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| News of the Day Archive- April 18-30 |
| April 18- Though the day is only half completed, I decided to write a partial update for it. I woke up at around 11:30 at which point I sat in front of the computer for a bit, which was rather uneventful since nobody was online. Oh well. I had said the night before that I would attempt to clean my room, so that's exactly what I intended to do. So I put some music on and went to work, and I must say that there was some work involved, and much left to be done. Had I not gotten such an itch to write I would still be in the room with hours of work ahead of me. But alas, I couldn't pass up this chance because had I done so it would surely have been the death of the news. As of now it's just on the brink of death. It's now about 2:15 and my day is only half over. To catch up everyone up to speed, some things have happened since my last few sporadic updates. In case you couldn't tell, I applied, and was accepted for a job at Office Depot in La Habra along with Little Chris, and Robert. Things were going along fine there for about a week or so until SpeedZone, a week before my last day, extended an offer to me that I had been working for and had my sights on for months. I weighed the options and ultimately took the job at SpeedZone where I was promoted to Cash Control. Since then I have been overwhelmed with 35 hour workweeks that have left me tired and in hindsight a little irritable. As for Office Depot, I told them my situation, and left after about two weeks of working there, and about one week after Robert had left as well. Little Chris was, and remains, the only one of us three that still works there. So for the past month and a half it seems like I have been out of the loop since it seems like I'm working when everyone else isn't. Such isolation is good at times, but bad the rest. Other than that, nothing much has been happening. With any luck the site will be rejuvenated, because like myself, it could use it. After spending about an hour or so writing the news, and updating minor aspects of the site, it was around 3:00. I sat in front of the tv for a little while and thought about cleaning my room some more, but I was no longer as motivated as I had been prior. Instead, the dread of having to go to work sat in my mind. I regretted picking up the shift ten seconds after I agreed the day before, but it wasn't until the zero hour grew closer that I truly regretted it. I got dressed around 4:15 or so, and headed down to SpeedZone where I began my shift. I did not want to be there at all, and I think it was obvious. I did what was required of me and performed my duties as I was supposed to. I cashed out an employee here, fixed a kiosk there, and just trudged along. I had to pull the kiosks at one point, and there was a BTO song playing, "you ain't seen nothing yet" which put me in a somewhat decent mood. Not a good mood, but a little better than before. Since Damon had told me before to make sure that I take a break, I decided to do so, at least for a short while, but before I could I ran into troubles. It was around 9:30 when I was going to go on break when there were computer troubles which needed to be addressed. I had ordered food but it had to wait until a solution was established, which wasn't until almost 10:00. At that point I took a fifteen minute break and ate a club sandwich. I went back to work and continued with my duties. Luckily, throughout the night I didn't really have any customers that I needed to address, which was pretty good since I did not have the desire to deal with them. I probably would have had another person take down my name as well as the number to corporate. It's happened at least four times already. The last hour approached without my even realizing it. As always I was bombarded with kiosk money, and cashiers and bartenders cashing out. All that needs to be crammed into an hour, and I can do little before to make it go by quicker other than brace myself for the impact. Time goes by far too quickly when you need it. Finally all the cashiers were cashed out, and it was time to start making the deposits and entering the numbers to the computer. The numbers were off significantly, but it was most likely due to computer errors. I didn't end up getting out of work until about 1:45 due to the problems, and ended up with thirty six minutes of overtime. It's the least I could do since I had no desire to be there. I needed to be compensated some way. Naturally when I was finished and wanted to see what everyone was doing, they were done for the night. So I came home, and sat at the computer while watching tv. It's almost 3:00 and I'm thinking about finishing cleaning my room. April 19- I woke up at around 11:30 or so and immediately sat at the computer to kill my day before work. Naturally there was nothing to watch since it is a Saturday, so I decided to try and get back to cleaning my room. It seems like I've worked for a while on my room and have gotten very little accomplished. I think I'm only rearranging the clutter into different places, and moving things back and fourth throughout the room. However given a little more time I'll have it looking presentable, not clean, but presentable. I took frequent breaks to talk to various people online, and continue to watch tv. The day is only half over, but I figured since I had a late night and early morning, I probably wouldn't be able to update, so this is half my day. The other half will be about my second home, SpeedZone, since I work in a little over an hour. After sitting online for a little while, the time came to go to work, so that's exactly what I did. I got there at around 5:30, and had to park in the parking lot since there wasn't any room in the Grand Prix terrace. Once I got there I had some things to take care of right away so I did that. Gina got there at the same time and was busy with some things of her own. Eventually I was able to get settled into everything since it always takes a little while to do that when I get there in the middle of the day. It wasn't terribly crowded so there wasn't too much that needed to be done on my end of things, so I spent a lot of the time in the cash control office. I pulled the kiosks a couple of times since they were full, which for some reason I almost enjoy doing. As I went on break things were pretty busy, but only because we didn't have enough cashiers due to their having to take breaks, so Gina started working on a drawer. I almost had to also, but I didn't end up having to. Instead I took care of some other things like cash drops and pulling the kiosks. Things are so much easier when there are two people there. At one point I needed to do games which was kind of nostalgic because it had been a while since I was in the gameroom to actually do games. It was nice, but probably since there weren't too many problems. When I was done doing that I spent some time talking to Noy, Gina, and Ryan in the cash control office since everything was taken care of. The end of the night approached and the last hour which is always a bit daunting when I'm by myself went by with ease. By 1:00 we were pretty much ready to take care of everything, so that's what we did. We were finished with everything in about twenty minutes, and clocked out around 1:30, which probably would have been about twenty minutes longer had I been by myself. I clocked out and went outside where I found Paul, Gabe, and Chris sitting in my truck. I talked to them briefly before being kicked out of the parking lot. I came home, drank some glasses of lemonade, ate some Better Cheddars, and watched some tv. It's now about 2:30 and I need to be at work by 9:00 tomorrow. April 20- My day started at around 8:30 when I rolled out of bed and took a quick shower before heading to work at 9:00. I was half asleep when I got there and briefly chatted with Paul, Robert, and Cody before having to begin my chores. I did all my counting, and made some tills for the cashiers before having to turn on the kiosks at about 9:30. That took a little longer than expected and I wasn't finished until a little after 10:00 since I had never done that before. I had some troubles at first, but after figuring out some things on my own through trial and error, and asking Jay the gametech to fix a couple things, I had everything under control. Things were pretty dead at first, and I was hoping it would stay that way. I didn't have to do too much work because there were enough cashiers to cover everything so I pretty much just walked around and supervised. I even went into the back office and had a conversation with Taylor and Lem about people's perceptions of reality. Things were going pretty smoothly and at around 12:30 Ryan asked me if I could try and buy some golf pencils. So I took some petty cash and went over to Staples, but they were closed since it was Easter. I figured everwhere else would be closed too, but I tried anyway and drove by Wal-Mart, and Target with no luck. I went back to SpeedZone empty handed, and decided to go on break. I chatted with Taylor during my break, and were joined by Lem as well, even though he wasn't on break. When that was over I went back to my duties, which still weren't too tough since there were plenty of workers for not too many customers, and I was still getting more by the hour. The customer traffic did pick up as the day went on, but it wasn't much of an issue, though I had to take care of more damaged cards, kiosk errors, and things of the like. I didn't have too many customer interactions throughout the day, which was welcomed as always. At around 4:15 Gina showed up and at last I was able to go, but instead I had to take care of a write-up for someone. It was the second I had written that day. Oh well. I took care of that and finally left SpeedZone at around 4:45, with a whopping thirty-six hours for the week. I am there way too much these days, and it doesn't seem to be letting up. From there I came home and signed online as routine dictates. After sitting at the computer and watching tv for a little while, I eventually dozed off for about an hour or so, only to be woken up by my computer at about 7:30. After chatting for a few minutes I decided to take a shower because I felt sort of dirty after falling asleep. Once out I went back to the computer for a while before Ricardo showed up at my house to hang out. Shortly after that at around 9:00 Gabe showed up, followed by Lindsay, then Paul, and finally Steve, and Dennis. I hadn't really eaten so I had an assortment of things including a couple cheese sandwiches, part of a Handi-Snack, and some Top Ramen. Not the greatest mixture, but it sort of did the job. Paul had brought a CKY video that he got from John the bartender, so we ended up watching that, but I didn't really pay too much attention to it. When that was finished we watched Half Baked which Ricardo had brought with him. Midway through that Lindsay took Dennis to take care of his and AJ's little habit. It was pretty funny. We continued to watch the movie which as always was funny. At a little after 11:00 Paul decided to leave as did Lindsay. The rest of us watched the movie to the end, and by around 11:20 everyone left except Ricardo, who stuck around for a couple more minutes before leaving as well. I signed online since I am an addict. Occasionally when I'm by myself, usually when I am up late alone working on a project, or on a night like tonight when I'm the only one in the house, I develop a sort of anxiety. Tonight it's not too bad, but there is still that feeling in the pit of my stomach which has subsided a little. The more I think of it, in the past when I have experienced such, it's usually on Sunday nights. Oh well. It's now about 12:45 and I will probably be up for a little while, at least until the feeling goes away. Rudy's on tv, and as much as I have been raised to hate Notre Dame, I can't help but watch that movie whenever it is on tv. April 21- After spending over an hour tossing and turning the night prior, I eventually fell asleep and woke up at around 8:00 to get ready for school. However, I was tired and decided to skip my first class and sleep for about another hour. I ended up getting out of bed at about 10:15 and got dressed before being out the door by 10:30. I got to school at about 10:45 and walked to class where I got there on time to listen to Bill Jones lecture about history. As always the class was interesting, and it remains my favorite class to go to. However in the midst of learning about the West, I started thinking about my Statistics class and how futile it was for me to continue attending since I had missed so many days. So I decided that I am not going to go to that class anymore and just take the F I will recieve. I'll have to try again next semester. History class ended at around 12:15 and I walked to my car. About ten minutes later I finally got there and drove home. I came home to an empty house where I heated a chicken pot pie for lunch, though I didn't really feel like eating it so I didn't enjoy it a whole lot. I decided that with work later I wouldn't be able to update the News, at least for the entire day, so I wrote the first half right now, which is about 2:00. I spent the rest of my time before work watching some tv, before taking a shower and heading over to SpeedZone for my 4:00 shift. I got to work and began with my regular routine of counting the safes and things of that nature. It was surprisingly crowded for a Monday afternoon, and I was a little concerned that it may be busy the entire night, but luckily I was wrong. At around 5:30 Ricardo stopped by to fill out an application so I talked to him briefly, but he was still filling it out when I had to cash out someone. I later retrieved it from the application drawer of obscurity and put it on Damon's desk like he said (but not without mentioning it to Ryan as well). I had some troubles with the computer in the cash control office, as well as a couple other problems which were eventually fixed with Ryan's help. At around 8:15 I gave John the bartender a break which wasn't too fun, even though I only helped out two customers, one of them being Joe the security guard. John was only gone long enough to eat his food which was good, so to pay him back I cleaned up some tables for him. From then on it was a normal night, and it wasn't too busy like I had said earlier. Slightly busier than a normal Monday, but far from being busy. I pulled the kiosks, cashed out the couple people that needed to, and was waiting for 11:00 so I could finish. I was finished relatively quickly, but was brought to a halt when five African-American gentlemen wanted refunds, but I was done with the night's deposits. I had to give them money from our petty cash, which had a bunch of dimes in it, so rather than give them quarters I figured it was a good way to get rid of them. After taking care of that the deposit was verified and all the numbers were put in the computer. I ended up clocking out at about 11:50 or so, which was much later than I had anticipated, and came within five minutes of overtime. I drove home where I sit at the computer deciding what else I should eat since I have eaten two cheese sandwiches, and turkey pot pie hot pocket. It is almost 1:00 and I'll probably call it a night pretty soon, maybe after I put a load of laundry in. April 22- My day started at about 7:45 when my tv woke me up, but I quickly changed the time and went back to sleep. Somehow I made a mistake and was woken up by a phone call at around 8:50 from Lindsay wondering where I was at. So I got up, took a really quick shower, and got ready as if I was going to work so I wouldn't have to do it later. I picked her up at around 9:05 and made it to school with plenty of time. There we saw Robert, and he and I went to our Psychology class. There we listened to some more of the research projects, and I entertained the delusion that perhaps the teacher had forgotten about us. We only heard about two or three before class was over, and Robert decided to get our project back from the teacher, at which point he noted that we hadn't gone yet. I would have bet money that he forgot about us too. When class was over I walked with Robert a little bit before heading back to the truck and skipping my second class. At the truck Lindsay was waiting since we had decided earlier to not go to our respective classes since we hadn't done our work. So from Mt. SAC we headed over to Best Buy, but on the way there I had the worst luck driving. Every potential time saver and shortcut I took made things worse, and added more time and distance to the drive. Oh well, can't win them all. We looked at the dvd's and after aimless wandering I stumbled onto the Family Guy on dvd, the first two seasons. Naturally I had to buy it since that show was so great, so I spent the $40 and bought it. From Best Buy we headed over to SpeedZone to see if Paul wanted to join us for the weekly lunch, which Robert had to pass on. We got there around noon, and it was somewhat crowded due to Ten Buck Tuesday, and Power 106 being there. I wasn't too impressed by the latter. It took a few minutes, but we found both Paul and Cody. Round Table somehow came up and that's where we went to eat. We got there before Paul and Cody since they needed to take care of a couple things before leaving SpeedZone, so we ordered the pizza. They eventually showed up, but they had eaten a bunch of breakfast burritos earlier so they didn't eat much. The four of us sat around for about an hour or so before getting ready to leave at around 1:15. Before leaving we looked at all the little league sponsor plaques, and I found one for a team I was on back in T-ball. The 1990 Cubs. After that we hung out in the parking lot for a couple minutes before parting ways. I dropped off Lindsay and came home where I sat around for a few minutes before heading back out the door for work at 2:00. I was scheduled just because it would be busy at SpeedZone, but David, the other supervisor would be coming in at 4:00. So I figured it was pointless for me to stay until 7:00 since he would be there, and decided long before I got to work that I would be leaving by 4:30. It made things a lot easier to deal with knowing that I wasn't going to be there long. I got there and it was still relatively busy, but luckily it didn't affect me too much. I counted the safes and did all the regular procedures, and took care of some cash drops as well. Before I knew it it was 4:00 and David showed up to work. I filled him in on the current events at SpeedZone regarding the employees, what little I had encountered during the day, and various other tidbits of information. I helped him out briefly, and decided to call it a day at 4:30, a mere two and a half hours after arriving. But it was my own choice since if I really wanted to I could have stayed a full eight hours. But that wasn't going to happen. I left happily contributing that little bit, since I had no desire to be there. I came home and sat at the computer and enjoyed that time. I turned on the stereo in the living room and blasted the stereo as I checked out some things on eBay. I bid on a Jaws, and Raiders of the Lost Ark poster, and did some investigating towards the five Kevin Smith New Jersey movies. I've been saying for literally years now that I was going to buy some movie posters for my room, and I finally decided to just do it. Surprisingly that occupied about two hours of time, part of which was spent trying to decide what to do for the evening. At 7:00 Paul showed up, and was followed shortly by Lindsay. It would just be the three of us, and we were going to Best Buy. After a couple minutes we piled into the car and were on our way. Once there, for the second time of the day, we all sort of just headed over to the dvd's since after all, it's either that or cd's. I went through a little more thoroughly than before and saw a couple things that I wanted, but ended up settling for Good Will Hunting, which was the version with a few features and for only $14.99, as opposed to around $25 as I had seen it just weeks prior. Rather than risk it going up in price again, I bought it. However not without wandering around for a little while longer. Finally after at least a half hour or so we decided to leave and get something to eat. In the parking lot we saw Alfred's car so Paul went back inside to find him while Lindsay and I waited for him. A couple minutes later he returned with Alfred, who was going to join us for dinner at Chili's. So we made the two minute trip to Chili's and were seated quickly since there weren't many people there. Conversation was varied as usual, and pretty funny at times such as Alfred and Paul discussing all the cliches they would include in a script if they were to write one. I ate some sort of chicken and pasta meal which was alright, but I didn't like the type of noodles it came with and would have preferred more of a spaghetti type. But it was alright. In the midst of the meal I got a call from my mom from Vegas, which was the first time I had spoken to her since they left. The dinner conversation continued and somehow found its way to the Bosom Buddies theme, which none of us could remember. The four of us sat there for at least two hours before eventually leaving the restaraunt at about 10:45. There was a little bit of an issue regarding how much money to put in, but by the end it was no longer an issue. I got home at around 11:00 where I went to the computer and checked up on my eBay bids which I had won, and have now paid for as well. I've spent the last couple of hours at the computer, not really accomplishing anything other than finding the theme to Bosom Buddies, and blasting some more music at midnight just because I can. It's now about 1:15 and I will probably call it a night since I am tired. April 23- Today I woke up at around 7:30 and took a shower for no apparent reason, before crawling back into bed for some more sleep. I had a take home test for Earth Science that I kept putting off, and didn't start until 8:30. That meant I had to hurry to finish the thirty or so questions which I only got about half of done before having to leave for class. I left at about 9:05 and got to school about twenty minutes later, partially delayed by the two signals being out in front of the school. It turns out that power was out in the 7 building too. I got to class a couple minutes early so I started working on the test again, but I wasn't in much of a hurry because I noticed that nobody else really had theirs out. It turns out that on Monday, the class I missed, he hadn't covered all the material on it so he postponed it until next Monday. Caputo started his lecture and I sort of zoned out and started jotting down some things on a sheet of paper for the class time until about 10:45 when he let us out. I ran into Robert and we chatted for a few minutes before I went to my History class where the lecture was interesting as always. Next semester I think I might see what classes Bill Jones is teaching and if one interests me I might take it. Every time I leave that class I want to take a road trip around the west, and everyday I take it more into consideration. I am going somewhere this summer. I don't know where, and I don't know when, but I am going. You're only young once, and I've already wasted twenty years of it in more ways than one. But I digress, back to my day. I've noticed that this has strayed from the original intent of the News of the Day. At the end of class we had a quiz on some reading material, and I had no clue what to write for my answers. One of my answers even acknowledged the fact that I had not read. I was out of that class by around 12:05 and I walked to my car, and dealt with the traffic. One of the signals was still out, despite the power having been turned on a long time prior. Eventually I got out of the mess and made it home where I found solace in AOL. At around 1:00 or so Gabe came by to hang out for a little while, and we ended up watching an episode of Family Guy, and Clerks the Animated Series. Both of which I thought were hilarious, though I think Gabe might have thought otherwise. He left at a little after 2:00, which was around the time that I started watching my newly acquired Good Will Hunting. I had really only seen it once, and that was in the theater when it came out. I forgot how good it was. The scenes with Robin Williams were just amazing, especially how he talks about his dead wife. The movie ended at around 4:30 and I didn't do too much after that other than sit at the computer while watching tv. There wasn't much to do anyway. I started to doze off for a while, but was awoken by a call from my parents saying they had arrived and were on their way home. I pretty much just sat on the couch and accomplished nothing. My parents eventually showed up at around 7:00, but I didn't really talk to them too much, though I'm sure I can get the details of their trip eventually. At 8:00 I left for Starbucks where I met up with Ricardo, Shay, and Steve for an evening of discussion. Sort of a small group, but that wasn't much of an issue, and in retrospect a somewhat welcomed sight. Ricardo was eating a slice of pizza so that's what I decided to have as well but when we got there they only had one slice left, so we were almost going to buy a whole one. The girl working there was a little rude as she informed us that they were making another one, but her rudeness wasn't really an issue. So we went back to the conversation, which was about Nutwood for a significant portion, before going back to get our pizza. As we sat at the table in front of the Brea Starbucks all four of us were caught off guard at the amount of attractive women that were there. I'm not usually one to comment on such, but I thought it was worth noting. Naturally at the time it kept getting brought up, and was just one of a number of topics covered. After sitting there for about two hours or so we decided it was about time to leave, so we wandered over to the parking lot at a little after 10:00. In the parking lot Ricardo and Shay couldn't resist making comments to some girls that walked by, which weren't loud enough to be more than a joke, but just loud enough for them to hear. We got a good laugh out of it before parting ways. On the way home I stopped off at a Unocal 76 station where I got gas for $1.94 which is pretty good right now. When I got home I signed online since that's what I do best, and watched some tv, which I'm not too bad at either. While online I was talking to Lindsay about yesterday's News and she commented that I didn't include a detail I claimed I would. I was going to include it tonight just to prove her wrong, but subtlety would be almost impossible so I go yet another update without including such an insignificant detail. I also talked to Serbo for a few minutes about his trip to the casino, and our upcoming business arrangment regarding a cell phone. I'm looking forward to getting his old phone because currently my phone is on the verge of death. Hopefully he'll update, as well as all the other journals, so I can have something to read again. And hopefully I'll be able to provide something for people to read for more than week long spurts every three months... April 24- Today began at around 8:30 when I rolled out of bed and got dressed before heading to school at around 8:50. I got there and sat in the parking lot for a little while before Robert and I went to Psychology class. We sat in class and waited to give our presentation, which didn't happen until about half an hour into class since the group before us was having some troubles with the computer. Eventually we did go and I left most of the talking up to Robert, but that's just because he had to go through every survey question. Class ended at around 10:45 after John Long lectured for about fifteen minutes, which I could have done without. After class Robert and I went to the student services building to get his test scores for math, which he passed. On the way out Lindsay approached us in a hurry, asked if one of us had a quarter, which I did, and then went off as quickly as she came. We just sort of shrugged it off and I went to my Sociology class. I sat through a forty-five minute lecture about the changing work environment of today, which ended a little earlier than normal, but not much. I walked to my car and began to drive home. On the way there I talked to Lindsay who wanted to get something to eat and decided to go to In-N-Out. Since I left school earlier, I got there first, where I ran into John Harlow and talked to him for a couple minutes before ordering food. It was pretty crowded, though that should have been expected at 12:30 in the afternoon. We ate and chatted for a little while before she had to be at work, so at around 1:20 we parted ways. From there I went home where I sat at the computer and watched some tv, since that's what I do best. I started to get tired so I took a nice comfortable spot on my bed and layed down, though never really fell asleep. At around 3:15 I started getting ready for work, which included shaving which for the first time in a long time I didn't cut myself, or miss any spots. I must say that it was my best shave overall to date. I got to work at 4:00 and started with my initial procedures which took about half an hour or so. We were pretty overstaffed for the amount of people in the park, so I slowly sent people home early. My staff for the night was Royster, Nattisha, the new girls Krystal and Holly. I'm not a racist or anything, but three of the four were of African-American descent, which was a little unusual. Not to mention Mike the security guard as well. At one point they were even joking around about it, and even McGee noticed it as well. I managed to get somewhat ahead of the game and had all my things done so it was just a matter of killing time throughout the night, and I did so by pulling the kiosks, walking around, or sitting in cash control looking at things. There were some problems with the POS system during the night so part of my shift was spent trying to figure out what was going on. At around 9:30 I was about to cash out Holly when Jim asked me when I was going to take my break. I won't lie, the question caught me off guard, and I think Jim knew it. I told him I would as soon as I cashed her out, so by around 9:40 I was sitting in the breakroom, taking a break I had no intention of taking. I know it's the law, but that just takes away from my hours. At the end of my break Paul came in and was about to take his. If it wasn't the last hour of the night I probably would have stuck around a little longer, but I had to do some things. Around 10:15 I closed all the kiosks, and went up to the bar to get Cay so he could cash out, but the Laker game was still on, so Hector had him stay open. I did what I could to hurry the closing procedures, by printing the reports I could, as well as cashing out the cashier about ten minutes early. Finally Cay came down with his money, and I was able to cash him out. I was done with the cashiers and bar by 11:00 so I pretty much just had to take care of the top safe, and make the deposit, as well as print out the rest of my reports. Paul came in a couple of times to see how long I would be, then told me to go to Denny's. I finished up the deposit, and started inputting the numbers into the computer. The deposit was verified, and when I was finished I was about $54 short for the night, but after investigating I figured out that due to Wendy's decision in poor judgement, I would have only been about $1 short. I told Jim and Brian about it when I left, and by 11:30 I was gone. I drove over to Denny's in a hurry where I met up with Ricardo, Gabe, Big Chris, Shay, Alfred, Paul, and Robert. It was a typical night at Denny's with loud conversation, peppered with lewd and obscene comments, which probably had the rest of the place offended. The typical topics included porn, and a potential future trip. What I got was a slightly altered Lumberjack, which was $2 cheaper yet was only missing the toast which I could do without. It was great as usual. By about 1:00 we were all finished and went outside where we chatted for a few minutes longer, mainly about if we made a movie about our lives, who would star in our places. There was a great variance in ages, and some disputes, but my choice for myself seemed to get approval, which was "Gordo" from Lizzie Maguire. Shortly afterwards I came home where I sat online and watched some tv, before deciding to watch and episode or two of Family Guy on dvd. While doing so I decided to write the News but I got pretty tired and decided to abandon it halfway through and just finish it in the morning. I ended up falling asleep at about 2:45. April 25- My day began at around 11:30 when I woke up and went straight for the computer, which wasn't tough since it's only at the foot of my bed. On a Friday morning there aren't too many people online to talk to, but there were a couple here and there. I pretty much just lounged around for a few hours, eating whatever junk I could get my hands on, including but not limited to string cheese, and cereal. I also watched a couple more episodes of Family Guy, leaving only about twenty-four left to go. Finally at around 3:00 I got dressed since it was about time for me to pick up my paycheck from work. After taking a shower and getting ready to leave I started talking to my father about the troubles I was having with my phone, and how later tonight I was getting a new one from Tommy Boy. Just as I was talking about it I looked down at my phone to see it turn off and on again, as it sometimes does. However, this time the screen said "contact service" which I have never seen it do prior, and wouldn't let me do anything including turn it off. So my father did exactly as it said, and contacted the service for me, and they told him just to take the battery out and put it back in. I did so and it worked. After that was taken care of I decided it was time to get paid, so I drove down to SpeedZone where I picked up my check, and went outside to briefly talk to Gabe. It wasn't long before I left SpeedZone, and went to Washington Mutual to deposit the check, and transfer some funds into my checking account to make sure I'd have enough to pay off my computer. When I was done at the bank I came home where I sat at the computer a little while longer, as usual. After a little while of sitting in front of the computer I started getting tired, so I took a nice spot on my bed (actually half on the bed, and half on my chair is how I nap) and started to doze off and on. This went on for about an hour or so, since there's nothing on tv, and there wasn't anybody really online. I woke up at about 6:45 and felt bad as usual. I can honestly say that I hate naps, but I regret that I am addicted to them. Perhaps if I just had better sleeping habits I would be able to rid them of my daily routine, instead of falling victim to them day after day and always feeling out of it when I wake from such slumbers. Oh well. At around 7:15 I decided it was about time to head over to Shay's house since we were all meeting there at 7:30 to go to Heroe's for dinner. Shortly after I got there Tom showed up, and he had what I had been waiting for, for about a week now. When the idea of a new phone was introduced to me I really didn't care since I wasn't looking for a new one, but once mine started acting up, I couldn't wait to rid myself of the troubles. To say the least I was extremely excited about my phone, and couldn't wait to start playing with it. Tom showed me a couple of things before handing it over to me to start messing with it, which was great. It's very different from my old phone, but that's okay, I'll just have to get used to it. As I was distracted with my phone, everybody began to show up, and at around 7:45 we all piled into various cars and made the drive. There was a total of eleven us: Ricardo, Paulina, and Little Chris in Alfred's car, Shay, and Paul in Lindsay's car, and Gabe, Robert, and myself in Tom's car. On the car ride over we had some thought provoking conversation, before getting to Heroe's and struggling to find a parking spot. We did and walked to the restaurant where we found out it was a two hour wait, so the debate of whether or not we should stay had begun. After about ten minutes of getting nothing accomplished, we somehow decided to walk across the street to kill time. I was having fun playing with my phone before we made our way to the Reagan Years Arcade and I had to play Burgertime, however I noticed they had Frogger too, so that took over my interests for the remaining three tokens. When Gabe, Tom, and I were done playing games, we walked over to the Spaghetti Factory where it was decided we would eat instead. When we got in there Gabe and I didn't have anywhere to sit, so we went outside to wait, where we saw Big Chris and Jenine show up, bringing the total to thirteen. After about ten minutes I decided to utilize the faciliities, and by the time I was finished I noticed that our group was walking to the table. You'd think they would announce that type of thing in the restrooms too, but I guess not. Oh well, Spaghetti Factory is still great. Well I took a seat at the edge of the table between Paul and Shay, though Paul didn't have a place setting with silverware and things so he took mine. There was an empty spot next to Ricardo and Lindsay so I sat there instead. Our corner of the table was much more discrete than the other which was laughing like there was no tomorrow. For dinner I got the #3, which is my usual, and as usual it was pretty good. Whenever I finish that it's always just right, and I leave feeling full but not uncomfortably full. I really think that the Spaghetti Factory is my favorite place to eat, especially that one since it's near a train station. Earlier Gabe and I were talking and realized that within that little area is my version of heaven: the 80's arcade, Dr. Pepper in a bottle at the Hub, the train station, and Spaghetti Factory. All it needed was AOL and I would be set. Getting back to the dinner, it was fun as always, with good conversation, and food to match it, which is pretty much the basis of the group's time spent together. It's apparent that we are not an activity-based group, instead relying more on conversation to run things. When it came to paying I took care of Tom's bill since it was part of my payment for the phone, which I was extremely grateful for. The thirteen of us wandered out into the parking lot to figure out what we were going to do for the rest of the night since it was only around 10:00 at this point. It was decided to meet up at Shay's since everybody's cars were there, but we were still parked near Heroe's. Instead of walking to the signal to cross Harbor, we took the opportunity in the break of traffic, listened to Ricardo and started running across the street. It proved that most of us were out of shape, but it was pretty funny to see everybody bolt across the street like that. We all went to our respective cars and drove home. On the way home Tom got a racing bug in him at Gabe's suggestion and took on the other three cars in the group, Big Chris' being the only opposition. We all met up at Shay's where we stood around in the street deciding what we should do, and that lasted for about twenty minutes while we strayed off topic numerous times. Finally it was decided that we would go to Ricardo's house, though we lost a few in the translation. The rest of us went to Ricardo's where we sat in the backyard continuing our antics, this time with alcohol. As usual the conversation was varied and interesting, as a few people drank, including myself, but only a couple of beers. We were back there for a couple of hours, listening to music, talking about anything and everything, having a good time as usual. Everybody started calling it an early night, so even though I was one of the last to leave, followed suit at around 2:00. I dropped off Gabe at his house since few people drove, and came home where I sat at the computer. I thought about writing the News of the Day, but instead opted to call it an early night at around 3:00 or so, but didn't end up falling asleep until about 3:30. April 26- My day started at about 8:30 when I was awoken by my computer since I had left the volume up too high the night prior. I sat at the computer for about twenty minutes before being able to eventually fall asleep again for a couple of hours. I eventually woke up for good at around 11:30 at which point I sat at the computer once more. I spent about an hour or so writing the News from the day before. There wasn't much to do online since nobody else was really on, and there wasn't much on tv either since it was a Saturday, so the day went by pretty slowly. I talked to my parents a little about my new phone acquisition since I had mentioned it to them the day prior. Slowly but surely the day wasted away until it was about time to start getting dressed, so at around 5:15 that's what I did. When I was done showering and dressing I had a little extra time to chat online before it was time to head over to SpeedZone for my 6:00 shift. When I got there I was greeted with the fact that two people had called in sick which meant Gina and I would have to cashier. For about the first half hour I cashed out a couple people before I could take some money across to operations fo lock up for a cashier, which is when I came across Jim who was about to cash himself out because he had to work on a drawer for a few minutes because the line was too long. He started telling me about getting cashiers on drawers when it's busy instead of having two at redemption while he is on a register, so I just kind of agreed with him even though it wasn't really my fault since I had just gotten there at 6:00. Although now that I think of it, why didn't he give them a register instead of working on one himself? Well I took care of some things until around 7:00 when some cashiers needed to start taking breaks which meant I would have to help out on a register. It was pretty weird cashiering on a Saturday night since it had been so long, because even when I was a cashier, I always did games on Saturdays. It was pretty crowded, much more than usual. Occasionally the line got long but it never reached too far into the gameroom, however even working as fast as I could, it never seemed to go down. There weren't too many problems during the night, which included damaged cards or kiosk problems which was pretty good since we could barely spare Gina or myself since we were both on a register. Eventually at around 10:15 I had to take over the gameroom for about half an hour to cover a break. Luckily for the half hour I was out there it wasn't too bad, and the savages were kept at bay for a little while before I was able to take a break shortly afterward. So at around 11:00 I got to go on break, so for half an hour I sat in the breakroom with a couple of the security guards before going back to work. When I got back I helped take care of some things in cash control before eventually having to go back and cashier from about midnight to 12:30. Luckily by that time the crowd had subsided greatly, and it was only a few people at a time. I cashed myself out and again started helping out with some more things in cash control. There was a point when Gina and I were finished and were just waiting on one cashier to finish up our duties. It took us about half an hour to take care of everything, though in the end our numbers were off but we figured it wasn't our job to figure it out especially since the system was having problems. I got out of work at around 1:40 or so but nobody was doing anything so I just went home. Nobody was really online, though for about half an hour I was having some issues with AOL. When I was able to sign on again, I found out that Gabe was having the same problems. I briefly talked to him, and made an attempt to write the News, but decided instead to just call it a night at around 3:30. April 27- My day began at around 11:30 when I woke up to an empty house, and a note on my dry-erase board saying my parents went to the airport to pick up my aunt and uncle. After waking up I went straight for the computer where I sat online for a while, and dedicated some time to writing the News from the day before. As I wrote, and sat online I watched what I could of the Laker and Dodger games, both of which were victories. Other than that I didn't really do anything since there isn't anything to do or watch on a Sunday afternoon before work. I eventually started getting ready for work at around 3:15, and headed off to SpeedZone after a few more minutes online and watching Little Big League on tv. I got to work where things weren't quite as crowded as a typical Sunday, but enough to ruin my day. I downright loathe Sunday shifts. I took care of my duties, which are basically just counting the safes and things of that nature, before going out and checking on the cashiers. Overall nothing too significant happened throughout the shift, other than just the routine of having to give people breaks, and just overseeing everything. Not too much was really asked of me, including damaged cards and just people that want to talk to a manager. There was one strange guy that was complaining that the cards were like paper, and too easy to bend, though I'm not quite sure how much thicker he wants them. He later came back wanting a refund, saying that its against the law to not give refunds without a sign. He bought a card using the $35 for $30 special and I told him I couldn't give the entire amount on his card back because of that which prompted him to start complaining, and I didn't want to deal with him anymore so I just gave it all to him. I actually took a break today, though I didn't get anything to eat, and instead just had something to drink while watching The Simpsons. I went back to work and took care of all my things. At the end of the night there were some issues with the credit card report since I had run it before one of the groups was finished so they still charged something at the end. I had to run a second report which kind of messed things up a little bit, and again with all the problems with the computers our numbers were off by a lot at the end of the night. With all of that, and a guy that wanted a refund to a credit card after everything was finished, I didn't end up leaving until about 11:45, when I had been aiming for 11:30 earlier in the night. Oh well. Afterwards I just came home when I found out that nobody was doing anything where I came to sit online for a couple of hours. I had a couple chicken pot pie Hot Pockets, and some cheap punch for my dinner, and realized that I hadn't seen my parents the entire day. It's now about 1:30 and I am pretty tired so I'll end the night watching Adventures in Babysitting. April 28- This morning I overslept slightly, but rather than roll over back into bed like I would on a typical Monday, I got dressed and was out the door by 9:00. I made the drive to Mt. SAC and walked to class where I spent a couple minutes finishing a take-home test for Earth Science. That was why I couldn't oversleep for class. After handing in the partially completed test, Mario Caputo began to lecture to the class, so I sort of zoned out like I tend to do these days. Instead of taking notes, I spent the class trying to come up with some sort of destination and itinerary for my road trip. I am serious, I am driving somewhere relatively far this summer, though I don't know where, or with whom. I'll go by myself if nobody's interested, though I've already had a couple takers. I have established a when though, and I am shooting for June 16th through the 23rd or so. Those are the likely dates, and I think I'll request them off from work as soon as possible, I just need to figure out where I'm going. I've kicked around ideas including Canada, and Yellowstone National Park, but the former seems to be a little too far for eight days. So that has been my thought process as I sat through class which ended at around 10:45. From there I started walking to my History class, but due to construction on campus, my usual route was altered, and at one point I had to backtrack considerably to get to class since walkways were closed. I got to History class where I listened to Bill Jones lecture, and as usual it was interesting stuff. After all, it's been his lectures that made me want to take a road trip to begin with. About forty-five minutes into class we watched a video, and that was how class concluded. So at around 12:15 I was on my way to the car. I drove home where I sat online, as usual, and contemplated what I should have for lunch. Eventually, after looking through the kitchen, I decided that I would make myself some mini-pizzas using english muffins. I must say they came out pretty well, though it would be difficult to ruin them. A great lunch I must say. I continued to sit online for the remainder of my time before having to go to work. I started getting dressed for work at around 3:30, and then headed over to SpeedZone shortly after. My shift began with the typical routines which took me about half an hour to go through. I pretty much just sat around for a while, since I was done with all my duties for the time being. I rolled a bunch of quarters from the games, which occupied a considerable amount of time. Every now and then I'd talk to Joe the security guard, including my half hour stint at the bar when I had to give the bartender a break. It was pretty dead at SpeedZone, typical of normal Mondays, and the way I'd prefer things. It's nights like tonight that make me enjoy working the weekdays the most. Shay stopped by for a while, but I only really talked to him in passing. The end of the shift came and I was on top of things, which hasn't always been the case recently, and I was done with my duties at around 11:20. By the time the deposits were verified by Ryan it was almost 11:30 or so, and that's when I was done. The night that nobody was waiting for me, I was out by the time I had planned on. Oh well. I came home where I sat online as usual, and struggled to find something to eat, before settling on a slice of cheddar, some Pringles, and a chicken pot pie. I've watched a little tv while sitting at the computer as well, and it's now about 1:30, and almost time to call it a night. April 29- I woke up at about 8:30, at which time I got ready for school. At around 8:50 I went and picked up Lindsay and we made the drive to Mt. SAC, where we parked next to Robert. After sitting there for a couple of minutes the three of us began walking to class, and we began talking. Now unlike in times past I did not initiate the consideration of not going to class, and instead it was Robert that didn't feel the need to attend our Psychology class. So after debating for about two minutes, we decided it was in our best interest to not go to class, and Lindsay, who wasn't planning on going to her first class either, joined us in the library. The three of us sat there each doing our work respectively, and I chose to work on a map assignment for my History class that I had to do over the last two months or so. I made a little progress on that before getting sidetracked talking to Robert about my road trip. I told him my thought process and how I was thinking about Yellowstone, but he didn't see anybody wanting to go there. He instead mentioned Texas which once he explained it, did seem to have some potential, and at the time that's where I was planning on going. However, after thinking about it throughout the day I realize that if I have to go by myself, then so be it. I wanted to go on this trip because of what my History of the Wild West teacher had been saying, and dammit I want to see the West. What better place to experience that then in Yellowstone National Park? But I digress, after spending about an hour in the library, the three of us decided it was about time to leave and pursue other options before class. Robert somehow got it into his mind that he wanted to buy a "brown bag" from the health services counter. For those that are not aware, a "brown bag" is a $2 bag with twelve condoms in it. He said it would be funny, so we walked over to the Student Services building and over to the counte where Lindsay bought it. It just seemed kind of stupid to buy just because it was funny, and I'm still not quite sure what the humor was? From there we wandered out the door and ended up in front of the bookstore where we encountered Shay. We went into the bookstore for absolutely no reason and looked at about two things before walking out and standing in front of the store. It was then that Lindsay and I began to debate over whether or not to go to our second class. I didn't really care whether or not I went to that class, and left the decision up to her, ultimately being to not go to the class. So we didn't go to our class, and instead walked back to the car, thus ending a completely useless trip to school. Oh well. It was now around 11:00 and we were going to follow through with the weekly ritual of going to eat lunch, but Paul had mentioned he and Noy wanted to go at noon, so we had about an hour to kill. Both of us were hungry, so from school we drove over to a donut shop in the shopping center on the corner of Diamond Bar Blvd and Grand Ave. called Rainbow donuts. The donut was surprisingly filling, though I was still hungry enough to want to eat an actual meal. From there we drove over to SpeedZone, but not without incident, or the appearance of one. I made a left turn in front of a car that wasn't very close, but Lindsay thought so and she practically screamed, which scared me more than the oncoming car. It was worth a good laugh at the time and we even mentioned that I should include it in the update, hence the preceeding. We got to SpeedZone where Lindsay got a posterboard from Paul that he drew for her. It was a really funny drawing of a kid with emotional problems, and a kid beating up another. Hulk Rules. We ended up waiting for Paul and Noy for about ten minutes before eventually leaving to go eat, which ended up being Carl's Jr. The donut I had earlier was more filling than I had thought because I had a little trouble finishing my food, though I managed. We sat there for about half an hour or so discussing various topics as usual, before eventually dispersing. As we left Lindsay and I figured we'd go see Nutwood practice, but before doing so made a stop off at her house so she could get her t-shirt to get a different size. We got to Steve's house at around 1:00 or so and caught them in the middle of practice, which had a few spectators already. I pretty much just went straight to the computer which started off pretty wholesome just playing a game of freecell, but at Alfred's suggestion turned into a trip into rotten.com. Needless to say we saw some pretty disgusting pictures, but that's what one should expect right? As the band practiced I finally got to hear the new song, and I must say that I liked it. Though my opinion probably doesn't weigh too heavily because intially I wasn't a big fan of Razorwire, and look how that turned out? At around 2:30 or so (I'm not quite sure since I didn't really check out the time) they ended practice and Ricardo left for work, not to mention the audience. The rest of us pretty much just sat around talking about nonsense as usual, but there isn't anything wrong with that in my book. It was good times, and I think I should stop by practice more often like I used to, and with summer just around the corner I just might. Finally at around 4:15 Lindsay and I decided to leave. I dropped her off and then came home where I sat online as usual, and acccomplished very little. My aunt and uncle from Mexico stopped by to pick up my mother to have dinner at another aunt and uncle's house. So I greeted them as they were at my house for all of about two minutes before taking my mother. After that I pretty much just rattled around the house for a while, and mainly just sitting at the computer most of the time. For a little while there were talks of doing something, but none of the ideas ever really got off the ground, which ended up being a good thing because I still had my map assignment to do. So at around 8:00 I started with that, and worked my usual routine of doing actual work for about five minutes, then getting distracted for another ten. That is basically how my night went and I got a vast majority of it done before calling it quits at around 1:30 so that I could write the News for today. While writing this though I started talking to Gabe about the road trip and how he would go if we went to Seattle. Now I'm thinking it may be possible to do both Yellowstone and Seattle, but I won't hide the fact that seeing the National Park is my top priority. I am determined to take a road trip, and to not be all talk when it comes to such matters, so that's why I am being stubborn and sticking to my guns when it comes to where I am going. I don't want to change my plans for anybody that might end up backing out down the road. So whoever comes into this will know exactly what they're getting themselves into. I still have a lot of details to hammer out, but I think this goal might work. It's now about 3:30 and I still need to get some sleep so I can finish my map in the morning. April 30- My day started at around 8:45 when I woke up and realized I had overslept again, though I could have still made it to class. However, I still needed to finish my map assignment, so I decided to sleep a little longer before starting. I didn't end up waking up until about 10:00 at which point I had to hurry and finish coloring my map, and even sacrificed some information that needed to go on it for the sake of time. I was finished and out the door by about 10:30, and got to Mt. SAC by around 10:50 or so. I walked to class where I saw everyone working on their maps, and shortly after Bill Jones arrived. He lectured briefly before putting on a video about the Battle of Little Big Horn. He told us that we could continue working on our maps if we needed to, though I opted to turn mine in right away so I wouldn't be worried about it. After watching the video and part of a 1940's movie about the battle, class was over and I went home, but not without stopping at the library to return some books. I came home where I sat online for about forty-five minutes at which point I went over to Round Table where I met up with Gabe. The two of us ate, and talked for about an hour or so before heading outside and parting ways. I went over to the bank to deposit my tax return check before going home. Once at home I had nothing on the agenda, which basically means I sat in front of the computer while watching tv for the ensuing hours. My mom gave me my phone bill, and even though I didn't exceed the minutes alotted, it was my highest yet. Oh well. Eventually my late night of doing homework caught up to me and I began to doze off, which was at around 5:30 or so, and I didn't wake up until after 7:00. In a sleep induced haze I sort of just sat on the couch and watched tv, and as usual, I really felt out of it. I can honestly say that I hate naps because I always feel worse than before I took it, and I never quite recover. Earlier in the day I talked to Steve online and he told me to talk to a robot online, so I did. If you're interested, send an I.M. to "SmarterChild" and it will talk back to you. Like Steve said, its basically a more advanced away message and it's pretty interesting. So I spent some time talking to that, not to mention my live friends, while watching the Discovery Channel. Finally at around 9:30 I went down to SpeedZone to talk to Ryan about my investment opportunity some more, so after talking to Gabe for a couple minutes, I went and took care of that. I ended up talking to him for a little over an hour about it, before finally leaving at about 11:15, where I waited in the parking lot for Robert and Gabe. They didn't do anything so after talking to them for a couple minutes, I came home. Once at home I started watching tv, and sat online which comes as no surprise to anyone I'm sure. As a matter of fact, I am running out of ways to word it, because I get tired of referring to it the same way each time. That is basically how I spent my evening, in front of two different monitors, while talking to a robot. I spent some time writing a new About Me page, and I was thinking of changing it up a little, maybe even including more about me personally, but I decided not to. It's just not me to do that. I ended up calling it a night at around 2:30 or so, and because of some computer troubles decided to not leave my name signed online. |