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| News of the Day Archive- October 28-31 |
| October 28- I woke up at about the normal time and sort of procratinated getting out the door, but managed to make it to school by about 9:20. I made it to class a couple minutes before it began and I listened to Sushma Hall give another Philosophy lecture. It had been about two weeks since I had actually been to the class because I overslept for both classes last week. Class ended and I walked to Sports Management, where on the way I ran into Kris Ellison and told him about the Nutwood show later on. So I went to Sports Management, with Robert and AJ, where we listened to a lecture for about an hour before being let out at around noon. I drove home where I sat online and watched a little tv, while almost dozing off. I got dressed and went to work at 2:00 where I saw three cars in the customer half of the parking lot. A good sign in my opinion. I got a till and went to work, so to speak. I looked for things to do which were primarily comprised of cleaning and organizing. It wasn't until about 2:55 that I had my first customer, and it was for the next hour and a half or so that I had my "busy" time. This basically meant that I had a few customers every twenty minutes or so. At one point Paul came in and was talking to me for about ten minutes, if not longer, and in the midst Robert Stolfus walked by, and it was obvious that we were not doing anything, especially since I was swinging a golf club. So rather than make it obvious and try to act busy, we both just kept talking figuring it was too late to do anything else. Things never really picked up and it was a struggle to keep busy, until around 5:00 when things were really dead. It was so bad that I was constantly up at the bar, talking with Cay the bartender, and whoever else wandered up there which at times were Paul before he left, and David. At around 5:45 it was determined that there were literally zero customers in the park so things were pretty relaxed while chatting at the bar. We were watching The Simpsons when Marisa came to take over working, so David cashed out my drawer at the first commercial. From SpeedZone I went home where my mom had dinner ready, which was a sort of roast with mashed potatoes and a vegetable. It was really good, and when I was finished I sat at my computer for about half an hour before changing out of my work clothes. At 7:30 Paul showed up and I drove us over to Chain Reaction. On the way there we were listening to Ignite. We got there at about 8:00 and parked in the back. When we got there just about everybody was there already, so I bought my ticket and joined various conversations. Kris and Alec showed up just after we did, and I talked with them a little. One of the conversations I had with Shay, Little Chris, and Dennis was my speding ticket that I had gotten last month, which nobody really knew about. Ricardo asked me if I wanted to video tape the show, but I decided not to because I wanted to enjoy the show. At around 8:30 Gabe tried getting everyone to go inside, so I did since I had to use the restroom. At about 8:45 or so the first band finished so it was time for Nutwood. When they got up on stage I was supposed to put up their sign while they set up the equipment, but it seemed like they had it under control. Within a few minutes they started playing with a new intro to Bitter to the End, which sounded alright, though after a song or two Sean broke a string. By way of bad luck they followed the long pause with Descriptions of a Struggle which was kind of a slow song. A few songs into the set they played Accommodations of Desire, which is becoming more and more my favorite song. That was probably one of the few times I can say that I really got into the music. Steve sort of messed up at the beginning of Broken Notes, then during one of the last couple songs Steve dropped his glasses, and he dropped his microphone, which sort of put a cap on the evening. During Imperfect Alfred sort of leaned off the stage and Paul grabbes his legs and held up up for a couple seconds which was interesting. After they played it was pretty warm in there so we all went outside, and just hung out in the alley for a while. I went in for the beginning of Burning Tree Projekt, but since they didn't play Supernova within the first few songs I went back outside. I talked with Gabe, Dennis, Nick, and whoever else went out there. I could hear Supernova being played, and it turns out that they played it twice. When the Plain White T's went on I went in for about the first song before heading back outside where I spent the rest of the show, before making my way out into the parking lot with everyone else. At about 10:45 I figured I needed to go home since I had to work on my Religion project, so I said my goodbyes and drove home. Paul stuck around with Angela, which made him feel guilty since I was driving by myself, but for some reason I almost welcomed the solitude. Being by yourself is not always a bad thing. I got home around 11:15 or so and I signed online. I watched the CSI: Miami episode that my mom had taped for me (because I asked her to) which was the one they filmed at SpeedZone. It was interesting seeing the various spots in the gameroom I recognized, though I would say only about one third of the episode actually took place in the gameroom (if that). Although I must say I don't think I could watch the show regularly because I don't really like the style of it. After watching a little tv, I went to sleep around 1:00, which was early because rather than write my homework late at night, I opted to wake up early the next day to write it in the morning. October 29- I woke up at around 5:15 and did the homework I should have done the night before. It took me a little longer than I had anticipated to write the two parts of my project, but I was finished at around 6:30 which allowed me to go back to bed for about another forty minutes. I got dressed in a hurry, having waited a little too long, and poured myself aome coffee that my mother so kindly made for me before heading out the door. I got to school and sat in my car for a couple minutes before going to Religion class where i gave my group members the part of the project I worked on. Things were a little tense because one of the members showed up a couple minutes late, but we turned it in on time. We spent the entire class hearing Joe Lee's rendition of the first few books of the Bible, which I found to be pretty interesting. It was interesting both because of the style it was presented, and I was able to finally hear all the main points of the stories which I was always kind of curious. Class ended at around 9:15 and I went over to my Bio class where we were let in a couple minutes early. I took my seat in the back before being joined by Robert, then moved up a couple seats at the teacher's request. The class was spent listening to Craig Petersen discuss agricultural issues, and how within our lifetime we would run out of oil. It was a pretty interesting class, as usual, and when it was over I walked to my truck and drove home. I got home at about 11:20 and naturally sat online for a while. I ate some cereal before deciding I was pretty tired and laid on my bed. I ended up falling asleep at around 1:00 and didn't wake up until about 3:30. In a sleep induced haze I ate some cold Digiorno Pizza that my mother had so kindly heated for me earlier in the day. I dedicated the next hour or so to writing the News from the day before, and I continued to sit at the computer for the next couple hours before I ate the dinner that my mother had prepared. It was good, as usual, and in the midst of eating my father got home from work, which was around 7:15 or so. So I talked with them for a little while before heading back into my room where I pretty much spent the rest of my night. I had a small piece of Pecan pie that my father had brought home from on his way home from work, and it was pretty good. At about 10:00 I took a shower because for some reason I just felt itchy, and uncomofortable, though I don't know why. My night was pretty much dedicated to the tv, and computer, while also washing some laundry. It is now about 1:30 and I'll probably be up a little while longer before calling it a night. October 30/31- On Wednesday I woke up and drove to school without much to make note of. I went to my Philosophy class where we spent the time reviewing for the test on Monday. Class let out around 10:40 so I walked to my car, but not without stopping by the vending machien for a Pop Tart. Something worth noting was that the wrapper to the Pop Tart was blue, instead of white, which is the most significant change to the wrapper within my lifetime. They've always been white. I walked to my car where I saw Nick in his, so I started talking with him. We eventually walked over to the truck where I ate my Pop Tart and finished drinking some coffee I had taken to school with me, which was still pretty warm. While there Kris Ellison showed up and briefly chatted, before both of them went to class at separate times. I went to my Sports Management class where I finished writing a homework article, that I had begun in my previous class. Once in class we turned in the assignment, and listened to a lecture for about an hour before being let out. I drove home and was on the computer by 12:20 or so, before fiddling with my computer before work. I got dressed and was at SpeedZone by my 2:00 shift. I was a little upset because things were pretty busy because of a group of 80 people that were there. A bunch of people from the group had about three cards that they wanted me to tell them the value of which became sort of a nuisance. Even more of a nuisance was when two of the group's leaders (at separate times) came up to me each with a stack of cards and wanted them all combined. One had about twenty cards, while the other had about fourteen, though luckily only about two thirds of them had money on them. The rest had nothing on them. When I got a chance I asked Taylor why everybody had so many cards, and she said that instead of putting everything they needed on one card, Rachel gave them multiple cards for various tasks. Once the group left I was back to a normal day shift where I had nothing to do. Slowly but surely the customers would dwindle, and I would talk to Phillip every now and then to pass the time. Like on Monday, at around 5:30 or so the customer number was minimal before eventually hitting zero officially. I pretty much spent my last hour or so just hanging out at the bar talking to Cay since I literally had nothing to do. At a little after 6:00 Damon cashed out my drawer and I was only a few cents off. When he finished I asked about my review, and he said we would do it right then, so he did. We went to the back office where Hank was taking orders from KFC, and went over the review that David had written. Pretty much everything was positive, and I was glad to hear such praise from a manager, though it all should be taken with a grain of salt. However I figure I would savor the moment and accept the positive response at face value. I left "the zone" at around 6:30 and went home where I ate dinner that my mother had prepared. It was spaghetti, and it was good as usual. After eating I watched some tv and sat at the computer for a little while before changing clothes and heading over to Gabe's house where we were meeting to go to Starbucks. I sat in Gabe's room watching tv, while waiting for Steve and Alfred who showed up shortly. Since I intended to study, and would maybe want to leave early, I drove to Starbucks, and Alfred joined me. On the way there we listened to Jimmy Eat World and Alfred reminisced about the times he used to like Bleed American. We got to Starbucks and found a table, and were joined by Shay, Sean, and eventually Big Chris. The conversation was pretty varied and ranged from SpeedZone, to self gratification. At one point Shay tried to turn my backpack inside out but I caught him the act because he wsa not sly about it at all. It was good conversation until a little after 11:00 when we all went home. When I got home I watched some tv and sat online, which included setting up a buddy chat for the group. We talked in there for a while before interest waned and everybody left. I started some more research on Cooper House, though I didn't have much luck, but it took a great deal of time and I wasn't in bed until after 3:00. I woke up on Thursday at my normal time but I figured since I had at test in Biology I would skip my Religion class and show up early to Bio in order to study. However I slept in just a bit too much and instead was almost late to class, barely walking in the door as Craig Petersen was closing it. I hadn't studied one page, or principle so I knew that I was doomed from the beginning. We got the test and despite not having read anything, I was pretty confident with the multiple choice questions and fill-in the blanks. It was the principles, which are a great deal of points, that I really did poorly on. Oh well. When Robert and I were done with the test we stood outside the class talking about it, among other things before he had to go to his next class, and I went home. When I got home I was pretty hungry, so I made myself three scrambled eggs, two pieces of toast, and reheated the coffee that my mother had left for me in the morning. It was a really good breakfast. When I was done eating I sat online for a short while before deciding to take a nap before work. I went to sleep a little before 1:00 and didn't wake up until about 3:15. At about 3:30 I shaved, showered, and dressed before heading over to SpeedZone for work at 4:00. About fifteen minutes after I got there David gave me some money, and I drove to Office Depot to buy some pens. I bought five boxes of black, and five blue. While walking to the cash register some guy asked me for help, I suppose since I was wearing a red shirt and Office Depot workers used to have red shirts as well. It made the checker laugh, and I kind of chuckled at the notion as well. The overall trip took about fifteen minutes and I was back at work. Things were pretty dead as usual. Nattasha was working, and at 5:00 Brian came into work as well, so that meant that there were three of us working, when really there wasn't enough for one to do work. We did what we could to keep busy, and at 6:00 it was now just two of us with nothing to do. At one point I walked outside to see what time Gabe was going to take his break so that mine would coincide with his so I wouldn't have to be by myself. There were a few customers here and there, Time seemed to sort of pass quickly, and at about 7:40 I went on break with Gabe. I ordered some chicken fingers and ate them in my truck, as I sat next to Gabe in his car, while we talked back and fourth. The food was good, as usual, and we just sat there chatting for our half hour. When I got back I told Brian he could go home, since David had given me the discretion of whether or not he was needed. Today was Halloween and it certainly did not feel like it since there was nothing even remotely festive at SpeedZone. For the rest of the night I only had occasional customers, though from about 9:00 to 9:40 we were making nametags for employees, and I looked at a lot of different pictures in the database. It was so bad that at one point David threw an urban snowball (from the smoothie machine) at me while I talked with Gabe and Robert. At around 10:00 I went outside to watch the guys bring in the cars for Top E. and at 10:15 my drawer was being cashed out since McGee made the decision to close the park early. So I was finished with all my duties by 10:20 at which time I clocked out. Robert and Gabe shortly followed, and we just sat in the parking lot for a few minutes, with Little Chris who had shown up just before closing time. Nobody except for one carload of people really were affected by the decision. From SpeedZone we went to my backyard, where we were joined by Shay, Paul, and Ricardo. We sat in the backyard discussing the usual topics which included SpeedZone, and Nutwood. Gabe and Paul were the last two to leave and they did so at around 3:15, at which time I came inside my house and decided to update the News of the Day. |