Christine the Lioness asserted

Not MIA! I am here in Canada and even though this is only Day 3, it has already been an adventure. Overbooked flights, missing luggage, travel agency spelling my name wrong so that every place I need to check in doesn’t match my ID, the hotel thinking I’m not registered here, my hotel room being room 506 but the phone in my suite says I’m in 302… maybe the Canadians aren’t as detail-oriented. They truly are more laid back. But I do have to say Air Canada rocks. When my luggage went missing, they hooked me up with a little overnight bag so that I could actually brush my teeth, have a t-shirt to sleep in, shampoo, deoderant, etc. The wifi only works part of the time here and no, my crappy ass Verizon cell phone doesn’t work at all. So I will have to make some adjustments before I go to China next month. Anyway… I’m here… but I’m not the only one who’s quiet… where’s all the chitter chatter? You’re probably waiting for me to write another controversial post… hrmmm… I’ll think on that.

April 30th, 2007

Christine the Lioness up'n wrote this

I know Christopher does worry about me… if I didn’t come home from the Canadian wilderness, he’d have to start doing his own laundry again.

Actually, Christopher gets a little angry when he feels like I’ve made him worry. He sent me an email yesterday morning saying “Seriously, Christine, when you get back, you are getting a cell phone that works so I can contact you. I’ll pay the cancellation fee and this is not up for discussion.” That was all it said. When Christopher uses the phrase “it’s not up for discussion,” that basically means I have no chance of winning whatever argument we’re having and it is my signal to back down. And I pretty much always do. I have learned the hard way. Luckily, he only uses that phrase when he is super serious about something and doesn’t overuse it– which would minimize the effectiveness of it I suppose. I am flattered that he cares so much and that’s why he worries… it comes from a really good place with him.

April 30th, 2007

Christine the Lioness up'n wrote this

Don’t believe him… he does all kinds of sweet things. I am very lucky. I’ve never had a guy take care of me the way Christopher does. This is day 4 and I am missing him BAD.

May 1st, 2007

Christine the Lioness up'n wrote this

Well I was missing him… until I woke up to a phone call from him this morning that went like this:

Chris: Hey beautiful. You still asleep?
Me: Yeah…
Chris: You’re working weird hours huh?
Me: Yeah… we wrapped really late. I didn’t get to sleep until after two.
Chris: Oh. Well I thought I’d call because I’m on my way to work.
Me: I’m glad you did. It’s cool. Oh by the way… they told me the next time I come to Canada they’ll get me a cell phone to use.
Chris: No. You’re going to take care of the cell phone thing when you get back. You’re getting a cell phone that works anywhere in the world.
Me: (wondering how much that is going to cost and knowing he’ll expect me to pay for it even though he’s the one demanding it) Well… okay… I’ll just have to work out the thing with my mom because she’s on my plan.
Chris: Maybe it’s time for your mom to grow up and figure out her own cell phone plan.
Me: I’m sorry?
Chris: I’m not going to be worried about you and not be able to get ahold of you because you’re mom can’t do her own cell phone thing.
Me: (now keep in mind I convinced my mom to get a cell phone by saying I would take care of it for her and I did that so she’d have an emergency phone in case her car stalled or something, which most people would find to be sort of admirable of me but not Chris, yet he just last week bought both of his parents cell phones and put them on his plan) This is coming from someone who just bought his parents cell phones?
Chris: Well at least my mom has already read the book and can do this on her own.
Me: (I get really annoyed when he criticizes my mom, especially since his mother has called me twice since she got her cell phone asking me how to program stuff or use different functions because she called chris and he yelled at her so she called me to see if I could explain it) Okay, you know what…
Chris: No! What! (now he’s yelling) I’m sick of you prioritizing everyone else above me! I’m not gonna sit around and worry about you because I can’t get a hold of you!
Me: (considering he often just decides not to answer his cell when I call or when he went on a business trip to San Francisco, decided to just turn his cell off for the night or when he doesn’t get my messages at home he just shrugs and says Hrmmm…. my cell phone must not be working right) Stop yelling at me.
Chris: No! I’m going to yell at you! If you can’t get a new cell phone then I can’t be with you.
Me: You’re breaking up with me over a cell phone?
Chris: I’m sick of you not handling this shit!
Me: Seriously, stop yelling or I’m going to hang up.
Chris: No! You need to hear this! I’m going to yell if I want.
Me: Last time I’m going to say it, Chris. Stop yelling or I’m going to hang up.
(he hangs up on me.)

So I hang up the phone and although I think it’s sweet he was worried about me… I wonder why someone who knows better than anyone how many hours I’m working and how stressed out I am up here feels it’s appropriate to call and wake me up, then proceed to yell at me when I don’t just jump at the idea of abandonning my cell phone plan which will affect my mom as well as myself to pay for a world-wide plan (which I’m sure he will not pay for, nor will he pay for the cancellation fee of my current plan) just so he can reach me– to yell at me– at any time he feels like it. Why exactly would I want to sign up for that? I’m still trying to think of a reason why I’d pay more money than I do now just so I can get yelled at more. hrmmm….

Despite all that, I send him an email saying I know he was worried, I’m sorry he was, and I’ll be on top of working out the cell phone issue the moment I get back to L.A. Does he respond? Nope. I was super understanding in that email, despite the fact that he showed me absolutely no respect this morning by doing what he did and when I calmly asked him to stop yelling at me which would indeed improve communication, he told me he wasn’t going to stop and then hung up on me. So my efforts to be understanding of his point and ignore the “method” of him letting me know how important it was to him, made no difference even though he tells me that’s how I should react when he’s upset like that instead of yelling back at him. Hrmmm…. and I should do that because it helps how?

So thanks to my fabulous wake up call this morning, I’m not missing him quite as much as I was. And he wonders why I always get a little worried when I come to Canada.

May 4th, 2007

Christine the Lioness hunt n' pecked this

1. I never called his mom stupid.

2. Here’s how this works: Christine makes her own money, and she decides how to spend her own money. If you want to tell me how to spend my money and what plan I should buy for my cell phone, then you buy it. I don’t tell Chris how he should spend his money and he certainly didn’t ask my permission before adding both of his parents to his cell phone plan.

3. I have dealt over and over with verizon on this issue of getting my phone to work outside of L.A. So far, I’ve called them six times (three times in L.A., once in Denver, once in Chicago, and once in Atlanta), gone in and exchanged my phone for a brand new one, and it still doesn’t work. Not for lack of me trying. Every time I talk to them, they change something in their system and tell me that we have to wait until I leave town again to test if it will work. So I have been dealing with it. Has Christopher gone in once to talk to them for me? No. Has me made one call on my behalf? No. Yet suddenly, he’s the judge of me not handling it right. Don’t you think I — more than anyone– would really like for the cell phone I’ve been paying for to work?

3. It doesn’t matter how much money I make, if I don’t feel it’s a good use of money to buy a world-wide plan for a year just so I can have a cell phone when I go on vacation in Hong Kong for a week– especially when the production has agreed to give me a phone with a North America plan when I come up next time– then I’m definitely capable of making that decision.

I gave Christopher the number of the hotel where I was staying before I left. Just because there was some sort of clerical error and they said I wasn’t registered when he called the hotel, is not my fault. I’m sorry that happened. But there is no way I could have predicted that calling the hotel where I was staying wouldn’t work. It normally does.

I’m more than happy to get a different phone carrier and switch plans and all that just to make Christopher’s life easier, but I don’t appreciate the insults about me not handling it, this idea he has that he has any say over whether my mother is on my plan or not, and him telling me how to spend my money. None of that shit would fly the other way around, nor would I ever have the audacity to tell him what to spend his money on.

May 4th, 2007

Christine the Lioness said this

So accepting dates where you actually take me to some place nice implies I relinquish my rights to make decisions of what cell phone plan I want. Interesting concept. I had no idea that getting taken out to dinner meant giving up my autonomy. Good to know.

May 4th, 2007

Christine the Lioness up'n wrote this

No Trouble… don’t worry about us, we’re certainly capable of starting our own fights without anyone else at all.

Christopher and I talked on the phone and we’re cool. I had to finally step up and call the truce.

Regarding that whole protective thing… it appears you might be right, Trouble. That may have been the seed behind the whole cell phone freak out. And while I think it’s really cool that he cares that much that he’s willing to make such an issue out of it, the part that feels a little controlling has more to do with his methods of conveying that where he does his “This is how it’s going to be and this is what you’re going to do.” That tactic may not be the best approach in dealing with a girl who has taken care of herself for 33 years and have never, ever relied on a guy for anything (well, a few things… but those I’m just not equipped to do for myself).

I’ve never actually had a boyfriend quite like Chris… what am I saying? I’ve never had one anything like Christopher… but I’ve never had one that really worried about me being safe the way he does, so I’m not apparently real quick to understand where this stuff comes from, but I do appreciate it and I will try not to mistake it for being controlling. I guess he honestly just wants me to be able to call him or someone else or 911 if I ever need to, especially in a city that I’m not that familiar with.

May 4th, 2007

Christine the Lioness uttered

He’s just trying to entice me to come home with that spanking comment… He feels bad about that “Just stay in Canada” comment.

May 6th, 2007