April 2005

27th Birthday
April 30, 2005
Saturday:

I woke up at 7 this morning and started getting ready for work, which started at 8. Mike and Carolyn were already up and getting ready for a yard sale they had today. By the time I left for work, all of the stuff was outside and customers were already coming.
My 8-hour shift went by very quickly today. I spent the first couple hours working with a new guy named Joe. He is a 24-year-old black guy who is a student at SIU. I spent most of my shift putting out all the boxes of lunchmeat that came in on the truck today. I went to Burger King and got two double cheeseburgers and a 6-piece chicken tender for lunch. The double cheeseburgers were on sale for 99 cents.
Mike and Carolyn were home when I arrived. They had already put everything from the yard-sale away. Carolyn told me she made $14.60 and only 9 people came. She blamed the low turnout on the annual giant yard sale at the SIU Arena, which was also today.
I got a great birthday gift from Mike and Carolyn today. Inside of my card was a “one month of free rent” coupon, which means I do not have to pay them $200 for the month of May. The card they gave me was homemade and featured a picture of me wearing lipstick. The picture was from a couple years ago when a girl put her lipstick on me at a party on Pecan Street. Carolyn also gave me an old laptop computer for my birthday. It is a Compaq that is running Windows 3.1. I had told her last night that I would buy it from her yard-sale today. I don’t know what I will ever do with it, but I feel like it is a collectors item.
My dad and Clara came over at 6:45 and they took me out for a birthday dinner at Alongi’s, which is a new Italian restaurant at the mall. We also met Mike, Carolyn and John there, who had all come a few minutes earlier to get us a table. I ordered an eggplant dish.
I had been feeling sick all day, and I could not even finish all of my dinner tonight. I woke up with a bit of a sore throat and the illness progressed during the day. My dad and Clara wanted to take me to a coffee shop in Cobden called The Yellow Moon after dinner, but I just decided to come home and sleep early.

April 29. 2005
Friday:

Today was another dark, cool and rainy day, but not quite as wet as yesterday. Our Chinese teacher had the class try and write Chinese calligraphy today. We were all pretty bad at it. I had a test in Macroeconomics and the people sitting on either side of me cheated the entire time. A French foreign exchange student sitting to the right of me was looking at some papers and a guy sitting to the left of me had answers hidden inside of his calculator. The class it too big and crowded for the teacher to really notice anything.
It was raining during my bike ride home, but not too hard. I made myself a sandwich for lunch, then talked to Johanna online. She told me that it is illegal in Finland to even mention other people in an online journal. I never knew Finland was a communist country, but it sounds like it must be. Oh well….I guess they will just have to arrest me.
Mike got home from work at 6 and Carolyn came home at 7. She had been gone for the whole week because she started her new job in St. Louis on Monday. For dinner, we cooked pork chops, broccoli and augratin potatoes. I went to ABC Liquor while the food was cooking and bought a 12 pack of Moose Head for Mike and I.
Nic and Sara came over at 9 so they could talk to Carolyn and Mike about buying some of their furniture. They ended up buying the table in the living room and Damien’s kennel for $50.
At 9:30, I went over to Leslie and Nick’s house, which is just 3 blocks from my house. I stayed there until about 12:30. Nic(the Nic that was at my house tonight) came over at about 10:30, and there were also several other people there, most of which I knew at least a little bit. They have a homemade kegerator in the house, which they had a keg of dark beer in tonight. In case anyone does not know what a kegerator is, it is a small refrigerator that not only keeps a keg cold, but also keep it fresh and bubbly.

April 28, 2005
Thursday:

I slept almost 12 hours last night. I had went to bed at 9:30, planning on getting up early and studying Chinese, but I did not get up until after 9 this morning. The first thing I heard before I even got out of bed was rain. I got up and looked at the radar on the Internet and decided not to go to class because it appeared that the rain would remain heavy for at least a few more hours.
I made a sandwich for lunch at 11, then talked to Johanna online. She told me that this weekend is a holiday called “Vappu”, and that all the students in town will wear their school overalls and high school graduation caps. Students in each major have their own color of overalls, which are printed with the logo’s of companies that sponsor the making of the overalls. Johanna sent me a picture of herself wearing hers. They are blue and have the name of a beer company printed in big letters on the leg. The high school graduation hats that they wear look like the hats that the Marines wear.
Nic came over at noon and we went to the Student Center and played pool for an hour. He then brought me home and I talked to Johanna online a few more minutes before starting homework. I then spent the next 3 hours on the homework.
Mike got home at 5 and we went to Ron’s One Stop to buy a 12 pack of Miller High Life. We then came home and cooked chicken cordon bleu and French fries for dinner. We later watched a TV show with David Blaine doing magic tricks on the street. It appeared that he really freaked some people out by reading their minds when they were thinking of the names of people they knew or simple objects.
Billy also called me tonight from Augusta. He said that the suspect in a nationwide manhunt had recently been caught laying on a mattress at a matress store right next to where he lives. The case had made national news because the man had been in prison before and written a popular book about being in prison. In the book he had claimed he would never go back, but then he killed two people last month. When he was recently captured in Augusta, he said he had come there because he wanted to watch the Masters tournament before he was captured.

April 27, 2005
Wednesday:

I hurt my back yesterday in racqueatball, and I could barely get out of bed this morning. It was better once I was up for a while and it quit hurting by the end of the day. I still beat Mike in 2 out of 3 games yesterday.
I went to all my classes today, so I was at school from 9-3. I talked to Johanna online after lunch. I had good news during the last two classes of the day, because I learned that I would not have to take the final exams.
I got home at 3 and Mike got home an hour afterwards. He had just returned from his Edward Jones interview in Cape Girardeau, and he said it was very successful. We went over to Nic and Sara’s house for dinner at 5. Two neighbors were over also, and Nic cooked us cheeseburgers for dinner.

April 26, 2005
Tuesday:

I thought about the dreams I had last night all day. They were not good or bad, just really weird. I have often had dreams in the past that were interesting enough for me to get up in the middle of the night and start writing. I have sometimes written 5 or 6 pages in the middle of the night. I have done this just a few times before, but I think I should start doing it again. I am now going to start posting dreams online occasionally. I will start an area of the website to do this and I hope other people join in. Everything will be written directly after awakening from the dream, even if it is in the middle of the night. I will leave the computer on all the time and just get up and start writing if the dream was vivid enough. I will only write at those times when I wake up completely shocked from a dream, which happens once a month or so.
Now for an example, let me once break my own rule about promptly writing dreams down, even though I only remember a few things….. I was at the bike store on the strip that has the foreign owner with not-so-good English. He offers me a summer internship working on bikes at his store. I accept the internship, then realize that I am leaving for the summer. He wants me to start on the spot, but I tell him that I just realized I was leaving for the summer, and I ask him if I can just work until I leave. He tells me that I can’t do that. I then leave the store, cross the street and get on a train to Chicago. I don’t remember why I went to Chicago or what I did there, but I do remember exploring the train. It was built and decorated unlike any train that really exists. No two seats seemed to be identical and other odd pieces of furniture was in the cars. Some seats had beaded curtains around them and there were beds randomly placed between the seats in some spots. The beds were long and narrow with brass bars in the middle of them. The brass bars separated them so two people would have a semi-private spot to lay.
I exited the train at some point using a robotic platform that moved up to the train when it was in the station. I remember standing at the door looking at a huge dropoff, then the platform came up and formed a ramp to walk off of.
The next thing I remember was coming back to Carbondale on the train. I fell asleep when it pulled into the town, then I did not wake up until it was leaving again. It was full of people and headed back to Chicago when I got up. I asked where the first stop was and was told that it was on a special route that went almost all the way to Chicago non-stop. I then ended up falling off the train in during the trip. I had been looking out the window because I was amazed at a strange neighborhood we were passing though. In a heavily wooded area, there were lots of tiny shacks built right next to the tracks. Most of the shacks had just roofs and screened walls, so I could see inside of each one. I specifically remember seeing a very old and ugly lady sitting in house that was surrounded by cats. I fell off the train when I went to the back of it to look closer at this old lady. The last thing I remember was feeling lost and climbing huge piles of dirt as I tried to find my way.
End of what I remember……
What really happened today was that I went to Chinese class in the morning. I went to the mall after that to get Mike a day-after-birthday present because I forgot to get him anything yesterday. I first walked around K’s Merchandise for a while, but could not find anything descent. I walked through the rest of the mall and finally ended up buying a Maxim magazine at Waldenbooks. The girl who waited on my asked to see my ID because my debit card was not signed. On my walk back through the mall, I stopped again in K’s Merchandise and bought a red neon “open” sign. I was not sure exactly what Mike would use it for, but I thought it would surely be useful someday.
Mike came home soon after I arrived. We ate some sandwiches for lunch, then I gave him his presents. I talked to Johanna online from 12:45 till 1:45, then Mike and I went to play racquetball. We ended the first game early because he was ahead 7-0. I won the second two games. We had seen Nic and Sara coming into the rec center when we arrived, and they came to our racquetball court as our third game was ending. We then all 4 went into the same court and just goofed around. We first played a 2-on-2 game, then played dodge ball. Nic let us throw balls at him as hard as we could. Mike and I nailed him good a couple times.
After the games I went with Mike to the university because he had to meet with a group at the business building. He met them in a computer lab, so I just used the Internet while I waited for a few minutes. We then got home about 4. I spent the next couple hours studying and doing some laundry. Mike and I cooked tacos for dinner at 6. I went to Buckley’s house at 7 and stayed until 9. We watched the Cubs play for a while and also watched some of Wildboys. I had never seen Wildboys before and I think it is one of the funniest things I have ever seen. The best part was when the two hosts have to play twister on a board that is covered by baby alligators. One of the gators eventually ends up biting a host’s wrist so bad that blood gets all over the board. The only problem was that they did not show enough of the injury. They host ran away just after he was bitten, then the next scene was filmed when he later returned with stitches on his wrist.
I came home from Buckley’s at 9, then studied for a few mintues until Nic got there. We had earlier agreed to have a couple beers when he got off work at 9. We first went to his house so he could change, then went to Mugsy’s. There, we got a pool table and played for about two hours. Some guys came after our second game and asked us if they could have the table. Nic told them that we would play them for the table, so we all played doubles and Nic and I won twice. The other guys left after their second loss.

April 25, 2005
Monday:

I had accounting class at 9 this morning, then spent my one-hour break using the library computers. The person sitting at the computer across from me looked exactly like a girl that works at Schnucks named Bridget. I said “Hi Bridget, and the girl said, “I’m not Bridget”. Maybe Bridget has entered the witness protection program because this girl looked exactly like her. Usually I can tell a case of mistaken identity after I have spoken with a person, but not this time.
On my way to Macroeconomics class I was casing the bike racks I passed. I have been doing this all semester, looking for abandoned bikes that are in good shape and locked by just the front tire, which can quickly be taken off. I’ve been doing this because my bike has about seen the end of its useful life. I have now located two bikes on campus that meet my qualifications. Both of them are better than mine and neither of them has seen any attention for the past 4 months. They would require a bit of a tune up, but could be almost like new afterwards. There is also another bike that is even better, but I am not yet sure if it has been abandoned. It is covered in dust and starting to rust, but it is brand new and expensive looking…..and the key is inside of the lock! I just noticed the key in the lock today, but I also noticed that it has an SIU police registration sticker on it. I am going to take it if it still has not been moved or stolen by the end of the semester.
I came home after Macroeconomics class and realized that I had forgotten Mike’s birthday. He was home when I got there and I saw birthday cards lying around the house, and heard him listen to a happy birthday message from his mom. So, I jokingly told him that his birthday present had been stolen and I would get him another one tomorrow.
I made myself a sandwich for lunch, then talked to Johanna online. Mike invited me to play golf with his brother and dad, but I decided to stay home and study. I eventually found some time to study after talking an hour nap.
I went to work at 5 and stopped by Burger King for dinner on the way there. I was waited on by a guy named Rodger that used to work at Schnuck’s. He remembered me and said hello to me by name. I then paid with my debit card and he looked at the back of it to make sure it was signed before scanning it. He then asked to see my ID when he noticed that it was not scanned. I thought to myself, “Didn’t he just say, ‘Hello Garth’?”
I had to clean the fresh meat case tonight at work and it pissed off all the customers because the job involves removing all of the meat and putting it into the back while the case is being cleaned. I waited until after 7 o’clock to start the job, but people were still mad. There were at least ten people who either gave me bad looks or a bad attitude. It made me feel like taking the hose I was using to clean the case and spraying them down. I was thinking tonight that it is weird how these people affect me. It does not bother me much at all at the moment they do rude things to me, but I usually later wish I had given them a bad attitude back. I think I am just going to have to start being meaner. In the past, I have done this a couple times to bad customers before and I really enjoyed it.

April 24, 2005
Sunday:

I went to work at 10 this morning. The sun was out and the temperature was about 55 degrees. It felt like fall. My shift lasted until from 10 till 6, which I think is one of the worst shifts because it is in the middle of the day. Clayton and I kept threatening to put each other into the bone barrel all day. He has put me in there twice before when I teased him about things. When I threatened to put him in the barrel today, he reminded me of a story he has told me before. When he was in the military some guys he knew tried to tackle him for some reason and he responded by biting a chunk out of one of their butts and squeezing the testicles of another so hard that he can now never have kids. I think he might be exaturating, but I am not sure.
During the last half of my shift, Mark and Paul were arguing about all kinds of things. Tony was working also and he pointed out all the black girls with big butts that came in the store. I think he really loves big butts. During my break I got a two-piece chicken meal from the deli that came with potato wedges. It was suppose to contain two legs, wings or thighs, but all they had were breasts, so they gave me those for the same price, which is a much better deal.
Mike came home with some Jack Daniels and Coke soon after I arrived at 6 o’clock. We both had two drinks. I spent some time studying Chinese and using the Internet, then Mike cooked dinner and we ate about 7:30. We had pork steaks, green beans and rice with cheese. I did the dishes after the meal, then called my grandma on the computer and talked to her for 45 minutes.
I watched South Park after talking to my grandma, then went back to studying and using the Internet until going to bed.

April 23, 2005
Saturday:

I went to work at 6 this morning, and the bike ride was a little cold. At Schnucks, I tried to clock in at the beginning of my shift and the time-clock told me, “too early”. So, I went to check the schedule and saw that I did not have to be there until 8. Since I was already there and ready to work, I asked Clayton if I could clock in early, and he said it was fine.
When I got into the cutting room of the meat department, I noticed that a whole cart stacked with cases of chicken had been left out overnight. I checked to make sure it was still cold then pushed it into the cooler before any managers saw it, because it would have gotten the guy who worked late last night, Mark, in trouble.
I spent the first half of my shift cutting, grinding and wrapping meat. When the meat truck came in, I noticed that a box of flank steaks had Chinese writing on it, which I could actually read a little bit of. I spent the second half of my shift putting out the lunchmeat that came in on the truck, and building the sale displays for next week. That is usually Carolyln’s job, but not now that she doesn’t work there anymore. I got it done in half the time it takes her, which I rubbed in when I saw her in the store shopping. As I was leaving work, I bought her a card and 5 lottery tickets for her birthday. The card said something about sharing lottery winnings with the people who remember your birthday.
I came home at 2 and the house was full of people. Nic and Sara were over signing a lease, and Nic’s mom and the landlord were also here. Nic and Sara like this house so much that they decided to rent in when we leave in May. I think they may be following me because they moved in right next door to me last summer and they asked Mike and Carolyn if this house came with me.
I talked to Johanna online from 3 till 4:15, then took a nap for an hour and a half. I took a shower after the nap and Damien pushed open the door and came in. I got out of the shower to remove him and close the door. He growled and licked me as I pushed him out against his will.
Mike and Carolyn went out to dinner with his dad from 6 till 8:30. Nikki came over at 8 because we were all planning on going out tonight for Carolyn’s birthday. Nikki and I had a couple beers while we waited on Mike and Carolyn to get home. I ate some leftover Papa John’s pizza that was in the fridge.
When Mike and Carolyn got home, John was with them. We all left to go to the Hangar(bar) about 9:30, where we were eventually joined by Nic, Sara, Tim and Rufus. Early in the evening, I played a game of pool against Nic and lost. After Rufus arrived, he, Nic and I stood in front of the stage and watched the bands that were playing. We had come to see the band, Nil8, which has played in Carbondale several times before and always draws a crowd. This band always has a mosh pit that forms in front of the stage, and I always get in it because the moshers are reasonable sane, meaning that they usually won’t intentionally hurt people. Tonight, one guy did intentionally pour a beer down the back of my shirt, though. The bouncer saw this happen and came over to the guy who did it. I probably could have acted really pissed so the guy would have been kicked out, but I was already too hot and sweaty to care.
Rufus, Tim and I stayed in the Mosh pit during the entire Nil8 performance, and we were exhausted by the time it was over. Jen arrived at the bar sometime around 1 with friends from work, and Beth and her boyfriend had been there since I arrived. I spent the last few minutes I was there talking to them, then Rufus and I rode home with Mike and Carolyn.
Rufus was planning on spending the night here. Mike and Carolyn went to bed soon after we arrived home, while Rufus and I had another drink, ate the rest of the leftover Papa John’s pizza and surfed the Internet. I showed Rufus how to look up satellite pictures of his house on the Internet, and he showed me some swingers websites. He decided to call Jennifer(wife) at 3 o’clock and ask for a ride home. He was planning on spending the night, but thought it would better to just sleep at home.
I talked to Johanna online for about 15 minutes after Rufus left. It was about noon in Finland at the time. I spilled an entire beer in my bed as I was adjusting the position of my monitor. The beer had been sitting next to the monitor and it fell off the desk and onto the bed. I at first did not know it had fallen, but realized it when I heard a fizzing sound coming from the bed. I had to take all the covers off the bed except for the pillow and sleeping bag, which did not get wet.

April 22, 2005
Friday:

I did not go to any of my morning classes because I stayed out too late last night. I got up for a while at 9, then went back to bed until noon. Carolyn left at noon to go get a massage in Marion and do some shopping. I had a test in History and Philosophy of World Economic systems at 2 o’clock, so I studied after I woke up.
Nic had given me a ride home last night and I had left my bike at Jen’s house. So, I left the house 30 minutes early today so I could walk and get the bike. I made myself some sandwiches on hot dog buns before I left the house. During the walk to my bike, I was certain I was going to get soaked. Black clouds were gathering in the sky and the temperature was dropping fast. I ran part of the way.
I passed Steph as I was riding onto campus, so I walked with her and talked for a few minutes. My test went OK today, and I think I probably got a B. There are usually only about 15 people in the class, but today there was 4 times that many. I finished the test in about 20 minutes, then rode my bike back home. The temperature dropped about 10 degrees(F) during the short time I was in the classroom. I was cold by the time I got home, but at least it did not rain. The wind was blowing so hard that some big dead tree limbs were falling onto the road.
I talked to Johanna online from 3 till 5, then Mike and Carolyn got home. Carolyn said there had been a bad hailstorm in Carterville, but we had barely even gotten any rain here. Mike and Carolyn cooked an awesome meal of Talapia, asparagus and rice. I ate two huge plates, then a piece of the cake Carolyn had received as a Schnuck’s going away present yesterday. I cleaned up after the meal, and Mike and Carolyn went to meet someone at Mugsy’s.

April 21, 2005
Thursday:

I got up at 8 o’clock this morning so I could study Chinese before my 10 o’clock test. The test ended up going OK, but I probably didn’t do any better than a C. I am really fine with C’s in Chinese, though. The world was out to get me during my bike ride home. First, the gears of the bike ripped a hole in my jeans, then about two seconds later, a lawnmower shot out a big rock that hit my bike.
Carolyn was home when I arrived, and she went to her last day of work at 1 o’clock. She will start working at the Schnuck’s corporate office in a few weeks. I made myself a sandwich for lunch, then talked to Johanna online for an hour. I feel asleep from 1:30 till 3, then got up and finished the video I was working on for Matt and Barb. I will have it online by tomorrow. I fit a few minutes of Chinese studying in every time I had to wait on the computer to process video information. The computer can take up to an hour to process a video that is just 10 minutes long.
Mike was gone all day to a Regions Bank job interview in St. Louis. He also had to go door to door there to get surveys filled out for another job he is trying to get at Edward Jones Financial Services. He got home around 6 and made a pot of rice and sausage for dinner.
After the meal, I headed to Jen’s house on my bike. I hillbilly screamed at me as I crossed a street on the way there. He thought I had pulled out too close in front of him, so he honked and screamed “F U you FKN queer”. I bought two 6-packs of beer on the way to Jen’s house. She had asked me to pick one up for her on the way.
There were a lot of people in and out of Jen’s house tonight. I left with Nic at 10 to see if anybody would show up(see the most recent of 2005 Documents). We came back to the house by 10:30. Sara came over soon after that. She brought beer for Nic and I, and she also ordered Pizza. Nic asked me to read him some Dr. Seuss while he ate the pizza.
Cheech came over later in the night and showed everyone some bar tricks. The first one involved hitting the top of a bottle with your palm and blowing the bottom out of the bottle. For the second one, he took a lighter apart and heated the flint till it was glowing, then threw it on the ground and it exploded.
There was a lot of partying activity in the surrounding streets all night long. A zombie walked by around 1 o’clock. This guy was so drunk that he was running into houses. I grabbed my camera from my backpack and started recording him walk down the street. I followed him for almost 3 blocks. I think I could sell this video to AA.

April 20, 2005
Wednesday:

I had to make some copies at the library before class this morning. Ninety percent of the hundreds of copy machines around campus are always broken, and today was no different. One of the ones on the first floor of the library worked, but a girl was using it. I then found another broken one on the second floor, so I went up to the third. The third floor was creepy because there was no staff working and the few students there were all asleep. I even found the copy machine sleeping. I thought it was probably broken when I saw that none of the lights were on, but I flipped the power switch and it worked.
I talked to Nic for a minute before going into my accounting class at 9 o’clock. In Chinese class I had to create a dialog with a girl named Li Pei. We had to role-play that she was the teacher and I was the student. I had to pretend I was calling her on the phone to tell her that I would not be in class today. I said that I could not come because I was allergic to dogs and my nose itched. She then told me to take some medicine and come to class, but I refused.
In Macroeconomics class, we learned that it takes a birthrate of 2.2 kids per woman for a population to remain stable. Women must have the extra .2 because some kids die. We discussed this because women in the US are having less than 2.2 kids, which could cause the Medicare and Social Security Program to collapse. The system works well when there are many young people being born for every old person retiring because all the young people pay into the system, but the current birthrate will eventually run the system out of money.
After Macroeconomics, I went to Mcdonalds for lunch, then to the computer lab where my computer class is held. I got to the room about 20 minutes early, so I talked to Johanna online until class started. She wanted me to do her accounting homework because I had recently covered the same material, but I could not remember how to do it, so she told me she would email it to me to work on later.
At 2 o’clock I went to History and Philosophy of World Economic Systems. Today was test review day. As usual, the teacher could not figure out how to work the projector, so he just read his review notes to us. He also used the chalkboard a couple times, but mostly just spoke very fast and unclearly. I went to the library after class and checked out the textbook for the class, which I never bought because it cost $90. The book was on reserve, meaning that it can not be taken out of the library, so I sat at a table and read the parts of the book that the teacher said would be on the test. Someone had brought a baby into the library and it screamed for most of the time I studied.
I got home just after 4 and I spent some time trying to solve Johanna’s accounting problem, which she had emailed me. I could not do the problem because there appeared to be missing information.
At 5:30, Mike, Carolyn and I took her car to Murphysboro. We first met John, Amy and Dylan at the site of the new house they are building. The property is a great area to build, as it is surrounded by forest and at the end of a dead-end road. The house has a long way to go before it is finished, but it is going to be very nice.
After taking a tour of the construction site, we all went out to dinner at the Kinkaid Boathouse, which used to be The Landing. The Landing has apparently been closed for quite some time, but I never knew it before tonight. I ordered a Philly Cheese steak. A storm came in just after we arrived at the restaurant and the power went out for just a moment.
After the meal, Mike, Carolyn and I went to Matt and Barb’s house, which is also in Murphysboro. Barb just had thier baby a week ago, so we saw it for the first time tonight. I made the second part of a video I am working on for Matt and Barb. I interviewed them two weeks ago, when she was still pregnant, and I did the follow up interview tonight. The other two kids, Chase and Allissa, were also there. Allissa asked me what that is above my left eyebrow, and I told her it was my power button. She then got lots of enjoyment by pushing it as I pretended to turn on and off. I held the baby for a minute before leaving. I had never held a baby that small before.
Mike, Carolyn and I got home around 9 o’clock. Gretchen had left a message for me two nights ago, so I called her back tonight. I used my computer to make the call because we do not have long distance service on our house phone. Gretchen and I talked for about an hour and a half. She says that she may get hired for a teaching position next week. She told me that she could not remember what day my birthday was on, and I told her I was surprised she forgot my birthday. Her response was, “Oh, I am such a terrible ex-wife”. I also told Gretchen that Johanna sometimes asks me if we will get back together, and she told me to tell Johanna that she is not that stupid.

4/19/2005
Tuesday:

I accidentally set my alarm an hour early for this morning. It went off at 8 but it was suppose to go off at 9. When it went off, I thought I changed it to 9, but I actually turned it off, so I woke up just before my Chinese class was starting. I quickly got ready and made it to class on time. The teacher made me try to read three sentences today.
Carolyn was home when I arrived, and I made myself a sandwich for lunch. Mike’s dad came by at noon and Mike came home during his lunch break, then they and Carolyn went out to lunch. I started mowing at that time and finished an hour later. I then talked to Johanna online for an hour. Today we talked about trying to get her an assistantship at SIU, which would mean she could work on campus and go to school for free, but this will probably not be easy.
I fell asleep from 2 till 3:30, then did homework for my computer class and Chinese till 7. At that time, I went over to Buckley and Jen’s house to eat dinner. Mike and Damien left the house before me, and I then rode my bike there. Jen cooked us T-bone steaks. Two of her friends were also there. Buckley and I played catch outside for a few minutes before dark. I sat a glass on the sidewalk while we played and Damien knocked it over and broke it.
After the meal, I played San Andreas(video game) with Buckley and Mike, then went home around 10. I spent the next couple hours using my computer, then went to sleep.

Maybe this is lost forever.......another account of tunnel exploration...

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April 18, 2005
Monday:

I left for school a few minutes early this morning so I could stop at the library and make a copy of my accounting homework. The temperature at 8:30 this morning was already warm enough that I just wore a T-shirt to school. At the library, there was a group of high school kid’s that were on a tour of campus. Several of the girls were standing around the giant statue of Abraham Lincoln’s head and rubbing the nose. I heard one of them say, “I’m going to rub the hell out of this thing next year”.
I passed my Chinese teacher(the female one) as I was going to Macroeconomics class. She stopped and said some things to me in Chinese. I think she asked me if I was going to class, but I am not sure. I tried to answer in Chinese, but couldn’t think of the right way to say things, so I just said, “yes”. In Macroeconomics class, we talked about how politicians trick us by saying that the national debt is worse then ever, when it is actually historically normal on a percentage basis.
Carolyn was home cleaning when I arrived, and she went to work at 1. Mike had earlier been home and gone to the store on his lunch break, so there was all kinds of new food to eat. He had bought about 20 individual packages of lunchmeat because it was on sale for $1 each. I ate two sandwiches and some chips. I talked to Johanna online from 1 to 2 o’clock. She said that she is mailing my birthday present tomorrow. I fell asleep from 2 till 3, then got up and wrote some Chinese characters that are due tomorrow.
Mike got home from work at 4:30, then quickly left again to go to the rec center. He is probably going today because he knows I have to work and he does not want to get beat at racquetball.
Carolyn and I were the only people working in the meat department tonight. I made sausage and cleaned the cutting room, then left work at 10. Nic came over for a while after that.

April 17, 2005
Sunday:

Mike told me I could use his truck when he left town yesterday, so I took it to work this morning at 7. Everybody was in a good mood at work and the time went by quickly. I left an hour early, at 2. As I was walking back to the truck, I noticed that Great Clips was having a sale on haircuts. They had a hot air balloon in front of the store that said “Haircut $5.99” on the side of it. So, I decided it was a good time for a haircut. I had to wait only about 15 minutes.
I slept for over 2 hours after I got home. Damien slept next to me and snored. When I got up I made myself the same dinner that I had yesterday; bratwurst and potato chips. I do not eat nearly as well when Mike and Carolyn are out of town. They got home around 8 o’clock, and I spent the rest of the evening studying Chinese.

April 16, 2005
Saturday:

Last night, I accidentally set my alarm clock to 5:30 P.M. instead of 5:30 A.M, so I was late for work today. I happened to wake up on my own at 6:30 and I arrived to work about 6:45. A new person named Tony worked today. He is a black guy that is probably about 30 years old.
I rode my bike home at 2. Carolyn was working at that time and Mike was out playing golf until 4. I fell asleep from 3 until 4, then got up and did my accounting homework at the picnic table outside. Damien would push his tennis ball underneath my feet every once and a while, and I would stop studying for a moment and throw it for him. I finished the homework about 6:30. Carolyn came home from work at 6, then her and Mike left for an overnight trip to St Louis so they can look at apartments tomorrow.
I microwaved two prepackaged beer-n-bratwurst for dinner, and at them with potato chips. I had milk to drink. I watched some true-crime stories on T.V. for an hour after dinner, then talked to Johanna online for over 2 hours before going to sleep.

April 15, 2005
Friday:

I felt unusually tired last night and I woke up with a headache this morning. The headache lasted all day, but at least the weather was great; about 70 degrees and perfectly sunny. I went to accounting class at 9, then Chinese. I went to my Macroeconomics class at 11, but just put my homework on the teacher’s desk and left before he got there because I did not feel like I could concentrate on the boring material with a headache.
Before leaving campus, I went back to the same office where I had signed up for classes yesterday. I felt that the schedule I had been given yesterday had too many breaks in it, so I went back today to try and make it better. Today, I asked to talk to the woman who had signed me up for classes last semester. I waited about 5 minutes for her to finish with another student, then she helped me fix the schedule. I now only have a one-hour break each day.
I then left the campus and headed towards the east side of town because I had some errands to run there. I stopped at Wendy’s on the way, but the line was too long and only one cashier was waiting on customers, so I decided to eat later. My next stop was at the suit rental store, N-Tux, because I needed to get fitted for a tuxedo for Randy’s wedding. There was only one salesperson available and he was helping other people, so I decided to run my other errands first. I then went to Wal-Mart and had two passport sized photos made for $11. The woman who waited on me thought her camera had been stolen because she couldn’t find it at first. I asked her if my brother’s ex-girlfriend still worked there and she said no. She then started talking about her job, saying “I’m the only person here now, so I have to work constantly, but at least I make $8 per hour”. It’s great that some people think this way, otherwise who would be running the everyday world? The lady went on to tell me that her son was a truck driver in Iraq and that she had lived in Germany for 3 years.
My next stop was lunch at Arby’s, where I had a roast beef and cheddar meal with curly fries. After that, I went back to the tux rental store. The store was empty of customers at that time, so the salesman waited on me immediately. He was a young, short and stocky black guy that was pleasant and to-the-point. He made a few measurements and had me try on a jacket, shoes and trousers. The whole process only took about 10 minutes. As I left the store, I heard someone call my name from a passing car. It was Tom Coffel, whom I went to school with in Murphysboro, and his girlfriend. He stopped and we talked for a couple minutes.
My next stop was AAA Travel, which was in the same shopping center. There, I used my two passport photos to get an International drivers license so I can rent a car this summer in Finland and drive into the mostly uninhabited northern part of the country. The two ladies working there asked me all about my trip as they filled out the paper work. They wanted to know how I met a girl from Finland. I love telling people I went to China(the most populated country in the world) and met a girl from Finland(population 5 million). My international driver’s license cost $10 and will be good for one year from May 25.
Next, I headed home. I saw Pink in his wheelchair on the way home. I know Pink because he lives in the same building that Billy used to live in. Pink has been to parties at my house over the past two summers. He is probably about 50 years old and has been in a chair quite a long time.
I decided to make two last stops on my way home. I went to thrift shops looking for shorts and t-shirts. The two stores I went to are right across the street from each other. I ended up finding two pairs of shorts and about 5 shirts. One of the shirts is a Disgacefuls one, which really surprised me when I saw it. There were hundreds of t-shirts available in the store, and the Disgracefuls one was sticking out so I could see it. It was meant to be because I would have never gone through all the hundreds of shirts. The lady that waited on me at the first store was a big and friendly black lady who told me about her family, but the person at the second store was a skinny white girl who was very rude.
I got home around 2 o’clock and nobody was home except for Damien. I spent an hour using the Internet, then fell asleep for an hour. I heard my computer ringing at 4:30. It was Johanna, and I talked to her for an hour. Mike and Carolyn got home just before 7, then the three of us went to a new Thai restaurant in town. There, we met John and Amy. The restaurant required reservations, but the food was not expensive. For appetizers we ordered peanut butter flavored chicken on sticks and chicken wings. For the entrees, we were asked to choose our level of spiciness, from 1 to 10. I ordered the “Brocolli Delight” with a spice level of 4. I changed the level to a 3 when I heard the waiter telling someone else that 4 was quite spicy. Everyone at the table laughed at me when I changed the number, like I was some kind of wimp or something. John and Mike showed off by ordering a 5, and Mike even said that next time he would order a 6. I will show him who is a wimp next time we play racquetball.
We all went to Tres Hombres(bar) after leaving the restaurant. We walked there because it is only about a block away. Carolyn and Amy drove and they got there after us. By the time they arrived, we had already gotten a table and ordered a pitcher of beer. They also got a table and ordered a pitcher of beer because they did not know we were there yet. So, Amy walked up to our table, picked up our pitcher and said something like, “come meet your other pitcher of beer”.
John and Amy had to leave at 10, then Mike, Carolyn and I went to P.K’s. Bear’s band was playing there tonight and Nikki had invited us to come. The band was really good and did not take a break or stop once during the whole hour-and-a-half we were there. The small bar was packed soon after we arrived. I was Pink there and I also saw Curtis(otherwise known as Joe). Curtis/Joe has worked at Schnucks since it opened. He calls himself Curtis at work because there is another person working there named Joe, and it is otherwise confusing for both of them if the name “Joe” is called on the intercom.

April 14, 2005
Thursday:

It was cool and sunny all day. The air felt a little bit cold on my bike ride to school and the temperature probably never did get above 60, but it felt nice. The only class I had today was Chinese and we learned that saying the Chinese words for “release gas” means “bullshit”. The word sounds like “fong bee”.
After class, I went to see my advisor, Brooke, and had her advise me on what classes to take next semester. It is required that all FLIT students see her before signing up for classes. She spent about 20 minutes with me, then I took the information she gave me and signed up for classes in an office downstairs. I had to sign in and wait just a couple minutes there before a lady called my name and took me into her office. The lady was a foreign black woman with English that I could not understand very well. She also had a bad cold or allergies, which made her even harder to understand.
I got home around noon and realized that I had locked myself out. I have had a hard time remembering my wallet(I keep the key in the wallet) lately because I have not been taking my coat with me, which is where I have been keeping it all winter. So, I laid in the hammock until Mike got home. He was with his dad and brother because they had all gone out to eat together during their lunch breaks.
I spent the afternoon doing a little homework, using the Internet and talking to Johanna online. We talked for a couple hours today. Mike and I went to play raquetball at 6 o’clock. He almost beat me in all three games we played because I felt unusually tired. I managed to win the last game by just a couple points. On the way home from the Rec center, we tried to stop and buy a 6-pack of beer, but realized that neither of us had our wallets, so we just came home and drank the couple we had left from last night.
We made beef kabobs for dinner. I gave Damien the most intense ball chasing session of his life while the food was cooking on the grill. I threw the ball non-stop for about 40 minutes straight, without giving him any break in between each toss. He tried to lay down several times, but I was always able to get him up by just saying his name in an excited tone of voice. I eventually quit throwing the ball because I was worried he might have a heart attack or something, but he didn’t even act tired after he caught his breath.
We ate the food when Carolyn got home from work at 9. She was supposed to get off at 8, but had to stay late. I did the dishes after the meal, then did my Macroeconomics homework that is due tomorrow. I felt like I had no idea how to do the homework, but I just quickly wrote some things down that sounded good. I did the same thing on last weeks homework, and I had expected to fail it, but I actually got an A, so I hope the thing happens this week.

March 13, 2005
Wednesday:

The weather was cool and rainy this morning and it did not change all day.
I let an anti-virus program scan my computer overnight and when I woke up it told me that 8 viruses had been found. It was the first time I had scanned for viruses since I bought the computer last semester in China. I had been noticing some virus evidence lately, so I thought it was about time I do something. I have to laugh at some of the annoying little programs that virus writers will create. My computer was infected with one that hid the pop-windows that appear when you put the mouse cursor over the icons in the taskbar at the bottom of the screen. On a normal computer, if you put the cursor over the time displayed in the bottom right hand corner of the screen, the date will pop up in a little window after a couple seconds, then disappear when you move the mouse again. Before I removed the virus, the little window was appearing behind the taskbar instead of in front of it, and all I could see was the very top of the window but not the date inside of it. The same thing was happening with all the other icons pop up windows. What kind of a person could do something like this to innocent and peaceful human beings who are already overwhelmed by these terrible machines?
I did not go to my accounting class this morning because we were just reviewing for today’s test, which I felt prepared for already. I went to Chinese class at 10 and we got yesterday’s tests back. I had a dream last night that I got a 30%, but my dreams are luckily not foretelling, as I actually got a 71%. I would not have been surprised if I had received a 30%, because the test was very hard. We began a new chapter in our textbook after going over the tests. This week’s lesson is about doctors and health, so our new vocabulary words include things about dying and pain. One of the words means “leftover food”, because we must read a paragraph about a guy getting food poisoning.
I went to eat lunch at McDonald’s after Macroeconomics class, then went to the computer lab in the business building where my computer class is held at 12:35. I wanted to talk to Johanna online before the class started, but the computers would not cooperate. This brings up another stupid computer story. The reason I couldn’t talk to Johanna today is that we use MSN Messenger and Messenger will not let you use an old version of itself. So, a new version of Messenger comes out every few weeks, and then the computer will tell you, “A new version of Messenger is now available. You cannot continue without installing the new version”. I tried to install the new version today, but Messenger’s website was down, so that meant I could not run the old version or install the new version. Computers are not the problem in this case, it is the people who wrote the software which does not let us to use the old version of the program. I think Microsoft owns Messenger, so that means we have someone to blame….Bill. That is the nice part about one company owning so much in the computer world…..there is always someone to blame….Bill.
After the computer class, I went to History and Philosophy of World Economic Systems. A black girl sat next to me and she kept starring at me during the lecture. She was sitting just inches from me and she would look and stare at me for about 30 seconds at a time. She did this a couple times and I kept ignoring it. Finally, she stared at me and said, “why aren’t you taking notes?”. I told her that I only take notes on test review day. Later in class, she threw a piece of wadded up paper at the girl sitting in front of her, whom she did not appear to know. The other girl just ignored it.
After class, I handed in my paper about Guatemala, then went back to the same computer lab that my previous class had been it. I sat there and studied two more hours for my 5:30 accounting test. I also fell asleep by the computer for about 20 minutes, but I’m not very comfortable sleeping next to computers because I worry that I will wake up with a USB cable stuck in my head, with the computer installing some kind of malicious software into my brain.
My accounting test went great and I think I might have gotten a perfect score. It took me almost two hours to complete the test, which is the allotted time. I once stopped to ask the teacher about the wording of a problem and all she said was, “We covered this in class”. I knew we had covered the problem in class. I just wanted to know if the word “a” in the problem should have been “the”, but the teacher seemed to think that was too much information.
I rode by Jen’s house on my way home because I had not seen her in a long time, but nobody was home, so I went home. Mike was there when I arrived. We went to a new Mexican restaurant on the strip for dinner. The Mexicans working there were a little bit rude to us because we were not familiar with the way things worked. They were mad because I did not have my receipt when I picked up my order and they were again mad when I asked if 2 tacos came in each of the packages I was given. I don’t want to go back. The restaurant just opened, so they should expect it to take a while for people to get used to things.
Mike and I took our food to go and picked up a couple beers at Oldtown Liquors on the way home. Carolyn got off work at 8 and we all watched two episode of South Park. I then spent the rest of the evening studying Chinese and using my computer.

April 12, 2005
Tuesday:

I had my alarm set for 8 o’clock this morning so I could get up early and study more before my 10 o’clock Chinese test. A friend called me at 7:30 to tell me he was drunk. He also told me that he had called TAO(radio station) and been allowed to talk on-air for about 45 seconds. After the phone call, I studied until it was time to go to school.
The test did not go very well for me. I thought I would get a descent grade, but I could not understand much of the listening part of the test, where we have to listen to a recorded conversation and answer questions about it. I also did not do well on the last part of the test, where questions have to be answered about a written paragraph.
After the test I walked to the Faner building because I wanted to meet with my advisor, Brooke, and sign up for fall classes. As I was walking in the hallway towards Brooke’s office, I heard someone call my name from behind. It was Jan, whom I had not seen since I visited her in Vermont a year ago. We only talked for a minute because she had a class to teach right away.
I found my advisor in her office and she told me I would have to get a piece of paperwork filled out by my Chinese teacher before I could sign up for classes. She gave me the paperwork and I took it to Dr. Hammond’s office, which is just down the hall. His office hours started at 11, but he did not show up until about 10 after. The paperwork he had to fill out requested that he recommend what language class I should be placed in next semester. I was worried that he would make me re-take the one I am taking now, but he wrote that I should be placed in the next one. Even though he recommends that I advance to the next class, he still has to pass me in my current class before I can move on. After filling out the papers, he asked me about my summer plans for studying Chinese. I told him that I would be on vacation in Finland all summer and would go over all the material from the level 1 class that I never took at SIU.
I returned home after talking to Dr. Hammond. Carolyn was home when I arrived and Mike came home for lunch soon afterwards. Carolyn made us all sandwiches. I talked to Johanna online for an hour. She said that she will soon apply for a temporary US work visa.
I fell asleep for an hour after the conversation, then got up and started studying for an accounting test that I have tomorrow. Carolyn went into work at 6 , then Mike cooked himself and I chicken breast sandwiches and fries for dinner. I drank a beer during the dinner and I noticed something funny written on the beer coozie I was using. The coozie had an advertisement for Budwiser printed on it, and also the name of a website advocating responsible drinking. The name of the website is beeresponsible.com. The first thing that came to mind was “be irresponsible.com”
I went back to studying account after the meal. I stopped working at 10, then watched part of a TV about crab fishing in Alaska, which is supposed to be the world’s deadliest job. And sure enough, a fisherman died while the documentary was being filmed.

April 11, 2005
Monday:

The constant pain in the side of my back was still there when I woke up this morning. It had suddenly developed yesterday afternoon and had been with me ever since. I went to accounting class at 9 this morning, where we reviewed for our Wednesday test. I spent my one-hour break in the library using the computers, then went to Macroeconomics. It was sprinkling rain during my ride home and strong storms were predicted for the day. On the way home, I stopped at Yesteryear Tobacconist and bought a 2-ounce bag of Luxury Bright tobacco for $3.
For lunch, I grilled myself 2 turkey and cheese sandwiches. Carolyn came home just after I ate. Her and Mike had used his lunch break to go to a travel agency and inquire about options for their planned February wedding in Mexico. I talked to Johanna for about an hour and a half. She had just returned home from spending the weekend with her mom and dad. It was the first time she had seen them since returning from America, and she said that her mom had lots of questions about my family.
I fell asleep for an hour after talking to Johanna, then studied Chinese until I had to work at 6. About the time I was ready to leave, I noticed that my back had stopped hurting as quickly as it had started yesterday; weird. Carolyn offered me her car to take to work because of the rain in the forecast. It was only lightly sprinkling when I left.
Work was not bad tonight. I had to clean a small bunker case before cleaning the back cutting room. The bunker cases are the ones that sit in the middle of the floors, and they are always freezing up, which is why I had to clean the one tonight. There must be a serious design flaw in them because they all freeze. Ice slowly builds up in the bottoms of them until they quit working. It pisses off everybody that works there off. I organized frozen turkeys during my last hour at work, then left at 11. Just before I clocked out, a huge guy told me that a creepy man was in the parking lot asking people for money, so I told the manager, Jim, as I left the store. Since I had Carolyn’s car tonight, I took home some things I had been saving at work for my dad. In the meat department, we use rolls of rubber matting and rolls of absorbent padding to line our cases with. The rolls are too long to use, so we cut the ends off. The ends then end up getting thrown away because they are too short to do anything with, but my dad likes to use them for packaging material. He ships out dozens of car parts every week for his Ebay business, and he says the red matting is perfect for wrapping around the parts.
After arriving at home, I spent some time studying Chinese and using the Internet. Mike and Carolyn were already asleep, but Damien woke them up because he wanted to come see me. Damien usually does not wake up when I come in late, but he really wanted to see me tonight.

April 10, 2005
Sunday:

Getting up today was terrible because of the party last night. I had not gone to bed until after 1, so I was very unhappy when my alarm went off at 6:30 this morning. I worked with Clayton, Paul, Mark, Matt and Carolyn. Clayton told me that Mark had recently told him that Carolyn was the most moral person he knew. So, when Mark came in to work today, I was sure to tell him that Carolyn had several drinks last night at the party. He replied, “She doesn’t do that”. She might have Mark under some kind of witch-spell.
For lunch, I got a Whopper meal from Burger King and took it to the picnic table by the store. The temperate was 82 degrees today(27 C), which was the warmest day yet this year. I developed a dull pain in my side during the last two hours of my shift, which made it painful to move. The pain lasted for the rest of the day.
I left work an hour early, at 2, then rode my bike home. Mike was gone when I got home, and I took a two-hour nap. I had planned on talking to Johanna, but she sent me an email saying she went to bed early(she is eight hours ahead).
Mike and Carolyn came home shortly after I got up from my nap. On the way home, they had stopped by Buckley’s house to check on a prank they pulled last week. They had put a Cardinals(St. Louis baseball team) license plate over the real front license plate of his truck, and they stopped today to look at the truck and see if the plate was still there. It was. This is funny because Buckley is a hard-core Chicago Cubs fan. Mike and Buckley have been having a Cardinals-Cubs merchandise war for the past couple years. Whenever the two of them hang out, each of them is sure to use all their stuff with team logos. So, Buckley will be wearing a Cubs hat and shirt, using a Cubs lighter and chilling his beer in a Cubs coozie. Mike will have the Cardinals version of all those things. But I think Buckley wins because he has a lot more Cubs things than Mike does Cardinals things. Buckley has Cubs posters all over his house and a bottle opener that says “Cubs Win! Cubs Win!” whenever it opens a bottle. Jen gets him most of these things. Mike wins on creativity, though, because he always pulls a prank at the beginning of the baseball season. Last year, I helped him put Cardinals schedules all over Buckley’s yard. These small paper schedules can be picked up for free at businesses all over town. So, last year we gathered several dozen sticks from our yard and taped a Cardinal’s schedule to the top of each one, then went to Buckley’s house late at night and stuck the sticks all over his yard.
For dinner tonight, Mike cooked sirloin steaks and mashed potatoes. Carolyn and I did the dishes after dinner, then I went to my room and studied Chinese until about 10. I then spent a couple hours working on a new video for my website, which will be about the website Geocaching.com and the things Randy and I did with it.

April 9. 2005
Saturday:

It was dark on my way to work this morning, but the seasons are changing quickly. Last week was almost black when I went to work, but the sky was starting to change colors today. The seasons always change very quickly here, and the spring seems to be the one that changes the quickest.
I worked from 6-2 today. It was hot when I left work because I was still wearing the sweater that I arrived in. I also had my coat with me, but it was too warm to wear that. I wrapped the coat around my arm for the ride home.
Nobody was home when I got there. Carolyn was at work and Mike was just not home. He came home about an hour later. We organized the backyard for a party we were planning on having.
We went to Schnuck’s at 5:30 to buy some things we needed for the party. We went to Aldi’s after that because Schnuck’s didn’t have everything we needed. Next, we stopped at Westroad Liquors before coming home.
Nic was the first to arrive, and he brought his dog. Nkki said she was going to the Running of the Bulls in June. Also here, was Jeff, Chris(Mikes cousin), John, Amy, Josh, Courtney, Nic and Sara. My dad, Clara and Amanda stopped by for about 30 mintues. Mike grilled food early in the evening, and we played outdoor poker later in the evening. I lost $5 and spilled a drink on the felt table.

April 8, 2005
Friday:

I left home 10 minutes early this morning so I could make a copy of my accounting homework. The class reviews the homework after it is turned in, so I wanted to make a copy to look at while we did the review. I had remembered seeing a copy machine in the basement of the business building, which is right next door to where my accounting class is, so I went there. The machine had a sign on it that said, “out of order”, so I asked a girl at the computer lab desk if there was another machine in the building. She said, “no, but I think there is one in the Lawson building”. The Lawson building is where my class is, so I went there to look for the machine.
I did find the copy machine, but I found it light up with red error lights and it would do nothing. I then walked on to the next building in search of a working machine. The next building was Life Science II, and I found a machine in the middle of the first floor. It was also light up with error lights and would do nothing. I saw a guy walking by that was pushing a cart that had some kind of experiment supplies on it and I asked him if there was another machine around. He said, “no, but I can’t say about the other floors”. So, I then went up to the second and third floor looking for a copy machine, but there was nothing. By that time it was almost 9 o’clock, and I knew that the teacher would not accept homework that was even a minute late, even though she is often several minutes late. So, I ran to class and made it on time, then had to hand in my homework without a copy.
In Chinese class, the teacher(the Chinese girl) made a funny comment while she was writing on the chalkboard. A flyer advertising a university guest speaker was hung above the board and was blocking part of it. There was a picture of a middle-aged white man wearing a tank-top on the flyer, and the teacher pushed the flyer to the side when she needed to use that area of the chalkboard. When she first touched the flyer, she stopped and stared at it for a minute, then said, “so ugly”, before continuing with class. Only one other student seemed to understand what she had said.
I came home after Macroeconomics class and made myself a leftover Italian beef sandwich for lunch. After that, I decided to mow the yard for the first time this year. Mike’s dad had recently tuned up the lawn mower, so it started up easily. It took me about an hour to get the whole yard done. I had to move Damien’s fenced dog kennel to mow underneath it, and I also mowed him a runway out into the field, because that is where we throw his ball. Mike started mowing the runway last season.
After I was done mowing, I then spent the rest of the afternoon finishing a paper for my History and Philosophy of World Economic Systems class. The paper was only 3 pages and I only needed to finish the last page of it. I expected to only spend an hour or so with it, but I had a very difficult time finding the historical economic data I needed. It would have been easy if I had received a more civilized country to write about than Guatemala.
Carolyn came home while I was working on the paper. She had been out running errands all day. She left again later in the afternoon to take a drug test in Marion for her new job at the Schnuck’s corporate office. Mike got home around 4, and he went to the rec center with Carolyn after she arrived home.
They got back at 7, and Mike had brought home some rope to put the hammock up. He also bought a $300 Columbia coat on clearance for $75. Before starting dinner, we hung the hammock. For the meal, we had Italian seasoned chicken breasts and sliced potatoes and salad(Mike did most of the work, of course). While we ate, we watched a History Channel Special about September 11, and after that we watched a special about Flight 11, which had hit the World Trade center.

April 7, 2005
Thursday:

Mike was leaving for work this morning at the same time I was going to Chinese class, so he gave my bike and I a ride in his truck. In class, the teacher called on me to read twice today. He had been skipping me since the beginning of the semester because he knows I can’t read well.
After class, I went into the Faner building to look for my adviser because I am required to meet with her before I can sign up for next fall’s classes. A person in her office told me that she was not available today because she was working at a foreign language fair on campus.
The bike ride home was a little damp. There had been drizzle falling since the morning.
Mike and Carolyn were both home when I arrived. Mike had left work early and Carolyn did not have to work at all. Mike’s dad came over for lunch and we ate the leftover Italian beef from last night.
After lunch, I talked to Johanna for about an hour and a half. She told me she found a Chinese man to car pool to work with, but she has to pay him about $5 per day. I fell asleep for an hour after talking to Johanna, then spent the rest of the afternoon studying Chinese.
For dinner, Mike and Carolyn made pork chops, green beans, corn and rolls. It was a really good meal. I continued studying after dinner, stopping once to take an ice cream break. I put my books away about 10:30, then spent another hour using the Internet before going to sleep.

April 6, 2005
Wednesday:

(somebody I trust told me a great story today. We will call this person K. So, K said that a person in an Internet chat room made them a business offer last week. This person said that K would receive $300 per week for receiving checks in the mail, cashing them and then wiring the money to an individual in London. So, K had 3 or 4 conversations with this person, then a check came in the mail a few days later. The check was worth several thousand dollars, and it was pay to the order of K. The check was good. K kept the agreed upon $300 cut and wired the rest to London. The person said there would soon be more work for K if this transaction went smoothly. How weird is that?)
OK, Now back to the regularly scheduled program…..
I noticed that there was not much light coming in my window this morning when I sat up in bed to turn the alarm off. Before I even looked out the window, I knew the darker-than-normal conditions had “rain” written all over them. I then pushed open the blinds, and sure enough, it had just started to lightly rain. The problem with the rain was that I was getting ready to ride my bike to school. I knew it would not melt me or anything, but getting to school wet is just not nice. My first thought was, “I am not going to school”, but I then decided to check the radar on the Internet. The radar showed a huge orange blob just beginning to move into Carbondale. Orange is bad. Upon seeing the blob, I again decided I wasn’t going to school. But, I changed my mind about 15 seconds later, thinking I could get to school before the blob attacked, even though it would still mean I would have to ride through some light rain.
The blob attacked even before I had gotten two blocks from the house, and it strengthened the attack throughout the rest of my journey. The blob had won and I was wet for the next 3 hours. I got to accounting class at 9 and it was hot and stuffy. There is always a two-week adjustment period for the university to get the temperature right when the seasons change. We freeze for two weeks in the fall, and we burn for two weeks in the summer.
After accounting, I went to Chinese and Macroeconomics, then lunch at the student center. It had quit raining by that time, and there was even a little sun. I ordered my usual Wednesday meal at McDonald’s, and as I was waiting for the order I saw a sign that read, “Due to an increase of counterfeit $100 bills, we are not accepting $100 bills”. McDonald’s always uses a marker to check their money, so the counterfeits that are going around must test OK under the marker. I was thinking that if the problem really got out of hand, would businesses put up a sign that says, “Due to the increase in counterfeiting, only debit and credit cards will be accepted”. It sounds like a good idea….why not? Sure, there is electronic crime as well, but this solution would at least eliminate half of the problem. It is probably just a matter of time before paper money is a thing of the past, but probably quite a long time. I think big businesses will do it in some of our lifetimes, though.
After the meal, I then went to the lab session of my computer class, which I have not been to for almost a month. I left MSN Messenger running during the class, and as I thought might happen, Johanna signed on about the time the class was letting out. I talked to her for about 10 minutes and she let me view her webcam.
My next and last class of the day was History and Philosophy of World Economic Systems. Keith Conrad was in class today and he sat next to me. It was also the first time I had been to this class in about a month. Today, I was reminded why I have not been to this class in such a long time; we talked about Paris Hilton’s new TV Show. The teacher also said that people who watch Jerry Springer are bad, which appeared to make two people walk out of the class, but maybe they just walked out for other reasons. I’m not saying I dislike the class, because I don’t, but I have a two-hour break before the class on Monday’s and Friday’s, and I can pass the class without going.
After the class ended, Keith told me that he is traveling Europe by himself over the summer. I told him to stop in Finland, but I think there is only a small chance he will. After I talked to Keith, I asked the teacher when out next test was going to be. I also asked him what my grade was on the last test, which we had taken just before Spring Break. The teacher gave the test back to me and I was surprised to see that I got an A. I was surprised because I did not think I did that well and the class average was a 60%.
I arrived home about 3:15. Carolyn was there until she went into work at 6, and Mike got home about 5. Mike and I went to play racquetball just before Carolyn went to work. On the ride to the rec center, Mike pointed out that he had set the scrolling screen saver on his stereo to the words “Kill Garth!!”. He is retaliating for the threats on my website. I beat him in two out of 3 games today, and they were some of the most exhausting rounds we have ever played. He hit me very hard with a ball in the back of the head. He also hit my elbow with a racquet and mildly hit me with another ball in the back. On his last hit of the game, which lost it for him, he almost hit me in the face.
We got home about 8 o’clock, then ate Italian beef and French fries for dinner. Mike had been cooking the beef in a crock-pot since last night. It was excellent. I did more homework after dinner. Josh and Courtney called later in the evening to ask us about a computer problem. Their computer had crashed. After hearing the story of their computer, I was not at all surprised they were having problems; they were running Windows 98. That’s like trying to drive a Model A on the Interstate.

April 5, 2005
Tuesday:

I had a test in my 8 o’clock class that I never go to(Management Information Systems), so I went to it today. The test was long and stupid, but I think I did OK on it. I then spent an hour at the library computers before Chinese started at 10 o’clock.
At 11, I went to room 293 of the life science building, where I had previously arranged to meet a student who is looking for participants for an experiment. I had seen a flyer on a bulletin board last week that offered a free MRI picture of your brain and money for participating in this experiment. I had called the phone number on the flyer and talked to a girl named Jessica. She explained the experiment and told me that the money would consist of a $30 gift certificate at Walmart. The $30 would be nice, but I was mostly interested in getting a free picture of my brain.
So, today I found Jessica in her office and she spent about 10 minutes asking me medical questions. The questions mostly related to past illnesses, metal in the body and drug use. After she had finished questioning me, she said that I would soon be called if I qualified for the experiment.
I told Carolyn about the experiment when I got home, and she told me she would like to have a picture of her brain so she could frame it and hang it next to her diploma. I made myself a roast beef sandwich for lunch and ate it with sour-cream-and-cheddar chips. Just before Carolyn went into work at noon, she got a phone call from a web-site she had just visited about an hour ago. The website offers help finding apartments, and she had entered information about what she was looking for(her and Mike are moving to St. Louis on May 25 because she recently accepted a forensic accounting job at the Schnuck’s corporate office). So, a person from the website had called her back to ask a few more questions. Internet-based companies usually offer terrible customer service, so Carolyn and I were both very surprised that they had called so soon.
I feel asleep for about 30 minutes at noon, then got up and began working on homework. Mike was home also because he had left work early. I took a homework break around 2 to talk to Johanna online for while. She had just finished her first day at her new temporary job with Nokia.
Mike cooked a homemade pizza for dinner at 5:30, then we went to Buckley’s house. There, we had a couple beers and watched the Cardinals play Houston. Jen came home after she got off work around 8, and Carolyn also got off work and came over around that time. Jen was on crutches because she fell on her porch stairs last week when she was going outside to clean her car. Buckley said that when it happened he told her, “I told you that you should stay inside and do nothing all day”.
I drove Carolyn’s car home at 8:30 because I wanted to start doing homework again, but I didn’t start doing that right away because I got distracted by the Internet. I found that Google had added satellite images to their mapping program, which is where I got the picture of my house that is on the front page of the site. I also got an email from Jared, who just moved up to Madison, Wisconsin to take his new job. There was a mailing address in his email, so I typed it into Google and got a satellite picture of his house. I sent him the picture with the message. “Thanks for your address, I used it to obtain this satellite imagery of your home. A missile is on the way. Sorry, nothing personal, you just have to die”.

April 4, 2005
Monday:

I went to Accounting class this morning, spent my one-hour break using the library computers, then went to Macroeconomics class. It was about 75 degrees by the time I finished classes at noon.
Mike and Carolyn were home arguing about something when I got home. I made myself a roast beef sandwich for lunch. After eating, I talked to Johanna online for an hour. She said that her and her friend Mari had bought me a birthday present earlier in the day. She also saw me drinking Sprite out of a plastic bottle and told me she was “devastated” by all the little plastic bottles that she saw people throwing away in this country. She was no longer surprised after I told her that we don’t get the 25-40 cents back per bottle that they do in Finland.
Carolyn was off work all day and Mike finished work early at 2, then the two of them went to Campus Lake to take the dog on a walk. They invited me to go with them, but I said I would stay home and study. I ended up studying for just a few minutes after they left, then sleeping for an hour.
After I got up, I studied for a test I have tomorrow in my computer class. This class is separated into a lecture and a lab section, and the lecture part may very well be the most worthless class I have ever taken in my life.
I headed to work on my bike at 5 o’clock. I passed Mike and Carolyn on their way home from Schnucks while I was on my way there. Before going in to work, I bought 3 cheeseburgers from Burger King and ate them at a picnic table that is in a grassy area next to Schnucks. Sitting there for the first time this year reminded me of all the past years that I have sat in that spot, and it reminded me of Jen, whom always used to take breaks with me there, and it reminded me of Dr. Pepper and Whoppers, which is what Jen and I often ate and drank in the spot. As I was entering the store to start my shift, I saw Jen’s roommate Steph.
Randy worked with me tonight until 8, then I was by myself for the rest of the night. Randy and I were supposed to clean the meat case tonight, but it was too busy. Most of the business was from people who were getting ready for parties. Why was everyone partying on a Monday night? Because Illinois played North Carolina in the championship game tonight. The store was full of drunk fans buying meat for the first two hours of my shift. Everyone smelled like alcohol and had something funny to say to Randy and I. It was the highest concentration of drunken customers I have ever seen. After the game started at 8, the store was almost empty except for a few straggling drunks.
I had to clean the back room tonight, and it was more disgusting than ever. It appeared that nobody had even taken any empty boxes out all day long, Worst of all, was the vile substance that had come up out of the drains from when professional drain cleaning people had been in the store earlier in the day. The substance was gray and it smelled worse than sewage. It was right in front of the saw that cuts through bones and I had to cut through some bones tonight, but I refused to walk in the substance. I first covered it with cardboard and walked on the cardboard, but that wasn’t working so well, so I took the hose out and forced it back down into its underground home. Nasty.
I left work about 10:30. The weather was still warm for the bike ride home. Mike and Carolyn were already going to bed when I arrived. I spent some time using my computer and also ate two hot dogs for a snack. I found an unlabeled package of hot dogs in the freezer, and I thought they were cheese dogs. I was a bit disappointed to find that they had no cheese oozing out of them when they were removed from the microwave, so I broke a slice of cheese apart and put it on them.

April 3, 2005
Sunday:

I worked at 6 o’clock this morning. Daylight savings time started last night, so it was still dark when I woke up. I had some cinnamon toast and a glass of orange juice before leaving the house.
Things at work went better today than yesterday. For lunch I ate two tangerines and two Twinkies. One of the tangerines was bitter, so I did not eat all of it. I left work one hour early, at one o’clock. I stopped at a garage sale on the way home, which had a lot of very strange things for sale; everything from military uniforms to a limousine. When I got home, I logged online to talk to Johanna. Stefan(German friend) sent me a message while I was online, and I text chatted with him as I talked to Johanna. As I was talking to both of them, Mark B. called me on the phone, so I had 3 conversations going at once.
At 2 o’clock, Mike’s brother came over, and the three of us went to play golf at the Midland course, which is the cheapest and dirtiest course in the area. Mike and his brother drove separately, and I rode with Mike. We stopped on the way to buy a 6-pack of Keystone light.
The golf was nice because the weather was so perfect, but I am really bad at the game. We tried to take 3 golf carts onto the course, but they would only let us take two. We finished our game at 5, then came home.
I fell asleep at 6 and was planning to take a one hour nap before driving to St. Louis to pick up some of Clara’s family members at the airport. But, my dad called me at 7 to tell me that they were not coming after all because they had not been able to get any stand-by seating(they work for the airline). I then went back to sleep until 9:30. I did not plan on sleeping that late. It just happened because I had been exhausted from the early morning work schedule.
I then stayed up until about 2 o’clock. I ate a roast beef sandwich and a piece of red velvet cake for dinner, then did homework until I went back to sleep.

April 2, 2005
Saturday,

I worked from 6-2 o’clock today. There was so much meat to cut that we did not get caught up all day. Todd called in because his mom died. I feel bad for him because he talked about his mom quite a bit.
I talked to Johanna for just a few minutes after I got home, then Mike and I went to play racquetball. I beat him in two out of three games. Later in the afternoon, we went to Schnucks to buy some things for dinner, and Westroad liquors, where we bought a bottle of Jack Daniels. For dinner, we had spicy sausages, macaroni and cheese and potato salad.
I spent some time studying Chinese after the dinner. Carolyn got home from work at 8, and Matt and Barb came over at that time also. Barb is just a few days away from having their baby.

April 1st, 2005
Friday:

I went to accounting class at 9 this morning, then Chinese and Macroeconomics. My Macroeconomics teacher today compared the economy to a Shakespeare play where a man kills his father and marries his mother.
As I was riding my bike home at noon, it just started to sprinkle rain. A lot of rain was predicted today and I was lucky with the timing of my bike ride. It began raining harder as soon as I got home, then continued for a couple hours.
I cooked myself two chicken breasts for lunch, then talked to Johanna for an hour. I got a response to the email that is linked in yesterday’s journal entry, and I added the response to the link. Check it out.
After talking to Johanna, I spent the next couple hours doing a project for my computer class. I had to create a database with 5 employees and 15 expense reports. I used the names of famous porn stars and the expense reports were for things like bananas and ping pong balls. My last project in this class was similar, and I used the names of the country’s most wanted terrorists. The teacher seems to like it, as he gives me more than 100% for each assignment. I got a 110% for the terrorist spreadsheet.
Damien and I fell asleep from 4:30 to 5, then I continued doing homework. I worked on a paper about Guatemala for a while, then Mike and Carolyn came home at 6. They left again about an hour later to go out to dinner and then spend the evening with his brother, Amy and Dylan. I continued doing other homework after they left, mostly Chinese. This week we are studying dialogs about going to birthday parties.
I quit studying at 8 and microwaved myself a giant beef and cheese burrito, called “The Bomb”. It was so big that I had to lay it across two paper plates while it was in the microwave. Very good stuff.
I watched the movie “Ladder 49” as I ate the burrito, and I later had a bowl of vanilla ice cream with fudge on it.