With any trip, you get highlights and lowlights. Highlights from my trip to California included sightseeing LA, San Francisco, camping in Yosemite and snowboarding Lake Tahoe. The low part of my trip was a constant hum in the background. That fly that won’t let you get to sleep at night. The itch in the middle of your back that you just can’t reach. It was… a woman.
No, it wasn’t anyone I met people, but the one who was travelling with us. When I met up with my travelling group in LA it was all pot pourri. That sweet, sweet smell soon reeked of a sewage treatment plant. I have never met someone so neurotic in my life. I have never known anyone to take so long to get ready in my life (sometimes nearly 2 hours). Never have I met someone so insecure that they would blatently make their problem everyone else’s.
Ok, let’s set this straight: the girl was an ex of the other guy I was travelling with. But that relationship was over a long time ago. Actually, it was never even a serious relationship. He made it clear to her before she made her decision to come to the US: “we are all going to have a fun time, that is all. Don’t expect anything else.” This seemed all cool. We were all well into our 20’s. Grown-up adults and all. However, she played the defenseless girl.
“Can you go get [some particular item] out of the car?” If you didn’t, she’d be in a snoot for the next couple of hours.
When my mate and myself were having a laugh about something, and the attention was not directed at her: “This trip is supposed to be about me!” (I kid you not, she did say that)
Upon asking her if she’d like to do anything in particular, when no decision had been made: “I don’t know”
Upon asking her if she’d like to do anything else once a decision had been made (because she couldn’t make one): “Well you guys have made a decision already… what’s the point?”
Upon suggesting food at reasonable prices other than the McDonald’s which was always her first choice and was making me sick: “It’s too expensive”
Upon learning that we may get snowed in at Lake Tahoe, something that we could do nothing about: “Well I have a plane to catch back!”
We needed to be somewhere, and somewhere early to get some sightseeing done. Not so! She had to spend over an hour putting make up on and doing her hair.
Obviously, this girl needed to grow up big time. Here she was, on the other side of the world, with the potential to have a fantastic time but she blatently chose not to. Her mood was constantly flipping between two extremes, spending most of it’s time at the bad end of the scale. There is a major possibility that this will be the only time she’ll ever be in the US. What a way to waste it.
On the trip back to Phoenix, which was the last part of the holiday, she was complaining about the music we were listening to. She claimed that we’d listened to far too much of our music (we were the ones driving). I decided I’d had enough. In a service station that we stopped at I saw a Cheech and Chong CD that looked really, really bad. I bought it and played it. She hated it so much that she forced herself to go to sleep so she wouldn’t listen to it. Awesome.
The great thing is that I’m actually having difficultly remembering any more distinct examples of her being in a foul mood – let me say there were a LOT of them. I’m only really remembering the good stuff now… thank god the crap is being filtered out!