Hellcation

I was so excited thinking I'd finally coined a term of my own, but after Googling "hellcation" it seems I'm not the first person whose vacation has gone completely to shit.

Before I go into Phase II of our Hellcation, here's a little side story.  For a long while I've been forgetting to mention my 4th fear when the topic comes up.  Zombies, cockroaches, going crazy and having car problems.  Whenever a car ceases to function properly, I immediately fear it is going to blow up.  This fear goes wayyy back to when I was a small child.  Throughout my childhood I made dozens of trips to East Texas with my grandparents.  8 out of 10 times we'd take the back roads and 8 out of 10 times we'd have car problems that always resulted in someone having to drive out to the middle of nowhere to pick us up.  When I got old enough to make the trip on my own, I always knew to never take the "jinxed route".  One of those times, I was about 8 or 9 I believe, we were coming home and the van caught on fire.  I have no idea what the problem was, I just remember my grandmother telling me to run in case the van exploded.  So to this day, everytime I experience car problems I want to run away to avoid explosion.  This is difficult, as often times during "car problems" you need someone to start the car while the other person is under the hood.  I can only be that person if there is absolutely no one else around (including strangers).

So moving on.  Chris and I left on Friday for East Texas.  When planning our trip the "jinxed route" briefly crossed my mind, but only for a moment.  As we were driving out of Dayton we passed a spot where my grandmother and I had broken down long ago.  I started to say something, then quickly changed my mind.  Chris prodded me and I said "I'll tell you later.  But let it go for now", as I didn't want to "jinx" us.  We drove for about an hour and a half through sheer nothingness (we couldn't even find a Dairy Queen) and I kept thinking "this would be a sucky place to break down."  Then suddenly, we lost power.  Our gauges died, our radio died, our a/c died.  I panicked, Chris called our mechanic and we rolled into a Walmart as our car died a slow death.  Luckily, our car died in Woodville, the most populated place we'd been through since leaving Baytown.  Luckily, we made it to a Walmart.  Luckily, my dad and cousin were only 45 minutes from us.  Luckily, my dad knows cars.  Luckily, we were not stranded out in the heat with our heat-sensitive toddler.  But still I freaked.  Still I cried.  Still I cursed family tradition and that f'n "jinxed route".

My dad arrived 45 minutes later, bought us a battery and assured us we could make it to the ranch.  I drove his truck with all the kids while he and Chris drove the car with no a/c (poor Chris had a serious sunburn and was miserable).  Luckily we made it to the house.  We turned off the car and let it sit for awhile.  Then it started right back up.  No problems.  Dad said to repeat what we had done when the car started to die, so I plugged in my iPhone and the car immediately died.  After my father and his friend finished with the iPhone jokes, it was decided the alternator was dead.  We luckily found a mechanic who would replace it on a Saturday (while my father reminded me that if I "drove a truck he could do it and save some money") and shelled out $380 of money we did not have to fix the car.  Hardcore suck.

We were lucky in many ways.  I say that as a general optimist.  But as a hardcore realist, this was the worst "vacation" I've ever had in my life.  It cost money it wasn't supposed to cost.  It was full of strife and frustration.  It was hot.  It was cramped.  It was crowded.  It was the anti-vacation, ie: a hellcation.  If I never go east again, not a soul could blame me.

30DoW - off topic completely

I don't know what made me think I'd be able to write everyday.  Actually, I do.  I thought I'd be bored when I came to Baytown.  Oh how wrong I was.  I do plan on going back and writing on a few of the topics, as I'd really like to visit them and see what I can come up with.  But it's just not going to be happening this week.

Instead, I need to vent.  

I hate Baytown.  I hate every single fucking thing about this god-awful place in America.  I hate the environment (refineries, smokestacks and pollution galore), I hate the music they listen to (Nickelback and Guns 'N Roses on constant repeat at the swimming pool), I hate the people who live here (Neiman shopping bleach blond chicks with their blond-tipped buff boyfriends littering the pool with their beer cans and cigarette butts) and I hate the mentality (every small thing said creates a testosterone-driven fight).  I hate that this place makes me hate.

It's been no better behind closed doors.  It's an exact replica of what it was like when I lived here.  A passive-aggressive, bullying boyfriend.  A mom who makes excuses.  And children who are beat down by the pattern.  I did well the first few days.  I remained quiet, reminding myself that this wasn't my life or my problems.  I called Chris and my friends for support who walked me through what I should or shouldn't be saying.  But too much time spent in Baytown reverts me back to the Baytownian I once was.  And last night I reverted hardcore.  I begged, I pleaded, I screamed, I cried.  I lost.

I believe I've said it before but it bears repeating again.  I know what it feels like to be the offspring of an addict.  Addiction to dysfunction is just as real as an addiction to drugs or alcohol.  Except there isn't a 12-step available.  The manipulation, the excuses, the highs and the lows.  The feeling that maybe this time will be different so you allow yourself to get caught in the loop again.  And be disappointed again.  It's painful.  It's even more painful not to repeat the process in your own life because it takes so much work.  And the resentment.  Tons and tons of it on all sides.

My mother looked me square in the eye last night and said "I'm sorry I don't have things figured out like you do.  I'm sorry my life isn't perfect like yours.  I can't wait to see how well Izzy has adjusted to her oh-so-perfect life in 15 years.  How nice it must be to be you with all the answers."  Ouch.  Again with me and my perfect life.  Again with the guilt over my "high standards".  Again with the disdain over my inability to tolerate anger and dysfunction.  Again and again and again. 

Our parent's generation was coined the "Me Generation".  How right that description was.  

30DoW - Putting today in a bottle

My energy has been sapped lately, so instead of staying on topic I was going to write about Izzy's time capsule that we've been working on and have every intention of burying sometime this year on our ranch in East Texas.  But I just read Chris' blog and I am actually speechless on the matter. There is nothing I could say that could come even close to what he wrote.  So I will just stand behind that entry and leave it at that.

Instead, I'd like to relay my very eventful day.  Let this be a snapshot that goes into the time capsule, as it were.  For those who haven’t been following along, Izzy and I are staying with my Mom in Baytown, a town east of Houston where I grew up.  My mom and her boyfriend/ex-husband recently moved into an apartment together (much to my chagrin).  She just had what was supposed to be the last of 5 surgeries in a year (she found out yesterday she needed “just one more”), so Izzy and I came down to visit, along with my Aunt and 12-year-old cousin from Mississppi.  This, in addition to my mom’s boyfriend/ex-husband’s 2 grandkids, ages 9 and 13.  Oh, and two small yappy-ass dogs.  It’s an apartment-full to say the very least.

Now let me stop for a second and explain my usual day in Austin.  It always starts early, Izzy makes sure of that.  But if I’m honest, the day doesn’t actually start until around 10am.  That’s when we get out and about to do our activities (library, park, shopping, whatever).  We both eat lunch around noon, take a nap from 2-4:30, dinner at 6:30 and in bed by 8pm.  It’s routine, it’s structured, it’s quiet and more times than not, I’m in control.

Baytown, it should be mentioned, is the exact opposite of Austin.  It’s dirty, there are no trees, everyone is driving leased trucks or SUV’s, people think recycling involves tires only, in fact, the only thing green in this town are the stoplights.   And as it turns out, my visit here is becoming the mirror image of our lives in Austin.

I wake up at 7am to a 69-degree apartment.  There are people everywhere.  Floors, couches, and blowup mattresses.  This morning we went out to the pool for the first time by 10am.  Guns N’ Roses “Appetite for Destruction” was playing (on repeat) for at least 2 hours before we headed back in for lunch.  Making lunch was like an Excedrin commercial.  I was tripping over dogs and kids in the kitchen, the boyfriend/ex-husband was angry that I wasn’t paying enough attention to him, the TV is blaring Paula Dean, we eat and then back out to the pool.  Kids fighting, screaming, running, falling, coughing.  Dinner, rinse, repeat.  We come in for the last time around 9pm.  It’s an assembly line by now.  Pile the swim toys by the door (comprising of 3 large innertubes, 1 small swim ring, 1 pair of floaties, 3 boogie boards and 1 wagon carrying 3 pairs of goggles, 2 snorkels, 2 balls and a Backyardigan figurine), throw the towels and bathing suits over the banister on the patio (at which point my Mom always makes a comment about how the neighbors will judge) and stand in the shower assembly line.  By 10:30 everyone is showered and wanting “snacks”.  Which means more dogs and kids in the kitchen arguing about what everyone else is eating.  Then we watch a movie that everyone talks through until the toddler is curled up in a corner sucking her thumb actually begging for “nite-nite” (the 2 previous attempts do not work due to “snack” sugar highs).  By 2am the apartment finally hears silence.  By now, I have realized that silence is an actual sound.  In fact, after 3 days of the same routine chaos (with 2 more to go), it is the most beautiful sound in the world.

I realized at around 5pm today that I had become delirious.  A trip to the store needed to happen and I was the only one up for the job.  The two older kids wanted to come so we loaded up and went for it.  At one point they started fighting in the store and I lost my temper and yelled like a crazy lady.  I turned and saw myself in the pharmacy mirror and realized I had no makeup on, my clothes were a mess and I was standing in the grocery store at 5pm on a Friday in my hometown.  And I did not give a shit.  It was a major turning point for me.

It’s all been so truly insane, I had to get it all down here.  On the upside, we’ve spent so much time in the pool Izzy has learned to swim in 2 days time (with floaties, of course).  She was timid in the water on Wednesday, but by yesterday evening she figured out that she had better get in the game or she was going to have one lame ass time.  Now she gets “in the loop” of going in on one side of the pool, leisurely swimming through the chaos of kids to the other side, only to do it all again, and again and again (for hours in fact.)  I’ve enjoyed the time spent with my mom and aunt and the kids have been fabulous when they aren’t all arguing about the most mundane bullshit.  I am however now thanking God that I was an only child and have decided to share that gift with Izzy (seriously, I treasure silence far too much to have another child.  I think the decision has finally been made once and for all.)

And once I get back to the calm, green, quiet of Austin I am going to try to never complain again.  I know it’s a stretch, but I’ve never appreciated my life “before” as much as I do now.  I know there’s a lesson in here… I just hope to hell I don’t forget it.

30DoW - First assignment FAIL

This morning I was writing on today's assignment and was rather impressed with my creativity. But then I had to walk away to make our trip to the Dirty Bay, and then I walked in to chaos soup and now I'm just not feeling it.  And while I feel somewhat bad about it, I'm still writing today so all is not lost in 30 Days of Write.

I do have this to say in regards to my day:  Time marches on but things stay remarkably the same. If silence is golden, then I am obviously tarnished silver, but this time I'm going to work on becoming at least a cheap 9-carat gold.  I'm certain I'll never make it to 24-carat, I'm not driven enough for that kind of silence.  I'm going to end with the good 'ole Serenity Prayer, because that will be my motto for this entire trip...

God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change;

courage to change the things I can; 

and the wisdom to know the difference.

A-fricken-men.