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| News of the Day Archive- December 1-9 |
| December 1/2- On Sunday I woke up at around 1:30 and laid in bed for about half an hour just watching tv. Eventually I got out of bed and signed online for a little while, though there weren't too many people to talk to, so it was pretty uneventful. I started watching some trick pool on ESPN which was fun to watch as always, and I was addicted to it for the half hour or so that it was on. I took a shower and sort of got dressed, but had no intentions of doing anything, so I sat around some more. My mom heated up some turkey and gravy from Thanksgiving and made a couple sandwiches which were really good. If I hadn't had a ham sandwich just prior, I probably would have eaten more than two of them. I pretty much just sat around some more and had brief chats with my parents, whom it seems I haven't really talked to for a while. At around 5:00 or so I was told that we would be meeting at the Starbucks in Brea at 7:30, so I planned accordingly. I sat around the house until about 6:30 when I decided to drive down to SpeedZone so that I could write down my schedule, which I had forgotten to do the night before. On the way there I came across a pretty bad accident on Fullerton near Rowland Elementary School, and it looked like it had just happened since there appeared to still be people in the cars, as well as an absence of medical help. It was dark, and thus hard to make any accurate descriptions of the scene, though it looked as though only two cars were involved. I got to SpeedZone where I wrote down my schedule, however my Sunday was blank and I remembered Taylor telling me I'd be doing groups so I went to find her to confirm that. In the meantime Royster was having some trouble with Super Shot, so I lent the little knowledge I had, which almost made the problem worse, but after a couple minutes the game was back to work. So I went outside where I found Taylor, and talked to her for a few minutes, while being joined by Big Chris. At about 7:00 I left for Brea to meet up with everyone at Starbucks at 7:30. I knew I would be a few minutes early, but I figured that I would only have to wait a few minutes so it posed no problem. On the way there I got a call from Shay saying that he wasn't even going to leave his house until 7:30 which made me a little mad to say the least. I got to Starbucks at around 7:25 and just sat in my car, with nothing much to do. I just sort of sat there listening to music, thinking about various things including where everyone was at, and whether or not they were going to show up. Finally at about 8:00 I figured I could have missed them and decided to walk over to the tables to find them. None of them were there so I took a seat, and about fifteen minutes later they all arrived. It was Tom, Gabe, Shay, Little Chris, Sean and Alfred. I bought a regular cup of coffee, and enjoyed it in the cold air of the evening, and mainly listened to the conversation at first. We were eventually joined by Dennis, along with a brief cameo from AJ. The conversation was typically varied, and covered an array of topics, many of which were of a sexual or pornographic nature. Though they weren't necessarily the dominant topics of choice, they certainly are usually those that stand out the most. All of us continued discussing various things until about 10:15 when most of us decided to drive to Chain Reaction so that Gabe and Alfred could pass out flyers, and I would buy my ticket for Thursday. We drove over, most of us in separate cars, and got there at around 10:30, where we mainly just stood around in the parking lot. I would have bought my ticket, but it looked like they had stopped for the night, so I opted to just wait until the next day to do so (not that I had much of a choice). Since there weren't too many people at the show, Alfred and Gabe decided it wasn't worth staying to hand out flyers, so we all went home for the night. I got home a little after 11:00 and signed online, as usual. I decided it was about time for me to update the neglected News for the past three days, and wrote for the weekend, mjnus the day I had just completed. It took me about an hour and a half or so, which is fairly quick for three days, though I seemed to spare the details, mainly due to a lack thereof, as well as a lapse in memory. After that I did a little work on the Movie Quote Game, which I had also neglected. When I was done with that it was pretty late, and I called it a night sometime between 2:30 and 3:30. However it took me a while to fall asleep, which I attributed to the coffee I had a while earlier. Monday morning I woke up and got dressed (at least enough to go to school) at about 10:30. My first class was cancelled, and had I not missed Sports Management the week prior, I could have fully enjoyed the day off from school, but instead I had to go work on the group project with Robert and AJ. I sat in the parking lot waiting for both the teacher, and my aforementioned group members, both of which showed up a couple minutes late. Once in class we basically just filled out a Physical Education Department survey, briefly talked about our group project, delegated some responsibilities, and were out the door by 11:40. I got home by around noon, and enjoyed about fifteen minutes of relaxation before I got ready for work. I got to SpeedZone right on time at 1:00, and was given a drawer, as usual. Since my registration for Mt. SAC was the next day, I took the catalog into work with me and spent the first half hour or so of my shift looking through it, trying to pick my classes. I didn't care if I wasn't keeping busy with cleaning the glass or anything. When I got a little bored with that I started rearranging the point cards for redemption, and in the midst of that I was joined by Paul. There weren't any customers outside, so by chatting at redemption he would see all the customers that would be racing. So he sort of half-heartedly pretended to organize the point cards I had done the week prior whenever a manger would walk by, though eventually Damon told him to fish out the golf balls from the water. I pretty much just stood around either finishing the point cards, or looking through the Mt. SAC catalog. At a little after 3:30 Sean showed up since he was going to meet with Taylor in regards to getting a job helping out with groups. I talked with him for a few minutes until Taylor came out and gave him some play cards while he waited, so he took advantage of those. Things got a litle busy, meaning I had a couple customers, so I couldn't really talk to Sean while he was playing the games, so my solitude continued. At about 4:15 he went in for his sort of interview, and about fifteen minutes or so later he came out. I started talking with him an Jay the gametech for a few minutes before both of them decided to leave, and again I had to find something to do. I opted to pretty much do nothing. Before she left I talked to Taylor about where I stand in regards to helping with groups, and things of that nature. At about 5:00 Cay the bartender showed up so I talked with him for a little while, before Robert and Cody came inside. I talked with the two of them for a few minutes before they went and did whatever it is they did. My last hour of work was pretty much just spent wandering around talking, mostly up at the bar with whoever was up there getting a drink. At a little after 6:00 Jenine showed up, and was follwed by Royster about ten minutes later. They were my replacements, which meant that I would be going home soon, and at about 6:15 McGee cashed out my drawer, which after a couple mixups was perfect. When I was finished, I clocked out, retrieved a jacket, and went out to the tracks to talk with Gabe and Robert, since I didn't have much else to do. They were at Slick Track, but the conversation moved over to Grand Prix where I brought up the concept of crinkle cut fries. They absolutely amaze me, and the conversation began to involve most every track worker out there, yet I couldn't get a reasonable explanation for them. There were plenty of theories, but they didn't seem to fly with me. It ended up occupying about half an hour or so, and by the end only two things were sure: I still didn't know and I was more hungry than when I arrived, so I left at about 7:00 and made my way to Del Taco. I got a #1 combo and two tacos, which I took home and ate at the computer, only after realizing that I could have eaten some more leftovers. Oh well. After eating I watched some tv, and it wasn't until about 8:30 that I decided to leave for Chain Reaction. It seems that it became known that I was going to buy tickets, which I had planned to do the day before, so I was given orders for tickets. In total I needed to buy nine tickets. So I drove over there and made it by about 9:00. I got there and found Ricardo and Alfred handing out flyers and buttons, though shortly after I arrived one of the members of A Static Lullaby offered Alfred and Ricardo a chance to listen to their new CD. I didn't really catch what was going on until later, and sort of because of that Ricardo opted not to listen since it required climbing into their large van and I would have been left by myself. Alfred took the opportunity and got into the smoke filled van to take a listen. Ricardo and I just stood around outside, as he pointed out one of the guys from Bad Religion as well as the couple that owns Drive-Thru records, but they looked more like somebody's parents (and I wouldn't doubt it if that's all they were). I bought the nine tickets I was there for, which seemed to be sort of a shock to the guy, and even required him to use a calculator. I guess he doesn't know his "times tables". After Ricardo stood there freezing, we finally decided to try and flag down Alfred and tell him we were going to get something to eat. So when he was done listening to some songs, he climbed out and we went to Arby's after making a stop at my truck to get Ricardo a jacket. At Arby's we got our food, but the person that gave Alfred his was rather peculiar looking. They were a genuine "Pat" because after repeatedly looking at it, I could not decisively determine it's gender, and I still don't know what he/zhe was. It was very difficult to contain the laughter, though Ricardo made a good point and said that in such a scenario it is better to laugh out loud so they don't know what you're laughing at. We left Arby's at about 10:10 or so and walked back to Chain Reaction where we stood outside for a little while. I was getting cold, had already bought the tickets, and really didn't intend to stay long enough to pass out flyers, so I planned on leaving soon. As the guitarist from Bad Religion left, Ricardo shook his hand which was pretty cool. Like I said while standing there "I was in the presence of celebrities and I didn't even know it". At about 10:30 I came home, but not without stopping at a Unocal 76 to fill up my tank for $1.53 a gallon. Unfortunetely the pump I used wasn't working so I had to hold it down the entire time which was somewhat of a nuisance. I came home where I started watching some tv, and decided to work on the next movie quote. That, along with updating the News for the past two days was about all I did for the last three hours or so of my night. It's now about 3:00 and even though I'm not that tired, I'll try and get some sleep. December 3- Today I woke up at around 8:35, got dressed (in the sense that I put on clothes to go to school), and was out the door by 8:50. I took the Lemon route to school since I realized that it is much more consistently a shorter route than taking the freeway since I tend to hit more traffic. On the way I caught a train at Valley Blvd. which was moving pretty slowly, and I couldn't help but realize the irony of a train making me late to class. Luckily it was only two engines so it was gone before I could think of any more than the aforementioned irony, and I was on my way. I got to school at about 9:06, which was a mere sixteen minutes after I left my house. I sat in the car for a few minutes before making the long walk up to Bio 6, where I found Robert waiting. Craig Petersen let everyone in the class at a little before 9:30 and after signing in, we got our tests back. I thought I had done a decent job, but to my disappointment I got a mere 74 out of 100. When class started Mr. Petersen called up everyone and showed them their total points in the class to see where we stood in regards to our grades. I had 413 points out of 560, which put me firmly into the C category, with little hope of making it out. The whole process took about half an hour so Robert and I just sat there talking about various topics, instead of studying our principles, like a couple others decided to do. Once class really began, Craig Petersen briefly lectured before playing a video of a speaker for us, and I must say that it was really interesting, as usual. When it was over he told us that our final exam was cancelled, and instead we would spend the last day of the semester taking the "beginning exam" since it was the beginning of our environmental learning (or so he hopes). It was pretty funny to see everyone's reaction when he deceived us into thinking we had no test on Thursday. Class let out at the usual time and I walked back to my car to go home, but not without a stop at the vending machine to buy a Pop Tart. I drove home and got to my house at around 11:20 where I sat at the computer and ate my Pop Tart while drinking a cup of coffee. I watched the show E.R. which I really seem to enjoy, at least the reruns on TNT in the morning. At noon I started watching America's Funniest Videos, in the midst of which I fell asleep on my bed. I didn't wake from my slumber until about 3:00, which was the time that I was supposed to register for my classes next semester. So that's what I did, or at least tried to do because when I called the number it said it was busy. I tried again, and again, and it wasn't until about 3:45 that I finally got through, but I accidently misdialed my Social Security number and the call ended. I kept trying, but for some reason I started getting a different answering recording that seemed to be more of a general Mt. SAC phone line, though I was dialing the exact same number. Slightly deterred, I kept trying and it wasn't until about 4:15 that I finally got through again, this time making sure that everything I dialed was accurate. The process of picking classes proved to be slightly more difficult than anticipated since classes filled up much sooner than I had hoped. So I settled on some alternate classes, and/or class times, but managed to get fifteen units of study. When I was done with that I started watching some tv while sitting at the computer for a little while. After sitting around, I got dressed and headed down to SpeedZone because the day before Taylor had told me to show up at 6:00 so she could walk me through some group information since I would be helping out with it. So I got there at 6:00 in regular clothes since I wouldn't be actually working. I started talking with Daylo briefly when Taylor came out, though I almost didn't recognize her because she changed her hair and my eyes (no joke) have really gotten bad the last few weeks. I made sure she wouldn't get in trouble for me clocking in at which time I was given the okay so I did. We went into the office and she showed me the computer programs that are used, and I was able to get a basic understanding of it. From there it was to the kitchen where she showed me where things were, but since I've worked back there a couple times, it was somewhat of a review for me. After walking around the kitchen we went back to the office to cover some other things that she had forgotten and that was about it. I wasn't really in a hurry since I was on the clock not really doing anything other than getting a basic idea of how things work. It was a little after 8:30 when I clocked out. Instead of going home I went out to the tracks to see what Paul was up to, but I didn't see him at Top E. where I heard he was at so I assumed he was in tower. I called him up to see what he was up to, and that was about it before I headed home. When I got home I readied the backyard for company, which it hasn't had for quite some time and was apparent in the cleanliness of the pillows and tables. At about 9:15 I was joined by Shay and Gabe. Gabe had a copy of the Nutwood CD that had just been finished earlier in the day so we planned on listening to it. We did. It sounded pretty good, though the speakers we listened to it on were pretty small so I anticipate it to sound better than it already did. It was eighteen minutes long so we actually listened to it a couple of times, though it served more as background in the subsequent listenings. It was pretty cold outside as the three of us sat around discussing various topics including but not limited to the CD, and amusement parks. At about 11:15 both Gabe and Shay said they were pretty tired and decided to call it a night, so I went inside the house and sat at the computer. I ate another Pop Tart, and made myself a chicken pot pie which only slightly quelled my hunger. I mainly watched some tv and talked to Tom about his day at the movie shoot in San Diego which sounded like fun. After watching the first half hour of a Conan rerun, I decided to watch a flick I hadn't seen in a while: The 'Burbs. It's a stupid movie, but I really do enjoy it, and that's about all I have been doing while writing the News for today. It's almost 2:30 and I'm probably going to finish watching the movie while sitting online for a little while longer. December 4/5/6- On Wednesday I woke up at about my normal time and headed to Philosophy class where we spent the duration of the period reviewing for the final. I had missed a couple classes so things were a little unfamiliar, and thus my attention was not directed toward the class. Instead I spent about twenty minutes drawing the kangaroo for the school mascot for our project in Sports Management. It came out pretty well if I do say so myself. Class let out a little early since all we did was review, so I went to my car where I sat listening to some music, before parking my car in front of the class. Robert and AJ showed up at around 11:00 and we went to Sports Management where we were the only people in the classroom since we weren't required to go. The three of us spent about half an hour discussing some details of the project before we called it a day and I went home. Once at home I sat at the computer where I quickly grew tired of the unfulfilling lifestyle of doing nothing. So at about 1:15 I decided that I would make a trip to Best Buy and finally buy the other Thrice CD since I had been listening to a burnt copy. Like I usually do I spent about half an hour or so at Best Buy just looking at various things (mainly DVD's) before finally making my purchase. It was about 2:00 or so when I was finished there, so I decided I would head over to Sean's house to catch a little of Nutwood practice. Ordinarily I would work at 2:00 on Wednesdays, but due to a little mixup I was working at 6:00 instead, so I had the time to kill. I got there and listened to the new intro to Salt On An Open Wound, which sounded pretty good. They went through the set and I sat there listening, which is always pretty fun, even though I've heard the songs numerous times. When practice was over we all sat around for a brief period of time before everyone went their own separate ways, and I came home, which was at around 3:30. At home I sat at the computer, and watched some tv until I had to be at work at 6:00. When I got there I asked Kellee, a relatively new hire that I had yet to work with, if she wanted to work the drawer, and from that we established that she was fine with doing so. However when Damon came by he gave the drawer to me specifically, so I had the dubious honor of doing that for the night. Shortly into the shift I went out to my car to get a couple of the Nutwood tickets I had purchased a couple days prior to dispense to those that gave me their money. I also grabbed my partially completed enlargement of the kangaroo drawing, which I had began working on at home. I figured since it would most likely be a slow night that I would be able to finish it. It did end up being a slow night, and it was sort of a change of pace to have somebody to talk to during a shift in the week, since I'm used to being by myself. However sometimes that aspect can be a liablity since you have to make conversation, or else it's just weird. I was able to finish up my kangaroo drawing, which I thought came out well once again. Overall the night was pretty uneventful, though at around 10:45 or so Gabe showed up, so I talked with him for a little while. At 11:00 I cashed out to perfection once again, and was done cleaning up everything pretty quickly. In the parking lot we didn't really stick around for too long, and I came home where I sat online as usual. I did that for a little while before calling it a night around my normal time. On Thursday I woke up and headed to class, though on the way to school something happened that I told myself would be interesting to include in the News, however as early as the trip home I could not remember it. In Bio 6 Craig Petersen began the lecture in a lab coat and fake glasses which was pretty funny. During class we filled out teacher evaluations, then looked at some of the environmental books he had, some of which were kind of interesting. He spent the rest of the class telling us about some good magazines to subscribe to, before 11:00 rolled around and class was finished. From there I drove home where I fell into my routine of watching some tv, and sitting at the computer. What routine would be complete without a nap? I ended up falling asleep at about 12:30, and didn't really wake up until I got a call from Noy at about 2:45. At about that time I sat at the computer, as usual, and wasted away my free time. That's about all I did until about 6:00 when I showered and got dressed. I was told to meet everybody at SpeedZone at 7:30 to head over to Chain Reaction. Naturally I was there on time, so I waited in my car for a couple minutes, and spent a couple minutes picking up trash in my car, and dumping out the ash tray full of trash. It's sort of amazing how much cleaner the car looked without gum and straw wrappers strewn about. While waiting there Taylor Hooks showed up to do some work, so I talked to her for a few minutes. That was about the time Tom showed up so he and I waited for everyone to show up. Shay, Robert, AJ, Big Chris, Jenine, and Dennis showed up, as well as some other SpeedZone affiliates. So a little after 8:00 we all left, and I opted to drive so Tom and I went together. I took a slightly modified way to get there, and it proved to take longer, so it will probably be the last time I do that. We ended up getting there a lot later than everyone else, except for Dennis and AJ who seemed to be having a good time. Once at Chain Reaction we only waited around outside for a couple of minutes before heading inside. I listened to a couple songs of one of the bands before we all pretty much went outside to hang out in the alley. Things got pretty weird out there. Dennis bit a cigarette butt from a piece of gum on the wall for $5, and Shay was going to take gum from Big Chris' mouth for $20 split two ways, as well as some other unusual propositions. That's pretty much what we did for most of the time while occasionally going inside to hear the bands. The band The Silence sounded alright from the songs I had heard, but I really didn't feel like standing inside, so I went outside with Dennis, before slowly being joined by others. At around 10:45 we all heade back inside because it was time for Nutwood to go on. We waited for about ten minutes for them to set up, and the show began. The intro to Salt was really good, and in general everything sounded great. All of them seemed into it, and the crowd was a pretty good size considering they were the last band. There were a lot of unfamiliar faces in the crowd. I pretty much stayed in the back next to Tom for every song except for Accomodations of Desire which prompted Paul to pull me closer to the front, so I obliged. When the show was over we all headed out and pretty much just stayed in the front of the place talking. It seemed as if everybody was waiting for something, but there wasn't anything. But considering that all we do is stand around in parking lots and talk I saw no problem with it. We did that for sort of a long while, until at around 12:15 everybody sort of dispersed. On the ride home I was accompanied by AJ, and on the way there I just kept repeating the two song demo that were handed out, which was Salt and Razorwire. I would have grabbed one with Accomodations but I didn't want to be too greedy. We took the freeway which didn't take too long, and I dropped off AJ at Shay's house since that's where his car was. From there I went to Sean's house where we were meeting at. I waited for about ten minutes before everyone started showing up, and they unloaded all the equipment. Once that was done and I got my beloved jacket back from Ricardo, we headed over to Denny's to eat. The group sort of dwindled down to Gabe, his friend Amanda, Ricardo, Big Chris, Shay, and Little Chris who showed up from work. However there were some Black Angus friends of Ricardo's there so he chatted with them for a little while before they were sort of incorporated into our group. I got the Lumberjack, and I polished it off pretty easily. The food situation got pretty ugly in regards to the Chris' and Shay. When I deemed my toast as something I wouldn't be eating it created a feeding frenzy type situation, which Big Chris' quickness prevailed. When Little Chris offered some of his food it created an even worse situation, and it almost looked like it would get violent. When we were all done eating, we paid our check and went out to the parking lot for a little while. We stood around chatting before the cold, and time eventually got to us, and we all went our separate ways. It was well after 2:00 when I got home, at which point I sat online for a little while before calling it a night, thinking I would write the News for the previous couple days in the morning. On Friday I woke up at around 12:30 at which point I fell into my routine of sitting at the computer and watching tv. That's what I did until about 2:00 when I showered and got dressed, doing nothing out of the ordinary. At about 2:30 I decided to head over to SpeedZone and pick up my paycheck, so that's what I did. When I got the check I headed out to the tracks where I found Paul and Gabe at Slick Track. Even though I wasn't in my SpeedZone attire they told me to walk through the gate and talk to them at the box, so after some hesitation I decided to do so. I stood around talking to them for a few minutes before we were joined by Robert Taylor and Noy. I don't know why, but Gabe kept saying that I smelled good, though I couldn't figure out why since, like I had said earlier, I did nothing different. There were some customers at Turbo so Paul and Gabe went over there and I continued to talk to Taylor until the old guy Scott started talking to him, so I took the opportunity to leave under the pretense that I shouldn't have been standing on the track the way I was. I went over to Turbo where I was talking to Gabe, Paul, Mike Khieu, and Taylor who joined us after finishing his other conversation. We were there for a little while before there were some customers at Top E. so I walked over there with Paul and Gabe. I mainly talked to Gabe since Paul was up in tower. After a little while of that I figured it was about time to leave so I went inside where I talked to Taylor Hooks briefly about groups, then headed up to the bar to talk to John. After talking with him for a few minutes I looked at my analog watch and noticed it was 4:45, so I figured since I had a change of work clothes in the car I should just stay there until 6:00 for work. It wasn't until I started to briefly talk to Jay the gametech and he corrected my analog miscalculation, because it was only 3:45. An hour I was fine with, but sticking around for two hours I wasn't about to do. For some reason I went back outside and started talking to Paul now since Gabe was in the tower. He made fun of a guy that was riding Top E. that was reminiscent of Sloth from The Goonies, which was pretty funny. I only chatted with them for a couple minutes, since Gabe had come out of the tower, and I finally left at a little after 4:00. From SpeedZone I headed over to Washington Mutual, and braved the Friday traffic on Colima. I guess "Friday Light" doesn't apply to that street. I deposited my check and took out some cash before heading home. Once I got home I sat online until about 5:30 when I added some oil to my truck since it was running a little low, then headed off to work. I clocked in nine minutes early, which brought back memories of when I used to do that regularly. I got there and David told me to hang out. I was given a drawer, but I never really had to use it. Some questions came up regarding coupons and I did what I could do to find out how to input them correctly, but I wasn't too satisfied with the results. Things I saw as problems Ryan Shaefer didn't seem to, but I'm not a policy maker so it doesn't really matter what I think. There were a couple new hires that didn't look busy well enough, so David gave me a list of things to do to keep them busy. They did things like fill up ranch dressing, clean the games, and fill up tickets in the games, though it looked like they still were having some trouble keeping busy. I pretty much just wandered around for most of the night, helping out wherever I was needed which I must say that I really enjoy. At around 11:30 or so Gabe showed up with his friend Amanda and they played some games for a while. When I got out of work at midnight we hung out in the parking lot, which was about the time that Shay showed up. The four of us stood around the parking lot in the slight rain before deciding to head over to 7-11. So Shay, Gabe, and myself headed over to the convenience store where I got a hot dog with mustard, chili, and cheese, a bag of Doritos, and Big Gulp, which was really good. I was pretty hungry. While we were there we were joined by Lindsay. The conversation was pretty standard covering an array of topics, briefly interrupted when Gabe and I went back inside to get something else to eat. We stood out there for a while before everyone called it a night and I came home. I sat at the computer for a little while before going to sleep since I had to wake up early the next day for work. December 7/8/9- On Saturday I woke up at about 9:30, got dressed, and headed over to SpeedZone at 10:00 for work. When I got there pretty much everything was taken care of so I had nothing to do for a little while. After standing around I realized I had a question regarding another coupon, so I decided to ask Ryan Shaefer and he went ahead and actually put the coupon into the computer. As a result the number designating it was at my suggestion, and the coupons that employees are handing out are now #034 in the computer. When that was taken care of I pretty much just hung around redemption with nothing much to do considering I was doing games and there weren't really any customers. At about 11:15 David left to do something so he sort of left me in charge until he got back. Nothing too significant happened while he was gone, though I was kept sort of busy doing various odds and ends. I would occasionally walk the gameroom since slowly but surely there were some guests arriving. As the day went on, more workers also showed up as well, including some new ones so David told me to give a tour of the gameroom. So I showed one of them around, covering the basics of the gameroom as best I could. It's always tough to show people around the gameroom because I'm afraid I'll forget to mention something, or emphasize a meaningless piece of information. For most of my shift I pretty much just wandered around, taking care of the gameroom and helping David with some of the minor problems that I could take care of. At around 4:30 David had to leave for class which meant that there would be no cash control for about an hour, so he told me to sort of run things until Gina got there, so I obliged. There weren't really any problems that arose during that lapse in managerial control, but it still felt pretty good to be deemed in charge momentarily. At 6:00 Daylo showed up to take over the duties in the gameroom, which meant that I was free to go home, and I did. I went home, changed my clothes, and waited for Sean and Steve to show up so we could head over to Nick's to celebrate his birthday. At around 7:00 they showed up and we headed over to his house where we met Alfred. Pretty much everyone there was Nick's family with the exception of Montes, whom I hadn't seen for a while. The four of us went to the back room where we joined Nick, Jeannine, and his cousin who were watching Dogma. There was food, and considering I hadn't eaten all day it was a welcomed sight, and we all ate while watching the movie. When we ate Sean and Steve bickered like an old married couple which was pretty funny. "You don't drink colas, you only drink uncolas". That's pretty much what we did, and every few minutes one of Nick's family members would either come into the room and ask what movie we were watching, or gawk at Jeannine. It was pretty funny how she was like on showcase, as if there was a novelty to Nick having a girlfriend. There were some little kids wandering around which i wasn't too fond of, but when Dogma was finished one of them wanted to watch The Lost World, so we did. Some more of Nick's family entered the room, so I sort of felt bad because we kept talking about how bad the movie was, and joking about it. However after a while most of his family started to leave, including the kid that wanted to watch the movie, but for some strange reason we let it run its course. It was pretty much just the six of us left when the movie finished and we sat around watching tv. It was probably about this time that we began to overstay our welcome, but that's just speculation. We started watching Saturday Night Live, which I haven't seen in a really long time, and began with a pretty raunchy opening skit, though it was hilarious. Overall I've probably seen episodes that were more funny, but for the most part it accomplished what it wanted. During this time Steve started becoming interested in the cat which was pretty entertaining. Somethign else that was sort of interesting was that we discussed some obscure topics during the night, and about four or five of them ended up being referenced in some way on tv. At around 1:00 Alfred decided to call it a night, so it was just the five of us now. We stuck around for about twenty more minutes when Nick decided to take Jeannine home instead of going to Denny's. So Steve, Sean, and myself went to Denny's where we met up with everybody that worked at SpeedZone for the night. It started off with the standard group, but it quickly grew into: Gabe, Steve, Sean, Little Chris, Big Chris, Paul, Shay, Cody, Robert Taylor, Gina, and Roger Budig. A motley crew if I had ever seen one. The conversation was highlighted with moments like Taylor telling Shay not to talk to him, or when Steve just blurted out "Shut up!" when Shay kept talking. When everyone was done eating Little Chris tried putting salt on his hand then pressing an ice cube, at Steve's request, to see if it burned. After a few seconds it did. I didn't believe it, so I tried it at first on my right hand but nothing really happened, so I assumed I did it wrong. So Steve did it to me on my left hand, and it started to burn after a few seconds, but I expected it to grow worse. Shortly after that at around 3:00 we decided it was time to go, and spent only a brief period of time in the parking lot before going our separate ways. Steve and Sean dropped me off at home where I spent only a brief period of time on the computer before going to sleep. On Sunday I overslept and prevented an Anaya tradition from happening, since I'm really the only one that cares about it anymore. We had planned to buy our Christmas tree before I went to work, but instead I stayed in bed until about noon, at which time I woke up and got ready for work. I showed up to SpeedZone where I would he helping out with groups for the day, so I went out to Slick Track to find Taylor Hooks. Once I found her I started helping her out, and the first thing I did was record some names and times for a competition she was taking care of, and that took about twenty minutes or so. When I was finished with that I basically sat around while Taylor took care of her work, and showing me things I would need to know. I would be helping out with about five groups, the first of which showed up at around 2:00. I pretty much just followed Taylor around and waited for her to tell me what to do, or see what she did, and how she did it so I would get a better idea of how to do everything. Most of what I did was helping clean up and set up rooms for the various groups, which were all pizza parties, so it served as a relatively easy day to learn the ropes. I also picked up a little on the computer aspect which I suspect will take some getting used to. An interesting note was that due to various festivities Jerry O'connell was there signing autographs for his upcoming movie, and I had heard that Gary Coleman was there as a customer. Back to what I was doing was basic group things like getting pitchers of soda, taking care of cookies, and things of that nature. There were groups in Daytona Room, Monte Carlo, and out on the Turbo Terrace. None of the groups were too high maintenance which was pretty good, but it will probably create a false senes of ease for me. As for doing groups I must say that it felt good to be walking around and not being a cashier. It was nice to just be able to sit around when you don't have anything to do, which occasionally happened. For the last group at 6:00 in Monte Carlo Taylor told me that I would be taking care of it, under her supervision. So I greeted them and showed them to the room, and covered topics like when they would eat, dispensing their play cards, and discussing payment. Needless to say I was nervous doing that for the first time, and like I normally do when I am not comfortable with a topic, I think I mumbled a little. But in time I should get more comfortable with it and hence be a little more outspoken and assertive. They were a pretty low maintenance group as well, so we didn't have to check up on them too often. So while they were there Taylor and I spent most of the tiem just cleaning up the other rooms, and Turbo Terrace where the other groups had been. When that was done it was pretty much just a matter or time before they left, and we could clean up their room. I got a little more practice on the computer in the meantime, and at around 7:30 the group was finished. So the room got cleared, and the group was closed out, which meant that everything was finished. By about 7:50 I clocked out, and talked to Taylor for a couple minutes about the groups and if I was doing alright before heading home. Once at home I took care of some things then headed out the door at around 8:30. I met up with Gabe and Sean at Starbucks in Brea, as well as Little Chris and AJ who were getting coffee. I made a stop at Burger King before heading over since I hadn't eaten all day and was quite hungry. We sat there discussing the usual topics which were interesting as usual. Steve showed up, and at around 9:30 or so we were joined by Ricardo who only stayed for about half an hour or so before deciding to leave, which was about the time that Shay showed up after going to the wrong Starbucks. After having discussed going earlier in the conversation, Steve, Sean, and myself decided to go to Tommy's since I was really hungry still despite eating a Whopper meal. I took the freeway which I thought would be sort of quick, but it was nowhere near that, and took me much longer than the streets. I met up with them at about 10:45 which was about the time we started eating. The conversation continued, and covered an array of topics, and by about 11:30 or so I expected I would be on my way home. Instead we outlasted a number of other groups, and even saw it get a little crowded as we sat there discussing things. One topic that came up was our speculation that the marks on my hand as a result of the prior night's Denny's ice incident were frostbite. It wasn't until about 1:00 that we decided to go home, so we scaled the wall back up to Carl's Jr. where we parked and went home. Once at home I sat at the computer and concluded that I did indeed have frostbite, or at least a mild form of it as my sources tended to indicate. Ironically I went to sleep at around 3:30 watching a made for tv movie about a couple that was snowbound and lost their feet to frostbite. On Monday I woke up at about 7:30, and got dressed for school since I had a final for Philosophy at 8:30. I got into the parking lot at about 8:10, and figured I could take my time until i realized that I needed a scantron. That was also about the time that I noticed my pencil needed lead, but I didn't have any. My lack of pencil lead was something I had noticed throughout the semester and figured would hit me at the most inopportune time, which it did. So I walked over to the Express Stop where I bought scantrons and a brand new pencil just for the test. I went to Philosophy class where I could only get a couple minutes of studying in before the test. It took me about forty-five minutes to finish the test because I really didn't know the material and as a result probably scored a mediocre score at best. From school I drove home which was at about 9:30. Once at home, and awake, I took the opporunity to catch up on some of the News of the Day that I had neglected a few days prior, so I was able to update about three days worth, which took a few hours. I didn't finish until about 12:00. At about 12:30 I got ready for work and headed over to SpeedZone where I ran into Paul in the parking lot. He had informed me that Nutwood was going to be playing at the Christmas party, which was pretty good news I thought. I clocked in, a couple minutes late as a result of talking to Paul, and got my till from Wendy. It was a pretty typical day, though for about the first hour it felt much more busy than normal, which meant that I had a few customers spaced apart. It was just enough to be slightly annoying. I did the typical things to keep me busy like wiping down counters, refilling golf pencils and scorecards, and things of that nature. I would occasionally talk to Paul when he went inside for a soda, but other than that my social interaction was kept to a minimum, with only occasional chats with Jay the gametech, or whatever manager I needed to talk to. The shift seemed to go by relatively quickly, though I started to get tired of just standing around. At a little after 6:00 Katrina and Jenine showed up for work. Gina was working at the bar so rather than have to wait for a manager to cash out my drawer, she did it so I was finished by about 6:15. I headed home, but quickly turned around and went back to SpeedZone when Alfred called me up and told me that he was heading over there. I met up with him, and we went outside to talk to Gabe and Robert for a few minutes. We were both hungry so we decided to get something to eat, but where we didn't know. As we were leaving we started talking to Jenine who said she would give us a free appetizer coupon for T.G.I. Friday's since I had switched my shift for her on Sunday. So we took the offer and headed over to Friday's at about 7:00. We got our appetizer which was some chicken type things that were pretty good. I ordered a bacon cheeseburger, which was good, and pretty filling as well. Alfred and I discussed various topics like Even Stevens and Batman. At around 8:00 we paid our bill and went back to SpeedZone where Alfred dropped me off so I could get my car. I drove home where I sat at the computer for a little while and watched some tv. At around 9:00 or so I must have fallen asleep, and I didn't wake up until about 11:00, and in a sleep induced haze I sat at the computer. I figured I needed to catch up on the other days for the News, so I started to write at about 12:30, but I wasn't feeling too motivated to do so and was easily distracted. I even started watching The Rock, which I had borrowed from Nick on Saturday, while I continued to write. It is now almost 5:00 and my half-hearted update is just about finished. it doesn't feel very well written, but it is finished, and that's what's important. |