The landscape rolled by quickly as we headed out of Ohio toward it’s total opposite; Los Angeles, California.  I’m not sure what exactly happened between three months ago and now, but obviously it was big.  It definitely involved a lot of screaming, persuading and hot make-up sex to get my dad to agree, however I’m still not too hip on the idea.  Leaving the friends I’ve been with since kindergarten, a boyfriend of two years (which isn’t that bad considering it was lacking in the excitement area), moving across the effing country to a place I’ll never fit in, and starting school in the middle of my junior year with a curriculum entirely different than the one I know isn’t exactly what I had in mind.  Plus, most of the kids there fit into one or more of four categories: bitches, assholes, whores and gangsters.  It’s a city about “making it big” or “keeping it real” and I have a gut feeling my survival instincts are going to need a little brushing up on.  I’m usually the type to keep things light and really play on the whole optimism thing, but I’m dying here.  Los Angeles…?  Do I look like the L.A. type?  Yea… not so much.  You’ve got to be kidding me. 

            I can see Glen out of the corner of my eye in the seat next to mine and that is most definitely girl on girl porn on his cell.  Kind of hot… in this weird sort of way.  That’s my brother for you… well, at least the blonde one.  Clay, my other brother, is almost the complete opposite; smart, accepting, sweet, understanding, caring, black… you get the point.  Glen takes after my dear mother, to say the least… minus the bible pushing, adulteress side, which I am entirely grateful for.  I don’t need a double dose of Paula Carlin everyday… one is more than enough, thanks.

            Thank God, Dad finally turned the radio on.  My iPod isn’t charged and Glen’s girl porn is getting a little too kinky for me.  I can feel the all-familiar tension in the air, and surprisingly the classic rock can’t seem to ease it this time.  That same tension is almost always tugging at our family when Paula and Dad are in a ten feet vicinity of each other.  At first it was heartbreaking, our family has always been the strong one; while all of my friends parents were splitting up we were like the safe house that they could all run to to get away, but then things started changing and now we’re headed down the same path dozens of my friends were forced to face.  I blame it on my mom.  She’s a grown woman and she can’t even seem to keep her hormones in check.  She’s probably the biggest hypocrite I’ve ever met; “God’s our lord and savior and you must never sin against Him,” but yet she can go off and screw some guy behind my dad’s back.  Why don’t we just toss the Ten Commandments out the window and then profess how faithful we are to Him?!  And then, to make it worse, she decides she’s allowed to go and say, “Jesus died on the cross to save us from our sins and God knows that I’m truly sorry, so He will forgive me.”  Bullshit.