Do you like fire? I’ve always loved it. Not exactly sure why. It’s just cool to burn/melt things. I remember when I was a little tike and my friends and I would burn stuff with a fisher price magnifying glass in his backyard in Phoenix. Then there were those time Levi and I would play with fire back in those junior high days. Once we found a bunch of half empty/full paint cans in the woods we shook them all up and them put them all in this dead tree. Levi kept trying to light them. In the end I shot them and we sorta blew the tree up. Well, I’ve done many smart and not so smart things with fire since then. Tonight I sorta had an incident with a candle.
Candles are so much fun. I bought this huge one at Wal-Mart that was like 6″ across or so. Well, the wicks kinda burned out but there was a lot of candle left. Frugal me wanted to try and burn the rest of that candle. So I lit some matches and just kinda set them in the burned out hull and started melting some of the sides to create a pool in the middle. Then I stuck more matches in the middle in that wax and later lit them and they would act like wicks soaking up the wax. This works great until you light about 10 of these homemade wicks then walk away for 15 min. Well my spidy-sense luckily kicked in. It said, “Chalupa! Go look at your candle!”. So I did and found one side had melted all the way through and there was wax all over in my bathroom. Luckily it was on tile and it hadn’t cemented yet so I could peel most of it up. Maybe I should just stick to candles self-contained in jars….but where’s the fun in that? Luckily I didn’t burn anything down or get wax all over the carpet.
Oh, and happy birthday to Liz.
I took the spanish placement test today after work. I really thought I did craptastic on it. It scored me at 534 though. It said I a 470 tested you out of spanish4 so now I’ll have to see if there’s a class I can try and get into. It would be really cool cause as far as I know I don’t have to pay for it since I work here. I think that’s what they call a perk.
When I got back from lifting there was a message on the machine from my dad. Wanted some pity cause he’s having knee surgery tomorrow. Wanted to let me know in case there was a freak accident and he died or something. Also tried to make me feel bad cause we were all home for Thanksgiving and none of us went to see him or give him a call. That’s always really easy to say after the fact. Cause if by the slightest chance I actually wanted to see him he very probably wouldn’t feel like it. I just get tired of dealing with him and his childishness. If I were told that he was dead I can honestly say I don’t think I would be that sad. I’m not 100% sure on that since it hasn’t actually happened, but when you don’t really have a relationship at all with somebody I don’t know how we’re supposed to be magically close just because he walked out on us a few years ago, takes birthdays as an opportunity to make people feel like crap, let’s you know how much he doesn’t care………ok, I should just stop here. I should just read that stuff for my Bible study in the morning and get some sleep.
I’ve realized I refer to multiple places as home. Sometimes that seems weird and other times not. If anything, it’s probably just confusing to people who don’t know what I’m referring to at the moment. I got back in last night. Decided to head back on Saturday instead of Sunday to try and avoid some holiday traffic and weather and just in case I ran into more problems like the ones I had Wednesday. Luckily this trip went much better. On the way back I caught a spanish radio station, 107.1 I believe, somewhere in IL and listened to it all the way to the Ball State exit on I-69. That was cool. I made it one of the buttons on my radio just so I won’t forget and can catch it next time I’m heading that way.
Thanksgiving went pretty well. It’s always great seeing my brother and sister. Andy and I pseudo talk spanish to each other. It’s like we have our own secret code. We just have to be careful what we say sometimes if my grandpa’s around. Apparently my sister is dating somebody but denying it. All I know is that she referred to him as her ‘boytoy’ when she showed me a picture. My mom thinks he looks like me. I’d have to disagree with that. Also got to see my grandparents. That’s always nice too. My grandma also gave me the rest of her old dishes. So I have tons and tons of plates, bowls, etc. I’d say I probably couldn’t make enough food to invite enough people over to use all those plates, but where there’s a will there’s a way. We actually ate some turkey this year. However, my mom made enchilada soup so all is well. La Raza was appeased. Hung out with Tyler a bit and actually saw CJ. First time in over a year. Thought we were gonna hang out with him but that ended up not happening.
Today I decided to have a Scrubs marathon after church. So far it’s been working out pretty well. Had two amazing grilled cheese and I’ve been downing the mountain dew. I know I shouldn’t and should be drinking water instead, but I figure it can’t hurt once in a while. Well, I’ve decided to take a break from Scrubs and check out Desperado with commentary from Roberto Rodriguez. I love hearing what the director was thinking while making their movie. gives ya some insight you’d never have otherwise. Does that make me a movie nerd?
They kept saying on the radio today was one of the busiest travel days of the year. They also kept saying how crazy the weather was. I left my apartment at about 9:00am and should have arrived at my mom’s house at like 2pm (1pm Iowa time). It’s now a little after midnight and I got here not all that long ago. So basically my 5hr trip got turned into 14. That’s definitely a record for me. I’d have to say the worst part is I’m always by myself on these kinds of trips so things tend to get a bit boring.
The bad:
It wasn’t so bad starting out. It was raining a lot and there weren’t too many slow people on interstate. Then for kicks I decided to take IN38 to IN32 to I-74 instead of taking I-69 to I-465 to I-74. Then I got stuck behind semis going through little towns and stuff. Finally got to interstate and was actually able to drive the speed limit. So thing were going well. Then it started getting cold and everything was freezing and it started snowing…..hard. Then my car overheated out of nowhere. So I pull over to find my reservoir empty. There were no visible leaks so I filled the reservoir and turned my car back on. Thankfully all the anti-freeze got sucked out of my reservoir so i then filled it back up. That means the thermostat was working. However, the car was still way too hot just idling. So I go into the gas station and inquire about somewhere to get it looked at. Find a place and go to leave. Now my car doesn’t want to start, it’s obviously burning coolant and my heat doesn’t work anymore. Now these kind of things point to other things. Things like there’s a coolant leak internally and it has something to do with the exhaust. I was a little worried at first cause I thought it could be the head gasket which really didn’t make much sense on my car. So I finally get it over to this repair place and they find out it’s a plastic half of a manifold that had worn out and cracked. This apparently is a known problem with GM cars. So the part costs $260 some bucks and with labor and fluids they quote me almost $500. So they finally get that done and I’m a mere 150 miles or so from my mom’s house. Now 7 very frustrating hours later, I’m home.
The good:
- I ended up working extra hours last week and coming in for 7hrs on Saturday so I didn’t have to work today and got to leave a day early.
- I got a good night’s rest and wasn’t falling asleep while driving (ask me about nodding off at the wheel sometime if you don’t know that story)
- None of those crazy people on the road hit me
- The one time my back end kicked out there was nobody next to me and I regained control immediately with my race car driving skills
- My car broke down on me right when it started snowing - this is when most of the crazy accidents ocurieron - so I wasn’t on the road for the worst of it
- The people at the car place stopped what they were doing to fix my car for me and were very nice and friendly
- The fixed it for less then they quoted me
- The receptionist saw my Iron Maiden patch and talked to me for an hour about Maiden, Godsmack, Rammstein, Kiss, etc - turns out she’s from Germany and has been living here for 15yrs
- I made it home quite safely even though I’m tired and was a little annoyed with the world
The ugly:
- That one guy I saw at the Subway I stopped at
Ok, so once again I have compared my life to a movie. Overall I’d say I have a lot to be thankful for just from today besides the rest of the year.
Found out today that my job has been extended another 3 years. That’s kinda cool. Last year I was working on a sort-of month by month basis. So I guess a little stability never hurt anyone. Also got off work at 1pm today cause I had extra hours I needed to get rid of. Five hour work days are kind of fun. I suggest trying it sometime. This afternoon I also called up my bank and got my credit card upgraded to a platinum cash rewards. So I’ll be getting 1% back on purchases now. So I guess I’d have to say that today has been a good day. Well, except for those people in Wisconsin. Have you guys read this? Oh, and if you need some entertainment and like Rammstein, check this one out too.
Well, another week is finally over. Saw a good movie tonight. Went to Muncie and caught Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason. It was hilarious. Definitely a good sequel to the first one. Also got to hang out a bit with Elaine and Sarah. They’re definitely cool people. They came over and shared some grub with me. Also had a good day lifting. I was able to decline 260 which is the most I’ve done since my shoulder started hurting again. I’m not back up to full steam, but my shoulder didn’t hurt during or after which rocks. Oh, and I’m sure some people in this world would be jealous to know that while I was lifting I got to see one Dr. Smith in action again working those big biceps of his. I met up with Liz, Jeremy, Sarah, Mrs. Boltz, was introduced to Jeremy’s mom, and there were some other people that Liz knew. Oh yeah, Karen and Rajeev were there too. This is the second time I’ve been around Jeremy he’s pretty cool. Tomorrow I’m heading into work to help out a prof with some presentation stuff on Oaxaca Mexico. Yeah, I’m not supposed to work Saturdays but this is ok. I put in 5 extra hours so far this week. That means I just have to work 3hrs minus however long I’m there tomorrow and that counts for Wednesday next week since we’re closed and I don’t officially get the day off.
Oh, and if you’re cool and then you should check this out cause Castleton has some good stuff showing at the moment. There’s two playing right now that I want to see. And then there’s also the nice dollar theater in Ft. Wayne I need to experience. Has anybody checked out the movies coming to DVD next month? There’s definitely a lot. When I get back home from Christmas there’s definitely going to be a Napoleon Dynamite and Garden State viewing. So call me out on that when it gets to be that time. I’ll even make some food or something if you come over.
I got to see my old roommate today! It rocked. I still have really cool friends here and stuff. It’s just that they’re all 2yrs or more younger than me and stuff. That doesn’t make them any less cool…..it’s just that I look at most of them through my “big brother” goggles since I am the oldest in my family and these friends are all younger than me. I’m sure this makes sense if you’re the oldest like I am. So it was cool just to hang out with Ben and talk about stuff and eat Elaine’s scrumptialicious cherry cobbler. The cobbler she worked so hard at finding fresh cherries and baking crust stuff from scratch and all. Luckily she didn’t really put herself out and grind the wheat. We convinced her to get store-bought flour.
I’ve been putting in some extra hours lately so I can take off Wednesday for Thanksgiving break. Being hourly rocks cause you don’t/can’t do overtime. However, you don’t get the buku vacation time like those salaried people do. It was kinda funny today cause this one freshman that works there was complaining (in whiny voice) that she had been there for 2 whole hours! I then had to pipe up that I had been at work since 7:15am and it was currently 6:50pm. She’s a decent worker, I just don’t always appreciate her attitude. Maybe it’s just me though.
I’ve kinda noticed I don’t post nearly as much as I was doing this summer. I don’t think this has to do with less random thoughts from the bald kid but more of a “the bald kid has more people to see and thus things to do so he doesn’t have time to blog his randomness when it pops into his head and he forgets by the end of the day”. How’s that for a run-on? Well, I should probably study a little of the español or get some sleep so I can get up for another early day at work.
Ever wonder why you do things sometimes? I just thinking this morning about why I wear baggy pants. After thinking about it I remembered how back in high school I used to have to get big pants so they’d fit my legs. Our football program was really big on squatting and other lower body lifts to give us a lot of power off the line. One of the results was us all having huge legs. My friend Ryan measured his legs once and we found out they were 34″ around. That’s right folks. At that point in time his legs were bigger than my waist. Craziness. Well, after having to buy big pants for 4 years it just kinda turned into a habit. At least it’s not a bad habit like selling crack or punching old ladies on street corners. Another thing I realized I do this summer is call people gringos when they annoy me. I’ve thought about it on several occasions, but really don’t know how that one got started. It’s not like these people are any more/less foreign than me. It’s not like I was born in another country or something. I’m just as ‘american’ as millions of other people in this country. Well, time to get back to work and then go to a “wonderful” Performance Review Program training session
Oh Dot’s Diner we miss thee
Your foggy windows and thine stench
Your grilled cheese and breakfast specials
Your teasers and your patrons.
The bald guys were scary
If you lacked respect and were punks.
But if you were bald with sideburns
You were definitely one of the bunch.
The drunks were fun
The food was great
Our clothes were never the same.
We had our usuals
We were regulars
Our hang-out is forever lost.
It kinda annoys me sometimes when people refer to Wednesday in that manner, but I couldn’t think of anything better. Just watched the trailer for Imaginary Heroes. It looks awesome. Also has a Postal Service song on the trailer which is awesome. I’ve been told several times now that the former king of SammyII has returned. ¡All hail King Uber! He is no doubt here for another blessed Dot’s night at the grille. I’ll have to get over to the floor and see how he’s doing. Hopefully more can come back this weekend. Well, can’t think of much else to say. Maybe I’ll get back on later tonight and add some more to this post.
Well, after a 1hr nap turned into 7…..I’m back. Kinda awake, not much to do, kinda hungry but don’t feel like making something, and pretty much just talking to people online. I guess I could do some dishes but that’s no fun. Today at work Joe showed me this ergonomic mouse he’s buying for his desk. It looks really cool. I can’t wait to try it out. Mike and I found a mouse once that was basicly just rotated 90 degrees to the right. It looked really cool and I wanted to use one but never actually saw one for sale. They’re probably about $50 anyways. A bit expensive just to “try”. Made some amazing burritos tonight with lots of crushed red peppers on the inside. The ones that set your lips on fire for a min or so. Nothing really hot, just very enjoyable.
Oh, and Toll officially has a gf now….and Tyler is dating somebody. Wow. That’s about all I have to say.
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