So I saw Rebecca at Wal-Mart the other day (gosh, a lot of posts are starting this way. whatever).
Actually, I'm going to come back to Rebecca, and start with school and stuff.
School's going okay so far. I was really tired yesterday (because of work), but got through school okay. The way my classes are set up, my least favorite, most boring is first, and I end with my favorite, least boring class. Here's a breakdown so far:
Chem 1341, Lippman:
This one is kinda boring. The professor is really, really old. I can't stress that enough. Extremely old. He talks a lot, and has a habit of trying to bring in anecdotes that are in NO WAY INTERESTING. We were talking about uncertainty in measurements, and he starts talking about engineers and small parts and tolerance for uncertainty as an example of applications of that principle. You'll notice I used about half a sentence to explain it. That's all it takes. Not ten minutes. Whatever.
CS 2308, Drissi
I love this guy. He has this crazy accent - we say character CARE - ick - ter. He says ka - RACK - ter. It's awesome. Just trying to follow what he's saying can at time keep me on my toes. Still don't have any idea what the assignments or tests are going to be like in this class. Oh, and it's a CS class, so there are very few actual human beings in the class, it's predominately introverted geniuses.
Math something, Discrete I, Wu
So far, this is my favorite class. It has the most class participation, the most theoretical work (Math professors don't give two shits about real-world applications), and there's this deaf guy that I usually sit behind. Now, that in and of itself has no bearing on the class, but one of the interpretors is SO cute. Not hot or anything, and she's older, probably mid-30's to early 40's, but SO CUTE. She gets her whole face into it, really expressive. SO CUTE.
So that's school so far.
On to work.
Work sucks. They just fired Sergio, so we have no GM. Additionally, if he hadn't sent me a text telling me as much, we wouldn't know, as they haven't seen fit to let us know. I don't know what's going to happen now. I really don't think it should continue as this little triad thing we're doing right now, as there's too many cracks for stuff to fall through. There needs to be one person in charge, and receiving compensation as such. I'm definitely not going to do it - the time commitment is such that it could create an issue with school, which is by far my top priority right now. Terrance definitely doesn't want it either, that leaves Bill. He's a great guy and all, and he sorta expressed some interest in doing it, although his management experience is somewhat limited. We'll see how that goes. I mean, he's light years better than the alternatives - bringing in someone from San Antonio, or hiring someone from outside, or keeping on as we are right now.
Our order dates just changed, so Monday night, we ran out of medium dough, provolone cheese, green peppers, onions, chicken kickers, and medium and large deep dish. It was fun.
Now, on to the good stuff. We hired this cute insider named Michelle. She hasn't had her first official day yet, though she did work on Monday. Taller - about 5'7"-ish, kinda chunky, blond. So cute.
Went to Wal-Mart the other night, saw Rebecca. We talked for a little while, probably fifteen minutes. It was good stuff. She's left-handed, played french horn in high school, and is possibly hispanic. I ran into her again a few nights later, she was asking me about a ladder, which I helped her find. I talked to that other girl that's really cool that used to work in softlines that I went to high school with. She asked me how my night was going, I told her 'fantastic!', she asked why, I gestured with my head to where Rebecca was, her eyes went wide with understanding. I ended up standing next to her while she checked out, we had the following conversation - "Hey, don't tell anyone about that, please." "Sure, no problem. Hey, you know she has a boyfriend, right?" "Yeah, I found out when I asked her out." "Oh, wow. Yeah, I thought I saw her smile like this (smiles) while she was helping you." "Actually, I was helping her find a ladder." Robyn was our cashier during that whole thing, which was cool.
Got my computer hooked up to output audio through my new speaker system, and video to my tv, which is cool. I can even have it do the SNES emulator to the TV, which is cool. Kind of old school.
Vanessa Carlton -- Fools Like Me
2008-01-23
2008-01-15
Feels like the crowd is saying
Here it is, my chance to prove that maybe I don't suck at life. Mom's getting some certification through ACC, and Janelle's still in school, so I have two great examples of how to do this whole thing successfully. The only reason I have for failure is myself.
Britney Spears -- Gimme More
Britney Spears -- Gimme More
2008-01-13
My heart is on fire, I have no regrets
Had a weird dream last night (I love blog posts that start off that way). Basically, I drove to North Carolina to surprise Terri (in this dream, she's still living with her family, similar to the situation the second time I drove over there, where they were all in that apartment thing). I got there without incident, and was looking for Terri's window, but I saw Christy's and she let me in and took me to Terri's room. I don't really remember the rest, but I know it wasn't a sex dream. I think Terri led me to a guest room with a couch in it where I'd be sleeping, something like that? I remember her being really thrilled to see me, but I don't think the dream as a whole really means anything.
So in an hour or so, I leave for my last shift before school starts. I got my chemistry book in the mail, so I'm ready in a physical sense. Well, a material sense - I'd like to drop about a hundred pounds to be ready in a physical sense, but I intend to start working on that hardcore as well. I'm off tomorrow, so I have all day to freak out about each and every little thing, that should be fun. Crap! I don't know if I have a spiral ready for note-taking, but between my entire day off tomorrow and the gift Bambi gave me to Colloquim, I should be able to remedy that fairly easily.
Wendy Phillips -- Stay
So in an hour or so, I leave for my last shift before school starts. I got my chemistry book in the mail, so I'm ready in a physical sense. Well, a material sense - I'd like to drop about a hundred pounds to be ready in a physical sense, but I intend to start working on that hardcore as well. I'm off tomorrow, so I have all day to freak out about each and every little thing, that should be fun. Crap! I don't know if I have a spiral ready for note-taking, but between my entire day off tomorrow and the gift Bambi gave me to Colloquim, I should be able to remedy that fairly easily.
Wendy Phillips -- Stay
2008-01-12
It makes the truth even more incomprehensible
Two quick notes. First, school starts in two days - well, three for me, since I only have Tue/Thu classes, but whatever - and I'm frickin' scared. I mean, I'm worried that I'll mess it up again. It was never that classes were too hard, or I didn't have enough time, or couldn't manage it well enough, or was too stressed out, or anything like that. I just didn't care. Theoretically, I've fixed that problem, but I won't know that without some empirical evidence. I won't have that for a few weeks. Got my last textbook in the mail today, for Chem. I have everything I need now, just waiting for the big day.
Went by Wal-Mart last night, saw Nolan. Talked to him a little, since he was working aisle seven and I wanted some juice. They were out of my favorite, White Cran/Strawberry, so I had to settle for some strawberry-kiwi (also delicious, certainly). Rebecca saw me and came over (coincidentally, not purposely, because she was doing returns, and worked on her aisle seven returns while we talked), told me that she saw me when I was here the other night and she was on four zoning. I guess that's a good sign? I mean, if she thought I was a creepy bastard who didn't want me to talk to her at all, she wouldn't mention that she saw me? Go me, and all that. Anyway, we talked a bit. She's a vegetarian, which is cool. Sounds like she's been one for a while. She's "not sure" if she's taking classes this semester - I made a comment about her only having like two days left to decide, and she said she was definitely taking classes this summer. That made me feel a little better about my situation, that she's a little less likely to think less of me for being 25, living at home, working at Domino's, and still in school (that last one is actually a plus, basically. I think.)
Anyway, Nolan went off on one of his "Billy the Kid!!" things, even in front of Rebecca. "That's Billy the Kid!" He made some comment about me knowing Rebecca already - "You just know everyone, don't you, Billy the Kid!". Rebecca said "I don't know anyone" kind of quietly, but I don't think it was so quiet that she didn't want anyone to hear it. I ran into her again on the way out, we talked a little bit, she smiled a lot. It made me smile.
Sylver -- Lay Your Love on Me
Went by Wal-Mart last night, saw Nolan. Talked to him a little, since he was working aisle seven and I wanted some juice. They were out of my favorite, White Cran/Strawberry, so I had to settle for some strawberry-kiwi (also delicious, certainly). Rebecca saw me and came over (coincidentally, not purposely, because she was doing returns, and worked on her aisle seven returns while we talked), told me that she saw me when I was here the other night and she was on four zoning. I guess that's a good sign? I mean, if she thought I was a creepy bastard who didn't want me to talk to her at all, she wouldn't mention that she saw me? Go me, and all that. Anyway, we talked a bit. She's a vegetarian, which is cool. Sounds like she's been one for a while. She's "not sure" if she's taking classes this semester - I made a comment about her only having like two days left to decide, and she said she was definitely taking classes this summer. That made me feel a little better about my situation, that she's a little less likely to think less of me for being 25, living at home, working at Domino's, and still in school (that last one is actually a plus, basically. I think.)
Anyway, Nolan went off on one of his "Billy the Kid!!" things, even in front of Rebecca. "That's Billy the Kid!" He made some comment about me knowing Rebecca already - "You just know everyone, don't you, Billy the Kid!". Rebecca said "I don't know anyone" kind of quietly, but I don't think it was so quiet that she didn't want anyone to hear it. I ran into her again on the way out, we talked a little bit, she smiled a lot. It made me smile.
Sylver -- Lay Your Love on Me
2008-01-06
Seasons don't fear the reaper
So today was an interesting day at work. Nothing really notable until the last hour or so. Fifteen minutes. Whatever.
I get a call from Margaret in Oltorf that they got another call from the Motel 6 in San Marcos (long story). So I take the order, make it, send it out. It ends up being the last order of the night, leaves the store maybe ten minutes before close. Nick takes it out. He calls back a little bit later, saying the guy had wanted to play with his credit card. I was kind of annoyed at the whole situation (It's Motel 6's fault they got key cards from another motel, which their contract explicitly forbids doing, quite possibly for exactly this reason), so I just told Nick to give him the pizza for free.
Nothing terribly weird just yet.
I get a call a few minutes later, we're already closed. It's the front desk lady, apparently, there's a complaint about our driver banging on random doors or something. She's not sure if he's not sure where to deliver to or what, what kind of protocols we have. I'm a little confused at this point - none of our drivers, if the room they were delivering to wasn't right, would just go knocking on random doors, they'd call back to find out what's going on. This was further compounded by the fact that I had *just* talked to Nick, I knew he had found the correct room.
While I'm talking to her, trying to figure out what's going on, a second line rings. I go to tell that person we're closed, and it's the police. They're calling because they received a call from the front desk lady that some people were banging on my driver's car, they were worried about it. He asked me to call my driver by cell if possible, and see if he was okay, and that I could just put him on hold. I get back with the front desk lady, explain that no, our drivers wouldn't just go bang on random doors, and I'll talk to him and find out what's going on.
I go to call Nick, ask him what's up. By the time he picks up, he's pulling back into the store. Guess he got back okay, then. I pick the cop off of hold and let him know that the driver's back safely. That concludes that call.
Nick comes in, lets me know what happened. While he was talking to the guy he was supposed to deliver to, some other guy, drunk as hell, comes out of his room, starts yelling at Nick about if we've got any more pizzas or whatever. Nick tells him that no, we're closed. The dude starts banging on Nick's window - loud enough that it disturbs another guest, two doors down, who comes out to see what's going on (I'm guessing he's the one that called the front desk to lodge a complaint about the whole situation.
Overall, it was just kind of weird. I was picturing a huge group of people, banging on Nick's car, surrounding it and preventing him from driving off or something, like a zombie horror movie or something.
Blue Oyster Cult -- Don't Fear the Reaper
I get a call from Margaret in Oltorf that they got another call from the Motel 6 in San Marcos (long story). So I take the order, make it, send it out. It ends up being the last order of the night, leaves the store maybe ten minutes before close. Nick takes it out. He calls back a little bit later, saying the guy had wanted to play with his credit card. I was kind of annoyed at the whole situation (It's Motel 6's fault they got key cards from another motel, which their contract explicitly forbids doing, quite possibly for exactly this reason), so I just told Nick to give him the pizza for free.
Nothing terribly weird just yet.
I get a call a few minutes later, we're already closed. It's the front desk lady, apparently, there's a complaint about our driver banging on random doors or something. She's not sure if he's not sure where to deliver to or what, what kind of protocols we have. I'm a little confused at this point - none of our drivers, if the room they were delivering to wasn't right, would just go knocking on random doors, they'd call back to find out what's going on. This was further compounded by the fact that I had *just* talked to Nick, I knew he had found the correct room.
While I'm talking to her, trying to figure out what's going on, a second line rings. I go to tell that person we're closed, and it's the police. They're calling because they received a call from the front desk lady that some people were banging on my driver's car, they were worried about it. He asked me to call my driver by cell if possible, and see if he was okay, and that I could just put him on hold. I get back with the front desk lady, explain that no, our drivers wouldn't just go bang on random doors, and I'll talk to him and find out what's going on.
I go to call Nick, ask him what's up. By the time he picks up, he's pulling back into the store. Guess he got back okay, then. I pick the cop off of hold and let him know that the driver's back safely. That concludes that call.
Nick comes in, lets me know what happened. While he was talking to the guy he was supposed to deliver to, some other guy, drunk as hell, comes out of his room, starts yelling at Nick about if we've got any more pizzas or whatever. Nick tells him that no, we're closed. The dude starts banging on Nick's window - loud enough that it disturbs another guest, two doors down, who comes out to see what's going on (I'm guessing he's the one that called the front desk to lodge a complaint about the whole situation.
Overall, it was just kind of weird. I was picturing a huge group of people, banging on Nick's car, surrounding it and preventing him from driving off or something, like a zombie horror movie or something.
Blue Oyster Cult -- Don't Fear the Reaper
2008-01-02
Don't you have somewhere to go?
So I know it's clichè, but what with time being an arbitrary concept and all, New Year's provides just as good a time to reflect as anything. A good time to look back at the last year, see where I am, where I'm going, what's coming up.
Let's start with what happened recently. I worked New Year's Eve, which isn't a big deal. I usually do - last year, the year before that, the year before that, but the year before that, I think I was with Suzie in Galveston. I remember three New Year's ago, when I got off from Sonic, was driving home, Mom called me from All Niter, her and Jerry were there, we sat on the patio and had breakfast. Lilie drove by. Good times. So anyway.
I spent this New Year's making pizzas. Luckily, I wasn't taking an order or anything when the ball dropped (which is my way of saying "Midnight struck"). Just kind of standing there. I was very aware of when it was. Bill and Chris were my closing drivers, but they were both out on runs. They were pretty much running nonstop 'til the end of the night. I got a few calls around midnight - Danielle called, that was awesome. Hadn't really talked to her or anything in quite a while. Danielle and Jenni both called, that was fun. Had a few drunks order some pizza in person, that's always fun. I think part of my aversion to drinking is how very, very much I hate talking to drunk people. I hear it's not so bad when you're also drunk. Whatever.
I went to Wal-Mart after work, picked up some juice and stuff. Of course, Rebecca was my cashier. Good times. She was smiling a lot. I'm not naive enough to think she was smiling because of me, but it was definitely at, and I'll take my victories where I can get them.
[Sidenote: I'm watching "Blonde Ambition" while typing this. Atrocious movie. Jessica Simpson's character is a country bumpkin stuck in the big city. She doesn't know how to ride a bike. I'll let that sink in a for a moment. At least Rachael Leigh Cook is in it. She's awesome. Also, apparently, she did the voice of Tifa Lockhart in most of the Final Fantasy adaptations, post-VII. Good stuff.]
Anyway, it really helped dispel all the bad vibes I got from her on Christmas Eve with Jenni. Moving on. I had to give Rose a ride home the next night, she needed to go to Wal-Mart that night. We spent about fifteen minutes in the hair care aisle, she needed some conditioner without certain chemicals in it. Or something, I don't know. I keep my head shaved. Whatever. We had to go through sporting goods for a thermos or something. For whatever reason, I picked up a baseball bat. I started carrying that around for a while. It's a guy thing. Whatever.
So we took the corner towards electronics, and she's standing there right next to the Guitar Hero demo. Long story short, she's watching electronics during lunch, and the other girl, the one playing very badly in training mode, was on lunch. I felt kind of weird holding on to the bat, but I went with it. Rose kind of took off, went to finish her shopping. The girl playing finished the song, realized the game probably wasn't for her. Rebecca and I talked a little while the other girl (she needs a name if I'm going to bring her up very many more times in this story; 'other girl' and 'that girl' is starting to get a little repetitive). She said something about her brother who 'has like, every video game system ever' and apparently doesn't like girls that much because they talk to much and prevent him from playing his games. Good times. She thinks he might be gay. Or something. She didn't want to play, because her eyes don't focus fast enough. She said something about the doctor telling her she needs to exercise her eyes more, and she's annoyed, because the last thing she wants is another doctor telling her she needs to exercise more. Or something.
[How the F did they get Rachael Leigh Cook for this piece of crap? It's awesomely tragic. Oh, crap, Willie Nelson. He must really like Jessica Simpson, or something.]
So she - that other girl - finishes, and asks Rebecca if she wants to play, so she turns to me and asks me if I want to. I hesitantly accepted. I went with 'Hit Me With Your Best Shot', because I know the song really well. I did 98%-ish. It was great, because my hands were sweaty. I'm a big, big guy, and I like to think I do some physically demanding things - I play racquetball, I play DDR. I sweat a lot during those times, but my hands stay dry. They don't sweat at all. Ever.
But they were sweating the whole time I played the song. I guess that means I was really, really nervous. Which I was. Which means I actually like her.
Crazy.
Moving on.
So I finished the song, put down the guitar, said something to the effect of "That's not really fair, 'cause I play this all the time.", picked up the baseball bat I set down by the demo unit, and walked off. I had no idea what was going on. I found Rose, and we went about our shopping. She asked me where the latex gloves were, so I went and asked Rebecca. We talked a bit.
Oh, I was still holding the baseball bat. It wouldn't be right without it.
We talked a little bit; she told me a story about her boyfriend. I'm still debating the point of the story. It could go any number of ways - maybe she was just making small talk (it was a funny story, after all), or just sharing about her New Year's Eve / life stuff, or, quite possibly,
[Major plot hole. This is what I don't get. If they want Jessica Simpson's character to be that idiot's secretary so they can manipulate her, why are they constantly sabotaging her plans? Wouldn't they want to help her and have her do well, so she would gain his trust and thus be a more valuable asset in their plan? I guess that's what I get for trying to actually follow the plot of a movie that makes fun of Norwegians for no real reason. It's not so much making fun of them, as it is randomly having them do karaoke - 'Baby Got Back', no less - in the most horrendous accents I've ever heard.]
[Oh gosh. Here comes the montage where the small-town girl grows accustomed to her big-city job, but turns her back on her small-town roots. I'm already looking forward to the moment of truth where she decides, momentously, to re-embrace her values.]
or, quite possibly, as a way to remind me that she has a boyfriend. (Of course, best-case is that she was reminding herself, because she was afraid she was forgetting. Probably not, but it's fun to dream.)
Moving on.
We got the gloves, we went home.
So yeah, that was fun.
Now, about reminiscing and stuff.
Let's start with work.
I started the New Year working at Wal-Mart. Literally - as usual, I was working that night. Worked there until early April, when Javi called me and asked me if I wanted to come back to Sonic. Ashley Hopkins lent a lot of credence to that argument, and I walked out. That was fun. What was really, really fun about that was that Ambra had started working there by that point, she was also working that night. Lots of freight, understaffed, all the greatest hits we know and love from working at Wal-Mart.
I started at Sonic a week later. It was, well, interesting. Ashley ended up quitting, so did Javi. I ended up working around seventy hours a week. I didn't mind the hours - one week, I had about ninety hours, that was a nice paycheck. Overall, it was a good turning point - allowed me to build a decent reserve really fast (I moved back home around the same time, worked out well). The problem I had at Sonic? Well, it was two-fold. First, as it often the case with crappy service jobs, everyone there hated working it. Now, the thing about these jobs is that the co-workers often make it bearable. That wasn't the case - they had really, really bad attitudes. I can name a few off the top of my head, but it's really not worth it. The second issue was Bubba. He was cool at first, until I got to know him. Not hiring people, not taking an active hand in his store, underordering, argh. I got sick of it.
Luckily, Sergio called from Domino's and asked me if I wanted to come be an assistant for him, as he had just gotten the store. I thought about it, but I was afraid. I hate big decisions; I seem to always mess them up. Of course, I felt pretty good about that one. I put in my two weeks at Sonic, walked out a week later. I've been working at Domino's ever since. Of course, my work history now goes Sonic - Domino's - Wal-Mart - Sonic - Domino's. Good stuff. There was a two day stint at CRI, which isn't really even worth mentioning (well, except for that).
So, yeah. Been working 40-50 (more like 45, not so much 50 anymore) hours a week there, 5-C five times a week.
There's work.
Living Situation.
Not much to talk about here. I was living at Les Chateaux, but I moved home. It does make me feel kind of a loser and all, being twenty-five, working at Domino's, being completely single, morbidly obese, good times. Of course, I'm working on all of those things. I'm twenty-five and don't have a degree, but I am back in school. I'm funding that with Domino's, and I'm working on my weight. Good stuff. Oh, and I pay rent.
[Holy crap, this movie sucks.]
Social:
HAHAHAHAHAHA. Not much to say here. Thankfully, Lilie is no longer a part of my life in any way. Passed her on Thanksgiving, didn't answer when she called. I still think about her occasionally, during depression spirals,
[This scene is actually humorous.]
but that's not really specific to her - that's more about her being the last person I was that close to, and her being such a major part of my life for so long. Comparatively speaking, of course.
So yeah, single and probably going to stay that way for a while. No real prospects or anything. I mean, I kind of have a thing for Rebecca,
[Extreme Sports Bonanza? I miss Rachael Leigh Cook pretending to be part of the marina group.]
Moving on.
but I'm not going to delude myself into thinking that anything's going to happen there.
[Now the running to find his true love and prevent a misunderstanding from becoming a tragedy. Gyp and Buddy could have written a more imaginative, if more cheese-oriented, screenplay.]
So what's in store for this year? School. Work. Getting in shape. Taking control of my life, maybe growing up a little (not too much, don't worry).
So, resolutions? Not sure. I'm cutting dairy almost entirely out of my diet, but that's not a resolution so much as it is a 'I don't want to feel like crap, I'm lactose intolerant' kind of thing. I'm going to be back in school, but that's too much of a thing that's like, interwoven into your life to be a New Year's Resolution. The same goes for health things. I'll get back to you on that one.
Ashlee Simpson -- Boyfriend
Let's start with what happened recently. I worked New Year's Eve, which isn't a big deal. I usually do - last year, the year before that, the year before that, but the year before that, I think I was with Suzie in Galveston. I remember three New Year's ago, when I got off from Sonic, was driving home, Mom called me from All Niter, her and Jerry were there, we sat on the patio and had breakfast. Lilie drove by. Good times. So anyway.
I spent this New Year's making pizzas. Luckily, I wasn't taking an order or anything when the ball dropped (which is my way of saying "Midnight struck"). Just kind of standing there. I was very aware of when it was. Bill and Chris were my closing drivers, but they were both out on runs. They were pretty much running nonstop 'til the end of the night. I got a few calls around midnight - Danielle called, that was awesome. Hadn't really talked to her or anything in quite a while. Danielle and Jenni both called, that was fun. Had a few drunks order some pizza in person, that's always fun. I think part of my aversion to drinking is how very, very much I hate talking to drunk people. I hear it's not so bad when you're also drunk. Whatever.
I went to Wal-Mart after work, picked up some juice and stuff. Of course, Rebecca was my cashier. Good times. She was smiling a lot. I'm not naive enough to think she was smiling because of me, but it was definitely at, and I'll take my victories where I can get them.
[Sidenote: I'm watching "Blonde Ambition" while typing this. Atrocious movie. Jessica Simpson's character is a country bumpkin stuck in the big city. She doesn't know how to ride a bike. I'll let that sink in a for a moment. At least Rachael Leigh Cook is in it. She's awesome. Also, apparently, she did the voice of Tifa Lockhart in most of the Final Fantasy adaptations, post-VII. Good stuff.]
Anyway, it really helped dispel all the bad vibes I got from her on Christmas Eve with Jenni. Moving on. I had to give Rose a ride home the next night, she needed to go to Wal-Mart that night. We spent about fifteen minutes in the hair care aisle, she needed some conditioner without certain chemicals in it. Or something, I don't know. I keep my head shaved. Whatever. We had to go through sporting goods for a thermos or something. For whatever reason, I picked up a baseball bat. I started carrying that around for a while. It's a guy thing. Whatever.
So we took the corner towards electronics, and she's standing there right next to the Guitar Hero demo. Long story short, she's watching electronics during lunch, and the other girl, the one playing very badly in training mode, was on lunch. I felt kind of weird holding on to the bat, but I went with it. Rose kind of took off, went to finish her shopping. The girl playing finished the song, realized the game probably wasn't for her. Rebecca and I talked a little while the other girl (she needs a name if I'm going to bring her up very many more times in this story; 'other girl' and 'that girl' is starting to get a little repetitive). She said something about her brother who 'has like, every video game system ever' and apparently doesn't like girls that much because they talk to much and prevent him from playing his games. Good times. She thinks he might be gay. Or something. She didn't want to play, because her eyes don't focus fast enough. She said something about the doctor telling her she needs to exercise her eyes more, and she's annoyed, because the last thing she wants is another doctor telling her she needs to exercise more. Or something.
[How the F did they get Rachael Leigh Cook for this piece of crap? It's awesomely tragic. Oh, crap, Willie Nelson. He must really like Jessica Simpson, or something.]
So she - that other girl - finishes, and asks Rebecca if she wants to play, so she turns to me and asks me if I want to. I hesitantly accepted. I went with 'Hit Me With Your Best Shot', because I know the song really well. I did 98%-ish. It was great, because my hands were sweaty. I'm a big, big guy, and I like to think I do some physically demanding things - I play racquetball, I play DDR. I sweat a lot during those times, but my hands stay dry. They don't sweat at all. Ever.
But they were sweating the whole time I played the song. I guess that means I was really, really nervous. Which I was. Which means I actually like her.
Crazy.
Moving on.
So I finished the song, put down the guitar, said something to the effect of "That's not really fair, 'cause I play this all the time.", picked up the baseball bat I set down by the demo unit, and walked off. I had no idea what was going on. I found Rose, and we went about our shopping. She asked me where the latex gloves were, so I went and asked Rebecca. We talked a bit.
Oh, I was still holding the baseball bat. It wouldn't be right without it.
We talked a little bit; she told me a story about her boyfriend. I'm still debating the point of the story. It could go any number of ways - maybe she was just making small talk (it was a funny story, after all), or just sharing about her New Year's Eve / life stuff, or, quite possibly,
[Major plot hole. This is what I don't get. If they want Jessica Simpson's character to be that idiot's secretary so they can manipulate her, why are they constantly sabotaging her plans? Wouldn't they want to help her and have her do well, so she would gain his trust and thus be a more valuable asset in their plan? I guess that's what I get for trying to actually follow the plot of a movie that makes fun of Norwegians for no real reason. It's not so much making fun of them, as it is randomly having them do karaoke - 'Baby Got Back', no less - in the most horrendous accents I've ever heard.]
[Oh gosh. Here comes the montage where the small-town girl grows accustomed to her big-city job, but turns her back on her small-town roots. I'm already looking forward to the moment of truth where she decides, momentously, to re-embrace her values.]
or, quite possibly, as a way to remind me that she has a boyfriend. (Of course, best-case is that she was reminding herself, because she was afraid she was forgetting. Probably not, but it's fun to dream.)
Moving on.
We got the gloves, we went home.
So yeah, that was fun.
Now, about reminiscing and stuff.
Let's start with work.
I started the New Year working at Wal-Mart. Literally - as usual, I was working that night. Worked there until early April, when Javi called me and asked me if I wanted to come back to Sonic. Ashley Hopkins lent a lot of credence to that argument, and I walked out. That was fun. What was really, really fun about that was that Ambra had started working there by that point, she was also working that night. Lots of freight, understaffed, all the greatest hits we know and love from working at Wal-Mart.
I started at Sonic a week later. It was, well, interesting. Ashley ended up quitting, so did Javi. I ended up working around seventy hours a week. I didn't mind the hours - one week, I had about ninety hours, that was a nice paycheck. Overall, it was a good turning point - allowed me to build a decent reserve really fast (I moved back home around the same time, worked out well). The problem I had at Sonic? Well, it was two-fold. First, as it often the case with crappy service jobs, everyone there hated working it. Now, the thing about these jobs is that the co-workers often make it bearable. That wasn't the case - they had really, really bad attitudes. I can name a few off the top of my head, but it's really not worth it. The second issue was Bubba. He was cool at first, until I got to know him. Not hiring people, not taking an active hand in his store, underordering, argh. I got sick of it.
Luckily, Sergio called from Domino's and asked me if I wanted to come be an assistant for him, as he had just gotten the store. I thought about it, but I was afraid. I hate big decisions; I seem to always mess them up. Of course, I felt pretty good about that one. I put in my two weeks at Sonic, walked out a week later. I've been working at Domino's ever since. Of course, my work history now goes Sonic - Domino's - Wal-Mart - Sonic - Domino's. Good stuff. There was a two day stint at CRI, which isn't really even worth mentioning (well, except for that).
So, yeah. Been working 40-50 (more like 45, not so much 50 anymore) hours a week there, 5-C five times a week.
There's work.
Living Situation.
Not much to talk about here. I was living at Les Chateaux, but I moved home. It does make me feel kind of a loser and all, being twenty-five, working at Domino's, being completely single, morbidly obese, good times. Of course, I'm working on all of those things. I'm twenty-five and don't have a degree, but I am back in school. I'm funding that with Domino's, and I'm working on my weight. Good stuff. Oh, and I pay rent.
[Holy crap, this movie sucks.]
Social:
HAHAHAHAHAHA. Not much to say here. Thankfully, Lilie is no longer a part of my life in any way. Passed her on Thanksgiving, didn't answer when she called. I still think about her occasionally, during depression spirals,
[This scene is actually humorous.]
but that's not really specific to her - that's more about her being the last person I was that close to, and her being such a major part of my life for so long. Comparatively speaking, of course.
So yeah, single and probably going to stay that way for a while. No real prospects or anything. I mean, I kind of have a thing for Rebecca,
[Extreme Sports Bonanza? I miss Rachael Leigh Cook pretending to be part of the marina group.]
Moving on.
but I'm not going to delude myself into thinking that anything's going to happen there.
[Now the running to find his true love and prevent a misunderstanding from becoming a tragedy. Gyp and Buddy could have written a more imaginative, if more cheese-oriented, screenplay.]
So what's in store for this year? School. Work. Getting in shape. Taking control of my life, maybe growing up a little (not too much, don't worry).
So, resolutions? Not sure. I'm cutting dairy almost entirely out of my diet, but that's not a resolution so much as it is a 'I don't want to feel like crap, I'm lactose intolerant' kind of thing. I'm going to be back in school, but that's too much of a thing that's like, interwoven into your life to be a New Year's Resolution. The same goes for health things. I'll get back to you on that one.
Ashlee Simpson -- Boyfriend
