Well, Day 1 has finally come to an end. DEAR LORD!
I’m wiped out. My brain started shutting down at dinner. Visibly so – others were telling me “Wow- you look tired!” They said that because my eyes had become lipid pools of complete nothingness. My eyes had become lipid pools of complete nothingness because my brain was but the faint glow of a bulb that has just been turned off, but there is still a little bit of orange glow left in the filament.
I had filament glow.
We got here about 1/2 hour early, so we couldn’t check in right away. The grounds are nice. It’s WILDLY obvious that this was once an assisted living facility. As someone who has just spent a great deal of time in them over the last several years, it’s a smell that takes you right back – IMMEDIATELY.
Chris and I had requested to stay in a room together, but alas, when we arrived, we were in different rooms. We asked if it could be changed, and they said the chances were good, just don’t unpack.
So we took our bags to our respective rooms and just waited.
Thankfully, we have wireless in our rooms!! YAY!
My not-Chris roommate arrives, and she’s a cute little thing, which was a nice surprise, because some of the people we were seeing thus far had us concerned. She’s the same age as Chris, and we chatted for a little bit.
Pending Chris’s roommate, if they couldn’t change our rooms, it might not be too bad. So our room was a room with 2 queen beds. Chris’s room had 2 twins. But they were our own beds.
Here is where the trouble began. The program director, knowing we wanted a room together, went ahead and assigned my bed to someone else.
This someone else was a woman who walked in on my other roommate (Mindy-isn’t THAT fitting for a 22 year old cutie patootie!?) and right away stated “there are THREE of us?!”
Mindy: “Yeah I guess so.”
Crabby lady: “Well then you two are sharing a bed.”
Bitch much!?
Then she proceeded to mark her territory by setting up all her crap on the bedstand for the other bed.
Mindy finds us at the group meeting and tells us what happened after we left. We were totally floored.
So I go find the program director and find out what happened, and he said that I would be moving out so that Chris and I could room together and we would meet after the meeting to discuss what would happen. Cool.
Turns out they overbooked to get everyone in by about 10 people. Meeting ends, and I have a GREAT idea! Every now and then it happens – mark it down. We’ll celebrate the anniversary next year.
So I’m thinking…..they need more beds, as they had not yet decided where to put everyone. Chris currently has a twin, I currently have a queen……if Chris and I move into the room I already have/had and share a bed, that opens a twin up for someone else. Crabby lady can move to a different room, and the 3 of us normal people will have the room to ourselves.
Sounds good in theory. Not so much how it happened. They put us in a room with 2 other people sharing their queen bed….ohhhhkaaayyyy. That leaves poor Mindy with CL. 
We get to this new room to find there are acutally FIVE of us in there. And as we are leaving the room they added ANOTHER. SIX women in ONE room using ONE bathroom in the morning. Who, exactly, see this as a successful plan?!
As it just so happens, the room we moved to was the room CL started in, instantly started complaining about the room and that’s when they put her in my bed.
We said something and they took it back down to 5 people in the room. So what started out as a good idea took a wild and crazy turn. The roommates we have now are totally cool. We all seem to get along great and they are fun people.
I look back and think, if we hadn’t said anything, we’d each have our own bed in non-crowded rooms. We can’t complain too much though, as we left the common area tonight we realized they had setup 3 beds down there – SOME people don’t even have a room!! And CL bitched and moaned her way through TWO of them, to now be sleeping in her own bed in a room of 2. Whatever.
My little opening evaluation thinger must have gone well, as I was placed in a group that has people already certified for EIPA. (The jury is still out on if that is a good thing or not – maybe I should have repsonded to all of their questions by simply reciting the alphabet, over and over and over and over…..) It’s not the certification I am going for, but it’s still a level of certified. I’m having to stretch to keep pace with them, and I’m not catching 100% of what they say, but I’m keeping up enough to learn, so it’s probably a good spot to be in.
Mentally, I’m wiped out. Between all the moving and drama and junk of the day, AND not speaking a word of English since about noon today, I’m left with a glowing filament.
Thus far, the actual classes and events have been wonderful. It’s helping us to not think in our native language, and they make it fun too. This is the longes I have ever gone without the English language. Not just the whole speaking thing, but just thinking, using, communicating with English. It’s part of our nature – turning it off is taking so much concentration.
We hit the pool for a bit after we wrapped up for the night. That helped a little, but now I’m looking forward to sleep. Maybe I’ll be able to deam in my first language.
I miss my boo, and I miss my puppies. I have NO concept of what day it is, and I’m in a little bit of a funk.
