Last night I was thrilled that my parents were coming home, even though a part of me wished they would stay gone for a few days longer, just so I could stay out late at night if I wanted to. But then, with my parents home, I wouldn't have to take care of the birds (filthy creatures, really), and the cats, which meant that I wouldn't have to venture into the basement late at night so that my overactive imagination could torment me with visions of horrible spectres hiding around the corner. I really need to figure out how to forbid my imagination from going into overdrive. It's basically just doors to the outside that bother me, and it doesn't help that the basement patio door faces right into a stand of woods just behind our house. I guess my fear of the outside was exacerbated when my sister watched the movie "Watcher in the Woods" when I was small, and that movie REALLY freaked me out. It didn't help that the ghost or whatever the folks in the movie was searching for was named Karen, and my sister's first name is Karyn. Freaky stuff.

So I was looking forward to my parents getting home -- seeing my brother again, hanging out with Dad, and probably most importantly, getting back onto a regular feeding schedule since my stepmom would be making dinner every night. If I'm not reminded to eat, most of the time I forget. I don't get hungry at night very often.

I think I am regretting the eagerness with which I awaited my parents' arrival.

I'd forgotten all the stuff that drives me nuts about them, and I didn't fully appreciate the aloneness, the silence, the tranquility, that I enjoyed without them. My stepmom is currently getting ready for her Navy Reserves duty all weekend, which means she's loudly walking up and down the hall searching for various parts of her uniform. Not to mention the whole argument about getting my brother into bed. Must be nice to be 11 years old and able to stay up till 11pm at night because no one remembers that he's supposed to go to bed. Of course, Marty, my stepmom, also has a tendency to emulate Uncle Bob's sister-in-law with her bellowing voice. And Dad, bless his heart, was excited about all the digital photos he took on this vacation, and he wanted to show me all of them. He didn't really understand that I needed to pack for the weekend, that I had a ton of stuff to do still. I just began longing for the week when I could listen to my radio as loud as I wanted to, sit in my underwear if I wanted to, have a bottle of hard cider without being harassed, and just enjoying the sweetness of being alone. Ah well. It's back to living in the insane boarding house that is my home. Ain't it grand?

o0o0o0o, I got to see another Pontiac Bonneville tonight on my way home from work. I got stuck at the light by my house, and we were next to one another. So I ogled the car and tried not to drool all over my work clothes. This Bonneville was black... with a leather interior. The only funky thing about the car is the seatbelts are anchored to a part of the seat itself, instead of the frame of the car. I'm not sure I like that, but I LOVE this car. Maybe one day I'll be able to afford one. :o)

And I have more things to add to my list of things I HATE about metro DC drivers. Heh. Hope I'm not whining too much tonight! :o) Too damn bad for you!

1) Idiots who brake as they're approaching a green light. A little song that my sister and I used to sing as small children mentioned that "Green means go!" I wonder if these people realize that...
2)People who decide to SLOWLY merge into the turn lane so that they are finally wholly in the lane as they approach the light, causing those who are not turning to slow down as well.
3) People who engage in the extremely common practice of turning left as the yellow light is turning to red.
4) Scared folks who will not turn left on a green light when they have about a mile of clear space before the next car.
5) And last, but DEFINITELY not least, (familiar to only those in northern VA) Jefferson High School "We Came For The Sports" bumper stickers.

Let me explain why I HATE those stickers so much. Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology is a magnet school that kids have to apply to and get accepted into, and as the name suggests, it's heavy into the sciences. It's for the creme de le creme of the geniuses produced by Fairfax County every year. And the Jefferson kids like to, shall we say, gloat over their superior intelligence. There was really no point to my group going to the regional Odyssey of the Mind tournament back in tenth grade since there were two Jefferson teams in our category, and how can measly public school kids compete with kids that have Cray computers at their disposal?! Needless to say, anyone who has a bumper sticker reading "We Came For The Sports" is full of, well, unpleasant stuff.

Poison, Cinderella, and Slaughter are going to be at Nissan Pavilion this Sunday. Too bad I'll be in Williamsburg celebrating my gorgeous roommate's 21st birthday. Slaughter used to be my favourite band, back in the day of hair bands. Remind me to tell you about that some day. :o)