Post by Hollybrry82182 on Mar 3, 2005 16:25:13 GMT -5
Part 2 starts now.....The summer before my senior year, we moved down to Tennessee to a town right outside of Knoxville. My brother and I had been planning to fly back up to Ct in mid august so we could go to Word of Life christian camp with our church there, but when we got to TN we found out that schools were starting that week! It was only the first week of August and we were used to starting school the first week of September!! It was stupid too, because the whole first week of school, we just sat in the office or got sent home early because our transcripts hadn't arrived yet from CT. After the transcripts finally came, we had to pick our classes. I was soooo not in the mood to be there, so I basically just let my guidance couselor pick my classes. She had my transcripts right there, so it should be easy for her to give me what classes I needed right? Yeah, that didn't work. Two weeks before graduation she came and talked to me and told me that I didn't have a science credit I needed to graduate and also that because one of my english classes was under another name, I still needed to take English III which was 11th grade english. I was like huh??? Anyway, that summer, I went to an Adult High School and took the two classes I needed. It was totally easy, just read a chapter, take a multiple choice test on it. It only took 3 months, but it was stupid because they didn't actually teach you anything. I am really good at reading comprehension, so I probably got a lot more out of it than some did though.
Oh yeah. During my senior year, my mom who had Diabetes, had to have her right leg amputated, right below the knee. While she was waiting for it to heal so she could get a prosthesis, she was moving from the couch to her wheelchair and fell. She got a cut on her stump (the part of her leg where it was cut off). Because she was Diabetic, it took a long time to heal. By the time it did, her muscles were really weak in that leg and even with lots of physical therapy, she wasn't able to walk more than a few steps with her new prosthesis. I got a job at Wendy's working in the morning so that I could be home in the afternoons and evenings so I could take my mom to the store and stuff. Eventually she was able to drive with her left leg, but still couldn't have gotten the wheelchair out of the car by herself.
Working at Wendy's, I made a lot of friends there. Of course, it took months before I would even talk to anyone. I became really good friends with one lady. She's actually 13 years older than I am, but we are best friends. She also has two girls, 13 and 9 years old. I met them when they were 5 and 9 though. They are little sweethearts (although the 13 year old is DEFINITELY a teenager, lol). There was also a guy at Wendy's who I was friends with (after working with him for months and months) and he asked me out. I said yes and we went out a few times, but I don't know, I just though we were better as friends. He was really nice, but totally smothered me, he was always hanging around with me, at work and when we would go out (that I expected), but then when he wasn't working and I was, he would come by and just stand at the counter until I got off work and it was just toooo much!
I still thought I HATED TN, so after talking to a friend of mine's mom up in Ct, I moved there to be a 'supportive roommate' for my friend. She is deaf, has a seizure disorder, has flat feet (sounds weird, but her feet have no arch in them which makes it very hard to walk), and an eye problem where her eyes don't make tears, so her eyes would dry up if she didn't put this gel stuff in them every few hours. She is a really nice girl. I have known her since my sister started going to ASD (the American School for the Deaf). We had a nice apartment in New Britain, CT. It was a really kool thing except for one problem...her mother. I had actually always got a weird vibe from her. She was nice and all, but it seemed as if she thought we were below her because we didn't have as much money (my parents were by no means rich, hence the moving from place to place as we could or couldn't afford a place). After I moved to Connecticut, my brother moved out into his own small apartment in TN. My parents didn't want to pay rent for a 4 bedroom house when they only needed a 2 bedroom, and they also wanted to move back to CT, so my brother let my sister stay with him for a while until my parents found a place in CT. My mom went in the truck (my dad's a truck driver) with my dad and they went on the road. They realized after going through CT that they needed to stay out on the road a bit more to save up money to get an apartment there. My sister stayed with my brother some more until school started up again. She then stayed with him only on the weekends while she would stay in the cottages at her school during the week. In October of 2003, my mom's left leg started hurting. She let it go for a while, but in November, my dad made her go to UCONN hospital when they drove through Ct and get it checked.
Well, after the doctors cut off a few toes and then just part of her foot (we thought they should just amputate below the knee like on her right leg), they let her recover in the hospital and then sent her to a rehab center. She started to recover, but something happened and she would eat, but wouldn't be able to keep it down. They tried all kinds of different diets and medicines, but couldn't even figure out why it was happening. She went back and forth between the hospital and nursing home/rehab center. She eventually had a feeding tube put in. Even with that, she would puke everything up. It was sooo hard to watch her just suffering. This went on until August 31, 2003. That's when we lost her. I still miss her terribly. My great uncle and his kids (my cousins) came up and got us all a hotel room to stay in while we went through the funeral and everything. They are really special people and I love them!
Anyway, while my mom was in the hospital, my brother got caught with pot in his car (well, actually it was my car that I had left in TN) and also wrecked my car. My sister's school heard about it and wouldn't let her stay with Tim anymore. My dad flew her up here and without a place to stay, we asked my roommate's dad if she could stay at our apartment for a week until my dad figured something out. He said yes, so my sister stayed the week. When my roommate's mom found out, she was LIVID! She came over and screamed at both me and my dad. She was saying all kind of rude, mean things. My dad and I had to fight just to defend ourselves. She was saying stuff about how I should feel priviliged not to be living with my parents anymore and how I would have a better life now that I'm not under their influence! I mean, what right did she have to say ANY of that?? It still gets to me when I think about it.
My dad ended up paying for a motel room for me and my sister to live in and enrolled her at ASD again. We did that for a month and then my dad was able to get a friend of my mom's to let Amy stay there on the weekends while she stayed at school during the week. She did this for the rest of the school year and then during the summer she went back down to Tennessee and stayed with Tim again. I of course still had to pay my half of the rent for the apartment while I stayed at the motel. It also sucked because part of the deal had been that (since the rent was sooo high and I would have to deal with someone else -my roommate's caretaking staff- in the apartment at all times), I would be her caretaker for a few hours a week and that would take care of half of my half of the rent. Well, after her mom exploded at us, she wouldn't let me work with Laura, so I had to pay the whole half which was almost more than I could afford. I was extremely happy when my lease was up in October and I was able to move back down to Tennessee.
I know I should have looked for a better job, but when I moved back to TN, I went back to work at Wendy's. I worked there from November of 2003 until July of 2004. It was crazier working there this time than a couple years ago. We went through like 3 general managers in a matter of months. It was like one giant party (not a good one) everyday. People throwing ice and just acting immature. Robin, me and this other really cool lady, Lynn were like babysitters! Anyway, I finally got fed up with it and gave my 2 weeks notice. That felt really good I see Robin at least once a week (we go to the same church where her dad is a preacher) and I usually take the girls out to do something fun at least once every few weeks.