Work was work. Nothing big there today.

The dude thats re-roofing (I love when I make up stupid words that
don’t make any sense) our house said that he won’t be doing it
tomorrow, but instead some other time. Its ok, as long as he gets it
done at the price he told me, as it seems very reasonable.

After work, I had 3 hours to kill ’til the card game, so I hung out at
the mall with Rene, she is working a booth there that sells glass
shit………….its cool stuff, though, and everybody should go check
it out at the Fox Valley mall. Anywho, when I first arrived, Maryann
was still there with her. I decided to dine at Panera, which was right
next to her booth. I had a soup and a sandwich and Rene just had a
coffee. The good part is that I didn’t choke on my meal, even though I
didn’t feel like chewing.

After that, I spent the next 2 hours talking to Rene at her booth. We
talked a lot about my gayness and she even caught me checking out a
guy……….she thought his nose was too bit, but I thought he was
SMOKIN, although his nose could have been smaller, you know what they
say about a guy with a big nose. As we were talking, Rene said she
noticed a guy check me out. Thats pretty cool. Even though he was an
older, mostly unattractive guy, it was nice to get the attention, or
the ego boost.

I also asked Rene about Tony going with to Florida, she thinks it would
be ok, but I obviously need to ask him. I’m just very nervous about
driving a U-Haul with a car attached to it, but Rene said that Tony has
experience driving a dump truck (at least, I think she said dump truck)
so that should be easier for him.

Tonight was the card game. We had 8 people, including Dave Trafton, who
I have not seen since he left AAA almost a year ago. It was great to
see him, he is a cool guy. One of the dudes that was playing was
actually hot, which is weird, seeing as none of Scott’s (its his house,
I used to work with him at AAA) friends are even close to being hot,
but this guy was. Turns out he is 29, and a music teacher at Plainfield
South. Oh, and he is married, just in case I got any crazy ideas. As
luck would have it, he sat down next to me during the card game.
Sometimes it would make it tough to concentrate, as I spent a lot of
time checking him out. He had a hot face (ohhhhh, his
lips………..ROOOOAARRRRR!), great hair, nice forearms, and it looked
like he was packing something down below.

As for the game itself, I started off blazing. I kept winning,
everything was going my way. We had 8 people playing, with a buy in of
$20 a person. It was $100 to the winner, $40 to 2nd place, $20 to third
place, and a straight porno to 4th place (somebody gave Scott a bunch
of porn, too much for any man to own, so last time I was there, I
suggested that he gives it away during the card game). I was well aware
of getting out in front early and blowing it, so I would try to protect
my money, play smart, and not take any crazy chances. I just remember
another guy that played last time that had a huge early lead, and wound
up finishing in 3rd (out of like 6 people). I was feeling pretty good,
though. I was not tired at all and felt like I could stay up all night.
I knew if it came down to a game of who gets tired first, I would win.
But, I had to get to that point first.

It took well over 2  hours for the first person to go out, which
is a long time. I knew we were going to be in for a marathon, but
usually once the first person goes out, things really start to pick up.
After a while, the next person went out. And then the next. We had 5
people left, and it did not move as quick as we thought. I had lost a
lot of my winnings and was actually down to the hot guy next to me. At
this point though, I wasn’t really focusing on how hot he was, but
instead of beating him. When I get this far in a poker game, I’m
usually all business, I really focus and don’t think about anything
else. I hit another mini hot streak, which put me in the lead.

It would be my last hot streak. Next thing we know, we were down to 4
people. The frustrating part was, the other 3 left all had been very
close to going out. They had all gone all in several times and all had
won those hands. Scott had a chance to take out one of the guys very
early on, and he was unable to. The funny part is at that time, Jeff
had gone all in and Scott folded because he thought I would stay in,
which I had no intention of doing. Scott was asking me if I would stay
in and I would not tell him. If I had told him, he would have stayed in
and Scott would have won that hand and Jeff would have been done. But,
he didn’t and here we were with Jeff beating everybody. I really
started to dwindle until finally I had to go all in with just a 10
high. The problem is that when the game gets that deep, the blinds are
so high that it kills you. And with a 10 high, I knew I was in trouble,
but my fate was out of my hands, which as a card player, you don’t
want. You always want to be able to control your own destiny and try to
get others to get in the position I was. Turns out, the hot guy had a
pair of 3 and I was done, in 4th place, with a useless straight porn to
take home as a parting gift.

Its so frustrating, though. Whenever I lose, I can’t stay and watch
others play on, so I left. Even though I don’t think I made any major
mistakes, I still feel disappointed and upset about losing. But, what
can I say, I’m a competitive person. There is always next time.

Really, nothing big at work today, except that I’m getting sick of
reading that book. I never pay attention to what I’m reading, so there
is no point in reading it. Today, I started reading the paper.
Tomorrow, I will start reading my Sports Illustrated at work. I’m going
to need to get a book.

Sharon wants me and a friend to go down to Florida and pick up the
U-Haul and 2 cars. One of the cars will be hooked to the U-Haul. I
don’t like having to drive that, but I might not have a choice. The
earliest I can go is next Thursday………Thanksgiving day. This is a
huge favor to ask of somebody, and I don’t know who to ask. I have an
idea of who to ask, but to be honest, its sorta a long shot. I need to
find somebody that will not mind missing Thanksgivng……………in
other words, somebody who is not married and won’t have to worry about
missing work next Friday. That doesn’t leave me with many options.

Each day, work gets just a little, tiny bit easier. We have a number we
call when we have questions, and I can tell that one of the girls that
answers that line is getting frustrated with us. There was another lady
in training that was just as clueless as me, and she calls about as
often as I do. Everybody else that answers that line is very nice and
patient. Hopefully, I will start picking up things quicker and
therefore making their jobs just a little easier.

Dave and I went shopping tonight for Saturday Thanksgiving. I have said
it before, and I will say it again: Dave is fucking nuts. The amount of
money he has spent this year is in-fucking-sane! He also bought a lot
of new silverware and china, making it even more expensive. Most of the
china he bought, wasn’t specifically for Thanksgiving, but he is going
to use it then. He was going to have to buy the china sometime anyway.
But, the food. Man, he always goes WAAAAAAY overboard. We were like a
couple of chicks………….ok, I will be honest, he was like a chick
going grocery shopping. We started off at Costco. He was upset because
he wasn’t able to get the same type of apple pie that he always buys,
but honestly, it won’t make a difference because each year he buys it
and nobody eats it. And its always a very large pie, and usually, there
might be one piece eaten, and the rest is thrown away. I tell him he
doesn’t need to buy it, but he always does.

There was this neat piano that we started playing at Costco. We were
both playing it at the same time and pressing all sorts of buttons. It
wasn’t very loud, but Dave said we should stop before we get kicked
out. Damn him. Damn him for being an adult.

The fun part about Costco is that they have these heavy duty carts. I
love riding them. Its so childish, yet so much fun. I did the same
thing at Meijer, but the cart would occasionally lift up and I would
almost flip the whole thing. This never happened at Costco, although
Meijer’s carts are faster.

I thought Dave bought a lot at Costco, but it was nothing compared to
Meijer. His cart was overflowing with stuff. He just kept putting shit
inside of it. All I know is that we are going to have one hellva a meal
on Saturday. We have spared nothing, and it looks like we might have
more food than ever before, which is sorta a scary thought. I can’t
wait, I think its my favorite day of the year, or at least one of my
favorites.

Throughout the night, Dave kept calling Kelli what seemed like every 20
minutes or so, to ask her about various products. The funny part, is
that even though he kept calling her, and he had a list, I think he
still forgot to buy something that was on her list. Not that it was
easy to remember it. I mean, the cart was so full you really couldn’t
see if he had all of what he needed.

I just got through watching one of my all time favorite Simpsons
episodes. It was the one where Homer coaches Bart’s pee wee football
team. Anywho, I noticed something that I had never noticed before. Rod
and Todd Flanders are standing next to each other in their uniforms and
Rod’s uniform number is 66 and Todd’s is 6. Funny stuff, seeing as they
are both holy rollers of the biggest holy roller in all of Springfied.
Thats the thing about the Simpsons. Sometimes, you can watch an episode
a million times, and all of a sudden notice something you never saw
before.

Work was…………….work. I’m very very very very slowly getting
used to it. During my downtime, I have been reading the training book,
but I’m not getting anything out of it because I don’t pay attention to
what I read. Its just soooooo damn boring. I would have no problem
paying attention if they could some how throw some baseball into the
book, but thats just not going to happen.

I got home and my cousin had called. She moved into the condo
today………..and by move, I mean she walked through the door,
because she really has nothing. She did buy a computer, but that is the
only thing she has there, besides her annoying dog. She asked me to
come over tonight, but before I got there, I had to stop off at her
friend’s house. I stopped off there, and her friend had some towels for
her. For some reason, her house smells like a funeral home. Lovely. I
started looking for the caskets, but I guess she doesn’t have any.
After that, I went to my cousin’s. When I first arrived, I wound up
accidently going to the wrong building, and ringing the buzzer. She
didn’t answer, which made sense, seeing as she didn’t live there. Like
I said, she has nothing. She is borrowing a pillow, comforter, and a
blanket to sleep on. She has no bed. No dresser. Not much clothes. Just
the suitcase she came up here with, which really doesn’t have much of
anything in it. I feel bad for her. Her last night with her husband, he
ran off with the U-Haul with all their stuff. She did say that she got
a message on her voice mail, he had tried calling collect from jail.
She has not called back, but apperrently, he has been arrested and
charged with one of 3 crimes, being a dead beat dad, stealing the
U-Haul, or some sort of drug charge. Lets hope its all 3, so that he
goes away for a long long time.

Well, today was my first day out of training. I had some anxiety about
it. I swear, it seemed like I called the help line for every single
call I took. I felt very inadequate and very much out of control. I
felt like I didn’t know a damn thing and like I would never learn and
would not succeed at this job. This is a very unusual feeling for me,
as you know, I’m usually a confident guy. Hopefully, it will get easier
and easier as the days go on. We actually were fairly busy today, we
went through a span of a couple of hours when the phone never stopped,
which really wasn’t too bad because the time went by fast, and it
really helped me get used to things.

I did have some trouble getting started, though. We got our desk and
mine was a complete mess before I even got there, which was unusual,
seeing as normally, things are a mess after I leave. I had to clean out
the desk before I got started. There was also no chair, and I had no
box to hook my headset into. When I did get the box, the phone wasn’t
working. I also had to speak to the supervisor about my schedule. I
asked her about the 10AM shift, and she said that she doesn’t have a
need for it yet, but when she does, I should have no problem getting
it. In the meantime, I will be working 8:45-5PM, which is much better
then 8AM.

My cousin has already found a condo. She wound up staying at a friend’s
house and will stay there again tonight, so it looks like she will not
even stay with us in the time that she was staying with us. I know it
makes no sense, but how much of what I say ever makes sense?

Yesterday was my cousin’s birthday, so I called her to wish her a good
day. She sounded sick and very tired. Turns out, she was in the process
of leaving her crack-addict husband. She was living in Tennesse, but
they fled to Florida last week. When she realized he was never going to
get clean, she decided it was time to leave. This guys is a complete,
white trash loser. He is 16 years younger then her and they have only
been together for about a year, and only married for a few months. I
don’t want to get into everything about what happened between them, but
if you want to know, feel free to ask. Anywho, she told me yesterday
that she was flying up today and wanted me to pick her up from the
airport and asked if she could stay with us for a couple of days. She
has always been like a big sister to us, and was really there for us
when my mom died, so really, it was a no-brainer.

Her flight was supposed to get in at 11:46AM at O’Hare. She told me to
be about 15 minutes late, so that it would give her time to get her
bags and shit. I was planning on leaving about 11:15, and right after I
got my shoes on to leave, she called and said that she was already
there. Wow. Who would have ever thought that a flight would actually be
early. I raced to the airport and parked the car in the parking garage
on, what else, the Cubs level. I called her as I was getting on to the
elevator and she told me she was out front waiting for me and to hurry
because she was wearing shorts and it was cold out. I went upstairs and
spoke with her trying to find out where she was. She told me to get
back in the car and drive to the terminal. I normally don’t like doing
this, because its usually complete and utter chaos in that area and I
did once get a parking ticket (which I never paid……….go me, I bet
city hall!!!!) for parking there, even though I was standing right next
to the car. Anywho, I drove to the terminal and it was really easy to
find her, she was right out there. Unfortunetly, she had her dog with
her, a little 14 year old poodle. I don’t like pets, but what can I do.
Anywho, she told me the whole story about her break-up on the way home.
Its quite a story too.

We stopped off for gas on the way home and she insisted on paying for
the gas and the milk I bought. After getting back home, we offered her
food, but she said that there was no need to provide her with meals,
she would just order out. She has always been very independant, and
will probably only accept the bare minimum of help. She is goint to
stay with us for a few days until she gets an appartment, which I think
will probably be within a week or so. I’m happy to help her, so its no
problem at all.

The Bears have actually won 3 games in a row! With the way the offense
played for most of the game today, its a pretty big suprise that they
won today, but a good defense can do that for you.

Oh man, what a fun little night. We went to Brian and Rene’s for
Brian’s 30th birthday party. Not many people there, just me, Scooty,
Brian, Rene, John and Keith and Heather, plus the kids. The kids were
adorable as usual. Logan has just recently learned his ABCs and sounds
so cute when he does it. Corina flat out refused to say them for me,
until I held one of her toys hostage and made her say it. As for the
baby, he pissed all over Heather while she was changing his diaper.

They ordered pizza, which I did not eat much of, and had this really
really good chocolate cake. I had one small piece, but man, was that
shit gooooood. I managed to avoid all the other stuff, such as Cheetos.

After a while, we went downstairs to play a board game. It was decided
that we would play Loaded Questions, which always takes a long time to
play. It was a lot of fun, though. Keith just kept on saying stuff that
made him look bad, which was of course, very funny. It was really one
of those “you had to be there” kinda things, but one was about Ricky
Martin, and the other was about Carrottop. Funny stuff. We all pretty
much just spent most of the night ripping on Keith as opposed to
normally, when we rip on everybody (primarily me, Scooty, Rene, and
Dave are the victims). It was cool, since usually, Keith is not picked
on, but instead is the one doing the picking. He was a good sport about
it all, though, as he laughed at himself as much as we did. I’m sure
I’m leaving stuff out, but thats what the edit button is for.

http://www.thebeastmovie.com/

Ohhhhh, this is going to be a very controversial and interesting movie,
I can’t wait. Unfortunetly, it doesn’t come out for another year and a
half, but what a concept. Which, brings me to another rant. Oh, when
will ranting ever get old? Never? Is it never? Well, for me its never.

Most of you already know my thoughts on religon, but I’m going to go on
again. When you are a kid, you are taught to believe that religon is
good, and all about love and peace, but once you get older, you realize
how much of a lie that is. The reality is, religon divides and creates
hate. Most religous people are good, but its the fundimentalists in
each religon that help to ruin the world and make it a worse place. The
funny part, is that the US was supposed to be created on the basis of
religous freedom, yet Christianity is all over the place, and has been
from the start. Sure, technically, we have religous
freedom……….there are no laws governing what we should practice.
But the reality, at least politically, is to be successful, you have to
be a Christian. Most of the presidents have been Episcopalian,
Presbyterian, Methodist and Baptist. We have had one Catholic
president, and he was killed in office.
Damn, I really want to go on about this, but I have an immediate need to go to the store. More later.

I almost forgot. This is a site that shows a bunch of people
apologizing for Bush being re-elected. Goes to show you how bad he is,
if we have thousands of people on a website apologizing to the rest of
the world.

http://www.sorryeverybody.com/gallery/1/