Another Game Night

My family likes game nights. Well...not my immediate family, my extended family. My immediate family is fine with sitting down to play a game of cards or Monopoly, and we don't need to make a huge deal out of it.

Game Night wouldn't be such a big deal (to me, anyway) if we didn't play games like Cranium or Trivial Pursuit at 10:00 at night, when we're all fighting to stay awake. It's like everyone on that side of the family doesn't ever sleep. They're awake in the middle of the day, and then they're awake at freaking midnight, and THEY NEVER SEEM TIRED! It's ridiculous.

Unfortunately, they also seem to believe that everyone else is the same.

Every time we have Game Night, we don't start playing until 8 or 9 at night. Now, Tinkerbelle gets bitchy when she gets tired, and games are not an acception to that rule (although, lately she's been bitchier than normal, so being tired seems to have nothing to do with it anymore). The main problem is that we seem to have to work around everyone's work schedules -- everyone's work schedules except ours, of course.

Last year, Thanksgiving was postponed because my cousin had to work.

Everyone wanted Tinkerbelle to try and get off early from work the last Game Night we had so that we could work around their schedule.

My cousin had us hold off on Christmas presents because he had to work (really, what kind of shitty job has you working on Christmas?).

Tinkerbelle had to get up early the next morning for work, and they were here until almost midnight.

See what I mean?

It's like the entire family revolves around my know-it-all cousin. Now, keep in mind that my cousin is nearly 40, has never had a girlfriend, works at Comcast answering phones for a living (seriously, what a shitty job), has some kind of computer degree he does nothing with, is working toward getting another degree he'll probably do nothing with, and may as well still live with his parents since he's always around them anyway. He lives in his grandfather's house (his mother's father), and visits his parents every single day. He vacations with them, every time they go on vacation. He goes curtain shopping with his mother. He goes grocery shopping with his mother. He shares every single opinion he has with his mother. Seriously, there's something wrong with that relationship. I mean, I completely and totally understand loving your mother with all your heart, but if you can't even stay home when she goes on vacation halfway across the world, you have a serious problem. It would be different (maybe) if her husband were dead, but he's not.

And I'm sick of the family revolving around this Mamma's Boy.

Luckily, tonight we played a game we could all enjoy. It wasn't too difficult, but still kept us on our toes, and it was entertaining while being something everyone could do (instead of acting, sculpting, or drawing).

Now, my entire family? We're visual learners. We need to physically see how something is done in order to understand it. Which basically means that, when we're playing a new game, we all need to see, read, and understand the rules in order to have a good time.

Unfortunately, my cousin is like, the Rule Nazi, and doesn't share the rules.

Tinkerbelle actually had to stand up and steal the rules from behind his back just to understand what the hell she was doing in the game. He never noticed, but I'm sure he would have uttered an annoyed sigh and audible eye-roll had he seen. He's like a man with the remote to the t.v. except...with a piece of paper that comes inside the game box.

To top it off, my aunt seemed really pissed off tonight, for no reason I could really understand.

Oh, and my aunt's brother and sister-in-law (my aunt married into the family and isn't related to us by blood) have a SEVERELY autistic little girl, who likes to scream for no reason and tear glasses off of your face. Granted, I know she can't really help that sort of thing, but...damn. I really, REALLY hope I don't have an autistic child, because I would not be able to handle it. And this is coming from someone who's mother once told her that she thought she was autistic as a baby (and I still may have Asperger's, though I've never been diagnosed). Luckily for us, the nurse they have working for them offered to stay until the game was over. That kept the little girl occupied the whole night, which was nice. Yes, they have a nurse working in their house taking care of thier child. That's how severe she is.

Anyways, it's been an eventful evening, my cousin's birthday. Oh, yes, it was that same annoying cousin's birthday today. I've lost track of how old he is but...I think he was born when my mom was 8 or so...I don't feel like doing math, bleh.

He's good for something, though! He's taking me to Les Miserables in September.

Legally Blonde the Musical

I mentioned in an earlier post that I was going to see Legally Blonde the Musical. Well, I did. We just got back a few hours ago. It really was a blast, and I'd actually love to go see it again. I have to admit that I was a little apprehensive at first. I mean, Legally Blonde isn't the kind of thing you would expect to see on the Broadway stage. I loved the movie, though, so I was willing to give it a chance.

Plus, it's a Broadway show, so...duh! Of course I'm going to go see it!

The show started out with a song called Ohmigodyouguys. Which has to be one of the most annoying songs ever in any Broadway show I've ever seen or heard. Luckily for me, the rest of the songs were actually pretty good, and the story very closely followed the movie (with a few script changes here and there to accomodate the stage). Unfortunately for me, it seemed to be the show's freaking theme song, and they liked to stick it in there whenever they got the chance. The song Ireland was fairly amusing, and since it had an Irish sound to it, I liked it. And of course, there was a song titled Legally Blonde, which surprisingly didn't even show up until act two.

The highlight was Bend and Snap though. Yes, they made an entire song and dance out of the one scene in the movie. And yes, it does in fact end with Paulette breaking the UPS guy's nose (he's named Kyle in the show, but I can't remember if he had that name in the movie). She ends the song with a lovely little "Oh, crap!" It's funny.

It seemed like a lot of the cast had a cold though. Emmette in particular (played by a very cute actor named Nic Rouleau) missed a lot of his notes. And it's not like it wasn't noticable; he was very clearly falling just flat of hitting his notes. Most of the cast seemed to be like this, but it was Emmette who was the most noticable.

And may I just mention one thing?

The men in this production? HOT!

H-O-T, hot. Smoking, really. It was fun to watch, just for that alone.

There's a scene in the very beginning of the play, when Elle is trying to study for the LSATs to get into Harvard, where all these frat boys appear on stage to announce that there's this big party. They're all very cute...and very, very shirtless.

Again, HOT.

All in all, I had a nice night! I just wish Tinkerbelle had enjoyed it more. Apparently she had a headache. She just didn't seem that into it. Which is a shame, since she was the one who invited me. *shrug* Oh, well. She did laugh a few times, so I suppose it wasn't a total loss.

Colds Suck

The title pretty much says it all.

I caught a cold from Mickey and Tinkerbelle, who both had it for about two weeks. Yay. I can't breathe through my nose, I'm sleeping like crap, I'm dizzy and cold, and I'm achy. On top of all of this, I need to work this week, babysitting. Fortunately for me, my little charge seems to understand someone being sick. Unfortunately for me, she also can't seem to entertain herself for long and therefore keeps asking me to do stuff with her.

I hope this cold at least suppresses itself by Thursday. Tinkerbelle and I are going to go see Legally Blonde on Thursday, and if I'm all gross and sniffly, I won't be able to enjoy it. Well...not as much as I normally would, anyway. Let's face it, it doesn't matter how bad I'm feeling, seeing a live Broadway show will always entertain me in some way.

By the way, colds suck.

Legally Blonde!

Not the movie, although it was a great movie. The musical. It's coming to Colorado Springs next week.

Yes, there's a Legally Blonde musical.

Tinkerbelle found out about it and asked me if I wanted to go see it with her, which surprised the hell out of me, I have to say. We bought our tickets last Friday, and the tickets arrived today. We're going to see it next Thursday, and I'm really excited. There's nothing better than a live Broadway show. Nothing in the world. I love it.

So far I've seen The Lion King, Wicked, Les Miserables, and Spamalot live. And I loved them all. Time to add Legally Blonde to that list. I'm so excited!!

Game Night

Wow. I haven't updated this blog in a while. But what better way to get back into action with *drumroll*

More complaining!

We all went out on Saturday night to some area halfway between Denver and Castle Rock, where my aunt's brother and sister-in-law live, for game night. This wouldn't be so bad, except for a few things.

1. They have an extremely severly autistic daughter.
Now, I'm not one who makes fun of any kind of disability (unless it's ADD, which I think people play up bigtime), but I just don't know how to handle this kid. I have a short temper, and she goes around grabbing people's faces and ripping glasses off of your face. She also enjoys popping out of nowhere and yelling nonsense while she uses you as some sort of springboard. I don't know how I would react if she were to do something like that to me. I mean, I don't want to hit her; that would be bad. But it would most likely be my first response to something so...startling. I'm screwed if I ever have an autistic kid.

2. My cousin.
The guy apparently dictates anything the family does. If he has to work, we need to push Thanksgiving dinner back or move an entire vacation around. If he wants to see a movie, he's going to see one, curfew be damned. He's a know-it-all, who doesn't actually know it all and it makes me want to scream. He actually told Tinkerbelle on Saturday night that the reason she gets nervous on the drive between Colorado Springs and Castle Rock, along Monument Pass, isn't the slippery roads or the traffic. It's the fact that visibility is a pain. So...lemme get this straight: If that's what makes him nervous, it's what makes everyone nervous? I thought Tinkerbelle was going to go off on him and punch him in the face when he did that. Because it is the slippery roads and crappy drivers that make her nervous, not the lack of visibility. We live in a neighborhood that gets foggy while the rest of the city is sunny. We know how to drive in fog.
On top of that, he ALWAYS chooses the game for game night. And it's always some crappy game that involves art or charades, which I've discovered my family is no good at. Granted, those are the only well-known games that can be played by big groups, but they're not the only games.
To top it all off, he practically called all of the women in our family, including his own mother, stupid yesterday. What an idiot.

3. The little boy.
The autistic kid's little brother is a brat. If they read this blog, they'll probably thwap me upside the head for writing it, but it's true! The kid is a spoiled, over-protected brat who likes to steal the spotlight.

4. The time.
It's like no one in that family has a concept of how late it actually gets when the sun goes down. They all stay up late, and they all think everyone else does too. On Christmas day, we went there for game night, and I had to get up early the next morning to work. We stayed there until nearly 11 o'clock. This last time, Tink had to get up early. It was only through extreme coaxing on her part that we got out of there before 10. They originally wanted to make the night happen about 9. 9!! Luckily we moved it up to 5.

So, there you have it: four reasons why I hate game night. And I get to go to Vegas with these people. Lucky, lucky me.

Taking Some Responsibility Would Be Nice!

I am so sick and tired of doing things right and getting stepped on because of it. I'm not an aggressive person, and I don't know how to be. It's not in my nature. So people take that as an advantage and use it to walk all over me like a cheap carpet.

I was at the DMV today to renew my registration for my car. It took all of twenty minutes and I was done. I had the little sticker and was on my way out the door. I got to my car, got inside and took my keys out of my purse. My keys were in my hand -- repeat, NOT IN THE IGNITION -- when I suddenly heard a loud scraping noise and my entire car began rocking back and forth. I turned around in my seat to see a young driver in a white Chevy Impala, firmly attached to the back bumper of my car. He obviously cursed and pulled all the way through (rather than stopping right there), which scratched my car further. I got out of my car and we exchanged insurance information. I probably shouldn't have given him mine, granted, and maybe the police should have been called. But in my never-wavering faith of people, I gave him my insurance info in exchange for his and drove away.

Now, like an idiot, I forgot to write down the name of his insurance provider.

I looked up his family online (with the information acquired from his insurance card) and called his house to get the name of his provider. He answered the phone and I heard his mother coaching him in the background. He didn't hit me, I backed into him, and his mother was there to witness it from the DMV window. I asked again for his provider's name and he simply said he had to speak with his parents before hanging up.

I'm sorry, he was alone in that car! And we were three or four isles away from the DMV window, so NO ONE could have seen the accident from there. I didn't even have the car on, and suddenly I'm being called a bad driver. Turns out I got hit my a Momma's Boy, and she is incredibly intent upon keeping her little baby's driving record perfectly clean.

I'm thinking that they're not going to claim it, and hope that the whole thing will just go away. Problem is that they underestimate the power of the internet. I have their home address and phone number, and I did fill out a police report online. We called Progressive (which I recalled as being his provider, but I'm probably wrong), and they took our claim information. And we called our own insurance company to find out what happens should they file a claim.

Now let me make one thing abundantly clear: I always -- ALWAYS -- look behind me when backing out, simply to avoid THIS EXACT SITUATION. I have a job, but not one that can pay for a hike in insurance prices to cover my car, so I drive carefully. I always go speed limit, and I always pay some kind of fucking attention when I'm driving down the road. Just because this 17-year-old pansy ass momma's boy won't pay attention to where the hood of his fucking car is, now I'm suddenly the one at fault.

Granted, I made some big mistakes in this situation.

But I did not -- repeat, NOT -- back up into him. Anyone who has ever ridden with me or watched me drive knows this. I am NOT a reckless driver. And screw that boy and his overprotective mother for saying so.

I think that he should take some responsibility for the accident that he caused, and his mother should make him do so, instead of protecting him from the law. A few days ago, a white Chevy Impala with a young driver nearly sideswiped Tinkerbelle as she drove to a job interview, then screamed at her saying that it was a brand new car (like it's some sort of excuse for not paying some kind of attention to the road around him). The description I made to Momma and Tinkerbelle of the boy driving matching that of the description Tinkerbelle has of the kid that almost hit her. If it is indeed the same driver (all the evidence matches up except for the fact that I'm not sure if the car had temp tags or not), then this little boy's momma needs to teach him how to drive rather than protect him from accidents. Otherwise he won't know what he's doing wrong and will wind up being seriously injured or killed in a car accident. And he needs to grow some kind of backbone and take responsibility for hitting a parked car in the parking lot. I'm beginning to wonder if he would have left any kind of information had he hit my car while I was still in the DMV, or if he would have just run and let it be.

Oh, and just for the record, had I been any slower getting into my car, my door would have been opened and probably damaged as well. I may have even been hurt, I'm not sure. If he's dumb enough to not pay attention to the hood of his car, then he may be dumb enough to try and pull into a space next to a car with their door wide open.

*le sigh* What an afternoon...

*heavy sigh*

Ever have one of those days where you just feel totally useless? Like you're not doing anything positive or significant with your life? This was one of those days for me.

I woke up feeling fine. Perfect, actually, and in one of the best moods I've been in in a long time. I'm up for a job of sorts, taking care of my mom's boss's daughter, so that's always good. At least it will be some money for a while, even if it's not much. I could start paying my cell phone bill and car insurance and take some of the pressure off my parents. Now if the lady would just call me back...

Anyways, I went on facebook earlier today. Most of my friends are old friends from high school who I try (and fail) to keep in contact with. Looking over all of their profiles today, I realized just how much all of them are moving on and doing things with their lives that make a difference and make them feel important. And here I am, just...stuck.

Even if I do get this job, it won't be enough money for me to move out on my own. At least not anytime soon. And I live in the suckiest town in America for acting, so I still won't be able to act even after getting money. I have this fear that I'll just be stuck for the rest of my life in a job and city I hate while all my friends move on and pursue their dreams, and I don't want that. I'm 22 years old and still living with my parents, and even after getting a job, I still can't move out. It sucks. Majorly.

And I don't know how to make it...not suck.