I Was Right

I suppose I should catch up on things, shouldn’t I?  Yeah . . .

Well, I called it.  Monday, Drew came over to the store after working at the furniture place next to us.  Him, me, and Rob B.S’ed awhile, and when Drew left, I went out to his car with him, because he was acting like nothing was wrong.  So, I was cautiously hopeful.  I can’t remember what I said to lead up to it, but he got in his car and I knelt down in front of him and said something like were we okay?  And he said no.  I asked, "What do you mean, no?"  But he wouldn’t answer.  He just kept telling me to move so he could close his door.

We texted that night, but I don’t feel like searching through the texts to find exactly what was said, which is something I’ll probably regret later if I lose them for whatever reason, but oh, well.  Needless to say, I was somewhat upset/numb Monday night.

I actually ended up falling asleep in the living room that night.  Conked out while reading, leaving the light on and everything.  I woke up a couple times, briefly.  Once was when Drew came into the living room, wondering why the light was on.  I just pretended to be completely conked out and he finally turned off the light and went back to bed.  The other time, I heard him get up to use the bathroom, and then heard him say something when he was back in his room.  And it sounded almost like he shouted some word, because that’s what jolted me completely awake for a couple minutes.

I also remember that because of those texts, I was just going to let things go until Tuesday night.  And then I was going to offer him something of an ultimatum.  Basically a cut-the-crap-or-you-have-to-leave kind of thing.  Obviously, I don’t want him to leave, so I was gonna spend all day Tuesday thinking about exactly how I was gonna phrase this so that he would realize that I didn’t want him to go, but I couldn’t deal with this crap anymore.

Well, when I woke up Tuesday, (around noon-ish or so,) I turned my phone on and there was a text from Drew, requesting that I put the swords back in his room, thank you.  I texted back, what did that mean for us, and he said there is an ‘us.’  I asked what changed, but he would only say not to question it, just leave it alone.

And thus, the Hedgehog was warily happy.

I knew it’d only last for a couple days or so.  I tried talking to him about it Tuesday night when I finally made a pasta thing out of Melanie’s sauce.  I thought it was interesting tasting.  It’s definitely not the kind of sauce taste I’m used to.  Drew didn’t like it, though.  Felt it was too onion-y.  I’m now determined to try my hand at homemade sauce.  Drew said his first ex-mother-in-law was an Italian lady who was expertly good at making stuff like homemade sauce.  I wanna see how mine’d come out compared to how he remembers hers.  Here’s hoping . . .  ::Crosses fingers::

I basically started out by making a joke about it.  "So, yeah, you wanna give me some kinda warning or something next time you’re gonna go into a whole break-up-pushing-me-away kinda mood?"  We didn’t really talk about it, cuz I could practically feel the fact that he wasn’t going to be receptive to my questions or open up much at all.

Let’s see . . .  Wednesday, I doubled.  Thursday, Lindsay and I went up to New York.  I borrowed the coat I gave Drew and boy, am I glad I did!  And I’m glad I grabbed my gloves.  We went out of Port Authority and headed to a couple stores.  Then, she grabs my arm and says that part one of her surprise is coming up.  She asked if I saw the ABC newsvan and I (finally) spotted it and then she led me into the theater it was in front of, which is where Mary Poppins on Broadway is playing.  It turns out she knows one of the people who works there and he said that they were filming the rehearsal now, but if we came back later, he could sneak us in to see part of the rehearsal and then when everyone was cleared off the stage, could actually bring us backstage AND ONstage!!!!!!!

So after talking to him back at the front podium for a bit, we left, determined to find FAO Schwartz.  I haven’t been in that place since I was fourteen.  We found out what street it’s on, and started walking.  And got sidetracked by the Barnes and Noble that we really should have gone into, but didn’t.  Right next to that, though, was a huge freakin’ Build-A-Bear! which I claimed we had to check out.  We went in and looked at all the different animals they had, (including dinosaurs and a wooly mammouth!!!!  How cool is that???  A freakin’ Wooly Mammouth!!!!!)  Well, while I was looking around, I figured ‘okay, lemme check out which Star Wars clothes they have, because the ones in NJ only have the Darth Vader and Storm Trooper sets.  I was told Anakin and Obi Wan’s are only online.  Well, the NY one had Obi Wan’s!!!  So I got that, and I got little Star Wars slippers for him to wear.

So, yeah, I went walking around NY with my Obi Bear in my arms.  (I was gonna wrap him up for Drew, but I decided to keep him.  He’s too cute to give up.  Though I think in January, I’ll see about going up there again and getting him an Obi Bear, and myself a Darth Vader one.  And mayhap the Wooly Mammouth, just because it’s a Wooly Mammouth.  Yay for Wooly Mammouth.)  Well, we finally see FAO Schwartz, but stopped at the different picture and poster stands outside it.  I saw about three different Beatle ones I wanted to pick up, but  ::sighs:: not enough money.  We went in FAO, looked around, and found the giant piano they used in Big, with Tom Hanks.  We got right up to the guard ribbon thing and got there just in time to see two people who work there, Melissa and Sabrina, do a mini-show.  They played Heart and Souls, Jingle Bells, and that Bach piece that for the life of me I can’t remember the name of, but it’s always used in Halloween-y type things.  It was awesome to see. 

After we left there, one of the places I have to go when I’m in NY is Strawberry Fields.  (Yes, I am that big of a Beatles fan.  I will not miss seeing Strawberry Fields if I can help it.)  Well, FAO is on 59th, the Dakota’s on 72nd, so wee walked the 13 more blocks, (yay, 13 Conspiracy,) to where the Imagine mosaic and the Dakota are.  Then, we took the subway back to 42nd, went to go eat, and then went back to the Mary Poppins theater.  I can’t remember what the name of the place is, but apparently, it’s the oldest theater there by about fiften minutes.  It opened on Oct. 26th, 1903 and their first show started about fifteen minutes before this other theater that opened the same day.

Well, the guy Lindsay knows brought us into the back of the theater and we actually got to see about fifteen minutes of the rehearsal where the understudy for Mary Poppins was practicing a song that I’mguessing is called "Practically Perfect."  Considering the set was the nursery, I’m guessing it takes place more than likely just before "Spoonful of Sugar."  It was awesome to see, honestly.  The choreographer was there on the stage, going over steps and doing the counting at the beats, and there was just a piano player instead of the full orchestra, (obviously,) but . . .  just . . . wow.  I mean, to actually see even that little of a rehearsal was absolutely amazing.  Just truly getting a sense of how much effort and work and number of people go into making these shows as good as they are.

After they finished up, we were able to get something of a mini-tour of the theater.  Lindsay and I, especially Lindsay, took a bunch of pictures.  And not only did we get a mini-tour of the theater, he actually brought us down so that we were ON THE STAGE!!!!!!!!  It was amazing!  Just to actually be standing on a Broadway stage . . .  It was incredible.

We went back to the Port Authority to catch the bus home not too much later.  Though we did stop in these other two stores that had some interesting stuff in the windows.  At the second one, I got a House license for me and a Wolverine one for Drew.  Yeah, apparently Hugh Jackman’s only a year younger than Drew!  Give or take a few months, I gotta see what month Jackman’s in.

So, I texted Drew a couple times on our way home.  He said they’d gotten steadily busy for about a two hour period there and his shoulder was killing him.  So I stopped by the store to show off what I’d gotten (yay Obi Bear!) and to give him that license, and instead of being able to go home, curl up in a nice warm quilt, and read or sleep or whatever, I ended up staying till closing and making the pizzas while I was there.  Drew counted the inventory and I followed him around and wrote down what the things were and then put them into the computer once we were done.

When we got out of there, I’d parked across the street and just run across Route 9 because my car had next to no gas and I didn’t wanna have to wait for the jug handle and all, Drew drove me to my car and then followed me not quite to the gas station near the bank.  He dropped off the deposit and I got some gas in the tank but when I tried to turn the car back on, it wouldn’t catch.  I called Drew up and asked if he was still at the bank.  He said no, and I kinda muttered, "Great . . . cuz my car’s dead."  The phone disconnects and two seconds later I see him pull in the gas station.  We were there about ten minutes, he gave me another five to put in the tank, and then it started up no problem.

Thursday night I don’t remember much of, once we were back home, anyway.  Friday, I opened, and my right knee was killing me.  I was limping the entire time I was there, which ended up being me doubling.  Drew came in, ended up getting pissed off because of something with Ed and another driver, (long story short, Ed dishes it out, but can’t take it,) and his chest ended up hurting, he was feeling dizzy, and when he let me feel his forehead and cheeks, he felt clammy and cool, despite saying that it felt like he was burning up.  I sent Rob for the paychecks in Matawan because I flat-out said I wasn’t leaving Drew.  After Rob came back with the paychecks, Drew left, with the stipulation that he was to text me when he got home and then at least a couple times in between when he got home and when I would get there, just so I’d know he was okay.

Because of late orders and the fact that Joey was on Facebook, I wound up getting home a bit after two in the morning.  When I pulled in, Drew was standing outside.  I asked why he was still up and he said he couldn’t sleep.  So, I stayed up with him.  It got to be almost six in the morning when he decided he was gonna shower and shave, and go to breakfast.  I asked if I could come along, got changed as well, and he and I went to IHOP.  It was nice.  We talked, laughed, had some good food, then went back to the apartment where we both conked out for a little while.  He got up at probably a bit before nine and went to the bank.  I didn’t come along cuz it was already lightly starting to snow, I’d had next to no sleep and knew I needed more, and I could always cash my paycheck another day.  So, we kissed goodbye, he left, and I conked out in my room until quarter to two.

Once I was at the store, at not quite three, the snow really started picking up.  We were pretty much dead and it was just as well, too, since Davon said there was no way he could keep driving in this, Rob didn’t wanna drive in it, and Lev and Anton were of much the same opinion.  Rob said he was sliding all over the road as it was.  Us and about three other stores, if not all the rest, ended up closing early.  I was outside shoveling the cars out and when I came back in just to take a little break from doing that, Drew told me I was basically vetoed from driving myself home.  I was riding with him.  That was nice, actually, cuz those of you reading this who are/were in the NJ area, you understand why I was NOT looking forward to driving in the snow Saturday night.

Drew’s a really good snow driver, though.  I was nervous the entire time, but we never even slid.  We got home, ate the food he’d gotten for us at Wawa, and things were good.

But then, when he was gonna go to bed, we had a semi-argument.  Luckily, it didn’t last long.  He did tell me something interesting, though.  Apparently the reason that he hasn’t gone fully through with the divorce is because he’s waiting for things to fizzle with me and him.  ::Sighs::

Sunday, he drove me to the store, while commenting on how ‘yeah, he was sure the Youth Group caroling was cancelled.’  I already knew it was.  My mom had told me the previous night that Sunday School and church were cancelled as well.  I was somewhat depressed about that, because I’ve always loved going caroling with the Youth Group, but this year and last year were cancelled because of weather conditions.  (Or in the case of last year, perceived weather conditions.  They expected it to snow, but it didn’t.  It was cold but clear the entire day, despite looking like snow that morning.)  Anyway.  Drew gave me a sidelong glance and then turned on the radio to a station playing all Christmas songs. 

When we got to the store, we talked a bit as I set things up and before I left, I asked if we were okay.  He just gave a kind of jokingly dismissive, "Yeah, yeah, yeah…"

So, yeah.  We’re good.