Friday the 13th

How often am I going to be able to sync that title with the day it airs? I'm sure there are people out there who actually know this, or who will feel the sudden urge to look it up--it was rhetorical.

Lemme see, things I may not have touched upon in the last postings. . .

Lash's baseball season is over. Unfortunately, Lash was the very last out of the very last inning of the very last game and some of his teammates used that to try and make him feel as if it was his fault they lost. . .because he's so powerful that team sports are entirely under his control one way or the other. Anyway, I'm glad baseball is over. With one car and conflicting work schedules, transportation was a logistical nightmare.

Speaking of cars, we purchased a new one at the auction while Adam was up visiting. It stopped starting the next day and I brought it in to the shop this morning. Turns out it wasn't starting for purely aesthetic and retarded reasons on my part that we won't get in to, but bringing it in was good as it needed a new front axle and had a bad oil problem, so that was taken care of. Needs a tune up still, coolant hoses replaced and such, but that can wait 'til I can get help from friends rather than paying another $400+ I don't have to mechanics.

Adam visited last weekend. We had a very pleasant time hosting him. A lot of geeky comic book conversation happened, as did the same "I must know NOW" conversation I had with ADJ earlier this year. Played cards, did movies, etc. I am repeating myself some here, I know.

Some of my sunburning from that weekend is still really bad, and that sucks. Have been worrying about friends in nearby wildfire ridden Paradise. Not fun. Have been checking out 4th Edition--don't think it's going to be for us. I said this about 3rd too. . .stupid hobbies. This week the defendants in our lawsuit decided to bog us down in paperwork--that will not stop us. But it blows anyway.

My darling friend Cammie gets married tomorrow. Congratulations, sweetie.

Bored yet?

Clerks

So Juno comes out on dvd tomorrow. That's a good thing. Its soundtrack is already on heavy rotation here on my laptop.

Work pretty much sucks, more so even than usual. I have new categories of annoying customers to share: The Smarmy Bastard and (subcategory to The Unkempt) The Unattractively Hairy. Your typical Smarmy Bastard has the intonation of the asswipe preppy country club jerk from 80s era teen coming-of-age movies and does things like give you exactly $6 on a $6 order and tell you to keep the change. I've had a lot of those this week. As for the Unattractively Hairy, I have but one example, but it's a doozy (one that goes beyond arm-hair sweaters poking out of t-shirts). Imagine a pretty, shapely, twenty something girl. Nice halter top, well-fit hip hugging jeans and a thatch of untrimmed hedge 1" x 5" (or so) stretching out past the expanse of her pants' waistline. Shudder.

I'm getting completely screwed over by the shift scheduler the past two weeks as well. Last week I was scheduled with night shifts that fell such that I didn't get to even see Lash or Aeia from Wednesday through Friday night. This week I have night shifts five nights in a row, and won't be able to see Lash or Aeia from Tuesday more than a half hour or so all the way through Saturday morning. It's absolute bullshit. And the closing shifts leave me too tired in the morning to get up, be on my best and find something new.

I want to strangle pretty much the majority of Burgerland this week, I'm just very very frustrated.

Grew tired enough of the Mustang never working that we finally got rid of it this weekend. Got a whole 85 bucks for it at the junkyard. Which is actually probably more than the piece of crap was worth. But this leaves us in another screwed for transportation situation while I wait for the IRS to decide how much of our return I get this year and how much gets retained for student loan back payments. Ugh.

I got Guitar Hero 3 a couple weeks back. I like it, but prefer #2, which has, in my opinion, a superior song list. I really want to get my hands on Rock Band. Crossing fingers that it's what Denise is planning for me in June.

What else? I've been writing some poetry. Good times. I'm trying to get some other writing ideas worked out. My friend John wans me to help him with a screenplay, but between full time work, tending the kids when Denise is working, and my current writing output in progress alone and in collaboration with Cammie I just can't give him the time a full length screenplay would need. I feel bad telling him no though, so if he does get a first draft out, I'll probably offer to go through it and polish it some.

Gross. I have calluses on my feet from work.

Two Weeks

Not the thrillingest of movies, by the way. And since "thrillingest" isn't a word, apparently, I claim its invention. Huzzah for me, la la la.

pre-Friday there hasn't been a lot of excitement or difference, that I could necessarily share, so I avoided blogland. Plenty to whine/bitch/moan about work, though (being mis-trained on something and thus spilling half a vat of hot oil on the floor, emptying a toxic homeless shopping cart by hand, kicking out a sleeping homeless guy, the sudden departure of an important coworker, etc.). But that can all be summed up as: work sucks and I am so quickly burning out it's driving me crazy and I have trouble not bringing the stress home with me.

So, Friday, my friend Brian calls: "I notice you don't blog when you're kind of pissed off, and you haven't blogged in weeks. . ."

This line of text will have a link here when I upload new pictures to facebook soon and you can see them there. This line will not be edited for text when these photos are finally uploaded.

Saturday was opening day for Lash and baseball. His team is the Dodgers, which is especially amusing as that is the team that I favoured growing up--because my family were all Giants fans and I would have none of that. He's been getting some practice on the side thanks to my friend John and myself, so I hope to keep seeing him improve more and more beyond just his practices.

Much time was spent opening day helping others travel (and as they've similarly helped us more times than I've ever cared to count, it was never a problem) and sitting around waiting. John bought me an overpriced hotdog because I forgot to bring cash. Opening Day consisted of no real games, save for an exhibition where each inning consisted of each team going up to bat its entire roster twice, and only lasted one inning. Lash struck out, and then got a sacrifice hit and while in outfield, stopped a ball.

Saturday evening my darling friend Cammie came up from the Bay Area for a visit while she did some other stuff and we got to hang out that evening and a great portion of Sunday. Got a drink at the U-Bar, hung out at the parks, discussed my word, some breakfast at Sin of Cortez, more hanging out, some photos, some shopping, etc. It made my weekend.

Groundhog Day

Groundhog day has come and gone and I neglected to find out if the little prognosticator decreed we would have a longer winter. I do know it's been truly effing cold and dreary and I am ready for some sunshine already. My favourite lesbian at work was talking about how she hated the movie Groundhog Day and I chimed in that it was to that movie that Denise and I began our relationship (a topic I don't actually think of much, as our getting together was also attached to a bad memory of losing a friend. . .and I haven't seen the movie since). She then made me do a spit-take by asking if we "were what, chasing the same guy?"

Work has been stressful, what with employees constantly calling in sick, various inspections past and pending, and, of course, the customers. Always the customers. I think some of our customers are the craziest lot of mouth breathers in the world, but some of them are fairly nice too, so I'll be ceasing the bitching, for the moment anyway.

If you're waiting with baited breath for news on my cancer check-up: everything was still clear, so I have another yearlong furlough until I have to go in for testing again. Denise was even nice enough to remember to tell me the good news a whole two days after they called and told her for me.

Aeia turned eight on Monday. Eight. Wow. It's hard sometimes to remember she was the baby that the doctors told us to expect to lose. And now she's eight. Fo' shizzle.

I watched Juno last night. I'm still digesting it. I think it bothered me that Jason Bateman and Michael Cera were in a movie together so soon and not playing father and son. I liked the movie, though, just not sure yet how much. I'm still thinking about it (to steal lines from Cammie stealing lines from Lash).

Ugh, there is dried grease particles in my hair. Fucking gross.

Word to your mothers.