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| News of the Day Archive- November 11-17 |
| November 11- My mother woke me up at 10:35 so I got out of bed and dressed in a hurry since I had to be at work by 11:00. I made it pretty much on time, clocking in a mere four minutes late, where I found SpeedZone to be relatively crowded. It was Veteran's Day so that meant that people had to the day off and decided to go to SpeedZone for the first time in their life. It seemed like I started the day with a lot of first-timers, which meant I had to explain everything to them which got very old and very fast. I was still pretty tired from going to sleep at 6:30 in the morning and waking up late, so every little hesitation or indecisiveness by the customer made me angry, though I did my best to hide it. I was doing fine, dispensing the line with ease until somebody wanted to by an Adrenaline Club card, which I did my best to talk them out of. It didn't work, so as I made the card for them a line quickly formed, even though it only took me a couple minutes. It forced Wendy to go on her drawer which made me sort of look bad, but it only took me a few minutes to get it back down to a few customers and be back in control. I was kept busy, though never really felt overwhelmed, and at about 1:00 Taylor showed up so I figured things would be easier now with two of us working, but she was given other tasks, so I was still pretty much working by myself. It wasn't until a little before 2:00 that she got a drawer, and was shortly followed by Marisa that showed up at 2:00 as well. They were at operations and there were a few people at redemption, whom Jay the gametech was helping. So I went across the way to operations and sort of curtly mentioned that someone should help out at redemption which seemed to get a response from them, and didn't result in either of them helping. However they really didn't need to since Erica also had shown up so she took over redemption duties. I continued working at my register, luckily avoiding redemption as best I could, only having to help out a couple times. Time went by sort of quickly and at around 4:15 Gina asked if I wanted to either take a break or just leave at 5:00, so naturally I opted to take a break and leave at my normal time. So I moved my drawer to operations, and that's when I figured that if I were to leave at 5:00 I would only be losing half an hour of work since I had to take a half hour break. So I asked Gina if I could just leave at 5:00 and she said that was fine. I helped out some customers, and talked to Taylor for a little bit before Gina cashed out my drawer at about 4:45. For a second it looked like I would be about $28 short, but then we realized that I had a "cash in games" receipt, so I was a mere $.06 short instead. When I was cashed out I shredded the tickets which took me about five minutes or so. I went and talked to Taylor for a couple minutes and thanked her for buying me a drink earlier. I left and saw Gabe, Robert, and Shay starting their shifts so I chatted with them before clocking out and going back outside for a couple minutes. All of them seemed pretty busy so I left, and talked with John who was at the bar about Andrew W.K. before finally leaving. I got home by about 5:20 and talked to both of my parents for a few minutes, mainly about the fact that I went to the show the night before. That was about the time I signed online as usual. I updated the News with the huge, four-day, 4399 word update which I had neglected to do all weekend. It was a little frustrating to know that it took me about a combined three and a half hours or so to write that update, and it took only about five minutes for everyone to read through it. Oh well. I made myself a chicken pot pie at about 7:30 which was pretty good, mainly because I hadn't eaten anything the entire day. At a little after 8:00 I must have dozed off on by bed and didn't wake up until about 11:30. When I woke up I sat at the computer and watched some tv which is basically what I did for the rest of the night. I had a couple brief conversations online, and updated the movie quote, which I hadn't done in four days either. Finally at around 1:45 I started writing the News, and it's now a little after 3:00, though I haven't been writing consistently that entire time. I am going to sleep as soon as I post this. November 12- I woke up at about 7:20 when my mother told me how late it was, so rather than go to Religion class, which I'm already doing poorly in, and plan on retaking, I decided not to go. So I slept until about 8:45, at which time I got dressed, and was out the door by 9:00. I didn't really hit any traffic so I got to Mt. SAC with a couple minutes to spare, though I almost misjudged the walk to Bio 6 and made it just on time. In class Craig Petersen talked more about the biological holocaust, and the age of extinction we are in, as well as showed us another video. Class ended at at 11:00 as usual, and I stopped by the library to pick up a copy of the Spring schedule. From school I figured I would stop by Best Buy so I took Valley to Fullerton. On Fullerton at around Railroad I hit a lot of traffic due to the construction, and that stretch alone took me about ten minutes to traverse, but I managed to get through. I got to Best Buy and spent some time looking at CD's, DVD's, and even a little at computer programs, and books. I had gotten there about 11:45 or so, and didn't leave until almost 12:30 with both an Andrew W.K. CD, and a copy of What It Is To Burn. Both CD's were $9.99 so I figured I had to get them. Naturally on the way home I listened to the likes of "It's Time to Party" and "Party Hard". When I got home I went to the computer for a little while, and my mother was gracious enough to make me a couple of ham sandwiches. I must say that I sort of overlook just plain old sandwiches as being a really good food. Sometimes they just hit the spot. After siting at the computer for a while, listening to my new CD's (though the Finch CD really isn't new to me) I realized that my parking ticket was due tomorrow. So the thought of potentialy having a warrant out for my head made me decide to drive down to Pomona and pay it in person since I figured the mail would not get there overnight. So at about 2:00 I got in my truck and took the streets over to Downtown Pomona, and when I got to the area around the courthouse at about 2:45, I tried looking for a place to park. I had a little trouble, and found one lot that was charging $6.00 as a flat rate, but I figured I was just paying a ticket so I didn't want to pay that much for something that could potentially only take minutes. So I drove around the block one more time before deciding that the lot across from the train station was free. So I drove over there and figured I could walk whatever distance it was. I found the lot (which is the same one we have parked at for the Glasshouse for those that need a reference point) but it was $.75, and you had to buy a ticket from a machine, though I had trouble finding that machine. I parked the car and looked near the Metrolink station, then I eventually found it, but I didn't have any coins. However I noticed that the machine was at the edge of another lot that was two hour free parking. So rather than walk back to my car to get $.75, then walk back to the machine, then walk back to my car to put the sticker thing on my truck, I figured I could save both a couple of trips, and the $.75 by just moving the car. So that's what I did, and I walked about half a mile to the courthouse. There were two court buildings: one said municipal courts, and another that said Superior. So I looked at my ticket and it said to pay it at the Superior court, so naturally I figured I'd go into that building, but after going through the security, and asking the information guy he said it was across in the other building. Why couldn't they either indicate it was the municipal building, or at least change the municipal building name (since the superior/municipal consolidation) to Superior as well? Oh well. I went to the correct building and found where I needed to go on my own, since I hate to ask questions without exhausting all research options on my own. I found where I needed to go and waited in the two person line for about five minutes before it was my turn. I paid my ticket, and opted for traffic school, paying for that as well, and the total came out to $106. The process took about five minutes, and before I knew it I was walking back to my car. When I got there I figured I was already at the Pomona train station, it was daylight, so why not take a look around? I knew there weren't any trains coming, though there was a freight train just sitting there for the longest time, but I still crossed the pedestrian bridge to walk around. The idea crossed my mind to stick around and take Metrolink to Downtown L.A. where I could eat at Phillipe's (sp?) and take the train back, but I decided against it. I can do that another day. So I got back in my car after being there for about fifteen minutes, and drove home. I got on the 57 freeway at Temple, but there was some traffic at the 60 interchange, so I exited and took the streets home. I got home just a little before 4:00 where I sat at the computer listening to music. I did that until about 6:00 when I asked my mother for a haircut, and she obliged. The haircut took about about half an hour, so at about 6:45 I decided to take a shower to get rid of all the hair on me. I was done and sitting at the computer when at about 7:00 Nick showed up with Jeannine and I gave him his copy of the "circle of friends" drawing. I sort of chatted with him for a couple minutes before they were on their way. Shortly thereafter my mother had dinner ready, so I ate the tacos she had prepared, and they were good as usual. When I was done eating I went back into my room and sat at the computer again for a couple more hours, while watching tv, and listening to some music. At about 9:00 I gave up on the computer and concentrated on the tv. I did alright for the first half hour or so, but then I dozed off, as I inevitably do, but I was proud of myself because I was able to fight the urge until then. I didn't wake up until a little after 11:00 at which time I started writing the News. It's now about 12:30 and I'll probably be up for a little while longer. November 13/14/15- On Wednesday I woke up at about my normal time, but didn't leave my house until a few minutes after 9:00. I got to Mt. SAC and made the long walk to my class, walking in just a couple moments after my Philosophy teacher started class. She gave her lecture before eventually handing back our last tests, which I knew I did poorly on. Needless to say I got a 63, also known as a D- on it, though I did do well on a couple of the short answer questions. Class let out at about 10:45 and I walked down to my Sports Management class where I tried to convince Robert and AJ not to go to, since it doesn'y really matter, and the teacher hadn't shown up yet. He eventually did and we went to class where we basically just covered a couple topics then the final project. It ended up being about an hour, but it wasn't too bad. Once class was over I drove home where I ate a bowl of cereal before laying down on my couch to watch some tv and hopefully doze off before work. I watched an interesting show on the History Channel which I think I had seen before about the Oakland Bay Bridge. I think I did doze off, but only for a few minutes before finally starting to get dressed at about 1:40 for work at 2:00. I went to work where I was by myself not too long after showing up since Wendy leaves at 2:00. It was a typical Wednesday afternoon shift, complete with a few customers and some down time. Though I must say I had a really weird guy go in that kept speaking with some soft of accent, like he was a wizard or something. I had to talk to him twice, and it turns out there must have been a comic convention at Frank & Sons that he was going to, and that sort of cleared things up for me. Paul and Angela played some games and won tickets so she could win one of the traffic lights. One of the times she weighed her tickets I took a guess and was off by merely one ticket which made my day! Other than that I really didn't have much stand out during my shift other than a couple of people that I called for McGee to help out and he sort of forgot about. At about 6:15 I was about to cash out when Ricardo showed up and said that he would need someone to ride with him down to Hogue Barmichaels so he could use the carpool lane, so I said I would, and that it would take me five to ten minutes tops. Well I cashed out and I was perfect as usual, so as I walked out of cash control I saw Big Chris tell me that he was going with Ricardo instead. I was only gone for about three or four minutes! So now I had to find a ride down there, and I walked out to the SpeedZone parking lot where others were meeting. I went to my truck to put on a shirt I had brought, except I realized I had forgotten it at home, so I decided to just wear the Roscoe's shirt I had on. I must say that everytime I wear it I get some sort of response to it. So I started talking to Nick and Jeannine who were one option for getting a ride down there. I suppose I could have driven myself, but what's the point of going down there by myself? Riding with Noy, Chris Lem, and Greg was another option, as was going with Robert and Little Chris when they eventually showed up. We were all pretty much just waiting in the parking lot talking, while waiting for the last few people to meet up with. Taylor Hooks showed up for work so I talked with her briefly about any information regarding our raises, and how she would be working seven days in a row. Eventually everyone showed up and it came time for me to decide who I was going with, and I opted for Robert's truck with Chris. I sat in the back, which was surprisingly roomy. We expected to hit traffic since Gabe said he hit some merely a half hour earlier at 6:15, but fortuntely for us at 6:45 we hit little to none. It wasn't until the 405 that we hit traffic, but it was due to an accident, which was blocking our lane and prompted Chris to roll down his window for as we passed, despite it being on the other side. We got to Hogue's at about 7:30, but we were hungry so we opted to get something to eat. Robert and I got in the truck, while Chris rode in the bed, and we met Paul and Angela at Carl's Jr. However, the three of us went to neighboring Del Taco instead, and I got my usual #1 combo and two tacos, while buying Chris some chili fries (that he wanted) since it was his birthday. We took our food over to Carl's Jr., but not after Robert almost had to fight for the drink that came with his combo, and ate our food next door. We were only there for about fifteen minutes before heading back to Hogue's since we weren't quite sure when Nutwood would be going on. After getting back at a little after 8:00, and realizing I forgot to buy Gabe's Famous Star and Medium drink, we hung around in the parking lot for a few minutes. That didn't last too long before being told to head inside, so we obliged. Once inside I stood around, before taking a seat at the tables in the back, but that didn't last too long. I headed outside to the smoking area where I was joined by others including Chris, who had given up smoking the previous Friday. We all stayed out there for a while before heading back inside, which was about the time that Nutwood was going on. They set up their equipment then began their set at around 9:00 or so. Overall the set was really good in my opinion, though it was sort of cruel of them to start playing "Serbian" the same way they start "Distance" but I'm willing to overlook that. A couple songs into it I called up Dennis who had asked me to call at the beginning, but I forgot. So he got to listen to a couple songs before I hung up with him and watched the rest of the show, during which the Nutwood sign that was taped to the wall fell down which was sort funny. At the end of the set they were told that they could play one more song so they left it up to the audience, and they chose "Porcelain" over "Distance" but I'm convinced that it's only because only a few people know about it. Oh well. The set was over and I was pretty warm since I had worn my jacket inside, so I went outside because I really didn't feel like being inside for the other bands, so I sat around Ricardo's truck with Noy, who also opted to walk outside, and whichever band member wasn't inside watching the next band. Slowly but surely everybody made their way outside to the truck talking, which only lasted a few minutes before security came and told us to leave. Shortly thereafter Little Chris, Robert, and I piled into the car and drove home. We spent much of the car ride home trying to decipher the cover songs done by Me First and the Gimmie Gimmies. My truck was still at SpeedZone, so that's where we went, and we saw a lot of the SpeedZone people that went to the show. One of those was John Asuncion who started playing the Jackass soundtrack, which prompted both Robert and himself to jump around like the party boy (I think that's his name in the show). That was pretty funny, and after waiting around for a few minutes we all drove over to T.G.I. Friday's where the group wanted to meet at. So I went over there and stood around talking to whoever was near me, though I couldn't get "I love, New York City, Oh Yeah, New York City" out of my head. It didn't take that long to get a table, which was for about fifteen or so, since a lot of people decided to leave instead of staying to eat. The party was broken into to two tables so I sat at the table with Sean, Steve, Gabe, Paul, and Angela. Naturally the latter two were spouting out movie quotes, so I had to join in as best I could which is always fun. We also all got some game controller for the tv so that we could play a trivia game. Needless to say it was tough with very abstract questions. Since Sean and I were next to eachother we were partners, and we started off alright, but then ended the game on a cold streak. I think that if I worked there i would be annoyed by those games. Both Gabe and I ordered the Philly Cheesesteak which was good, but not very filling. The rest of the meal was spent spouting out movie quotes, which at one point even included doing so with Steve in regards to Jaws. It's tough to find someone I can quote Jaws with, but Gabe didn't like it and put an end to it. All of us left at about 1:00, and waited outside by the cars for a couple minutes before leaving home. Once I got home I signed online for a little while before going to sleep. On Thursday I woke up late for my Religion class so I decided to just wake up in time for my Biology class. I didn't wake up until 9:30, the time the class starts, when Robert called me asking where I was. Since I missed that class I went back to sleep and didn't wake up until around 2:00. Once I woke up I signed online and sat there for a while before being asked by Robert if I wanted to go see the movie Bowling for Columbine for extra credit in Biology. I figured since I just missed a quiz that I should do it, and I agreed. So I sat online for a while longer before getting dressed at around 3:30. I went to pick up Robert promptly at 4:30, and we drove over to the West Covina Edwards since that was the closest place it was playing at. The two of us got there just before 5:00, bought our tickets, and walked into the theaters which was a stark contrast to AMC. There appeared to be themes to some of the theaters, and you could actually go inside to buy popcorn without necessarily going to see a movie. Well we found theater 14 and walked in wondering if it would be crowded, and to our surprise we were the very first people to walk in. It was empty which meant we could choose our seats with ease, so we sat in the middle towards the top. Just before 5:20, the movie's starting time, an older couple walked in and sat down, who also made a comment about the emptiness of the theater. There were three commercials, and merely one preview which I wasn't too fond of, but I suppose I'll live. By the time the actual movie started there were about ten of us in there. The movie was two hours long, and I never looked at my watch once. I thoroughly enjoyed it. Bowling for Columbine is a documentary discussing various issues like gun control, the deaths involving hand guns that seems to be an epidemic in the United States, and the causes of them. It was one of the most interesting movies I had ever seen, and I found myself laughing at many things, though it was far from a comedy. Instead I found myself laughing at how ridiculous some people act, or speak that are either interviewed directly, or discussed indirectly. I highly recommend the film to all that can see it. The movie let out at about 7:30, and both Robert and I were hungry, so we drove back to Rowland Heights and decided to eat at KFC. I got the three strip combo, and two apple turnovers, and it was pretty good. When we were done eating Robert said that he and Shay were going to go to the driving range, but I didn't quite feel like it. So I dropped off Robert at his house and was home by about 8:30. Once at home I sat at the computer until about 10:00 when I drove over to SpeedZone and met up with Robert and Shay. We decided to play some miniature golf, which made both Shay and Robert want to take their own clubs since they had them. We went out to the golf course where we played the course closest to Turbo Track. I wasn't quite feeling it, so I dropped back a few strokes after only a couple holes, but it got worse for me about seven holes into it. I was quickly down by double digits, but I didn't really care for some reason. Robert and Shay seemed to be pretty close, though Robert seemed to be in the lead for majority of the game. I ended up losing by about fourteen strokes I believe. The game ended at around closing time so we went inside, I dropped off my club, then out to the parking lot where we waited for Paul. While doing so, I opened up the bed to his truck and found the Nerf football that we played with at the cabin a month prior. So we started throwing that around and eventually the closing workers got into it as well. I was just throwing it and catching, as was Paul and Shay who were standing on my side, but the others were practically taking eachother down, and running plays, which never seemed to work because the snap was alway fumbled. The lights were turned off in the parking lot so that fun soon subsided, so it was Robert, Shay, and myself that were left. So after leaving the decision up to Robert, we ended up going to 7-11 where I got a Slurpee, Hostess Golden Cupcakes, and a Snickers. I would have gotten an apple fritter, but I noticed a bug flying around in there so I figured I ate my last apple fritter from 7-11. We went outside, just in time because the floor cleaners were there, and moving stuff out while we were deciding on what to get. The three of us stood around outside for about half an hour, and I had a good time pointing out to Shay that whenever he spoke it always seemed to me, instead of to both Robert and I. I must have pointed it out ten times saying things like "I'm sure Robert would like to hear the story too". Eventually it was deemed time to go home, so I got in my truck and drove to my house, which was at around midnight. Once at home I watched some tv and sat at the computer for a few hours before finally going to sleep at a little after 3:00. On Friday I woke up and started to get dressed at about 11:15 since I worked at noon. So I showered, shaved, and dressed, and was at work by my scheduled time. As I was walking to redemption I was stopped by Robert Taylor wondering if I was supposed to be there since there was another cashier already there, and was wondering if I would want to work outside for the day. I agreed and went to tell Wendy, and she agreed since I think she likes working with Rashida more than me, but that's just my opinion. So I went outside to Turbo Track where Paul and Greg were at and started helping out there, but there wasn't much to do. There were some customers at Slick Track so Paul said we would go help them out, and it was a couple of guys that had been on a few times prior. Once their race was over there was a couple that decided to get on, so they were loaded and sent on their way. At one point they both got stuck and I went to get them out, but I made a rookie mistake and pushed them out facing the wrong way. Sad thing is I already knew not to do that. Good thing there were only two cars out there. It was about that time that there were customers at Grand Prix so we migrated over there to help them out. All the while I felt so hesitant in everything I did because I didn't want to do anything wrong. There was a couple, and another guy that were racing, and the couple were done after about three laps. The other guy kept trying to break 40 seconds, but had a little trouble because there was some dirt on the track. So I went and swept most of it off, with the help of Brian. That guy finished up his laps, and moved on with his life, however he was followed by a guy with about $30 dollars on his card. He kept complaining about the dirt too, and every time he would come in from a lap he was talking about what he did wrong, or complaining about the dirt. Taylor went out and swept it off the track, but the guy never seemed to get much better than 41 seconds. Eventually his money ran out. After just standing around at G.P. Paul and I went in to get drinks, or at least I was, he was just getting a refill. Within a couple minutes we went back outside to help out at Turbo Track. Taylor was talking to Mike Khieu about reasons to not like Asians (jokingly) and mentioned Pearl Harbor. That sort of sparked a comment from one of the mechanics about how it was really about oil, and I figured that Taylor would just go off on him, but it never really happened. That was around the time Paul went on break. Who would be my mentor now? Taylor sort of took over that responsibility when there were customers at Top E. So after he talked things over with some Hispanic guys on Slick, we went over to Top E. where Brian assumed the role in tower, and Taylor showed me what to do on the bottom. So now I have a basic understanding of what to do on the bottom, problem-free. So now I actually have worked at every track. They were the only customers there for the day, so we went back to Turbo, where there were a few. That was pretty much where I spent the next couple hours since there seemed to be at least one or two people in line at any given moment. Things were pretty easy there without any customers, and we just stood around talking while the cars went around, and by about 4:15 or so there weren't any customers so Paul, Taylor, Greg, Brian, and myself were all standing at Turbo Track discussing important issues like Kevin and Bean, and The Family Guy. At one point Paul started picking out worms from the dirt, and he put two of them together and we watched them do their thing. Naturally we assumed they were mating, but we'll never know. That's when Paul got cruel and poured a little bit of Pepsi on them, causing them both to sort of shrivel up, and try to get away from the liquid. One of them went over the edge and fell about three feet to the ground. The other one tried to do the same, but ended up getting stuck due to being wet, and sort of slid all the way down to the ground. It had all of our attention. At about 5:00 there were customes at G.P. so I went over with Paul, and he asked if I wanted to brief or start up cars, so I opted to start up cars. The people started doing their laps, and since we saw Gabe in the parking lot figured he would be out there soon enough, Paul left me by myself at G.P. Granted it was only for about two minutes, and absolutely nothing happened. Once Gabe showed up, he was only there for a couple minutes when he went over to Slick Track to take over for Greg and Brian who were off at 5:00. But then there were people at Turbo, so he had to grudgingly go over there to help them out. So I followed him around, since he would be my new mentor. Nothing really happened at Turbo, other than a few races. I helped out Gabe for about an hour or so until about 6:15 when Steven said I was free to go whenever I wanted. Shortly after that I called it a night, as Gabe no longer had a line and went inside to get a drink along with Big Chris who had wandered over to Turbo a few minutes prior. After clocking out I hung around for a few minutes talking to Phillip the gametech, and he showed me a couple things, and talked about Circuit City before I left. On the way home I braved the Friday night traffic of Colima and drove to KFC for some food, again. The drive-thru line was sort of long, but I managed to brave through it. Once I got my food I drove through the Hong Kong Supermarket (that's the name of it right?) and went to Sierra Leone, instead of fighting the traffic getting out of the parking lot on Batson. I got home and ate my food while sitting at the computer. At about 8:15 I met up with Sean and Steve at Starbucks, but when the two of them went in to get their coffee, Sean's took an abnormally long period of time. He was in there for about half an hour, or long enough for Steve to get his drink, go to Togo's, buy a sandwich, eat half of it, then for me to go inside and get a cup of coffee, only to finish before he did. I also decided to get a sandwich from Togo's, despite having eaten only about two hours prior. It was pretty good I must say. Well the three of us sat around discussing various topics, though I would be lying if Nutwood wasn't one of the dominating ones. It was pretty cold outside, so at about 10:00 Steve desperately offered to hang out at his house, condiering he wasn't wearing a jacket. So we did, but for some reason the air around his house seemed about five degrees warmer than down at Starbucks. We immediately went up to his room upstairs and just sat on the couches, continuing the conversations. It's amazing how sitting around doing absolutely nothing can be so much fun. at about 11:30 Gabe showed up since he was let out of work early. He joined the conversation and it seemed to stay that group until about 1:30 when Big Chris started throwing rocks at the window to get our attention. After about three rocks that we ignored, Shay called my phone so I thought it was him throwing the rocks. That made him angry, like everything does, and we let Chris in. About fifteen minutes later Shay showed up and that was the final total to the group. Finally at around 3:00 everybody decided it was time to go home, so I got in my car, and chatted with Gabe and Shay while they got one last one in. I came home and made an attempt to catch up on the news, but after writing for about half an hour I decided that it didn't matter if I went to sleep, so I did at about 4:45. November 16/17- I woke up at around 2:00 and wasn't in the greatest of moods. I had been chastised for not updating the site, but the way I see it, updating is like a plumber's job. I think everyone knows the rest. So at around 2:30 I continued writing an update for the past few days, and other than occasionally stopping to either get something to eat, or to sort of rest, I didn't finish until about 5:00. At about 5:30 I got ready for work, and was at SpeedZone by 6:02. I was given a till, and went over to operations where I settled into my spot. Things weren't too busy, so I was able to help out some customers, and walk around a little bit for the first part of my shift. However it wasn't too long before customers began to show up and I had to concentrate my efforts onto the register. Occasionally things would take me away from my register like getting golf balls and things of the sort, which were a welcomed sight, since it's almost as if I'm not used to being confined to a register due to working so many weekday shifts. Taylor Hooks didn't have much to do since her groups were pretty low maintenence, so I talked to her off and on which helped pass the time a little. That's pretty much what I did for the next couple of hours. I was a little disappointed in myself because there were a couple times that I let the line get somewhat long, another consequence of working the weekdays. A couple times the line was minimal so I would take a stroll around the gameroom and talk to Daylo, or even help out a customer. At about 10:15 Daylo took his break so I took over the duties in the gameroom, and luckily things weren't that busy, though I did have my share of customers. When he came off of break, it was my turn at about 10:45. After hearing a story from Taylor about a cockroach being found in some cheese, and combining it with what I've seen, I decided I'd cease my eating at SpeedZone and decided to go to McDonald's since it was close. So I went to the drive-thru and ordered my food before pulling up to the window to pay. Before the guy came to get my money I opened up my wallet and to my horror I saw I hadn't any money! Apparently the day before at Starbucks I put my change in my pocket as opposed to my wallet, so it was sitting at home by my computer. I was prepared to tell the guy to hold my food and I would be back in ten minutes with the money, but I noticed that they took ATM cards. So I took that option and got charged $.50 for the transaction, but at least I was able to get the food. Hopefully that will be the last time I need to do that. So I took my food back to the SpeedZone parking lot and had to face the fact I lost about five spaces from where I had originally parked. I ate my food before going back to work at operations side, but things were dying down so I didn't have too much to do. At about 11:30 I started shredding some tickets since the bin was getting full, but Royster took over those duties and I went back to my drawer before being sent over to the redemption register. That's where I spent the rest of my night. For much of that time I was the only register, and at times the line got to be a few customers long, but I did what I could to keep it minimal. A lot of time was spent cleaning up preparing for closing, and when 1:00 came around there were a lot of customers at redemption. I cashed out so I didn't have to deal with them too much because by the time I was done, and helped shred some more tickets, they were gone. We were done closing up by about 1:20 and I went outside where everybody was at my truck since they had gone to a party earlier. So we sat around in the parking lot, a hybrid of "the group" and SpeedZone workers that just got off of work. We started throwing around the football a little, but that didn't last for too long since they turned off the lights. After talking about various things like handicapped customers and underage beer buying, Shay was convinced to let us go to his house. So a little after 2:00 we went to Shay's house. Since Shay leaves his door unlocked we took the liberty of walking in before he got there, and it's not the first time. It was mainly usual faces, but some of the unusual included Cody, and Amy Kineski (sp?), and Kara. For most of the time there was pool being played, though Little Chris and I lost because I hit the 8-ball in the wrong pocket. Oh well, it was still a good shot. The rest of the time was spent listening to Andrew W.K. and chatting with everyone. At about 3:00 Shay kicked everyone out so I came home where I sat online for a few minutes, and even started to write the News. It didn't last long before I decided that I would have plenty of time to write the next day before work. On Sunday I woke up at 10:30 to a phone call from SpeedZone, and it was Gina asking if I could work at noon. So I looked at my clock and it said 11:30 so I said I could get in at 1:00 since I only had half an hour. When I hung up the phone I asked my mom what time it was and it was barely 10:30. I had forgotten that I still haven't changed my clock back an hour, so the clock in my room is still one hour fast. Oh well, it got me an extra hour of sleep. At about 12:45 I woke up and realized I needed to get to work, so I got dressed in a hurry and headed over to SpeedZone. Shortly after arriving at 1:06 I got my till and helped out a couple customers. Things died down and I was able to get some golf balls, and after doing that I stayed at my register most of the time. Taylor again was working with some groups, so I talked with her some more, though it was a little more sporadic than the previous day. Things never really got too busy, though for the most part I had a customer to help at all times. At about 4:30 or so, when David was cash control, he told me that I could just wander around, like he usually has me do, and help him out. That was certainly welcomed, and i tried to take advantage of it, but it was tough because I often had to go help out on my register. Usually when I get to wander around it turns out that I do the gameroom, and today was not much of an exception. It seemed as though the games were breaking down a lot, especially Super Shot (basketball), and it was becoming a nuisance. But there were plenty of times that I would walk around doing nothing much. At one point David told me to take one of the new hires and show her around the gameroom, so I did. I told her most of the basics, and had her take care of some minor things like stuck cards, and free games on Skee Ball. Other than that I was pretty much on my own. At around 7:00 or so there was a group looking for Taylor to get their cake, so after looking for her, I went ahead and just got it for them, along with their ice cream. When I was done with that I went back to the games, and occasionally helped out Royster since he was the only register open, though I still had mine too. His line would get too long, and I would call people over and get rid of them, only for the line to return within a few minutes. I had to point it out to Taylor to show the simliarities from the night she worked with the similar problem. At about 8:30 Royster wanted to take a ten minute break, so I moved my register to redemption, and was now the only register like he was in a similar situation. However I worked as quickly as I could, at a feverish pace and worked hard to keep the line to a minimum! It was tough, but I managed, even with lousy customers that didn't know what they wanted half the time. After he came back from his break, which I think might have been more than ten minutes, I cashed out my drawer. I was perfect, and then was let off of work. So I clocked out just before 9:00 with a total of about 31 hours for the week, and came home. However I was pretty hungry so I stopped off at Del Taco again, and got a #1 with three tacos. I drove home and ate it while sitting at the computer. I had a little bit of a headache, which wasn't overwhelmingly painful, but enough to distract me. I had it for about an hour until I went to sit outside with Gabe and Shay in my backyard. It was about 10:00 when they showed up, and we sat there discussing various topics in the cold, night air. At around 11:00 Shay called it quits, and Gabe and I stayed out there for about another hour or so. We covered an array of topics until about midnight when Gabe went home, and I came inside. I watched some tv, listened to some music, ate some cereal, then dedicated about an hour or so to writing the News. It's now about 2:20 and I'll probably get to bed within the hour. |