Busy Again

I have a little time before my dad will go to bed so that I can print shit off to do my homework, due either in class or after class tomorrow. Thank the Air I'm a night owl and that my first class is at noon.

Alright, then. Where did I leave off? I think I still haven't talked about Thursday, which honestly feels like so long ago. I just haven't had the time to write. Really. It's kind of awful.

Well, Thursday is my early day. I woke up at seven and was out the door in less than ten minutes. Cleaning off the car wasn't too bad, since Michigan decided to de-snow itself last week again. It was freezing, though. When I picked up Cara, it took forever for her to answer her door, and I was kind of just dancing around her porch and driveway trying to stay warm. I also checked on the boat battery my dad put in the trunk of the car to make sure it didn't tip over again. I don't want battery acid leaking all over my car. Something tells me that would be bad.

I still had a little time to sit in the car and listen to music and catch up with Cara once we got to school, which was nice. Traffic was a little thicker that morning than it was last semester, but I'm not changing my time to leave for school. I've been at least ten minutes early every time I drive to school on my early ass mornings. I'll need that time once snow actually falls, but whatever. This is one class I certainly can't be late for, or I'll be rejected. And, since this is the last lab of the week, I don't have a fallback plan like last semester. I'll end up failing a whole lab. I don't really need that. Especially since Nate went into details about why he hated this professor. I'll talk about that later.

The class was kind of awful, too. All we had to do was do problems on about fourteen pages, and they weren't even due at the end of the class period. So I spent a little less than three hours working on these problems, checking them with her key to make sure that I didn't get needlessly marked down, and I still didn't finish. Which reminds me. I need to finish those tonight. I'm kind of hoping they're in my chemistry lab notebook, since they aren't in my notes notebook.

I ended up barely able to think by the end of the period, so I just screwed around between the lab and lecture. Kind of toned it down in that hour so that I could think again. Seriously, this professor wants to teach us how to think, and she throws this at us and kills our ability to think. I really hate teachers that think they can teach their students how to think. I have my methods and I'm a straight A/B student, and I don't even try. Imagine the grades I would get if I tried.

Yeah, so in lecture she went on about how our groups should get together outside of class and form a study group. Every week. We set up a time, which is an hour before lecture on Tuesdays, but I'm not going to show up. Fuck that. I've never, ever studied successfully with a group. The closest I've gotten to that was helping Abbi and Bethany with their chemistry work that they got from Callaghan, and while that helped, it wasn't exactly studying. I was telling Nate about that and he told me that she won't be able to force me to attend those study sessions. He better be right. He thought it was as crazy as me, and he's had this professor before.

We finally went over some notes a little bit into class, even though it was pretty basic shit. I'm really not looking forward to this semester in this class. I don't much care about kinetics in chemistry. I mean, maybe it'll be important in the line of work I'm looking to, but good golly. Thermochemistry isn't very high on my list of priorities, either, and I'm pretty sure kinetics and thermochemistry are the only major topics we're talking about. Yipee for me.

The bitch monster professor that I have for Composition II doesn't seem as bad as she did the first day. We got our first assignment in that class, which is just a straight-up summary. All of our assignments open Sunday morning and close Tuesday night at 11pm. Which means I'll always be doing those assignments Monday night after I close down shop with Nate. I can probably guarantee this. The only problem is getting my dad off the computer that connects with the only printer that works in the entire house.

Sociology, I think, will be a fun class. We went over the basic bullshit in the class, like the father of sociology and all that, but my professor thinks that's as much shit as me. Which is cool. She's actually into the working sociology and how it applies. She really, really likes to talk, too. We're always getting off track in that class. And I can say this after two classes with her.

I wasn't worried about getting out of class Thursday, either. I was texting Abbi - very slowly - throughout the day, and I stilled planned to pick her up from her home, but I didn't have work. Which really did feel awesome. So I took I don't even know what road all the way to North Territorial and made pretty good time. The only time I got caught up was where that road that I forget the name to crossed with Pontiac, which stopped a lot of people. I'll be taking that way to work tomorrow, I'll tell ya that. I'm trying to find the fastest way to work. Which means ... not the expressway. Imagine that.

When I got to her house, I knocked on her window and stood awkwardly on her porch. Until she opened the door, surprised as can be. I really should have told her that I still planned on picking her up. She quickly got changed into an outfit that didn't quite match, and we were on our way.

We went to the fitness center right in town, but once we climbed out of my car, we realized that we had no idea what we were doing. We just stood awkwardly outside the door, pondering about how to get in. A manager eventually realized we were standing there and let us in, talked us through the amount of money the subscription would be, and Abbi and I decided to sign up. It's a joint account, coming out of my bank account every month, but I'm confident I'll be able to pay. Abbi'll pay me her share every month, but I won't force her on a deadline like I'll be. The place was a lot cheaper than I was expecting.

After we figured all that out, we didn't know what to do. We kind of just sat in my car for a couple minutes, debating, until I just decided to go driving. It's usually what I do when I'm in my car and I don't want to go home, but this time I had a friend. I temporarily got lost, since the roads twist and turn so badly in the direction we went, but once I found names I knew, I quickly got us back on track. It's an interesting mess around there. I almost ran into a bunch of different deer, too. I quickly slammed on the breaks the first time, barely managing to miss the deer. Didn't even feel alarmed until I knew we were safe from impact. The second time, I saw the deer a little sooner, and flashed my brights at the oncoming traffic to show that I was at a dead stop because of a hazard, but they completely ignored me and blew by. I would have laughed if they ran into the deer. The third time, it was on Abbi's road, and there were a bajillion deer. I mean, there were so many of them I couldn't count how many were in that herd.

Once we made it back to Abbi's house, all in one piece, her mom offered me dinner and I ate with Abbi. Seriously, her mom is a very, very good cook. I like her food. Besides, I don't eat a lot as it is.

I really have no idea what I did afterwards, though. No clue. Maybe I'll remember later.

I woke up Friday in time to go to work. That's about it. I walked into work, clocked in, helped Wes do random jobs, until everyone came in and I was moved to cut table. Cut table happens to be my permanent station on Fridays now, and I'm completely fine with that. Unfortunately, this Friday was kind of awful. I don't even know why. It wasn't like it was overly busy, or our ovens were acting up.

At one point, I told them up front that I needed a remake on a BLT because it bubbled so bad it couldn't be saved. I mean, it was pretty much the whole pizza. When we're talking about a BLT, that's kind of bad. Then, straight after I told them that it needed to be remade, I took a calzone out of the oven and just dropped it. Like, the strength in my fingers went bye-bye, and it fell. I picked the pan off the floor, much to the alarm of whomever was working back (I used my fingers on a hot pan, but I couldn't feel anything because I was using my nails and not my fingers), and quickly cleaned up the dropped calzone. They kind of had to remake that, too.

Later, I brought up an order for a customer, since Scott had marked the boxes under my orders (glad I did, because he went on a delivery before the pizzas came out, otherwise I would have had no idea they were there), but he had failed to mark all of the boxes, so I ended up shorting them a pizza. I didn't realize until a minute later, so I dashed outside to see if I could find the lady, and failed in that mission. On my way back to the store, I just punched the side of the building with the side of my fist and calmed myself the best I could before I walked back inside. No one said anything to me. Until later. According to Wes, Ralph had asked what that thump was and Wes covered my back. I didn't get into any trouble for losing it right then.

Even later, after everything had died down, I gave a customer a stack of pizzas after he came back inside, and he just stared at them. I asked him if everything was alright, but he continued to just stare at the boxes. Apparently I gave him the order for someone else along with his, and I was completely blind to it.

Wes came around to where I was nearly face-desked to the cut table and asked if I was having a bad day. I almost lost it then. Almost just cried. I managed to keep the tears back, though, and nodded a reply. Didn't look at anyone until I regained control over myself.

I don't even know what was wrong. I didn't mis-box anything. The incidents I described were about the only things that happened, too. It just ... it was overwhelming at the time.

I don't know what my prep was, either. I think I was supposed to be box bitch again, but I don't remember folding any boxes. Whatever, though. I don't even care. I usually end up doing an extra prep or something half the days I manage anyway. I can have an easy Friday. On the prep side of things. Wes let me go relatively early, too, for which I was grateful. I was done with that place. For the day, at least.

Saturday at work was a little better. When I walked in, Mr. Ralph and Ralph were there, which is completely weird for a Saturday. Wes kept telling everyone his story, which is that Nate was sweeping by the oven Friday night and heard some weird noises. The oven was working fine Saturday morning, though, so he wasn't too worried about it. Until we lost the bread stick oven as well as the bottom oven. Those ovens never give us problems. I also heard Nate was late Saturday morning, but shh. So, starting at about one o'clock in the afternoon, Mr. Ralph and Ralph were working on the ovens, trying to fix them. The top oven, which always gives us problems, kept falling below temperature, so half of the zones didn't even work properly most of the time. Which left us with one good oven, which was still working wonky because it didn't have the heat from the two ovens below it to bring it to the temp it's supposed to be at. That's my theory, at least. Mr. Ralph and Ralph stayed till about seven trying to fix the oven. Ralph kept loading the pizzas I put on a hit rack as they waited to be loaded into the oven. I was faster than the oven Saturday, simply because we had one and a half ovens instead of the three we're used to. Even with three, sometimes I'm faster than the oven when I get into a grove and one or two simple topping pizzas. At one point, Ralph turned to Wes and started yelling at him to dock the pizzas better, and that he wasn't doing it right. Nate and I had a little conversation about that today.

Wes didn't leave until late Saturday. He helped me out with a large order they were anticipating, and then left soon after that. So about eight thirty, nine o'clock? I dunno. I managed to keep busy the whole night, at least. I mean, Matt was my closing driver. Plus, I had Abbi there with me. Everyone else I completely forget. Because they don't matter as much. Seriously, I really only give a shit about Abbi, Nate, Matt, and Wes. Maybe Jake, depending on my mood.

Waitaminute.

Haha. No, Saturday. So, Jake and Matt are apparently friends now. I don't know when this happened, or how this happened, but Matt said something about asking why Jake and him weren't friends in high school. Probably because you allegedly hated each other? I dunno. Whatever. So, they both were high Saturday night. Didn't really bother me much. I went outside at one point, totally forget why, and Jake kind of freaked the fuck out. Matt played it cool, but they were both sitting in Jake's car, and Jake just freaked out and didn't know what to do. As if I didn't know what they were doing. I mean, Matt lit up a bowl right next to Jake as Jake was lying his ass out of me yelling at him. He explained why he freaked out later, but I forget what he said. Anyway, he was complaining about pain or whatever, and I told him that I might be able to give him a massage. I've been told I give good massages. It just depended on whether or not my hand would violently refuse. Which, it turned out, my hand had no problem giving a massage.

Jake fucking sank into my massage. I stopped for a moment when he just hung his head, completely relaxed. I asked if he was alright. Kind of like, are you still alive? He wasn't tight at all, but he definitely had problems with his shoulder blades rather than the place high on his shoulders - which is where my back usually hurts. If not my lower back. I had to stop a while later, though, when my thumbs cramped up. And once they cramped up, they cramped up bad. It took a while to make my hands feel better.

Before Jake counted his money, and before him and Matt disappeared to get high, Jake was in another story-telling mood. Matt was doing dishes, I was just leaning against the counter, and Jake animatedly launched into a story. He talked about things he's done and about how he used to party. He talked about a job he had before this one, which was at a hotel that his grandmother used to or still manages at. He went on to say that he could still probably go there and throw another party, because Matt was intensely interested in the pool that Jake described. I finally pipped in, saying that I wouldn't mind coming and partying with him. Jake said I wouldn't be able to keep up, and a part of me thinks he's right, but I haven't found my upper limits yet. They're certainly above and beyond most of my friends', I found out. Surprisingly so. Besides, Jake always greatly underestimates me. And he didn't hit me up when I told him that if he ever did anything this summer, he better bring me along. He never did. So, if I find out that this talk is actually happening, I'm convincing him to let me come. I don't like drinking, I'd like to stay away from weed, but I just want to go to one party. One. Just to figure my shit out.

And I still want to write a story while high and/or drunk. Okay, not and. That's still on my list of things to do.

Jake saved our asses by taking a late delivery, so that Matt wasn't gone on a bunch of deliveries at the end of the night, so the night went fairly well. Even so, we weren't out of the shop until midnight. When asked Sunday why it took Matt and I so long to get out, I didn't know how to answer, because I don't know what took us so long. I ended up batching out the credit card machine before Matt counted his money, and I flipped out because I didn't know what to do, since Matt had credit card tips, but I called Ralph for the first time and asked him what to do. He told me not to do it again, which is one of his favorite phrases, and I apologized immensely. It completely slipped my mind. I've done that before, but I've gotten lucky before. I need to start getting on Matt to get his money counted ASAP.

I think I'll be memorizing Ralph's number quickly, if it goes on like this. It isn't like Wes's number, in which Nate asked me for his number, and then I had to call him a couple times later that same night. Plus, Wes's number is an easy number to remember. Ralph's is an easy number to remember, too. Really simple. 313 area code, which is interesting.

Matt, Abbi, and I said our goodbyes, and then Abbi followed me home. My family was gone again, since they were off celebrating my brothers' birthdays, but didn't tell me about their plans until it was too late to request time off work. That kind of ticked me off. But I already had plans with Abbi and Olivia before they told me they were gone, so I didn't give a fuck about whether or not I brought someone home. Olivia ended up feeling sick, though, so it was just Abbi and me.

We had a blast. I found the recipe for cereal waffles a fellow Tumblr person gave me, and Abbi and I modified it to our tastes and made those up. I made some smoothies out of all the frozen fruit we have. It didn't fit well in the blender. I brought up my laptop, my speakers, and my external hard drive with all my music. The power was faulty, so wifi was a bitch. I think I already killed my sub somehow. It doesn't do full bass anymore. I don't even know how it died, since I'm rarely ever able to use it. It's disappointing.

Abbi and I were looking up Hollywood Undead songs on YouTube later, to figure out who was singing and what lyrics were. We got caught up going song through song, and I discovered some songs I never knew existed. So I found out what the album was and started torrenting it. When it finally downloaded, we found it wasn't an album at all that I downloaded, but a kind of concert/documentary thing. So we watched that. The whole hour of it.

We really got to know the band, too. Da Kurlzz, whom I thought to be a badass drummer/back-up screamer, turned out to be a fucking dork. Everyone in the band brings him up as the guy they hate the most in the band. Even Charlie Scene, who has a personal vendetta against Johnny 3 Tears. But seriously, while Abbi was oogling over the shirtless (and not bad looking) Funny Man (whom isn't funny at all), I kept trying to find da Kurlzz to watch his awful stage presence. And really, he does have awful stage presence. I didn't notice it until I think it was J Dog brought it up. He really is a fucking dork, too. I think he was one of the last guys to take his mask off, and it took him even longer to shed his clothes a bit, and he never went past wearing a hoodie that he'd taken the sleeves off of. He has wild, curly hair, and he's an adorable dork. That plays drums like a brain dead child. We also found out that Deuce made the band when they were live. Johnny had problems keeping up when he had long roles, and often looked winded, J Dog sounded interesting, Charlie wasn't bad, but Deuce sounded exactly the same live as he did on the album. We also kept staring at the main drummer, whom wasn't da Kurlzz, trying to figure out who he was (he was always shirtless and very hot), and he was introduced as Biscuits. That's ... his name. Biscuits. Abbi and I had a good laugh about that.

I got Joe's guinea pigs out that night, after playing around with Daysie a bit, and Abbi had problems with trusting Scooby not to bite her. He kept cuddling up to her stomach and she kept leaning back until she was nearly laying on the ground.

We had a good time. Didn't go to bed until about five. I had to throw logic at Abbi until she climbed out of my bed and we went to the guest room. See, my room is warmer and it has a warmer bed, but if we wanted sleep at all, we couldn't have Puddin in the same room, and since I got the new drop pan, she isn't easy to move out of my room at all.

I really wished Olivia was there, though. Everything we did, Olivia would have absolutely loved.

Abbi and I didn't wake up until my family got back home. Ben came down trying to look for me, disappeared for a moment, came back downstairs, and left again. We got, from Joe, that when he went upstairs he told everyone he found an Abby, and went he went back upstairs, he said he found another Abbi. Abbi thought it was hilarious. And adorable. Maybe she found it adorable and I found it funny. Whatever. We had to say goodbye, though, and I got to sit around for only a couple minutes before Jake was calling me. He asked me if I couldn't come in early, so my five o'clock arrival was actually four thirty. He called at 4:17 and I showed up at 4:32, I believe. I had to take care of my rabbits first.

Our ovens were still down. But, instead of topping or working up front, I was put as cut table. So I got to deal with pushing the pizzas back and making sure they were cooked all the way through. Which, most of the time, they were not. I had to push multiple pizzas back about five times when they were put through on the top. It sucked  more when they were pans. It sucked even more when I had to push pizzas back and there was no space. It sucked the most when I had to push pizzas back on both decks because it hadn't cooked all the way through on our one good oven. For a moment there, I was actually juggling pizzas around in circles around the decks and tables. With Wes's help.

Unfortunately for me and Jake, we didn't get out ten minutes after close. We got a delivery a little before the end of our delivery time, and he went out and took that. We didn't get out until, like, twenty to eleven. Nate asked me why it took us so long, and once again, I didn't know how to reply to him. I explained to him the state of things, and he just looked at me. "I know. I was there." I blinked until I realized he was right.

Nate opened on Sunday, as he usually does. Wes kept him around for a long time, but Wes left before Nate did, and Nate didn't leave forever. He was very much socializing with Owen and Jake. He eventually did leave, but about an hour later he showed up again. And didn't leave again. Owen was playing with the ruler, and he must have been high, because he was fascinated by that ruler. When Nate walked in, he was momentarily surprised that Nate was back, but launched into explaining what exactly that ruler was doing. Jake, when told the same spiel, actually got logical about what was happening. It was interesting. Jake ... being the smart one.

Which leads me to today.

My dad was working on shelves in the furnace room today, which woke me up, but I refused to actually get up until three. It was great, actually having that time to five o'clock before I had to go to work.

The ovens were still down, but Ralph explained that DTE had been out and said that they would replace the transformer, but only after they helped the residential. I thought that, since we were a business and they had already been there, that we should be set straight, because we could barely make pizzas, but whatever.

I was the one that told everyone their preps, though, which was interesting. Von had taken up residence in the back, since that's his usual place, and since no one else knows the back, I didn't object. Once John left on a delivery, I told Ben that he had to teach Sarah to cut pizzas, so she's been learning that. I told her that her prep was bread sticks again, for which I apologized for, since she also had bread sticks Sunday and she wasn't even supposed to be working Monday, but Ben had two preps. He had tubs of sauce and prepping the front. I cleaned the front, but only did a half-assed job today.

Nate and I thought everything was going well, until he asked if he could count his money, and I was about to reply when we realized there was a delivery up. It completely passed by both of us until we looked at the board. Nate was back in, like, five minutes, though, so it didn't hurt us too bad. I think he made $60, too, which isn't bad at all. For a Monday?

He was very talkative tonight, too. I was cleaning the front, and he just kept asking me questions. We got stuck on chemistry and the professor I had for a while. He told me he didn't like her, and finally gave me reasons as to why. Once he said them, I realized that I could already see that from her. Nate said she really liked group work, which is something neither of us like. At least, I assume that, knowing what I know about Nate. Her tests are also extremely hard and nit-picky, so I'll have to actually study for once. He went into this story about how hard her labs are, and how in one lab no one got above 15 out of 25 points. He told me he had his brother practically do his lab, who is a chemical engineer, and still Nate nearly failed the lab. That is just not cool. That is not what I need. I mean, this is going to be my major. Nate said that he was on the bottom of her favorites list (which, according to him, she has), but that could be attributed to the fact that he didn't go to half the lectures. I fear I'm going to be looked down upon by her because I'll kind of just zone out and go into periods of "I don't give a fuck." Like, the study group thing - fuck that. I asked Nate if he still had his stuff, and if he does, he said he'd give it to me. Just, y'know, to see where his downfall was in the labs to see if I can improve upon it. Not to completely cheat or anything.

He also asked me if Kevin was going to teach me how to drum, so I explained that little bit. He told me he would teach me - he really would - if he still had his drum set. He apologized that he couldn't teach me. I was kind of blown away by that. He said he still would if I got my own drums and he could teach me on those. He even said he'd sell the set he does have for $100, but I'd have to put about $500 more into repairs. At least by his estimate.

That whole conversation devolved into prom dates and people we've dated. And people who ticked him off during high school. He now knows that I went out with Dishmen and he couldn't emphasize his distaste of the guy. I concurred completely.

Ohmydear. Concur. Nate used that word today. Totally mispronounced it the first time, but he tried. I laughed at him, said I was always surprised every time he used a big word. He argued that it wasn't a big word.

I got my stuff done really quick. Ended up $1 short, but I didn't give a fuck. Threw everything in the safe, and just watched Nate for a couple minutes before I took up the mop and started mopping. Then he watched me until he brought up that he could mop. We had a little argument about who to mop after that, all the while I was mopping, until he took the mop from me halfway across the store. Once he was done, he clocked himself out, and as has become his habit, tried to clock me out. Pulled up Owen's number first, then typed in 243, which came up with Tiller's name. We were both confused as fuck. He got mine on the third try, but I had to type in my password. I wouldn't be surprised if he knew it now, since I didn't even try to hide it.

We said our goodbyes, I complained about how far my car was away from the store, and I changed in my car. I took off my boots, was looking around for my shoes, and Nate startled me by beeping his horn. Just to wave goodbye. I mean, he does usually figure out when we'll work together next and say he'll see me then. But he beeped at me. To wave.

I fully don't understand this guy. I still can't get over my crush on him.

Instead of going home, I pulled into the gym's parking lot. People were there, which I wasn't overly fond of, and that made me almost just keep driving. But instead, I waited for my car lights to turn off after I turned off the engine, switched shirts, and walked in. I kind of just stood in the middle of the room for a moment, trying to decide what the hell to do, and then I figured I might as well learn how to deal with the treadmill. I've never used one before. I've never really used exercise equipment before. Just once. At the high school.

I didn't find a good pace, but I did jog for 20 minutes. Set it at pace 5. Had it at 3.5 for a while, but it wasn't doing much. I don't know what pace 5 is, though. I don't think it's 5 mph. The machine automatically shut down after 20 minutes, which both frustrated me and relieved me at the same time (I didn't know how to turn it off once I turned it on), so I got off, looked around again, and just left. I had to pee, I didn't know where the bathroom was, and I kind of felt like I didn't belong. I dunno. I really wanted to go with Abbi the first time I went there.

I was very happy with myself once I got home, though. I think I'll go after work every Saturday, Sunday, and Monday. Go with Abbi whenever we go. Maybe find one other time to hit the gym. I dunno. But Nate usually says he's going to the gym after he leaves, and it's not a bad idea.

Now, I have my mini essay written for my Composition class, since my dad got off the computer when I told him I needed to print shit off as my departing statement, but I can't submit it. Like, the link I need to click redirects to Blackboard's home page when I click on it. So I dunno what to do. I guess I'll email the teacher. Whatever.

I'mma watch another episode of Doctor Who, go to bed, and go to school tomorrow. That's a plan.

SONG OF THE DAY: Somebody Turn the Lights Off ~ Dead Celebrity Status