I've been staying with my aunt and uncle the past few days, and my mom and Dan have been there as well. Mostly we just chilled out, went down by the water to swim, and sat by the fire at night. I got eaten alive by mosquitoes, but that's just part of being outside all the time. Which is how I grew up, so it's not a big deal for me. Anyway, it was very nice and relaxing. :)

Nick got here yesterday around 11am, so I was very happy to see him. During the rest of the day, various other family members filtered in, but I was most happy to see my cousin Jesse, who was practically my big brother growing up. He lives in Florida now with his boyfriend, so I haven't seen much of them in the past five or six years. ;_; It was really great to hang out with him, though! I also got to see several of my cousins' kids (my second cousins?), and they have all gotten so big! They were really well-behaved, though.

One of my cousins, who, much to everyone's delight, was not at the party yesterday, sent her two sons off with their grandmother. So she and the two boys came to the party, and, to make a many-year-long story short, I realized that their mother is still abusing them. She's a psychotic, alcoholic bitch, and she is very verbally abusive to the older son in particular. He had some marks on his back when he went swimming yesterday, and his grandmother has mentioned that the parents have been getting into coke recently. So Nick and I called child services this morning to report it, since no one else will get off their god damned asses to do it. Everyone in the family is so worried about upsetting the kids' mom, and 'o no, what is they get taken away?' But I just find it incredibly irresponsible to sit by while they KNOW that these kids are being physically and verbally abused, and neglected. In any case, we filed the report, and I know that child services has already been in touch with the family, but I probably won't know more until Monday.

I just want the kids out of that situation, because they're fucked up enough as it is.

Most of that was accomplished while we were on the road today. My mom, Dan, Nick, and I drove from my aunt's house in NY to Dan's family's camp in PA. I think I've mentioned it, but it's a big house out in the woods in north western PA. It's jut gorgeous out here; so peaceful and quiet. Anyway, it took about seven hours to get here, I guess. I was a little car sick for the first half, but managed to sleep for a couple hours towards the end.

Nick and I made a very random, but tasty, dinner, then cleaned up. I'm on my mom's computer now (still using dial-up here! D8), which Nick got running a bit more smoothly. She bought it from Dell a few months ago, and they loaded it with so much shit that about 2/3 of her 50GB hard drive was full. >_>

Not much else to report. Um, I'm very tan, and Nick's shoulders are peeling from his sunburn last week. I think we're going out on the boat tomorrow, up on the Kinzua River. I hope we have nice weather. :)

Oh, and I was attacked by an exploding tube of Pillsbury biscuits. So, when I'm old, I can talk about the summer of '07, and show kids the biscuit shrapnel scars in my legs. :3

Did you know that there are some people who still use dial-up? I mean, of course I knew that people still use it, but... GAH, how do they use it??? How do they use it and not go flipping nuts and gnaw off their own limbs in frustration??? $&@*$H*&$YRIOEUDJ(#@*UE(*&#&!HOIASJ!!!!!11

Okay, now that I'm done with my tantrum...

That's why I won't be on AIM at all for the next week or two, and probably won't be posting to my LJ much, either. I'm keeping up with Landels, and I have to check and see if Rachael posted in Black Lions, but otherwise I'm trying to keep my internet time to a minimum. It's just SO SLOW.

I am having a good time, though, despite having my crack taken away from me. I got to my aunt and uncle's house yesterday afternoon, and my mom and Dan showed up shortly after that. My poor mom on her broken foot, hobbling around with crutches. ): I know how much it sucks to be on them, and when I fractured my foot (both times) I was only on crutches for six weeks. She's been on them for five, and there's still no sign of the break healing. Granted, hers is a lot worse than mine was, and she didn't go to the doctor until three or four days after she hurt it... *mutters* >_>

I've been swimming in the Kinderhook Creek, which runs right behind Tammy and Scott's place. I grew up swimming here, so it's so nice to come back and play around in the water, catch crayfish and stuff. :D I even got pinched by one today; first time one's ever drawn blood. XD Also saw some trout, a toad on the deck, a wee frog, the huge suckers (not sure what kind of fish they are, exactly; probably related to carp, though?) that school in the creek, and some cute bugs. :) It's nice being out of the city!

Nick is still in RI, but he'll be here on Thursday. I can't wait!!! He said that he went to Beavertail again today, and saw a raccoon in one of the old buildings there when he went inside to take photos. I can't wait to see the pictures! His family is rapidly driving him nuts, so I know he's anxious to get out of there. Even if my family is crackers as well, they're a little easier to handle than his, I think.

Not much else going on, really... Oh, I picked up the volume eleven of D. Gray-Man before we left, so I've been reading that. I need to find a site where I can download the raw manga, though. Anyone know of any places??? Methinks I need more Allister Crowley icons...

Okay, off to make some s'mores! &hearts

Miss you both! &hearts &hearts &hearts &hearts &hearts &hearts

This whole LJ thing has me kind of depressed, for some reason. I guess because I know the root of it all is likely pressure on Six Apart from psycho, right-wing, conservative Christian groups. Which seem to be taking over the country.

I've been on LJ for about three and a half years, but only in the past year have I really felt like part of the community; I've made a lot of friends here. So now that some of the people and communities I keep track of have been banned, and a lot of other people are jumping ship, I feel... sad, I guess. I dunno, it's just frustrating.

As for LJ's decision to ban certain people, it's of course within their rights to ban anyone they want; it's a private service, after all. But I feel the way they went about it - by simply deleting accounts with no warning and no chance to remove "offensive" material - was not fair to their customers. I had a pic up on DA that might very well have gotten me banned on LJ, had I posted it here. I hadn't realized it, but it also violated DA's TOS, and another DA member was kind enough to tell me that. So I removed the picture, and there were no problems. I just think it would have been nice if LJ had given people the opportunity to remove questionable material on their own. Just by doing that, they might have avoided all this drama.

*sigh*

That's what I have to say on the subject. Oh, and just to keep an eye on people over at Greatest Journal, I created an account. I doubt I will actually post there, though. Anyway, I'm cacodaemonia.

~~~

Nick and I met our friend from college, Bryan, yesterday, and went down to Scarborough Beach in Narragansett. The water was pretty warm, and the waves were great. I got pummeled a couple times, as did Nick and Bryan, and it was so much fun. XD It's kind of a cool feeling, all the water rushing around you, tossing you around like you weigh nothing at all. And the worst that happens is you get some water up your nose, or a little sand burn. I just ended up with shit loads of sand and seaweed inside my bathing suit. XP It was nasty, but I took a shower as soon as we got home, then we sat down to have some toast with cream cheese and Nick's jalapeño jelly. :q

It was awesome to see Bryan; I had almost forgotten how nice he is. If any of you ladies in RI or Mass are looking for a sweet, lovable, good-looking guy, I can get you in touch with him. ;) He's quite the catch.

Around 1700 my best friend from elementary school/high school, Kate, showed up, and I rode to NY with her. We haven't seen each other in probably seven years, but it was like we'd never been apart. The ride was over four hours, and it seemed to go by very quickly; we talked and laughed the whole way. It was so great to see her. &hearts

Gram and Earl picked me up at Kate's parents' house last night, but not after Kate's dad insisted on feeding me at least half a BLT sandwich. I was actually starving, but for some reason reluctant to accept. Guess I can blame the three years in Japan... Anyway, we drove up here, to Saratoga, and I was up late last night trying to catch up on the LJ drama.

I got up really late this morning, so I feel like kind of a useless turd. My aunt Sharyl was nice enough to drive me to the YMCA near here this afternoon to go swimming, but I discovered that the pool isn't a lane pool. It's just a nice place for kids and families to hang out and float around. So I kind of swam up and down for about ten or fifteen minutes, but the pool was too short to really get my heart rate up. The lifeguard, who couldn't have been more than eighteen years old, kept hitting on me; it was weird. O_o

So now I'm just hanging out here, trying to fend off Gram's constant offers of food. ^_^;;; I hardly ate anything yesterday, and I've been good so far today, so here's hoping my self-control holds. Gram's house is a den of delicious food. :q

Sharyl's Jack Russell puppy, Shy-Ann (I think that's how she spells it...), is so adorable. She's a springy, happy little thing, and she just loves attention. Quite well-behaved, too, though she doesn't know "stay" yet. Sharyl asked me to help her with that command, since it's one of the tougher ones to teach dogs. We worked on it a little bit this afternoon, and I'll probably practice with her a bit more tonight.

My sunburn from yesterday isn't too bad; there are only a couple spots on each shoulder that are still tender. My arms are so dark that, when I hold them up against my white stomach, it looks like two different people.


From dieinahole:



Wow, how do people put up with me...? >_>;