Daily Blog #36 “Travel is tricky, so are families…So support the people who make you happy”

Wednesday

Well, I woke up late today. Exhausted from it. Could have, and should have, got up earlier, but I was exhausted and did not.

I am pretty sure much of the problem is that I am dehydrated so I am working on drinking more water today to try and feel a bit better.

Of course the bad dreams that had plagued Bret and I all weekend, have not helped the sleep quality, or waking up earlier, so there is that.

Regardless, my goal is to try and get a nice work out in tonight, maybe, and drink a ton of water. I also want to work on some creative writing stuff, so I will be pounding the keyboard as much as I can today.

Spoke to my mother this morning, and that was highly informative and interesting.
Plenty of eldest daughters (or just sons and daughters in general) can relate to the hotel/stay with family struggle when you go to see family.

They want you to stay with them, so they get more time with you, save you money, you want a hotel to get away from them.

Or, you want a hotel but cant afford it.

And sure, some of you want to stay with your family, and instead have to stay at a hotel because there is no room.

I fall into basically all of these, at this moment.

My mother has always been very good at using guilt and other fun mom tricks to get me to stay with her, and, to her credit, her and my dad have a beautiful home that I actually really like.

But they also have my sister, her boyfriend, living with them, with four dogs. The boyfriend doesn’t have a job, so he is always there, plus the dogs, and then my sister, who does work. My father and mother also have three dogs, plus their entire home is now full of everything from my grandparents entire lives. Plus other family coming in.
Which, is a lot of stuff.

We also have a dog, Chance, who is a very anxious pupper, and that is a ton of dogs.

My mom was gonna give us her room, but the dogs sleep in there, and Chance sleeps with us, and Chance doesn’t do well with other dogs.

So, Mom and I, in a very peaceful conversation, realized I should look for hotels.
And I realized hotels kind of suck in my parents area, which leads to me searching high and low for a decent priced place.

Bret and I have been trying to find a way to sneak a small mini vacation into our schedule, if our boss approves the time away, and the hotel in my parents home town will cut into that, quite a bit, more so with the car rental and gas we will need.

Plus food.

Ugh.

So, that is where I am right now, looking for hotels, shocked I am even in this boat, and wondering if I will be able to take some time after this service to actually heal. Bret and I both really need this trip, to be able to relax after the service. We both have been working pretty hard nonstop and could just use some time to work on our art and relax around each other.

So, I am going to go search for hotels. And drink a ton of water. If you want to donate money, just let me know, my name is @abbigrasso on every social media app I am on.

Later

Well, I have found some hotel’s in my parents town, but I will probably have to shorten the stay a bit.

I also don’t even know if we can squeeze something else into this trip, because all the affordable AirBnB’s in any of the areas we can go to, are booked or not truly dog friendly.

The search continues, but I had a funny content creator moment so here goes:

A brief lesson in supporting content creators you like.

So, Bret has a YouTuber he loves, who actually did one of his tattoos. We tend to watch this YouTuber’s videos on our TV.

Today, when I was ONCE AGAIN out of content to have playing on YouTube while I work, I opted to go to his page, because this content creator has such a massive back catalog.

I scroll through ALL of my subscription. Can’t find him.

Someone who I have interacted with online. I have been on his Twitter. I consider his girlfriend to be a friend, albeit an online one.

Had he been deactivated or something, surely, I would have seen a tweet, or even an IG story. That would be big enough news, surely, for Bret to have called me or something, as mentioned, big supporters of this creators art, and content in general.
I type in his page…I respect his name because he, like me, locked down his name on everything, so I type a name i have typed before when trying to pull up specific videos. “OhItsTeddy” I type, holding my breath, wondering why I couldn’t find him, what horrible thing befell this powerhouse content machine?!

“Oh. It’s Abbi. Being dumb.”

I am not following him.

Wow.

So, learn from me, people, and double check who all you are following, subscribed, connected, etc.

The last thing you want to do is discover that despite the fact that you hate being told to “like, comment, subscribe and don’t forget to ring that little bell” every fourteen fucking seconds, people like you are the reason YouTubers do that shit.

You made a mistake, but you can leave it in the past. Together, we can be better.

We discussed yesterday the importance of social media, a little, discussing that the number of likes you have not really mattering.

My take was that I am not trying to trick an audience into liking me, I am trying to FIND my audience who likes my writing.

Following count doesn’t matter, but if you DO like someone and support them, make sure you are actually following them. Otherwise you may miss out on new stuff from someone you want to support.

Lame.

So, I may be a content creator, but I am also a content consumer, in a massive way. I read blogs in the morning, I stream new music from creators, not just Bret, I stream YouTube videos and Podcasts…I LOVE to consume content.

I would rather stream content from someone like me than some big corporate show. Sure, I also watch things from main companies, hell, if you follow me on twitter you know I LOVE A.P. Bio. But lets be real…these TV shows can’t put out that much content, nor do they even try. I consume content, A LOT so…

But I like to support people like me trying to make this crazy life work with their art. So, if you are like me, and you want to support people, take a quick moment to check your following/subscription list. Support the art, damn it.

Wednesday evening

Well, I could easily go on for quite a while about my later half of the day, but that also may not be the best use of time for anyone.

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We have my grandfathers memorial service next weekend and as I mentioned above, we apparently need a fucking hotel. This is an extra expense, and I am trying to also use this time to get us a little vacation. We both desperately need a vacation. We have been burning the candles at both end. But also, we both need some time away, we need some time outside of this city.

We both need a little vacation, and, really, we need one namely to recharge our creative batteries. Since we have to spend money and miss work, we were trying to also use our vacation time, to not lose money, and get the vacation in, since we need to rent a car and be out of the state anyways.

So, since we would be in Tennessee for the service, we looked at nearby places where weed is legal, because then I could also toss some more cannabis blogs, which would be dope. Plus, it would be great to nerd out with fellow cannabis nerds, so, we looked around, and obviously there are only so many places.

Spent several hours searching through every “420 friendly”, “dog friendly” AirBnB in Colorado. Washington is so far to drive, but as you all probably know, that was my first pick. Still, I have only been in Colorado to drive through, so I would like to check it out.
Small tangent, which you may have caught on my twitter. AirBnB owners, please, for the love of fucking everything, don’t say it is dog friendly if dogs “must stay outside at all times” or “are allowed inside however keep them off of the furniture.”

What kind of monster doesn’t let their pets on the furniture? That is gross.

Also, 420 friendly isn’t as friendly when you say “ONLY OUTSIDE, AND ALSO BE SURE TO STAY QUIET WE HAVE NEIGHBORS!”

Like, I know I smoke “loud” weed but c’mon.

So, small rant on AirBnB, either be dog friendly and 420 friendly, or don’t, just be honest in the tags because I keep getting lame results on my search.

Continuing on, I DID find several amazing options, but many (Damn near fucking all of them) were booked. Tomorrow, I will talk to our boss to make sure he can afford to not have Bret for a week, and then see if I can maybe book one of them…Sadly I think we may end up sharing a private room, rather than having a place alone, and even at that we may end up spending a small fortune that we don’t have.

Obviously, it is a stressful situation, so I am trying to sort out how to make this all work within a week or so.

I am also feeling a little irritated with my family, who, it feels, are really only interested in what I can bring them from Houston that they don’t have access to, and making sure I find a hotel room elsewhere, than us coming to visit, so I am a little irritated.

All the more reason to find a way to get a little vacation. Once I know for sure if we can take our vacation time, I will finish searching for AirBnBs and hope for the best.

If you want to donate to the trip, just hit me up, donations are gladly welcomed.

I think that may catch you all up. Currently it is nearly eleven, looks like I will once again stay up later than intended, but, as we all know, for the blog, it is worth it to me.
Tomorrow i have a work meeting, so we will all be at work late, and I am hoping for a positive and cheerful Thursday.

For the record, I know what tomorrow has in store and it may be a rough one, but, my goal is to be in a good mood, so, fuck whatever bad day energies that want to catch me, I say no.