Let us be honest, shall we? Instead of pouring my innermost thoughts, hopes and dreams onto my hard drive, I made an iTunes playlist. I suppose that means that my subconscious feels that being creative is much more time-effective than tapping at keys on my laptop for an hour and a half. Originally, my intent was to provide an account of the events preceding and included in Summer Vacation, Version ’08. And then I made an hour-long music set with which I could write the aforementioned LiveJournal entry. So, partially delayed but nevertheless on track, here goes.

If anything could be said of this summer, it would certainly not be that it was boring. Insanely aggravating, painful, profitable, sad, joyous, and long, yes, but never boring. After staying late at Hendrix to help the RAs and residents move out of their rooms, my mom and I came home exhausted and looking for a little bit of respite. She had just come from a “vacation” to visit our relatives in Tennessee. You’ll notice the not-so subtle quotations over vacation – that’s because every time we go up to Tennessee, there’s some thrice-damned drama. I will not get into any of the specifics, mostly because a lot of it involves money and the estate, which is none of your business, no offense. Suffice to say, some of the family is taking the stress better than others, without taking out anger on innocent parties. But anyway …

Mom and I get back to Mississippi and both get to sleep, finally. The next day we head on into her office to check our e-mail (we haven’t had Internet at the house for over six years). Walking to her office, we run into a co-worker of hers, named Mick. He’s been ill recently since his M.S. came back, so he was looking for a secretary for as long as he could get one. Timidly – almost not wanting to say anything so I could rest for a while before getting back to work – I asked if he might consider me. He said yes, of course! He marched me on over to get my tax forms filled out that very day and said to be at the office bright and early the next day. That’s how I started working for the I.T. Manager, a job that had never crossed my mind before, being as how I don’t know the first damn thing about computers. Sure, understanding some of the lingo isn’t that hard, but in terms of knowing the ins and outs of programs and hard drives and servers, uh-uh. But two months in and everything’s going very, very well. Undoubtedly, I’m getting paid fuck nothing; sometimes I get the feeling that they’re underpaying me. Nothing to be done now, since my last two weeks are on the horizon.

That’s right, a vacation inside of a vacation. Actually, the second of my vacations is coming up and it could not possibly be making me any happier. My first trip was the seemingly annual excursion to Columbia, Missouri to see my father, brother, sister-in-law and niece, with respective friends-of-the-brother and extended family. Last year my dad and I mostly kept shy of the big social gatherings that Vonn, Nat and Erin attended (the aforementioned brother’s family). I guess I’m getting more and more social in my old age. This year we had so many new people to meet, new bonds to rekindle, and new experiences to be had. Speaking of experiences, telling my father that I had a boyfriend was certainly a surreal experience. Telling Vonn and Nat was fine; they peppered me with questions good-naturedly and made me feel really good about wanting them to meet Allen. But with my father it’s a little different. Ever since he took an emotional rain check on mine and my mothers’ lives, I feel like he doesn’t deserve to know every nuance of my life anymore. Especially where my dating life is concerned. I took a trip up to Missouri in high school, not too long after Sam and I started dating, and told him rather frankly that I had a boyfriend. He got really quiet and just kind of said “Okay”. A short while later he mentioned that he had never really liked Sam’s parents (all of them had worked at the same university, and MSU isn’t so small that people in totally different departments can’t mingle). After that, damned if I was going to tell him when a friendship was strained or a new relationship had promise. He had lost that right.

Or so I thought. No matter how much he totally screwed me over when I was a kid or almost ruined me emotionally, he was still my father. I have another Dad now – and he’s the one who got to know that Allen I had started dating after the first week, he got to meet Allen this Spring Break, he gets to know how much I love my boyfriend. Tony is my Dad now, even though he’s just my mom’s boyfriend on paper. Tony’s more than that emotionally. My father can never be replaced, but now I have to dance the delicate dance of balancing the two of them in my life. It’s strange to be one of those kids who doesn’t have this black and white life of “I have a Mommy and a Daddy and that’s all I’ll ever need”. Strange to have to learn to love a Dad instead of growing up knowing no-one else besides this man as your father. But I guess I’m used to that by now.

Anyway, it’s really great to see all of them again. Especially with the way the family in Tennessee is turning into. Dare I say it, they’re being complete assholes. Example, my cousin Laura’s wedding. Some new crap had just surfaced with the estate and some members of the family were being intentionally mean to other innocent parties. With all that stress over our heads, Mom, Tony and I set off to make sure that somebody at that wedding was being civil. The service was held at this gorgeous ante-bellum Southern house with a wonderful garden where the wedding was held. Laura and her husband Frank were married while it was spitting rain, but the attendants couldn’t have been happier. Then the drama started. I won’t go into specifics, but let’s just say that a lot of the time the mood was unnecessarily strained. A normally joyous occasion was very nearly ruined by stupidly petty people and their narcissism. Pleasantly oblivious, the bride and groom were acting as any couple in love should, and seeing them together is just what the heart needs.

Speaking of what the heart needs, I’m going to be visiting Houston in two weeks and three days. . And that’s all I have to say about that. We’re gonna see the Dark Knight in IMAX, an Astros game, and many many other things besides. From there it’s directly off to Hendrix. Just as my summer started, it will end just as abruptly. I’m visiting Allen from the 31st of July to the 3rd of August; the next day road trip all the way back to Hendrix. Just to give you a timeframe of Important Dates in the Hendrix College calendar, classes start back on the 28th of August. Why in God’s green earth am I going back so early? You may recall that I’m an RA. As such, our Fall Training is scheduled for very early in August so we can all come together as the family that we’re meant to be. We’ll be eating, drinking, partying and possibly sleeping together (not in that way, silly Billy!). That requires a lot of free time to get nice and cozy with one another. On top of that, I’m part of the Fall Training Committee, which means that us lucky guys and gals have to be back super-duper early to make sure that training goes off without a hitch.

What is going to make it even more interesting is that I’m coming in earlier than all the other members of F.T.C. because I have an apartment this year! Me and the Mam are heading up early so I can get fully situated in my apartment in the least amount of time possible, leaving me with more time to concentrate on what I need to do for F.T.C. and getting acquainted with the new Area Coordinator, my next door neighbor and boss. Hendrix is divided up into areas – Southside and Northside. Northside is the female residence halls while Southside is the male res halls and the Front Street apartments. I will be living in Front Street. And the new Southside boss is brand spankin’ new, so I’d like to get to know him as well as can be.

That’s that, basically. My summer has been a whole lot of not much going on. On the whole, just a lot of emotions and paychecks. My new life.

UPDATE: I have recently decided that my newest pet peeve is when couples fight in front of me. After going through my mother and father divorcing, suffice to say fighting just really isn't cool with me. It stresses me out to no degree. Mentioning divorce, child support payments, or anything of that nature isn't going to make me laugh. So stop trying. I can't help that I take it seriously - deal. I'm still living with it, twelve years later, and you probably aren't. I have more reason to take umbridge to you and your silly jokes than you could imagine. People talk about divorce like it's a plague, and it is in a way. I'm living with disease and you aren't. Again - deal.

Don't think that because you're cursing out your significant other that I'm going to take it well. You may think you need to vent, but vent some other goddamn place. I'm not going to have a single sympathetic feeling toward you. Calling your wife a "bitch" in front of me is going to piss me off. At least act like you're trying to be sympathetic to the feelings of those around you.

The end. I feel a little better now. Thanks, LiveJournal.