My weekend could pretty much be summarized by a comment Dave made along the lines of "Perhaps I should go to your place for the last two days of next weekend, because things have just been going badly when you've been here the last two."

I'll give you some background before I begin:

The travel bag I have is annoyingly small. It really wasn't intended to hold more than 24 hours worth of clothes, and trying to pack in 48 hours worth is akin to putting 100 pounds of collards into a 50 pound sack. (Sorry, my family's all into the Southern humor.) Usually in the summer I have to pack (a) two short-sleeved or no-sleeved shirts, (b) two pairs of shorts or skirts or something, (c) nightgown so I can pretend I'm all modest like that, (d) light jacket, (e) shoes, (f) socks just in case anyone decides they feel like bowling again, (g) pair of pants in case it gets REALLY cold again, (h) sweatshirt, for the same reason. After adding a few books, toiletries, hair stuff, etc. the thing is pretty heavy.

Knowing that I am likely to be up there for four days straight next week and that my bag will NOT hold four days worth of clothes, it was kind of a lucky coincidence that I had to haul a bag that Dave left behind here one time with me on this trip. So I packed a couple dresses, pair of pants, shorts, shirt, and books he wanted into that so I could get it all over with.

Even I started worrying about carrying this load to the station a bit when it was time to go. I wanted to ask Hill for a ride, but she seemed to be Not In The Mood, so I didn't. Suffice it to say my right shoulder was going "Ow. Ow. Ow. Ow." all the way there, and I had to stop and take breaks.

There were some completely annoying people on the train that thought they were SO COOL and wonderful, and were pretty much showing this off the entire time. Talking incredibly loudly, and then after the train started up, one of them pulled out a radio/CD player and started blasting music, which they changed every song. Then they got up and danced in the aisles. Eventually a conductor came through and told them to turn it off, and one of them whined, "But another girl came through earlier and she looked right at us and she didn't say nuffin!" (I had seen no such girl come through our car while I was on it.) The conductor said something to the effect of "Well, maybe she was distracted, but turn it off anyway." They did, for about five minutes.

Anyway, upon arriving, I was greeted by a mob- Dave, Jeremy and Nikki, Teri and Gabe- and told that we were heading off to vampire that night. Which, in all honesty, was BO-RING. Everyone was off in "family meetings" and we kept being told to go away. So we finally went up to the head of our "family", who said "Go talk to the new prince" (yup, another one, the sibling of the original), who was... you guessed it... in a meeting. Except for watching someone get staked, the evening was a bust. Why is it worth paying $20 to be an "official" member again?

At any rate, my back started hurting all along the spine, and my head felt too heavy to hold up. I just kept looking around for anywhere to sit down and finally gave up and sat in a chair, even if it was in the in-character area and I got ragged on for not roleplaying.

I was such fun to deal with this weekend. I basically spent from Friday night to Saturday afternoon lying around in pain (Dave's mom commented that when one of us gets something, the other seems to follow) and while he was at work, curling up with a heating pad. That helped for a few hours, as did Teri (future masseuse) getting rid of the knots. But guess what, as they were discussing whether to go to the movies or a concert or karaoke that night, I realized that I just wouldn't be able to hold up my head that long. Ruining everyone's fun again, of course. T&G hung out here for a bit and then went off to Gabe's concert.

Seriously, when anything happens to my back (nothing this bad before though), I get "tired." Even after I've slept a LOT, after awhile I just need to sit or lie somehow so that I don't have to support my own head.

Oh, and did I mention that I'm starting to get sick? So far it's just an annoying cough, but it's clearly one of Those aggravating, deep, lingering coughs. Which means trouble.

Dave got a phone call that night from Scott, who had quit his job at the camp and returned home. I can't say why he did on the Internet because well, it's really bad, but let's just say he used to work with some major league asses. So we went over and crashed at their place, then went around shopping with them the next day.

I need to interrupt the narrative for a bit to clear something up: "Popping" drives me nuts. (I am referring to cracking knuckles and other joints like that.) I HATE that noise, I always wince when I hear it, I've never deliberately popped anything in my life.

I'd felt better after sleeping, but while we were wandering around Wal-Mart, the heavy-head thing kicked in again, and I started feeling kinda woozy and out of it. I mentioned this to Scott casually as we arrived back at their place, and as we were getting out of the car, he called me over and had me cross my arms.

I had NO IDEA what the hell he was going to do.

He picked me up from behind and lifted me up as high as he could go a couple of times, and MAJOR FUCKING POPPING happened up my entire back.

I screamed the entire time he was doing it, then immediately burst into tears when he put me down. Apparently had I not landed right in front of Dave, he would have knocked Scott's block off. Scott apologized up the wazoo and both of the guys yelled at me for never telling them that I hadn't been popped before ("I didn't KNOW that was what you were going to do to TELL you!").

I really really hated having it done, hope I never have to have it done again, but... it seems to have fixed the problem.

Dave has come up with a possible way to get "off the hook" for hiding the engagement from my parents- after meeting them, he wants to propose to me in front of them. I'm not sure if this is a good idea or not- I have no idea how they'd react- but it's a possibility.

While coming back on the train, I heard this lovely story from this redneck guy who was telling about how his girlfriend of six years tried to stab him with a 12 inch kitchen knife. "I didn't do nuffin!" I heard that and thought "Bullshit, you didn't," but I guess there wasn't much he'd done. They'd gone out drinking and some girl in the bar had walked up to him and kissed him on the cheek. He'd pushed her off, girlfriend was acting normal still, they drank some more, went home, went to bed, and around four in the morning she woke up... "Bitch, what'd I DO?" You know, whether she is one or not, I wouldn't call anyone who's trying to stick a knife in me that...

Mom left a pissy message on my phone around 10:45 wanting to know why I hadn't called her yet. She then proceeded to tell me that she truly believes my teeth are going to fall out at any second (because neither of my grandparents have their teeth. Hello, they're over 85, who DOES have their teeth by then?) and she demanded that I immediately schedule a dentist appointment or she'd drag me home on a workday to go to the one at home.

My mother is B-O-N-K-E-R-S.

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