I have finally found a log entry where using that phrase is pretty appropriate to use. Because life is definitely happened whilst making other plans. Let’s begin by examining the week that has transpired between my last entry and this one.
Monday morning, immediately after work, I went home, grabbed anime DVDs, my DVD player, and some clothes, and I drove up to Manteca to be with my sister and her son. I do this and have been doing this quite a bit lately, mostly because he’s going to go spend the summer with his dad in Arizona, so I won’t see him until school starts in August or September. And I promised him we would go through all the series he wanted to see before he left. So I spent the first half of the week with him, despite the fact that I had a history midterm on Friday. Up until Tuesday, all was well. Tuesday afternoon, while checking my Yahoo mail, I notice a note from my ex-wife, Stephanie. Seems as though that last January, when I thought I had signed the final paperwork, I also thought she filed it and that sooner or later during the summer, the marriage would finally be dissolved and I could go back to be single instead of just permanently separated. Well, guess what? She never did. So, as far as the state of California is concerned, I’m still happily fucking married. Of course, nothing could be further from the truth, but like that matters. There were some heated words exchanged between us, more to the point being that because she waited until now to tell me, there’s a good chance that I won’t get to go to Japan when I had intended to. See, between the initial filing and the dissolution statement from the court, there’s this six month waiting period that we’ve got to sit through. Now, in this time, we’re technically legally separated, so we’re not really able to claim adultery if she decides to screw five people or anything. We’ve filed for divorce but the marriage doesn’t end until the court says so. During that time, though, we’re not supposed to leave California. In the case of if the court requires us to be questioned or whatever. Welcome to California, the “Sue Me” State.
All of Tuesday and Wednesday were spent arguing with a person who left me and wanted the divorce in the first place. It just boggled the mind as to how lazy she could be. And in apologizing, she actually had the audacity to insult me. Just a huge reminder of why we just don’t fucking work well together anymore. Wednesday afternoon, during that heat wave that hit all of the Bay Area, I started calling the legal office we hired to do the paperwork for us, and I asked a whole mess of questions. Was the paperwork ever filed? Was there a chance to backdate the initial divorce proceedings to prevent the six months from being longer than it already was? And the answers were no and no. The six months begin when Stephanie is served officially. Well, fuck me, because I can’t serve her without her signing the financial shit, which is exactly what she said she would do in January! Ugh. So, now, all the paperwork has been filed as of this writing, and now this week, I’m waiting for the final copies to be given to me so I can sign it and send it back in and then she gets served. What a fucking mess.
Meanwhile, Friday morning I had my history midterm. Friday evening my mother retired from thirty-two years of service in the local school district. This meant that my immediate family was all under one roof again. Someone please stop me from having too much fun, here. Suffice to say that my little sister pissed me off the first day I came back, Thursday. She was in my room, on my machine. Big mistake. And then, she gives me this remorseless attitude like it’s my fault she opened my door and decided to use it. Sorry, you’re right. It is my fault for thinking you were a mature person. She’s twenty-three and has a child. That evening, though, I got a call from a friend of mine, who I met online but had never met. She wanted to take me out to dinner. Okay, I immediately got the heebie-jeebies. First of all, it was literally out of the blue. Secondly, I asked her to lunch like three months ago, and she said no. So I never asked again. But, she called me on the cell phone, and she sounded like she was just in need of a friend. Who am I to turn down someone in need? I went to go see her at a restaurant near her place, and we talked. It was a really good talk, and in the end, I am hoping that she came away with enough information to make her difficult decision a little easier. It was one of those choices (which I won’t get into specific detail) that was pretty life altering and about pursuing one’s happiness. Whatever she decided, I don’t know, but I’m glad I was able to help. That night, I went over to Karen’s and we watched doramas until 0200 Friday morning. We watched Majou no Jouken and Yamato Nadeshiko. I got to borrow Initial D Second Stage and she gave me all of Mahoromatic and as much Inu Yasha as she had available.
Okay, so my midterm was scheduled for 0830 Friday morning, which meant that I got all of five hours of sleep. Did I bomb it? I hope not. I did study while I was in Manteca, and I knew the material enough to bet some money on a passing grade. But by the time I got out of the midterm at 1130, I was already inundated with family. Not that family is bad, but it’s almost like an hourly reminder of why they don’t live with you anymore, y’know? Needless to say that I tried to stay out of sight as much as possible until Anna came over, because then I had someone I wanted to see. My mom and dad were running around and my mom was stressing out because it was her big party and all of her friends and family were going to be there to celebrate her career. I got her gift at about 1400, from Barnes and Noble. It was a book from the children’s section called Go Dog, Go. The significance of this book lies in the fact that it was the first book I ever read by myself at the age of two. My mother taught me to read, and that book literally began my academic career. When I was two and I read it, my mother wrote a little inscription in the inside cover of it and I have it somewhere. The book is falling apart, the binding is shot to hell. I bought a brand new one, and I wrote a little note in the inside cover, and I also got her a gift certificate to buy herself some books at Barnes and Noble for her summer reading. She’s a huge romance novel fan, so this should come in handy. Those things are like 5-6 bucks a piece, so I got her a certificate good for seven or eight books. The dinner itself was a lot of fun, too. I saw all her old friends, and remembered all the times I used to go over to their house to play outside with their kids and stuff. It was like this huge educational family had a reunion. As I had, they all grew up. Some of them have kids of their own now, too. In the end, though, my mother had a lot of fun and she said that compared to some of the other retirement parties she had attended earlier in the year, she thought hers was the best. I’m glad.
Saturday was spent with the family members who were still there. Anna left while I was still asleep. We didn’t get home until almost 0230 from the party, and I had been up since 0715 Friday, so I was pretty exhausted and slept in. A LOT. I didn’t see sunshine until 1300, and then the fun began. I won’t go into the details, but let’s just say that it drained me. So much so that I just conked out less than sixteen hours later, wondering where all that sleep went.
Today was somewhat easier to deal with. Everyone was leaving to go back to their homes, and I would finally get a little peace. My dad is still here, though, which is fine by me. He took me to go eat tonight at my favorite restaurant, since he won’t be around for my birthday this year. Oh well. Maybe things will be less stressful in the morning.
