[Ky/365 - Project 2010]

Current Song: Fuel - Shimmer.

Post will be delayed. Offline blogging for the next few days.

I woke up this morning with Steph by my side, shortly after 9am. I had to run down and go to the bathroom and come back upstairs. The house was relatively silent as we were the only ones awake. When I returned to the hell that is my mattress we laid in bed for a while, with the normalcy of being in the mood, I was greeted promptly with Steph not wanting to. I can understand why, we were in a shitty house that was populated in nearly every room with at least one to two people... So it makes it harder to manage a rendezvous when you have the lack of privacy that we do here. I was bummed because we managed earlier, but this morning we just didn't want to risk it... Or at least she didn't, which was understandable, I got bummed nonetheless. We ended up not staying awake, and going to sleep frustrated a little with each other.

Woke up again at 11am, and we heard Mom and Nick downstairs, they had gotten out of bed and went into the kitchen for what seemed to be a coffee break for Breakfast. Bethy was up as we heard them yelling "Buddy!" for us (Or me at least) to come downstairs. I yelled back down and said "Yeah?" and they replied with "You coming down?", and I said "No!", which was kind of funny. We got out of bed and got ready to go downstairs. Emily came out of the room, I didn't know who it was at first, I just figured it was Lisa. But it was her, we said hello and prepared ourselves to go downstairs. Getting ready, she came back up and stayed with Stephen in the bedroom upstairs with the baby. Normally I wouldn't care, but when we came downstairs I was confronted by Mom telling me that was Emily and not Lisa, so me and Steph didn't really like it that much. And if we didn't like it, who knows what Lisa would have thought of his ex being alone upstairs in the bedroom with him. Talk about awkward.

Mom made Bethy some stuff for Breakfast, if I remember correctly it was eggs and toast. They didn't want to make any more so I got stuck making eggs for me and Steph. I didn't quite mind it, I was more worried I'd fuck something up and ruin the meal for her. Turns out based on her opinion she liked the ones I made for her. Scrambled and cheese like she requested. The whole time I was cooking I was being made fun of and watched like a hawk in the kitchen from Mom, Bethy, and Nick. Every little mistake they had to criticize what I did... I was tired, I just woke up and had to make my girlfriend and myself food. I don't need you nit picking every little thing I do for the woman that might not be to your expectations. I made Steph her eggs first, and then I made my own. In the process I just so happened to leave on the handle cloth holder that helps you not get burned... I left it on, and it caught fire when I was cooking. Go figure, Cooking 101, right? Haha... I'm a fucking moron. Luckily, it didn't burn it that badly, but tell that to the smell in the kitchen afterward... Pee-yoo! Burning cloth!

When that was done, Steph was already done with her eggs, and I sat at the table in the kitchen and finished mine. Then I proceeded to get ready to leave. Since I cooked, Steph kindly got my dishes for me and put them in the dishwasher, with Bethy moving some from the sink as well to there. I went to the bathroom and packed. Cleaned off the camera memory card, and we played Guitar Hero 3 on Stephen's Ps2 for a bit before we took off to the hotel. I tried to play a few songs and Stephen came downstairs and mocked me for sucking at playing it on Expert. Fuck you, let's see you beat Medium punk. Steph played some stuff on Expert, and as usual she kicked my ass at it :) Stephen was apparently impressed too because when he went to go back upstairs he watched her until her Metallica song was over. In your face newb. We finished packing, and getting ready and Bethy was bummed we were leaving, but we said bye and left around 1:10pm.

The ride there was fun, I was still bummed about this morning, but we talked it over and were okay with it. We talked the whole way to New Castle and stopped to get some food at Burger King when we got there because Steph and me were still hungry. Got a Whopper Value Meal, and she got some Chicken Value Meal. I ordered two Jr. Whoppers extra, and then we both got a Funnel Cake Stick pack to split. Overall, that hype we had for that made us expect it to be tasty, but it was very plain... I was utterly disappointed with it, as was she. Turns out they fucked our order up too. She got her Value Meal, and I got mine, but we got an extra Chicken sandwich instead of the two Jr. Whoppers. Hard to find good help these days... So we took the hit and decided that the Chicken sandwich was worth more than the Jr. Whoppers and decided to keep that instead of going in to bitch. We sat in the parking lot and ate, and then we left there to go to the hotel. Along the way Steph decided since the room had a hot tub, she wanted bubble bath to make lots of bubbles inside of the tub. We went to Kmart, and on the way we got to this red light, and had a car try to turn into a driveway with us somewhat blocking his access. Turned out she knew the guy, it was Dave, her Dad's friend... So more than likely he told her Dad he saw her in New Castle today... When she specifically told her Dad she was coming to stay at the hotel with me. He didn't know we left the Clarion, and that we were back at Nicks place... Otherwise he wouldn't have let her come and stay. She didn't tell him, and plans to keep it that way... Unless of course, Dave tells him we were there, or he finds the damn printout that Steph mistakenly left at her place for the confirmation for the room.

When we got to Kmart, it looked like Devin's car was there, which meant he had to be working. Luckily when we went inside, we didn't see him. I left my food leftovers in the car - The other Chicken sandwich, the Funnel Cake sticks, and the fries and drink... I was worried someone would take them but thankfully when we went in to get the bottle of bubble bath no one did. Like I said, we didn't see Devin, and checked out relatively quickly. I had to help Steph find the bottle though, which was fun because it wasn't where she thought it would be :) I rule, huh? Then we went back to her car and had to get on 422W to 79N to hit Grove City - Which was where she booked the room for a cheaper price on the website. Turns out it's only a little bit from Moraine Park and 70 miles from Erie. We could have easily went there, it seems shorter now that I'm older... Or maybe that's because New Castle really isn't that far from Erie when you think about it. Either way I was impressed that Erie wasn't that far away from there :) ROADTRIP! When we arrived in Grove City, we needed to find the hotel since she didn't have the printout... And we had no idea where the location was for it. Luckily, when we got off of the exit, it was to the left. I originally told her to make a right. She saw a sign pointing left, saying it was that way, so we turned left and there it was about half a mile up the road.

When we got there, there were hardly any cars in the parking lot. It seemed like we made the bad choice, with a Hampton right next to it. We didn't know what to think of it, we were wondering why hardly any people were checked into this hotel. When we walked in we were greeted by a really nice woman named Paula, and our worries just vanished into thin air. This place was beautiful for a holiday Inn Express, her service was completely nice and professional. She took her time to explain a program called Priority Club to us, but we didn't really want to hear it at the time, we just wanted to check in and make sure everything was a go with the room. We said we'd fill it out and check it out later since it was free to join. She processed our room, and gave us two keys, and told us 220 was the room - Down the hall and to the right after the pillar, take the elevator up, and it's right when you get off of it. So we took our things, and checked out the Pool and the Arcade, and the Exercise Room first before heading upstairs. There were two girls in the Pool, so Steph said we can wait a little bit before we went down to swim. We got on the elevator, and took it up one floor, this hotel has three floors. When we got off the elevator, the room was directly in front of us, adjacent to the room on the hallway in front of it. We walked over, and I picked up a USA Today since they were free, and we used the key on our room, anticipation high as we prepared for paradise.

When we walked in, this is what we saw.

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Paradise... Simply paradise. We checked everything out after going to the bathroom, because the car ride just took forever. We opened every door, and drawer, and checked out how things worked, and the lights... My god, the lights. They had an on and off switch, and a dimmer that was completely optional to use. We were sure to make use of that later for sure. The hot tub was a triangle shaped one, we didn't quite know how it would fit us inside of it, but we figured we'd start the water and test it out before anything else. Steph figured out how to work it and started filling it with water, as I continued my expedition on checking everything out. Standard, of course, is a Bible and a Phone Book in the night stand. We had two night stands next to the bed, the other one had a directory which was of no help at all. Plus a used and expired coupon book for Mercer county in PA, a lot of help that does for us. I checked out the bed, and got her to lay with me. The bed was extremely comfortable, which was a welcomed change to my shitty mattress at Nick's place. When we were laying down I checked out the TV, and we found out they had their own seperate type of On Demand service. This service offered new movies for $11.99, which was totally unworthy of the price. Especially when she wanted to watch The Time Traveler's Wife, which was on their system but way overpriced. We skipped getting it and figured we'd rent it sometime... They had a controller connected to the TV which was made for a Nintendo 64, and they offered game rentals through the TV... Which is something I've never seen before, for $6.99 per hour. Also unworthy of the price, but I have to say I was tempted to see how it worked. Do you just get one game to play? Or do you have like... An emulated compilation? If anyone knows, leave a comment for me because I'm curious. Next time I'm planning on testing it for an hour just to see.

By now the hot tub was mostly filled, she threw the bubbles in and we hopped in and played with the jets. It was funny though, because the one middle jet after being turned on, shot water out like crazy and Steph needed to block it with her hands until the water raised enough to keep it underwater. I laughed so hard when that happened because it got all over the place a little bit. We stayed in there for a while, -Cough cough-, which was fun and on my list of things to try at least once in my life. Have to say, I was pleasantly suprised at the outcome, and would recommend it at least once in your life. While it took some getting used to, and was incredibly uncomfortable until we figured it out, it was worth it. When we were done with that, we got out for a bit and laid in the bed after drying off. Decided we wanted to go swimming. So we got our suits on, whereas mine was makeshift... I wore a pair of heavy silky-like shorts, with boxers on to the pool to use as a suit. When we got there, no one was there and we spent the time just relaxing in the hot tub there for a bit. Steph thought it was really hot, and I did too at first... But we came to the conclusion that it goes away when you get immersed upto your neck. Why is that? We spent some time in there cuddling up together, and swimming around. And then we got out and did the same in the pool. Went underwater, did handstands, carried each other around... All that good stuff. We had the whole pool to ourselves until we wanted to get out and go and get dinner. Steph wanted Hoss's first, since we passed it on the way. And I mentioned I thought I saw a Ponderosa, which is like non-existant any more anywhere here. She said if I was right about that, that we would go there. We got dried off upstairs, and changed, and left to go and get dinner. We drove around The Outlets in Grove City, and I didn't really get impressed with any of it to tell you the truth. It was just some random shops in a big shopping center. Nothing special at all.

Turns out we didn't find a Ponderosa, so my mind was playing tricks on me. We didn't find a Golden Corral either, which was our next pick. Steph decided on Hoss's since we both haven't been there in a while. And let me tell you, if you're EVER in Grove City, PA... NEVER... EVER... Go there. The service was outstanding, but the dinner sucked. The only good thing about it was the Soup and Salad Bar which we got with our dinner purchase. Apparently they are doing this new thing with dinners for $10 for like 8 different ones. If you buy that, they give you Soup and Salad Bar automatically. I joked about it and said the Soup and Salad Bar separately came to 4.99, so this meal was only worth $5. Seemed that way for how bad and cheap it was. We ended up getting some Open Steak Sandwich, and when it came out the bread under it was burnt, and it was cold, and it just tasted lousy, and it was tough steak too. It was just horrible. Good thing they take your orders right when you walk inside, and if you get Salad Bar and all that you're able to fill up before eating that shit. Which is what we did, and we're happy we did since the Salad Bar was amazing, the soup was pretty good too. They had this one Soup I didn't get to try... It had Pepperoni and Mushrooms in it... If you can tell me what it was, It would be greatly appreciated since I want to try it sometime. I might just ask Yahoo Answers. But the only good thing about this place was the Sweet Tea they provided, which I had three glasses of... And the Soup and Salad Bar. We filled up on Salad, and French Onion Soup before our shitty dinner got there. Steph and me ate as much as we could, and the stopped eating hers and had them throw it out. I packed mine in a box, all because I figured I'd be hungry later and I could cope with eating this crap. So they gave us a box, we sat there and bullshitted for about an hour, just talking about everything. We got there at about 8:40pm, they closed at 10pm. We got our dinner I'd say around 9:20pm or so... But when we were leaving we were the only ones there. I just wanted to relax for a bit and talk to her, which we did.

Then when we were done there, we left and went back to the hotel, we had to ask for a few things since we forgot some stuff when we came to stay here. I needed to ask for a Toothbrush since I forgot mine, Steph forgot Toothpaste, I wanted my own Priority Card so I needed to ask for one, and I wanted to see about taking a Hotel Key home with me for memory sake. Paula was still working, and she gave us two Toothbrushes, and said they were completely out of Toothpaste... Which is odd for a hotel, and she admitted that. She couldn't find it anywhere, and neither could the people who did Maintenance. She signed me up for Priority, and we got free snacks in doing so :) I got a bag with a Bottled Water and a Handi-snack. Steph got a Bottled Water and a bag of Pretzels, which she traded me when we got back upstairs. But before we did that, she asked us if we wanted to change our checkout from Noon to 2pm tomorrow. We were like, WHAT? WE CAN DO THAT? And she said yeah, since we were Priority now, we can have an extra two hours in the morning and check out early in the afternoon at 2pm. We couldn't pass that up, so we took advantage of that. And Steph was extremely suprised with that, that she finally took the time to register her card. Paula was one step ahead of Steph and she registered her after we first got there and went to our room. So she was already in the system, and was given the card right upon asking. I had to have Paula register me over the PC she had behind the desk. Which was funny in itself, because like Mom, she didn't know how top use her computer to do an "_" (Underscore). We had to teach her how to do it and the "@" for the At symbol. She was a cool lady :) Signed me up first, gave me snacks and later checkout, and then steph asked her for her card, and she was right on top of that. Talk about wonderful service, after that we decided to go upstairs and get our suits back on and go swimming again. We got down there sometime after 10pm, and stayed in the pool until around 11:30pm. I carried Steph around and we talked for a while, which was nice because we don't always get to do that. I really enjoyed that part of this evening.

We took the time out of our day to reflect on the past few months, and different things we did wrong, and just laid it all out in the open. Said why we did things we've done, and said we wouldn't do them again. Problems were talked about and resolved almost instantly as I carried her around with her latching onto me as I carried her throughout the Pool. We had a really relaxing time in the Pool, and noticed around 11pm that Paula went to the workout room adjacent to the Pool, turned the TV on and hopped on the exercise bike. She must have been on break, but the Pool closed at 11pm, she didn't care that we were still in the Pool because she didn't say anything to us about leaving. At 11:30pm though, a Maintenance guy came and said we needed to get out, he was going to close this Pool and go over to the other hotel to close theirs for the night. We were bummed, and he said he would have let us stay inside but he needed to close it to get to the other one. Which sucked, but he was nice about it. We decided to go back to the room, I finished my crappy dinner, and we decided to hop in the hot tub there again. Steph started the water up and added the bubbles, and we relaxed for a bit before getting out and laying on the bed. We had a lot of "plans" to do things, but we started and shortly after that I was worn out and fell asleep. Something that isn't common with me, but this time I just couldn't help it. I said to give me a minute and then I shut my eyes and was out completely.

Steph was awake the whole time, and she woke me up 10 minutes later. I thought it was hours later, because I woke up to me being tired and worn out, and all the stuff in the room shut off. She got out of bed and turned it all off after I fell asleep, and she woke me up to tell me to go to sleep in a more comfortable position... Haha, I was sprawled across the bed. So I moved and said I didn't want to sleep yet but I just couldn't help it... I couldn't fight it this time. Kissed her goodnight, told her I loved her and how happy I was, and then we were out like a light with the fan running on the heater, just the fan... No heat, or AC, just to cool the room off a bit because it was hot inside. We dozed off, and planned to wake up for the free Breakfast they offered in the morning from 6am-10am. So we fell asleep and that was the end to our relaxing day :).