if there was anybody, would be able to see him, so he said he would go for it just for the hell of it and he did…it was hilarious actually.  I wasn’t sure if he would, but he did, and it was hilarious, it was also really cold in the water and out of it too, so it was like, eek! I hadn’t really gone swimming yet in that lake, so I wasn’t sure what the water was like. *laughs*  It was really interesting with the temperatures of the water and the night air, the water was almost warm and cold at the same time so it was kind of cool. *smile* We crashed pretty early that night, as it was so dark to even do anything or see each other to talk.  I’m deaf so I need light to be able to talk, and see the other person talk. :/  So that wasn’t much fun…we were sitting around the firepit a bit beforehand so it was good, with him just keeping warm with the fire after the dip in the water.

The next day we both got up, did some swimming and Steve was doing some chasing of little frogs that were hopping around on the shore of our beach, and kept capturing them and showing them to me.  He seemed like a little kid chasing after them and capturing them…it was definitely strange. *laughs*  I had breakfast, relaxed, and then went for a bit of a swim, and Steve got his inflatable canoe set up so we then went for a canoe ride…but the strangest thing with the ride – we kept going in circles!!!! *laughs*  Steve and I had brought our cameras and his camcorder, and I sat up in front because then that meant I didn’t have to steer…and Steve was doing no steering so we kept going in circles, which was ridiculous… *L* So we were just fooling around with the cameras and things like that, and I later told him after we came back that normally the person who paddled in the back of the canoe was the one who steered the canoe, and he was like, oh, really?  When I heard that I knew it was all his fault. *laughs*  Hilarious though…we were just floating around the lake and checking out the scenery and just enjoying the sun.  Though the fact that the canoe kept going in circles was kind of making me feel a bit seasick. *laughs*

We also noticed that there were chipmunks always coming around saying hi to us when we were sitting around the campsite and all that, they would just come up and stand up, see if we had anything on us and we would be breaking bread and giving them scraps of bread and they started coming back and forth hoarding all the bread that we gave them…they were adorable! *laughs*  I have never seen chipmunks be that friendly before… *laughs*

Whenever we would swim, there was this one higher up rock on one area of the lake, and if one of us sat around there, we could see all those little fishes follow our feet and hang out around us… it was so weird. The water was so clear that we could see the fishes swimming near us. Heh...it was pretty funny too. *smile*

Later that afternoon Steve wanted to take me to a hiking trail by Sharbot Lake that he knew about and used to go to a lot when he was younger, and wanted to take me there to check it out…the lake we were on was called Black Lake, not necessarily Sharbot Lake, it was on the other side of the land we were on. Heh…so we went driving to the hiking trail, and then went for a walk there.  It was an interesting trail… very hilly, but lots to look at, take pictures, and things to check out, so it was pretty fun.  It was hard work going up and down the hills though, I was getting tired by the end of the two hour hike through the trails. Steve said it was hard work for him as well, and he’s more active than I am!  *laughs*  Good thing I didn’t get to bump into a lot of people there, because I would probably have slowed them right down. haha…Funny though.  There were a lot of nature to check out, a lot of oddities out there and it was fun to check out… *smile*  Everything was just gorgeous where we went walking so it was pretty refreshing.  There was a lot of stopping and going, a lot of photos taken so it was a lot of fun.  I know I definitely did want to sit down a few times in the hike, because it was exhausting. *laughs*  It was hilarious.

We got through the hike and the last bit took a lot out of me, when we first came to the hiking trail, it was downhill so it was easy enough…then when we had to return to the car, it was very steep uphill that we had to climb up and it was like the last grunt up there…wow.  We both were exhausted by the time we got to the car…and just went, whew!!!  *laughs*  Funny though.  There was just too much hills everywhere in that area, which was crazy!  Haha…we then returned to our campsite, and we then had supper, mellowed out and relaxed…it was nice. There were the chipmunks again running around looking for food, and we were playing around with the cameras for fun, and then Steve went to sleep a bit because he was so tired and he wasn’t feeling so great after all day out and active…I think it was like 9 pm when he went to sleep. *laughs*  We talked, and I went to sleep close to around the same time as he did too, because I can’t really sit up in the dark by myself and do nothing…I couldn’t even see or anything like that, so it was a little freaky…though at one point I had to go to the bathroom to the outhouse at like 1 or 2 in the morning…and oh my God, that was so hard to do… *laughs*  It was pitch black everywhere and I did bring a flashlight, but that famous hill I had to get up, while really needing to go to the bathroom was so hard, and finally I got to the outhouse and used it, and then I had to come back, but I was still half asleep so I sort of flew down the hill and crashing into that white tree in the bottom of the hill…that stunned me awake and I regained my balance and got to the tent okay…it was insane!  Thankfully I was able to go to sleep…I just had sore hands from using it to catch the white tree to keep my balance with me so that I didn’t fall face first down the hill. *laughs*  It certainly got me awake…once I got into my sleeping bag again, I finally relaxed into a slumber and fell right to sleep.  Thank God, I didn’t think I would be able to after all that adrenaline going down that hill that I hated so much. Heh…

The next day was a relaxing day actually so it was a good day. *smile*  I ended up waking up, wondering where Steve was as he was not at the campsite then found him down at the water shore just sitting out and enjoying the view of the water.  So I decided to get changed into my bathing suit and get washed up down there in the lake, just getting my hair and everything else cleaned up, and then I ended up just staying in the water and going for swims and the such like… *laughs*  It was a hot day again, and all I wanted to do was just stay in the water. *L*  We ate at the campsite, some breakfast, and went back to the lake and enjoyed the water and just chatted it up, as Steve was feeling better that day and he was all mellow out.  I was just enthusiastic to go swimming so I just swam and swam…But the funny thing about that day was, we had been hanging out by the shore all day that we actually, dumb us, forgot to put on some sunscreen and we got nicely burnt that day…we didn’t think of it until we noticed the other person getting badly burnt. *laughs*  Ouch…we both started hurting bad from the burn. *laughs*  The other days we’ve been fine, we’ve put on some sunscreen but that day we both just forgot.  We hadn’t really been planning on staying out there all day and we ended up doing just that…it was relaxing and it was beautiful out there, so oh well…haha…Hilarious.  I even took a long swim so it was pretty good… Steve did the same so it was pretty fun.  While we were swimming, a canoe came towards our campsite shore, and they were people that was using the same shore as we were, only they were using a different campsite…so Steve was talking to the couple a bit, telling them about the campgrounds and what they can do around there, as they were kind of new in the Sharbot Lake campgrounds, so he was giving them ideas of what they could do. *smile*  They were pretty nice, and they had a German Shepard that was jumping all around the water so it was a little funny to see.  I was just keeping busy swimming out in the water while Steve was talking to the guy there and so on.  He had to let them know that I was deaf, so oops.  They did try to talk to me while they were canoeing in to shore, but I couldn’t hear or understand them, so that was a little funny. Heh…

Finally later, we had to think of supper so we trudged back up to the firepit and made some hot dogs and the such like and started eating them and relaxing, and it was another relaxing night, just talking and being silly and doing stuff at the campsite.  Another night at the firepit… we later said that we should have brought some marshmallows with us, as we had actually forgotten to get some… I always have marshmallows with me whenever I camp or go someplace where there is a fire. hehe…Funny though.  Oh well, no such luck. haha…

We were doing a bit of talking about us, I was trying to get him to talk about us, but he didn’t want to talk about us, and things that were heavy, because it was his holiday and that we could talk about it after we came back…I thought it was a little weird, but had to accept that and just treat it like a holiday and not talk about us at all.  So we just had fun and enjoyed the whole camping trip instead so it was quite different…I hadn’t camped in years so this was a great refresher for me, and I really enjoyed myself.  Heh…

We started packing up some items that evening and when we got up in the morning we tried to get up a bit earlier so we could enjoy the campsite a bit more and just have fun just hanging out and checking out the view, it was nice there so it was pretty relaxing.  We started putting things away, cleaning up that morning and just sitting around, eating, cleaning and packing up, and talking…. so it was pretty nice. *smile*  By that morning we both were badly burnt so we really didn’t want to be half naked in our bathing suits again to go swimming…haha…we were talking a bit and I was telling him I wanted to go by my old place where I grew up at, as it was on the way back to Kingston, and he was like, sure, why not…I told him I really was from the country and he was like, yeah, I get that….okay.  *laughs*  So when we left, we took a detour to go by my old house from Harrowsmith, and then drove by my old house.  I was shocked at how different the house itself looked like, and was pointing out different areas where I used to go in, hang out, play around in, the little woods across the road from my old house and so on, so on… it’s in the middle of nowhere pretty much.  I was shocked to see how different my property looked. *laughs*  It looked a lot better than the last time I went by there, and it was really cleaned up but it just looked so different now than it did before so it was hilarious.  It’s really nice now, more of a country type of house with bigger sheds or farm houses I guess, beside the house, and the house now shared the property with the next door’s house for the horses, so that was cool. *smile*  It just looked so different…I just remember my place having a huge field out back that I used to go running out in when I was a kid, and the woods out in front that I used to go with my brother and my pet dogs. *L* The woods are still there, but the field was a different layout this time around. *L*  It was a different sight…the house was really cleaned up and looked so different. *L*  I then went driving down the road I used to know a bunch of families live in and I was shocked at how many houses had changed and had cleaned up, so it was cool…only one was falling apart, but the rest was like, wow. *smile*  A definite change.  So it was fun telling Steve about different places, and different people I used to know on the street and telling him stories…I could detect some jealousy there. *laughs*  When I was a kid, it was just home where I did a lot of playing around in.  I do prefer being out in the country than the city…even though people tell me I’m more of a city girl and not a country girl…so okay, if that’s what they think, fine then. *smile*  But it was fun to check it all out. Heh.

When I got home I was like, oh my God…home…all the luxuries of home, electricity, lights!!! Baths…. *laughs*  When I got home I had a nice long bath while Steve was driving back home to Brockville, and it was holy crap, heaven. *laughs*  I was like, oh my God…I feel so clean again. *laughs*  Then I mellowed out with my cat, who was angry that I was gone for four days… *laughs* Watched some TV, relaxed and just felt really good after a few days of camping…it was a lot of fun. 

And then one day on Saturday night soon after we got back from camping, I think, after a few days of me and Steve talking to each other online and all that about us…we kind of started thinking of seeing each other again.  Steve still has around two months left of getting his life back together, and his financial status back to being out of debt, instead of always being in the black.  But we did get along very well at the camping trip, and we did click very well, and it was easy for us to talk to each other and the chemistry was still there, so…we decided to try again and he came to visit again after he went to his friend’s karaoke thing in Smiths Falls and he stopped by on Friday or Saturday night, and we started talking, and it seems like we are trying again now. We do get along really well so oh well.  What can I do?  *laughs*  So we’re taking it all very slow and trying again.  Just have to see how it turns out this time around.

The past week I’ve been working on the camping photos, and I have gotten a lot of it up in the pictures page here, and Steve even got a video done and set up from the camping trip, so it’s pretty cool.  It’s in this link: 


Sharbot Lake Camping 2011 (HD) from Steve Savage on Vimeo.

I think I look a little weird in some shots, but it’s pretty fun it seems. *smile*

I had to take some photos of my brother and his fiancee, as they were due soon with their baby, so I had to take photos of them pregnant, so…they came down last Saturday and it was gorgeous that day, though so humid…I’m so tired of the humidity.  Yikes!!  *laughs*  Oh well…so we went out to the waterfront to take photos and I wasn’t sure how or what they wanted me to have them to do, what poses they wanted to do, so it was interesting trying out different ones, and I was surprised at how many turned out to be…a lot of them turned out well…so it was interesting…I still have to see what Jase and Kelly did pick out to use for themselves and to post online for themselves.  So it was interesting. *smile* I was really tired by the end of the two hour photo shoot. Heh…I ended up taking like 70 photos and I gave them 40 to look at and appreciate…a lot of the photos turned out really well, surprisingly enough. *laughs*  They seemed to like it but I’ll find out what they like and don’t like eventually.  I just sent them the photos this afternoon so oh well. *smile*

After the photo shoot we all went down to my mom’s place for dinner, so it was nice…we all were exhausted from being out in the sun all afternoon so just sitting around and relaxing and eating supper down there was pretty good. *smile*  I didn’t have to do anything so it was good. Haha…Funny.  It was nice, and Kelly was talking about how people at her work and her family were saying that she was likely to give birth soon, because of how her stomach has dropped considerably and my mom was surprised at how much it had dropped and said she was going to be due very soon, with how much her stomach has dropped. *laughs*  It’ll be interesting to see when she has her baby.  She’s supposed to be due in the end of September, but I have no idea when she will actually have the baby, so it’ll be interesting to see, for sure. *smile*  All wait and see.  Hehe…

The Baby Shower and the Upcoming Camping Trip

It’s been interesting lately, that’s for sure. *smile*  After the potluck party in Ottawa, I kept busy during the week doing stuff around the house and I also was surprised a while back talking to my ex Steve, he was worrying about money for a cross-country trip he wanted to take and I asked him where he was going, and I would help him out if he was going out west so that I could meet a friend out there…just to see.

And we got talking, and he was going out east, not west, and we were talking about it…I had not been out east before and was intrigued by the idea of going there. *smile*  And well, we started talking…he then decided not to go out east and stay here in Ontario and camp here instead, as he was really low on money and didn’t want to take all of my money…*laughs*  So I was fine with that.

Since we were talking a while, I figured that we could take a bit and talk things out between us in person.  So we decided on going to Sharbot Lake and camp there for a few days and enjoy the nature and talk stuff out, and just enjoy ourselves, platonically, and so on.

There has been so much stuff going on…my brother and Kelly had a baby shower last weekend at one of my brother’s old friend’s parents house, and it was pretty nice, though really hot with all the sun glaring on us.  Wow.  When I first got there, I met up with Brenda and Ken and their son Brandon…I hadn’t seen them in a really long time so I started talking with them.  Brenda and Ken were a couple that I knew from high school and was best friends with my brother.  Ken was a grade above me and Brenda was a grade under me, so I know them quite well. *smile*  I also got introduced to Brandon, who I had last seen as a little baby, so he was a lot bigger than I had last seen him.  It was pretty cool actually.  Then more and more people started arriving, some family members, some of their friends, and Jase had to go out and pick up of his buddies who didn’t have a car…*laughs*  He even went out and picked up one of his old friends from London, Zofie, from Toronto, which was crazy.  Haha…she and her boyfriend were there and just talking to everybody.  I talked a bit with the owners of the house, they were exactly the same as always, I remember meeting them quite a bit when my brother used to go over to visit his best friend Matt, who was unable to make the shower because of work.  His parents, Lynda and Pat did a bit of talking, and I even got to see Matt’s son, TJ, who was pretty cute.  The mother of TJ, Karen, was there as well.  I used to know her from school as well. *laughs*  It was a bit of a small world there.  Kelly’s friend Eve was there as well, and she was the one who threw the shower with the help of Kelly’s mom.  There were a few different people around so it was good talking to them and catching up and getting to know them.

I even went for a swim at one point because it was so hot, and swam a bit with Brenda and her son Brandon…more and more people started joining us, and I was cooled off enough and got out.  Kelly actually went swimming for the first time.  She was still a bit self-conscious about how she looked with her being pregnant, but she looked just fine. *laughs*  Everyone had to tell her that!  Haha…Crazy.  We did some swimming, and then when everyone got out, and everyone made Kelly sit down and open up gifts with Jason.

They then went through all the gifts, and ate supper from the BBQ, and talked, so it was good, then when it was over, everyone started leaving.  The shower was for 2 to 5, and I think most people finally started leaving after 7 which was a little crazy. Haha…I imagine the hosts of the party were exhausted…the shower was good in the way I was able to catch up with old friends and see what was new, so it was pretty nice. *smile*  I was really tired after the shower though, after being in the sun all afternoon so it was crazy. *laughs*

After the shower, that night, I met up with a guy that I had been talking to a little while, Shawn, and we just sat around and hung out and talked a bit…it was interesting, actually.  He was a nice guy.  Then the next day I continued with all the packing and getting ready for the cottage that I was leaving for on Tuesday morning…I was just so exhausted. Haha… Got everything I needed packed up and then Tuesday morning I got up and made sure with Steve that everything was all set, and realized in the emails that he wanted to postpone it because of the weather and I was a bit dumbfounded, as it was okay back here, it wasn’t raining yet or anything…then a couple of hours later it started pouring. *laughs*  It rained, and rained, and rained…I was glad that we did decide to postpone it because of that day…I can’t imagine having to get there, and dealing with the rain and setting up the tents. Haha…So we postponed the trip to next Monday for the week.  So I’m staying in town for the next week and trying to relax. *smile*  The same day I was supposed to leave for Sharbot Lake, my mom asked if I wanted to go out to the store to pick up things, food and the such like.  So I went out for a couple of hours to Canadian Tire to get items I needed (such as an air mattress) and things my mom needed, so it was a good outing.  By the end of the day I was so tired…and now I get to relax the rest of the week, so I’m looking forward to that.  Heh…then going to go camping next week.  I am kind of eager to see how that turns out…it’s been a while since I have last camped.  I would think that the last time I actually slept in a tent was probably when I used to go to my best friend’s family island and we used to sleep in tents then…it was a lot of fun though. *smile*  Hehe… but that was in high school.  Wow.  Since then I have enjoyed the outdoors in cottages and the such like, so I haven’t actually done the whole camping part in ages, so it’ll be interesting. *smile*  I’ll get my memory refreshed.  Hehe….

Hm, I think that’s all. *smile*

Insane Relatives, a Potluck BBQ, and Friends

It has been a stupendously busy little while lately!!  Holy crap.  At least for the previous weekend…that was a great, great weekend though, and a good change from my usual routine.  And I have had some crazy and surprising things come up, which has been not so great, but I think I have to put those not so great things out here later on, on my blog as they have been related to this blog.

I have been relaxing and having a really slow little while since I returned from the cottage.  I got to see my friend Liz last weekend, before she left to go to the US for a couple of weeks, and it was nice.  I haven’t talked to her in a bit, and we just sat around and talked and caught up, so it was kind of nice. We just mellowed out at my place and just talked, then she had to go back home to finish up with her packing and help her mom with some stuff.  It was good seeing her, and the funny thing, Violet had no problems with Liz…at first Liz wasn’t sure, and I wasn’t too positive because of how Violet was around Steve, and told Liz about her personality and she was a little unsure, and then Violet was all glued on her and rolled around near her asking to be petted…So I guess she just has an aversion to males, not females.  Probably a cause of my ex-husband.  She loves females for some funny reason.  Heh.  I was relieved, I really didn’t want to deal with her hissing fits if she ever got that bad…but she was her own sweet self around Liz so that was nice.  Just too bad that my cat has a weird aversion to males, hopefully I will be able to find some more male friends that have a big thing for cats and are around a bit and know how to deal with getting my normally sweet cat to warm up to them.

The past weekend though, has been extremely busy.  I’ve been helping out with the cleaning out of the garage back here, and it’s so much better now.  My mom rented a moving truck to toss out all the garbage that was in the garage, and it actually got filled to the brim.  It was that much garbage that was in there…all the broken drywall, insulation, and bags of garbage from when my ex ripped down all the damaged drywall and stuff from the raccoons, but he never got around to tossing them to the dump, so we did that…and then sorted through the garage and organized everything: seasonal things that were in bins (Christmas stuff, old stuff, and things like that), things that we were going to sell, things that were going to be picked up by odd people, and tools all in one group.  We can now walk in freely and get the things we need…the things we ended up throwing out, was a lot actually.  Wow.  But it really, really, really looks a lot better in the garage so it’s terrific.  It used to be packed right to the seams so having a place to actually walk around and store necessary stuff and get them out and back in is a lot better now.

The previous weekend was crazy.  Friday night I decided to meet up with a guy, Josh, that I had been talking to pretty regularly online for a while and he was a lot of fun to talk to, and we got along really well, so we decided to have a friendly meeting. Just to get to know each other in person, and we met at the Confederation Park and sat down and chatted it up.  I have a tendency to chat it up with new people online without a problem but I find that sometimes when I meet them in person they aren’t as chatty or they have a hard time dealing with my deafness and so on…with Josh I had absolutely no problem.  He was very friendly and was easy to get along with, so it was pretty fun.  We then got up after two hours of chatting at the water foundation and then went walking around downtown and just talking and talking and then went back to the docks and checked out the water and just talked.  We got along really well and I did enjoy myself…it was really nice to be around someone who could make me so comfortable to be with. *smile*  And that day, he was suffering floods in his place…that morning there was a horrible downpour that pretty much flooded a lot of downtown Kingston, the city was submerged under a inch of water up to knee high water, hip high water in some areas of Kingston which was absolutely insane…My house was lucky, and it had no flood in the basement so it was good…but I do remember it raining so hard that it was awful.  I had been talking to Josh online earlier that day and he had been stuck cleaning his apartment as he lives in a basement apartment and his place had been flooded, so it was awful really.  I felt bad for him.  Yikes!!  Oh well…but we were talking and I asked if he wanted to get out of his place, with it being so wet, and to meet up and just talk and get out of the house.  He agreed and we then met up and talked…it was a good night.  I then headed back home as I had to be up early as I needed to go shopping with my mom for baby items and do groceries…oh joy.

I later found out that several other people I knew had problems with the heavy downpour as well, there were a lot that suffered damages to their places so it was bad…wow.  Oh well.  I got lucky so it’s a relief actually.

Saturday I ended up going shopping with my mom, looking around for different baby stuff for my brother’s baby…it was interesting what was out there… *L*  Lots of funny and weird stuff in the stores, but some were pretty cute…lots of stuff to pick out and choose.  That took a few hours to do, and then I headed out and did some groceries.  It was a nice day out in town doing things I needed to do.

That night, my brother decided to email me and ask me to not mention anything about anything relating with family and too much information about family and stuff…I was like, what are you talking about?  The only thing I remember saying anything about the outside family was over a year ago when there was all the commotion going on with my uncle Mark when he stayed at my mom’s place because he split up with his ex-girlfriend after he cheated on her, and all the stuff that was told to me by my uncle or other family, and I was of course surprised but it was just their thing.  And that was over a year ago.  I barely said much about them just my opinions on what was going on…I didn’t like my uncle’s affair to start with, so when I was stuck hearing all about the stuff that was happening starting from the affair, I started noticing bad stuff come up everywhere, about the wrong people, and of course I was stressed out and dealing with them, but most things I talked about were minor, such as my uncle had an affair and he had two kids and so on, and stuff like that, and everything…Jase was telling me that certain people were questioning him about things that I was letting off my chest, and I told him they weren’t entirely mad, at least one aunt I know for sure, because mom hung out with her for a while after the break up and she knew about what I said in my blog and asked about it, then she was fine with it all.  We had all realized that my uncle was doing a lot of lying when he was telling us about what happened, so she was a bit mad but once we all talked it out, and it turned out to be fine.  We just found out that my uncle Mark was lying about everything in sight.  Heh…but it’s all good now anyway.  It also was the rest of the family, mostly the males that had problems with what I said.  If they don’t like me stating my opinions: how I don’t support family members having affairs or cheating or lying, I will mention it, and if they don’t like it, they can talk directly to me.  Several have and it’s been worked out just fine.  Heh…this is just definitely not something I want from people, or a friend myself, nor from my family.  As long as my family members know how to behave and keep themselves together, they then won’t become fodder for my words online. Heh…

My brother is just simply trying to get close, or at least neutral to a lot of his outside family for his upcoming kid’s sake, and I totally get that.  One good thing I haven’t even seen a couple of them for over a year so it helps.  Heh.  If they stay in a good place, or in a neutral place, in my life, and I don’t know what is going on in the choices they make, I will be good, and won’t say anything. Hehe…I guess my brother was just trying to make peace, but I told him that it was not likely that there would be peace between two sides of the family (my mom’s side and the other uncles side), but if he wants to get along with them, he can…no one would stop him.  He can go ahead and get chummy with them.  It doesn’t bother us, or anyone else either.

I just wish that the people who have problems with my blog would contact me directly.  They can in the emails that I have listed in Facebook and anywhere else and so on. *laughs* That would make it easier than just putting my brother in the middle…he has nothing to do with my blog, he’s all hands off on all that. *smile*  I’m the author, not my brother.  But it’s been a long time since I have talked about family, so oh well.  Things are nice and quiet now so it’s all nice and peaceful for me. Heh…I do know that if people who don’t like anything I mention in my blog, they can contact me directly and ask me to remove anything or edit something, they are welcome to.  No one does very much, they are generally good with it, but if they think they need to, they are allowed to, and welcome to.  I do get people asking me to omit some information and it works out fine, and if they are flexible I know.  So it’s all good, so you all don’t need to worry.  If they don’t like it and don’t contact me, that’s their own fault. :)  But I haven’t talked about family in a long, long time now.  It doesn’t bother me if anyone wants something edited or omitted, just not to the point where the edit is a lie though.  Heh…If I have to change my opinions, I’ll just omit the whole story if necessary. Haha…

All right, what else?  Oh, I had forgotten about the invitation that my friend Christine had given me a while back for a housewarming party of her new house and she was having a potluck BBQ at her place and a bunch of people were invited.  I was invited a while back but I wasn’t sure if I would be able to get a ride, I didn’t really want to get a train in and back, so…so I wasn’t sure and didn’t hear from anybody else who was also invited, so I figured I wouldn’t be able to make it, then my brother surprised me by calling me on Sunday morning the day of the BBQ; which I thought was a junk call and didn’t answer.  It was at like 9:30 in the morning when he called, and that’s early for a Sunday morning, and when my mom realized that Jase and Kelly had called my mom woke me around 11 am saying that they were going to Christine’s potluck party and they were going to be here very soon, and I was like, holy…I need to wake up first. haha…so I tried to get ready fast and then they arrived.  I finished getting cleaned up and then 30 minutes after they arrived I finally was able to get out and get in the car and ready to go… It was a bit hard to do actually. *smile* I had headed off to bed quite late the night before so that really didn’t help.

On the way to Ottawa, I was just talking to Jase and Kelly about things that were going on and the such like…then we stopped at a store in Ottawa to pick up some food for the potluck and then we got to Christine’s place and just got introduced to everybody there, and saw Kat and Derek there, they both looked tired as heck though, as they had just come back from camping over the weekend and Kat wanted to say hey… she was only going to be there for a short bit, and then head back home and crash.  We talked a bit but Christine kept asking me to join her and talk to the whole group. Haha…normal! Kat was talking quite a bit with Jase and Kelly.  But at least I got some new news and new things that were going on in her life, so that was good, but it definitely was a brief visit with her. She was tired from camping so oh well.  Funny though.  I will have to see her sometime again in the summer, in a different time.

Kat and Derek left after a hour or so, and then I was just sitting around talking to everybody who was at the party…interpreters, people that Christine were friends with and so on, so it was good.  Just chatting it up and catching up, and getting to know different people.  It was nice.  Slowly people started to leave and I was still staying around and talking to who was left.  There were some people that were familiar to me, one guy I had worked with as a camp counselor was there, and when I worked as a counselor there he was still a high school student.  Now he’s in his second year of college, so it was a little funny.  He was always a really nice guy anyway, so all good.  There were a lot of females and guys at the party, so there was a lot of introductions made and so on, and talking about our lives and so on, work, love lives, mostly work, and being deaf and acquiring work and so on… *smile*

I finally ate at around 6 after most people had left, I wasn’t hungry at the time I arrived for the potluck around 2 so I didn’t eat anything, and was just talking to everybody, Cris and Christine mostly…Cris was definitely in a silly mood all day so it was an entertaining day watching all the people talk.  Christine even mentioned that I had seemed to have lost a lot of weight, and I was like, yeah, I have.  The last time I saw her was at Kat’s wedding so that was a long time ago, and I was a bit bigger then, though I did gain a lot more after the wedding…and all of that, I lost.  So it was interesting to hear her say that.  She even reminded me that I went with her when Christine met Cris for the first time, and I couldn’t remember that. *laughs*  So it was kind of funny hearing her talk about that, and how she still has one picture from that day and would try to dig it up while unpacking for her new home and send a copy to me.  Hmm, interesting, that’s for sure.  They have been together for 11 years now, so that’s…wow, amazing.  It was a good day actually just talking and seeing their whole house (their place was definitely really nice!). I think we finally left around 8:30 in the night…the three of us (Jase, Kelly and I) were so tired by then, so the drive home was quiet, except for one thing. Haha…Jase got the surprise of his life when a cop started flashing his lights at him and wanted him to pull over and Jase was like, I was only going 110? So both Jase and Kelly were freaking out, then the cop came to the window and said that he wanted to let them know that their back lights weren’t on or broken. It was getting dark by then and they needed to turn it on. Kelly did think the cop was pretty hot so it was a little funny actually. Heh…Just a little funny, Jase did get scared. I know he loves to drive, but I can’t imagine being pulled over would be something he’d love, so I was actually mocking him afterwards, doesn’t it make you love driving now? Heh…It was entertaining for such a quiet drive back home.

The past couple of days have been quiet, with some crazy stuff going on with all the garage items that we had that we wanted to get rid of; some steel items (old fridge, dehumidifier, push lawnmower, very old window frames and etcetera), some broken items; some old furniture in the garage that John had gotten from his brother and was going to sell.  There were a lot of items and the past little while John has been busy talking to various people who were interested in the items.  It was unbelievable how many people wanted crappy stuff for free, really.  It was all items that we didn’t need or want anymore, and the old furniture John is trying to sell and it’s a little tougher.  Oh well.  But it’s been interesting what kind of people have been around. Haha.