September 29- I woke up at around 1:30 to an empty house, so I signed online as part of my wake-up routine. My parents had gone to Target, and they called wondering if I had any requests, so I asked if they could look for some cup holders for my truck. At about 2:30 they showed up and sure enough they found some, so now I finally have some cup holders in my truck, and I don't have to worry about carrying them from now on, although I have yet to use them. I got dressed and headed over to SpeedZone for work, clocking in at exactly 3:00 SZT. When I got there I worked redemption for a few minutes before getting a drawer and helping out on operations side. However at about 3:30 Phillip handed me the keys and told me to take over the gameroom while he went on break, so that was a welcomed change of pace because I really didn't feel like sitting at a register. I walked around, only having to fix a couple of things, and I spent most of the time doing nothing including talking to Robert Taylor about why I went to Mt. SAC. After half an hour I had nothing to do because of all the broken computers at SpeedZone meant that I didn't have a place to jockey my register. So I just sort of wandered around for twenty minutes or so until somebody went on break and I was able to take a spot. That was around 4:30 or so and that's pretty much where I was for the rest of the night. Things were pretty standard and nothing too out of the ordinary happened, and for the most part I was kept busy with customers, though it was never overwhelming. When it got pretty dead I would walk around the gameroom for really no reason other than to get away from my drawer, and usually when I would get back there was a small line. I did see some guy walk up with a shirt that said "No really, what's wrong with your face?" and conjured up the image of Ricardo wearing the same shirt, though I never did actually see him wear it. At about 8:30 I went on break so naturally I got some chicken fingers to eat, which was the first thing I had eaten all day. After my break I went back to work for my last hour or so, and things were pretty dead for the most part, but I did have a steady trickle of customers. It wasn't until about 10:15 or so that McGee cashed out my drawer. There was a small scare when I was $200 over, but McGee figured out what the problem was, and it turns out it was when he took the money for my last drop, and he mistakenly typed the wrong amount, but neither of us caught it. So by about 10:30 I was walking out the door and on my way home. Once at home I signed online as usual, and talked to Paul since he was pretty much the only one online at the time. I broke the news to him about who the new crew chiefs were at work, and I don't think he was too happy about it. At least outside there are opportunities to be promoted, inside there's nothing. I watched some tv while sitting online and heated a Claim Jumper chicken pot pie, however I think I like the Marie Calenders pies better. I read everybody's online journals before writing the News. It's now about 2:10 and I'll probably be going to bed within the hour, and hopefully I'll be able to wake up in the morning for class.
September 30- I woke up at around 8:45, hurried to take a quick shower and got dressed, heading out the door at about 9:05. The trip to school was going fine until I got to the Grand Ave. onramp which has been pretty congested this year, forcing me to slow down and stop while still being on the freeway on occasion. Today was no exception. Only today when I stopped sort of suddenly, I wasn't the only one that wasn't paying attention because I watched as the person behind me began to slam on their breaks. I thought for sure that I was about to be rear-ended, and in the brief couple seconds I imagined what it would be like, but luckily the guy managed to swerve out of the way. A couple other cars had to take some evasive maneuvers to avoid hitting cars waiting to exit the freeway. Other than that my trip to school wasn't too eventful, and I walked to class in a sleep induced haze. In Philosophy we learned about Karl Marx for about an hour and a half, and were dismissed at about 10:45. I walked to the Sports Management class debating whether or not I wanted to go since I was so tired, and a nap before work sounded really nice. However I thought about Tom's journal and I realized he was right so I went to class, but it was tough to stay awake. I think I dozed off a couple times because at one point the teacher mentioned that people were falling asleep and after class Robert said he was looking at us when he said it. Class ended at about noon, so I got into my car and drove home for a nice nap. I got home at about 12:20 and when I got home I went straight to the couch, but my mom was nice enough to offer me a sandwich. I took her up on the offer, and ate the two cheese sandwiches I requested, and then took a nap until about 1:20 or so. I got ready for work and headed over to SpeedZone where the parking lot was filled with trucks and various equipment for the CSI episode they are filming there. I walked in through the back, a little confused about where to go since we were never told exactly where to go, and left to sort of assume what needed to be done. I clocked in at 2:03, but I would have been on time under normal conditions. I was given a drawer and went to my cash register, which was temporarily placed in the manager's office in the back, where they used to sell the races. I didn't have any customers for about the first twenty minutes or so until some Asian lady that couldn't understand English came up to me and I sold her a $13 card. It was around this time I started talking to Paul who first was at the window talking, until he just went back into the office where I was and started chatting. While we were there shooting the breeze the lady came back and wanted a refund since the track she wanted was temporarily closed so in a sense I had sold nothing for about the first hour. During my conversation with Paul it came out that one of the actors in the episode was William O'Leary, more commonly known as Tim's brother Marty from Home Improvement, from an ALF movie called Project ALF (which for some reason I thought was called ALF 2000), and after researching remembering that he was in Bull Durham. When I found out he was there I wanted to see him because I liked all three of those projects he was in but I never saw him. Paul was sitting in the back for the longest time, talking about a lot of things including the crew chief decisions, and pretty loudly I might add. A little after 3:00 Frymark took Paul out to the parking lot to direct the traffic of customers to the back, and it seemed to work because about five minutes later I made roughly $60 or so in transactions within a couple minutes, but that was about one of the only "busy" times. I didn't have much to do, and both Ryan and Desiree seemed to have noticed that, so Desiree asked if I wanted to put together some flyer things, but after doing that for about ten minutes I got bored and stopped. The way I saw it, I could be bored actually doing something, or I could be bored doing nothing, so I opted for the latter. I didn't do very much other than sit at the window, helping the occasional customer, and walk around to stretch my legs, but even though it was really boring I liked it since I didn't have to worry about "looking busy": I spent some time sort of talking to Frymark who was in the back, and Paul, who made a brief followup appearance, and before I knew it 5:00 rolled around so I only had an hour to go. Time went by sort of quick despite having nothing to do. It was around this time that Jesus and Chris Lem showed up for their shifts and they just sat in the office talking. I finally got to witness it for myself that crew chiefs do nothing, so it was obvious why they felt the need to promote two more without any cash control (note the sarcasm). The last hour went pretty quickly and before I knew it 6:00 rolled around and Jenine was there to take over the cash register. Damon cashed me out, and while walking to cash control we had to be quiet because they were setting up some things in the gameroom for a shot I think. I was perfect on my drawer, as usual. I clocked out, trying to look at as much as I could while I was in the gameroom, and went out to briefly chat with Robert before driving home. I got home to an empty house since my mom was walking, and made myself a plate of spaghetti that my mom had left on the stove. I was really hungry and ate a couple bowls (I used a bowl for some reason now that I think of it). After eating I sat at the computer for a while, during which time I watched some tv, including Seinfeld which was the one where George ate out of the trash, Elaine got Mr. Pitt a magic eye, Jerry was dating a gymnist, and Kramer was passing a stone. Funny as always. A little after 8:00 I went and laid down on the couch, and I ended up dozing off while my parents were watching tv. I woke up at about 11:00 to the tv still being on and my parents having gone off to bed. I wonder if they at least tried to wake me up? I came and sat online where I tried to figure out a small problem with the site. For some reason I can't open the News archive page, but I was unable to figure out a solution. It's now about 1:30 and I'll probably still be awake for a while since I had that long nap. I hope I can wake up for class tomorrow. |
