Every time I have posted something about JJ being quiet or withdrawn, I press the “publish” button and suddenly within minutes he is back to his old laid back self. It’s ironic because he doesn’t have access to this blog. So it isn’t like he could be reading this and then changing.
Anyway…
It has been a VERY busy week. More busy than anticipated.
I went to visit my brother on Friday. I checked into the hotel the state was paying for at around noon. I was getting my things out of my car, turned and closed the door and paused.
Crap. Where is it… no.. it can’t be… (as I look in the car and now see my keys sitting on my shifter). UGH. What am I supposed to do? I am too far for anyone to come with a spare key, and I don’t have any other way to get anywhere. I attempted in breaking into my car. I was unsuccessful. I could have- but I think I would have broken the drivers window in doing so. I twisted a metal rod enough to reach one of the door locks, but it wouldn’t grip it enough to push it to “unlock” . This was especially bad because I was going straight back to Phoenix after I was done with my visits. After waiting a little bit, walking around to various places trying to see if they had something I could get into my car with – I gave up. I called the locksmith. He came out and had the car unlocked before I was even there to see what they were doing. Quick- indeed.
I then went to visit my brother. It kind of topped off the day. One conversation led to another- about moving places, Portland, Phoenix.. and things got into a heated argument. It was the first time we both were heated but didn’t raise our voice or get in any physical altercation. It couldn’t of happened given the circumstances, but it was still a new experience. I left the visit fuming- I couldn’t wrap my mind around what went down and how some things seemingly haven’t changed.
The next day I visited with my brother he addressed the issue. It was also a new experience for me. Things usually are left not dealt with- and on my side it wouldn’t have done any good to address the same – old – issues. It was good, I was impressed with him. He is talking to some people internally who are very much into God. I think it is doing him good, he even told me how his friend and him prayed about the situation before he came out to visit with me.
Obviously that made the last part of our visit harder to say goodbye. It was sad. It was kind of classic though- we played card games called “War” and “Goldfish” for about 3 hours. Yes, I did say Goldfish. So we changed the rules (from not remembering everything) but it was still fun.
I left late that night to my hotel. Slept wonderfully. Things were looking up, especially now that I had my keys in hand.
Next day I started on my way to Salt Lake City. I drove on – past Oregon and Idaho and into Utah. It was great driving weather. Temperatures in the 60’s and 70’s. Not long after I got into Utah I started to notice that my amp meter was reading higher than the “normal” range on the dash. Ugh, what is this? I kept an eye on it – and it seemingly kept going up. I was in the middle of nowhere, so I was going to try and make it to the next exit and pull off to see if there was something I could do (the whole time talking to my dad on the phone). As soon as I told my dad my plans my headlights popped up and down about 10 times and my gauges read all different readings. I pulled over on the side of the road. My dad said to turn her off and check under the hood.
I opened up the hood and the battery had exploded. Battery acid was all over the place. My key was useless. I might as well had left it locked in my car, because turning the key was doing nothing. Thankfully I have VZ Navigator – and was able to look up towing places in the area and call them. My view? Well.. it was like this:
Mile Marker 370 has a new profound meaning for me.
I waited for about an hour before the tow truck came. At that point the sun was already well on its way to being set.
Help finally arrived…
It was Sunday night and I didn’t have any options to getting a battery. All of the local auto places were closed. What should I do? They said they had one that might fit my car at the tow shop. It fit, so I bought it. Thankfully it worked.. After all was said and done I had about 3 to 4 hours of downtime. Now for the rest of the way I needed to drain my battery as much as possible as the alternator was charging it too much (and therefore boiling the battery). How did I do that? I ran the lights, I kept the AC on – anything that could be on… was. Even the rear defroster.
So I drove that night to a Wal-Mart where I picked up 3 quarts of oil to add into my car (some reason it was really low on oil when I checked it) and so after all of that I got back on the road and made my way to Salt Lake, where I checked into my hotel around midnight.
What a night. I was pretty much done, but I had a friend in Salt Lake who wanted to meet up while I was around. Being that I am not in the area much (haha) I went out to grab something eat. I hadn’t eaten anything the whole day – so it was something I had meant to do – just didn’t have the time to do with everything else going on.
I went to sleep around 4am. AH!! I was right back to those “late night” habits that I worked so hard to break. On the up side, I slept wonderfully…
The next day I was on my way to Vegas. A shorter trip that worked well considering I had to go a slower pace with my car acting the way it was. Plus, you can find cheap hotels in Vegas.
I got to Vegas and it was busy, as always right? I got to my hotel room and watched Intervention on A&E for a good 3 or 4 hours. I like that show..
Afterwards, it was getting late (9pm) so I decided to go grab something to eat. The hotel I was staying at was like a Maze and it was somewhat annoying getting around. I walked down the street to a line of restaurants.
Looking down I saw that I wasn’t alone.
Cockroaches. Just walking along the sidewalk with me. Wow – the only other time I experienced that was right over the California border in Mexico. I figured it was a rare thing.. I just brushed it off and went on my way.
Walking back- sure enough I wasn’t alone. There were people walking on both sides of the street and I wasn’t the only one to take note of the cockroaches. Some girls were running away after getting close to see if they were real- and others were just trying to dodge them altogether.
When I was almost back to my hotel I snapped a photo.
the Hotel.
I was up on the 22nd floor. I must say, this hotel was VERY disappointing. Las Vegas Hilton – don’t bother staying at it. The hotel attendants were rude and room was outdated and not up to par with a typical hotel.
It had a good view – and that is about all I could say for it. They didn’t even offer free internet… I came across a flyer for internet in the hotel, $13.99 for the night.
Anyway I made my way back to Phoenix the following day. I arrived without having any further problems.
My car now winks, at everybody. I’m not kidding. It has the flip up headlights and when they popped up and down those 10 or so times it shorted one of them. Now only the passenger side flips up and down like it should. The other side just stays up all the time.
I emailed LifeLock yesterday and told them that I would be back at work tomorrow. I texted JJ and he kind of assumed that I was going back to Arizona when my laptop, fan and covers off my bed were gone. He said he is still searching for work and will continue to do so in my absence.
That right, I only took the bare essentials.
Last night I had the pleasure of talking to Leah for a bit. It didn’t feel like very long, but I suppose it was a long conversation because I didn’t go to bed til almost 4:45am.
And that is it. Tomorrow I resume work…
What a trip it’s been so far.
just Pray
hey
So when I got done publishing my previous blog a few minutes later JJ replied to me that he wouldn’t mind going to the coast.
I told him I’d drive, he buys. Just like that we were on our way. He seemed fine the whole trip over.. we talked a little bit. It was pretty nice. We went to Tillamook and got something to eat (he told me he was very hungry). Afterwards we made our way down to Newport. It was foggy and overcast, quite a change from the 106 and sunny it was in Portland. JJ even said he was starting to get cold.. haha.
We went to the beach walked out towards the water. I asked JJ if he was going to take his shoes off, but he told me that he didn’t need to, his shoes were dirty anyway. With his shoes on- he went into the water for a few seconds before starting to text and walking back to the beach and sitting down.
I didn’t want to leave just yet- I mean we just got here. So I walked around a little bit and enjoyed the cool weather of the Oregon Coast. Finally after walking the coast for another 30 or 40 minutes I looked at him and he was now lying down while texting, so I guess that was it. We could go… it was kind of defeating because I had thought it was going to turn out for the better.
I walked back and he told me that his girlfriend was going to ask him to go to the coast, but I beat her to it. He kind of laughed that off and said that either way he would have been coming. He then told me that he was starting to feel sick. Yeah, I can get hints – but I wasn’t going back for the hottest part of the day. Plus the heat wouldn’t really help him feel any better in our UN-air conditioned apartment. I drove up the coast and he talked on the phone for a portion of the way, then texted some more. Why does that bother me? Should it not? Should I just not care? I don’t know.
I want more than just OK.
So what else? He felt good enough to get some ice cream but not good enough to do anything else. So we came back after driving all the way up to Seaside. It was still rather warm when we finally got back.
I didn’t do much on Thursday and Friday.. but JJ got progressively sicker- it didn’t stop him from going out with his girlfriend, but he didn’t sound that great either.
On Saturday I went out with Sky and we got some Sushi. I know, crazy right? Me? Sushi? I never would have thought. I tried it – and it really wasn’t bad at all. I’d have it again – with the right company. After Sushi we strolled down the streets of Portland, just talking until just after the sun had set- then we called it a night.
Sunday I texted JJ asking him if he was alright and he told me that he went to the hospital to get some meds, but that they didn’t help much- he had something that was causing sores in his mouth to appear. He didn’t have anything to eat- as he had just been drinking water and soda the past couple days, so I picked him up a milkshake and some packs of applesauce. Something with a little more substance than Coke.
Monday was kind of unproductive. I cleaned my room, washed my sheets and did some laundry. Tuesday I asked JJ if he wanted to go see the Harry Potter movie (he didn’t get a chance to go see it with his family when they were visiting) he said that he would like that. We went! The movie was good. On the way back I jokingly suggested he should go drive a school bus to make up to 17/hr. He told me “Yeah, no. I’m in No condition to work right now, I need to get myself better- but I’m in no shape to work”
Hit a nerve. Okay. Jack in the Box was offering two free tacos on Tuesday for everyone who came in. I took advantage of this offer (how can you not?!) and JJ told me he was going to try and eat the taco. He picked it up- drew out one strain of lettuce and put it in his mouth “Ouch! yeah I can’t eat it, this lettuce is TOO hard for me. I’m lucky I didn’t start shaking from all the pain I am in” (as he holds out his hand to show me he isn’t shaking). He continued to text and told me he was talking to his GF. I suggested to him that maybe she was talking to him all the time because she missed hanging out with him (as he had been sick). “We still hang out every day. It doesn’t matter, I see her everyday all the time” but it was the tone he said it, matter-of-fact. It sometimes makes me want to pull my hair out.
On the way back he finished his drink and began eating the ice. I guess it was softer than the lettuce?
He got back into the Apartment and two minutes later he was out the door. Less than a few hours later he returned with her. (I really can’t remember her name) He doesn’t talk much about her, he is pretty private about… almost everything. I live with the guy, you’d think I know more than I do. Haha
When she is over to the house, she typically spends the night. I didn’t really want to be around for that- but guess what? I had no choice in the matter. So I went to bed early. I sometimes feel like it’s a chore for him to carry on a conversation with me. He really likes to invest his time elsewhere.
That brings us current. This weekend I am going to visit my brother.. and due to the fact that I have no reason to stay in Portland any longer (and believe me I looked for a reason) … I’m leaving Sunday afternoon from my brothers. Then I will return to AZ and resume my job. At least I will be able to recoup the money I’ve spent in the last 3 months and save.
I’m not looking forward to it and for the past 48 hours I’ve felt like there is a pit in my stomach. Hmm… it isn’t all bad. But now that it will happen lets rip this band aid off quickly instead of a slow excruciatingly slow peel.
just Pray.
hey
another update, almost another week later.
My lips feel chapped… hmmm
Oh yes, updating. You know what’s funny? I typically have to read over my previous post to know what has happened since I last blogged. Okay, maybe it wasn’t that funny – but it was in my head.
Shoot… Well first off today is Joey’s birthday. Happy Birthday Joey!
In the past week I have been to the ocean, the waterfalls and had a migraine. See – I’ve been active.
On Sunday I decided to get out- go for a hike and be productive. I went to Multnomah falls and hiked up to the top and I didn’t stop there. I kept going on the pedestrian paths they had. I went farther than I had before. I think it was like 6 or 7 miles each way. That’s what I got from looking at the maps they had posted everywhere. Then to cool off I went to Wahkenna falls. I like that fall the best because you can get right up next to it and get drenched. It was good. I posted some video of my trips on Sunday on my YouTube. To see go to: youtube.com/jayshox
I didn’t think the day could get any better- I felt tired, but good. I started to drive back to Portland when I looked at this sign on the road but I couldn’t really see it. I closed on eye- nope, closed the other.. still no improvement. I could only make out the first word or two on it. I thought maybe I had a glare that got me and that was the cause of it all. I waited and it got progressively worse. Then my thoughts started to think that it could be a migraine. Ugh.. Migraine?! I haven’t had one in a few years.
I think it good luck of me to make it home with no near-miss events because it was getting so bad that I almost pulled over. I didn’t think that to be the best option though- as it would only continue to get worse. I went home- took a shower and laid down. I could feel the world spinning… I was probably quite the sight. Hands over my ears to block any sound…. breathing into my pillows and trying not to move or see any light.
Breathing into my pillows? Yeah, well it might be silly. But I’ve heard before that if you breathe into a closed quarter (like your hand, or a pillow) that it helps lessen one’s pain. They even had a kid do it once on the movie “What Dreams May Come”… either way. I was out for the count and all Monday I pretty much felt like I had a hangover. Bad headache when I would move and it was always better when everything was quiet.
All of this past weekend JJ’s grandmother and mom visited. He warned me about his grandmother – saying that she was mean to most people and that not a lot of people get along with her. Thanks for the warning.
On Saturday his grandmother approached me and asked me if I would like to come with them when they left. Wow- I liked that she was including me on the plans. I told her that I’d really like to go. I asked her where we were going- and she darted off to ask JJ and his mom. I heard them shout at her “you CAN’T invite someone to something where YOU don’t even know what we are doing. How can you DO that? I can’t Believe you!” She came back into the room and told me she didn’t know where they were going. I told her that I didn’t want to impose and it feels like I was.. so I’d pass. She said to me “Yeah, they way they were talking makes you feel like they don’t want you around doesn’t it?” I replied with “Yeah, it really does” she said to me “I feel that way a lot, like they are in their own world and don’t even need me around”
My sentiments exactly, but it was quite sad to her his grandmother saying this to me.
What else, she told me JJ had already been pulled over twice since being out here. He blames it on the police being stricter than they were in AZ. Haha I told her that I don’t have any problems with them, “but then again, I don’t drive drunk”
On Sunday morning I was up early (3am) and around 5 she was up and about. She said she wanted some coffee, so I asked her if she would like me to go get her some. She smiled and said yes, then called to Terri (JJ’s mom) and asked if she wanted any. “Can’t you have ANY patience?! What’s wrong with you?!” she replied to them “no, he asked me if I wanted anything” and they said back to her “You need to just SIT and wait. You don’t need to pester Everyone else with your problems!”
I didn’t like the way they were talking to her, but really.. what kind of say did I have in it? Oh yeah, none.
anyway, random thought– I still want to see the newest Harry Potter movie…
It’s been hot lately. The past few days have been over 100 degrees and yesterday was 106, they are saying today will be hotter. Ew ew ew. Here I am with no AC… blah!
Yesterday I went to Seaside with Maryia… I had a blast. It was fun.. and time really flew by… salt, fish and sand never smelt so good haha.
That brings us to today. I don’t know what the plans are. I asked JJ if he wanted to do something (we really haven’t talked in over a week), but he hasn’t answered me… I guess that’s it.
OH yes, Blazers news! We signed Andre Miller. I’m on the fence about it. I want to see how he will perform as a starting PG and how exactly Bayless and Blake will work in the mix.
just Pray