June 22, 1998: Gaithersburg, Maryland
10:30 AM
Long time, no type. Well, okay, maybe it hasn't been so long since I've actually written an entry, but right now I feel so tired and worn that it may as well have been ages. I don't even feel like getting up to get my notebook and see when my last entry was... but if I'm remembering correctly, it was last Thursday, when Jev and I were having more problems.
We finally did get them talked out, I think. He felt like I was unhappy here during the days and taking it out on him in the evenings. I don't think we ever really laid blame anywhere, but I have the feeling it was a little of that and a little of him knowing that I was unhappy here and expecting me to be unhappy with him.
There were other things that came up last night, too, and I'm not sure if those were a part of it or not, but at any rate, I think everything's been dealt with between the two of us, and even though we're not happy with the living situation, we're at least not unhappy with each other.
We did have fun this past weekend, even though we didn't do anything terribly major. Friday night, we went out to the Rio and had dinner at Hamburger Hamlet, then saw "The X Files" at the theater. We both enjoyed it, and it was funny when the whole audience cheered as the little date and location thing in the lower left hand corner of the screen spelled out "Montgomery County, Maryland" because that's right where we were sitting. I won't spoil anything for you in case you've not seen it yet, but if you like the X Files, go see it! And even if you don't, if someone you know likes it, go with 'em. I don't think you'll be disappointed.
After the movie, we went to Baskin Robbins and split a very chocolate milkshake, then went into Tower Records & Books (etc) to look around. We each found one of those little playing-card sized books with different funnies in it -- Jev's was Jargon Watch and mine was Cat-e-chisms and we bought them for each other, then headed home and read them and just spent time cuddled up together.
Saturday, we went to the mall and had Cinnabons for brunch, then I went up to Hallmark and bought the 1998 National Event figurine for my Cherished Teddies collection, and we looked around in a couple more stores. We came back to the townhouse so I could get a couple necessities, then we headed back to the Rio for "Mulan" I dare say I enjoyed that better than "Hercules" last year, and afterward we headed to Germantown for Michael's and Wal-Mart.
Michael's didn't have any of the Teresa Wentzler leaflets I wanted, but they did have a sale going on, and I was almost very bad and bought a $20 rubber stamp. I had a 40% off coupon, so it would only have been $12, but I thought about it and realized that it wouldn't do me a whole lot of good without my markers, paper to stamp on, etc, etc, and I didn't feel like investing in all that. So instead, I bought a coloring poster, where all the black sections (lines, border, etc) are fuzzy 'velvet' and that came with a handful of markers.
At Wal-Mart, I bought more markers, a foam core board to work on, and a few more necessary things, like Midol. Since my round with depro-provera last summer, I'm back to having cramps and feeling pretty miserable around that time of the month, and Jev commented that PMS might have been part of the problem the last week or so. It probably was, and I'm just glad that at least that part of things seems to have settled. The Midol is really knocking me out, which is weird, because I'm only taking one at a time. But then, they're extra strength, too.
Checking out, we wound up in a line where the couple trying to pay only spoke Spanish, and their debit card didn't have sufficient funds to cover the purchase. The trainee cashier was bilingual and able to converse with them, and he was very apologetic to those of us who had to wait for everything to get sorted out.
For some reason, after the first failed transaction, the Customer Service Manager (CSM) left him to re-ring the order and try again. I'm still not sure why she didn't just stay there and make sure it worked the second time, but she didn't, and after the trainee translated back and forth between the customer and the CSM, the CSM eventually took them back to customer service to work something out.
In the interim, the three people ahead of us in line moved to other lines, and we ended up being next in line after the couple with the debit card problems. We made it out of the store well ahead of the last those who had changed lines, but still, we probably spent at least 20 minutes waiting. We finally got out of the store, both of us feeling tired and sore, and we headed home. We'd had dinner at the McDonald's in Wal-Mart, which was much more enjoyable than our last dinner at a McDonald's (Thursday, when we were having problems).
Yesterday, we headed out a bit earlier than usual, since one or the other of us was hungry (it varied, first I was, then he was, then I was again), and tried IHOP again. My eggs, which I rarely eat out anyway, were practically cold, and the sausage not much better, and I thought $15 was far too much for such a pitiful breakfast (that was the total bill). I told Jev we need to find ourselves a family-owned restaurant around here for breakfast, because it would be reasonable and probably better, but he doesn't seem to think there are any to be found that will be reasonable. He thinks because this is the D.C. suburbs, that reasonable prices don't exist, and maybe he's right, but I'll bet that a nice breakfast place is lurking out there somewhere. Anyone in Montgomery Cty, MD know of one? Drop me a line!
After breakfast, we drove around for a couple hours, and he took me out to the place on the outskirts of the metropolis to where there were some horse properties, a training stable, and lots of land to build a house, and we enjoyed being out in the country a bit. Unfortunately, it was hot and humid and his little chevette has no a/c, so I started melting after a while. He was going to take me to a computer place he knew of, but we got there and they're not open weekends, so we headed back toward Rockville, where we went to a few stores, and had a late lunch / early dinner at Arby's.
We went to Barnes & Noble while we were there in Rockville, and they had the new Tad Williams novel out in hardcover, book two of the Otherland series, and I got it, since I'd finally found it with a small discount (10% off is better than nothing). Now, though, I just bet Crown will finally get it, and offer a bigger discount, but if I'd waited, I couldn't read it today, which I think I may do in a bit.
Unfortunately, the heat never let up, and I went through drinks like crazy (and some Midol too) and we finally got home and I crawled upstairs and stripped and collapsed onto the bed. Didn't sleep, but I was exhausted. Jev and I played a little Magic... well, he tried to re-teach me, since I'd forgotten most of how to play, and he'd had someone teach him the right way to play. After that, he'd gone off down the hall to the bathroom, and on his way back, I guess Darrell stopped him to talk with him.
That was when things started going awry... it seems there was a miscommunication, and Darrell didn't realized we'd planned for me to stay here five weeks. Uh oh... He had his surgery Thursday, and his two teenaged nieces have been here since then to take care of him, since he's confined to bedrest for a while now. Because he's out of work for the time being, he asked Jev to pay extra for my staying here too, and I think that's what got to Jev.
I'd already started wondering about the money situation, since I know Jev's been spending a lot since I've been here, to feed me, buy things like the modem, little 'necessities' for me, and so on, and when he went to the bank Saturday, after he withdrew money for this weekend, he didn't have much left in his account.
Well, today is payday, so that wasn't really a big worry, but then last night as we were talking, he said something about asking if I was ready to fight over something. I had no idea what he meant, so I asked. He said that he'd borrowed money out of the $300 I'd given him to put into our moving-fund savings, and not told me about it. Maybe I should have been upset, but I wasn't... he was upset enough for both of us, and I told him it was our money, and if it was needed, that's what it was there for. Yes, it would have been nice to know, if for some reason I'd gone to take some out for myself (which I'd considered doing) and found there was money missing. I haven't liked the fact that it's been lying around here in the room for two weeks, simply because this isn't my home and I don't feel very safe and secure here.
Anyway, he was very stressed out and upset over the whole thing, but he realized I wasn't angry and wasn't going to get angry, and he finally let out what he'd had bottled up inside. Afterward, we traded long, relaxing backrubs, and eventually went to sleep, some time after discovering that one of Darrell's nieces had finally turned on the central air. This room still hasn't cooled off, but it's almost tolerable, and I'm only slightly sticky. Now if my body would just cooperate and stop cramping, I wouldn't feel too bad.
