Ruben's BDay

Blog No. 147: Ruben's BDay

Ruben, as you may or may not know, is my cousin that I lived with for most of my life and is now in the marines. He was pretty much my source of video game knowledge, street culture, and manswers. Now he's off doing his own thing in the marines with a few pals in Virginia, dressing up in uniform, guarding stuff in Guantanamo, guarding stuff in Bahrain, training with the French Foreign Legion, the usual... XP

Well he's been home for a month to grace us with his presence and to celebrate his birthday with us today, 5/27. At the stroke of way-to-early tomorrow morning, he takes connecting flights to North Carolina, where more stuff will happen...

And I didn't have a gift for him yet! XP

So today I woke up early, around 8 AM, to get ready to go for a walk around Natomas. I took my usual walk over the freeway in the direction of my mom's apartment, where the party was, when my mom started texting me.

"Where are you?"

"Walking."

"Are you walking yet?"

"Yes...?"

"Where are you?"

"Halfway down [street name] toward [street name]." I took street names out to prevent stalkers showing up at my door... XP

"You might want to wait. You can get a ride at 1, it's too hot to be walking!"

Then I started typing: "Well, I'm already outside walking in the heat, doing the same walk I've been doing for the past few years, and I have a bottle of ice cold water in my shoulder bag---" When my mom called me to restate her text.

Truth is, I've been on this walk a lot longer than she realizes. During high school, I've walked from my house to It's a Grind every weekend to visit the Blonde, where, after she was done working, we would spend our lunch at the next door Panera. After she would take me home, like no one knew I was gone... Everything else is true, I've walked on hotter days, I stocked up on my water, I even wore one layer instead of the normal 2-3, and I'm walking a shorter distance than I usually do, with less side trips. 

Anyway, I walked to the Natomas Marketplace, where I stopped at Rubio's for "brunchfast", a combo of breakfast and lunch where it is more breakfast than lunch. 

Then walked over to Petsmart to see the animals. A bird escaped its cage and flew over my head to the support beams on the cieling. One of the fish tanks was haunted by a very lively plastic plant floating up and down. Then twin poodles came over to lick my hairy legs. Very odd day at Petsmart indeed. XP

At Walmart, I went over to the men's clothing section, which was just a small space in the corner of the entire clothing section, over looking the McDonald's dining area. You see, Ruben is a tough person to buy gifts for, seeing as he can only take what he can carry, not to mention he doesn't cling to most materialistic posessions. All I really had to go on was how he dresses, which was oversized grey scale T-shirts with skull and wing designs. I did have a variety of shirts to choose from, granted most only differed on the amount skulls relative to the amount of wings on the design. XP

At Starbucks, I sat down to drink a cup of iced coffee, when a KT Tunstall song came up. So I texted Kaylah to try to inflict her wrath:

"The only thing good about starbucks is that they would often play kt tunstall music..."

"Finally seeing it my way? :)"

"Well, I'm waiting at starbux and so far I've heard 'Stoppin' the Love' and 'Little Favours,' whilst sipping a venti iced coffee..."

"YOU HAVE SINNED!"

"Please forgive me Mother K, I am not worthy! DX"

"Haha. Just go to IAG in the near future and all will be forgiven. :)"

She's easy to please. XP

Then I walked directly to the apartment. A 2-hour painless trip.

I combined my purchases with my mom's card with cash inside. Then I went online while my mom watched her soaps. She fell asleep at some point. So there I am, staring at a computer screen, in a dark, dark room, with cliched melodrama in my ear, surrounded by 5 whirling fans. The inside of my mom's room could easily be a convenient way to store ice cream and other freezer items... No wonder my mom's chocolate survived this long. XP

I had to walk out of that room so that I wouldn't die from hypothermia. So I walked into the room Ruben was in to watch Charmed with him. I don't know why he likes Charmed, but I guess he would agree that there was nothing on that day.

Eventually, my aunt finally came home with 4 Marie Calendar's pies. She then started to cook dinner. My grandfather had walked, too, only he lives a shorter distance away. He and my mom sat at the table, talking and what not, while I did some crossword. We had some carnitas and mexican rice, apparently Ruben's food of choice, then some chocolate pie.

I heart chocolate pie. XP

... And yeah. :P