hkellick | Aug. 18th, 2003

It was one of those mixed weekends. In the end, it was probably more good than bad, but when it was bad, it was real bad.

On Friday,
The plan, as many of you knew, was to put a paint gel in my hair, thus turning it blue (my mom has an actual picture of it, but we didn't take any digi pictures of it) and then be in Rochester and go to Vertex, the local goth club.
The plan never actually happened.
I got the paint in no problem, though next time I'll add a lot less before I head to Rochester and see if that's enough. It made it feel like I was wearing a helmet which felt neither right nor all that comfortable.
Drove up to Rochester and was there by 7:45. Got in and hugged my dork when the phone rings and the rest of The Brain has decided they're just too hot and sticky and, frankly, beat to do much.
I'd like to say I was mature about it, but honestly I wasn't. I want into a tirade about how I KNEW no one was going to come and I KNEW it (I really honestly did) Monday when everyone was a definate maybe and continued to know as Friday kept closer and everyone was either a maybe or a probable.
I do understand the reasonings, guys. Between power outages and panic attacks and a number of other things, I understand that this was just not a good week to do stuff, but I was really disappointed that we didn't get to go after I built myself up for the experience and was looking forward to it.
So Friday instead, we shuffle in and spend about an hour with The Brain in

blackfelicula's apartment, with no air conditioning. Just up to 8 hot, sweaty, tired people who didn't really want to do an awful lot. And.. I just... exploded inside. Between the stresses of my own week and a few things that have been bothering me, the disappointment from not going to Vertex and just being tired and bored, I ended up clamming up quietly to myself and fuming quietly about the unfairness of it all. Unfortunately, Kristen caught on that I was clamming up and kept trying to get me to talk, but I was busy fuming and I didn't wanna sound like a petulant child ("I'm booooooored. I'm hoooooooooot. Why are we HERE?") so I just kept dismissing her, which made her upset.
Eventually, Dawn and Oliver come back (Did I mention they'd gone home to get cards and that? No. I guess not.), I opened my card and then managed to leave it at Maureen's and John's place :p Durrr :p Then we headed off to Ontario Beach was sort of neat.
I swung for a while on an actual swing. Twas fun. Kristen spent a fair amount of time in Lake Ontatrio in the dark. Something I might have done except that I was still feeling semi-petulant when she said that I'd stay out there with her, so stayed mostly on sand and shore and not in water with her.
Then we went home.

On Saturday,
the plan was that there was this Fiddle Fair in Mumford, New York that Kristen wanted to see and attend. I ended waking up early (I was just awake and not ready to sleep any more) and Kristen later. We got dressed, ate dinner and headed off to Mumford.
It didn't occur to me until we got much closer that this was in MUMFORD in the Genesee Country Museum, a place that was neat when I went there in 5th grade (read: 18 years ago) and that it might be neat again.
We got there and the sun had just come out. We found the Fiddle Fair pretty easily and Kristen spent some time jamming in the jam tent with a bunch of guys with banjos, guitars, a flutist and a couple of other violinists. It was cool to watch and listen for a while, but after a while, I got hot and bored. So I wandered off into the Carriage Museum and looked around, which was really neat. Came back and we both decided to explore Mumford a little. We didn't get all the way, but we did get to explore a few neat buildings. We'll definately have to go back when it's not quite so hot.
We then went to go check out the Hammered Dulcimer (? *looks to Kristen*) lessons. Kristen got to play. I had inteded to play after her, but some little girl ended up waiting in line behind her and I didn't have the hear to take the Dulcimer away from the little girl. Also, I had developed a really really nasty headache.
Got home, ended up taking a nap for about an hour, made dinner, then watched a DVD I had brought over (Wyrd Sisters - based on the Terry Pratchett novel).
Then we went to bed... and fought. No, I'm not going to tell you what we fought about. But we fought. Kristen cried, I fumed. I went to bed and she eventually joined.

On Sunday,
we woke up and fought some more, showered and fought some more.
While Kristen was taking her shower, I was sitting there, feeling guilty, angry, unhappy. I did not want a repeat of two weekends ago where we both were just unhappy and uncomfortable and ended up making Sunday pretty miserable for both of us. I packed my bags and asked if I should just leave.
And so we fought some more, and then ended up breaking into tears, holding each other closesly and agreeing to both work on certain things so that we don't end up having more 12 hour fights.
After cleaning up the numerous tissues, we ended up having brunch at IHOP, which was nice. Then we were like "What do you wanna do?" "What do you wanna do?" "I asked you first." "Hmm.. you're close to the Zoo? Wanna go?" "K."
So off to the Seneca Park Zoo we went. The Genesee Zoo, for those of you NOT in Rochester, is a pretty small but cheap zoo. They only have a few exhibits: Alligators, Elephants, Polar Bears, Penguins, Sea Lions, River Otters, Wolves (which I desperately wanted to see, but AGAIN I was denied. They must have been dozing in their dens and staying away from the DayStar) Numerous Big Cats, Reptiles and Birds, but it's the sort of zoo that you can easily do in a couple of hours. It was lots of fun. It was especially fun to see the little baby polar bear playing by the window (assumedly "with" the children and adults putting their hands on the glass) until momma bear swam over, grabbed baby and started to play herself. The baby was such a ham and was so cute :) The little baby snow leopard was cool too :)
Came back home, having felt decidedly better, ended up watching an hour long Gallagher tape I had brought along (which maybe quite wasn't as kidlet safe as I'd originally thought. Ah well.), making dinner and just cuddling before I had to go home.
Then I went home, feeling generally that it was a fairly good weekend, and went to sleep.

So, that was my weekend. Exciting, no? :)