Teacher's Pet

So I just typed this thing and this computer decided to erase it... So here goes again.
It seems I'm not going to be blogging too much on Tuesdays or Thursdays since I don't work and refuse to blog on my own time. Oh well, it's Wednesday now, so here you go. Nick and Gage have joined me in the blogging world, although it's only because they're required to in their Tech Writing class. Alright, let's talk about classes!

My first class was after work Monday afternoon. I didn't really know what to expect from MGMT 466. It's supposed to be one of the hardest MGMT classes, it is an exit level class after all. Oh well, I'm taking it with my roommate, so it should be at least minimally entertaining. I went into class, saved a seat for Nick and watched as the other kids filed in. I didn't know anyone that came into the class other than Nick. I began to worry that my other classes would be the same way. 3 out of 4 of my classes are less than 30 people and I was worried that I wouldn't find anyone I knew in the other classes. A jittery guy in a suit entered the room and Nick started to make a joke about him. I held up my finger telling him to wait. The guy set his briefcase down at the front of the room and I nodded, "It's the professor..." He was a quirky grad student looking kid, kind of jittery, maybe his first time teaching. As class began, we had to introduce ourselves. I told the class "I liked to feed the ducks," Nick told the story of the time birds invaded his house through the chimney. The professor seemed to like the both of us, so that was a good sign. As he began lecturing, I realized he was good at articulating things, but I had trouble keeping up with him and the business nerds. If there's one thing I can't stand, it's the business nerds. They're the kids over at Wehner that you can tell woke up early this morning for the sole purpose of reading the Wall Street Journal wither for pleasure or to make the rest of us look bad. Whatever the case, we had a couple in our class. They threw out answers containing words that neither Nick nor I understood. During the first lecture, our professor decided to throw in the fact that, he is "not the easiest grader." Delightful. He then went into random non-connected sentences with no real central theme or idea and called it his lecture. Folks, I'd like to introduce you to Jonathan Brookfield. My professor for MGMT 466: Strategic Management. At least I got to end the day at Sbisa, oh how I love eating all that I can eat. But while at Sbisa, a kid dropped his plate and fork on the ground making a loud clamor. I turned and in the good bull Aggie tradition, yelled, "Pick it up!" Upon yelling this, I realized that I was alone in the yelling and now, everyone was staring at me. I sat downand muttered about the fish and the lost traditions of Sbisa. New Army's gone to hell. On the way back to the garage, Nick and I saw a mode of transportation that neither of us had ever seen on campus before. We had seen kids riding their bikes, scooters, skateboards, rollerblades, but this was a new one. We saw a guy riding towards West Campus on his unicycle! It made my day. He peddled, arms flailing by his side down the sidewalk and around the corner out of sight. We returned home, where I was met with a big hug by Clinton, "I missed you!"

The next day was Tuesday, I woke up bright and early for 8AM class. I got ready, loaded Clinton up and drove to school. The drive did not take as long as I anticipated, I arrived to class 20 minutes early like a big nerd. I love academics... Since I was the the first one there, I staked out a place of my own and waited...hoping to see a familiar face walk through the door. And soon enough, it happened. Last semester, I was reunited with a girl that had been in my Accounting class freshman year. She joined me near the back of the classroom and all worries were soothed. I recognized another face across the small class. I was happy. Soon, professor Zimmer joined us. She was a nice woman, but she admitted getting her degree at that school over in Austin. A kid in front of me held up his pointer and pinky in the "hook 'em" symbol and nodded to her. Hey t sip, you didn't go to that school, this woman did. He irritated me already. We then had to introduce ourselves, which was a breeze. Other than the class being early, I think it'll be alright. I got out of class and had a couple hours till the next, so I headed home for a short nap.

After the nap, I returned to campus. My next class was MGMT 372. I arrived to class and as the students filed in, I realized I recognized zero of them. That's alright, a girl sat down next to me, so I began talking to her. She asked what I heard about this class and I admitted I didn't even know what the course 372 was. She pointed at the overhead projector and read it aloud. "It's organizational behavior." She told me that she was a Marketing major too and that our advisor said it was an easy class. Good, I'm glad. After class began, a guy walked in late and sat down in front of me. I hit him in the back of the head with my Battalion, "Why are you late?" The guy slowly turned around and his stunned expression turned into a smile. "Oh hey Chris!" It was my MKTG friend Jason, I did know somebody after all. He told me the same story of the reason he was in the class, the advisor said it was an easy business elective. We introduced ourselves once again to the prof, Mrs. Simmons. One of the questions we were asked is why we took the class, I made a story up that did not relect the fact that I just picked a random elective. As class progressed, we all realized it was going to be a long semester and this wasn't the easy class we had been promised. After class, Jason told me his next class was the same as mine and he introduced me to a girl that would be joining us in the next class. We went to Ag Cafe to grab a quick bite to eat, but found out that Ag Cafe was more packed then we had ever seen before. My disdain for the little freshmen grew more. After finally finding the right line, getting my chicken and eating it, it was time for class. Now this was my big class for the semester, 100 people MKTG 345. My professor was Dr. Busch who I had last semester. He loves me because I danced like an iPod in class. MKTG Majors rule. I knew several people in this class (including my iPod dance partner) and Dr. Busch went around class introducing himself to each person and smiled as he came to me and welcomed me back to his class. I knew several people in the class including the professor, this was by far my favorite. As class began, Dr. Busch began speaking to us and then paused and asked, "Chris, is there anything else I need to add?" I told him I didn't think so. He then asked me to introduce a book about your strengths that I had read in his previous class, which I did. He soon came back to me and asked me my specific strength. "Competition," I said. "What does that mean?" he asked. "Well, I'm a self motivator, I strive to be the best..." I began. The t sip guy that got on my nerves in my 8AM class decided to alert me of his presence by saying, "He's a winner..." "I Am A Winner!" I replied. Instead of introducing ourselves in class, we were asked to introduce a partner. We also made name tags to prop up on our desk to let everyone know our names. Mine says "Chris Wilson" with a penguin drawn out in the extra space on the side. No doubt everyonein that class already knew my name though, Dr. Busch made sure of that and promised the class that he would bring the DVD to class to show everyone the time I danced in my iPod costume. Class ended and I headed home.

Now here I am at work, waiting for MGMT 466 to start, hopefully it won't be as bad as we thought. We'll see. But most importantly, after class we're going to go to Mt. Aggie and sled in the snow! Whoop! I was rushed to type this, sorry if the quality is below par.

School's Back From The Summer! School's Back Forever!

It's Monday, August 29th, the first day of school! I am sitting at work waiting for my first class, which begins at 4:10. Nick managed to get into the class, so it shouldn't be too bad. I work with Tiffany again on Mondays and Wednesdays, so that's exciting too. I'm sure we'll have many adventures and exploits. All the little fish are out in full force, as Tiffany and I were walking to Rumours for lunch, I was able to devise a way to determine who was a Freshman. I noticed that the Freshman had too much going on up in their heads, while everyone else seemed to just be walking around. Most of the fish were dead giveaways with their campus map clinched in their right hand making sudden stops and turns. Other fish were identified by their attire. One girl was wearing a nice black dress, way too dressy for the first day of school. Silly fish. Most of the upperclassmen don't wear much more than their pajama bottoms or jeans and a t shirt to class. If you see these little fish, give 'em a "Howdy!" They'll most certainly break into a big, silly grin and return the howdy. I hope everyone had an outstanding first day of school and since I have not had class yet, I'll talk about my weekend.

First, my time spent at Grace this weekend was awesome. I got to meet a bunch of great people and I'm excited about Growth Groups that are upcoming. Clinton moved in on Saturday, once again making our house a home. His dad helped him move in. On my way back outside to get another load, I saw his father admiring Jimi the Llama. "Where did you get this llama?" he asked. I told him that we got it at a garage sale. "I love it. It's gorgeous..." He replied. Yes it is! I went on to tell him how unappreciated Jimi is by most of our friends. What a great guy!

I was able to make it to the second half of the soccer game Friday night (Whoop!). I got to see all 3 goals we scored on our shutout against SFA. As I waited to get into the packed crowd of almost 5500 people, the woman at the gate was checking everyone's sports pass. She'd stop everyone with, "Do you have your sports pass?" Reggie McNeal happened to be entering in front of me. When confronted with this woman's question, he said, "Naw I don't have it..." She looked at him, nodded and smiled, "Go on in," she said. And then turned to me, "Let me see your sports pass." I gave her mine, she scanned me in. If only I had some Heisman hype...then I'd get free sports tickets. What crap.

The University Police Department parked in our 24 Hour Reserved spot, so I wrote them a ticket and left it under their windshield wiper. That's stickin it to the man. What now UPD?
A special shout out to Mrs. C who was cleaning our house top to bottom when I returned home Saturday afternoon. Thanks! Well, I'm off to class with Nick then it's Sbisa time! Can't wait. Sbisa Cookies are the real deal.

Normal Day

When I have what most people call a "normal day," it just seems so boring. Today, unfortunately was an uneventful day, I'm very sorry for that. I tried to find excitement for y'all, but in the end I must admit I failed. So I'll share the mundane with you instead.

I love my friend Karen, she's a great, fun girl and she has so many endearing qualities...and a Hastings discount. I found a copy of the old Audioslave cd and only had to shell out $3.70 for it. The CD is pretty rockin. Aside from that, I didn't really do much. Just a lazy summer day. Probably the last. I have a retreat with Grace this weekend, so I'm gonna miss work tomorrow and the first official women's soccer game. I'm kind of bummed about that one, there are very few home games this year. Oh well. Clinton's moving in this Saturday and school will be starting back up. Everything is set up for my senior year.

This summer has been great, as I've said before. I said the same thing about last summer, but looking back there were quite different circumstances. It's amazing how much things can change in a year without you even realizing it. People that you didn't even know a year ago can work their way into your life and become some of your closest friends. And likewise, those who were at the center of your core group of friends let themselves out. You don't expect it. Despite change in circumstances and people, it's still the decisions that you and others make that most directly impact and facilitate change in your life. People that once spoke vehemently against another person, now adore them. People that steadfastly objected to someone's lifestyle or choices now condone or even embrace it themselves. Maybe they were put on the other side of a situation, maybe they just finally gave in to something or gave something up. Whatever the case, this change was a direct effect of a decision they made. And likewise, through this decision, others were affected. Because of this, life is not the same one day to the next. So enjoy what you have now, don't worry about the things you don't. Don't stress yourself out about every thing, problems will pass. And in making decisions, stay true to your beliefs, don't compromise and beware of hypocracy. Because the decisions you make today will form your future. It's very hard to go back and earn a redo. That being said, my life has changed in the past year, but I love how it looks. I know that in this next year, especially at the end of it, my life will be changing immensely. I don't know what the future holds, so I continue to pray for guidance. It's hard to make a regretable decision when you discuss it with the Lord. So, since this is probably my last post for the week, I guess it's time for my senior year to start. I'm ready for it. All you Aggies enjoy your first week of school. And this concludes the seemingly required Somewhat Serious Post of the Week. Hey...at least it's short.

Reasons to Hate PTTS

I touched on PTTS briefly in yesterdays entry. Let me tell you now how they briefly touched on me...or more specifically, how they touched on my van yesterday. After my long and hectic Tuesday morning of working by myself, I hoped the afternoon shift would be a breeze. But it wasn't the case. Our first task was to head over to the SCC to drop some things off. I drove the university van down the street, parked on the curb as we normally do and went inside. As we were exiting the SCC, Claudio's attention turned to a Nissan Altima which had just backed into our van. "Outstanding," I said as I walked down the steps and towards our vehicles. The woman exited her car. She was dressed in the traditional blue attire which the PTTS employees wear. She however was in her own car, most likely on her way home. I sent Tiffany a text message immediately as we walked over to the woman. "PTTS just backed into the van." I told Claudio to get a hold of someone from our building and when he couldn't reach them by phone, he walked down the sidewalk back to our building. The woman was busy talking on her walkie talkie and pacing around, so I sat back in the van leaving the door open. Maybe the semi-working AC would provide some protection from the blistering Texas heat. I watched as the lady wandered off. Not too sure where she went, I was not worried as her car was still parked in front of us. I closed the door to trap some of the cool air and sat and waited. Soon Claudio called back down to me and I told him I'd lost the lady. He told me he'd be back down in a bit. So I continued waiting. A short time later, the woman sauntered back down the sidewalk towards me. I jumped out of the van to hurry and get this mess taken care of.
"Did you call the cops?" She asked.
"No, I was waiting for you to get back to see if you had..." I replied.
"Why not?"
"You were on your walkie talkie, I figured you were calling someone."
"Oh me?" She said, "I'm not a cop."
"Oh I know.." I said as I fought the urge to roll my eyes.
"You should have called the police," She said again.
"I was waiting to see if you had done so," I talked as slowly as I could and added "I figured you had."
"Well I did," she said, "They should be here anytime now."
"Then what's the problem?"
The woman came at me with a bad attitude which I did not appreciate. I had come up to her with a smile and an understanding nature. Her automatic defensiveness irritated me. When the cop arrived, her defense became more and more offending.
"They snuck in behind me, I didn't even see them park," she claimed.
"We were actually inside the SCC when she backed into the van." I told the officer and smiled.
"Well...they were in my blind spot. I couldn't even see the van." She said, nodding to convince herself. I chuckled as this situation reminded me of a scene from Snatch. ("It was a funny angle." "It was behind you Tyrone... When you reverse, things come from behind you!")
This was classic, quite entertaining, "We were behind you..." I said. Seriously, it's a big maroon van, how can you miss it? Her Altima must have terrible blind spots in order to miss it. Let's insert a diagram.



















It's drawn to scale the best I could. Let's compare this to an illustration I found on the internet showing where actual blind spots are located:














It seems the pink area does not overlap the blue area at all. In fact, I think if you add in the pink region to the blue region, you find out that this woman has a blind spot which consists of at least 50% of her car. Perhaps this is what happens when you don't look behind you. My conclusion from these diagrams is If you don't look behind you, you can't see behind you. Now, this doesn't make what's behind you your blind spot, this makes you an idiot.
She obviously hadn't looked behind her before going in reverse. One of the first things they'll probably tell you in driver's ed. Or maybe they don't, it's pretty much common sense. As essential as looking out the front windshield when the car is in drive. Her "blind spot" argument was definately a contributing factor to the ticket for Unsafe Backing she ended up recieving. The officer copied down her information as she approached me and asked why I hadn't parked in spaces where she was parked.

"They're 24 Hour reserved," I said.
"Well, looking at your parking sticker, you can park in 24 hour reserved," she said very smugly.
"Not in numbered spaces," I replied. Come on you're PTTS, you should know this.
"Well, why didn't you park down there?" She pointed toward the loading dock.
I pointed at the sign by the loading dock and read it aloud, "Do not block loading zone." I continued, "This is where we were told to park, this is where Physical Plant and everyone else parks." I pointed at the other cars along the curb, none of them had been backed into. If I had parked in these other spaces, she no doubt would be the one to ticket me and yet she's telling me to do this trying to pass the blame on me. It's not gonna happen.
"Well this isn't the first time you've blocked me in, you're lucky this didn't happen sooner." She finally said.
How am I lucky? I'd prefer if it happened earlier, the weather probably wouldn't be this hot if it was in the winter time. It's not my car, it's not my problem, I don't really care if it happened. It was an inconvenience standing out in this now sweat drenched shirt talking to your rude face, and for that I do not consider myself lucky. And how did I block you in? How is it neccesary for you to back across the entire road in order to get your little Altima out of the space. Whatever... "Ok," was the only word I said as I walked off. I took down the insurance information as the cop talked to the woman. He sent her off and then came over to me. Told me I was not at fault since she did back into my parked vehicle. He seemed very irritated with the woman as well. I shook his hand, took his card with case number and walked back to the van.

By the time I had returned to our building, everyone knew about the situation. "Demolition Crew" was one of the many names we'd been tagged with. The number 0 had been written in the space before "Days w/o An Accident" on my dry erase board in the office. I took the information down to my boss, Myron. I handed him the case number and reached into my pocket and pulled out the sheet I'd written her insurance information on.
"I didn't know what to write, so I copied down everything on...." I began, but was interupted.
"This is all wet..." Myron said.
"Yeah, I had to stand outside for a long time, so I'm all sweaty." I told him, then decided to add,"And that actually came out of my back pocket. So that's butt sweat.."
"That's Disgusting!" Myron yelled, "Take this down the hall to John, get out of here."
I copied the information down on a different sheet of paper and left it with him.

When told about the accident, I was asked by a woman in the office, "Was it a short, kinda wide lady with a blank stare..?"
"Well...yes," I replied, "but that describes just about everyone that works for PTTS."
She laughed and then appologized, "I'm sorry...you're right."

Greg, the lab supervisor at Blocker said the best story about PTTS that he knows is the time they ticketed an emergency vehicle. He said he witnessed them writing a ticket and placing it under the windshield wiper of an ambulance with its emergency lights on. He told me he would have liked to see the appeal on that one and wishes he had a camera at the time.

So all in all, PTTS is pretty worthless (aside from my buddy Christopher Wade Wilson). That is something everyone can agree on. So, as the new school year starts and all the little fish are moving in, I want to welcome the Class of 2009 and tell them that PTTS actually stands for Primarily To Torment Students.

I received the diagnosis for my computer from the nerds today. Apparently the RAM is damaged and that is causing the computer to shut off randomly. New RAM would cost $91.80. I think I can deal with the random shutdowns and I'll keep the $91.80 in my bank account. Actually...I don't have $91.80 in my bank account. Which is the main problem. I plan on picking the computer up after work and I should return back to the 21st Century, once again having internet in my house. And since my profile is the only way most people know how to get to my blog (including me), y'all can once again read this. I've been alright without the internet the past couple of days. Luckily Dooley's vacant room served very well as a Rec Room and allows plenty of space for Nick and I to play various sports, including our new favorite, Pro Kadima. Come over sometime, we'll teach you how to play.

Summer Vacation

Well, I'm back from my 3.5 Day summer vacation to Corpus and all day it's been work, work, work. Penny and I had a great time in CC actually. Saturday we hit up the beach, it was surprisingly a very nice day there. The next couple of days I took her to all the sights. Selena, Whataburger by the Bay, Portland...and of course Krispy Kreme and Fermins! We ate like kings...or probably more like gluttons. We ate constantly. Finally some home cooking for a change and actual good Mexican food. My family loved Penny as much as I do. It was good to see my family again, I hope they can finally make it up here for a football game this year. 11 Days till Clemson!

We arrived safely back last night, no speeding tickets. My apartment was quiet and empty. Dooley's room was completely vacant aside from the note on the closet. "Sorry about the bullet hole. My Bad." And his fan conveniently placed covering the hole in the carpet. Clinton will appreciate it I'm sure. I also found a couple of presents by the dumpster I left for Clinton in his room. 2 crutches were leaning against the dumpster. I took them and convinced Nick they were mine, until I had to give up the story due to Nick's mom's honesty. We ate at Freebirds and the rest of my night was devoted to fountain hopping. We hit the 5 major ones. At Fish Pond, everyone was scared to jump in on account of PTTS' presense. PTTS stands for something like Parking Transportation Services. They're the guys that harass you about parking violations and that nonsense. They're, for the most part, pretty worthless. I'll have more about their worthlessness tomorrow. Anyway, I stepped up and jumped in. Gage dangled her feet in beside me, earning her the "Not as brave as Chris, but more brave than the others" award. PTTS immediately reprimanded me and told me I couldn't be in there. Despite my argument that Yell Leaders get to play in it and I should too, I got out. Appparently PTTS thinks they're in charge of the fountains as well. Oh well, as I got out I said, "Alright...let's head over to the MSC Hotel fountain." Which we did.

I had very little time today where I wasn't working and my computer has been with the nerds since Friday getting fixed. They have it mostly done, they just can't figure out why it's shutting off randomly. It should be ready tomorrow they say. So no time, no computer for now. Thus the short entry.

Claire's House: From the inside

I was in Claire's house last night! After hanging out with the kids from Cal-town, Zach, Kevin and I went back to my apartment where we met Penny. As we were walking into my apartment, my nose caught the odor of fresh paint, upon touching Claire's door I realized that it had a fresh coat of paint on it. I then decided to turn Claire's doorknob to see if it was unlocked. I pushed it open slightly and stopped because we weren't sure if anyone was in there. Kevin suggested that I ring the doorbell. I decided to take his advice, I pulled her door closed, rang the bell and we immediately ran in my apartment pulling the door closed behind us. I waited at the peephole and waited for someone to come to the door, no one did. Kevin then ran out and proceeded to ring the door bell over and over. I shut the door behind him as he ran in. It was then I realized that they also have a peephole and someone could be standing at theirs watching our antics without us even realizing. But Kevin reported from the peephole that all was quiet from across the hall. So we slowly creeped out, I shoved the door open and looked around the dark living room. It was empty. We filed in the dark house and dispersed. It was empty aside from some paint cans and a plastic tarp. I called Nick to let him know where we were and that our dream had been fulfilled. I walked through the dark, eerie apartment, using my cell phone as a source of light searching high and low for a souvenier for Nick. But alas, my search was fruitless. He'll have to just be satisfied with the picture of us that Penny took. Being in the empty rooms was creepy. If those walls could talk...Claire probably wouldn't have talked back...

In other news for the night, I kicked Zach's butt in NCAA 2006, the boys beat the girls in Friends trivia game, and Tiffany definately needs to get a duck to solve her caterpillar problem.
I was awakened this morning around 9:30 by the sound of a ladder being thrown against the wall right by my window and then the CLANK CLANK CLANK of the man climbing it. He then began beating on my roof. I tried the burying my head with the pillow again, but it was useless. I finally decided to crawl out of bed when they started beating on my wall. Why are the roofers beating on my wall? Perhaps they moonlight as Wallers... Anyway, hopefully after today they won't be hanging around Apartment 19 anymore. I left my apartment a little early and carried my computer into the nerds to fix. Hopefully they'll be able to get rid of the viruses and spyware and whatnot while I'm in Corpus.

I came into work and ate my "Authentic Mexican Food" microwave dinner. Authentic...right. Shortly after finishing up the beef enchiladas, my office phone rang. I answered. Now, I work in Production Control here at CIS. Apparently someone forgot to inform me of my new responsibilities in Aircraft Control. The guy on the phone wanted me to give him clearance to fly over Easterwood Airport's airspace. According to Thomas, College Station is a pretty secure place and you need high clearance to fly over. I figured meddling would probably end up getting me on the news, so I gave the guy Easterwood's number and told them they could direct his call. It appears I have a lot of work to do already without these new responsibilities. It's time for another raise.

I packed most of my stuff this morning for Corpus. We'll be leaving around 5 this evening, putting us in Corpus around 930 if we stop and eat. Penny's been to Corpus before, she's even seen the Selena Statue. Why would a white girl already know about that? Oh well, I'll take her to the Whataburger by the Bay, she's thrilled about that one. I guess I'll be back in CS Monday evening. Have a safe weekend!

Photograph Friday!
















Penny's dressed up in grandma clothes. She doesn't normally dress like this I promise...


















This is my canoe crew in our own Tunnel of Love. I miss the farm. This picture kinda reminds me of my favorite Chilli Peppers' song.

Number Sickness

I feel like I'm going to throw up. And when I do, I'm not going to be surprised when a bunch of numbers come out. Claudio and I had to do a tape audit today. That consists of going through all 4000 of the tapes and reading off their Serial Numbers and making sure they were in the correct slot. You have no idea how nauseating reading out thousands of numbers can be. My brain hurts. Numerical Warfare would probably have similar effects on the enemy as that of Chemical Warfare. I feel incapable of typing out an intelligent entry and I surely don't feel like thinking hard enough to do so.

Bingo last night was fun, we didn't win, but I didn't expect to. I did come out smelling like smoke though. All my Calallen dawgs are coming up here tonight, we'll hang out just like old times. But then tomorrow after work, I am outta here, headed back to Corpus. Glad everyone from Corpus decided to come up here right before I leave to head down there... At least I get to take my Penny with me.

Kitten pretty much hates Nick now. Anytime he opens his door, she runs into my room and jumps onto my desk or my lap. I think she's just using me to get back at him for leaving her all last weekend. Nick left town again today, I'm leaving tomorrow. I'm sure she'll hate us both after this weekend. Tiffany is taking care of her, so I'm sure they'll be best friends now. Fine with me, that cat's affection is somewhat of a curse. Maybe I'll be able to type on my computer without her "helping." More importantly though, maybe my Little Homies will finally be safe from the reign of terror that Kitten has recently brought to all of the residents of my desk.

Life from my Chair

I am lounging in one of the most comfortable chairs I've ever sat in. It's actually a pretty ugly color. Somewhere between green and grey. It stands out amongst the black and maroon chairs that we along with the other offices were issued. But in comfort, it's unmatched. A couple of months ago I found this baby at surplus and brought it back across campus to my desk. I can't even remember how life was without the comfort of this thing. My boss says it looks very unprofessional, but look at me. I'm sitting at my desk barefoot, drinking tea from the same plastic cup I drink from everyday. This cup was left to me by my former boss, something to remember Eva by. She also left me a 7 pound ball of plastic wrap which I proudly display in our Inbox below the dry erase board we found. A colorful assortment of markers that we comendeered from the front office reside in the tray below. An encouraging reminder is printed in blue at the top "Let's be careful out there!" There are few times that we take the advice. Nonetheless, according to the board it's been "Eleventy Billion!! Days W/O An Accident." A reminder of the August 12th potluck is written at the top of the board, but as of yet, no one's cared to erase it. That would take too much work. Behind me, the other guys are flirting with the girl from downstairs. I'm sitting at my desk singing along with whatever song Launchcast picks for me, right now it's You by Candlebox. And of course I'm typing in my blog. I decided to take a brief break from the typing to join the conversation behind me...I had to refill my tea anyway. The topics of conversation were various, but ended with who in CIS is gay. Hardly a productivity meeting. Our friend leaves and we all return to our stations. Justin plays his computer game, Claudio browses the internet, Zoe Jane is the current song playing at my computer. Thomas sees that it is 2:15, he gets off at 2:00, he's not too concerned about the quarter of an hour he "worked" for no pay. The UPS man enters, it's a different guy today. I can't lie to him when he asks "Y'all busy today?" I feel kind of guilty as sweat drips off of his forehead. I could have offered the guy some tea at least... But I'm sure the short break here in the below freezing print room was enough for him. Don't get me wrong, there is time to do work in here. There have been a few trips across the room today that were for work and not just for more tea, I've filled out some forms, wrote some emails and made some calls. But for the most part, this last hour has been nearly work-free. Apparently though, it's not that I am being lazy, there's just nothing to do in CIS today. Evident by the girl from downstairs coming up here for 30 minutes and then revealing she's the only one working down there today. Meanwhile I see Janette in the front office looking at eBay. I don't feel as lazy.

Last night, most of our friends went to Houston for an Astros game. I gathered up those that remained to go see Four Brothers. Nick, Jules, Kevin and I assembled together. It was a pretty good movie. Last week I told Karen I'd go with them to play Bingo on half price Wednesday, so I guess that's the plan for the evening. Thakfully the guys finally finished my roof at 6:30 last night. I awoke to my alarm this morning and not to the banging. As I left my house for work, I saw the guys walking around on the building next to ours. Enjoy that, my neighbors...

To those that have asked, you needn't be registered to comment. Click "Post a Comment," Select the "Other" bubble, type your name in and write your comment. It's as easy as that. Even the Diabetic Cheesecake Salesman can do it. And as for me, I'm going to go get some more tea.

3 Day Weekend

My long weekend is over sadly...but it's ok, I get to do it again next weekend. I'm trying to cram as many of these 3 day weekends in as I can before school starts... 2 Weeks.

Nick, Jason and I hit up Shreveport yesterday to get away from College Station for a day. We had fun. Departing a little after 8AM, it was a short 4 hour trip up there, driving through cities you wouldn't hear of otherwise. In one particular little town, we stopped at a red light next to a movie rental place. I noticed the odd logos they had on the building above the windows displaying the new releases. There were 2 large "Fram" logos. Oil filters aren't something usually offered at video stores, but it's a small town... While I was staring at the fram logos, one of my companions pointed out a sign in the window that said there were Tanning Beds Inside. Interesting. But the third sign we noticed on this video rental/parts store/tanning salon that really made this business unique was the one advertising their all day Mexican buffet... At this point the light turned green and I had to drive off, but I'm sure if the light would have been longer, we could have found a few more intersting points. Perhaps they offered a extermination service.

Nick proved himself a competent co-pilot as we arrived safely in Shreveport. We hung out at Hollywood and played some slots because they're Nick's favorite. A big waste of money if you ask me. It was soon lunch time and we decided to find us a cheap place to eat. After aimlessly wandering for 10 minutes or so, we were met on the street corner by Terrence. As his story goes, his girlfriend had left him stranded in Shreveport 3 days earlier. "If you woulda walked by1 minute later, I would have been asleep on that bench, ya heard?" He was hungry, so I agreed to buy him lunch if he would guide us to a restraunt. Our new friend led us a little further down the road in the direction we were headed to the restraunt strip. We then realized that if we were right next to where we started and if we would have just walked straight, we could have made the trip in about a minute. Terrence chose Brother's Seafood for us to eat at. So we entered, got a table for 4 and ordered. Terrence waited to see what we ordered to to gauge our price range no doubt. We all ordered hamburgers and water, placing us in the poor college student price range, he followed suit with a hamburger for himself. He told us that his family had warned him to not mess with that girl, but he ignored their advice. And now, he was feeling the effects of that as his family refused to help him. Depsite Jason's questioning, Terrence didn't share with us the specifics. He seemed like a nice guy though, very unlucky. Although I'm sure it was more stupidity than bad luck that got him in this situation. But that's what women do, they take away your common sense. For the price of a burger, he did share some timeless advice. "Don't ever let anything control you," he said. He agreed as I added, "Especially not a woman." It seems drug and alcohol addictions aren't the only kind that can leave you on the street with no food in your stomach and money in your pocket. He told us that he was looking to get back to Longview, which was out of the way for us. So we thanked him for his company and wished him luck. Penny promised me upon my return that she would never leave me in Shreveport. I wasn't too worried. She's one of the sweetest girls I've known. Which I guess is what my friends have always told me I deserve all along. I'm glad we got to meet Terrence and I hope we helped him out with his misfortune. Later, a woman walked through a crowded room and asked us (no doubt she was looking for the most handsome guys in the room) if we wanted a free buffet coupon. We accepted it and later looked for Terrence, but were unable to find him. As I said, the slots are not my cup of tea. I prefer the blackjack table. My favorite dealer was Keesha and she treated me well. I left with 55 more dollars in my pocket than I came in with.

Soon it was time to come home. After a brief hunt for the correct highway (the road system in Louisiana isn't the best), we were on our way home. Everything was smooth sailing the rest of the way through Louisiana. We entered Texas and at some point in Waskom, I had those flashing lights in my mirror. I had been going with the flow of traffic, not paying much attention and although I wasn't speedin on purpose, I was speeding. I was ticketed for 81 mph which comes with a steep $170 fine. In Wascom, Texas their ticket system is done by how fast you were going, not how much over the speed limit you were going. According to the chart, speeding at a rate of 30-39 mph comes with a $100 fine, while going 76-80 mph is $160. Of course I was going 81...tack another $10 on for that 1mph. But according to the chart, I think if I had been going 81 in a 35mph zone, I would have still been hit with the $170 fine. I feel a little cheated.

The rest of the trip was uneventful. Basically the same scenery, just on the other side of the car. But for some reason what was a short 4 hour trip, turned into a long 4 hour trip and the county of Cherokee still smelled like beans... With my co-pilot in and out of conciousness and Jason listening to some headphones for most of the way, the drive was relatively quiet. I just wanted to get home and sleep. Finally at about 10:40, we arrived back to Fox Meadows and the gas bill tallied $33.99. Fix these gas prices. Upon entering the door, I was ready to pass out in my bed and Nick headed straight to his and was out cold. I however showered, made a frozen pizza and visited with Penny. I also waited for Kevin to arrive with his delicious mango salsa. He wanted me to try it and tell him what I thought. It's good stuff Kevin, I wish I had tortilla chips. I had to kick the kids out by 1:30 so I could retire to my room. I set my alarm for 11:15 because I was straight beat and I needed some serious sleep before work at noon. I got in bed and had no problem falling right to sleep in my exhausted state.

The phone rings at 7:22, it's mom. I called her the night before to tell her about the unfortunate speeding ticket, she was returning my call. I told her the bad news. I think it's been less than a year since the last itme I took defensive driving. Thanks a lot Refugio. She said we'd talk later. I tried going back to sleep, but soon a doorbell startled me. I went to the door which for some reason I had deadbolted. It was Dooley needing in the house. He was already in the act of taking the screen off of his window to attempt entering that way. I let him in without saying a word and fell back in bed. And then it started. The roofers which had ruined my naptime last week by working on the adjacent building had begun on ours. I only heard some vague footstepps and voices and the sound of materials being drug across the roof. I placed a pillow over my head and after a while, I was somehow able to drift back off to sleep. 8:30 a text message from Tiffany interupts my sleep. I remove the pillow and read it. "Erin Sightning." I roll back over and the sounds from the ceiling had turned into a louder thud. I placed the pillow over my head, but it had become too loud to sleep. I got up and went in the hallway. Dooley was standing out there. He asked if they were playing Dance Dance Revolution upstairs, walked into his room and returned with his gun. Despite his pleas, I told him he had to take the gun back to his room and told him what they were doing on the roof. We don't need a hole in the ceiling to match the one in the floor. I walked back towards my room and the thud turned into a constant pounding. Nick's door opened and he stepped out. He looked at me, then Dooley, who was still holding his gun. "What is going on?" I told him we were at war, which by the sounds that were coming from outside could very well be the truth. I looked in his room and Kitten was screaming at all the racket. I walked back into my room, climbed in the shower, turned my shower radio up full blast and still, I could hear the pounding. It was unbearable. I decided it would be nearly impossible to try to sleep through this, so I scheduled some errands.

First on the list was changing my course catalog. The Marketing Department drastically changed their class requirements this year in the freshmen's catalog and I wanted in on that. The rules state you can move up editions in a catalog, but never back, so I was going to take advantage of that. I called the Marketing Department and was told that she could actually do it over the phone. The woman on the other end was incredibably nice and I had a nice conversation with her about the hammering, Louisiana and her trip to Hawaii. Try making small talk with advisors in any other major. Especially the worthless Management advisor...I dare you. Soon I was the proudest member of the Fightin' Texas Aggie Course Catalog of 2009. AAAAA! At this point, the pounding had given me a literal headache and I exited the apartment. The pounding hammers echoed across the parking lot making it seem like the roofers were exchaning gunfire with the next building. Debris was flying everywhere, men were yelling, a worker jabbed him pitchfork into the ground and hurried up the ladder. It was definately time to leave this warzone. I journeyed off to the bank, Blockbuster (who does not have the first season of the OC for rent either) and then Wal-Mart. Glancing at my phone, it was not even eleven yet. But with lack of anything else to do, I went straight from Wal-Mart to work. How many other jobs can you go to just to hang out? Well after hanging for about an hour, Tiffany reminded me that it was Buffalo Wild Wings Tuesday! We got our wings and our waitress gave us a couple of cardboard "Buffalo Horns" kid crowns which I proudly wore back to work. And just like that, my day turned around for the better. Now it's just about time to go home and reading over this, I've noticed it's immensely long. Good luck reading that....and I didn't even mention Friday, Saturday or Sunday...

Fattycakes

I feel like a fatty. We had a smorgasbord (you better believe I had to look that up at webster.com for spelling) of food today at our work luncheon. It was a little thing that I think Tiffany and Robin put together, one of their best ideas ever. We enjoyed Steak, Potatoes and much more. I ate and ate until I couldn't eat anymore and then I was expected to actually work and be productive. Please, how can I be productive when I'm having trouble just carrying the weight of all the food in my stomach around? Oh well, I must say it was much better than just eating my usual TV dinner over here by myself. We agreed it should happen about once every semester which means I can partake about 2 more times in this great new tradtion. Now we can leave a legacy for the future CIS generations. I brought bread and Flying Penguin ice. I like the flying penguin on the bag...he's some sort of penguin super hero. It seems his super power is flying, which I guess makes him on par with any other non-super hero bird aside from the ostrich... After the food was gone, everyone left (just like a college student) so I was left to work by myself this afternoon and also did not have to take any nerds to do tapes. Just as well, the van probably wouldn't have carried all my weight and theirs too.

Speaking of steaks, I had one last night as well. It was Heape's birthday and I was surprisingly invited to dinner. It was good to see the guy! I was not aware until we arrived that I was going to be the 7th Wheel. Much less uncomfortable than the 3rd wheel or 5th wheel, but the 7th wheel is still not a position that most envy. I was joined by Jason and Kasey, Heape and his fiance Tiffany, and an old (late 20's) married couple. We arrived and they let me know that I needed to break the ice so it wouldn't be as uncomfortable, as if I wasn't under enough pressure already. Thanks for leaving me on such an important night, Penny. Before leaving for Outback, I had been quite interested in the Green Bay preseason game, I was hoping to see some rookie Aggies take the field (T Murph was out with an injury, but Montgomery was impressive.) I asked the waitress to turn the TV onto ESPN, but when she failed to return, I took matters into my own hands. I walked to the otherside of the table, reached around for the power button and pressed it. Apparently the last people that used the TV was the 3H group (Hard of Hearing Hispanics) because Telemundo came on and blasted out the news at a volume comparable to a jet engine. I was unable to find the volume button so I retreated. Luckily one of the others I was dining with was able to remedy the situation and the other guests turned their eyes away from our table and back to their food. Ice Broken, mission accomplished. As comfort began to set in, Matt reminded the waitress that Tiffany was going to be on his ticket. She then asked me who I was paying for. I looked at the 2 guys I was sitting between, then to their dates sitting next to them and responded, "No one thank you...I'm the 7th wheel. Just me...by myself..." She nodded and walked off. I returned home to a lonely house. Luckily Kitten had refused to accompany Nick to Corpus and wouldn't come out from under the bed despite Nick's attempts to drag her out with a broom handle. Stand strong Kitten! As a reward for her loyalty, I promised her that we'd watch some of That 70's Show this weekend. I did go over to 1713's new house, 911...the Treehouse, whatever we're calling it, for a short time last night. Ate some cookies, won some Skip-Bo, you know, the usual. Also as usual, I'm planning for a pretty boring weekend, but that normally somehow turns into an eventful one. We'll see.

And now, I unveil a new weekly feature that I like to call "Photograph Friday!" (An attempt at aliteration. I think it works because the Ph makes a F sound...)

This week, 2 pictures. Just so you know who I'm talking about when I mention Penny or Dooley.








This is Penny and Me.












This one is Dooley

Well, I guess I need to be productive as I've been left alone, in charge of the print room. And now the phone's ringing... Next Monday is our Louisiana trip, so I guess I'll be back to blogging on Tuesday! Peace out kids.

The Other Side

I woke up bright and early this morning to once again try to find Adam, my TA in Wehner. Due to my brilliance, I was able to park on the sidewalk by the vault where we keep tapes for work instead of my normal parking lot, cutting a 10 minute walk down to 30 seconds. After a short phone call, I learned that not only was the first office I attempted to go to earlier this week not Adam's, but the second one I had been directed to had not been his either. I entered his office and he told me that there was no need to look over my test, he knew me, decided I was a good guy and good student, so he put in a word with Dr. Welch and my grade was bumped up a few points to an A. After a short chat, I headed back home for a quick nap before work. After dreams of Casinos and Enchilada Ice Cream, I woke up and called Penny so I could go see her before she left for the entire weekend. I went upstairs and told her goodbye and that I'd miss her and then it was work time...

Yesterday Sam, our favorite delivery guy came in. Sam is our age, he's a little quiet, but he's a very polite and friendly guy and I like him a lot. He'd been gone for the past couple of weeks and I'd been asking around to see where he was. But there he was, back in his office. I jumped out of my chair and exclaimed, "Sammy! You're back, where have you been!?" He set a package down, looked at the floor and his answer nearly brough tears to his eyes, "My mom died..." I didn't know what to say, I immediately regretted my loud, peppy greeting to him. I can't even begin to think of what he went through or how to deal with that. I don't know anything about his situation or much about his life, but surely it was hard for him. I felt guilty for being in such a good mood and for my question. As he left I debated whether or not to get a sympathy card and tried to think of anything else we could do for him. Nothing would make him feel better I'm sure and I can't say that I know how he's feeling. I wanted something to let him know that we care and thatI am praying for him. But what I didn't want was something to bring him down or make him dwell on the situation. But today I came in and Robin had decided to get him the card, we all wrote in it. I'm glad she made the decision, Sam smiled when I gave it to him this afternoon and thanked me.

Kind of a damper on the blog, but that's life. I watched the Real World last night, Keely had taped the past 2 episodes. This is actually the first Real World that I've seen more than 1 episode of. But that dude's mom died too. Death is very real, make sure that the people close to you know that you love them and appreciate them. Enjoy today, don't take it for granted because you don't know what tomorrow may bring. Thank you for letting me interject a little seriousness and reflection. For those that say the blog is too one-sided, all humor no emotion, here's The Other Side.

I guess the rest of my day is hardly worth mentioning. Nerds, Vans, Sweet Tea... You fill in the blanks. It seems that both of my roommates in addition to my girlfriend decided today was a good day to go out of town and leave me all alone for the weekend. And I keep thinking today is Friday, but that doesn't come until tomorrow. I'll talk to y'all then.

Responding to Accusations

If you've read the tagboard or the comments, I have some clarification for you. Did I attack my friend and roommate in the parking lot yesterday? Yes I did. Was it merely because they didn't comment on my blog? Of course not, that's ridiculous. It had to do with Away Messages. Most people don't appreciate something until they don't have it anymore (except Chelsea, truly my best fan). I walked Karen out to her car last night, wiffle ball bat in hand to protect her from the dark, mean streets. When we got there, Nick ran out to join us. They then began insulting my lack of new away messages. It's been over a year since I've made a new Chris' Comment, but in my 2 seasons, I have compiled over 200 which I've been pulling from for the past year and I reuse over and over. Apparently they weren't going to have it anymore, they were tired of reading old away messages and they wanted new ones. I was insulted by these two because of my lack of new away messages. Now let's look at who it was that insulted me. First there was Nick, who is rarely online anymore, because he's too busy pirating movies. But when he was online, his away messages were either boring, generic ones like "Tip the waitstaff, it's not a flippin' hobby" which were reused Over and Over (Did I complain? Nope... Mr. Uncreative) or jokes which he read or recieved via email. At least I made up my own material. Karen is next. Her away messages usually consist of inspirational quotes which she picks from books she's read. That is also not your material. Plus she has about a pool of 20 messages which she selects from. Do you know how many times I've read the same "If you're waiting for Mr. Right..." or "You're a special girl because..." messages? Plenty. I've read the same away messages Over and Over and Over. So many times in fact, that many are engrained into my head, making me sometimes think that I am indeed a special girl and I deserve someone who recognizes that.
So Nick's Messages: Uncreative + Reused = No room to talk
Karen's Away Messages: Uncreative + Reused = No room to talk
Chris: Creative, but reused + Never criticized the other's inferior away messages + Double-teamed in the parking lot = Can attack people with a bat to defend his actions

When I did have new messages, I did not recieve any praise from these 2 kids, but whenever they realize that they're bored of reading the same ones, they then see that their life is incomplete without a daily dose of Chris knowledge. But instead of appreciating what I did do, they immediately attack me and mock me. Yes, I was thinking of doing a new series this school year, but it takes some thought and effort. I've been dedicating that thought and effort to this blog however. And I know that both Karen and Nick read this, but they show no love to me for it or signal that they appreciate my effort (which I would agree is minimal). Some people do let me know that I entertain them through this (which surprised me) and to those people I thank you. Appreciation is a much better motivator than mockery and insults. And that is the point I was trying to drive into their heads (and faces) through the bat incident.

And as for my day? It rained.

Throwback Day

Today is a throwback day. I'm working 8-4 just like I did for the first half of the summer. Logan's gone this morning, Claudio is out in the afternoon, so it's Tiffany and me all day. My favorite co-worker, it'll be swell. I'll get to introduce her to some of the nerds she's missed out on meeting by working in the mornings. The two I took yesterday were nerdy, but somewhat normal. They actually began a conversation in my back seat about football! First it was the topic of the Tech game moving to a neutral site. One of my favorites to rant about, so I butted in. Then it was the topic of Reggie Vs. Vince. My other favorite topic. The most exciting thing about today is that it's once again Buffalo Wild Wings Day! When Tiffany and I used to work together, every Tuesday was BWWD, we're once again reunited with our wings. Gage joined usfor lunch and I won the trivia game 3 times out of 3. I'm a true champ!

Thomas just asked me what I'm "not gonna take," due to my singing of Twisted Sister's "We're Not Gonna Take It"... I'm actually not too sure what it is that they're not gonna take either. Another song that I've never understood is Epic by Faith No More. Repeatedly they ask "What is it?" and then procede to describe what it is, but we never really figure out what it is. Apparently they don't either as they end the song still asking, "What is it?" Maybe the "it" in question is the point of the song. And the answer is definately "Nothing..." Worthless.

I'm actually pretty wired this morning (thus the singing). I attribute that to the much needed Full Throttle I drank this morning. Although I'm used to waking up early for 8AM classes, I guess I thought this morning it was too early to get up for work, so I didn't set my alarm. Tiffany came in my room at 7:40 and asked me if I was going to wake up, she then went to the living room to watch Figure It Out on GAS (the Nickelodeon game show channel). I eventually did wake up, the Full Throttle I'd been saving for a situation like this definately helped. I love Full Throttle. Out of all of the energy drinks I've tried, it definately works the best. Plus it tastes pretty darn good. My grade in my summer class is rather disappointing. It was a terribly easy class, but for some reason my final grade shows a B. Yes, I'm upset with a B, I was taking one easy summer classes, I was striving for an A, so back off. I'm going to go talk to the TA tomorrow about it. I tried going yesterday, but after a long manhunt, I was unable to locate him. He assures me that I'll be able to find him tomorrow, so we'll see. Also, yesterday I was calling Penny, but intercepted some girl's phone call. I dialed and heard, "...so that's all I need to do, I should be ready by the time you get here..."
"Sweet," I replied.
"...... What did you say?"
"Sweet..."
Call Ended.

I don't really have much from today, but last night was interesting. Gage had a lot of fun on her birthday, let's give her a big "Nike!" for surviving her 21st.

Weekend Update

Another week begins. It's time for the weekend update. I had to switch up my normal routine from 1. check email, 2. facebook, 3. read Texags, 4. Blog to just 1. Blogging first to ensure I have enough time to finish.

Friday, I went and visited my very good friend Karen, who is definately not mentioned on here enough (which I get in trouble for), at Hastings, her place of employment. While waiting for her to get off, I went through the used CDs and found Matchbox 20's "Yourself or Someone Like You" marked $.49. I checked with Karen and it was marked correctly. So I scored the CD for 2 quarters. Add me to the long list of people that already own this CD, which is sure to include 90% of America's girls... After some more festivities at 1713, I returned home to find an envelope taped to my door. I pulled it off and carried it inside where I quickly tore into it. I had a feeling I knew who it was from...

"Dear all [Jason, Kasey, Kelly, Gage, Tiffany, Chris, Kevin, Karen, and the four other kids whose signitures I couldn't decipher]:
Thanks for the card and the lovely parting gift. I cannot tell you how surprised I was to receive them both. Although, Living here the last 15 months has been a blast, alas my roomates and I have decided to vacate Fox Meadows #21. Sorry if Becky, Leslie, and I were somewhat antisocial (well, maybe not Leslie)-the three of us just kind of like to do our own separate things. Anyway, be cool, stay loose, have a good one, and all that jazz...

Mary

P.S. Sorry for the sh**y stationary"

Claire had written back! Something I hadn't expected at all! It made my night, I hope it made her day too. I was surprised that she didn't address the fact that we call her "Claire"...

As I walked to my car Saturday morning, I noticed through the open living room window how barren apartment #21 looked. I have to admit, my heart sank a bit, I'll miss those guys. Gage's family was in town this weekend, helping her move to the new house. I also assisted where I could. This house has a huge living room. Calan and I agreed they should get some stadium seating going on in there. I'm excited about this house and the possibilities. MB arrived in town on Saturday, I hadn't seen her in a while (apparently someone else I don't mention enough). The rest of Saturday included the fantasy football draft, food, Double Dare and some bowling.

Sunday began at church. After church I went home and watched Double Dare (my TV only left that channel briefly for Tom & Jerry on Boomerang this week). I'd gone into the living room to eat lunch and perhaps receive some entertainment from the TV. I in no way thought I was going to witness history. But it happened! At the end of the game, both families were tied 325 - 325. As the host revealed that this had never happened before, he got a slight twinkle in his eye, signaling to telling me that his crazy side was about to take over. He announced he'd let both families combine and go through the obstacle course at the end for double the prizes. Was this guy nuts? The families only made it to obstacle 6 out of 8, mainly because the red mom took forever finding a flag in her pizza... I bet the blue team was glad their mother wasn't so worthless. But still, I'm glad I was there to see it, surely one of sport's greatest moments and something to tell the grandkids about. Sunday I ventured to the other Hastings to see if they had the OC Season 1 to rent, since Disc 1 and 2 had been stolen from the Hastings in College Station... No luck there either. But while I was there, I recieved weird call 2 and 3 for the weekend. It seems that the lines got crossed once again. First I talked to a guy looking for Billy when Tiffany was calling, the second call was from Jason, but I answered the phone and all I heard were Chinese words coming from an Asian woman. Cingular, you've got to stop while I still have my sanity. In other news, I was trying to find Dooley a place to live and I IMed a guy from facebook about it, but he was away. I immediately regretted doing so and had to block him because I realized he may look at my profile to figure out who I am, which would then take him to my blog, which would reveal that Dooley fires guns in the house, leaving him with little reason not to reject him from moving in. However, Dooley was able to find a house on his own. It seems that a man that lives a few blocks down from Karen recently got divorced and needs a roommate to split the living costs with. It sounds as if he needed a drinking buddy too, which I'm sure Dooley would fill nicely as well. Him being within walking distance of Karen's house is cool though. I met Kevin, Jason and Kasey at the driving range that night. My skills are improving, thanks to some instruction from Kevin. After that I went back to my house and Kevin arrived a short time later. He was carrying 5 pizzas and 2 things of crazy bread! "Whoa Kevin, are you hungry?" He explained that he went to Little Caesars and apparently he picked the right time to go. They liquidated the rest of the pizzas they had left over for $10. I told Kevin that I loved him. It was the most glorious sight I'd ever seen...

Lastly, Happy Birthday Gage!! And also, welcome back to CS Robert! It's Gage's 21st birthday, we're gonna party it up at the new house. It's gonna be off the chain. Se y'all there.

Friday, Fall and Football

The summer is winding down, I took my final today, so I am officially on summer vacation for the next few weeks! Now if only I could get out of this work... With fall comes football. 29 Days and 4 hours until kickoff in Clemson. I'm so pumped for Aggie Football. I've been like this all summer, today Justin brought up the Reggie vs. Vince debate, so that got me fired up. Since I had to go train the nerds, I pointed him in the direction of this article. It's the only one that I've found that speaks the truth about the two. I doubt many of you care about Reggie or Vince, but I do. Robin had a talk with some people and the balance of power has been restored. They have eliminated my dealings with the big nerds. I simply call down there and ask for 2 people and they are delivered promptly to my doorstep. I got 2 Kyles today, they were likable characters. I struck up conversation with them which ultimately went back to football... They pretended to know what I was talking about. I like it when people let me talk. I've noticed now as I walk down the hall, past the nerds' window, I get the head nod from them. I also received the nod as I walked past some of them to enter our building. They were out smoking on the back dock (maybe they aren't nerds at all because smoking makes you cool...). I feel a sense of acceptance from those on the other side. Perhaps I can bridge the gap and I'll know people at the company picnics other than the 40+ year old women...

Anyway, it's been month-end this week which means that several boxes of reports have been needing transport. This usually requires the use of a dolly that folds down into a cart. Upon the discovery that after unloading the boxes at the appropriate offices, the dolly makes a pretty sweet skateboard/scooter, I've enjoyed month-end. I have yet to come to the realization that I am now a senior in college (whoop) which means soon I may have to be an adult thrusted into a position where riding the office equipment and singing 80's rock ballads in the hall is not acceptable. I have learned though that a little harmless fun isn't going to hurt anybody and may be the only motivation a worker has to actually do his mundane job (other than losing their means of income.) I think that's a lesson that most of the people here missed, I'm trying to teach them though.

Driving today I saw a car all decorated with shoe polish on the window saying, "Honk if it's my birthday." How am I supposed to know if it's your birthday? I calculated my odds and realized there's probably about a 364/365 chance (I didn't know how to factor in leap year) that her birthday is not today, so I didn't honk. Hope I made the right decision, otherwise I'd feel like a jerk. Also, I noticed that a "Kelsey for SBP" sign remains on the corner of University and 6. It's been there for about 4 months. I'm getting pretty sick of looking at it, it should have been taken down back in May, I think I may have to do something about it this weekend...

Lastly, our fantasy football league draft is tomorrow and we're still needing 3 players. So, hurry on over and join the Pigskin Pirate league. http://freemeeting.0.football.nfl.com/splash/invite/1520/21247/6810883a11d1829d3fed9a9f90f998bc
That's the link, join, tell your friends, it'll be rockin. And the password is argh. Whoa...that's a long link...

Alright Kiddos, have a great weekend whatever you're doing. I'll be around CS, doin what I do. Helping 1713 move if they allow me, it seems Tiffany is mad at me for joking that I'd be in Corpus the day they were moving to avoid helping and my punishment is not getting to help. Shucks... And Claire's present was left on her doorstep last night. It was gone by 7:30 this morning. Thanks to all those who signed it. I'm sure it brightened her day. It is time to go home and celebrate the weekend and the summer!

Sign the Card!

The nerds are at it again! I had to go recruit 2 more this afternoon to teach to count. That's when one of their higher-ups, Myles, told me it wasn't their responsibility. Now, I've never had a problem with this guy, just thought he was a weird little nerd guy. But today, he tried ruining what had been a very nice day. I didn't have my 8AM class this morning, so I just slept in like a champ! I awoke at 11 with a smile on my face and now, just a little over an hour later, this guy was trying to erase that smile. "This isn't even their job, you can't keep taking my guys." Maybe if they knew how to do it correctly I wouldn't have to take them to reteach them during the week. It's a major inconvenience to me too, hippie. "Why don't yall just come in on the weekend and do it?" Technically, we've been doing it on the weekdays just as long as the nerds have been doing it on the weekend. It's as much their responsibilty as it is ours. They're already on the clock on the weekend, they're here, just do it. I'm not going to drive up here Saturday and Sunday morning to spend 30 minutes doing something any idiot could do. Seriously, Jessica Simpson would have less questions about this task than these nerds. That would put us over hours anyway and I sure as heck am not going to come up here voluntarily. Give me $20 each day, the sweet company van and the access card and I'll consider it. I tried explaining this to him, but he wouldn't hear it. He grudgingly picked out 2 of his lesser nerds and sent them with us. Robin is going to get some words from me about him tomorrow. Yet another Justin was sent with us and some kid I don't remember the name of (come on, I'm terrible with names, you're lucky I remembered the ones yesterday...). When I asked what they do about football games, Justin claimed to volunteer to work on Football Saturdays, "I can miss games, I'd rather watch them on TV anyway. I don't even have a sports pass." The other seemed to agree. What's wrong with these kids? I bet they wouldn't work during a LAN party...whatever that is. I hear them talk about those in the hallway sometimes.

Now back to the Vanilla Ice story I mentioned last week. I had just gotten home from work and was beginning in on what would turn out to be about a 5 minute nap. My phone rings, I roll over, grab it off of my nightstand and check the caller ID. "Chelsea Cell," I knew she was going to return my call during my nap and wake me up. I try to flip my phone open to answer it, but it opens about halfway and then shuts back, hanging up on her. I immediately open it back up and call Chelsea back. I sit up in my bed, phone to my ear, waiting for the rings to begin. After 2 seconds of silence however some music begins. It's music that I havent heard since high school. The music takes me back years, to the last time I watched the wretched show known as TRL. Is that The Real Slim Shady? Indeed it was. For some reason that tune begins playing through my phone. That's not very Chelsea-like I think to myself as I say, "Hello..? Chels...?" I pause and listen. I soon realize that the lyrics are not those penned by Marshall Mathers, but rather it was Vanilla Ice reciting, "Will it ever stop, yo, I don't know, turn out the lights and I glow..." I again say, "Chelsea..?" A few seconds later, the phone went silent. I pulled the phone away from my ear and looked at the display: "Call ended 0:15." I muttered to myself, "???" I dialed Chelsea again.
She answered after one ring, "Hey I just tried to call you, I got a busy signal."
"I didn't open my phone all the way and the face shuts, you get a busy signal when that happens... But I called you back and all I heard was music."
"I didn't get a call from you until just now."
"No, there was Slim Shady and Vanilla Ice..." I trailed off.
Chelsea suggested, "Maybe you heard my ringtone..."
"Is it Vanilla Ice or Eminem?"
"No..."
I told her the whole story and she had absolutely not idea what I was talking about. "There's no music in here...I'm watching my little brother." The story had to be true because in the background I heard her little brother exclaiming that he was "Michael Jackson."
I had a plan, "I'm going to hang up now, you call me back and I will try doing the same thing that I did last time." I tried replaying the whole situation, but when I dialed her back all I got was 58 seconds of ringing. The mystery has gone unsolved, not as easy to figure out as the Dooley case, some tried to explain it away as a dream, but this was no dream. Since then, I've had several reports from Tiffany, Claudio, and Thomas (All Cingular customers) saying that their calls are being intercepted by other people, sothey don't end up reaching the people they're calling, but instead others, such as Asians and a guy named Kevin. Cingular...you tricksters.

Yesterday Nick and I purchased a "Goodbye" card for Claire. It says something to the extent of "Wherever you're going, you surely won't find anyone else quite like us..." And on the inside, "Which is probably why you're going there." I thought it was very fitting. Penny suggested a gift as well, specifically an ash tray, so we purchased that too and I wrapped it last night in my traditional Christmas Penguin wrapping paper. Be sure to stop by my house sometime today to sign the card because I will be leaving it on her doorstep tonight. She'll love it I'm sure.

Working Hard

I had to work the entire time I was at work today, so I didn't get a chance to post anything at work. So here I am, after a breif visit with Tiffany and Nick, I'm typing what should have been done hours ago. Stupid work responsibilities. To start things off, I found out that today, I was going to have to take the esteemed co-workers (nerds) across campus to teach them how to do the tapes correctly. Upon hearing this, a sense of irony swept over me. So I reported to Myron's office and told him, "I need 2 coworkers to accompany me to do tapes.."
"That's right," he said, "they're co-workers. Remember that."
It seems that 2 kids named Justin and Weston made the cut and were the lucky winners. They accompanied me, I showed them what to do, despite Justin's claims that he'd done it before. That was just the start to a long day at work. When Shervonne, a woman at work, told me to be good, I had to let her know that, "I am too busy to cause any trouble today..." Sad but true, that's how my day went. All work and no play makes for a pretty boring blog I'm afraid. That, and having to type it on my own time. I'd rather waste company time typing these things up than my own. I prefer to use my time for napping. Which is what I'm going to do now...

And today is my grandma's birthday. Happy Birthday Granna!

Acting Neighborly

Today is August 2nd, which just so happens to be mine and Penny's one month anniversary. One month...it feels like it's been much longer than that, but I did the math and it's right. Of course my favorite neighbors occupy apartment 22 (Penny, Keely, Tracy), but when you look at the other 2 households in my building, you'll see that it doesn't take too much to achieve that status. I'm fully aware that the feeling is mutual. The other girls in our building do not care for us boys in Apartment 19. Although Nick and I know our neighbors mainly by what car they drive and that's how we often refer to them (ie. "Red Truck Girl"), each neighbor does have a story... And since most of them are moving out, never to cross our paths again, I think it's time to summarize why we didn't exactly get along.

Apartment 20: The girls directly above us. Nina, Yellow Bug Girl, Nina's Hispanic roommate. Now, we didn't really know anything about these girls for the first 6 months they lived above us. But in the Spring semester last year, Clinton's roommate, Blake began dating Christina, or as she's called, "Nina." Up until this point, we thought the girls upstairs locked themselves indoors all day. However, it turned out that the girls did have strong opinions about Nick and me. "Those boys are loud and always have parties." Why she thought this, I don't know. It could be argued that we were loud from time to time, but her claims that the room under her (Nick) blared loud music until 3AM were completely false. I would kill that kid if he did that. However, these were the opinions that were shared with Clinton. When I got word of this and her name, Christina Gay, I looked her up on facebook and decided to poke her. Later the same day, I saw Blake and Nina coming down the stairs, I was outside because Kevin was in the parking lot running around in my iPod costume I had from Marketing class. Not the prime circumstances for meeting a neighbor, I know. But I took the chance to rebut her ideas of us and told her that "We are Not bad neighbors!" She didn't agree and told us that they have to constantly bang on the floor to keep us quiet. It's not very often that the upstairs neighbor complains that the people below them are too loud. Since then, there have been a couple of warranted claims that we are being loud (hall ball matches, dodgeball during finals, other indoor sports), but for the most part, we are good. They just need to understand that we're boys and we have certain innate needs, like spontaneous hall sports. It's hard being the only boys in the building... From that point on, we began banging on the ceiling and reprimanding Nina from our apartment when they got rowdy. Sometimes it sounds like they're bowling up there... We knew Nina had 2 other roommates, one with a VW Bug, one that's hispanic. I figured out that the Hispanic one lived above me when one day I came home and heard Tejano music blasting from the room above mine. That may be a little stereotypical, but I think my assumption is correct. To conclude, I caught Bug Girl moving out this weekend and decided to have a talk with her. I was in the middle of cleaning out my trunk, so of course I was wearing a newspaper hat that I had made at the OSU basketball game this past semester and a fanny pack that Karen forced me to keep last summer. Bug Girl didn't have much to say to my questions, I could honestly tell she hated us. But she did assure me we weren't the reason she was moving out and as she kindly put it, we "weren't the Worst neighbors Ever, but..." I did acquire the following information from her though: Nina and Hispanic girl will be staying, Bug Girl is getting an apartment with some of her "best friends." So I'm sure we'll have more run-ins with Nina, stay tuned.

Apartment 21: The neighbors directly next to us. Now these are the fan favorites. We have Leslie (Red Truck Girl), their Hispanic roommate and of course, Claire... Last summer they moved in when I was out of town, when I returned I was told about the terrible new neighbor. Nick said he tried meeting her, but she basically ignored him. I said, "I'm sure she's not as terrible as you describe, you just have to be nice!" Later I got my chance to meet the new girl, "Hey you must be our new neighbor, I'm Chris!" I said extending my hand. The girl responded, "..hey...", avoided my hand, walked right past me, all without slowing down or making eye contact. "Yep... you're right, new neighbor is a total jerk," I told Nick as I came in the house and sat on the couch. Since we didn't know her real name, we began referring to her as Claire.
The word that describes Claire the best is, as Penny put it, "Aromatic." The only thing that Claire likes to do is sit on the steps and smoke. She hates all people, including you. I did find out her real name due to some misdelivered mail, so I looked her up on facebook and her entire profile was dedicated to The Force and all things Star Wars and she had a total of 0 friends. I felt bad for her, so I figured it would be nice if her neighbors (Nick, Penny, and I) showed their appreciation by poking her. She didn't respond. I then asked her to be my friend which prompted her to immediately remove her account from facebook. In the past few months, Nick and I have done everything in our power to make her think we're actually insane, but our attempts were met with little response. Leslie was her only roommate that I ever actually got the chance to talk to. She not very personable and I'm pretty sure she thinks she's a thug, but she does talk back when spoken to, which is more than I can say for Claire. I've only seen her third roommate outside of the house on a couple of occasions when the door had been left open. We decided that Claire was holding her prisoner in the apartment and the 2 times we saw her outside were escape attempts. I also spoke with Leslie this weekend, she informed us that all 3 roommates were moving out, going in their seperate ways. She's going to live in a house off of Rock Prairie and Claire is moving into a single bedroom apartment (of course).
"So you're gone for good?" I asked
"Yes, thank God..."
"You didn't like living here?"
"Well, I hated my roommates..."
I should have guessed.

In other neighbor news, I witnessed an Asian man across the parking lot from us, after moving out his living room furniture, walk back upstairs and ride his bike by the open living room window. He seemed like a fun character, I'm sad I didn't meet him before he moved out.

Farewell Claire and friends, thanks for the memories. I only hope our next batch of neighbors provide as much entertainment.

Oh you nerds...

It's Monday once again and I actually had an eventful weekend. Friday, Nick finally got the 4 Runner of his dreams, it's a pretty sweet ride. Penny's parents fed Nick and me Friday night and again on Saturday, we enjoyed it. Hanging with them was cool, except maybe for the part where her dad closed the door in my face and locked me out of the house. He claims it was an accident...

Saturday was long. It started at 7AM and this is how it went: Work Projects, Chicken Oil Co., Pay the Rent, "Happy Birthday MB,"Atkinson Toyota, Best Buy (I doubt you wanted full commentary on my day...) After all that business was done and I arrived back home, Nick and I decided it was time for a trash run. So we gathered up our trash and took it down to the dumpster. When we got there, we saw a desk laying next to the dumpster. A pretty nice looking desk despite having a drawer missing. Now, one of our friends has been looking for a desk and we decided this would be the perfect time to show her how good of friends we are. I decided we should load it up on Nick's new 4-Runner and actually use that extra space he paid for. Apparently he needed just a bit more space though, to fit this desk. But there we stood in the parking lot, trying to manuever and position this desk so that it would fit in the back of the 4-Runner. We tried it right side up, upside down, end over end, nearly everything but breaking it into pieces and stacking them in the back. It wasn't until we gave up and decided to just carry it across the parking lot, all the way back to the apartment and have someone with a truck come get it for her that we fully realized we were being watched. A girl and her mom had been standing on the sidewalk watching us struggle with the desk. I also became aware that they had been loading her belongings into a trailer and moving her out. So most likely this was her desk that they had just thrown out that we were now playing with. Oh well, I smiled and waved and we carried the desk back to our dining room where it will sit for another week. We plundered them good! Afterwards, we went to play volleyball with lots of people from church since we had to replace our normal Saturday Night Volleyball friends. At the apartment complex we played at, we located another nice desk being thrown out by a resident. However we were told that it was already claimed and if we wanted it, there would be trouble. I didn't back down because of the fight, that's not the pirate way. I backed down because I realized if we had that much trouble trying to fit a desk in the 4-Runner, it would probably be harder to fit one in the Civic...

Sunday: Church, Hamburgers, Video Games, 1713, Pancakes, Penny...

Which brings me to today and the trouble I've already gotten into. It's a habit to cause some mischief at work every week. But after being at work 5 minutes today, I was already in trouble. Background Information Time!! We have a offsite tape vault that we keep backup tapes of financial information and all kinds of other information, so if our building burns down, we don't lose all that vital information. Yeah, I have a way important job. Each day, we have to go exchange tapes and pick tapes and keep the inventory updated. Me and my kids do this on the weekdays, the nerds from the help desk (the people you call to fix your computer) do it on the weekends when we're not here. Every weekend, they find a way to mess it up and I've left them notes explaining what to do. Week after week, "Hey weekend kids, put the tapes in order...", "Alright, here's what you do...", etc. No such luck, every week they find a way to mess up the tapes. I don't know if they can't count or read numbers that aren't binary. Whatever the case, they cause quite a bit of problems for us workers and cause Robin to get yelled at on occasion. So last week I left them a note that addresed them, "Hey Nerds!" Well, fast forward to today, after they recieved the message. I walk into work and Robin tells me that they got my message and told their boss about it. "You can't call them nerds," she told me. Robin had no problem figuring out who had penned the message. Robin's sense of humor is similar enough to mine for her to laugh it off though. I was walking down the hall a bit later and I hear Myron, a bigger boss with minimal sense of humor snap his fingers and call out my name, "Wilson! Get in here." He tells me he was forwarded the same story and that I'd left a message that "called them idiots...or stupid..or..."
"It was nerds," I said.
"Yes, yes, well in any case, you can't do that. We all work for the same department, we can't have dissention in the building."
I told him that I have left them several nicer messages, but they never got the point. Nonetheless, I appologized. Sorry nerds...errr coworkers. However, I did get some satisfaction today when Tiffany came in to visit and told me that in the log that we keep of who drives our van and where they go, one of the kids from the weekend recorded their name...and out beside it, wrote "(nerd)."