the story so far...

Hi. I'm Jess Perriam and this is my story.

Sorry, that sounded a bit Castle-esque.

I meant it to be.

Anyhoo, things have changed a lot since I started this blog in April 2004. So here's what happened since then:

Jess was an almost 19 year old living in the relative comfort of an upper-middle class Perth southern suburb with her Mum, Dad and Caveman brother. Life's pretty peachy-keen. Jess had good friends, did heaps of work at a community tv station where her claim to fame/shame was reading the Saturday evening weather. She was also a youth group leader and doing the role model thang.

Unfortunately, Jess was in a dead-end pseudo relationship with 'he who shall not be named in the hopes that we'll forget his name (which worked because we did)', going nowhere fast. Heartbreaking, demoralising, *insert an anti-superlative*. Add to this the fact that she was doing a Law/Media Studies double degree that she was rethinking at the time. Fun. Not.

August 2004 rolls along and 'what's his face' did some nasty stuff and left Jess shattered. At the same time, Jess decided that Law was crap, she couldn't lie to save herself or a potential client and she followed her lifelong passion of media. Dropping Law meant that Jess had lots (read: lots) of time on her hands to kill. She spent this time partly feeling sorry for herself, partly really getting into a radio unit at uni which really fuelled her passion for radio again, and spending the rest of the time trying to divert her attention away from the fact that she had truly been hurt by someone she trusted.

This continued until January 2005 when she ran out of distractions. She hit rock bottom, almost lost one of her best friends and had to admit to herself that she was not fine after all this time. She decided after almost four years of cueing tapes and reading the weather at Access 31, it was time to follow the radio path. Daddy Dearest got in contact with the radio station at his work, they wanted volunteers. Jess was interested, very interested.

One Sunday night in the dying days of January 2005, Jess and 'the gang' went to Macca's (read: McMounties) for general filling of oneself with crap food after church. When I walked in I said hello to the youth pastor. He was sitting with two other people from church. He said, 'You guys know Jess, she reads the weather on Channel 31'. To which I said, 'Not anymore, I'm starting at Curtin on Friday'. The blond guy the youth pastor was sitting with said, 'Really? I'm starting work there this week as a newsreader.' What were the chances? But you can dismiss that by saying that Perth is a small city.

It took me a freak autumnal blackout to make me realise that hang on, I really like this guy. So mass flirting, one dose of rejection (on his behalf), lots of 'helping with vox pops' (on his behalf), msn conversations that went for hours (for which I willingly missed Home and Away), one End of Fashion concert, a 1am trip to Fast Eddy's and about four months after we met we were together. We were vomitious. And with bloody good reason. The irony of it all was we got together while I was doing a radio unit that was 'guaranteed to put your social life on hold'. Perhaps not.

Everything was back on the peachy keen path. We were working together, going to church together and yeah... together! And things were just getting better. I kicked arse at uni, got into a presenting course and Adam got poached by the Perth's highest rating radio station. That was all within our first month of being together.

August 2005 brought with it a work experience opportunity at a commercial talk station. It was an opportunity and I took it. I'm still seeing where it will go.

The 13th of September was Mum and Dad's wedding anniversary. Caveman and I surprised Mum and Dad with presents and a song for them on the radio. It was a picture perfect family scene.

The next day, Jess and Adam went to Albany to get away from the stressful world of radio for a few days (I know the question and the answer is 'none of your damn business'). While we were away, Adam got the news that his uncle had died. It was expected, but not so soon. It wasn't going to get in the way of things. Fun was still to be had. On the way back to Perth, it was time to face the fact that the faeces would hit the cooling device when he got back. One Jeff Buckley CD played really loudly and a few tears shed later, and we were ready to face whatever we would find back in Perth. Or so we thought.

Adam's place was understandably flat, a close relative and best friend was no longer with them. I left them to it and departed for a hot shower with my name on it at home.

I knew something was up the moment I got home. Whenever I come home from being away, Mum or Dad usually opens the door and helps me with my stuff. It took a while for Mum to unlock the door and she didn't help me with my stuff. So I went down to my room, Mum and Dad followed me. Mum kept repeating, 'Go say hi to your brother.'
I thought, 'Why the hell would I want to see my brother when there's a hot shower calling me very, very loudly?'. Mum wouldn't shut up so I went and opened my brother's door.

Wow. I saw a girl in his room that I'd never met before. To let you understand the gravity of this I'll put it in bold: Caveman had never ever had a girl in his room before. Until now. So I went into the kitchen to hyperventilate. Mum stood there with a cheeky monkey smile on her face, 'How are you going there Aunty?'.
'Yeah, ok. Whatever.'

I went to talk to Dad, his seemed engrossed in the TV. I'd tell him about my adventures in Albany. Then Caveman and the girl surfaced. 'Hi. I'm Jess,' I said in a giddy rush.
'I'm Avril.'
Avril. The girl Caveman had be 'going out' with over the Internet about two years ago. Ok.

It was at that point in time that Mum decided to ask if I'd gotten everything out of the car. I hadn't. So I went out to the car. Mum followed and this time she decided to help with stuff. Just as we were on the porch she said, 'You did get what I meant when I said 'Aunty' back there?'. The penny dropped. Not only had Caveman been going out with Avril, he'd been doing a lot more than that as well. I was going to be an aunty. It turns out that Avril had been living and studying in Perth since February and Caveman had been hiding it from us all that time.

Our lives had well and truly changed from the Mum, Dad, Caveman and Jess existence. It was at that point in time that I declared my life to be a soap opera.

That week was one of the oddest of my life with a funeral, many tears, many fears and a kaliedescope of emotions. Adam practically lived at my place when he wasn't working or sleeping or helping to write a eulogy. We needed each other to get through things.

A week and a half after getting back from Albany, Avril moved into our place. We were now having dinner at the dining room table, not the meals area table.

Our family had now gone from the nuclear family of mum, dad and two kids to comprise of mum, dad, two kids and their respective ranga (read: readhead) significant others.

Life is interesting. And if you told me on January 1 2005 that on October 11th 2005, I would have a great family, fantastic friends, a wonderful boyfriend who causes me to lose all vocabulary on a regular basis, I would tell you that would be plausible but a little bit on the crazycakes side. But to tell me that I would be an aunty, I would send you to your nearest mental institution post haste. But that's the way it is. We are a family now, the six of us and in seven months time, seven of us. It's not the perfect family it was once perceived to be a month ago, but it's a damn good one.

So this is life - study, family, friends, love and unexpected things. I wouldn't change it. And that's the story so far. Stick around - it's only going to get better from now on...