I had a bunch of errands to run today before the Halloween party.
First, I went to get my oil changed at Jiffy
Lube………..heheheheheh, I said lube. I always go to the Jiffy Lube
in Bolingbrook, I just seem to get better service there. I was a little
disappointed this time, though. Not in the service. The service was
great as usual. But, the normally have a lot of hot guys working there,
but not as many this time. Oh well. Maybe the hot guy machine is
broken.

After that, I went to the costume shop to pick up my costume. I walked
in and asked for my costume. They gave it to me, and I looked at it and
thought there was something missing. I mentioned this, and the guy
behind the counter read off everything and it was all there. The girl
that gave me the costume said it was all there too, even though I
didn’t think it was. So, I left. When I got home, John said the costume
company had called and said I was missing part of the costume. I would
have to return.

On my way home from the costume shop the first time, I stopped off at
Mejier to do some shopping. First I had to pick up a birthday card for
my old ass sister. While browsing, I saw my cousin John, who was
getting a birthday card for his wife, although I suspected it was for
his mistress. It was a dead giveaway because the card said “Happy
Birthday to a wonderful mistress……….who always knows to keep her
mouth shut.”

I got the rest of my crap and went to buy candy for tonight’s party. I
saw some really good candy (at least, it looked good) that was only
$1.99, which I thought was unusually cheap. When I got to the counter,
the dude charged me $4.99 for it, but I told him it was supposed to be
only $1.99 and he changed it for me with no questions asked.

When I got back to the costume shop, one of the girls there smiled and
said she liked my shirt. I was wearing the anti-Bush shirt. The lady
that runs the shop, who I have gotten to know from renting there over
the years, saw the shirt and said she liked it. She said that she HATES
Bush. Knowing the type of person she was, I figured she wouldn’t like
him and would appreciate my shirt. We chatted about politics for a few
minutes and I headed home.

Today on my way to work, I almost got in an accident with some dumb
ass. I was making a right hand turn on to Weber from Normantown. The
dope was turning left on to Weber from Normantown. Now, typically, when
one turns, they turn directly into the lane they are turning
from…………..for example, I was making a right hand turn, so I
would turn into the right lane. So, me and him both turn at the same
time, which normally wouldn’t be a problem, as long as each stay in
their proper lane. Well, he didn’t. He started over into my lane as he
turned. He honked the horn and gave me “the look”……………you
know, the look somebody gives you when you fuck up while driving. I
imediatley, without thinking or without hesitation, threw up my middle
finger, as he started to continue on. He stopped and looked at me
again, as if he was going to get out of his pick-up and give me a
beatdown. Now, keep in mind, its rush hour traffic, so there are other
cars trying to go. And I’m yelling for him to keep going. I also was
thinking about the person that got stabbed pretty much at the same
intersection (or just about………….the stabbing was at I55 and
Weber, which is right there) about a year ago, and it was over a
traffic dispute. Fortunetly, he kept going and nothing happened. But, I
was pissed off about it for the rest of the drive.

Nothing really exciting happened today, at least nothing of note, so I
will spew opinion now. We are just a few days away from the election.
Its neck and neck, and although I really want Bush to lose, I don’t
think it will happen. I can totally picture him stealing this election
the way he stole the last election. Its so close, that the slightest
thing can give either one of them an edge and therefore, the win. I
swear, if Bush wins, I will be devastated. I will lose all faith in the
American people. They can not be this dumb to fall for his bullshit. If
he wins, it will be the equivilent of the Cubs losing the World Series,
except that this is far more important than a baseball game. Maybe I
shouldn’t be so passionate and I care too much, but damnit, I do. I
have followed politics since I was a little kid. I have read and
watched a lot of stuff about it. And I feel it is not only very
important to me, but also very important to the country, and to a
lesser extent, the world. I have no doubt in my mind that Bush is one
of the worst presidents in American history, if not the worst. How he
can manage to even come close to getting re-elected is not only scary,
but also demoralizing. My mistake is that I thought the American people
were smart, but how wrong I was. The bottom line is, no matter which
side you are on, you almost can’t argue this: his going into Iraq not
only dividing the country, but it also severely angered Muslims and
just gave some of the extremists another reason to join Bin Laden and
his gang of merry chaos makers. I just can’t understand how people
can’t see this, or why they refuse to see it. And Christians can’t use
gay marriage or abortion as a reason to vote for him. Lets face it,
regardless of whoever gets elected, abortion will not change and gay
marriage will not change……………..there is not enough support on
either side of either issue to get anything changed. So, for the
Christians, it comes down to (or at least it should, if they thought
with their minds instead of their hate filled hearts) the war, and if
you weigh the evidence, it truely is a no-brainer. I have heard various
political pundints say it: you are voting to see if you believe Bush
should be rehired for 4 more years. And its clear he should not, just
based on the war alone. When you factor in all the problems at home (if
I get into that, this entry would never end) there is no logical reason
to vote for him. Lets hope common sense and logic prevails come Tuesday.

The other thing that I was disappointed in today is that Steve Stone is
not coming back next year to broadcast Cubs games. I believe he was
almost forced out, or that the Tribune Corp did not offer him anything
that would make him consider coming back, so that it would look like he
quit instead of them not wanting him back. Publicaly, they said they
wanted him back, but I don’t believe that for a second. They don’t want
to look like the bad guys, so they low ball him an offer and if he
turns it down, they can say that it was a decision he made. He is way
to popular with the fans for the Trib to take any responsibility for
him not being here. Its a damn shame too. I really believe he is the
best color analyst in the game today. He routinely said things before
they happened. Or he would say what should be done before it happens,
and is usually right. I’m sure he has a massive ego and is arrogant,
most people this good at what they do are arrogant. But, he was always
great to listen to and never talked down to the fans, unlike other
broadcasters (I know of 2 in Chicago that are really good at that).
And, in all honesty, he tought me more about baseball than any other
source. So, this is going to make it much less of an experience to
watch a Cubs game. I hope they replace him with somebody half as good
as he was, instead of somebody like Joe Carter who was so bad that he
made me wish he was a mime.

BOSTON RED SOX, 2004 WORLD CHAMPS!!! It still sounds funny. Boston is
my 2nd favorite team, so I’m pretty excited about it, but also still in
a state of shock. I can’t believe they finally won. Wow. Right after
the game ended, I turned to John and said “Wow. I never thought I would
see it in my lifetime…………when will it be the Cubs turn?” I’m
like that every year, though. Every year when another teams wins the
World Series, I say “I wish it were the Cubs” but even more so this
year. On the other hand, it gives me a sense of hope, if the Red Sox
can win it, then surely the Cubs can.

I left work early for my doctor’s appointment. Last night, I came to my
senses and realized what it probably was, and I was not very scared or
worried anymore. I think it was the combination of the problem and the
stories I was hearing at work. Sure enough, it was pretty much what I
expected it to be, and everything is going to be ok. But, for a while
there yesterday afternoon and early evening, I was pretty worried. I
just didn’t want to have to go through what the lady from work or
Danel’s uncle had to go through, and that is what got me panicked.

Geez. What a day. Let me start off by saying I have been having
somewhat of a………..health issue recently. I will spare you the
details, but you should be able to get a general idea.  I was
slightly concerned about it, but after today, I became really nervous
about it.

First of all, training is not good. We have been there 3 days, and I
swear, we have not learned a damn thing. Its fun, because we get a
chance to socialize a lot, but thats pretty much it. People, including
the trainer, go on and on about various non work related things. When
we do talk about work, its usually about various health insurance
coverages and for specific diseases. Now, early on today, the topic was
cancer, and everybody shared things about it. Because of my present
situation, the conversation was a little unsettling, but nothing
compared to later in the afternoon. Lets just say, I’m having
“plumming” issues. Well, this one lady starts talking about a problem
she had when she was 20, and it was very serious. So serious in fact,
that she wound up having her entire large intestine removed. And, for 5
months, she had to have a colostomy bag (spelling please). And she told
us some more graphic details, all of which scared the shit out of me. I
had decided early that I was going to make an appointment for the
doctor as soon as I got home, based on Scooty’s suggestion. So, I got
home and explained the situation. The receptionist lady said that the
doc wouldn’t be available until next friday and asked me if I would see
the nurse practiconer. I said I would prefer the doc. They put me on
hold. The nurse came back on and asked me a variety of questions
regarding my situation. After I answered them, she said that they had
an appointment tomorrow. Now, this is scary. Why else would an
appointment just all of a sudden be available if my situation wasn’t at
least somewhat serious? I looking at this realistically though. I know
there is a good chance it might be nothing. But, looking at my
symptoms, I know it might be serious. Either way, I need to know for my
own sanity. Right now, I’m sad and scared. And to make matters even
worse, I can’t sleep because of the new shift and everything. That is
not helping. After making the appointment, I called Scooty to help me
feel a little less…………nervous. He did sorta talk me off that
ledge, but I’m still very much uneasy about it, especially when he told
me what they had to do.

All right, this is just getting scary. I just got off the phone with
Danel. I did not tell her anything about my problem. But, she was
telling me about her uncle and how his large intestine is leaking and
he needed surgery and he had all sorts of problems and its very
serious. Man, I can’t take this.

Oh, I almost forgot. I spoke to Don and Dayna on the phone tonight for
almost an hour. We were talking about politics and whatnot. Don kept
bringing up the gay marriage issue and how he thinks it should be legal
and there is nothing wrong with it and whatnot. He doesn’t know I’m
gay, but I know they both of them have suspected it for a long long
time. It was funny, because I know that he was trying to find out
tonight and that is why he kept bringing it up. He has always given me
the impression that he would not care if I were gay, although Dayna has
always had a problem with gays. As if to add fuel to the curiousity, I
said that “gay marriage shoule be completly legal, as I am getting
older and I need to have as many options to marry as many people as I
could.”

Day 2. Have I mentioned that I HATE getting up early? Anywho, we met
the trainer today. She seems nice, but ineffective. I say that because
we had a whole day of class today and didn’t learn a damn thing. We
spent most of the day just talking, not about work, but about our
families and shit like that. She handed out an agenda  for each
day of training, and I looked at it, and we really didn’t accomplish
anything. The thing is, after training is over, I will work a later
shift, starting probably at 10 instead of 8. And the longer training
goes, the longer I will have to get up early. I have not slept well
either night, and I know its not going to get any better until the
weekend.

There is one lady in training that reminds me a lot of Rene. She looks
a little bit like her, but her personality is a lot like Rene’s. So is
her mannerisms.  Its pretty wild. And this lady has the same
birthday as me.

This looks like such a great place to work, though. Every 5th Friday, I
will have a half day, but get paid for a whole day. Bitchin! They also
seem to have a lot of parties and lots of free food, which is going to
be tough on my diet. Speaking of which, since I started the diet 2
weeks ago, I have lost 5LBS. Now, 3 of those pounds were from being
sick, but I have been able to build off of that. Its going to be a huge
challenge, though. Today, they had Krispie Kreams in class, and I
didn’t have any of them. Now, when they start having more and more free
food, its going to be tougher and tougher. Today might have been the
best day for my diet, though. For the past week, I have been able to
limit my eating to just 3 times a day with no snacks, but today, I
think I had under 1000 calories. I have not weighed myself since
yesterday morning and I will weigh myself tomorrow morning, so we will
see what type of progess I have made. And this weekend is going to be
tough too, what with the party and Halloween, but I just have to try to
get exercise this weekend and eat the junk in moderation.

Well, today was the first day. I arrived about 15 minutes early,
traffic was not as bad as expected. I was brought into a room which had
a notebook with my name on it, along with a box with my name on it, a
mug with my name on it, and some papers. It was suggested that we get
some water or coffee, so I filled my mug up with water from some sort
of filtration device which gives you the temp of the water. Very cool.
Next, they took us to another room so they can take pictures for our
badges. Then it was back to the original room. We had to wait for
everybody to get there and get their badges, which took until about
8:30.

The 2 ladies from HR, who seem very nice by the way, took about 2 hours
and went over our benefits and all sorts of stuff like they. They
played us a video about the flex spending account that I fell asleep
during. This HR department seems to work a lot harder than AAA’s HR,
who, to be honest, sucked ass. We also found out that every 5th Friday,
we get a half day, but its paid like a full day. WOOOOHOOOOOO!!!!

About 11AM we went into a computer lab and did some self taught shit
and tests on the internet, it was all insurance and privacy things. I
did this til lunch at Noon, at which time I went to Subway. I came back
and still needed about another 90 minutes to finish up, and it didn’t
help that the computer kept freezing up and even restarted itself a
couple of times. Stupid computer! I finished about 2:30 and from that
point on, we all just waited for them to come and get us to do
something else. I forgot to mention this, but half of the class was for
another department, so my class has about 8 or 9 people, and there is
only one other guy in the class. Anywho, we were supposed to get off at
4:15, but we spent the better part of the last hour and a half just
talking, as there was no instructor or anybody from HR in there, and we
had nothing to do. All of the ladies in the class have kids, so they
talked about their kids and how their own parents used to beat them
growing up. Finally, about 4:00PM, the HR lady came in and told us we
could go home.

I am now just hours from starting my new job. I have to say, I’m a
little bit nervous about the whole thing. I know I will be fine, I
usually get along with just about everybody I work with and am
generally well-liked. I know I will be successful at this new job as
well. Its just going to be so…………different. It will be work,
but not AAA. Its going to take some getting used to. I will walk in and
there will be no familar faces. It is a training class of 15, so I know
that I will not be alone in feeling this way. And then there is the
whole getting up early thing. I have to be up at 6 in the AM. I know I
will not sleep well tonight, because I have been working 2nd shift for
such a long time that I wont be used to sleeping early for quite some
time. Plus, I am also a little bit anxious as well. I know! Maybe a
shot of Jack will help…………….wait, the only Jack I have is the
jack my dad bought probably 25 years ago. I guess I don’t want to kill
myself, so no Jack for me. Man, I hate starting over.

Today I went golfing with Mark, Amy, her parents and Jeff. We sperated
into 2 trios, it was me Mark and Ron as one of the trios. This was only
the 3rd time in my entire life that I have been golfing. I have learned
that, although fun, it is truely the most frustrating game/sport on the
planet. And I really really suck at it. Damn, I suck at every sport,
save baseketball, and I’m not too good at that either. How can I swing
and miss at the damn golf ball so often? Its soooooo much harder than
it looks on TV. My best drive of the day was on the last hole, and it
felt really good, but even that wasn’t that far……………even so,
I still hit a tree. It was a lot of exercise and walking though. And I
did have fun.

This afternoon, I went shopping for work clothes at Kohl’s. I only
wanted to buy just one shirt and one pair of pants, but I just don’t
know what matches. I wish I could have had somebody go with me, because
I have no idea if what I bought matches. I guess I will just have to
wait and see if I get made fun of.

Scooty’s car is being fucky, so I had to go over there to pick him up
tonight before we went out. This evening was a lot of fun, but it had
to be one of the most disorganized nights ever. I swear, sometimes,
nobody can make a damn decision. I got back home with Scooty in tow and
Randy was already here, but we still did not know where we were going.
It was eventually decided that we would go to the Giordanos in Orland
and then to the Oddessy Fun work in Tinley afterwards. The only problem
was that even after we left, we still didn’t know how to get there. It
was ok though, although we were all pretty hungry, we were also all
pretty laid back about the whole thing. We knew we had to go to
Lagrange Rd, but did not know which way to turn. My instinct was
telling me to turn right, but everybody else in the car said to turn
left, so I got in the left turn lane and Randy looked to the right and
saw the resturant. So, no big deal, but we had to turn around.

We arrived about 6:30 in the PM. The hostess lady was pretty cool, she
was goofin’ around with us. We eventually got seated and I was messing
with our waitress, as I often do. She was a nice girl, and John thought
she was cute and seemed interested in picking her up, even though she
was probably 17. We knew what we wanted and were hungry, and the
waitress said that we should have phoned ahead. We explained to her
that we did that and they told us to shove it. Actually, they had told
us we couldn’t do that.

I wanted to try to stick to my diet, so I wanted to have some soup to
fill me up so I wouldn’t eat as much pizza. So, I ordered Italian
Wedding Soup, which comes with bread. We also got an appetizer, cheesy
garlic bread. We had a stuffed pizza with garlic and sausage, and
damnit, I was so hungry that I still ate 2 pieces. I had a goal of not
eating as much, and yet I ate more then what I would normally eat.

John and Scooty both had a need for an ice cream emergency, so they
asked the waitress if she knew where the nearest ice cream place was.
She said she did not, but she was kind enough to let us look it up in
the phone book. Scooty found a Dairy Queen right up the road, which we
went to. We took full advantage of the drive thru, and the kid that
took the money and whatnot had one sideburn and the other one shaved.
Looked pretty damn goofy if you ask me.

Now, we were headed to Galaxy or Oddessy Fun World, whichever one is
near the World Music Theatre. The funny part, is once again, we really
didn’t know how to get there, but we sorta guessed and found it. Good
for us. We had a map, so I guess that makes us navigators or some
stupid shit like that. We walked in and saw that it was more of a kid
place, but no matter we really wanted to go on the go carts. We walked
outside and there was a worker standing right outside the door who I
kept making small talk with each time we passed him. I kept asking him
for a jacket, since it was a little chilly out. We walked all the way
to the go carts, only to fine out we had to go all the way back inside
to make the moneterry purchase of tickets.

The tickets were a decent price, only $6, which was really good since
it was not very busy and they let us ride them for 15-20 minutes. I was
in a really crappy car and got passed by everybody early on. It was a
lot of fun, though. After a while there were more people driving on the
track. The first time Scooty lapped me, I was screaming
“NOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!” and kept swerving to try to stop the inevitable.
After he passed me, I shouted out “come back here, you fat bearded
bitch!” Even though there were signs everywhere saying “NO BUMPING”,
Scooty said he didn’t see them and kept bumping and running into
everybody. It was a lot of fun, so I really didn’t care. I guess though
that if its not in some sort of electrical form, such as on a computer
or on his PDA, he is incapable of reading.

After that we went back inside and Randy gave us some tokens that he
had from the previous time he was there. I elected to use mine in a
couple games of air hockey against Scooty, both of which I lost. The
first game wasn’t close, but the second game I lead pretty much the
whole game. I would go up 1, and he would come right back and tie it.
This kept happening. Eventually though, he was too much and he overcame
me. NUTS!

After air hockey, I found a cool boxing game to play, one that you
actually put on this dorky little gloves and simulate boxing. I kicked
the hell out of 2 guys, but man, it was hard work. Even though its just
a computer, you really have to pound the shit out of those guys to
knock them down. My arms and hands were getting tired, and you really
don’t get much of  a break. Athough it was tiring, I imagine it is
nothing like real boxing………………in addition to getting the
crap beat out of them, they must get tired just from punching.

We left about 9:45 and Scooty called Mark to see if he wanted to meet
up with us. They were at a bowling alley on Rt 30 in Plainfield, and
nobody knew the name. See, more disorginization, we had to go to
another place that we didn’t know too much how to get there, and we
didn’t even know the name. But, once again, we were all pretty cool
about it. We arrived about 10:15ish and walked in. Unfortunetly, it was
karoke night. Ohhhh, I so have grown to hate karoke. One of the
bartenders, though was really really hot. I tried getting something to
drink from him, but he ignored me. All he was doing was washing out
glasses. Nobody would order from him. I think he might have been under
21 and therefore unable to see the alc-key-hol. We watched the rest of
the game, and Boston won………..WOOOOOHOOOOOO!!!

After awhile, Dave and Kelli showed up. We decided that we could only
take so much of karoke and decided to bowl. The dude behind the counter
was almost as hot as the bartender dude. He had a sexiness about him,
and I could barely take my eyes off of him the whole night. I made
goofy little comments when I was ordering my shoes………..for
example, he asked for my size and I said 8 1/2 and then said “that
doesn’t mean anything.” He and everybody else behind the counter
laughed. Oh, I love making hot guys laugh, even if they are straight
and it is just a fake laugh.

This was the first time in about a year and a half that I have bowled,
and therefore, I forgot how much I suck. I did really really bad, in
both games. One funny thing happened, though. I was bowling after
Kelli, and she missed on both throws (or should I say rolls) and the
pins were removed but did not come back down. It was taking a while and
the hot bowling counter kid was next to us and I asked  him for
help. He started to walk down the gutter, but as soon as he stepped on
the alley, the pins came down, almost like they knew he was coming and
decided to behave, not that he did do anything. Anywho, we bowled until
about 1:15 and then game home. For some reason, I’m really tired now
and must go to sleep.