Cowboys From Hell

An said that Ayana had a fight with her dog over a bone. They were in the back yard and her dog was eating a bone and Ayana went up and grabbed it from him and ran away. Her dog chased her and grabbed it back and ran, so Ayana started crying and then went back and took it...and on and on.

Didn't end up riding my bike today but I had Pantera for the ride. Gonna have to wait until Sunday.

Joe the Plumber?

Sitting in the library at school and finished a second draft of an essay I’ve been working on. I still have two parts left on my reflection paper due next week and then work on my Origins of Humanity assignment and readings.

I was getting coffee ready this morning and I heard the garbage truck outside. They usually come in the afternoon and even when the declaration was made in the summer time to pick up trash earlier due to a couple of workers dehydrating, they still didn’t come until 2 PM. So I usually take it out in the morning on my way to school.

But I looked outside and they were there and by the time I put on my shirt, they moved past. On my way to the bus stop, though, I noticed most of the trash was still there, so I went back and brought it out just in case. I’m not sure what is going on.

Joe the Plumber running for Congress? Are you kidding me? He says the people need representation and not just an “elite ruling class.” He’s running as a Republican, right? He’s against an “elite ruling class” and saying the people need representation and he’s running as a Republican. It just goes to show that he’s still a misinformed idiot. He’s running against a lady who’s running against Kucinich. Good luck, moron.

It’s funny how the current breed of Republicans always try to say they know what’s best for small businesses and portray themselves to be looking out for their best interest when they couldn’t give a crap. All their efforts really help only the corporations and if small business means franchises, then yeah, those assholes too. Any non-franchise business owners who are not selfish about their money and not helping out others and are actually informed don’t usually vote Republican. They are the ones who are affected by the legislations put through to help out the corporations.

I wouldn’t be surprised if one of the goals of this economic crisis was to put more mom-and-pops out of business and let the corporations, franchises, and corporate-pretending-to-be-mom-and-pops populate the cities and continue to have yet another generation of Americans grow up in an Anytown, USA.

Day Off #2

I woke up to Mei-Mei with Bear and knew that once Ayana woke up and saw this, she'd be right there to swoop up Bear away fron Mei-Mei and hug him and she did not disappoint. I woke up this morning with a full day ahead of me, as is most days I take off of school and work it ends up being non-stop.

This morning consisted of me riding to Joe's and using his truck today. The main objective was picking up wood for customizing our office which has one desk now and we need three bookshelves, a desk and some shelves on my desk for storage. So on the way to the hardware store, I had some errands.

After waiting five full minutes for this lady to pull out of the only parking stall that was going to be available at Creighton Dental School (I almost left putting it off until Thursday), she took another three minutes pulling out. Even after she pulled out she stopped to do more shit on her phone. It took only three minutes to do my business there which was to authorize them to send my records to our family dentist in Hawaii, since he will work out a payment plan to help with my not having insurance.

Next, I stopped home to get the card from Jeanne, pick up shirts, ID's, wood inventory, and then our electrician that looks like David Cross portraying an electrician came.

First stop was the DMV to renew my license sans CDL, because I don't have an updated medical deal, nor the money. That was quick as there was hardly anyone there Tuesday morning at 10 am, except this black dude talking on his phone and kicking my chair.

I then drove around the corner to the tailor to drop a couple of shirts to be fitted as all my shirts are now too big. Then swooped around to pay my phone bill, pick up lunch from Alvarado's (which has great cheese), QT to get okay coffee and some protein, then to Home Depot to pick out wood and get a dude to cut it. I drew out how to cut it to make it easier, but still had to walk him through some. I hate knowing the process from last time, because I hate seeming as if I'm those guys who saw a show or something and now am an expert and will guide them through their job.



I came home and cleaned the garage for space for the wood and working, but also, it's been a mess since the garage sale and we're getting paid to store Joe's and Matt's cars for the winter.

I got the wood today with the intention of building the shelves on Saturday, but ended up not being able to study so started today. I first went to Lowe's for the screws and dropped off Joe's truck and rode back into 20 mph winds...while listening to Megadeth. After I put the shelves together and sanded them and sawed off the top 4"'s of the 2x4's, we ate dinner and Jeanne went to class.

Ayana and I played around and watched Animal Kingdom which she liked because they showed the giraffe and lions, which they were showing how the pride strategically surrounded and attacked the giraffe to kill it and it took an hour of trying, with the giraffe kicking the shit out of them, before they got him down. So that was it for that and got to reading and hanging with the cats.






At one point Ayana wanted me to take her shirt off so I did and next thing she was hanging with both hands on the bathroom doorknob. She wanted to take a bath. She we got that going and she kept looking at me at one point and I asked if she's all right, to which she looked rather sad and said no. She usually just says yes, no matter what, but apparently she knows what it means and wasn't feeling well. Then I saw two turds appear and she freaked out. So I pulled her out and wiped her and drained the tub, put her toys with the dishes, got the poop out, rinsed the tub, filled the tub up with bleach water, and Jeanne came home, so I started working on the assembly process of the shelves.






It's basically the same plan as the others, but I'm not a carpenter with the time or the tools necessary. Just the ability to get what we need. So Saturday will be a small three shelf in the corner for the modem, router, scanner, printer, etc, and then the desk which will be right in front of the window with two shelves above. Then we have space for two more shelves then a two-tiered shelf above my desk.





Lots of work with little time and money but there's a bunch we're trying to get through before we leave. Fortunately and unfortunately the weather's been nice so work's been busy, but the shop always could use the money and I could use the tips, and hopefully we'll get caught up before the trip...which I'm getting my stuff together...like my books.



Currently reading Gender Jihad, finished re-reading the Stranger to prepare me for reading l'entranger, Dishwaser was great, and for some reason Crime and Punishment is what I'm looking forward to as my main read in Hawaii.

No Dice

I had a discussion with Matt at work today about =w= and how much I dislike them and he brought up the fact that Maladroit was an underrated album which, to be fair I'd never listened to. I've had an advance copy of the album, but had tired out of them and was quite annoyed of Rivers by then.

So we listened to it. I mentioned how lame of a drummer I thought Pat Wilson to be and we went back and forth on that for a while and came to the agreement that he's not the best drummer, but he was the best drummer for =w=. For instance, if Dave Lombardo of Slayer were drumming for =w= there'd be endless drum rolls and double-bass for simple songs like "Undone" or Rivers would have trouble tuning up with Dave doing his destroy-the-earth-and-deal-with-it-later style of drumming...still, Lars sucks. As far as a metal drummer goes, he sucks. He's so basic. I could drum Metallica songs when I first started drumming. The most intense drums he plays is on "The Shortest Straw" and he didn't even come up with it.

Anyway, on the way home in the stretch of Leavenworth that I hate and want to roll some heads with dumb ass drivers, almost to the top I got a casual, "ride of the sidewalk" as a car drove by. I loooked up to make eye-contact and the car pulled in front and there were two douche-bag kids, the passenger turned back to look at me and I put my hand out to say, "Bring it" and if there's anything to give you adrenaline enough to plow up a hill it's that and I almost got them at the light. I kept going over one-liners in my head to say like, "Aside from being illegal to ride on the sidewalks, which other ten reasons would you like me to explain to you?"

The one I think I'm going to use for situations where someone yells or says something to me and I catch them at the light is, "If you've got a problem with me, fucking hit me and we'll get the cops in on this and let them figure out what a dumbshit you are! I'm not afraid of you, you fucking dickfuck, so keep popping your mouth off and we'll see how much more late I can make you from getting home to sit your fat ass down for some TV."

I'm taking the take-no-prisoners approach to these assholes. Fuck them. I'll let them know that our city's trying really hard to register our city as a bike-friendly city, so they can bitch all they want and complain about bicyclists following the laws, but they're the ones that are going to be losing lanes and getting all their shit flown right back in their fat and/or dumb faces.

Do Nothing Day

I rode into the wind today to Dragon Arts for my workout, but no one was there. TJ was there, but no one else. TJ told me he could take me to school, and although I wanted to ride I said okay and put my bike in his car and went to his house, so I didn't get a bike ride or a work out in.

While at his house I finished up my test and printed it to turn in and started my outline for next week's paper and presentation. One thing more about not riding to school is that I usually ride to Ted & Wally's, read the paper while drinking the coffee I brought while the pot of coffee is brewing, make my peanut butter-honey sandwich (pb&h for you assholes out there that need to save time and trying to be hip), refill my coffee mug for later and put in bag (since this is sealed and keeps for six hours), fill a 20 oz styrofoam cup with coffee and a shot of espresso, and head to the bus stop. Since my route was deterred, I had no lunch or coffee and didn't want to get stuck with Hazelnut coffee or the other crappy house blend my school's lame cafeteria serves. QT would've done great, but McDonald's was the only option and luckily there was a paper machine. So on top of not getting a bike ride or workout in, I have mediocre coffee and shitty lunch to go with it.

I did get my outline and notes done rather quickly so I got to the library and read the paper and then just went online for a while. After class I got a ride back from TJ to Hyvee where I got the ol' bait-and-switch on tortilla chips and leg-quarters and a little ride up the hill back home, made dinner and hummus but mostly ate the hummus w/ chips and hung out with Ayana and got a small workout in here.

An also showed me how to turn the flash off on my camera since I hadn't tried nor read the manual and the flash kept ruining my shots. I've never used a flash with my manual camera, so I'm not used to it ruining my shots. I also figured out that I can change the ISO settings, so that's awesome. If I can get this to work like a manual, it'll do the job nicely for me as I miss being able to take pictures, but also don't want to spend money on a manual...camera not the information booklet.

Franchise Madness

First of all I didn't realize that they made a Land Before Time after the sixth one, but 11? Maybe more, I haven't checked. The eleventh one is called like "Invasion of the Tinysauruses" or something. And, yes, they are tiny dinosaurs and velociraptors make an appearance. This movie got the green light somehow.

It's been cold and windy here and while I like the cold, I don't like the wind. I also realized that I need to get better winter gear for travelling. It's been years since I've rode during the winter and the last time I just wore my coat and gloves, but that's when I lived in Midtown. I'm thinking I may need to invest in some actual bike gear...at least gloves and a jacket.

Andy worked at the shop on Sunday. He's been looking for a job and has been picking up shifts at the Antiquarium and we don't hire for the winter season, but I figured that he could at least pick up shifts when no one is available. Just so happens that situation arose Sunday and then Sunday night. Too bad it was a busy, messed up shift, so I wasn't able to train him and he just got thrown into it. It's good, though, since I don't hang out much, if he works there I'll at least be able to hang with him there.

Probably gonna skip class today so I can get some work done on my paper and finish up my test. I also need to design the shelves for the office. That's going to be a big job, but in small doses. I hope that this weekend is cold. I need the break at work.

May-may Returns

This morning I fed the cats and got my food together and Jeanne was getting ready and May-May showed back up. She was all wet from the rain, but back nonetheless. The cats were relaxed about her showing up which is good and she seemed happy to be back as well. Ayana got a big smile on her face when she saw her.

Then Ayana did the thing she always does which is run around all happy and as soon as she runs into the kitchen and sees the babysitter she stops dead in her tracks, turns and runs back to me crying. I picked her up and An was asking her to come and Ayana screams, "NO!" and turns while An asks, "You want to go on a walk?"

Ayana immediately stops crying, smiles, turns (arms outstretched towards An) and says, "YES!"

So I rode to the school but LaoShi was not in today and is with this kids and Corey got his house so he's not sleeping at the school anymore, so I rode back home and studying from the office and driving to school.

May-may

So our new cat we adopted so it wasn't put to sleep ran away during the night. We thought she'd be fine because she's nervy, but no dice. She hadn't mingled with the other cats yet, but Sunshine approached her through the gate and was non-confrontational only curious. So I'm not sure if she just jumped over the baby gate and found her way outside or what. At least she's chipped and has her shots.

Tonight Ayana was quiet and I went and she was looking into the room asking for May-may.

Earlier, she was feeding and had her finger-puppet and she held it up to Jeanne's breast to be fed and made sucking noises.

We got a new/used deep freezer that's twice the size of what already had that's always filled...this is awesome. Now I have more room for bulk meats and making stock and such.

We also are going to store Joe's car and maybe Matt Jones' one as well, for the winter. If so, that's an extra $120/mo, and we're acquiring a snow blower...

So we have some good things working out for the better for once and some stuff to get done before Hawaii. Need to set up classes for next semester, then after this quarter, send this quarter's transcript over to UNO. Get my new license and start packing. Good books to read and a bunch of essays I've been editing for the zine. I'm doing all that thie month and next month getting the artwork and layout together. Then it's off to the printer and send it on its way.

I'm not sure of what to make of this weather, but I got my workout and normal bike ride in and am currently getting ready to drive to the Latin Museum for our class today.

I originally intended on riding but I'm not sure about whether it'll rain or not.

Ayana can't fully talk yet, but it's funny because recently she's been outcrying sorts of injustices to her in her speak. Like last night she was hitting Sunshine and grabbing his tail and squeezing and not letting go. So I put her on time out and she ran to the room and proceeded to tell Jeanne about what had happened. Same way I came into the room after my shower and she's crying and telling me that May-may won't play with her. It's cute and endearing.

Gotsta finish Boyz in the Hood tonight.

Of Courese I'm Gonna Say Something

Just as a follow up to several posts about the Sunday deal. Not to sound greedy, but the tips made it all worth it today but when you go five hours straight without getting a break and not even a moment to breathe because you cannot comprehend the amount of idiocy you're dealing with, you need some sort of sanity...or reassurance.

On top of getting several groups of people coming in intervals that don't allow you top do anything at all, the group that had about five minutes to figure things out that ended up being the start of the line to the door for the next five hours had to be the pacesetters for the morons. First off they all had five samples a piece. Now, even on a slow day, that would be ridiculous and just rude and annoying. Who needs to be told that samples should be what you're actually interested in getting but not quite sure or just something that grabs your attention or something...now especially with a line to the door, you don't ask for that many.

They also, of course (and this is 90% of the people on Sundays, all indecisive fuck-heads), need to be asked a dish or a cone and they always go for the cone no matter my attempts to steer them towards a dish because what happens next. So after a few moments of deciding which of those two they always go for a cone. The ones that go for a dish always switch as soon as you grab a dish and are about to place a scoop in. Then you ask each one of them (because they're so fucking clueless as to pay attention and make things work out easily) what of three types of cones they want. Try going through this for five hours straight. I know it's the job, but it excels on Sunday and people get mad at you.

We also do things in groups to make things more organized, accurate, and so a person that just wants one thing doesn't have to wait 10 minutes as people don't mind lines if it's moving. And people don't listen either. You say, "Hi, are you being helped?" And without responding to your question they go into their order or say something like no they're not and you then get into an unnecessary conversation of how anyone paying together is a group and if one person is already helping you then they'll finish the group up. We say it politely and they looked and act all pissed off. We've been doing this for years and whenever we end up having more than one person help a group, more often than not, the group is fucking dumb and one person orders the same thing from two employees because they cannot understand that when you're asked if you've been helped yet it doesn't mean what did you order. And then you start tallying things and people mix up what they ordered, things get rung up wrong or not at all or someone who said they were with the group isn't...it's our job; shut the fuck up and pay attention.

After an hour or so, I had to just stand aside for two minutes to breathe and relax so I didn't bash heads on the counter. I talked to Matt and pointed out that even if we had five people working today, it wouldn't have moved the line any more faster. He broke into his experience with the one lady he had to help in between freezing. Several attempts at explaining that the only flavors we have are the ones on the board,dish or cup fiasco, wants a cone - "the smallest one,"

"Which type of cone would you like?"

Blank stare.

"Which type of cone would you like?"

Blank stare.

"Which type of cone would you like?"

"The smallest one."

"They scoops are the same sizes, so you have to decide which cone you'd like. The sugar and cake cones are the regular ones and then we have the waffle cones."

This goes on for several more exchanges. She gets the waffle cone. Matt hands it to her and she says, "Is this the smallest one?"

Game Day part 2

Find 10 things wrong or missing is this pic.

Another early day and another slow, somewhat disappointing day of sales. Overall we made a small bit o'money, but the weather was bad so the turnout was bad as well. Had we done this last week, I think we could've sold most if not all and especially the furniture. Oh well. I put some of the videos online, though.



This is Ayana doing her Ultimate Warrior rocking-the-ropes deal.

Mother-in-law brought over steaks and I had grilled and started smoking the teriyaki chicken but it wasn't ready when we had people there and most didn't think I was really wanting to sell food...so now we have food.

I hope tomorrow's slow. I like the tips we've been getting which make it worth it and surprising, really, since we deal with mostly the church crowd and I may have blogged this, but they are the most confused, annoying bunch of people that I just don't want to have to deal with. I get a bike ride in at least. I've been getting about 15 miles a day in and 20 when I go to school first to work out. And we've got spaghetti-pesto for tomorrow's lunch. I've come to realize that Billy Frog's isn't that great a burger. Not that I expected much but for some reason I used to think they were good.

Garage Sale? Or New Bigger Living Room Set Up?

So day one of the garage sale and after two weeks of incredible sunny weather we're greeted with overcast and threats of rain and a high wind advisory. I'm glad I didn't ride to work, because the ride home would've been directly into the wind the entire way home. We woke up at six this morning after going to bed at one after having an entire straight day of doing stuff. I hope this is the last time we'll need to do a garage sale. I like that we have stuff to sell, as we need the money, and we've gotten donations as well, but we don't like buying stuff we don't need. There's a necessity to what we buy and we we're not consumers any more than we need to be. I thought about selling our flat screen TV (which was given to us) because we don't ever watch it. We've got free cable hooked up to it and we never watch it. All our money is spent on Ayana and her necessities, food, gas, bike, records, and books...which records and books may be the only luxuries we spend money on.

I'm going to be grilling stuff tomorrow to unofficially sell food at the garage sale in an attempt to make more money. We'll see how that goes.

I acquired two New York Times today for giving Ryan some hummus, although I'm not sure that I'll have time to read them all.

Lot of people in the Old Market today even with the weather, but then again tomorrow's game day so all these Ohio State people are there. The shelf above the sink at work gave way and all these gallons of green river syrup came crashing down while Donna washed her hands.

I heard Andy Berkeley had moved back and him and Chris Fischer moved in with each other at 34th and Jackson (which is weird since everyone now lives near the Old Market, but at least it's on my way home. I ran into Chris while riding past his work while he was getting off the other day. I got a call from Andy asking about work. We're cutting hours back so we'll see. It'd be nice to work with Andy.

Oh, just a note on a previous post about riding to work the other day starting with "Holy Wars" and arriving there to "Hangar 18." As much as I'd like to sound as if I'd ridden my bike six miles through two songs, I had the album on shuffle.

Jack-Ass.

I wish I didn’t have to take this Intro to Computer Programming class. It’s been a long time since the last programming class which is why, but it feels like I’m slacking and not accomplishing anything since I’ve not learned anything new. I’d feel better if I retook my Trigonometry class. I need to brush up on it anyway and I didn’t do the last chapter, so I need to do that…hopefully I can sell my book…and the automatic pressure cooker.

This wind has got to go. Every other day it seems I’m riding into non-stop 20 mph winds with gale-force gusts every so often. They’re strong enough to swerve me into traffic and annoying enough that if I’m reading a paper it only gusts when I’m trying to turn the page.

I always seem to be in situations where I’m around annoying people that need to be told that what they’re doing really needs to be tamed down or not do things. It’s annoying enough to be around people who always need to talk on cell phones, but to be on a bus with someone who is talking way too loud (where everyone on the bus is turning to look at said person) and using vast amounts of profanity (to a point where the bus driver finally tells her to turn it down). I don’t understand how people do not know how to gauge themselves. Like how people need to be told in lines when you’re trying to serve them to put their cell phones away and they look at you and respond in a way to say that you’re the one being rude. How dare you tell them to get off their phone. Then they go online and post things about how they were treated rather rudely at some establishment.

Seinfeld is one of the most popular TV show of all time. One of the most famous episode is the “Soup Nazi” one. It is a rather funny episode, but what most of the viewing audience fails to see is the importance of what he’s trying to establish which is an efficient line. It’s the same reason that food courts and vendors at festivals and such limit their choices and make items exact dollar amounts. It’s because people don’t find the need to figure things out while waiting in a line, nor do they make the effort to take money out or at least take their wallets out…or how lines at the security checkpoints at the airports seem to take forever because people act as if they’ve never been through a metal detector and x-ray thing before. There’s signs everywhere and places like the airport in Las Vegas have videos showing how to make their pass through it more efficient. Yet people wait until they’re there before they empty their pockets, take their belts off, take their laptops out, take their ID’s and tickets out…my pockets are empty I my belt is in my bag, even when I’m wearing pants that drastically need them. All I carry with me is my ID and ticket. It takes me five seconds to do the whole process of going through the detectors. And once I’m through it, I grab my stuff quickly and pull to the side to put my belt on, shoes on, laptop back in the bag, because I know people are coming through and I would cause a back up.

Which brings us to left turns. How long is it before people realize that left turns with no turn lane or signal, especially on a busy street, and especially during rush hour is stupid? I figured this out a long time ago and I avoid them as much as possible. I’m more than willing to turn right and use lights and maybe drive around a block to make traffic flow a little easier. People must love back ups.
I really don’t feel like being at school today. I don’t know what it is, but I’m just not feeling it. I can’t wait until this quarter is over and I can get registered for next semester, get financial aid taken care of, and start getting ready for our trip.

On another note, I picked up my camera yesterday and it’s pretty nice. It’s a lot smaller than I thought it’d be, but that’s good. I used it a little on my walk with Ayana yesterday. She’s pretty up on walks. She grabs her shoes and bring them to you and says, “Wah. Wah.” And if you’re watching TV she’ll get the remotes and turn them off and grab your hand and tug. She also does this thing where she’ll grab your hand and direct you to do stuff. Like while at the checkout line last week, she wanted a balloon. So she kept grabbing my hand off he wagon and pushing it up towards the balloon while saying, “peas. Peas.” She didn’t make a scene so I got it for her.

Wait For It...

This nice weather needs to stop. I was walking up the Keystone trail and thinking how nice it would be if the creek was clean. It'd be so nice to be able to just go down the hill and take a swim. The transients weren't there. Then I was thinking about how I'd have to make a trail or something to get down but hope there weren't snakes along the way. As I walked under the Cass street bridge, something passed under and not looking I figured it was a black plastic bag. I looked down and it was a snake wriggling under me. I jumped up and yelped! really loudly. That's what I get for being a hippie and thinking about nature.

All that aside, we finally figured a financial situation that would work out so we actually can live paycheck to paycheck with a little money left over for the surprise expenses that always comes up or we could put it away if we need to. The stress level and tension faded away and it was a lot better last night. Even today I as worked out, rode to the Old Market, and headed to school I feel better.

I also got a confirmation from Best Buy that my camera is in and I can pick it up today. Too bad I've got school. Luckily, I threw a bunch of stuff in the crock pot, so dinner'll be ready.

I was running an hour early today, but that's good. The alarm went off at seven and I usually lay around for an hour before pulling myself out of bed, but Ayana was already up and all. So I got up and got ready and lounged a bit with her for breakfast. Then left to get my workout in. I got to the school and no cars there. I tried the door and it was locked. I looked at the time and it was 8:46...hour early. No problem, it's nice out so I bought a paper and took out my coffee and just hung out by the door.

Corey opened the door about a half hour later, so I got my quick workout (bench presses, chest presses, lat pulls, pull-ups) and rode downtown listening to Rust In Peace with the demos. "Holy Wars" sent me off and descendent into the Old Market to "Hangar 18."

So now I'm at the library and gotsta get some reading done. I'm about finished with my two books and have these to look forward to. I've already started read Palestine: Peace not Aparthied but have to finish it. I should read that one during the day so I can retain more.

I'm also compiling my list of stuff for the trip...It's always the best part for me to figure out what I'm going to read which will include the French stuff which I now have "Le Petit Prince from Andrew from work.

I guess the last investment for the bikes is going to be lights. I’ve avoided these forever, but it’s illegal now to ride at night without them. I guess I’ll do it. Plus I got the Trek ready for Jeanne and attached the baby trailer thing to it and there’s no flag (although there’s supposed to) and last night I took Ayana for a short ride to test it out…so did Jeanne. It was still nice out but was getting dark.
I’m pretty sure that’ll be the last investment.
I got to Olympia to pick up the bike and the dude went to go wipe down the rims. While he did that Ayana pointed to the helmet on the counter that looked like mine and said something which sounded like helmet. She then wanted down, so I did and she walked directly to this Toy Story bike which was all dirty, apparently something they’re fixing up. She kept touching it and said, “Oh,” and then ran to the other room to the corner with the helmets and grabbed the one like she bought the last time. Apparently she remembered where we were. She picked up the helmet and tried to turn the lights on. Then she ran back and kept touching the bike. I guess me getting a helmet was good since she recognizes the pairing of it with the bike.

I hate when I print stuff to this printer in the library. People always go to check for their stuff and take all the printed papers out and ruffle through them to get theirs and just haphazardly place the rest on top of the printer. So you then have to sort through them and figure it out; which sucks if you have them printed to both sides, because now you have to go through them and put them in order. I always keep them all in order, find mine, and then I put them all back nicely...but that's just me.

This annoying kid I used to work with at Cali Taco got on my bus today and came and talked to me. He ended up going to jail for the drug charges he had from a couple of years ago and is now in a halfway house. He seemed normal now. That's good. He was super annoying at the job and hard to talk to and train because he was always high on oxys and wouldn't admit to it, though he could never stay focused and always cut you off because he knew everything...and wanted to change the place to a Michelin star establishment.

His girlfriend's pregnant now and he's moving back to Miami. Read that Anthony Bourdain chapter in Medium Rare about the rich eat differently than you and I and that's his area and doucebag culture. Everything's material possessions and money. Doesn't matter what, as long as it costs more than normal people pay. The money he spends in a day on useless stuff I could last half a year on...at least. He had three cars (although they only used one) and he kept buying flat screen TV's and laptops so he could have one in every room...only drank Dom Perignon ("Fuck Cristal," he says) and White Russians with Belvedere vodka. Not because he can taste the difference with premium vodka, but because it's more expensive.

Whatever...that's all behind me and I wish him well and it was good to talk to him for a bit while he's clean and able to hold a dialogue.

Gotta study some computer stuff for a while.

At school. I dropped off the Trek bike at Olympia on Saturday and it's ready today. It didn't seem as bad as I thought it would be, just cleaned and tuned and the tires were a little out of true so hopefully it's not expensive. It's the last of the main expenses for the remainder of the year, but we still have a bunch to catch up financially.

I finally bought a camera. It's still on its way, but at least $30 cheaper than I wanted to pay so it's cool. It's been a while since I've wanted to get a camera since my manual one got stolen eight years ago. It took a lot of contemplation and evaluation and finally made a decision to get one...especially since we're going on vacation this year. I still sort of wish I had one while trucking...we have absolutely no pictures of this era.

We adopted a cat that was to be put to sleep due to over-crowding at the Humane Society. She's pretty cool and tolerates Ayana mostly, except when she gets overly excited or needs to sleep and she gets rough. Then the cat swipes at her and hisses. As long as Ayana doesn't get hurt, I think it's good that May-may (I think that's her name) wards her off so Ayana learns to be careful towards animals. Our current cats are way too easy on her so she doesn't understand.