Army Post Road

***Paragraph removed out of deference to my sister.**
      Over the weekend I was trading e-mails with a friend from the university.  And talking to her and a few e-mails a couple weeks past were reminders of two girls I probably could've had pretty intimate relationships with if I hadn't been chicken shit.  One is a few years in the past, but every time we see each other back from school, the question is there.  She and I even had a truncated conversation where we at a minimum overtly acknowledged we'd missed something.  What does a conversation that goes:
      Me:  “So why didn't we start dating the summer before last?”
     Her:  ”Good question, you had a girlfriend at the end of the summer though.”
      Me:  “Yeah, too bad.”
     Her:  “Oh well” *awkward sigh, awkward silence for however long*
mean?  Somebody tell me.  But even that convo happened two years after the fact and now we're almost two years after that.  Who knows.  And then with the girl I was trading e-mails with over the weekend, she's had a pretty serious boyfriend for close to half the time I've known her.  The boyfriend was there before I knew her and they broke up in… October? That sounds about right.  But I always got that vibe of restrained, covered up attraction.  And whenever I'd bring up girls I'd hear “Oh you're an attractive guy Mike…” and so on.  She said it often.  And there was the night or two in November and early December that she was over at our apartment late studying.  Nothing happened, but there were those moments and at the end of the evening we were talking with my head in her lap.  Yep, there we go.  I missed the boat on that one.  Both are ones that are disheartening to think about.  They're both women I find very attractive and can talk to quite well and probably could've had a very good relationship with.  Oh well.  Neither of them are married or soon-to-be married so the book ain't written yet.  I like thinking about them.  I'd like to talk more but I can't really without just getting nostalgic and I don't wanna put that on here. 

I don't think I really gave a whole briefing on drill this weekend and what's the latest on getting deployed to Ft Riley.  I still have no final word on whether I'm going or not, but MSG Heckart and MAJ Scherer both indicated to me they think that it's close to for sure I'm going.  So that's that.  I'll deal.  Get promoted, get paid, get experience.  It's all good.  Somehow, somebody (probably at division, but I don't know for sure. wouldn't surprise me if it happened at brigade) fucked up our Unit Identifier Code and somehow we have multiple UICs or we don't have one, or we have one we can't use or we have multiple ones we can't use, or something.  Mrs. Monahan told me it got messed up and they can't cut orders and paying everyone is a hassle and the commander (LTC Hildebrand in this case) called it a SNAFU and said until it's straightened out they can't mobilize us.  So the long and short of all that is until that situation is straightened out, sending out warning orders for a deployment is on hold.  And they told LTC Hildebrand that they'll stick to the 30-day warning period and so as long as they can't warn us, they can't deploy us 30 days later and so therefore the deployment is pushed back a day for every day that this UIC situation is FUBARed.  So right now a more realistic picture is that I won't have to be in Kansas until the middle of April as opposed to the beginning of it.  There's up and there's down to that.  We've covered it before.

Now, I suppose I should give a quick run through of the acronyms and abbreviations I just used.
MSG=Master Sergeant; defined in an earlier post
MAJ=Major; an O-4 in the Army, Air Force, and Marine Corp; typically a staff officer, very very rarely in a command position
UIC=Unit Identifier Code; defined in context
Mrs.= Misses
LTC= Lieutenant Colonel; an O-5 in the Army, Air Force, and Marine Corp; typically both a staff and command position. a battalion or battalion-equivalent unit is always commanded by a LTC or a MAJ soon to be promoted to LTC
SNAFU=Situation Now All Fucked Up
FUBAR=Fucked Up Beyond All Recognition

I think that's about all for the evening.  If I think of anything more to say before I go to bed I'll come back and post again.

Haha I waaaaaay way way overslept on my nap last night, but it worked out ok.  I laid down shortly after I posted last night (like within 2 minutes) and was asleep until 10 when my mom woke me up.  I'd intended to only sleep until 8 at the latest (I didn't set an alarm so I guess I got what I bargained for.) and when my mom came in shortly after ten, she asked me if I'd gone to bed for the night and in my stupor I said yes and then jumped out of bed with a start about 2 minutes later with the realization that my uniform was not ready to go for today.  Haha, I even had to sit down and sew on a patch (fastest I've ever done so I think) and I didn't make it to bed until almost 1.  But I got up right at 6 and had time to read most of the paper this morning before I left.  I guess my body's gotten used to sleeping in multiple, moderate-length stretches (i.e. 3 hours here, 2 there, another 4; last night was 4 and then 5, not bad I suppose) which is pretty good (but not for when I ever go back to a normal day/night schedule).

Yep, got my phone working again.  It isn't perfect (like usual, but we're getting close) but hey, it's function as a phone, that's what I pay for, right?

I CAN DRIVE AGAIN!!!!  That makes me so happy.  It feels so good to be back behind the wheel of a vehicle again, even if it is just my car (yes, I'd like to be behind the wheel of a bus).

So it looks like we're NOT going to find out this weekend (or even any time this week probably) who's going to Ft Riley in April and who's not.

**Haha, I fell asleep when I was writing this entry.  I actually wrote it around 6PM on Saturday, February 26.  I”ll write a post for today in a bit.

Ugh.  My phone is FUBARed at the moment.  It hasn't gotten any service since last night sometime (I think) and when I called Cingular to straighten it out, they said, “nope, no problems with coverage. maybe we should conntect you with our warranty exchange people to see what they can remedy.”  So I'm honestly considering fritzing the thing good if I can't get it working again.  I hope it's just a phase. :-/  WAIT! AS WE SPEAK! I WIN AGAIN! Hehehe ain't nobody gonna hooooooooold me down, oh no, I always keeeep on wiiiiiiiiinin'!  I know those aren't the “real” words, but I like them better at the moment.  Even though it was debilitatingly frustrating at the DOT, I finally have my work permit and I can atleast have the peace and relaxation of driving myself to work.  That means so much. 

I'm going to go nap and work on my uniform for tomorrow a little, I'll be back later folks.

So someone pointed out that maybe my post from Tuessday requires a little glossary to explain all the abbreviations and acronyms I used.  So we'll go one-by-one and elucidate the issue.

state DOT:  the Iowa Department of Transportation (the mean-spirited people who control drivers' licensing)

PC:  in this case it means probable cause; a peace officer's justification for stopping, detaining, or arresting a person.  probable cause requires a reasonable and logical suspicion that a condition or behavior in a person that indicates a crime is being or has been committed

OWI:  Operating While Intoxicated.  Which is legally and substantially different from Driving Under the Influence (DUI) or Driving While Intoxicated (DWI).  OWI requires that you only utilize any any function of your car (open your door, unlock your door, put the keys in the ignition, lower the window, yada yada yada) while DUI/DWI require that you be driving the car.

IC:  Iowa City (if you really needed that explained you are not S-M-R-T)

OMG:  Oh my god/goodness

AIT:Advance Individual Training;  where they teach you your job in the military

OPFOR:  Opposing Force;  the unit of soldiers assigned to emulate the tactics, techniques, and procedures of an enemy force.  Last summer when I was in the OPFOR at Ft Riley we pretended to be both Iraqi civilians and Iraqi and Al-Qaeda terrorists (running around pretending to be a raghead was fun!)

SpoCo: the Sports Column; my personal favorite bar in Iowa City

SGT: sergeant; a non-commissioned rank in the military (in the paygrade of E-5 in the Army and Marine Corp)

SFC: Sergeant First Class; a rank exclusive to the Army (paygrade of E-7)

SSG: Staff Sergeant; a rank in the Army, Marine Corp, the Air Force (E-6 in both the Army, Marine Corp, and Air Force)

MSG:  Master Sergeant; a rank in the Army, Marine, and Air Force (E-8 in the Army and Marine, E7 in the Air Force)

MP:  military police

MOS:  military occupational specialty; the alpha-numeric designation of what your job in the military is (I'm a 42L, an administrative specialist)

CPT:  military rank of captain in all branches of the US military; (O-3 in the Army, Air Force, and Marine Corp; O-6 in the Navy)

CD:  compact disc

Any more questions?  Haha I an give personalized, one-on-one lessons to explain any of these if you want them. :-p

Ellie is sleeping and she's lieing directly against my leg. It's cute.

Work was rouuuuuuuuuuugh Tuesday night/Wednesday morning. I was so tired. I was coming off my weekend and had only slept from about midnight to 7AM on Tuesday so I was not ready to be up all night. And because I was so tired, I made the stupid mistakes and Gary was a bit pissed off by the time I left Wednesday morning. I mean I was so tired that once or twice I had trouble keeping my eyes open standing up. Later Wednesday morning my dad and I took my car out to Ziebart to get the ignition interlock (the device I have to blow into before my car can start to make sure I'm not driving drunk. The state says I have to have it. Fuckin' state.) actually installed in my car. So that's over and done with, I will be able to start driving Monday, Friday even maybe if my dad and I make it there. But getting it installed took for-fuckin'-ever. We got there at ten, they told us it would take an hour, maybe a few minutes more, and we didn't leave until after 12:30!!! That sucked. But then Dad and I went to Waveland when we were finished for lunch and I friggin' chowed down on a Lumberman (mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm biscuts and gravy ON TOP OF an order of hashbrowns mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm) so needless to say we came home and I passed the fuck out. I fell asleep around 2 and only woke up for dinner and slept 'til 10. I slept through West Wing! And then I went to work and it was fine. The only notable thing was it snowed. Snow makes me cry, I hate it. It has a place on Christmas day and then should be gone. Forget this snowing in the last week of February shit (yes I know, I live in Iowa, I have to deal. don't remind me).

Today has been a non-event. Dad picked me up at 8, we came home. I changed out of work clothes, sat down on the couch with the dog and promptly fell asleep. I think my dad left for work while I was asleep on the couch because I don't remember talking to him and I don't even remember getting up and moving back here to my parents' room to sleep. And this is where I've been since. I slept for 6+ hours and woke up when Keely came home at 3. And then here we are, it's almost 5 (yay! time for the Simpsons. You guys have no idea how much I try and time my sleep schedule around what's on TV. I try to stay awake until noon so I can watch Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, sleep from noon - 5, watch the Simpsons, Malcolm, and King of the Hill. Then depending on which day of the week it is, I'll nod off between whichever shows are on during primetime.). And all I've done today is sleep and write this post. Let's see if there's anything better today.

The subject just came to me, I figured I'd go with it. 
I got the insurance paid for on my car this morning.  So hopefully on Monday I'll be able to start motoring myself to and from work now.  2 steps down, one more to go.  On the upside, by doing all this I'll probably get my fine for the OWI reduced by $500.  That's nice. 

Haha, wanna know something funny?  My mom cut the cheese and I ate some.  Mwahahahahahahaha funny.

That's about all.  I'm sure as the day wears on I'll have more. 

So my posting regularity has dropped off a bit.  Sorry (if anyone actually reads this anyway, I'm not sure.).  Not a whole lot has happened and I haven't spent a lot of time dwelling on the cerebral stuff that makes posts dramatic.  I think I'm going to go get the ignition interlock installed on MY car when my dad gets back from picking up my sister.  One step closer to driving again.  My car needs to get fixed, but that's a mid-March concern, not a late-February concern.  I still have to pay off the state DOT (bunch of bastards, they're the single largest expense in this whole deal. the insurance and interlock will cost more in the long run but $200 civil penalty? fuck off!) for the civil penalty and for the reinstatement fee and then there's getting my insurance going again (oops, let that lap back in October.  Not as short-sighted a move as say… not getting my registration re-upped??). 

Hey! That sparked a whole new thought tangent! Yay for something to write about.  Who would've thought that a $27 lazy mistake back in August would end up biting me in the ass this big? If I'd gotten my registration back in July or August, would the cop've had real probable cause to stop me back in December?  Also, the other day, I was thinking about how horrible and self-defeating it is to think about what-ifs.  I can't off the top of my head think of anything that's much more paralyzing (at least for me) that that.  I mean, it's ridiculous to think that if I'd made that one thing different or did one thing different, that I would end up at the positive result that I'm lamenting at that moment.  Who knows, maybe if I'd renewed the registration on my car, I would'n't've started dating Grace in earnest, I would've started dating Melissa, Cara, or Jess, my alcoholic streak last fall wouldn't've happened and I wouldn't've gotten pulled over (either time)? Maybe we just cut out the Melissa, Cara, or Jess part of that and say if I'd gotten my registration done in August, the cop wouldn't've had PC to stop me in December and I'd still have my license? Maybe when I'd gone down to the Treasurer's office to re-register, I would've bumped into X (and she either would've been a hot acquaintance and she would've wanted to go out and that or she would've just been some hot chick that I would've charmed on the spot) and I would've started dating her and go back to the idea of having not dated Grace and same result: no OWI.  So now that I've rationalized that the root cause of me getting the OWI goes all the way back to July/August and not getting my car re-registered, I can do what with that? Stick it in my pipe and smoke it? Yep! And that's about it!  See how fruitful it is to let what-ifs run your brain for a second?  Ooooh, and did anybody else see what that brought up to? “What if I hadn't dated Grace?”  If I hadn't dated Grace, would I've not drank myself into the poorhouse and also not become a quasi-alcoholic and not've had my two huge problems (OWI and moving to Des Moines)?  'Cuz if I had my license and still lived in IC, then we all know I'd still be at Cambus, and if I were still at Cambus, live would be perfect, right?  And, if I hadn't dated Grace, would I have started dating someone else?  Even if I had gone ahead and gotten an OWI and lost my apartment, would I be dating someone that I could've moved in with and therefor, STILL be in Iowa City?  All that makes ya think, don't it? But like I said, where does it get me?  A few minutes later in life and a few millimeters of mercury higher on the blood pressure machine, that's all. 

Going ahead with that free-association (all you Freudian and Jungian psych-lovers out there must be getting a hard-on from this post), I am not an alcoholic.  I've got the official evaluation by the guy from Student Health and I've also got the evidence that since the Saturday that Kelli and I went to IC, I have had a total of one beer.  That's one beer in six weeks.  That's even better than the summer of 2003 when I went from the night before I left for AIT to the day after I got back without beer (that was a total of about 5 weeks without beer).  January 8 to February 21 with only one beer.  And you know what? Until I get to Ft Riley or Iowa City, I probably won't have any alcohol.  Yeah, I may have a few beers with my dad (thinking about it, that's a given around St Patrick's Day which OMG is on a Thursday, why can't I be in Iowa City for THAT???) but at most, that'll top out at probably two, maybe three beers at any given time.  And you say, “Why would you say you'd get to drink once you get to Ft Riley?” Because I'm sure just about the entire OPFOR (opposing force, I think we've talked about that before) section wants to get me drunk and it's near a college town (Manhattan, KS) so I'll be hitting that up good and often.  Plus, we're down to a little more than five months until I turn 21 (July 31 folks, guaranteed I will be in Iowa City that week to take advantage of 21 for 21 at multiple places, multiple nights: Jakes, SpoCo, and maybe even Third Base if I can bring myself to go there) so after that point nobody can stop me from drinking off duty. 

Speaking of the OPFOR, SGT Henderson has come into my store a couple times while I've been working.  So now he, SFC Johnson, and SSG Monahan know directly that I'm in Des Moines and not Iowa City.  My appearances at the unit during the week have also probably indicated to MSG Heckart and SFC Wood that I'm not in Iowa City.  Also, when SGT Henderson asked me why I wasn't in IC at school, I told him it was a long, sad story.  Hopefully he won't ask to hear the story at drill this weekend (drill this weekend means I only work 3 nights this week ).  Him knowing would be bad.  He's an MP.  I don't need an MP knowing that I got an OWI.  He's not in an MP duty position, but he's still got the MOS and that worries me what he may decide he's obligated to pass along to CPT George and THAT would be bad. Very bad.  He's the commander, he's an MP, and he's also a full-time Missouri State Trooper so that's three instincts in one that would tell him to yell at me.  At a very bare minimum I would be in the dog house for a loooooong time and at the worse I could get separated from the Army.  Boohoo many of you say but I want to stay in. 

Ok, 6 hour break in between that and this but I'll continue.  I pretty much had my phone tweaked perfect and I go and make a change and now it's back to way less than perfect. Grrrr I guess I know what'll occupy my time tomorrow. 

You know what's funny, I started a CD I was going to fall asleep to thinking I was going to bed soon, but playing with my phone got the best of me and now there's only 14-some minutes left on the CD.  Haha, go figure.  Oh well. I don't think I have much more to say.  I'm tired and way off the thought-train I was on earlier.  I'll leave you with this post.

Officer Lou, talking about his firearm: “It always made me feel like a man. Now all I've got is my enormous genitals.”

And on that note, let us begin. Today and yesterday have been most notably devoid of excitement. Work went well both nights and then I slept all day. I'd had an errand I'd wanted to do and some other stuff I needed to accomplish, but alas, my priorities are indeed not really priorities but nice thoughts that some people that sleep much more than me don't deem as necessary to accomplish. But I digress.

“Gobble, gobble, gobble, DEAD!”

One frustrating thing about work is that very few, maybe one or two a night, attractive girls come through my story during my shifts. There is a good looking redhead that's come in the last two nights but I think the guy she's come in with both times has been her boyfriend. :/

Yep, I think I was writing this on Thursday… or Friday… I don't remember, but here it is as it was when I didn't finish it…

Well last night before and during dinner my dad and sister did a good job of getting me pretty upset. Yesterday I signed the title of my car over to my dad so that he could drive it around while the Focus is getting fixed (because of my mom's spectacular fender-bender on the way to taking me to work last week). So he got the title switched and got it registered in his name and when we were driving in it (my car) to dinner last night, Keely was going on about, “This is our car now, it's not your car anymore. It's dad's now.” I, of course, tried to elucidate for her that it was still my car and that it was only a temporary maneuver to let my dad legally own it. And so when my dad gets in the car, Keely trumpets, “This is our car now, isn't it dad?” and what's his response, “Yes, legally the car is mine.” I quickly snapped that he shouldn't waste his time making that distinction. So now I'm concerned that when it comes time to reclaim my car I'm going to run into my dad and his hemming and hawing and other bullshit about, “welllllllllllllll I think it would be best” blah blah blah. So at that point I was tired and pissed off and had to sit through dinner suffering through my dad and sister's personality traits that were then going to be amplified in their annoying factor. So then we got home from dinner and I basically slept until it was time to go to work.
Work went by well, it was pretty slow (although at certain inopportune points it didn't really feel so) most of the shift. As well, I guess Gary was pretty pleased with how I'd done and then the fact that Mark the area store supervisor came had little stress associated with it since Gary was happy and I wasn't freaking out that the store looked disappointing somehow. I did, however, get some bleach on my pants and that was frustrating, but only marginally.

I originally wrote this yesterday on Wednesday but had some difficulties getting it finished. I'll just leave it as is and update a new one from now.

Yeah, so I goobbered my phone. I tried to do some unofficial, warranty-voiding updates and at one point it was displaying only Chinese idiograms. Before that it had been displaying a mix of Latin characters in English and then Cyrillic characters. But now it's all in Latin characters with American English (it was on UK English for a few minutes). I just have to get all the AIM and web browsing functionality back (which it's not a huge deal but I'm paying for it dammit). That's the big deal going on at the moment.

Today did not start off well. Because of my fight with my phone, I could not get my alarm (on my phone) to work right and woke up only 15 minutes before I thought I was supposed to be at work. When I was making my mad dash to get ready and get there, Gary (the store manager) called and wondered why I hadn't been there at 9 for my one-on-one meeting. Fuck. So I finally got to the store (almost ten minutes late for the meeting I hadn't missed) and thank heaven Gary wasn't mad. He only made one jab and that was a reminder for everyone to check the store calendar (which he said with a directed look in my direction). We didn't reschedule my one-on-one but I assume we'll do that tomorrow morning when I see him at work.

It's odd, I've got an urge to go on about something deep and/or important but I'm coming up dry on anything to talk about. No news about the army, no news about moving back to IC (I suppose those two would go hand-in-hand), no new whining about work (other than the story highlighted above).

The one thing I guess is that I'm awfully surprised at how unexcited I am at the coming and going of Valentine's Day. Like I said yesterday I usually get pretty fired up about it, but not this year. Even on that I can't really go on.

The Hardee's commercial with the guy stuffing all the straws in his mouth was just on. It's gross. Really, I don't wanna see how wide a guy can open his jaw and mouth. Now, the Hardee's commercial with the hot girl doing the same, now that causes me to stare and drool every time. Every time. It really does cause my concious brain function to screech to a halt.

Going to dinner. Finish thoughts later.

Hey, look at that: I went all weekend without posting.  How about that.   

I guess nothing really of note happened all weekend. 

Since MAJ Scherer passed along the e-mail asking for volunteers for the brigade deployment in April, my feeling that I'm not getting deployed gets stronger.  I hope upon hope that it's not just err, false hope (How many guys use hope three times in a sentence?). 

Wow, that last little comment sent me off on one of the strangest tangent thoughts I've ever had.  My AP Lang/Comp teacher would swoon to know what I was thinking.  If parenthetical asides mean anything to you, post a comment.

Back to my original thought.  I keep thinking that I should be checking what jobs and apartments are available in Iowa City like I know for sure I'm going to need either soon.  It's a nice thought to think that I am but before this call for volunteers went out, it was kind of a consensus that I was going to be at the top of the list of people going to Ft Riley.  But, my hope for not going rests on a couple things: some of the people that were released early from the deployment last summer may decide they want to be on AD again and volunteer just for that reason; some people may be in a timing situation opposite from mine in that now is better than November for whatever reason (kind of like last November would've been MUCH more perfect for me than any other time); some people may just want a job and being on AD could be sweet for them (AD= active-duty); or some people are just paranoid and convinced they're going to get selected for deployment and they might as well bite the bullet and just volunteer to lock down their plans (don't kid yourself, the thought has crossed my mind quite a few times).  With all that, even if they don't get the whole block of people they need to volunteer, if enough enlisted Staff personnel volunteer, I may not be needed and they may see that I am needed by the battalion here at home.  I'm not being self-important here.  S3 (training and operations) function would probably be severely hampered if I were deployed so I think the commanders and MAJ Scherer would recognize that I would be much more worth the money serving on Rear-Detachment in Des Moines than what they might slot me into down there (OPFOR would be tons of fun if I did get put into that though).  Cross your fingers. 

It's Valentine's Day and I'm not super-stressed over it!  I can't remember when that wasn't the case.  It might be all the way back to freshman year in high school (but who knows, I may've been stressin' over Morgan then too, I just don't remember.).  I guess I didn't really stress over it sophomore year since I was with Mara at that point.  Haha and the two years before freshman year were years I was big pimpin' so I wasn't stressed over it then either.  Hmm, maybe just the last three years of being stressed were an anomaly and the rest weren't stressful.  Let's think back… junior year: I don't remember… hmm I'm getting things confused between junior and senior years.  Junior year I was stressing over Kelsey and Katie. Mostly Katie at that point because Kelsey and I hadn't really started yet.  Ah yes, senior year. Super-duper stress.  That was the year of Kristen. 

Goodness,  I don't know where on Earth to start on that one.  Here's how I found out she and Jason were going out:
     Me: “So who's Kristen here with?”
     Sarah: “Uh, her boyfriend Jason, duh.”
Hot stuff, huh?  But ya'll know me, boyfriend-shmoyfriend, right?  (Two questions in a row are hot, right?)  I guess I was fairly shameless in pursuing her.  Valentine's was pretty bad.  It was the weekend of Winter Formal, the only non-Spree dance I didn't go to (haha mostly because Kristen hadn't broken up with Jason and gone with me, I was pretty pig-headed in insisting on going with her or no one).  Ya know, I still have all the notes she wrote me.  Probably nothing I should hold on to, I bet only trouble will come from them in the future.  Nonetheless, I don't think I want to throw them away just yet (any of you psych majors out there, analyze that!).  During the midst of all of that, I wrote a lot of long journal entries and letters I never gave her.  As much if not more than what I wrote during basic training.  Wow, I haven't put this much thought into her and the whole storyline for a long time.  Not good.  Oh well, can't control that I guess.  From what I've been told by Jess, I guess I came close a couple times to coming out on top in that situation (ooooh, good pun!).  Oh well, ya win some-ya lose some.  

Haha the DI's article on Valentine's bar crawls was awesome.  Only the DI would have articles about bar crawls.  Too bad there weren't any pics on the website edition. 

Ok, I've been working on this for more than an hour.  If I think up any more sappy, sentimental Valentine's stuff I'll be sure to come back and share. 

We'll start today off with a quote from the Simpsons:
“Woohoo! Beer Beer Beer! Bed Bed Bed!” Eloquent words of the sage Homer. “This is my sandbox. I'm not allowed to go in the deep end.” Ralph

I've tried to think of interesting or pithy things to talk about or say all day. And that was it.

Just kidding. But really, nothing interesting has gone on today. Work went along without any fireworks (other than the last two hours did not go by as fast as they usually do and needed too) and when I was done I bought a dozen Krispy Kremes with the thinking that Dad was picking me up and we were going to pick my grandpa up and the three of us would share them. Rather, my mom picked me up and we ate some doughtnuts on the way home. I fell asleep shortly after I got home, missed watching Star Trek (the highlight of my morning before I sleep and I slept through it) and woke up at 1. The dog and I communed for a while after I woke up and I've just been watching the news and cartoons since.

“Smithers, there's a rocket in my pocket.” “You don't have to tell me sir.”

I'm surprised that none of the restaurants I applied at have called me yet. I'm not particularly worried, since neither of my parents really think I should change jobs before I know whether I'm going to Ft Riley in April (which I think I may just be deluding myself if I begin to think I'm not) and if things begin to consistently go like they did last night, the job itself will be alright. And really, what would I do with a job that had more conventional hours? I wouldn't see my family much more than I do. Mom would probably be gone to work before I woke up every day anyway and she's usually in bed before I leave for work now so I probably see her as much as I would in any circumstance. And I may or may not see my dad any more than I do. I'd like to but it's ok how it is. And if I did have more time to socialize, what would I do with it? Hang out with Kelli every other, every third night and just spend money on Perkins or beer? If I had more time to go to Iowa City, I would probably only spend too much money at the bars anyway. It all sounds like self-consoling, doesn't it?

Yeah, that's all for now. I'm sure I'll be back in a little bit with more.