Sunday, I woke up pretty early, around 9:00 or so, and finished packing my stuff for the trip I was leaving on. I left around 9:50 so that I could make it to my friend Jennifer's house in Ruston by 10:30 AM. When I got there, I had to wait a bit for her to finish getting ready and for the other people who were going with us to arrive. On the way to OneDay03, I rode with Jennifer Huffman and Ryan Eneix. Brooke and another Jennifer convoyed with us. I rode most of the way in the front seat there. When we arrived in Belles, TX, we had to wait in a 3 hour long line to get in to our camping grounds. It was really awesome to see all the Christians whom had come. When we finally parked, we had to hike a really long ways with all our stuff to our camp site. The workers had given us the wrong wrist band color so it confused us as to where our camp was. Our camp was in the neon yellow site, we had blue wrist bands on. The help booth helped us find our way to our camp. I set up my tent close to several other tents that I assumed were a part of my group. One of the tents was pretty big and had a bunch of food and cooking stuff in front of it. After the tents were set up, we took a hike to the porta-potties that were really far away, then came back to where a stage was and worship was going on. There were four stages set up around the field for the four different camp sites on Sunday night to praise and worship. It got really cold. There were so many people there. I wanted to go over the blue camp, because I could hear them singing and cheering all the way on the other side of the field. They were about a mile away. However, Jennifer and Ryan were fine being in the yellow crowd, so I stayed with them. When the praise was over, I headed over to the blue section by myself for the last few minutes of their thing. As I left after it ended, someone called my name and I turned around to see Seth. I found out that it was him that had all the food and cooking stuff by my tent. He had come with Adam and Josh. That night, Ryan and I mooched some food off of them cause we didn't have much of our own. Taylor and a few of his friends came over later while I was eating on some Ramen noodles out of a big metal pan. One of the dudes with Taylor seemed pretty cool. He said I had awesome hair and thought it was pretty cool that I was eating Ramen noodles straight from the pan. I offered him a spoon full and he took it and I finished eating all the noodles. I drank some of the left over juice and he seemed like he wanted some so I gave him some and we both drank out of the pan (not at the same time). Then I remembered that the water had been melted ice that had held raw meat and I started to feel kinda sick until I remembered that I had boiled the water before I cooked my meal. I just hoped it was enough. I guess it was, because I am fine now. I finally decided to go to bed, so I walked off and got in my tent that I recently found out wasn't actually waterproof. Good thing it didn't rain that night. It was just really cold. I didn't even have to open my sleeping bag because it was so cold.
Monday, I got up around 8:30 or 9 and got dressed and stuff. One of the girls had gone out early that morning with a tarp to save us a spot in the field up front. The actualy OneDay worship thinggy started at 10:30, I think. I got out there around 9:30 and it was already really crowded. It took about 15 minutes to find Jennifer with the tarp. After I got seated, I heard my name being called. There were some people from the Wesley foundation behind me. I weaved my way through people and went to go say hi and talk to them for a moment. Then I headed back to my tarp. There were four bands at OneDay, I think, and they all took turns playing throughout the day. Everyone had a "prayer triangle" for the times when we took a moment to pray for something. I was with Joshua and Meridith. Everyone worshipped and praised throughout the entire day. There was a break between 5:30 and 7:00 PM. David Crowder and his Band ended up the day around 11:00. David looked really cool, I thought. He had a long gotee like Chris Larson and glasses like Spencer (Wesley guy) and hair that kinda stuck out. I may decide to grow my gotee out that far. Anyway....It was pretty chilly in the morning, but around noon until about 5:00 it was really hot. It was hard to consentrate on worship while I was sweating and getting a sunburn. However, I did promise myself to change some things in my life when I got home. Changes for the better. After the sun got low enough that it didn't keep it hot, I got more into praise again; I became more active. By dark, I felt great, even though my back kinda hurt from not having a back rest all day when I sat on the mat...and my legs kind hurt from standing so long. At one point during the day, A lady who was in France at their "Une Jour" talked to us by satelite phone. A French guy said a prayer for us that had to have lasted at least 20 minutes. It was in French so I hardly understood what was said. Also one of the missionaries that had been captured in Afghanistan around the time of 9-11 was there and spoke to us about what happened there. During the break time between 5:30 and 7:00, I went with Jennifer Huffman to the missionary tent so that she could look around and see what kind of missions she would like to do. I went through the tent, but I didn't think it was my time to go anywhere, so after a little while, I left. I went over to the shop to see if I could get a T-shirt, but they were out. My mom had ordered some when she had payed for the trip, but they didn't have any of the sizes so I got T-shirt vouchers to get a T-shirt at the shop. Since they didn't have any, I just bought a CD and left. I was going to go back to the tent for a moment, but then I decided to go back and rejoin Jennifer. On my way back some stupid girl started reciting the "1-800-Call Att" commercial at me. I just ignored her as I passed by. I wonder if she felt original saying that. I continued back on to the Missionary tent and waited for Jennifer to get done. Finally, she finished and we went back to the tarp on the OneDay field. It was amazing seeing all those people still there. David Crowder and his band played most of the last part of One Day. His music seemed to be a little more energetic, I guess, than the other music played that day. At some points he stopped singing and let the crowd sing by itself. My section's singing would die down, but I would hear some people still going pretty loud, so I picked up my voice and then the people around me got louder. It was a pretty good feeling knowing that I helped keep everyone singing. I did that a few times during the course of the night. After all the praise and worship stuff had ended, I walked back to the camp with Brooke and Brittany. I ate some food that I mooched off Seth, Josh, and Adam's stuff. One of the guys in our campsite had a couple of guitars so him and Brittany played for a little while. It was really nice. I feel like I know them better and are closer to them. Finally we went to bed. Ryan was already in the tent sleeping.
Tuesday, I woke up before Ryan. We sat around the camp for a little while before we packed up our stuff. The last worship service of OneDay started at 9:30 and lasted til 11. Ryan, Jennifer, and I packed up our stuff and left it there as we went out to the field. It's nice when we can just leave out stuff out and not worry about anybody taking it. I think for a utopia to be created, it would have to start with having only people like those at OneDay. Anyway, we went to the field and sat there for a while and sang praise songs. Then it ended.... We went back to our camp, grabbed out stuff and walked way out to Jennifer's car. I wanted to drive, but Jennifer nevet let me. I had to sit in the back the whole time. One the way back to Ruston, we passed a sign that advertised a 52 flavor coke fountain machine. Ryan saw it and told us to pull over. I got a coke and told it to put vanilla in it, but the vanilla must have been out, because mine just tasted gross. We later stoped at Dairy Queen and I got a Malt. After the 6 hour drive home from a trip where none of took showers the whole time, Jennifer took us to a person's house where there was a meeting. It was a christian thing and we ate some really good food there. Then some people talked about how things are in other countries and how Christians are oppressed. It was really uplifting some of the things he said. He talked about some Middle East people that stood up for their beliefs no matter what. I had been to the house before when my ex-girlfriend's father had run for district attorney. He had some thing there and everyone thought that I was his son becuase I had red hair like his daughter that I was dating. It was really funny. Anyway, we went back to Jennifer's house and hung out for a long time til I finally decided I needed to go home. I got home and almost immediatly took a shower. I showed my brother the pictures I had taken and then went to bed.
WEDNESDAY, MAY 28 - THURSDAY, MAY 29, 2003
Wednesday, I woke up around 1:00 or so and my mom asked me if I wanted to go ahead and go to Oxford, MS with my brother to help him move out of his apartment. I knew I would have to sometime, so I went ahead and decided to go and get it out of the way. It was about a 5 hour drive there. When we got there we just kinda hung out and later went over to Adam's friend's house. We went to eat with J.R. at Applebees. He was a pretty cool guy, and was incredibly intelligent. Oxford University in England is giving him a lot of money to go there. That is just an example of how smart he is. Oxford hardly ever gives scholarships. After we ate, we went back to J.R.'s apartment and watched The Count of Monte Cristo. I had never seen it before and it was a really good movie. J.R. had seen it four times, so he was reading a book on the diffraction of crystals, or something like that. He had his computer downstairs so that when BOSS came online, I could look at my grades. I was so scared about my grade in Calculus. I had been praying for at least a C-. I got on the computer around 11:00 because that is when I thought BOSS came online. Actually BOSS doesn't come online until 11:30. Finally 11:30 rolled around and I got on the really slow modem connection and it took forever to get to the BOSS webpage. It wouldn't load. I tried about 126 times to load it, but it never worked. So I gave up and finished watching the movie. After that, my bro and I headed back to his apartment and went to sleep. The next day, we went to the computer lab at Ole Miss and I got to finally check my grades. I was so happy, I started laughing because I found out I made a B in Calculus. I gotta make this journal brief. After that, we talked to some of my bro's friends and went to eat lunch with them. We went to pick up the U-haul after eating. Then we came back to Adam's apartment and started packing. It took forever to get everything. We didn't leave to come home until about 6:45 PM. I drove Adam's car while he drove the U-Haul. We got home around 11:00 that night.
SUNDAY, JUNE 9, 2003 (with a brief overview of events of earlier days)
Wednesday, I started my new job at Wing Stop. I worked at the West Monroe store until the new Monroe one opened up. Thursday, I worked from 3:30 PM until 2:00 AM. Needless to say, it sucked. I found out later that the store only pays until 12:30. So I worked an hour and a half for free. That really upset me, because I worked hard the whole time there. I was off Friday and went to see Finding Nemo with Tony at the mall. Saturday, I worked from 5:00 PM until 1:15 AM. I was at the Monroe store then. The Monroe store is bigger and therefore takes longer to clean so I got payed until 1:00. Fifteen minutes free. The Drain that the washing sinks drained into got clogged. That caused a slight delay because nobody knew what to do. I go under the sink and pulled the grate up and cleaned all the crap off the metal thinggy. The drain worked again and stopped flooding the store. No need for a plumber, Ian was there. We finally finished everything so I got to come home.
This morning, I woke up around 9:44 AM to get ready for church. I was going to go to the college sunday school class, but then my friend Melissa asked me to come to the traditional service with her. I decided to go with her. I kinda wanted to go there more anyway. I had talked to my friend Kristen about how the traditional services just weren't the same as the ones I liked and I couldn't really get into it. She told me that I needed to be able to worship God no matter what the surroundings, so I wanted to try that. It was a lot better than it usually was today. I sang all the songs and listened to most of the sermon. I timed Bro. Terry's prayer at about 5 minutes in length. After church, I went with Melissa and her family back to her house where I ate lunch and hung out until about 2:00 PM. I later realized that I did not have my cell phone in my pocket anymore. The last time I had seen it was at the church as I timed the prayer. I left Mel's house and went by the church but all the doors were locked. I wanted to call some people, but all my numbers were in my cell phone. I finally just came back home and chilled for a while. Around 5:00, I called the church and Andy unlocked the doors for me so I could look for my phone. It wasn't in the sancuary or in the office, so I guess it was at Mel's house. I called my phone about 20 times during the course of the search. I hung out in the youth area with Andy for a while since I was there. Around 6:30, I left because I didn't want to get started in youth, because I wanted to go to Portico at First West at 7:30. I wanted my cell phone so I could call someone to go with me because I didn't want to go by myself. Me doing this reminded me of a high school girl for some reason....needing someone to go with me. I couldn't find anybody, so I just went by myself. I opened the door to Portico and everybody looked at me because it was rather dark in the room and really bright outside, so I was emersed in light as I came in. A pretty cool effect, I thought. Jenny and Justin were sitting close to the door, so I went to sit with them since they were the only people I knew. Portico is kinda like Common Ground in that it is mainly for college or young adult people, but it wasn't near as big and I didn't really care for the lead singer's voice or the way he sung the songs. It was pretty cool, other than that. After Portico, Jenny, Justin and I went and got some cake. Me and Justin got seconds. It was some dude's birthday. Nobody was eating the cake. I found that kinda strange. At my church, that cake would have been gone in 5 minutes. But there was more than half left when I left. When I was walking out, I looked directly at this guy. He said hi to me, and I had to look at him for a moment before I realized he was the guy that lives down the street from me. I felt really bad. He had long hair, though. The last time I had seen him, he had short hair. I hope he didn't think I was trying to ignore him. After that, I went by Wing Stop where Stacy was suppose to have some stuff for me to fill out in order for me to get my pay check, but she didn't have any. So I just got some fries and called my cell phone from there again. Then I called Mel's house and found out that my phone was there. So I took my fries to Mel's house and ate and talked to George (Mel's step-dad) some. I hung out with Melissa for a while as she talked on AIM and then left around 10:30 with my cell phone. I then came home and watched the rest of my pirated copy of The Animatrix which was totally awesome. I think it came out some time this week, but I have had it on my computer since....about a month and a half ago, I suppose. I talked to a bunch of people online until I finally went to bed around 3:14 AM which is really unhealthy for me but I do it none-the-less because I'm stupid. But I can stay up as late as I want on the internet now because my brother hooked me up with his dial-up connection thinggy, so I can get on it from my computer and don't have to wait for my dad to get off the crappy computer that messes up all the time. And for the record, nobody called me Carrot Top today or recited the 1-800-Call Att commercial. I was amazed.
MONDAY, JUNE 9, 2003
Today was the most awesome day of my life! My brother woke me up at 1:30. I took a shower, then called the police depo to see how much my ticket costs. It is $124. That sucks. Then I went to work at 5:00. I worked, and worked some more at my chicken wing place. Then they stop paying us at 1:00 AM, because it is some gay rule they have. I have never been there when they finish cleaning up the place by one. I got home today at 2:00 AM. My day was about completely worthless.
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 11, 2003
Marcia called me at 10:30 this morning and woke me up. I don't really remember what she wanted, but I got off the phone with her as quickly and politly as my half-asleep mind would allow. I woke up again when Andy Fox called at 1:30 and asked if I could teach the Jr. High Sunday school class for the next two Sundays. I said yes, even though I am not so sure about this whole teaching thing. All the junior high kids do is make fun of me. I could beat all the little runts if I wanted to, but that doesn't stop them. Anyway, I am going to do it. I then went by the library to pick up some forms for TOPS since I have yet to fill them out for next year. After that I went by the church and picked up some lessons for Sunday school. I hung out with Andy for a couple of hours. He tought me how to shoot a rubber band correctly. Now I can hit targets with great accuracy. Then we played frisby for a little bit, then I had to go home and eat supper with my family. After supper, I went to work at 8:00. I got there just in time to clean...yay.... It wasn't as bad as every other day I have worked. It actually got slow enough that we could sit around and talk for a while. Around 11:30, a bunch of guys I remember from St. Frederick came in. I didn't like any of them. They all think they are hard. They all drive really expensive vehicles that their parents bought them. All rude and do pointless things. I came up to the front at one point and found a condom sitting on one of the beer taps. Then they all hung out in front of Wing Stop and puff-puff-passed a cigerette. Or maybe it was weed. They do that, too. Anyway, tonight we finished cleaning up by 12:45. It was nice getting out early. Then I came home and got on the computer and worked on my webpage while listening to some praise music. Some how Coldplay got into the mix, so I jammed to that for a while, too.
FRIDAY, JUNE 13, 2003
I could not go to sleep last night, I got maybe 1 hour of sleep. Around 7:30 AM, I went to get some donuts from Shipley's. When I got there, I asked for a sprinkle donut, a chocolate donut, and 6 regular donuts. When I opened my wallet to pay for it, I didn't expect to see much, but somehow two $20 bills got in my wallet along with a $5. It surprised me. I thought it was really cool at first, but then I wondered where it come have come from. I ate at Wing Stop yesterday with Melissa, Josh, and Kaitlin after Final Exit. I guessed Stacy gave me back the wrong amount of change for my meal. I am fairly trusting, so I didn't check my change, I just crammed it into my "almost empty" wallet. Anyway, I got my donuts and brought them back to eat. My parents were up now and wondered where I had to go. I explained to them that I didn't have anyplace to go. I just couldn't go to sleep. I ate four of my donuts and left the rest for dad. I then played on the computer for a while and talked to people until I decided to try sleeping again. I got to sleep around 10:30 AM, I think. I woke back up around 2:30 PM. I just hung around for a while, and then Marcia called and said she was near my house so she came over. While she was on her way, I hopped in the shower and took a quick one. I got out and Marcia, Adam, and I went to Chili's for a really late lunch. We came back and Marcia and me hung out for a little bit, until I told her I had to get ready for work. I got to work around 6:00. Some time during my time there, I asked Stacy if they noticed a lack of money last night. She said there was only a $5 difference, so the extra $30 that I found in my wallet was mine, then. I don't know how, but....cool. Now that I think back on my day at work. It seems kinda fuzzy. I guess once I get there, I just go on automatic pilot and do the monotonous tasks that are required of me. I think tomorrow, instead of doing my normal routine of cleaning dishes for clean-up, I'm going clean the dining area. I noticed tonight that the dishes weren't as clean as they normally are. I guess I just don't care anymore. That stuff that is stuck on those fryers like glue can just stay there. That was kinda my attitude. They'll just be stuck in grease again tomorrow. The two guys that work with me seemed to mess with me a bit more than often. A lot of it was how I was being slow, but then they would say they were just messing with me. Maybe I was slow. I hope Andy needs me on the Jr. High Trip to Gulf Shores. I want to do something different. I hate feeling like I am missing out on life. When I was still awake this morning, I remember looking outside at the beautiful morning wishing I could go do something out in it. All I could think to do was go get donuts, though. It is 3:49 AM on Saturday now. I have been staying up this late a lot lately. I know it's not good for me. Anyway, we finished cleaning up Wing Stop around 1:45 AM tonight. It blows really bad because I only got payed until 1 o'clock. They are breaking all sorts of laws with that. Not much I can do though. I can't quit unless I have another job. I also would like to find out what I am getting payed, too. I know I'm stupid for not know, but they have not told me yet. I have to get at least minimum wage, though. Maybe they will give me more because I'm the new guy that is working out better than the other new guys like the ULM football players and because I hardly ever take breaks because my last job at Albertson's condemned breaks. You die and go to hell if you take a break while working at Albertson's as a courtesy clerk. I'm going to bed now.
THURSDAY, JUNE 19, 2003
Today, I woke up around 11:40....hit the snooze alarm and woke up at 11:50...hit the snooze alarm and woke up around 12:00. I hopped in the shower after my bro evacuated the bathroom and got ready to head to Ruston to see some of my friends that I haven't seen since school let out. As I walked out the door, Adam (bro) asked if I was going to eat lunch with him and dad. I wieghed out the options. 1. Go right now and eat with friends and pay for myself. 2. Stay and eat a meal with my dad that he would pay for...I mean, how long could it take. I stayed. so We headed out around 12:45 PM. Headed to Trenton St. Cafe on...Trenton St. in West Monroe where my brother used to work. There, we saw my bro's ex and the stupid woman that owns the place who kinda grunted a hello at us when we walked in and later came and struck up a conversation as we were obviously finished with our meal and ready to leave. Finally we left the restaurant and Adam and I followed my dad to an antique store across the street. We stayed around there for about 20 minutes, I suppose, maybe more. After we finally left, my dad checked the door of another antique store but it was luckily closed. Soooo we headed back to Adam's car and went across the bridge and south to down town. Up-town guys heading to a down-town store. Kinda reminds me of a song.... Anyway, we stayed in the store for a little bit looking for a type of knife. Couldn't find it and left. On our way home, a train had to drop off some cars and block the road for about 10 minutes. We finally came back home. I grabbed a couple of things and left for Ruston at about 3:10 P.M., a little later than I wanted. I picked up $10 worth of gas on my way and listened to my new, really awesome Common Ground CD. I got there around 3:45 or so, I guess. I called Kristen for about the 7th time today and asked where she was so I could meet up with her. I went to the PAVB where they were having an orientation thing that told all the freshman who wanted to know about the campus ministries at LA Tech. Kristen, Chai and several other people that I knew were there. I went up and met this girl that i had apparently met-I think she said-12 times already. Her name is Kelly, her name is Kelly, I got to remember that so I don't make a fool of myself again. When I don't see someone on a regular basis then they most likely will be removed from my memory. Anyway, I stayed with the BCM group as the ministries split up. We told three frosh about the BCM and some Baptist churches around Ruston...or the people I was with did. I kept quit until I asked if I could come to BCM Survival, too, because I missed last year's. Survival is a thing for freshman, and I kept hearing about how awesome it was all year. I wanted a T-shirt, too. After the thinggy ended, Kristen and Chai ran off to buy peaches and didn't say bye. Everybody else was leaving too, so I went to Harper Hall and visited Judith. Her suitmate woke up later and joined us in hanging out. I don't really know how long we stayed in her room, but finally we went downstairs and Jake was waiting in his car that I later found out was extremely sweet. It had some awesome green interior lights, and sound system, and pipes. I'd like to have a car like it. The sound in my truck sounds like someone taking a dump compared to the sound in his car. We ate at Anthony's after making sure a certain guy wasn't working. I didn't think it was as good as Monjuni's, which is one or two doors down. We left Anthony's and for a moment I thought we had a destination, but we actually just drove around for what had to be more than an hour. That is when I got the full effect (affect?) of how fun his car was. The sound was so much more awesome than it is in my truck. Maybe when I become an engineer or a physicist some day, my corvette will have a system like that. Finally Judith decided it was time to go back so she could meet Josh at the Student center where I later found out that there was a coffeehouse going on while there was a dance going on in the other part of the Tonk. I went and joined everyone at the coffeehouse. I saw a few guys I knew and then Erica came up and I gave her a big hug. I had thought she was at some job way up north, but something had happened. She introduced herself to me about two weeks before school let out. She's a really cool person with an awesome New Orleans accent. After talking with her for a bit, I walked over to get a drink and saw Maryann across the room, but Kristen showed up with a bunch of her Haughten friends so I met them and finally got to go say hi to Maryann. She was playing cards with someone, so I just said hi and left. I got a drink and walked around talking to people I hadn't talked to since school let out. I went back to the table where Maryann was sitting. Now Erica and Kristen had sat down, too. I found a rubberband somewhere and tried to do this thing Andy (old youth director) showed me on how to shoot it fast and accuratly. My hands were slippery from the condensation on my tropical sprite can. The rubberband shot behind me and hit some girl. I didn't know it had hit her until she shot me back with it. I finally got the thing to work right. Nobody was as impressed as I thought they would be.... Later Kristen asked me to walk her to her car in front of Dudley so she wouldn't get mugged on the way there. I did and she drove me back to the student center. The coffeehouse finally ended because all the frosh had to get back to their dormitories or they would be locked out or something. I didn't get it, but I guess the frosh understood it because they left. Chai, Erica and Me and some other people had the idea to hang out at the Lady of the Mist fountain, but the idea apparently didn't catch because we just stood outside in the heat and talked. I was sweating but it was fun hanging out with all my college buddies. I want to be back at Tech now...more than I already did. I got Erica's number because I didn't have it yet. I asked if she would be interested in going to Gulf shores with me. I am going to gulf shores with my old youth group's Jr. High. Andy said he could use me. I figure it could be fun and maybe help me be a good influence on the Jr. High kids so they don't grow up and become punks. I am leaving Sunday and coming back Wednesday. I hope I am a good chaperone, but anyway, Erica said she would come if she could. I thought that it was a great idea. I didn't know how I would ask Andy. I figured he would still be up at 11:30. He used to be. I called and with my luck he happened to be in bed already, which made me feel worse. I went ahead and just asked him. For some reason, I feel like I am being a huge hastle for him. I had already asked, though, so I went ahead and finished it. He said that if it was just for someone to hang out with on the beach, then no, she couldn't come. He kinda stunned me with that comment, but I came up with some reasons she should come. I wasn't just making them up, I can't remember what exactly I said, because I hadn't thought I would need to explain, but I think they were pretty good. I said that if it was too much trouble to not worry about it, but he said he would think about it over night. After I got off the phone with him and I went back and explained in a little more detail to Erica what she would be doing. She asked what else she would do. I guess I had already told her it was Jr. high we were going with, I wasn't sure if it I had left that out or not when I asked her the first time. So now I got to wait for Andy to tell me if it is alright if she goes or not. Everybody started to leave, so I took Erica to where she was staying for the night and headed over to Christina's house for my last stop. I hung out there with her and this guy Brad. It seems like she only hangs out with people named Brad. Brad was spending the night because it was his birthday the next day and he lives in his fraternity house. Apparently his frat. brothers like to haze birthday boys. I think by beating them mercilessly with a belt on the butt. So Brad was hiding until he was ready to face his birthday beating. We were thinking of ways he could cushion the blows. One of the suggestions was to get a couple of those fake boob inserts for women who are less endowed and stick them on his butt cheeks. I thought that was a good idea, but I wasn't sure if nipples on his butt would be a dead give-away or not. I hung out with Christina a little longer, got a really long hug and then headed back to Monroe. I got off on the Texas Ave. Exit, but then just got back on I-20 and go on 165 so I could stop by Wing Stop and pick up my first paycheck. I got there and talked to the guys that were sitting there for a little bit. Peyton showed up and ate some pizza he had gotten. Adam (Peyton's bro) and I walked out and talked to Stacy for a little bit before she left. She told me were my paycheck was. I went back and got it and told the guys bye and came home. I opened the check and it was about half what I was suppose to have. I was a little upset, but not much. I am sure I can get it back. I know it is not grammatically correct to switch back and forth from past tense to present, but I don't really care. So then I got on my computer and played on it until stupid 4:30 AM. I'm kinda surprised this journal is longer than my OneDay03 journal. Going to bed now.
FRIDAY, JUNE 20, 2003
I woke up around 1:00 today. I don't remember much of what I did. Andy called me and asked if Erica still wanted to go to Gulf Shores with us and I told him yes. He said that she could come. I got really excited, because now someone my age would be there to help me keep control of the jr. highers, and I would have someone my age to talk to. I called Erica to tell her, but she said that she didn't need to and that she needed to instead find a job. That was a good reason, but I thought she might be able to find one AFTER the trip. She said she would call me back in a little bit after thinking about it. She called back five minutes later and said that she wasn't going to come. Her mom had said that she needed to look for a job instead. *sigh.... So I called Andy back to tell him that Erica wasn't coming. He said okay. Anyway, I had to get ready for work so I did and went in at 4:00. I did my menial tasks that I do at Wing Stop, cleaning dishes and such. Then I cooked some chicken. At one point during the day, I was about to load up some chicken to fry so I pulled a frying basket over and the tongs were in the basket below the one I had just pulled over. I lifted up the basket and grabbed the tongs that were kinda hot, and somehow the top of my hand touched the basket above it which happened to be scolding hot. The .18 seconds that my hand was in contact with the frying basket was enough to burn two little holes in my hand and made the top layer of skin evacuate a centimeter squared of area in two spots (picture in Misc. pics of this page). It hurt. I did some more stuff. Stacy got me some ointment to put on it. It burned when she put it on, but I acted like I didn't feel a thing of course. I got back to work and found out that I didn't have to do dishes because the degreaser stuff would burn. That was great. So great. We cooked a lot more chicken....losers came in at 11:30 like usual so we have to make them chicken too. One lady came in at 11:55. The place closes at 12. Anyway, we cleaned up. I cleaned the dining room instead of doing dishes tonight. It was nice not doing the same old thing again. Then I came home and got on the computer as per my nightly ritual.
SATURDAY, JUNE 21, 2003
I woke up around 10:30 and went to the West Monroe Wing Stop to pick up my second check that they forgot to give me. I took it by OIB around 11:15 but it wasn't open and my mom had said they would be open until 12. So I drove to the Monroe OIB and they were closed too....on the inside. I noticed cars at the drive thru, though, so I got in line and cashed my check. After that, I came back home. At some point I got a check from my mom to go get some stuff from Wal-mart for the trip to Gulf Shores tomorrow. I got a few things including a super soaker to keep the jr. high kids in line. I got to the register and this African-American woman would not take my mom's check....said I had to have her ID. I was so pissed. Pissed is not a strong enough word for what I felt. They had taken my check at least every other weekend when I went to buy stuff for school. So I had to pull my freshly acquired currency from my wallet and pay the ...woman. I could have made a big deal about it and made them take it, but there was a line of people behind me and I know how mad I get when someone holds me up in a freaking line at Walmart! I think about other people before I do stuff like that. Not like the inconsiderate people who come in to Wing Stop at 11:30 and 11:45 PM and order 75 wings like happened tonight. I went to work at 5:00. Around 6:30, we got busy. We stayed busy until about 10:30 or so. Then people started coming in again at 10:45 and kept coming and coming until we locked the doors for closing time at 12. I was working with two ULM football players who were new so that sucked too. One guy didn't do crap. He just walked back and forth and grabbed a piece of chicken out of the basket and stuck it straight into the sauce of his choice and went to the back to eat it. He did this at least 12 times. I did not enjoy working today. It was the longest work day I have ever had...EVER.....since working at Wing Stop. It sucked. So now I am home after getting home at 1:50 AM from work. It is 2:44 now. I got to get up really early tomorrow and go to Gulf shores.
SUNDAY, JUNE 22 - WEDNESDAY, JUNE 25, 2003 (GULF SHORES TRIP)
Sunday, I got up around 6:45 AM and got ready and went to my church where the bus was waiting to take me and the jr. high youth to Gulf Shores. I got there and several of the jr. high kids were surprised to see me there because...I wasn't a jr. high kid. I was just there to watch them. The bus drive there was pretty horrible. A few of the kids were really loud and their high pitched voiced pierced into my head. I felt so old because now I was one of the adults watching the kids. I am so used to being the youngest and having the adult watch me, not being the adult. We got to the Condo. It was about 3 blocks from the beach. I saw nobody close to my age until the last day of the trip. Everyone was either several to a lot of years older or about 4 years younger. Not long after we got there, we all walked down the road to the beach. We played there for a little bit until it was time to go eat. We went to Pizza Hut for supper. We then went back to the condo to hang out. I went to the beach by myself Sunday night and just looked at the stars for a long time. I called almost everybody in my phonebook on my cellphone, but was only able to get a hold of two people who couldn't talk for long. I hung out at the beach for maybe an hour or two. I saw eight shooting stars while I was there. Finally I started heading back down the beach to go back to the condo and Andy called to make sure I was still there, I guess. I headed back, watched a little TV and went to sleep. I had the biggest room. I slept in the big room with it's own bathroom, and the 4 jr. high boys split two smaller rooms and Andy slept on the fold out bed in the living room.
I woke up the next morning and went to the girls room to eat pancakes. Then I went and lathered myself up with sunscreen and we went to the beach. Andy had brought some rafts. I blew one up and layed on it for a while on m belly. A couple of times, I would get too close to the shore and the waves would break on me and tump me off the raft. At one point while I was in the water talking to Heidi and Andy, I felt a sting on my foot. It felt like a vine with prickily stuff on it, but it kept stinging and there was nothing on my foot anymore. Heidi said it was a jellyfish burn. I'd never seen or been stung by a jellyfish before. I don't really care for the idea of a slimy tenticled organism wrapping it's tenticle around me. It kept stinging the rest of the day. I got out of the water and built a pretty sweet sand castle. I took pictures of it. Later that day, we went to a couple of gift shops and stores. Um...I don't remember much more. After we got back from the stores, I let Eleanor and Casey straighten my hair. Eleanor was surprisingly gentle with my scalp. They found three dread locks in my hair and Eleanor brushed them out. The kids were surprised that I let them straighten my hair. When they finally finished, the group went crabbing that night. I just stood on the shore and let the waves hit my feet. Eleanor and Casey stood beside me and we talked for a little bit. I don't get Eleanor. One moment she acts like she hates me, the next she loves me. Silly junior high girls. Anyway...we finally finished getting crabs and went back to the condo after letting the crabs go again. One our way off the beach, I went to check out my sand castle that I had build to withstand the coming of the tide. It could have done it had footprints not been made on it. I took pictures of my ruined castle. We all went back to our own condos. While I was getting ready for bed, I looked in the mirror. I thought that my hair looked really cool. It had gone a little curly, but still mainly straight. I also noticed that I looked a whole lot like a girl. If I didn't have sideburns it would have really worried me. Anyway, I went to bed.
The next day we went to the beach again. I was sunburned from yesterday from laying on the raft on my belly. I had apparently forgotten to put sunscreen on the back of my legs. We went out there and as we looked for a place to set our stuff, I noticed that some people had planted their umbrella right in the middle of my castle. *sigh. I took a picture. We played in the waves some more. I decided to build another castle. I got some plastic buckets and stuff and started building another one. It was easier since I hadn't used anything to help me build the first. I had two walls up and the central tower, but I got bored. So I went to play in the water some more. Finally, I think everyone got tired of the beach, so we left. Later in the condo, we did this thing where, we build people up with compliments. Someone had a bucket of candy. The person with the bucket just held it while anyone else who felt the need to could tell them something good about them that they had noticed. I look back on that last line and notice that it might sound a little confusing.... Anyway, we did that. It was pretty cool. The Jr. Highers did better than I thought they would. We then went to eat at Lamberts. They throw rolls at people there. The food was really good. I couldn't eat it all. Later, Andy and Heidi asked me to watch the kids so they could go out and eat and go to the beach by themselves since they had been there 8 days (sr. high and jr. high) without having any time to themselves. It seemed like they were gone forever. Finally they got back, so I went to the beach again by myself. The wind was blowing pretty hard. My hair was sticking straight back. I passed the dead cat that I noticed someone had flipped over. I walked down the beach to where the least amount of light was. I saw this huge black object in the water. I didn't have a flashlight or anything so I kinda followed it down the coast thinking I could see what it was once it got in the light of the huge flood light that this one condo had. I followed if for about 20 minutes until it finally got down there but it drifted back out into the gulf right before it got there. It was kinda scary looking. I didn't know what it was. It looked like it has stuff sticking out of it. I guess I'll never know for sure. I found some chairs that were left out and sat in one of them for about an hour. The wind was still blowing. I wanted to fall asleep out there. I saw a huge shooting start that streaked across the whole sky and took about 8 seconds to burn out. Then another little one right after it and then no more for the night. I finally decided it was time to walk back to my condo. I passed by three people. They said something and I talked to them for a little bit. I didn't care to talk. So I told them I was heading back to my condo and made my exit. When I got back to the condo, I walked around to wear the girls' first floor balcony was to see if the kids were still out there. They saw me and said hey. Heidi came out and wanted them to go to bed and they asked if they could stay up if I watched them. I told Heidi I would. I went up and sat with them until about 1:50 in the morning. While I was sitting with them, I heard a few of them cuss. I told them that if I heard them cuss, I would beat them. I got about 8 or 9 good licks in. Kirk kept dropping f-bombs by "accident" as he would say. He got most of the hits. I finally told them it was time, so I brought the boys back to the boys' condo. As I got ready for bed, I heard Kirk say f***. As I started heading his way, he told me it was an accident. I cut through the guys he was talking to and got a final lick in for the night. I went to bed.
Wednesday, I woke up packed my stuff. Waited for everyone else to do the same. We got on the bus and went home. We stopped at a mall on the way back to get something to eat. We had 45 minutes. I went and found McDonalds and everyone else decided to eat there too. After we ate, everybody kinda left except for Shelby, Megan, and Lindsey. We passed by the Great American Cookie Co. and I was feeling generous, so I bought them all a cookie. We met back at the front of the mall and waited for Andy. Everyone finally came and we got on the bus and continued home.