Family feuding

Okay... So now I can catch everyone up...

Tuesday, Kelly and I went to breakfast with her friend in Athens, GA. It's a really cute city... definitely a college town. Everyone there is young. We hung out at the ceramics grad student studio... I met some artists... I recognized their work from Kel and my trip to Santa Fe last year. Everyone there is so nice.

After that, we left and headed to North Carolina... Considering how many states we are driving through, we thought it would be a good idea to take pictures of the welcome signs for each state... I wish we'd started that earlier, but we almost forgot to take the "Welcome to South Carolina" sign... so it looks like a blur. We did actually stop at the North Carolina sign.

Family dynamics and relationships are always weird. Kel and I come from the same family.... but are two completely different people. It's hard to remember that we are different... I think that we both have unrealistic expectations of each other. Last year, after Carter died, she was my hero... she took months off of school and stayed with me... She cared about me, when I just wanted to die and didn't care about anything. The hard thing now is that, from an outsider's perspective, I look healed... but I'm still grieving. Tension in the car was building, but I thought it was diffusing...

The first morning of the trip, she woke me up and I was tired, PMSing, had a sore throat... and was totally bitchy... Mid-day, I felt better and I thought the trip was going great... she did not. I need a lot of alone time still... and by me not wanting to go out or hang out all of the time, she took offense to that...

When we got to Penland, all was well... until there was a misunderstanding... and an explosion... I found myself being screamed at by her, "You are the most dramatic person I've ever met!" Which I thought was kinda ironic, considering I wasn't yelling or even angry with her.

The next day... she packed up and took all of my stuff out of her car... and left without saying a word. I was mad... really mad. Later yesterday, she came back to LCW and we talked it out. We were both taking each other way too seriously.... and decided it would be a good idea to take some time away from each other and start the trip over again. Last night she went to Beech Mountain and I stayed at Penland... then Mike drove me up to Beech tonight.

I think everything should be better now... I hope. I'm going to try my best to be sensitive to her. Family relationships are the hardest... and it's strange, considering they are the people I love the most... but are the hardest for me to get along with... I guess there's so much history there.

It was good to go back to the spider-infested cabin... It was good to see Mike and Jake.

Tomorrow we go to DC.... we wont get to NY until Saturday...

I haven't had great cell or internet service... so now I feel behind..... ugh!

I'm still tired... no matter how much sleep I get.... but I don't feel sick. it sucks, I'm tired of being tired. But I'm really glad that I'm on this trip with my sister... no matter how different we are, I love her dearly and she's my best friend.


(btw - this is ME jumping over Kelly! whoa! I had NO idea I was capable of jumping that high... no idea how much of a badass I truly am... no wonder I get hurt... like spraining my ankle this July... too much badass-ness!)