I just dont give a shit anymore. Everyone's full of shit. world can fuck itself.)

(Summery at bottom for TLDR)

I got offered a free ride home for Christmas and New Years. Don't get me wrong I'm thankful and I'm thrilled to be here. I'm also extremely grateful that we didn't have any car problems coming up, and I'm super glad we got to completely go around Effingham, IL. (Seriously fuck that town. I have horrible horrible luck going through there.)

but...

We left Saturday to come up here. I wanted to leave around 2 am and get here at 2 PM at the latest but work kept me late and when I got home and realized all that needed to be done i decided "fuckit all. Just leave when ever we leave." Got up early the next day, got packed and, went to hit the road. My phone decided at the last minute that it was going to break. Well, fuck, I needed that for the GPS. But, hey lucky me! Last I checked my family account we had an available upgrade! I wasn't too keen on dropping $200 on a new phone but what ever. It is what it is.


To be clear, at no point did either my mother or I get belligerent with the woman helping us. we made no ridiculous demands. We didn't get mean or nasty. All, I wanted was to buy my new phone so that I could hit the road and get home hopefully in time for a late dinner. two weeks earlier we were walking through the mall where I popped into one of the Verizon stores to check on our updates. The lady there informed me that we had an update available. The problems arose after apparently the upgrade was already used in November but for what ever reason the Verizon system did not register the upgrade as use, and all I got for an answer to that was "you didn't meet the terms and conditions of the upgrade."

We went to Verizon and I explained the situation and at first everything was looking good. How ever not too long into the interaction things started to sour. The lady stopped being so friendly and the "we're happy to help" masks came off. I had my mother the account holder on the phone with me. Verizon refused to talk to her... THE ACCOUNT HOLDER. after going back and forth between mom and Verizon relaying their messages;it became very clear she wasn't going to try and help. So my mother explained over speaker phone that "we pay over $375 for our family plan. We've been good customers of yours for the past 8 or so years, and you're not even going to try?" The lady smirked and said, "Nope." After that my mother calmly explained that she's been thinking of changing carriers for while now, and after this we probably will be switching to a new carrier. the lady got even nastier and said "If you want to leave then leave, we'll just charge each line for an early cancellation fee."

At this point I was even wondering if we'd be going. I kinda lost interest, not so much out of anger that I didn't get the new phone. I was worried that We'd be driving at night, and I was especially afraid of passing through Effingham. I wanted a GPS and a phone to call on to make this as smooth as possible. I'm a bit superstitious in someways and every time I'd ever made the trip before I had problems as soon as I got to Effingham. Whether its a car part blowing up or getting the police called on me. )I filled up with $80 worth of gas I couldn't pay after my bank (with out telling me) cancelled my check card.) Call it stupid and superficial if you will but having a phone to call for help with and a GPS to tell me how to get there was sorta like a safety blanket for me.

In my panic I forgot that for the same price as a new phone I could get a nice Garmin. Ginko has the patients of a god and dealt with me during my little what the fuck mode. We, ended up getting a Garmin 2595 tml (or what ever) and we hit the road not to long after that. Michelle, the GPS, is kinda derp in some ways but got us there with out much trouble at all, and I was thrilled to have avoided Effingham all together.

Before someone goes "He got a free ride up to IL for Christmas and he's bitching about his phone? Ungrateful" Honestly that really sucked but now that we're up here and everything is okay. I'm more or less what ever about Verizon.I"m still going to talk to them about this, but hey i got here. There's more though. If you're still reading and even give a shit about any of this keep reading.

We got here at 11:30 pm, visited with mom for a short bit and then went to bed. The next afternoon we went to my grandmother's house for dinner and to visit. She was making a meal for us and eager to see Ginko and I. Apparently she'd been having some sharp pains in her abdomen that would make her double up over the counter. At 11 pm that night she was taken to the ER. at 3 am she finally got into a room and sent my mother home. At 7 am she called us and said she was being prepped for surgery. And since then my Christmas has been going too and from the hospital. They found a tumor in her intestine and went into cut it out. To be honest I kinda expect something cancer related because she's struggled with it in the past. I think this is about the third or fourth year I've spent Christmas with family in the hospital. (not in a row mind you)

Other than that its been good. got some really nice gifts and I've got some nice clothes which I'm happy for. Also got to see my mother and my sisters and have Ginko with me for Christmas which kinda was my Christmas wish. But, damn cancer puts a damper on things. The best part was my mother getting my grandmother Fifty Shades of Gray as a Christmas gift. After sharing with her some excerpts taken from the book my mother goes "Oh my... But, I thought the lady that suggested it said it was a Barnes and Noble best seller and they couldn't keep it in stock. She said it was classy."
"Well Jeeze mom, if you wanted to get grandma some porn you could have gotten her an instructional video."

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For those of you that went TLDR, I'll summarize for you.

Phone broke on the way up to IL from AL. Grandma has cancer and is int he hospital. My mother gave my other grandmother porn for Christmas. = This year's Christmas.