"Every Time You Scream at Me, I Want to Kiss You. When You Put Your Hands On Me, I Want to Touch You."

Around 10:00pm on Friday night, bae and I arrived in Fruit City. We were on our way to surprise his Grandmother. The only problem was that she lives in a gated community, and we didn't know her code. He couldn't ask bae's sister, because we planned to surprise her next. It made sense to do it in this order, so that we wouldn't scare his grandmother by coming too late. One of his cousins lived with his grandmother in late 2018. He guessed the code correctly, so we were all able to come in. We parked our cars and walked up to her house with bae right in front of the door. We knocked on the door and didn't hear anything, so we sent his cousin to knock on her window. She asked "who is it?" He said, "Grandma, it's M----". She came to the front door and asked once again, "who is it?". His cousin answered again. When his grandmother opened the door she took a step back to make sure it really was bae. She was in her pajamas and sleeping cap. Super adorable. Then she said "I knew you were going to pull up on me this weekend. I knew it. I knew it. I knew it." She gave him a big hug and it was beautiful. This was my first time meeting her. When he had walked in the house, he said "Grandma, look who's behind you". It was me. I gave her a hug and said nice to meet you. She chatted with Antwane and her grandsons and nephew. Her grandson's friend had come with us and out-shined me a bit. He got up to shake her hand and introduce himself in a more official manner. I just didn't want to be to in her face. His grandmother told us that she is going to a church event in the morning and would be back to spend time with us in the afternoon. That's when we left to go visit bae's sister.

We pulled up to her house and Bae opened on the door. His niece opened and was completely surprised. She put her hand over her mouth and looked shocked. She let us know that her mother wasn't home, so we went to his nephews room to surprise him. He had a leg injury and couldn't leave the bed without crutches. He was surprised as well as more and more people walked in the room. He said something like "Wow, it's a family reunion". Bae face-timed her sister's boyfriend to see if he knew where she was. He said "she told me that she was going to bed". That's when the mood became awkard and everyone assumed she was hooking up or something. I don't think she actually lives the life they assume, but she has a social media persona that kind of encourages "hoes" etc. It's a hot girl summer and lots of people share those kind of things, so I'm not quick to assume that that's actually her lifestyle. We then took off and headed to their other cousin and her best friend's home. We pulled up to the driveway and she came outside. She didn't recognize any of the cars. When we came outside, she was really happy to see bae and her little brother as well as their other cousins. She was really kind and welcoming. I liked her a lot. She called bae's sister while we were there. Bae stole the phone and started talking. She was surprised to hear him on the phone and asked that we meet her at her home. She was also really kind and welcoming. My heart was full to be so accepted by her. A couple weeks before we arrived in Texas, she had made a Facebook post congratulating me on my graduation. It made me feel really good.

We sat down and started hanging out in her living room/diving room area. She put Netflix on and we watched a time traveling move that everyone said was good. The guys gathered around the table and started smoking. Bae had been clean for the two years that he was on probation. I had suspected that he smoked with a friend the day that he got off papers, but didn't know for sure. As I'm sitting on the couch, he comes up to me with a blunt in his hand. He's twirling it in my face. I know my man. That was his way of asking me if he could smoke it.  I told him that he had made too much progress to just revert back to his old ways now. I was whispering, because I didn't want his family to hear and think that I was a controlling girlfriend. I am a controlling girlfriend when health and future are at stake. Part of loving someone is wanting what's best for them. What's best for my man is him not smoking.  I didn't want to stare him down or be stuck to him like glue after that, but it was obvious to me that he had smoked. We got in an argument about it in the car. It got so loud that I wasn't sure I could go back to his grandma's house. We did anyways and I got some really great apology loving. Legendary.

Quote of the day : "A true relationship is two imperfect people refusing to give up on each other".

Song of the day: When You're Mad by Neyo

"And Now As They Wander, Their Thoughts Ever Stray. South of the Border, Down Mexico Way."

I logged on and realized that I never finished writing about my trip to Texas. I will write about some highlights, so I can remember all of the tiny details of this trip some day. 

After we finished site-seeing in Dallas, we drove down to Killeen, Texas. Bae's best friend and cousin lives in the outskirts of the city. Before we got to his house, I stopped at a Jack in the Box to change clothes. While I was in love with my tiny denim dress, it didn't see appropriate for meeting family members. I changed into my black leggings and a light purple top that I have gotten from Tj maxx. When we arrived at the house, he was home with his fiance, daughter, and mother in law. We all chatted for a little while. Their daughter threw a little tantrum about wanting to get in her blow up pool or do something to get wet. One of the funniest moments was her dad telling her to go outside and spray herself with a water bottle. She was so excited about the idea. True childhood innocence. Their daughter was very talkative and showed me her baby book. His fiance was talkative as well. She talked to me about her job at the dealership and how lots of men try to approach her. She tells them that shes engaged and facetime's her fiance if necessary. She was in a rush to get married. She told me she would do a courthouse wedding any day now and then plan a ceremony in a year. June 20, 2020 is the date that she had selected. Bae wanted seafood, so we went to a nice seafood restaurant. The food was not my favorite, but I liked the vibe and decor. We also played pool. They beat us all three times. It was not one of our best games. After playing pool, they offered to let us stay on the couch at their apartment. We decided to save money and do that. The three of them left for a dentist appointment really early in the morning which I found weird. We didn't even get to shower. We just gathered our belongings and left.  

The rental car that we had was ratchet. The undercarriage started falling off when we were still in Kansas. We had a mechanic take a look at it. He claimed to have fixed the problem, but it was even worse when we were ready to leave Killeen. We found the nearest car rental building and traded the car in for a different one. After that, we began our drive to Austin, Texas. We needed to shower, but did not have a hotel room in Austin. I decided to look up free showers in the area. Most of the posts suggested finding a local YMCA and showering there. That's what I did. I showered, got dressed, curled my hair, and did a full face of make up in the YMCA bathroom. After that, we headed to meet my dear friend J. He had been living in Austin for a year when we met up with him. He took us to a great Mexican restaurant and even offered to pay. It was so sweet of him. We enjoyed an hour of great food and conversation. 

After lunch, we drove back to Killeen. Bae's cousin decided that he wanted to come back to their hometown with us for the weekend. We picked him up then were off to Houston. His fiance was not happy that he was going to be going without her. She couldn't come with us, because she had to work that weekend. I thought that her and I had gotten along pretty well, but she never accepted my friend request when I added her on Facebook. Maybe she thought I was a traitor for letting him come on the trip with us. 

We were going to Houston, because I wanted to spend some time with my line sister and bae was going to meet up with his cousins. My line sister was playing around and didn't really want to see me. Her first excuse was homework. Her second excuse was a lizard getting into her house and her not being able to leave until she caught it. I didn't get a message from her saying the lizard issue was resolved until I was already two hours away from Houston. We were there briefly with bae's other cousins. They also decided to come back to their hometown to surprise their grandma.  We had stopped at Carl's Jr. on the way to their hometown. Bae was being teased about the weight he gained. He said in the parking lot "I already got my girl. Y'all are the ones that have to be skinny to find someone" or something along those lines. Everyone laughed, but it made me feel really special. He was claiming me in front of his family. 

The hometown adventures will be documented on the next blog post. Stay tuned. 

Song of the Day : South of the Border by Ed Sheeran, Camilla Cabelo, and Cardi B

Quote of the day : Everything's bigger in Texas.