The Ripple Effect

Today was a...not so great day. No matter how hard I tried to look at the brighter side or remind myself that whatever was bothering me was small compared to what other people were facing, I just couldn't get myself out of the grumpy, cranky, stomp my feet mood. I think I'm burnt out. I had a 47 hour work week. The first of my new availability taking effect. I think this may have been a bad choice. Bad in the way that my feet hurt, I don't have my down time, and I was thrown into it. There was no gradual increase in hours.
Everything today annoyed me. Then it irritated me. Then I bitched and moaned about everything. My back started to act up, which it only does when I'm stressed and have been on my feet all day. I sprained my back a few years back from a kick boxing class I took in college and it has never been the same. I should be doing exercises to strengthen the muscles, but I haven't. So a full day of customers who needed special attention and hand holding as they shopped and coworkers who forgot their common sense at home, has me wanting to cry.
I got in my car after work and called Chancho. He did have me in a good mood until we started talking about his mother. I wanted to have dinner with him tonight, but his mother did too. She wins. It's her turn to have dinner with him and I think it will be for a while as her father has just passed away and she needs all the support she can get. He wants me to hang out at his place while they have dinner, but that's something I'm not comfortable with, at least not anymore after the "incident". His mother doesn't agree with us getting back together and refuses to initiate any conversation until I do. (I find that so mature.) However, there seems to be a culture difference in that aspect. According to Chancho, in his culture it is appropriate for the guest who is coming into the house to say hello first to the host. Yet, here, correct me if I'm wrong, it's more appropriate for the host to greet the guest first, when they arrive. I've never really put much thought into before because normally it's just whoever says hi first, then that's it, but I guess in Peru it's an insult for the guest not to say hi first. I've been working on making it a point to say hello first when arriving at their house, but sometimes, it just slips my mind or I'm preoccupied, or what have you. Another issue is saying good-bye. Most of the time I don't search the family out to say good-bye because they're in their bedroom with the door closed and I don't feel like it's appropriate to knock on the door to announce that I'm leaving. Also, I'm shy in that respect, I think because of the language barrier. I have never fully felt comfortable in talking to his family and it's definitely showing here. One, I can't really understand them through the accent and two, because sometimes, they don't make sense to me. It's a challenge, but I haven't let it discourage me from making conversation when the time is right. It's something that I'm going to have to deal with because it's not going to go away and it's important to me to have his family approve/like me.
I'm planning a weekend get-away for Chancho and I. It's time for us to escape the madness for a few days to just focus on us. Revamp ourselves away from outside pressures. I'm thinking a bed and breakfast or a hotel, a few hours away and cheap. Now, we just need to find some dates that fit both our schedules.

Quote of the day: Maybe it did take a crisis to get to know yourself; maybe you needed to get whacked hard by life before you understood what you wanted out of it.
-Jodi Picoult, Handle With Care 
Listening to:  "Life After You" by Daughtry

And...I'm home

How quickly time can fly, especially when you're sick. If Monday was any indication as to how the rest of my week was going to go, I should have curled up in my bed and stayed there. But no, I was determined to have my time away with my man. No sickness was going to stop me. Monday morning I headed over to Chancho's place and crawled into bed with him as I figured I'd let him sleep in a little longer before we headed off to our campground. Well a couple hours later, I found myself banging on his bathroom door and heard him tell me to hang on. I couldn't control myself so I did a quick scan of the room and started vomiting into his trash can. From there I dragged myself back into his bed and laid there for a few more hours. He was on the phone with his ex, as she was having another mental break down and he's the ONLY one who can apparently calm her down. (A whole other issue) Chancho put in the video from his time in Peru for me to watch while he was on the phone with her. Not that I really understood anything since everyone was speaking Spanish, but I did get to see him in his wetsuit swimming with sea lions. It actually made me laugh. When I was able to get a little food down, we decided to head off on our journey.
I made it all the way without needing a barf bag and I was even able to eat some McDonalds without any problems. We set up camp and started our relaxing trip. We were right on the creek so of course we had to go exploring. I thought the water was freezing, but Chancho didn't mind it and went swimming in the areas that were deep enough. After exploring a bit, we headed in to town (6 miles away), which is the only place that gets cell phone reception, to buy some food. When we got back we actually found ourselves sleeping the entire day away. We only got up to make ourselves a sandwich, have a small fire and then went back to sleep.
Tuesday, we had a good breakfast and read all day. We found out that we had set up on the wrong campsite so we had to move our entire set up to the site next to us. We read our reservation wrong, which wasn't that big of a deal, but still irritating. 

This is our tent, finally on the right campsite

 The view of our entire campsite

 The creek right next to us

We made a great steak dinner Tuesday night. It was soooo good. Chancho cooked the steak, while I cooked the corn and mashed potatoes. I was so full after it, I fell fast asleep. 

 Cooking steak on the open fire

 Our dinner on Tuesday night

 This picture was taken at 845pm. The moon was so bright!

Then, in the middle of the night, I bolted up out of my sleep and found myself needing to throw up again. I stuck my head out of the door and made it just in time, missing the inside of the tent. It all went down hill from there. Chancho and I both were sick from there on out. Wed we found ourselves making non stop trips to the bathroom. Thankfully the bathroom was only a short walk away from our campsite. We stayed put in our campsite reading our books and making trips to the bathroom for the rest of the day. We didn't even eat anything and slept a lot. The only good thing was that the weather was absolutely gorgeous. It was almost always above 70, with a slight breeze and only a few clouds in the sky. I had said that if it was raining there was no way I was going to stay sick in crappy weather. We figured that it was probably the water that we were drinking or something that we had eaten. I'm still not 100% but at least I can eat food again.
It was an overall good trip, but I would have liked to have been healthy and gone on a few hikes. But it is what it is right? I go back to work on Sunday, Chancho worked last night after we got back and is working some over time Saturday night, so his vacation has come to an end. Back to the grind, until next weekend! We're going to Toronto to see the Yankees! Keeping my fingers crossed that we don't get sick on that trip.

Quote of the Day: "Do not spoil what you have by desiring that which you have not; but remember that what you have now was once among the things you only hoped for." - Epicurus 
Listening to: "Carry on Wayward Son" by Kansas

Finally

He's here!! Chancho's flight arrived an hour late and then another agonizing hour later he came through the gate. I scurried over and into his arms.  I didn't cry or scream, just hugged him for a while. I really did miss him. We spent the morning together, as much as we could before heading out to a graduation party. We were supposed to go to the Yankee game that night but tickets were ridiculously priced so we decided against it.
Chancho instead decided to give my parents their presents. My father received a statue carved out of wood that had real animal teeth, hair, and horns on it. On the inside is a knife and not just a little knife, like a butchers knife. It's cool, but a little scary looking. My mother got coasters that have Peruvian drawings on them. I got a heart shaped jewelry box and a set of shot glasses that have the same Peruvian drawings on them as the coasters.

Today we packed up the car for camping. We'll be leaving tomorrow morning, but Chancho is working tonight so we figured we'd get it out of the way now while we have time. I'm really excited for this camping trip. I hope that the sun stays out for us. So that's where I'll be this week. I'll be back Friday! Enjoy your week and don't forget to check out PostSecret.

Quote of the Day: "It’s when you hold eye contact for that second too long or maybe the way you laugh. It sets off a flash and our memories take a picture of who we are at that point when we first know “This is love.” And we clutch that picture to our hearts because we expect each other to always be the people in that picture. But people change. People aren’t pictures. And you can either take a new picture or throw the old one away." - Iain Thomas

Listening to: "Comfortable" by John Mayer

I need to Learn Spanish

Phone call #1 came one out from the end of the game. Chancho needed to know the score. I've gotten phone calls everyday since he's been able to have a working phone. Some days, he's been able to call twice, but I am definitely glued to my phone waiting for an odd number to pop up. I missed one phone call and attempted to call Peru. Let's just say it was...a disaster...interesting. Remember I don't speak Spanish at all. I can understand a few words, but mostly nothing. Chancho said that if I call I would just have to repeat his name and someone would go and get him. Well we didn't go over the plan for if he wasn't home when I called. It went as so:
Female voice: "Hola?"
Me: "Is Chancho there?"
Female voice: "something in Spanish...Chancho y Mama...something in Spanish."
Me: "Chancho?"
Female voice: "something in Spanish"
Awkward silence not knowing what to say
Me: "It's TM calling for Chancho?"
Female voice (I now recognize it's Chancho's grandmother): "Oh Hiiiiii TM, Khow are choo?"
Me: "Good...."
Chancho's grandmother: "More Spanish....Byeeee"

So I hung up. Confused as ever, but at least I knew that his grandmother knew who I was and that there was a chance that he would get the message. I heard Mama so I figured that he was out with his mother. When Chancho called back later that night he goes "I heard you had an interesting conversation with my grandmother. How come you didn't answer her when she asked who was calling?" I quickly asked if he just asked that question and then he laughed and said "Oh yeah, well at least she knew it was you."

Now I'm waiting for the second phone call. There were two games played today so he should be calling after the end of this second one. I jokingly said that the only reason he calls me is to find out the final scores, but he laughed and reassured me that he had other reasons for calling like me buying him a book so he had something to read on the flight back.

I'm super excited for tomorrow. I'm babysitting Buster, but unlike every other day, we're going on a field trip. My friend suggested that we go to a Nature Center with another friend who has a kid. I am a little nervous as to how Buster will react to being in public with me. I haven't had to deal with any temper tantrums and I know he likes to have them when he's tired and we'll be skipping a nap to go there. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that he'll be too busy with the other kid and looking at stuff that he won't get crazy. I'm just excited that we won't be doing the same thing that we do every day that I'm there. I was going bat crazy in the same routine. Now that I know that his parents are comfortable with me taking him somewhere, I think this has opened a whole new world for us.

5 days down and only 10 more days to go til Chancho gets home. Then vacation for the both of us!

Quote of the Day: "Every person you meet knows something you don't. Learn from them." -H. Jackson Brown 
Listening to:  "Scenes From An Italian Restaurant" by Billy Joel

Dinner Date

Tomorrow is the dinner date. From the beginning of the summer my parents and I have been discussing about having dinner together, including Chancho. Now that the summer is over and Chancho has been banned from doing anymore overtime, we've picked a date. That date is tomorrow. I'm a little nervous, but more excited. This will be the first dinner that we'll have out in public and in Chancho's "territory". We're going to a Peruvian restaurant and they rarely speak English there. I'm not sure how my parents will react to that, but I do know that the food there is great. Chancho and I have gone a few times already and have even ordered take out from there. It's in the town of Portchester, the town where my father grew up. I'm hoping he isn't disappointed, because the town has changed a lot since he grew up. It is now a predominant Spanish speaking town with the majority being Mexicans. Oh well no use in worrying about it, it will all work out somehow. Fingers are crossed and time to go watch the Yankees vs the Red Sox. Hopefully win #2 coming our way!!