Life and the damn Monkey Wrench!

Hi there! It has been a long time since I've blogged. Well, life as usual has been tough, but the silver lining finally came and Miller got a kick ass new job about 2 weeks ago. He loves the people he works with, he loves the company, he loves the position and the money is great. The job is close to home, no more driving around and beating up our truck.

I knew life was going too smoothly for us. Everything was looking up and we were planning on getting out of debt finally. But, of course...life had to throw a monkey wrench at us. Miller had to go break his foot 60 days before he is about to get health insurance and 2 weeks after starting his new job.

Miller went riding his dirt bike on Saturday with his dad Calvin while I spent some quality time with his step mom (Betty). Betty and I went plant shopping for her new apartment and I bought some stuff to start a little herb garden (no, not the illegal type of herbs!). Betty and Miller's mom (Vicki) both got their Mother Day's flowers and we were having a great day. I bought some kickass shorts on sale and Betty and I were relaxing and I was introducing her to the Real Housewives on Bravo.

It was about 4pm-ish when I get a call from Miller..."hmmm you should probably head home...hmm I think I broke my foot". The scramble began...I sped home, went on Craigslist to call around for crutches then found that the Goodwill store by our house had a bunch. Betty and I went to Goodwill right away and got crutches for him. The only crutches that fit Miller were some nasty old ones, so Betty and I spent 10 minutes or so switching the nasty parts with the shorter crutches. We got back and see that Miller's right foot was swollen like crazy.

The freaking out then started to set in. OMG. What are we going to do? We have a lot of debt granted, HOWEVER we have perfect credit. We have worked our asses off to at least not have any delinquencies on our credit cards and all other loans. Miller did NOT have health insurance! Should we go to the hospital, get him treated and ditch the big ass bill? No, no, no. Miller and I refuse to abuse the system like that. We want to do it right and we also do not want to ruin what we've struggled to work for - our good standing credit.

We waited till Sunday and we headed to Urgent Care. You know, when you privately pay for your medical care, they really don't push you for unnecessary care. Anyhow, they did x-rays and found that he broke his bone in his 2nd, 3rd, and 4th toes were it meet the foot. Great. The doctor there said he'll probably need surgery. F*** was all that went through our heads. Miller knew he messed up big time and I was beyond upset. So we fought all weekend. I did and still do feel bad for giving him such a hard time because I knew he already knows that he F-ED up big time. He didn't need me to harp on him further on top of his broken foot.

So, we went to the County Clinic the next day some 20 miles away in the POURING insane Nor Cal freak rain in May. Guess what? We don't qualify for ANY sort of assistance, not even like an uninsured discount or some sort of payment plan. We're NOT by any means asking for free care. We don't need welfare. However, the County Clinic wanted to charge as much as a private doctor wanted and wanted the money up front. The evil little bitch at the clinic made it seem like it was our ONLY choice to be seen there...and now, I want to go back there and slap her and tell her she's an idiot.

Miller and I went home and tried to come up with a plan. Should we go to the hospital? What? What? What? I called an orthopedic office locally and they are willing to see him on a payment plan if he needed surgery. However, with surgeries, comes charges for a surgery facility and anesthesiologist. Both of those wanted money up front in full. The freak out continues. Thankfully, Miller's grandma has money and it definitely eased the anxiety to hear her say "don't worry, I'll take care of it". Mind you, we're not looking for grandma to pay for it. We're looking for a loan from her. If he needed surgery and we went to the hospital, it can cost $10k upwards. If we did it with the private surgeon, it will be between $6k to $8k and the surgeon gives discount to private pay patients.

With the renewed confidence from grandma, we made an appointment for an orthopedic consultation for Miller with a $150 deposit. We were there today and thank god the surgeon said Miller did not need surgery. Weird how again, doctors do NOT push for unnecessary care when we're private pay (I think this is how Capitalism works...honest people doing honest business). The doctor checked out his foot, said that the bones will heal itself and placed Miller in a boot to align the bones.

Miller can't walk for couple of weeks at least and even after that, he'll probably still be limping around for a few weeks. I don't know what to do with money. He doesn't get paid-time-off yet and he won't get shit from disability since he was pretty much making minimum wage before that.

I swear, life just HAD to throw us this monkey wrench just when everything was starting to look up! I wish I can throw the monkey wrench back at life!! I guess life is just full of surprises. FML. Hopefully things will get better and get better quick.

-Emma

My Mom IS Hitler

So, I have had one big epiphany recently...and that is...my mom IS Hitler. I feel like all my life has been a big fat lie since I have had this epiphany.

Where do I start? Ever since I was a wee little child, my mom has managed to feed me full of stories about what a terrible husband my dad is. He cheated on my mom and he was an immature jerk. It didn't help that my dad is indeed a douchebag and my mom managed to capitalize on that to make both my sister and I hate him.

My mom always told me, had it NOT been my dad, she would have had this fabulous career in the tax consultant world. She would have made partner in one of the many "Big 5" firms. However, my DAD was the root of all her failures. My dad made it so she couldn't meet with clients after hours. My dad made scenes at her work place. My dad was controlling. Therefore, my mom's career failed time and time again.

Like I said, it didn't help that my dad is a complete douchebag himself. He is a brainless neandertal. He only knew how to express himself through anger and rage. So, it was easy for me to believe every word my mom told me. Besides, I always thought my mom and I were close. I was always able to talk to her. She was my best friend.

From the perspective of a child, my mom seemed to have the most fabulous life. She worked as an executive at top tax firms, she traveled to fabulous places like Tokyo, San Francisco, Houston for business meetings. She always brought back cool gifts from all these places. But her fabulous life always seemed to be ruined by my dad. I always felt bad for my mom. I always took her side. I loved my mom. My mom was perfect! She was what I strive to be like when I grow up. I have always told her that I want to be an executive like her and travel the world. I wanted to be like her. She was my role model, my hero, my best friend.

My mom has manipulated me since I was a child. She manipulated me and my sister like Hitler did to millions of Germans to kill Jews. My whole life has been a lie...until May 2009 when I cut them off.

My recent epiphany came because I decided to do some reconnecting with my family. Let me give you the back story. All my life, my mom has told me my dad was a horrible person. Since my dad was a horrible person, she always told me his entire family was horrible too. My dad comes from a huge family. I think he has 10-15 brothers and sisters. Each person having at least 2 kids. So I had A LOT of cousins. We moved to the US about 10 years ago. After we moved here, we pretty much cut off ALL of the family members on my dad's side.

All my life my mom has fed my head with stories such as: Your uncles and aunts would invite your dad to dinner so that HE can pay for the whole meal; or your uncles and and aunts only wants money from us, that's why they are tricking your dad into doing XYZ. So, I've always disliked my relatives on my dad's side. It was easy because they never really like us. Our family was always singled out at family gatherings and whatnot. So, it was easy to believe my mom. My cousins didn't particularly like me...my grandparents had too many grandkids and didn't show that they particularly liked me either.

We moved to the US because my parents went bankrupt and they had to move. They defaulted on their mortgage and owed a lot of money on their credit cards. From what I remember, they advanced all their credit cards in cash with US Dollars. I don't know how much it was, but I think we had $100k CASH in our luggage when we moved here. I was too young to really know, so this is just my speculation.

When we moved to the US, my mom's sister offered her house for us to live in. She'd tell me that my dad's family didn't give us a dime to help us out. So, it just made it that much easier for my mom to paint this picture about all my dad's side of the family. We did not keep in contact with too many of them...because according to my mom, every time we talked to them, they just wanted money from us. I supported my mom on this for many years! To hell with them if all they want is money. I never made the effort to keep in contact with any of them.

Funny thing is, somehow, we always stayed in contact with all of my mom's family. Don't get me wrong, she hated them too, but my mom's brother and her 2 sisters had money. Especially one of the sisters who is actually filthy rich (the one who let us live in her empty house). So, I've written off all my cousins and relatives on my dad's side for the last decade. I mean, completely written them off. I didn't care about them, didn't care to talk to them, didn't care to know them.

Recently, my mom has taken everything to the next level. Not only did she cut me off, she has also cut off her own family. Her own family finally called BS on her, so she did what she does best, cut people off. No doubt she's manipulated my poor sister and my idiot dad into thinking that the family is just after them. She's always been able to play victim very well. She's always the victim. She did it well too.

I decided to look up my cousins from my dad's side on Facebook. I want to see for myself whether they are really terrible or not. Hey, and turns out, they're not. They're normal. And I don't blame them to have disliked my parents. In fact, my cousins thought my dad died because my mom wouldn't let him talk to any of them. In the last decade, if we EVER called my dad's family, my mom was always the one who called. That's my mom's way of showing how she's the "good guy" cuz my dad was too pussy to talk to his own family.

I feel like such a fool. My mom has planned this strategically. She wanted to cut off all my dad's family...to have them around is to intrude in her grand scheme of whatever it is. She has successfully cut off her own family now, because god knows what she has up her sleeve. She is ALWAYS the victim. She, the almighty, all holy mother, can do no wrong.

I hate her. I hate my dad, but I hate her. I know, it sounds bad. But I hate her. I hate that she has made my life into a complete lie. I hate that she has caused me to have no extended family. I hate that she has manipulated me all these years (and now my poor sister) into thinking that she is a saint. I hate her. I truly hate her. I don't know if anyone can really ever hate their own parents, but I hate my mom. She is the spawn of Satan and my dad is the idiot who follows her because he is also the spawn of Satan...only difference is, Satan didn't give him a brain. My mom is smart and calculated. She painted the perfect victim picture. Everyone always felt sorry for her. Not me. And I'm not going to let bygones by bygones either. She does not get to control my life for 20+ years and lie to me all those years and expect me to let it go down the road.

She scares me to be honest. She scares me because of how good of a victim she plays. She scares me because she is good at lying and playing victim. She scares me. Miller has been telling me this for years, but I couldn't fault my mom! I mean, I just couldn't! It wasn't until May 2009 that I finally woke up from the trance my mom placed me under.

I guess I should have realized it sooner...I mean, think about it...it was always in front of me to see, but I was to stupid. She made it so she and my dad did not spend my FIRST birthday with me. She constantly asked me as a child whether she should divorce my dad. She always blamed my dad for her failures. it's never her! It's always somebody else. She couldn't spend my first birthday with me because my dad made her send me to the US to spend it with my grandparents. She couldn't divorce my dad because I told her no.

It was ALWAYS my mom who was behind it all. She is the mastermind. I don't know what she is out to accomplish, but she has now manipulated someone to let her run for Mayor of Shitty City. I hate her and I don't know who out there can really understand this.

-Emma

The Fear of the Unknown

It has been a while since I have blogged. Since the wedding, I’ve been busy…wait…that’s just an excuse, I’ve been lazy. Anyway, as I have mentioned in my introduction, I’m here to share with you our trial and tribulations, living in America in today’s lovely economic atmosphere. So, here I am again, venting. Yes, I know there are people worse off, I get it. I could be trapped under rubbles in Haiti, but I’m not. I get it. But everything is relative…and this is relative to where I live.

By the way, before I start, sometimes I wish I was three years old again (Carolina and I decided that three was the optimal age we would like to be at…because…well, we had bad childhood memories in some of the later years…I digress). See, being three, your main worry was that mommy and daddy wants you to do your business in that bowl that might swallow you instead of this comfy soft thing that’s stuck to your butt. Adult life is full of unknowns, things you can’t control, things you get your hopes up and end up disappointing you.

In light of the great President Obama for extended the first time homebuyer’s tax credit incentive until April 30, 2010, Miller and I decided, hey, maybe we can shoot for buying a house instead of renewing our lease! We’ve been together for 6 years, we’re now married, and we’ve never had problems with paying rent, albeit we have $20k plus in credit card debt and a combined amount of nearly $50k in car loans. But hey, we’re ready…we have to live somewhere…might as well pay a mortgage than rent! We are ready for this commitment. We’re not going to make the same mistakes millions of Americans did in the last decade by purchasing a home on a whim that is way out of their budget. We are going to buy a house, within budget. We were going to aim low…maybe a 3 bedroom 2 bath around $150k to $200k….mortgage payment around what we pay in rent now. Reasonable...right? We both work and we know we can do this.

After all, the great Obama’s plan is to stimulate the housing market, giving people INCENTIVE to purchase a house. Obama’s “hope and change” set me up for great disappointment once again. Miller and I both have good credit, only issue was the debt-to-income ratio. Miller was out of work for a while because he was in the construction field. He has started a new job about 10 months ago in a new field. He’s working…that should count for something right? In the midst of MILLIONS of unemployed bums.
Nope. Idiots like my parents can screw up time and time again and own 8 properties, no doubt losing couple of properties along the way. Somehow, they qualify for refinances, loan modifications, and equity lines. But US…NOPE. Can’t even qualify to buy our FIRST home. Why? Because they wouldn’t take Miller’s income into consideration. Because he hasn’t been in this new field “long enough”, because he was out of work for a while. Had it not been all these IDIOTS who screwed up the economy, Miller would have had an awesome job history!!!!

NOT because we have bad credit, not because we can’t afford it with BOTH our incomes, no. Because they wouldn’t even take his income into consideration WHATSOEVER. Wow. We are BOTH working for crying out loud! That’s a miracle in today’s world. We’re not looking to buy a $500k house, not even a $300k house. $200k was are “high”, that was the “ceiling”!

I know, life is unfair, we could be worse off, I know. But, this is just absurd. We’re prepared to make the commitment and promise to purchase a house. We have the MEANS to do so. We would love to help out some poor family who must short sale their house ASAP. We would love to take up a foreclosed house with a dead lawn and revitalize it. And hey, this means that a bank will actually be PAID for the house instead of letting the grass die and the house fall apart. I hate how we have no say and no control over this whatsoever. I know, mortgage is a business…so human compassion doesn’t come into play. But, but, but, but, but…..*sigh* I understand. I’m not the most compassionate person myself, so I understand.

Hrphmmmm. I feel better. Miller and I spoke. This is not the end of the world. We have a plan. Pay down some of our credit cards and let Miller establish his work history again. Rent a house possibly…and start getting some of the big ticketed items (i.e. washer, dryer, and refrigerator). Yeh, we miss the $8k incentive, but we’ll be okay. There are other opportunities on the horizon and everything happens for a reason. I can blame the economy and everything all I want, but it won’t change anything. We are the ones who are in control of our own lives. Economy sucks, life sucks, and we work through it.

-Emma

The Wedding Part 3 - Here Comes the Bride!

The next morning, I woke up bright and early at 7:30a.m. When I looked over at my desk, I saw a splatter of black puke on my chair mat…that was from Miller drinking all that Jager. Everyone was surprised that I woke up without a hang over or anything. My only issue was tiredness, but I couldn’t sleep after seeing the gigantic splatter of puke on my chair mat. Betty spent the night on the couch and she was awake too. I found Miller Jr. sleeping on our floor! Turns out he wanted to sleep with grandpa (Miller’s dad Calvin). Calvin took off that morning before anyone woke up. Betty and I started cleaning up the house. Miller eventually woke up too…but he looked like hell. Turns out, we were both smashed because neither of us really ate anything that day. Miller said that he thought he had nachos, but when he went to open the microwave, the nachos were still waiting for him. Anyway, little while after regaining our consciousness, I sent Miller to go buy additional ice and I specifically told him to get the music box…but of course he forgot!

The wife of the guy who bought our car came to do my hair that morning. I think she was yanking at my hair but I was too tired to feel anything. She did an amazing job! Her daughter is crazy though…little 1.5 year old girl that just gets into absolutely everything! After my hair got done, the chaos of the two moms getting ready started. We still didn’t have the music figured out and I had to get our wedding music (namely our first dance song!). Betty did my make-up and I actually did my own mascara. This is when I started to get nervous. Miller left about 10 to 15 minutes before we did with Miller Jr. and Vicki’s husband. I had to wait for Carolina to get there. Carolina got there and I asked that she drive us to the Recorder’s office because she has a 4 door car.

Traffic to the Recorder’s office could not have been worse. We stopped for EVERY light. I was getting really nervous! When we finally got there, we saw all of Miller’s family already there and Miller was already there. However, the few family members of mine have not gotten there yet. Miller and I went inside the office to finish up the paperwork and they told us to wait outside. We waited and waited and waited and I started to get irritated. Then we realized that I forgot my tiara, my bouquet and the rice bags that Miller Jr. made! Carolina was holding my dress the whole time too! My family members finally got there!! They got lost!! Thank god the ceremony was late because at least my few family members were able to be there.

The ceremony started and it was wonderful too. There was construction going on behind the building, but it stopped while the ceremony was going on! Since this is the Recorder’s office, there was no romantic walking down the aisle lol. We didn’t have the wedding music playing, but my head was too filled with emotions to really pay any attention to that. Of course I started crying…then I thought Miller started to laugh at me because he turned away…then…he turned back around and I see his eyes were all red and he was crying too! The ceremony is somewhat a blur…I didn’t even know what I was saying. Miller Jr. was our ring-bearer. When it was over, every one clapped and everyone took a lot of pictures.

Miller, Miller Jr. and I left together (ceremonial I guess?). We were the first one to get back to the house. I told Miller to carry my over the threshold and he reluctantly did (lol). As soon as we got back, we went to set up the music box at the clubhouse…people slowly started arriving. It was a very successful and fun reception. I didn’t have to lift a finger and somehow, all the food, drinks, etc got served. We kept the alcohol at the house because there was a “no alcohol” policy at the clubhouse. Everyone brought their drinks over with the white cups lol (if it was up to me, people would have had red cups...but Betty specifically told me no, I had to get the white cups). Carolina was right on the money, she told me to get the cake, dance, etc going. So we did. Miller and I really didn’t want to do a first dance so we were laughing through the whole thing. Our song was Elvis Presley’s “Can’t help falling in love”. There was no parent/children dance because, well, Vicki was crying too hard and my parents weren’t there.

We got the cake cutting over with…that was fun lol. We were not the most coordinated when we tried to do the champagne thing. Then we moved to the toast. Miller’s grandma did a toast, Betty did a toast, my uncle did a toast, and my crazy BFF did a toast. Carolina was laughing the whole time our BFF gave me a toast. BFF said that her and I both showed up to work in a suit…I stopped listening at that point because I was asking myself “do I even OWN a suit?!” Thank god Carolina shouted out at the end that she was the reason we got married. Everyone came up to ask me who my BFF was…all I can say to the ones who asked was that she’s crazy and it’s a funny memory that she gave me a toast.

The reception went really well. Everyone seemed like they enjoyed themselves. As people started to leave, the party migrated to my house. The clubhouse got cleaned up without me having to do anything! I vowed that I was not going to take any shots…so I had just a perfect buzz throughout the whole thing. When the party came to the house, Vicki and Betty kept doing shots. I finally did one Milagro shot and half a Jager. Miller’s buddy (the one who bought our car) came by with his wife and kids. Our creepy neighbors left their camera here, so we snooped through that and found some S&M pictures…Miller quickly deleted the pictures of me from the camera.

After everyone finally left, I kicked Vicki, her husband and Miller Jr. out for about 10 minutes. Told them we need to do it for the first time as husband and wife lol. It was a good night, and frankly, an awesome wedding!! I’m sure I’ll come back and read this a year later and go “oh yeh! That’s right!”

-Emma

The Wedding Part 2 - Countdown..Two more days...

The wedding week started to get really exciting by Wednesday. We had 2 days left to go and so much to do! However, we were worn out on Wednesday from all the driving and the storm continued. Miller and I braved the rainstorm and went and got our house keys from Carolina (she checked on our cats while we were gone). Miller’s mom (Vicki) wanted the local specialty of In-N-Out, so we had that for brunch. I wanted to go get my nails done, so Vicki and I headed down to the nail salon. They were packed, so we made an appointment for Thursday morning instead. So, the only thing that we got done on Wednesday was picking up Miller’s tux! Good thing I picked up Miller’s tux Wednesday because turned out his shirt was too small (honey, you're not a medium).

That night, I sent Miller and Vicki’s husband out to buy beer and ice…oh boy was I in for a big surprise. Miller came home with a new cooler, 6 bottles of Jagermeister (each with its own sleeve), and a stack of Jagermeister plastic shot glasses. The cooler has two spouts and dispenses ice cold Jagermeister shots. Miller also bought me a bottle of Milagro Tequila. He said that he was going to get me a bottle of Patron but the guy at Bevmo told him this other bottle was better and was cheaper.

Thursday was a hectic day since we basically waited till then to do everything. I swear I could do without all the running around and driving all over the place. It started out with me getting Miller Jr. to go wake Vicki up so that we can go get our nails done. I got my toes, my nails, and my eyebrows done. Miller’s stepmom (Betty) dropped in at the nail salon while we were getting gussied up. Then we got lost a bit trying to follow Betty around to get to the flower shop. The flowers that Betty got were gorgeous! We got three round center pieces, one long piece, three little long vases for the bathroom, two boutonnieres, and my corsage.

From there, we went back to the house and the craziness continued. Miller and I haven’t got our marriage license yet, so we had to drive up to the recorder’s office, which was about 25 minutes away. Miller and I left Vicki and her husband and Betty at the house while we went to go take care of that. We also had to go exchange the shirt for a different size.

The recorder’s office was interesting. We filled out the paperwork and the clerk told us to go wait for our names to be called. We checked out the little back patio area where they can do the ceremony (we had a choice between the back patio and the conference room lol). We went to grab some lunch at the sandwich shop that was ran by two yahoos. The guy couldn’t fit the avocado in the hoagie bun and told Miller that if the sandwich doesn’t work, that he’ll “hook him up”. We weren’t sure what he meant, but the sandwiches were good. Anyway, Miller had to spend $2.00 on the ATM to get $20.00 for the sandwich shop. Goddamn it for me forgetting that I should have had him get more cash because the Recorder’s office charges $6.00 for credit cards. So of course, we had to spend another $2.00 in ATM fee to get the money for the license. We got a handbook on how to be married with our license. I thought that was funny.

After that, we headed to the tux shop to exchange the shirt. Of course…they did not have it in stock, so they sent us to their main warehouse 10 minutes away to get it. Yay! More driving! Finally, we made it back to the house. Betty already had the whole clubhouse decorated! I was so relieved. The clubhouse looked great! The party started from there, but before Miller and I were able to start drinking, we had to drive to get the wedding cake. Again…Yay! More driving! The cake looked wonderful! And thank god it didn’t need to be refrigerated because our fridge was at maximum capacity and there was only a tiny little fridge in the clubhouse. Vicki’s husband is a cook so he offered to do the food platters for us. I sent them along with Betty to Wal-Mart to get the food and the alcohol that night.

On top of all that, Miller’s grandparents arrived from out-of-state and showed up at our house as well. We finally got to see Miller’s ring and it is the most special ring ever! Grandma also let me borrow her bracelet for the “something” borrowed (my something blue was the garter, something new were my dress and jewelry, and something old is my ring). Grandma sipped on some Tuaca and eventually got really tipsy and promised me and Miller the world! By the time she left, she was stumbling. I also had to remind grandpa that the Jager has alcohol in it. lol.

Finally! We can start drinking. Honestly, that night is somewhat of a haze for me. I’m gonna try to re-cap as much as I can and tell you what the others told me I was doing. I invited my creepy neighbors upstairs to the wedding. Carolina came over to bring me some additional makeup. Vicki, her husband and Betty worked on the food trays (ha! Like I remember!). I was told I was hugging everyone and crying over the situation with my parents. I remember only taking one shot of tequila, but I was told that I took A LOT more than that. My creepy neighbor gave us a bunch of free stuff (shirts, jeans, dresses, crystal ball, make-up, etc etc). I called my co-worker who sits next to me (she told me about the Monday). I tried to sleep on Miller Jr’s little bed. I puked A LOT. Even Miller puked that night and he does NOT ever puke. It was a crazy night!!

The Wedding Day next...keep posted!

-Emma

The Wedding Part 1 - LA/Monterey Trip

The wedding week started the Friday before. Miller and I drove to LA to meet up with his parents and his kid Miller Jr. We drove half way Friday night and stayed at a po-dunk little town in the middle of California. We woke up the next morning and drove down to Beverly Hills. After driving through Robertson Boulevard and looking at the idiots eating at The Ivy, we spent the rest of day at the Century City mall on Santa Monica Boulevard.

One of Miller’s highlight of the day was finding a restaurant called the “Pink Taco”. We could have eaten at Nobu down the road, but nope…Pink Taco won. Miller ordered the Pink Cadillac margarita and I had a mojito. Those were the two strongest drinks we have ever had at a restaurant! We also ordered a $9.00 thing of guacamole…ridiculous! I’ve never had an up-scale yummy salad with any burritos in my life...this was a first. The burrito I had was a seared Ahi-Tuna burrito and it was very foo-foo. Miller had a lobster enchilada and it was nothing BUT lobster! We had a great lunch.

I managed to buy 2 shirts for $20.00! Only I would buy 2 shirts on clearance at Hollister at a Beverly Hills mall. Hey, I’m poor, I can’t afford some of these other stores lol. After that, we headed over to the Ontario airport. We were way early, so we walked around some ghetto mall in Ontario. We got bored…and drove over to the airport…still really early. So, we parked at some business park near the airport…and…well…yeh. Since it was a Saturday, there wasn’t anyone there. Eventually the security guard spotted us and told us that we needed to leave. Finally, their plane landed and we picked them up. Miller Jr. was cute as ever…he was so excited to see us.

We decided to meet up in So Cal because Miller’s parents wanted to go to a Nascar race…which was on that Sunday. A little geography – the Nascar race was actually in Fontana, which was about an hour east of Beverly Hills. The locale of east LA area can be summed up in one word – GHETTO! We drove to our hotel in Riverside…and man…it was an interesting drive through town. We got to our hotel, which was actually really nice, but we swore there were hookers doing their business there. We spent Saturday night drinking with his parents in the room and having some of the best pizzas ever at Capone’s Pizza.

Nascar was exciting. We bought our tickets in advance, so we got to park really close to the race track! Miller bought his #2 shirt and I also got him a shot glass. There were about a million people there. We got to witness Jesse McCartney screw up our national anthem. What a douche. Anyway, this race was so loud! We have been to the road course race up in Vallejo and the loudness was nowhere close! I got some beef sliders at the track…and only in LA would you find foo-foo looking stadium food. We left with about 100 laps to go…which damnit…had we stayed…we would have seen TWO wrecks right in front of us.

We returned to the hotel that day and went to some restaurant called Original Roadhouse Grill. A restaurant that had a lot of potential, but what a disappointment! Aside from the waitress who was pleasant, the food and drinks were just crappy. I don’t know why, but I always end up ordering mojitos when I go out, even though, the only good mojitos are the ones I make. I digress. Our drinks arrived and I almost threw it up when I took a first sip. It was nothing but sugar water over ice! The waitress was very sweet and got me a margarita instead. Unfortunately, all our drinks were crappy and none of them tasted like there were any alcohol in it. The food was also crappy. Oh well, life moves on.

Next morning, we started our drive back up to Nor Cal via the scenic route of Pacific Coast Highway. Highway 10 (or is it Highway 101?). It was nice driving along the beach. Miller Jr. took some pictures of the beach on his DSi. Then we saw something going on alongside the beach. First, we saw a bunch of campers parked together with a bunch of BBQs set up. Then we saw some sort of marathon goal line and flags marking mileage. All of a sudden, we see a police car slowing traffic down on the opposite side of the highway…following by camera crew filming two fatties running from THE BIGGEST LOSER! They were wearing The Biggest Loser blue shirts, but too bad we didn’t get a picture. ½ a mile down, we saw another film crew and there were two others running…I’m still trying to figure out if it was Jillian Michaels and the other dude trainer on the show. They weren’t wearing the standard The Biggest Loser shirts…it’s okay, I got a picture of this pair, so I have plenty of time to figure it out.

We spent the night at the Holiday Inn in Seaside (near Monterey). The hotel was a block away from the beach! We walked over there and enjoyed the waves, watched some surfers get washed away, and touched the cold-ass water with our feet. The beach closed at 7 p.m. and the park rangers came to close up the beach. We had open beer cans and I was freaking out! I kept dropping them like a retard!! Thank god, nothing happened.

Afterwards, we went to the Chili’s right next door and had a few El Nino margaritas. And after a few of those, we were ready to head back to the beach. Miller’s mom’s husband got down to his underwear and jumped into the water. Mind you, there was a sign saying no swimming because the rip tides are unpredictable! Miller followed suit…then I took of my jeans as well (I had underwear, shirt, and a bra on =P). We swam a little while drunk…then went back to the hotel and drank some more.

The next day, a torrential RAIN STORM hit all of California! It was a record-setting storm! We recorded the highes rainfall ever in the month of October! It was NUTS. Well, we braved the rain storm and went to the Monterey Aquarium. I must say, after going there for the fifth or sixth time, it really isn’t that interesting anymore. The one excitement we had was the baby great white shark. While we waited for lunch at Bubba Gump’s Shrimp, we went to the candy store to get out of the rain storm. Miller’s mom bought $40.00 worth of taffys!

On the way home, we had to drive through Santa Cruz…in which I later found out was the spot where it got hit the hardest! The power was out in the area and we were running low on gas!! We almost didn’t make it home! Miller said we’ll go for it and thank god, few miles down, they had power. We finally got home safely!

So, that’s Tuesday…wedding stuff stared on Wednesday. More on that tomorrow!

-Emma

Silver Lining

I’m back guys! I know it has been a while…but it’s been a crazy whirlwind the last couple of weeks. I’m gonna bring you back to couple of weeks before the wedding. And I have to say, there is always a silver lining in life. It’s hard to believe.

Miller and I (well, mainly just me) were stressing over the wedding. We’re broke and we can’t afford anything for the wedding! Then… we sold one of our cars! Let me explain why this is such a sigh of relief. Miller and I made a terrible mistake when we first started dating. We bought a car that was only good for an 18-year-old who wants to race around the streets. The car was a specialty car and rare…all the kids wanted it. I initially had a problem obtaining the loan and that was a huge headache. Then the never-ending problems with the car kept coming.

Miller would get pulled over left and right for the sake of the cops being nosy. Miller was also young and wanted to spend an exorbitant amount of money to “sup it up”. Somewhere along the lines, his amateur mechanic skills caused some problems to the car and we weren’t able to afford to repair it. Between the fix-it tickets and the mechanical problems…we had to retire the car. It was not practical for him to drive that car around. I named it the “Black Omen”.

We owed more money on it than what it was worth at its broken condition. So, we weren’t able to sell it and we had to make payments on it every month while it sat in our garage. This went on for about 3 or 4 years. Then…something happened! Miller sparked up a conversation with a co-worker of his. We did not have any intentions to sell the car. However, as I have said earlier, this is a specialty car. The co-worker immediately wanted to buy it from us and at this point, we did not owe that much on it anymore…so we were financially able to sell it.

However, I was stressing about selling the car because it was not registered operational and we did not have insurance on it. His co-worker’s loan would not finalize it unless it was properly registered. I was stressing about how much insurance would cost and the registration and having to go to the miserable DMV office. Well, it all went smooth. I added the insurance to my current policy and due to the multi-car discount and the age of the car; my policy literally went up by $1.00 for two cars. Then, because I have kick-ass insurance, I was able to do the DMV paperwork at their local office and did not have to go to the DMV office. From the day that Miller told me his co-worker wanted to buy it…to the date that we transferred the title, it literally took just one week and we made a little extra after paying it off.

The little extra money we made was this huge sigh of relief. Not only did we get rid of the Black Omen…we also had some extra cushion for the expenses that were looming for the week of the wedding. I know this may sound something like something small…but this car has given us nothing but grief.

I shall be blogging about the wedding in a separate post!

-Emma