I have arrived, bumpily!

To "have arrived" is an idiom. It means to have reached a position of power, authority, or prominence.

An idiom is a form of speech or an expression that is grammatically peculiar or just wrong.

Of course when I say, I have arrived, I mean it literally. I have arrived in South Korea.... with no small thanks to a friend who I took for granted.

When it was time to leave for Korea, one of my friends disappeared. Before we had ever met, she had gained about fifty pounds and her confidence was low. She had stopped going out.  Having always struggled with being bigger, I helped her accept the body she has and become confident. In time she started going out more.

Are we friends???

As she made new friends and rekindled old friendships, she started blowing me off... and the blow-offs were always my fault.  I asked her not to do that... and she did. She stopped making time to hang out altogether =(

Falafel House is how I roll.

And my roommate and "friend" (the one I worked as a nanny for) became angry with me when I couldn't lend him money after I said I would. There was another loan for a couple hundred bucks months old and not even five bucks paid. To be fair to him, I said it was okay. However another loan= bad idea.
And really, he had  been taking advantage for a year, and even though I had been willing... okay there's no good way to finish this sentence so see here, here and here and sprinkle liberally with nerdiness and a deep seated desire for a sense of family. (Also known as weird former foster child syndrome.)

So I said I couldn't explain, and offered emotional support. And he asked me to leave four days before my flight, saying I couldn't keep my stuff at his house and that my decision ended our friendship.  And that I was being totally unfair.  (I had also "unfairly" decided that I couldn't sign a falsified document for court case involving child support.) So, I tried unsuccessfully to relocate to a hotel and ran around like a chicken with my head cut off to find a place to store stuff  including my car =(

But then there was Burt. He hung out with me while I ran errands, found a place for me to keep my car after the first place I found was a failure, and took me to the airport. This last part was super, extra wonderful as I discovered that United Airlines baggage overage charges are among highest in the industry.

Sometimes the odd egg out is the better friend.

As I knelt on the floor of the airport, near tears at the impossible task of weeding my life down to two suitcases 50lbs or less and one carry on ( remember, I was not taking a trip but relocating) he said, "You can do it." He got trash bags and took my overage out to his van (to be stored in my car for when I come back), and then sat with me for the twenty minutes or so until I had to go through security.

Thanks Burt! You are awesome!