A lot can happen in two months
Here is a list of what I’ve been up to in the last eight weeks.
- At the end of March, my grandma’s health deteriorated very quickly and she went to the hospital. I was still working at the time and I took a day off work to drive up to Stockton and see her. I held her hand and spent time with the rest of my family. The next day, when I was back in LA, my grandma died.
- Three days later, Dan and I celebrated our second anniversary, after we met at pamie’s Oscar party in 2006. A lot has happened since then, most remarkably the fact that we now live together. None of this would have happened if I hadn’t started a blog when I was 18, because that’s how pamie got in touch with me in the first place, leading her to introduce me to Dan when we met in person four years later. The internet brings people together, much like Tostitos Brand Tortilla Chips.
- The next week, I started helping Dan create his “Week Without Pity” segments for Television Without Pity. He writes them and gives me the voiceover, and I choose/create the images and edit them into a video. Really, it was just a way for me to hang out with him more, so he didn’t have to spend three nights out of the week working on it after work. On the other hand, I can work on it during the day because...
- ...that was my very last week of work on ANTM Cycle 10! That was a huge accomplishment for me. It’s the longest job I’ve ever had, it’s the highest-paying job I’ve had, but more importantly, it’s the most fun I’ve ever had at work. It was like the end of a school year, with 10 weeks of sweet hiatus before working on Cycle 11. But my excitement took a backseat to a more painful situation...
- That exact same week, my grandpa, his health in rapid decline since grandma’s death, went to the hospital and I went back to San Francisco to visit him in the hospital. In fact, I went directly from my last day of work to the airport, and spent the weekend with my family again. My grandma was the first death in my family that I can remember, and it was both easier and harder to find myself visiting grandpa in the hospital only a few weeks later.
- Two days later, my friend Emily visited from Seattle and stayed with me for a week. It was my first chance in a month to take a deep breath and try to relax, so I wasn’t the most exciting host, but we did have a great time. Anyway, David took her to Roscoe’s House of Chicken ’N Waffles, so she had at least one amazing experience while she was here.
- On the same day that Emily left (and at the exact same time, though on a different flight), I flew up to Seattle to spend three days with my parents, to hang out under more normal circumstances, and to pack up some oversized belongings I would drive back to LA in a rental car. We pretty much ate well and watched a bunch of movies -- exactly what we needed to chill out and enjoy each other’s company.
- On the morning of Saturday, March 29th, I picked up my friend Jen at 7:30 AM, and picked up my rental car at 8 AM. We started driving through the snow that had started falling, alarmingly enough, but encountered good weather through the mountains and... well, let’s just say we made good time. AMAZING time. I’ve never driven that far on my own before (or with someone who hadn’t either), so it was a real adventure. If you don’t believe me, check out the motherfucking lions and bears we got crunk with on the way.
- The day after Jen and I arrived in LA, I found out that my grandpa had died. In fact, I learned this on the day Jen and I spent at DISNEYLAND. And Disneyland happened only after we experienced an accidental tour through Watts, thanks to a freeway shooting that shut down the entire 105 and redirected hundreds of vehicles with no detour through what some consider a dangerous part of town. THEN we got to visit Mickey’s house in ToonTown and ride the Matterhorn. And then I went home and made arrangements to fly out for grandpa’s burial.
- Grandpa’s burial was the following Saturday. I could not even stay overnight in San Francisco because Jen was not only still in LA, but leaving early the next morning. So I got up at 4 AM, flew out to be with my family, served as a pallbearer throughout the viewing, church service, and final burial that afternoon. Several hours later, I was flying back to LA. And I realized I was getting sick.
- When I got home from my big day out of town, I wasn’t feeling so good. By 11 PM that night, I had a fever, couldn’t stop shaking, and was talking to myself. At 8 AM, I realized there was no way I could operate a motor vehicle, so Dan took Jen to the airport because he is a saint. My miserable self went along for the ride, trying hard to convince Jen that I wasn’t the worst host in the history of hosting. I went home and, long story short, spent the next two weeks in bed being ABSOLUTELY DISGUSTING.
- Since mid-April, I have finally had a chance to collect myself and try to establish an ordinary routine during my lengthy period of unemployment. I have tried to work on editing and writing as much as possible, but sadly it has been almost impossible to find time to work on The Slow Roll. Dan doesn’t have time to work on it anymore, so it’s just me trying to finish writing up Twisted. I feel awful about it and I’m trying to get the website back on track.
That is my story.
