Okay, my life was going pretty okay until mid-July. Then things started happening in rapid succession and its just... argh! *pulls at hair*

I'll start at the beginning, which is an average Saturday night, back when I was working. -When- I was working. I'll elaborate on that in just a minute...

Anyway, I was working my shift everything was fine and dandy - I had one of the slower sections which was fine 'cause I was tired, it was my second double, the end of my work week and I was looking forward to going home and chatting with my apprentice.

Then a table of four is sat in my section; no big deal - I planned to get their drink orders on the way back from giving the table I already had their check.

Good plan, right?

Nuh-uh. Nope. Not that night.

My section hugs the far wall and the counter where the register is. They got the table by the register and its a narrow pathway between that table and the counter and the lady who sat in the chair closest to the counter had on a perfume that triggered a sever allergic reaction. Had to call my Ma to get me home for a breathing treatment - first one of those I've had and the inhaler stuff tasted nasty. I didn't think it was a big deal but later on Ma would admit my lips were turning blue and had I been there any longer they'd have had to taken me to the ER.

The allergy attack happened around 6:30ish PM and I was dragged out of there by my Ma around 7PM which is the rush. Boss was out on vacation that week and had jokingly told me not to get sick - I replied to the likes of "Don't plan to, I need the money right now" and I did, saving for an apartment and all.

Well Boss came back from vacation on Monday and I was out at Barnes & Noble with my best bud and future roommate talking about the type of place we'd like and what our price range was when he called me up and started chewing me out over my cellphone. I have a pay-as-you-go Tracefone and was almost out of minutes so he let me go with the promise of "Finishing the discussion Tuesday Morning"

Well I told Ma and Pa about it when I got home asking for advice about how to handle it. Ma said that if he had questions, he could talk to her - I figured, sure why not? She's been an EMT longer then I've been alive and she gave me the breathing treatment.

So that Tuesday after our morning errands, Ma dropped me off and followed me into Mama Lena's. I introduced my Ma to my Boss and prayed they'd get along - I had noticed one of the other girls was there, when it was my shift.

Ma seemed to notice too (I always worked lunch shift on Tuesday alone with Boss as the cook) and she started getting that lil eyebrow twitch when Boss accused me of not having Friday Night and Saturday night covered for next week - I was going down with Ma to Charleston to visit Auntie that week - and I went over to point out where I -had- on a lil piece of paper torn out of my order pad telling when I'd be out of town and who was covering my shifts, breaking it down by shift who was covering me.

Boss said "Oh." and didn't say "Sorry, I didn't notice that" or anything to admit he had no reason to fuss at me. Things get a little fuzzy round then because that's when the shit hits the fan because Ma and he started yelling - I recall him saying I was always sick, and him yelling at my mother to get out of his restaurant and Ma's rebuttal of "Go back where you came from" meaning to back to Italy.

Me, I was trying to get them to calm down and the other waitress looked somewhere between horrified and amused - horrified that it might get violent 'cause Ma was about to jump over the counter to beat my Boss into the floor and amused by my pitiful attempt to break it up. In the end, Ma stormed out and Boss mentioned she was crazy and asked if the rest of my family was like that. Me? I gave my most insane/demented grin and replied, "Yeah, my entire family's crazy."

Of course after that my cellphone went off - not used to it doing that during my lunch shift so I visibly flinched/jumped - before answering. It was Ma and I was ordered to come out to her van, that I didn't need to put up with my Boss's attitude. I was torn because it's Ma and while I had just turned 25, I was still living under her roof while saving for my apartment so her Word is Law.

I told Boss I'd try to calm her down on the trip to my Dad's doctor appointment. ...that didn't go well and the next night I showed up to see if I was still on the schedule - I wasn't, so I handed over my key to the front door and he'd already had my check printed up for me.

So was I fired or did I quit? I have no idea.

Of course, after that Ma mentioned she was amazed that my allergies hadn't killed me already due to the smell and was glad I'd not come home reeking of garlic anymore because the first thing I'd do when I got home? Strip and jump in the shower and I'd still stink according to Ma, no matter how hard I scrubbed and how often I rinsed my hair.

Well I went down to visit Auntie as planned hoping to get rested up and recharged to go back on the job hunt and finish my art commissions in the mean time. It was a week after that fateful Tuesday when we went down and Wednesday morning I was awakened by Mom telling me we had to go home, my older brother was in a bad car crash.

Apparently during one of the severe pop-up thunderstorms, Bro was on the way to his doctor appointment and he was on one of the most dangerous stretches of road when it happened. He hydroplaned and went up against the exit ramp's guardrail; the guardrail won. It punctured the drivers side door, broke the head of his left tibula so badly is ripped his kneecap out of place and shattered it - if the skin had been intact he would have ripped his leg off at the knee. Injuries didn't end there either - impressive gash on the under side of his left arm from an attempt to shield his head along with busted up ribs leading to a partially collapsed left lung. His right side? He broke his right femur near the top and it went -through- the muscle and left a nasty L shape rending in the muscle and skin.

He was in a coma for a week and his initial recovery was slow due to some of the surgeries needed on his legs getting pushed back. Bro's doing better now thankfully, he's at a rehabilitation hospital right now getting well enough to come home. This way I'm going to be doing like he had suggested and move in at his apartment - I won't mind, he lives near a pretty nice shopping center, so I can hopefully get a job at one of the shops or restaurants.

Of course then I find out we might lose the property my family lives on because of some complicated legal mess I won't bother trying to explain because it gives me a migraine trying to make sense of it. Hopefully if things go well we won't end up homeless.

On top of -that-? My father's already fading health seems to hit to the point where he's hospitalized in the ICU. AND all I've heard is that he was severely dehydrated, had a very high fever, and his vitals were dangerously low with his kidneys starting to fail. Last update his fever had gone down to 100.9 but his vitals were still very low.

*rubs face* all this happening around when I was working to finish up my commissions. ...thank God the guy who commissioned them is understanding. I owe him a drink and a hug next time we get together and hang out...

=UPDATE!= Pa's home - still quite a bit weakened, but he's better then he was before....

>.> Now, to not end up homeless....

After some have asked, I thought I too would publicly share my tales of dealing with the supernatural. Be warned, these are freaky. And yes, they happened, some to members of my family but most to me. Maybe I'll tell you more of them... if you really want. You aren't scared...are you? *evil laughter*

Before I was born, my family lived in an old Civil War-era house they affectionately dubbed 'the White House'. It was rather haunted because my Mom tells me of the things that happened to them there.

Nothing to ominous, just out of the ordinary and at times annoying. She'd tell me of how the doors would open and close on their own, even when they had been previously locked; the house was level and there was nothing wrong with the foundation, so it was not caused by the doors not shutting properly.

Another of her tales revolved around a rocking chair in one of the bedrooms that would rock and rock, often at a fast rate of speed -- she'd be able to hear it when she was cleaning downstairs. Sometimes she would feel as someone not of the living slipped into bed beside her and there was a bloodstain on the floor that always came back even after she had scrubbed the floor.

Even with the hauntings, she loved that house and if my grandparents hadn't been declining in health as they had been, my family would never have left it. Its probably a good thing they did, because I'd have tried fighting the damn things as I grew up there.

Why would I fight them? To clarify, there are people in the world attuned to the spirits that walk the Earth, unable or unwilling to 'cross over'; there's different types of us and I'm what my fellow Sensitives among my group of friends refer to as a 'Warrior-type... Meaning I try to forcibly make the more hostile of spirits and other things-that-go-bump go away....permanently.

Yes, there are things that go bump in the night...I tend to bump back.

Where we live now is a five-acre property that belonged to my grandparents; its mostly woods and the woods have...inhabitants. When we first moved here, I was five and very innocent to the things I would later in life try to fight. The things that are in the woods would allow me access to them, to their woods.

For me, I was never lost there, though there was an at times moving spot in the woods I was never allowed near; it was a place that would make me quake in fear and to this day I cannot go near it, because my body will forcibly 'shut down' -- I've tried and when I come to, I tend to be far from where I was when I 'shut down', generally close to or on one of the paths leading in and out of the woods.

My Mother, a Sensitive of the Defender/Protector type, could tell what was in those woods and it worried her when I would run around with the things that lived in them, often involving me playing with them in hair-rising stunts in the trees that could have killed me if I stepped wrong. My brother, a self-proclaimed Warrior-type as well, would at times drag me from the woods; when I was a child, I didn't understand why because they were so inviting, so kind compared to the living, human children I often interacted with at school.

Then I understood, after an incident that occurred not too long after my mother began to keep me out of the grasp of the things in the woods, having me help my father in our vegetable garden as a way to exhaust me so I wouldn't go play there.

The Incident?

My first encounter with a Hell Hound.

My sister, a few years older, and I shared a bedroom with a set of bunkbeds; she on the bottom, I on top. She had a dog named Mitzy, a kind mutt that the family adored and lived in a large pen outside the house; we girls could open or bedroom window and stick out head out to see and speak to her whenever we wanted during the night. One night, the entire household was wakened by my sister's screams. My mother rushed into the bedroom and found her utterly terrified; it took a while, but she eventually told us why.

She was convinced she was dreaming when the creature came through th window; it phased through, not breaking it as one might think. It was big and powerful, with a body like a lion's or wolfs -- all muscle and power with wicked claws. It looked at her and she found it wore Mitzy's face; it stared at her and seemed to inspect her before looking at the top bunk...

It reared up on its hindlegs, using her bed as a brace as it did so; when it stood, it's head almost brushed the ceiling of our bedroom and she could hear the sound of the bunkbed creaking under its weight as it placed its forepaws on my bunk.

She wasn't sure how she knew, but she knew this thing wanted to hurt me, so she did the one thing she could think of and screamed, bringing the entire house to investigate, even as it vanished into thin air.

It wasn't a dream. How did we know? Because there were tears in our bedsheets to match the size of the claws of the beast she described.

After that, the woods were no longer my sanctuary and I began to notice things more often then I did before and things were no longer as easily dismissed as an overactive imagination.

I'm a little out of order in this retelling; one of the first ghostly happenings on the five-acre property that I remember most vividly would be the Redcoat from Hell. I was walking by the open doorway of what would later become my sister and mine's bedroom and I glanced in to see if my sister was there. She wasn't but HE was; standing in the room, a Redcoat, from the Revolutionary war as though he stepped from the pages of my history book...only....his eyes weren't human. There were red, fiery pits that burned with the fires of Hell. Not too long after that, my sister mentioned seeing a dark figure standing in the corner of her bedroom, a figure she knew was not human and not alive.

I've not seen him since, but I've occasionally felt his presence.

It took a while of research but I began to understand what some of these things were; the most common is the 'dark figure', a specter of sorts that is a shadow of who it had been while alive, generally sticking to one location or even attaching itself to a person. Its technically called a Shade and the more powerful they get, the more dangerous they can be. Low-levels are more annoying, but the stronger they get... well.... that's for another time...

...if you don't think I'm crazy, that is....

Ya know, lots of people think that just because I'm the youngest of the kids in my family, I'm some spoiled kid.

Bullshit.

The spoiled one is my older brother. He's almost forty and up until a few months ago, lived at home mooching off my disabled parents until my mother finally got fed up and kicked his freeloading ass out of the house. He'd brought -- without my folks permission -- his girlfriend and her one year old from a previous relationship into the household. Without asking. And without asking, ran the phone bill up to 10 grand in a single month calling this woman who lived in England before that. They married, still mooching off my parents. They tried to run roughshod over my folks, disrespecting my mother every turn. And while she looked for a job, he only half-assed finding a job and when he did somehow manage to dupe someone into hiring him, he'd either get himself fired or quit over a trivial reason.

My older sister, she thinks she should live the high-life when she can't afford it. She loves reminding my folks that if not for her and her husband that we'd all be 'homeless'. And she prefers working at Food Lion rather then finding a better paying job in the field she has a fricken degree in the veterinarian's office. She will push off her kids onto my sick mother so she can work and she doesn't even pay my mother any form of money for the babysitting. And now, despite my body's urges to reproduce, I really don't want children because of my nephews.

Me? I might not have a job, as is thrown in my face every time I turn around, but I TRY to find one. I am WILLING to work and work hard, unlike my brother who wants to be paid to sit on his fat ass and draw whatever he wants to draw. When I have a commission, I consult frequently with the client to get their approval and opinion. I am fully willing to change something if they don't like it, unlike my brother who feels that if he draws it, it is therefore perfect. When I was in college, I was on the Pell Grant which would give me a check to compensate buying my books, ect. I saved most of this money so I could get a place of my own. And whenever I had the money saved...an 'emergency' would occur and I was basically guilt-tripped into giving it over to the member of my family who had the 'emergency'.

And despite this, I'm treated like I am dumber then a rock and lower then the whale shit on the bottom of the ocean.

And people wonder why I sleep a lot because at least when I sleep, I'm free from that. People wonder why I like being online; because there I can talk with people who actually respect me and actually LISTEN to what I have to say.

People wonder why I wake up with a nagging voice that gets louder and louder in the back of my mind that tells me...

...that the only way out of here...

...is in a body bag.

And I want to live my life. I don't want that. So...I grit my teeth and bear it as much as I can, even as my health declines. I try so hard to save money, to find a job even if its just part-time or seasonal so i can save money. I pray to God to continue to give me the strength to survive and fight the feeling of hopelessness that seeks to overwhelm me, specially when my family turns on me after all the support I give them.

And yes, they do turn on me. I act as sounding board, shoulder to cry on, conscious, cheerleader...and still get treated like I'm worthless.

And despite it, I fight so hard for a life that my family seems intent on sabotaging, denying me... I fight tooth and nail...

And I will not give up...

...because if I do...

...I'll die.

Yeah, yeah, me and my quizes LOL I saw soem good ones during my lurking and couldn't help myself ;)

Hehehe, Greatsword... *thinks dirty thoughts*

Greatsword You preferred a weapon with 54% power over speed and 30% range over melee.

You use a Greatsword. Do the words Zweihander or Flamberge mean anything to you? You prefer a Greatsword, a massive, heavy blade frequently strong enough to cut down the rides of mounted warriors. Though slow, the impressive length and heft of a greatsword makes it capable even of breaking through armor. Your enemies will run from the deadly arcs of your blade as you bear down on them.

My test tracked 2 variables How you compared to other people your age and gender: You scored higher than 83% on power You scored higher than 18% on range

Link: The What's Your Signature Weapon Test written by inurashii on Ok Cupid, home of the 32-Type Dating Test

I liiiiiive!

Official Survivor Congratulations! You scored 77%!

Whether through ferocity or quickness, you made it out. You made the right choice most of the time, but you probably screwed up somewhere. Nobody's perfect, at least you're alive.

My test tracked 1 variable How you compared to other people your age and gender: You scored higher than 59% on survivalpoints

Link: The Zombie Scenario Survivor Test written by ci8db4uok on Ok Cupid, home of the 32-Type Dating Test

Explains my constant gnawing on pencils....

Beaver You scored 50% Otter, 50% Lion, 75% Beaver, and 50% Golden Retriever!

"How was that done in the past?" You're a beaver. Beavers tend to be intellectually busy, always questioning why things are the way they are, and how stuff works. You think logically, and tend to be less emotional. You may be very organized, putting things where you know you'll be able to find them later, or use an "inner filing system" to record experiences. Beavers like to take things apart... and take people apart as well, making them some of the toughest critics. They set high standards for others, and themselves. In relationships, beavers are advised to avoid the spontaneous, risk taking otter. They don't always understand each other very well. Instead, they are advised to pair up with a laid back Golden Retriever or an adventurous Lion.

My test tracked 4 variables How you compared to other people your age and gender: You scored higher than 55% on Otter You scored higher than 55% on Lion You scored higher than 88% on Beaver You scored higher than 30% on Retriever

Link: The Animal Personality Test written by southpawchick on Ok Cupid, home of the 32-Type Dating Test

Spiderman, Spiderman....

Super Hero Congratulations! You scored 71!

Up, up, and away! You've combatted great foes before, and what's more, you know the perils of living a life in a mask. The superhero life is a hardship. You may find that you're a loner because of your gutsy decisions and your boyscout-like nature. Remember to always check your webbing before swinging around town and to follow the comic-book code!

My test tracked 2 variables How you compared to other people your age and gender: You scored higher than 94% on Good points You scored higher than 43% on Evil Points

Link: The Hero or Villain Test written by trozak on OkCupid Free Online Dating, home of the 32-Type Dating Test

This week was the start of finals and one hell of a week its been.

Monday: pretty dull, found out that they're extending the deadline of a paper assigned in one class since the artshow (which is part of my final for a couple of classes) is this week. Then received an e-mail that a big test I was panicking over has also been delyaed for the artshow.

Tuesday: Have breakdown at the end of class from the combination of stress from school and home. Go home,check e-mail foundout I won an iPod shuffle from the raffle my library had to promote a survey they were doing.

Wensday: Spring Fling! Booyah! They went all out, including a whirlygig ride. Played hard, rode the whirly-gig thing a few times. Last time it was acting wonky, found out the guys in charge of the whirly-gig was working on it mid-run.

Thursday: Pain. My back, from the base of my skull to my tailbone was one big thing of pain. Moving my fingers would bring pain. Lets just say getting to the bathroom was very painful this morning. Hurt so bad that I couldn't make it to school and I missed the first part of the artshow. I had to take something for the pain and it knocked me out, resulting in the missed class and most of the artshow. I have NO tolerance for medication -- even two over the counter nondrowsy allergy medicine knocks me out for almost 12 hours. Imagine what two nondrowsy apsrin knockoffs did to me. I wasn't down for 12 hours but I was still down for a while and groggy when I came to.

Friday: Plan is to go in early for the second half of the artshow and set up for the grading portion. Hopefully Mrs Ward will understand the whole back was out of action... *sigh*

Sooo... here I am, joining in on the Live-Journal hoopla. Me, the snarky, foul-mouthed pervert...

Huh, I have a feeling I'm going to be causing a lot of mayhem...

...