Life without Oz

I'm a bad blogger, bad, bad blogger. I have no excuses as to why I have not blogged for so long. I shall try and make up for it now. Rather than boring you by just how much I enjoyed travelling and living with Oz before he headed back home to Australia (it was wonderful), I'll give you some more recent news.

I have moved into my new place and after an initial concern about my new room mate I'm now feeling a lot happier, although she has some strange habits, ones that I had never come across before, but are apparently quite common in the US. She is apparently unable to go to sleep (at least when sober) without the TV on, although she now out of courtesy to me she watches something on her laptop as she nods off. As I write this she is gently snoring next to me, having fallen asleep whilst watching American Dad (can't say I blame her!). The TV in our room is constantly on, my room mate seems to spend her days either sleeping (which she is very adept at!) or watching TV, at night she is the typical IV party girl, regularly getting in at 5am!

I am however not in the mood for partying, lots of my friends were only here for a term and so have now left, and of course Oz has to, so I'm a little bit depressed. The first few days after Oz left I walked around in daze, but have been doing a lot better since, although I'm still not quite my usual self.

Yesterday I went on an excursion club hike up to the highest peak in the Santa Barbara mountains, something that Oz and I both wanted to, but were unable due to the lack of a car. I had a great time, the hike wasn't too long (10 miles max), but it was very steep in places and a lot of it was on rocks, which really hurts the feet. It was well worth it however, the view from the top was spectacular. In the one direction there was Santa Barbara and the Pacific, in the other there was the Santa Ynez mountains that were snow covered in the distance. Added to that there was a wonderful rainbow framing the mountains. Despite all this beauty and making new friends I just wanted to either have Oz with me or be alone.

Yesterday Oz cycled 130kms to a dinosaur dig with a big trailer on main roads and I haven't heard from since, I'm assuming he's alive, but I would really prefer to know for certain. This is just making me miss him more, I've spent the whole of the day unable to concentrate on things, why can't he damn well send me a text? But I'm not going to call him because I don't won't to get in the way of his fun and become a demanding girlfriend. Bloody difficult work being in a long distance relationship. Sorry, but needed to get that out, I'll try and avoid that in the future.

On a rather more British subject the weather has been appalling lately, its been raining for days, and not just showering either, its been full blown torrents. And Santa Barbara isn't exactly set up for rain, the drains are few and far between, resulting in floods or streams. At one point it was actually impossible to get into the library without walking through a flood. I must say it makes me feel more at home, I'm unused to the usual amount of sunlight IV receives. And I get to wear my really cool mac!

The joy of room mates

Normally I have no problem with having a room mate, we don't pay each other that much attention and she is usually out anyway. I do try and build up brownie points anyway, if I'm doing my washing up and there is some of her stuff to do as well I'll wash it up , but perhaps the biggest way I try to earn brownie points is by giving her and her boyfriend space when he comes round, if he is staying over I'll sleep on the sofa. My room mates doesn't see why I should sleep on the sofa, she sees absolutely no problem with me being in the same room as them, I don't particularly appreciate the idea of being woken up by them having sex but not being able to leave the room as that would involve me walking past her bed, so I willingly sleep on the sofa. However I once awoke to his snoring and was forced to sleep on the living room floor (she had friends sleeping on the sofas). I think its fair to say that I try my hardest to be a good room mate, I just wish she'd do the same.

I'm not going to kick her out onto the sofa any nights because Oz lives very close by and can easily go home to sleep (her boyfriend has graduated and lives near LA), also Oz agrees that it is wierd to have another girl sleeping in the same room as us, and so surely it is not beyond her to return home unexpectedly. So far she has walked in on us unexpectedly three times. The first was my birthday and she assured me that she wouldn't get off work until after midnight, instead she got home two hours early. We heard the front door lock go and dived behind a convnient kitchen worktop and yelled "don't come in! Give us 2 minutes!" she was so shocked that she left the door slightly ajar and returned over five minutes later by which time Oz and I were sitting on the sofa watching a movie pretending nothing had ever happened.

I can't rememeber the second time, but I know it happened. Oz can't remember it either - perhaps we had our memories wiped MIB style.

Last night it happened again. My room mate has just turned 21 and she and her boyfriend went nightclubbing, after having the room to themselves for hours they finally left and Oz and I quickly occupied it. Unfortunately ten minutes later I hear teh familiar sound of someone walking up the steps and Oz quickly jams a chair under the door handle to prevent anyone entering. I'm very thankful he did because one minute later Lisa tries to enter without even a knock. She only tries once so we hope she has given up on trying to get in, however a short while later we hear her yell "I forgot my ID!" seriously, who forgets their ID, it is vitally important for a night out on the town in the US, I know this is her first time going out, but who can be that stupid? Anyway Oz dives under the covers and I wrap my dressing gown around me and grudgingly open the door. Our embarrassment was quite public, there was not only my room mate and her boyfriend to witness this debaucle, but also our flat mate and two of her friends. I long for my own room, where you can have sex whenever you want and you can lock the door and not let anyone in...

Earlier that day I had walked in on my room mates boyfriend with only a towel covering him up, I had popped next door and left the door unlockes, but that pop turned into a cup of tea, so I decided to go and lock the door. When I got in not everything was as I'd left it, the light in my room was on, so I went to investigate, only to discover her boyfriend with just a towel covering his dignity. Another time I almost walked in on them, I had left to go to next door when a party was taking place here, so assumed that I would be able to get in and get my stuff later, but when I returned the place was all shut up, except for my room, which had been barracaded shut with a chair, did I insist on going in though? No, I just went without what I'd wanted to get, wish my room mate would do the same.

Well next September I will get my own room again, but with no Oz to enjoy the freedom with...