Monthly Update: October Roundup

October was a month of many surprises. For every good thing that happened there was something stressful lying in wait. It's more of a rant, if anything. I'll start off with a summary/bullet points of everything as best as I can and you can find my ramblings down below, if you wish to read them.

• I now have a boyfriend. This is the first one I've ever had in person/rl. (All my past relationships had been long distance/online-only).
  
• The power didn't go out as much during October, but the internet certainly did. I had to try and connect via my phone's slow hotspot a couple of times. My current cell doesn't get much reception at my house, so that doesn't help.
  
• If you happened to see me online, that was probably because I left my phone running video apps for survey points. (From one of those reward sites) I finally saved enough for a gift card.
  
• I barely made it in time to make/send my entry into the Spirited Away contest that was held by Fan Factory. I'll have to wait until January to know whether I'm a finalist or not. Here's hoping!
  
• I've been trying to enter art/design contests lately in hopes that I might be able to score a prize. The money from that would really help me out.
  
• My family stressed me out so much this month that I was extremely upset about it. More on one particular event in the rant.
  
• I didn't have much time to myself when it came to drawing, again... I missed Orctober, Inktober, and the Tusk Buddy Exchange (I think that was going on again this year?) again. I planned to be super productive last month, but that all fell apart. Same goes for the sketches for the YCH posts I planned to make.
  
• My bf found me a good deal on a mattress. It costs cheaper than the ones I mentioned last time ($268, instead of $500+; not counting tax or delivery fees) and according to him it's a pretty good brand. I still need to save up for it though.
  
• I'll try to get back to everyone I still owe stuff over the course of this month, if possible. I feel terrible that things keep delaying these pieces which I wanted to have out before the end of the year. There's only two months left...
  
• If anyone missed the poll post last month, here it is once again! It contains all the polls for November, so be sure to vote before the 20th if you plan to do so.
  
• Fun Fact: The couples poll seems to be the least popular/active poll of all time when it comes to the suggestion/Google Forms format. I'll probably change that one to the format I used for it on September (ie. with my own suggestions) since that seemed to be more popular with you guys.

Now that all that's out of the way, it's time to get this rant out of my chest.

I've gone out with my bf a couple of times and I had him sleep over at my house three times. My mom's more than happy enough to have him over, as she gets along with him just fine (surprisingly enough). We never make any noise, nor does he do anything that would upset my parents. The only one who had a problem (to no one's surprise) is my grandpa, seeing as he complains about everything and hates it when we have any kind of friend over (or even go out). He'd probably only leave you alone (for a couple of hours, if you're lucky) if you're going to send a resume to wherever the hell he wants you to work at. Do keep in mind that I haven't come out to my family, so they only think of him as my friend. 

Anyway, the last time I had him over we were both planning to go out and drop off some resumes after I finished cooking lunch. Shortly after I finished cooking, my grandpa ran upstairs and was banging on the outside wall of the kitchen loudly to grab my attention. Apparently, one of the neighbor's kids (a caco, probably in his late 30s or somewhere around 40-50) was complaining to my grandpa that my friend "couldn't park his car in that spot" (a pile of dirt that doesn't really belong to anyone) because he was gonna do some "mechanic work". What came after that was a torrent of bullshit from my grandpa, ranging from threats, condescension, hate speech, etc. There were so many awful comments I was forced to hear that I can't even list them all; most of them are mixed up in my head by this point. The only ones that I can remember clearly are the following: "Tell your friend to go fuck off!" "Why the hell is he staying here? This isn't a hotel!" "You don't need to sleep with someone else! (ie. share a bed) You've always slept alone!".

My friend almost had to go back home without his own belongings due to how much my grandpa insisted that he left at once (to never come back) and because there really wasn't any other suitable place for him to park. He didn't get to eat lunch nor freshen up before we were supposed to go drop off our resumes, which also ended up being put off. (Thanks, grandpa...) We were both extremely upset/pissed off about the whole thing, but I'm just glad he got home safe. Later that day, my brother asked me why I was in a bad mood and I told him what had happened. He then, for some odd reason, felt like going downstairs to hear our grandpa's side of the story. According to him, he was just getting back home from his usual walk around the neighborhood when the neighbor's son (aka, the caco I mentioned earlier) was harassing our grandpa as if he owned my friend's car and kept telling him to park it elsewhere. That still doesn't excuse his disgusting behavior towards both my friend and I earlier. During the evening, my mom got back home and I also told her about what had happened. She felt devastated about the whole thing and even more so when I told her that my friend said he wouldn't drop by again for quite some time because of that. 

He hasn't been back to my house ever since and I've wanted to stay over at his place instead, but my mom keeps saying no because my grandpa will just complain about it. (Again, he complains about everything/anything) I really miss him...

Here are some bullet points about the whole parking spot thing and how ridiculous it is:

• The neighbors who own the house in front/near that empty spot of dirt are apparently the caco's parents. They're probably the same age (his parents; if not, older) as my grandpa.
  
• The caco, a grown-ass man, was complaining that it was his own spot and that he was gonna do some "mechanic work". He doesn't even live there and as far as I can recall, it wasn't until recent months that he started showing up around the neighborhood/at his parents house. (If he "took his mechanic work seriously" he'd have a workshop at his own house or just use his own garage/yard)
  
• After my friend left, I started washing the laundry and I practically timed the guy with the washing cycles of the machine. He was in such a huff and hurry to "get his spot back" to do some "work", but you know what? He wasn't even there for 10 minutes before he "finished working" and left for the whole day. His work was so short and minimal that he didn't even need all that space in the first place...
  
• There's a spot a bit further that used to be perfect for parking when it was just dirt and completely flat, but at some point it got full of holes, and overrun with weeds and grass. Nobody's bothered to trim it or clean up the whole thing, so I'm not sure whether the holes were properly filled up the last time people came to fix the water pipes and had to dig in that spot. I also have no idea whether there's broken glass or other junk hidden in the tall grass, hence why my friend didn't want to park there. It wasn't worth the risk of getting a flat tire.

I was going to list a couple of other things that have been stressing me out and eating up my time, but I think this post is long enough as it is.