This morning I had a chemistry test. Last night, Jarred had a copy of Deese's test from last quarter, so we studied that, since he usually doesn't change up the tests that much. When I took the test this morning, it looked a lot harder than I had expected. I don't have a great feeling about this one. After that, I went and bought tickets for the Midnight Magic formal thinggy tonight. Then I went back to my dorm and picked up my truck. I filled up the radiator with water because it had been leaking. Then I drove to the Wesley Foundation for Laid Back Lunch. Maybe I wasn't in a good mood or something, but everyone seemed to be rather rude to me. I don't think they really mean it. People just like to mess with me, because I dish out enough myself. After laid back lunch, I filled up my radiator again with the water I had in my Hawaiian punch bottle, then I headed home so that I could drop my truck off to get fixed because my truck SUCKS....I mean, it just has some problems right now. It got home alright. The engine started to heat up right before I got home. I was halfway hoping that when I drove up, steam would be spewing forth from my hood so I could put on a big show for my parents. It didn't really happen that way. Only they guys on my track team got to see that show on Tuesday, but I hadn't wanted that to happen then. When I was home, I grabbed a shirt and tie for the formal tonight and my mom and dad drove me back. They drove 60 mph the whole way. I know it was raining a little bit, but it's still a little slow for the interstate. I got back and went to track practice, but it was cancelled, so I walked from the TAC to the fieldhouse so I could see the trainer and have him mess with my leg some and hopefully make it feel better, because it hurts really bad. After I was done with that I WALKED back to my dorm because my truck is now at home. I picked up my shirt for this engineering crawfish boil that I was going to go to at 4:30. When the time rolled around, I remembered that I didn't have a truck, and I didn't want to walk to the football field again. But at least I got the shirt. It's a looks better than the "Gumbo Fest" shirt I already have. Anyway, Jarred and Brad invited me to go swimming with so I went there for a little bit. We dived some, then Jarred and Brad went to sunbath. I thought that was pretty gay. Not just because I can't do it, but because....I didn't want to sit out there and get a sunburn. So I came back here (to my dorm) and played on my computer a little bit til it was time to start getting ready for Midnight Magic. After I got ready, I went and met Patrick in his room down the hall, and we went to go pick up our dates together. My date was his girlfriend's roommate, so we went together. I had only met Julie a few times, but she seemed like a pretty cool person. The formal was really fun. I had a great time with Julie, Patrick and Jordan. When we first got there, we had the choice to get married for the night in the "Enchanted Chapel" booth that was set up in the entrance. Patrick and Jordan got married first, then I married Julie. Even though it wasn't real, it felt kinda wierd. Plus I hardly knew Julie. Anyway, after that, we went on inside. We went up stairs to eat first. The food was really good. We ate it in the Karaoke room. It was fun watching people go up and sing. I don't think I would have been able to do it without my face turning really red. Anyway, there were games and stuff there too. At one point, Julie and I got our fortune told. We walked into the booth and the fortune teller just stared at me for a minute and said that I had red hair. She asked if it was natural and I told her it was. She asked if Julie and I were a couple, we told her we were just friends, then she started the fortune telling. She said that our friendship would go further. We would get married and have little red-head children. Julie would be a submissive wife, but I would take care of her. I think that was about it. After that, we went downstairs and danced some and played some games. Most of the track team was at the formal, so I was kinda reluctant to get on the dance floor becuase I didn't want to be made fun of. However, in spite of my best efforts, the guy controlling the camera knew me and zoomed in on me and put me in the center of the huge screen that was on the wall for all to see. Everybody was looking at me...I knew it. I didn't know what to do. I can't dance; especially not on the screen. I just kinda bobbed my head to make it look like I was dancing. While we were standing around talking at one point, Julie, Patrick and Jordan were talking about this girl that had been coming up and talking to Julie. I didn't see anything wrong with it. However, they said that this girl only talked to Julie while I was around. When I wasn't, she just kinda...passed by. They said that she apparently liked me. I thought that was pretty cool. Stuff like that doesn't happen very often. I personally thought my date was a lot cuter than this other girl, though. After we left the formal, we sat outside the student center for a while because it was nice a cool, and overall a perfect night. We took some pictures and then decided to go get a frosty from Wendy's. We came back and took the girls to Mitchell dorm and then headed back to our dorm. Patrick and I still had calculus to do for tomorrow. I hate having calculus homework every other night. We did a couple of problems then decided we were too tired to do it, so we didn't. I came back to my dorm and wrote some in my journal and then went to bed.
TUESDAY, APRIL 29, 2003
My birthday is today. This morning, I woke up and went to my chemistry class. Right before I got to class, Judith called on my cell phone and wished me happy birthday. That was sweet. I got to class earlier than usual. I sat next to my friend Patrick in the middle of the right side of the class instead of in the back, because we never pay attention in the back. After class was over, I went back to my dormitory and waited for my parents to come pick me up and take me to lunch. When, I got in the car, my parents informed me that we were going to eat at Cactus Jacks. I apparently didn't have any say in it. I didn't really want to go there, but...whatever. On the trip there, I opened my presents that they had brought me. I got a couple of computer games that I already had on my computer, but had been playing illegally. Now I can play them on the internet. I couldn't before. I'm not a dork. I got some green shorts from American Eagle that I had asked for, some book, "Checklists for Life," that I had not asked for but it's cool. I also got a cookie cake that I planned to share with some friends in my dorm after Common Ground tonight. I didn't get the corvette that I had asked for, though. After we ate, my parents came back to my dorm and my dad helped me carry my stuff up to my room. I showed him the guitar that I recently got from Catherine (a friend in my life group) for $30. Even though it didn't cost that much, it is a really sweet guitar. It's a Fender accoustic with a homemade case that Catherine made that looks really cool. Um....anyway, After I took my dad back down, I came back up to my room and took a 20 minute nap before I was to go to track practice at 3:30. When I woke up from my nap, my brother called and wished me happy birthday and we talked for a little bit. I hadn't talked to him in a while so it was nice. He's coming to Monroe next Tuesday. He's in finals right now in law school. After I talked to him, I went to track practice. I was suppose to run a 450 (1 1/8 lap) and a 350 (7/8 lap), but I explained to coach that my leg was hurting really bad, so he only made me do ten 100s. Throughout practice, Troy kept announcing to everyone that it was my birthday. Everyone seemed surprised that I am only 19 years old. After I finished my 100s, I went to the trainer and got stem and ice on my leg and then came back to my dorm to rest. I then took a shower so I wouldn't stink for Common Ground. I called Troy's apartment before I left to see if he wanted to come, but he wasn't back from practice yet, so I went ahead and left. When I got to Common Ground, I sat next to this girl that I thought would be a good person for my brother to meet. She's really pretty and sweet and I thought that Adam would really like her. However, around the middle of the service, I found out that she had a boyfriend....so those plans were canceled. After CG, I talked to a bunch of people and a bunch of people wished me happy birthday. Emily Doan gave me a card with some M&Ms. Then I went to Johnny's and ate. I sat with Matt Carter, Leigh'ann (spelling?), and Sommer. Kristen showed up later with a card for me. She also started singing "Happy Birthday", then my table immediatly joined in and then everyone in Johnny's was singing to me. I think I blushed. I had never had so many people sing Happy Birthday to me. Even though I was kinda embarrassed, it was a good feeling. After I left Johnny's, I came back to my dorm, expecting to have some people to share my cookie cake with...but nobody was here. So I went to Trinity Methodist Church and played volleyball til about 11:30. It was really fun. Not as hot as I expected. When I left, I spun my truck around to leave. I didn't mean to squeel my tires. I came back to my dorm, though and got a crappy parking spot across the street. I came up to my dorm and tried to start on my Response paper that is due tomorrow. Patrick came in and talked to us (me and Brad) and ate some of my cookie cake. We popped some little "party poppers" that my mom had given me. Now I still have lots of sentences to write for my response paper due tomorrow. But first, I am going to take my cookie cake down to Patrick's room so that him, me and Jarred can eat it while we work on gay calculus homework.
WEDNESDAY, MAY 7, 2003
Today was not a very fun day for me. Last night, I stayed up until 5:00 AM working on a gay paper for English class. It was a film proposal that were were suppose to write on one of two plays that we "read." I was going to do it on Antigone, but that was just really hard. I didn't really understand what I was suppose to do anyway, much less with a Greek play. I finally changed it to A Raisin in the Sun. The play sucked, but it was fairly easy to propose a movie. This paper was so much BS, it just makes me mad thinking about doing it. Perhaps it was because I lost a lot of sleep because of it. It was really lonely working so late at night. Nobody was online for me to talk to. Anyway, I worked on it until 5:00, then took a nap for a couple of hours until I woke up at 7:00 AM to get ready for my calculus class. That class was a big waste. I was so tired, I got nothing from it. Homework for that class tomorrow night is going to blow. I skipped my sociology class thinking that I could get something to eat pretty quick and head back to my dorm and work on my paper some more before 2:00. I ate, and then Rachel came and sat down with me, and then some guys from my sociology class came in and said that I missed a 10 point quiz in the class. The one day I skip and there's a quiz. I hope it doesn't hurt my 105 average that much. Anyway, skipping that class didn't do much for saving time. I got back to my dorm and immediatly began working on my paper. I worked on the blasted thing until 1:45. I printed it out and headed to my English class that Mr. Katowich teaches. His webpage is "www.ltparts.edu/katowich". It's pretty gay. Of the three people who have signed his guest book, two of them are his. I got to his class and passed it up. It didn't look as good as some of the other papers did. Oh well. I'm just glad I had nothing to worry about anymore. After class, I came back to my dorm. I decided to skip track practice today, because I was worthless anyway. My calf muscles were killing me just walking to English class, much less jumping hurdles and running laps and crap. I wish they would hurry and heal. Anyway, I got to my dorm, called Judith, my Twirp date for tonight, and asked her when the festivities started. She said she would pick me up at 6:50, so I headed to bed after setting my alarm for 5:48. I got almost 2 hours of sleep. I woke up around 6:13. I ran and took a shower and came back and shaved. It really hurt my face. I shaved yesterday, too, for my twirp date. I guess I cannot shave two days in a row. When she called to say that she was waiting downstairs, I was still naked, so I told her to give me five minutes. I ran down and got in her Mustang and we headed to Johnny's. We were some of the first to arrive there. We sat with Ashley and her boyfriend Adrianne. After we finished eating, we had about 45 minutes, so Judith and I took the leftover pizza back to her dorm. We hung out there for a little bit and talked some and then about 10 til 7:30, we headed to the Planetarium to watch My Big Fat Greek Wedding. After the movie, we looked at stars in the planetarium and learned some constelations. It was pretty cool. After that, Judith took me back to my dormitory and I came up here and played Battlefield 1942 for a little bit before I wrote my journal and went to bed. At least my day got better after English.
SATURDAY, MAY 10, 2003
Today I woke up at 12:45 this morning. I was still laying in bed half asleep when my roommate busts up in the room and turns the overhead light on, which blinded me. So I told him to turn it off which, took a moment because he was apparently stunned to see me. My friend Jacob called around that time, too, from the state track meet. He is still a senior. He went to state in pole vaulting because he is really awesome. Last year, it was me and him at state, but this year it is just him. He told me that he had about 4 hours until he vaulted. He called me back later and told me that he placed 4th. He could have done better, but he got distracted and ran out of time to jump. I went and got some KFC around 2:15 and watched Twelve Monkeys at my dorm while I ate. The movie ended about an hour into it which made me mad. I guess I need to look on the network for the rest of it. Around 4:30, I went to the BCM where they were having Big Band Bootle. They had a bunch of bands come play as a fund raiser for summer missions. I hung out there for a while, then Brad, Jake, and me went to the cafeteria to eat. I brought one of the cups out with me and brought it back to the BCM. I left around 9:30 hoping that maybe there were still some people at the Wesley Foundation I could hang out with, but all the cars I had seen there a few hours before were gone. So I headed back on to my dorm room and brought my stuff down to my truck so I could head home. As I was taking the last of my stuff to my truck, this girl in the parking lot recognized me and came and gave me a big hug and then told me that I was sweaty. She recognized me because she has seen me in the bathroom a couple of times as I went to take a shower. Kinda weird, yes. Anyway, she saw my guitar and got really excited and said that she played the guitar too. I confessed that I could not play the guitar yet. She stayed excited and said that she could teach me because she was awesome and had been playing for 3 years. She lives in Shreveport and goes to LSUS. She told me that I should get her number from her boyfriend who lives in room 706 and get her to come teach me. I was thinking that her boyfriend would love me to come ask for his girlfriend's number. I figured she was drunk. My suspecions were confirmed as I got a whiff of her breath because she kept getting to within about 2 inches of my face. I finally told her I had to go, and headed to my truck that was about 10 feet away. I loaded up my stuff and headed home. I drove between about 80 or 90 mph on my way home. I got off the interstate, headed across the bridge on Forsythe and as I was coming off the bridge, my radar detecter informed me that a train was in motion, and I looked around just in time to see two cop cars. I was busted. They came up behind me and pulled me over. About 4 cop cars pulled up. It was like I had an arsenal of illegal weapons and several hundred pounds of cocaine in my truck or something. they pulled out their flashlights and circled my truck some. The cop that pulled me over told me to come stand in front of his hood. I guess to see if I was drunk or something. I walked as smoothly as I could. He asked for my liscense, I gave it to him and then he asked if I had any weapons in my truck. I told him I had a knife in between my seats. So he watched me as I got my registration out of my glove compartment. I didn't think I need to tell him about the big wooden club I had behind the seat. While the cop looked over my stuff back in his cruiser, I asked another cop why I had 4 cars with me, and he told me it was a slow night. My luck.... *sigh. I have gotten out of two tickets and lost a cop in a maze of roads once, so this was the first ticket I have gotten. I was going 58 in a 40 zone. I signed the ticket and the cop gave it to me and told me to have a nice day. I took the ticket and headed back to my truck. It's not like I'm going to tell him to have a nice day, too. I sat in my truck for a little bit and watched the cop drive off. I finally went home. I decided I would not tell my parents yet. There has to be a way to get out of it. I heard somewhere that you could retake the driving test and have a ticket voided. You can only do that once, though. I think I will have to find out more about that. I have til July 9. When I got home, I unpacked my stuff and lain on my bed for a while staring at the ceiling. As I wrote that last line, I could not help but think of that song by Matchbox 20; Unwell. It starts off, "All day, staring at the ceiling making friend with shadows on the wall...." I played on the computer a little bit and now I am heading to bed.
WEDNESDAY, MAY 14, 2003
I went to my same ole calculus class at 8:00 this morning. Then I went to Sociology where we had a "quiz". It was pretty easy....but I hope I didn't mess up on any of it. After sociology, I came back to my dormitory and took a short nap, before I got up to go to the BCM for chapel. As I was on my way to the BCM, I saw a bunch of BCM people in centinnial plaza giving out birthday cake. I figured that they weren't having chapel today, so after I got my cake, I went and got lunch. I got a big sandwich from the pizza place. I normally can't eat a sandwich of this magnitude, but I no longer have track practice, so I can eat what I want. However, I need to lose weight, because a few days ago, I was weighed and I came to 160 lbs. I did not like that. I am content with 155 lbs, maybe 156, but not 160. I think 155 lbs is ideal for a 5'11.5" guy like myself. As my hand brushes across my face, I realize that I need to shave soon. Um....yeah, so after I ate, I went to class at 2:00. I sat in my usual spot, and as usual, I pulled Joe's desk closer to mine just to mess with him. I'm not gay....I moved my desk closer to Kristen's, but she didn't seem to appreciate being that close. I was still at least a foot and a half away. I took a little quiz in there on poetry terms. I think I tore that quiz up. I then came back to my dorm....where I don't remember what happened next. Then I went to eat around 7ish. It was raining really hard, so I parked my truck really close and ran the rest of the way, or as fast as I could without blowing my umbrella inside out. It took the cafeteria people forever to cook my steak. I waited for at least 10 minutes. I got my food and went out to the student center and ate with some of my friends. The weather outside was really bad. A couple of the girls at my table were talking about a tornado hitting or something and were getting really scared....silly girls. After a while, they finally went back to their dorm. I gave Chai my umbrella because she didn't have one. My truck was closer than their dorm anyway. I ran to my truck once I got out from under cover and only got mildly wet. I went to Amanda's house where we were having lifegroup at 8:00. There were some good water puddles in the road. I tried to hit as many as I could, but it didn't always work out. After being at Amanda's for a few minutes, Kristen called for someone to pick her up. Matt was elected to drive since his truck is the highest. Tony and I got a couple of folding chairs and put them in the back of his truck and road through the rain in the back of Matt's truck. We hit some big puddles there and back. We passed by the BCM and the front yard of it looked like a pool. There were a bunch of people playing frizbie out in it. It was about two feet deep. I really wanted to play, but Matt wouldn't stop the truck. When we got back to Amanda's we got a hold of some more people by phone so we all piled back up in his truck and went to pick some girls up at Graham and then a Michell. Lights were out all over campus. I think the school was just being gay and turning off the power to make it seem like the storm did it so they could save money. I am sure that disturbed the LAN games that were probably going on in Caruthers. We hung out at Amanda's house a while after that. Tony and I talked for a little bit, and then our whole lifegroup watched Summer Catch. I had never seen it before, but it was pretty funny and didn't seem very appropriate for the lifegroup, but we are all adults there.... After the movie, we hung out a little more, and then I took Kristen to her dorm and I came back to mine. I got on my computer and played Battlefield 1942 on LAN with a few other guys. The last game was just me against two other guys, and I whooped them bad. I got 27 kills to their combined total of 17. I know it is a geeky thing to be proud of, but .....I can't think of a but. So I came back here and went to bed after that.
SATURDAY, MAY 24, 2003
This is my first day of summer vacation. It doesn't feel that great. My first finals went pretty good, but then Thursday I had my chemistry test that I thought I had made at least a 95 on, but it turned out to be a 70. I don't know how. I studyed all Thursday night for my Friday Calculus final. I was about halfway through the test when Al-Agha said that there were 15 minutes left. My mind blanked on several problems. It was horrible. After the test, I asked Al-Agha if he could set me up another assessment for ALEKS so that I could get more points because I needed everything I could get. He said he would maybe be able to set it up between classes and to check around 11:00. ALEKS had to be done by 12:00. I went back to my dorm after that to get my camera and then drove over to the Wesley Foundation to do my ALEKS there in case I needed any help on it. I got online around 10:30 and Al-Agha had apparently already set it up for me. I started on the new assessment, but I didn't really have much time to do it. I had to click I don't know on a bunch of them so I could finish before 12:00. It sucked...really bad. The test had made me depressed all morning, and this didn't really help. I hung out at the Wesley while they had a volleyball and cookout thinggy. That was fun. I played a little bit of volleyball. I didn't want to get too sweaty so the first chance I got, I switched out with someone. Around 2:00, I decided it was about time to head back to my dorm and start packing up. It was kinda sad. Nobody was online on AIM. Everybody was already moved out. I packed some of my stuff, helped Patrick pack some of his stuff. Then my brother came to help me pack and him Patrick, Wes, and me went to Quizno's to eat supper. Then my brother and I packed up my stuff. The carpet was really nasty. Most of the rest of the room was nasty too. We finally got all my stuff loaded up. At one point I had my desk chair sitting out in the parking lot and while I had my back turned, this big black guy came up, picked up my chair and started to walk of with it. I kinda looked at him surprised for a moment. Finally he turned around and I realized it was one of the throwers from the track team. Then I laughed because he had got me good. After everything was loaded up, my brother and I headed back to Monroe and got back around 9:30. Today, I got up around 12:30 and got ready to go to Any Fox's Wedding at my church. Andy is my old youth director. It's kinda hard to believe he is finally married. He is going to Colorado for a couple of weeks for his honeymoon. They are going biking. Sounds awesome to me. I wanna do something fun like that for when I have my honeymoon. After that, my brother and I went to the mall to give Christina something I had printed out for her. My bro had been wanting to meet her. It was pretty fun. I hung out with them for a couple of hours and then came back here to eat steak and cheese fries. There is so much more crap going on right now. I still have not told my parents about the ticket I got a couple of weekends ago. I am really worried about my calculus grade. I don't know what I would do if I didn't pass it again. I already miss all my friends from Tech. I am leaving to go to One Day tomorrow morning. It's a big Christian event. Christians from all over the world are going to be there. I hope it goes alright. I was expecting to get a tent from a girl, but she just called to tell me that they don't have it anymore. So now I have to call around and find another one.