December 2005

12/31/2005
New Year’s Eve 2005
Saturday:

Johanna and I slept on the floor of the studio last night, using bedding that we had brought with us. I got up at 10 o’clock and used the computer, which Johanna and I had accidentally turned off last night by flipping a switch we weren’t supposed to.
Sometime around noon, we all went out to eat together at a place near downtown called the Anchor Grill. Johanna and I rode in Katie’s car with her and Jared, whom arrived sometime overnight and slept on the hard kitchen floor. The Anchor Grill was a good authentic American experience for Johanna. It was smoke-filled, full of locals and didn’t appear to have been remodeled for about 50 years. Seriously, 50 years. The plates were all full of chips, the walls were old stained wood and some of the booths had tabletop jukebox systems, which Tavis said didn’t work. The main jukebox system did work, though, and it featured a stage of dolls that danced around. The stage has a glass window on it and takes up one whole corner of the restaurant. Whenever someone would play a song, a curtain would open up and about a dozen different dolls, including a newer-looking Barbie, would dance around.
After the meal, we all went to a nearby park on a hilltop with a great view of the city skyline. It was dark, cold and windy up there, so we quickly left after taking a few pictures. Next, we all went to a record store in a very dirty looking area on the northside of town. Despite the condition of the neighborhood, the store was actually really unique. The upper floor of the old building contained mostly CD’s, and records were in the basement. The main floor also had alot of other merchandise, including specialty cameras that had colored flashes and multiples lenses.
After walking around for a while, Johanna and I decided to take some pictures of the areas outside, including a tiny building that housed a tiny chapel. After everyone was done shopping, we went on to an very overpriced thrift store, where the smallest plastic object still cost $2. My favorite thing there was a small pin that read, “All this and minimum wage too!”. I would have loved to have worn that when I worked at Mcdonalds. I used the stores only bathroom and wrote “Tavis loves men” on a chalk board in there, but unfortunately nobody else in our group went in to use it after me.
We next went into another thrift store, which was bigger, less organized, more crowded and featured a black clerk who is probably the most friendly guy ever. Despite the unorganized appearance of the store and the friendliness of the clerk, the merchandise still seemed to be overpriced, as even a stained suit jacket had an $18 price on it. I went through thier massive collection of ties and found the ugliest one I could to wear out tonight, to Johanna’s dissatisfaction. I took it to the counter and asked how much. Two people were standing there and they both answered at the same time. One of them said $2, but the other said $3. I said, “So how much”, then the friendly black guy said, “Well, for that one, $2?. The total with tax was $2.13. I gave them $2.25 and wasn’t offered any change back by the black man…….friendly, but the salesman kind of friendly.
We then returned back to the apartment, where I went into the studio and listened to some 99 cent records with Jared and Tavis that Tavis had purchased at the music store.
Everyone but Katie, Johanna and I left to go to a bar at 4 o’clock. Katie and Johanna wanted to sleep and I just thought I could get ready to go out later and check email while the others were gone.
Everybody else returned from the bar about 6:30, then started getting ready, which took quite a while since there were 9 people staying in the apartment and only one shower.
We had reservations at 9:30 at a nice restaurant called Bonefish. Our table was not ready when we arrived, so we sat by the bar and had drinks first. The building has a revolving door and is beautifully decorated and very dimly light inside. I ordered Antarctic Butterfish, which may be the best fish I have ever tasted in my life. It tastes like a combination of beef and fish.
Most of the employees were very friendly, but they charged our table an 18% courtesy fee, which ended up giving them quite a huge tip and cost Johanna and I alone $7. Nice place, but I’ll never go back because of that. Just as we were finishing our food, Chad realized that his tuna was raw in the middle, but he had already eaten most of it without noticing because the light was so dim. He said something to our waitress like, “Look at this. I ordered well done, but I guess you don’t care because you already got your 18%”. While saying this, he intentionally let a big piece of raw tuna slide off his fork and onto his plate, which made a very raw squishing sound when it hit.
We didn’t leave the restaurant till 11:30 because it had taken so long to be seated and get our food. We thought we wouldn’t make it out to a bar before midnight, but we were actually at one by 11:50. So, we had just enough time to order drinks and get free champagne, hats and noisemakers before midnight. The bar was very small and crowded, but I think we all had a good time. Jared was the only single guy there, so he felt a bit out of place, but then Gabe showed up and helped out that situation. Gabe had been planning on having a party at his house tonight, but ended up canceling it at the last minute.
While I was using the bathroom, some guy started beating on the door and yelling, “You better be taking a shit in there!”. I opened the door and jumped out at the person, jokingly yelling back as loud as I could. I didn’t say any words, but just made my best roaring sound. I found myself yelling in the face of a black guy that was a lot bigger than me, but he seemed to get the joke.
We all left the bar about 1 o’clock, then went back to the apartment, stopping along the way to buy some beer at a gas station with a big middle-aged clerk who may have one of the lowest-pitched voices ever.
I spent most of the rest of the night in Tavis’s studio room with him, Gabe, Jared and one of the Chads. Johanna spent a while with the girls and the other Chad downstairs, then went to bed in Tavis and Katie’s room before everyone else. In the studio, we first listened to the Michael Jackson Thriller album on vinyl and had a dance session. After listening to a few more records, we moved on to making our own music, to the dissatisfaction of everyone else that was now trying to sleep. Tavis played his electronic drum set, Jared and Gabe played guitars and I hit a tambourine. Melissa opened the door to complain about the noise, but before she could get a word out, Tavis said something like, “Don’t even bother complaining because there is nothing you can say to alter anything that is going on in this room right now”. Surprisingly, she didn’t really look made when he said this, but just walked away. She then came back a few minutes later to eat a pizza with us, which Gabe had cooked on the rotisserie downstairs.
A very good New Years Eve.

December 30, 2005
Friday:

I got up at 9 o’clock to do a couple things to the car before Johanna and I left on our trip. First, I had to replace a headlight, for which my dad had left a replacement bulb last night. That just took a few minutes, then I took the car to WalMart to get an oil change. There, the wait was 45 minutes, so I was planning on eating at the small restaurant at the back of the store , but the food just looked too disgusting. The restaurant used to be a Mcdonald’s, but is now something that just microwaves food like mini-cheeseburgers and pretzels.
So, I walked across the street to Mcdonalds and got a couple hard and crusty breakfast burritos, which had probably been sitting around since about 5AM.
Back at WalMart, I was paged by the automotive department after walking around for a few moments. I paid the bill, then was told to go outside and get my car. I walked up to it as an employee was parking it, and he handed me the keys after just asking if it was my car. He didn’t even look at my receipt, so I could have been anybody. So, this would probably be a good way to steal a car, but probably not too many luxury car owners get thier oil changed at WalMart.
I was back home by 10 o’clock, then Johanna and I got packed up our things and got the apartment ready to leave for ten days, which meant do things like water the plants and turn down the heaters. I hope a potential thief is not reading this, but if you are, I have a security system that shoots posion darts and releases cobras……..and I don’t have much nice stuff anyway.
We left the apartment just after noon, then stopped at the Marion BP station for gas before getting on the interstate. We then drove on throught the dark, cloudy day for the next 4 hours. There were a few sprinkles here and there, but no significant rain.
We stopped at 4 o’clock to have a snack, use the bathroom and get some water. Johanna really wanted Taco Bell, but we never saw any Taco Bell signs, so she was just ecstatic when one suddenly appeared at the exit we took. We parked and walked inside what we thought was the Taco Bell, but realized that we were actually in the Wendy’s next to it. A midget woman was working at the counter of Taco Bell. She had to stand on a stool just to be tall enough to wait on customers. We ate in the lobby and saw her stocking napkins. She almost had to stretch to reach the napkin dispensers.
We passed through Louisville just before dark, then arrived in Cincinatti around 7 o’clock. The drive is only five and a half hours, but we passed from the central to the eastern time zone, which is one hour ahead. We were planning on staying at Tavis and Katie’s house for the next 3 nights, which is just south of the city. We found thier place with little problem, on a winding, hilly street with lots of small nice-looking brick houses and trees. We did at first walk up to the wrong house, but thiers was right next door to it.
Inside, was not only Tavis and Katie, but also two other couples. The other girls were Stephanie and Tavis’s sister, Melissa. I’ve known both of them for a few years, but had just met the other guys for the first time over Thankgiving break, whom are both named Chad.
Me and all the guys went to a liquor store not too long after Johanna and I arrived. I forgot to bring my wallet and the clerk almost refused to sell Tavis beer because he was also buying mine. She asked to see both our ID’s, then Tavis said I forgot my wallet. I told her I was born in 1978, and she sold us the beer after asking, “Are you sure?”.
Back at the house, we played the video game Dance, Dance Revolution, which is played on rug-like control pads that are about 3 feet wide and 3 feet long. Music is played while arrows point different directions on the screen. You get points by hitting the right arrows at the right times, which are displayed along with the beat of the music. If the game is played correctly, it kink of looks like you’re dancing. To my surprise, Johanna actually wanted to play. She said it looked like good exercise. So, I played three rounds against her and won them all. We played a few more rounds later and she won them all, but probably just because I had drank a couple beers. True, she also had a couple drinks, vodkas with soda, but I know I am really better.
Later in the evening, most of us went up into Tavis’s ’studio’, which is a little room on the second floor that is packed tight with guitars, an electronic drum set, a computer and several other devices. Tavis showed me his yo-yo skills, which are some of the best I have personally seen. He also showed off the rest of his collection of cheap toys, which he says are the best. He has a couple small magnetic toys which are really cool, including one that makes a sci-fi like sound when thrown in the air.
Not only did we play with toys in the studio, but Tavis also played some music for us. Some of the music was on a record player that he got for Christmas, and the rest was stuff he and other people had been creating in his ’studio’. I must get my own studio as soon as I get a real job, a room with both musical and video editing equipment. My musical skills are way behind Tavis’s, but I know enough basics to learn some things rather quickly.
Tavis and I were the last two awake. We cooked a pizza on an interesting rotissere device, which I think I remember seeing on TV a few years ago. While we ate, we watched a DVD of an animated show that some guy has been distributing online for years, which I know I have seen somewhere before, but can’t remember where.

December 29, 2005
Thursday:

I got up at 9 o’clock today because I had to be at work at 10. Johanna and I both developed sore throats overnight, which is not good considering our trip to Cincinnati and the east coast is supposed to start tomorrow.
At work, it took me three hours to finish the job I started yesterday, alphabetically alphabetizing the theology section. Carl gave me a paycheck at 1 o’clock, then I rode back home, stopping along the way to buy some groceries at Save-a-Lot. Continuing home, I took a couple pictures of a building that is being demolished downtown, which I think used to be a linen cleaning business. Lots of eyesore buildings have been removed from the downtown area over the past year, which really is starting to give the city a different look.
A bag of groceries broke open as I was crossing over the railroad tracks, sending a package of ground beef and some other things to the ground, but nothing really got damaged.
Back at home, Johanna was just finishing up baking a chocolate cake, which I ate a piece of after having a sandwich for lunch. I did a load of laundry later in the afternoon. Johanna and I were listening to a true-crime TV show and she didn’t understand the phrase, “a heaping helping of murder”. She doesn’t understand lots of phrases and I often have to explain.
Just after 5 o’clock, my dad and Clara came to drop off the Intrepid so Johanna can take it on our trip to Cincinnati and the east coast tomorrow. Amanda and Brant came over a couple minutes later for a planned dinner and movie night in my apartment. I also invited my dad and Clara to stay for dinner, but they decided not to.
I cooked a meal of tacos, refried beans and rice, then got incredibly full on it. We watched the movie ‘Airplane’ during and after the meal, then watched ‘Toy Story”, which I had never seen before and really liked.

December 28, 2005
Wednesday:

The weather today was dark, damp and cooler than yesterday. I went outside to smoke a cigarette after eating an early lunch, and noticed a sign on the main doors of my building saying that the entry methods of the building had changed. The main doors would now be exit only and the side doors will have keypads on them. The sign said that the access codes were in our mailboxes, so I picked them up before going back inside.
I called the bookstore at noon to see if they would need me to work. Kelly answered and said to call back in another hour when Carl was there. So, I killed some time by studying Chinese, then called back and was told that there was a job to do that might make me want to never come back.
I arrived at the bookstore at 1:15 and Carl showed me how he wanted the theology section rearranged alphabetically, which contains a few thousand books. I worked on this project non-stop until 6:15, and only got a little more than half-way done. I never realized how popular this section was until I started working on it, as dozens of customers browsed through it and blocked my path all afternoon.
Another thing I was thinking about at work today was if Kelly and Carl get annoyed at customers making the same comments and asking the same questions all day long. Customer after customer will ask about the recent expansion of the store and the condition of the live-in cat, which was not there today. One old lady asked me where the cat was, then proceeded to straighten up a chair cushion that he uses as a bed. Kelly and Carl have apparently been very successful at establishing a lot of loyal customers.
Back at home, Johanna was looking bored and said that all she had done all day was shop for some groceries and chat with friends back home.
I made myself a chicken breast and some green beans for dinner at 7 o’clock. Johanna wasn’t hungry because she had been snacking. I went out to smoke a cigarette after the meal and found a set of drawers in the dumpster, which I took back into my apartment and placed into the corner of my bedroom. The drawers did not have a top surface because they were meant to go underneath a countertop, so I attached a small board that just so happened to be in my closet. I first tried to attach it with screws, but that cracked the wood, so I used nails. After the nails were in, I sat a wooden crate on top of it and put books inside it and a couple plants from the living room on top it.
Johanna watched TV and/or slept in the living room while I rearranged thing in the bedroom. I watched part of a couple episodes of Ramen and one episode of South Park with her.
Josh called at 10 o’clock to invite me to Callahan’s(bar) with him and Jared. He came by a few minutes later to pick me up, but Johanna said she was too tired to go. We sat at the bar of Callahan’s for about 45 minutes, then all got in Josh’s car and went to the Gallery.
The Gallery has dancers and usually charges admission, but we got in free because Jeff R. and Josh L. work there. Josh(T) asked the doorman if cameras were allowed inside, but was told that the past owner had been sued by a dancer whom had had her picture posted on the Internet. He said that this dancer now owns the club because of that lawsuit, but I don’t quite believe that.
So, we sat at the bar for the next couple hours and talked to each other, Josh(L), Jeff and the bartender. The bartender told us that her boyfriend last year had broken up with her on New Year’s Eve, and that her boyfriend this year had broken up with her on Thanksgiving. She said that she had been financially supporting him for months, then his band got an offer to go on tour and he just broke up with her. Despite this, she had still bought him Christmas presents, which he has still yet to collect.
I also saw Chris tonight, whom used to work at the Schnuck’s deli and now works for the Gallery. He said that he’s now designing a camera filled apartment for the dance club, in which some of the dancers will live in and be broadcast on the Internet 24 hours a day, even in the shower. He said that the website will also broadcast footage recorded in the club, which would explain the signs everywhere that say something like, “By entering this establishment you consent to being videotaped and broadcast on the Internet”.
Josh brought me back home just after 1 o’clock. Everyone else was going back to Josh L’s place.

December 27, 2005
Tuesday:

I went to work at 11 o’clock this morning, then spent three hours moving around the humor and Christian fiction sections. The humor titles included “101 Ways to Kill Your Girlfriend’s Cat”.
Johanna and I rode the bikes to the mall at 3 o’clock, at which time it was almost 60 degrees. We visited 3 stores, including Romancing the Stone, Old Navy and JC Penny. Romancing the Stone now has a display of live hermit crabs and painted shells for them. I picked up one of the largest crabs and put an empty shell between its claws, which it cracked. At Old Navy, I used the gift card my dad and Clara gave me yesterday. Johanna didn’t seem to be satisfied with anything I picked out, so she just had to leave unsatisfied. She exchanged a shirt my sister had given her from JC Penny because the sleeves were a bit too short. She decided on a black sweater that looks much like one that she already has. While she picked that out, I waited on some couches in front of the store, where I saw an extremely dressed gothic kid. Seeing a gothic kid is nothing new, but this one must have had several pounds of metal chains and jewelry underneath his black trench coat, and his angry expression just topped the whole thing off.
Johanna and I arrived back at the apartment just as it was getting dark, then made a pizza and macaroni and cheese for dinner. Next, we spent a couple hours eating popcorn and watching episodes of Ramen, Friends and Sex in the city on TV. I burned copies of DVD’s for my family during all the commercial breaks.

December 26, 2005
Monday:

Johanna and I woke up at Chris’s house at 11 o’clock this morning, then Keri took us home on her way to work at 11:30. I then put all my gifts away and used the new vacuum to clean up the apartment. Johanna left around 1 o’clock to go shopping for groceries while I stayed home and used my computer. I made us sandwiches and ramen noodles for lunch when she returned home, then we fell asleep for a couple hours.
I got all our Christmas pictures online in the early evening, then made beef stroganoff and peas for dinner. I went outside to smoke a cigarette and check the mail after the meal, and found a postcard from Johanna’s parents.
We watched shows about deformed babies on the Learning Channel for the next couple hours. First was a girl born without a real face that didn’t really look at all human, then was a baby born with a second head. The heads were fused at the top and the second one had only a partially developed body attached to it.
Next came another show about a different kind of medical condition in which a mother’s DNA does not match that of her children. Two cases in the US were being studied, in one of which the mother risked loosing her young children because she had been drawing welfare payments on them. It turns out that both of the woman had a condition in which they have the DNA of two people inside of them, which is caused when their embryo and that of their identical twin fuse into one. If the embryos are of opposite sexes, then a hermaphrodite will form, but the baby can be normal if they are the same sex. Now that’s weird.

Christmas 2005
Sunday:

Johanna and I had breakfast at 10 o’clock. I made her a sandwich and I had a 4-egg omelet with ham and cheese. In the early afternoon, we spent some time figuring out how to use the MP3 player I gave her last night. I was hoping MP3 files could just be directly uploaded to it, but that actually has to be done using the software that comes with it. It does at least seem to work well and will hold a few hundred songs.
We heard people singing Christmas carols in the hallway just before 3 o’clock, and those people turned out to be my dad, Clara and her son, Chuck. They came in for a moment while we got ready to leave, and I gave my dad some Spanish language learning software that I recently downloaded for him.
Next, we all drove back to Murphysboro for our planned Christmas celebration. There, Clara first asked me to show Johanna a tree that she had told her a story about. My dad planted the tree, a Ginko, when I was a toddler. A few minutes after he planted it, he looked out the window to see me breaking the small thing in half. It’s now about 30 feet tall and a small crook can still be seen at the base of its trunk.
Chris, Keri, Brant and Amanda all arrived about an hour and a half later. Before that time, Clara put an apron on Johanna and had her help out in the kitchen. Chuck and I also were requested to do a couple small tasks. Earlier in the day, Chuck had been helping my dad work outside on the new addition to the barn. No holiday with my dad is safe from being asked to work on something.
Before everyone else arrived for dinner, my dad showed Chuck and I some old school papers and notebooks of his that he recently uncovered in one of the sheds. Included in those papers were old report cards from college and a journal from a trip to Mexico with my mom in the 70’s. His report cards were full of D grades and the journal had a section containing expense records, which showed that it cost $6 to fill up his truck’s gas tank, which was a big 60’s era Dodge panel truck.
Everyone was given stockings before we ate. The Christmas dinner was excellent and once again included fresh vegetable from the garden. We opened our gifts after the meal, starting with the ones from the Secret Santa exchange. We handed out those gifts by writing the name of the person we bought for on a piece of paper with clues as to our identity. We gave our gift receiver their gifts after they guessed who we were. In that exchange, I received a 512MB memory card for my camera from Keri. Next, Chuck handed out some cards that contained $20 bills, then my dad and Clara handed out their gifts to everyone. I received a vacuum cleaner and an Old Navy gift certificate with a card that says “Buy something Kramerish”. My dad apparently now thinks I am looking like Kramer from Seinfeld.
Next, we all played the game Balderdash for about an hour and a half, in which everyone makes up fake definitions for obscure words that nobody usually really knows. Cards with everyone’s fake definitions are put in a pile with one card containing the correct definition. Somebody then reads all the definitions and each person chooses what they think is the correct one. You score when you either write down the correct definition, guess the correct definition, or somebody guesses your incorrect one. I scored most of my points with the word “boondocking”, when 3 people guessed my made-up definition of “Anchoring a sea vessel far from land in order to protect it during storms”.
During the game, we had a snack of freshly made pineapple upside down cake, which Johanna insists that I say was excellent because she helped make it.
Next, Amanda, Brant, Johanna, Chuck and I went back to Chris and Keri’s house with them, stopping along the way to buy some beer at Huck’s. I rode to Huck’s in Chris’s car while Chuck followed, then rode the rest of the way to the house in Chuck’s truck.
Amanda and Brant only stayed a short time, but a few other people came over during the next couple hours, including Christie M., her friend Alicia, Katie Foley and her boyfriend.
We all talked and listened to music for a while, then Chris and Keri had show-and-tell on their computers. Chris showed Johanna and I pictures he had taken at his job interview in California a few weeks ago, and Keri showed Christie and Chuck my website. After that, we all watched the movie “The 40-year-old Virgin”.
It was now about 3:30 AM and everyone was either ready to leave or ready for bed. Chuck drove home to Nashville and Johanna and I slept in one of the bedrooms.

December 24, 2005
Saturday:

Today was mostly cloudy, mild and the ground was wet early. I rode my bike this morning in search of Johanna’s Christmas gift. I waited until today to buy it because I didn’t have the money till now. The final decision on the gift, an MP3 player, was not made until after the bike ride started. My first stop was at Office Max, but they didn’t have any MP3 players. I did still purchase a 50-pack of DVD-R’s for myself, which were on sale for $14.99. They also had a 100-pack on sale for the same price, but they were only 4x, compared to 16x for the 50-pack. I think that 4x means that you can write them at 4 times the actual speed a movie plays, and 16x means the process happens…..well, 16 times faster.
My next stop was at Rex, but they also didn’t have any MP3 players, so I crossed the highway and went to Best Buy. Best Buy almost had what I was looking for, but even their lowest priced player was still over-priced……so, I went on to WalMart. There, they were sold out of about half of their players, but I did find one acceptable one. I briefly considered a satellite radio player instead, but didn’t get it because that would mean that Johanna would have to pay a monthly charge for the service. The electronics department was a mob of customers, but an employee just happened to be available when I decided to make my purchase.
Before leaving the store, I also bought a card and some AAA batteries, then used the automatic checkout lanes to pay. I set my other purchases in the bagging area and the machine urgently declared, “AN UNKOWN OBJECT HAS BEEN PLACED IN THE BAGGING AREA!”. I really hate those machines, but I hate Walmart’s lines even more.
Back at the apartment, I wrapped the gifts, then showed Johanna how to search for and download music using the bittorrent software on my computer. We found lots of European music available, as expected.
Next, we took a walk through the mostly abandoned campus and around the lake there. There were a few other people walking around the lake, but that’s almost all the noticeable activity. On the way home, we stopped at Old Town Liquors to buy a bottle of Vodka, bag of ice, 2-liter coke and cranberry juice.
Back at the apartment, we fell asleep for two hours and left all of our purchases on the kitchen table, including the ice, which I realized when I woke up and went into the kitchen. Earlier today, I had put all the Christmas gifts around the giant lighted Christmas pine cone, which is also on the table. The water from the ice totally destroyed one of the gifts………….this is the second time this week that there has been some kind of flood in my apartment.
After cleaning up the mess, I made us a dinner of macaroni and cheese, mixed vegetables and beef steaks, then we had some drinks while watching some chick-flick movie on TV. We opened our gifts afterwards. Johanna got me a really nice black sweater, and she really liked her MP3 player.

December 23, 2005
Friday:

The floors in my apartment were finally dry this morning, after yesterday’s great flood. Johanna and I rode our bikes to the bank and the mall at 1 o’clock. At the bank, I needed to cash a check that my dad gave me as a short-term loan last night. After arriving there, I realized that I had left my wallet with the check inside at home, so Johanna waited in the parking lot while I rode back home for it.
At the mall, we bought gifts for the exchange with my family on Christmas. Instead of everyone buying gifts for everyone, we just drew a name this year and are supposed to spend $50 on that person. As expected, the huge parking lot of the mall was almost full and inside the building was just the same.
Johanna and I got separated at one point, then after waiting for each other 25 minutes, realized we were sitting on benches just 50 feet from each other. I saw Anthony from Schnucks on the east end of the mall, then saw Gretchen at the west end. I noticed her as I was sitting on a bench waiting for Johanna to go make a purchase. She walked by at the same instant that Johanna walked away, then they met each other when Johanna got back about 15 minutes later. It was quite a coincidence to see Gretchen’s brother last night, then her today. She said that her dad had a mild heart attack in October, but is doing fine now.
Riding back from the mall was a bit difficult because I had a rather large bag of gifts and a roll of wrapping paper. I tied the bag onto the handlebars, then made a hole in the top of it and stuck in the wrapping paper, which worked pretty well after making some adjustments. I saw Sara Hazel in a car on the way back and we waved at each other.
At home, I spent some time on the Internet trying to find any cheap hotels or hostels that are available near New York City in January, because Johanna would like to spend a couple days there after we go to Cincinatti and Washington DC. I decided that we will probably stay in Newark, NJ and take the train into the city.
For dinner, I cooked us chicken breasts and green beans, and Johanna cooked ramen noodles and a chocolate cake(she insists I mention it was delicious). We watched the movie Legally Blonde after dinner. Yes, I unfortunately admit that I actually watched Legally Blonde. I have late fees at all the rental places.

December 22, 2005
Thursday:

Johanna and I went to Wal-Mart to buy a couple Christmas gifts and get gas this morning. The gifts were for an exchange we had later in the day with Clara’s family. Each male was supposed to buy a male gift, and each female buy a female gift. Also, each couple was supposed to bring 4 small children’s gifts, but we had already bought those a few days ago.
I bought patio rope-lighting for a male, and Johanna bought some beauty products for a female. I also got some floppy disks for use in my laptop. Back in my apartment building, we walked up to my door and saw water running out from under it. The water in the building had been unexpectedly shut off this morning while I was doing dishes, then I had failed to turn the cold water all the way off. So, the water was turned back on while we were gone, then the cold water started to flow back into the sink, which still had its drain shut. The water had filled up about half the kitchen floor, the edges of the living room carpet and had also flowed though the wall and into the bathroom.
I pushed as much water as I could into the hallway(the building is mostly abandoned right not because of the break), then hung the kitchen and bathroom rugs up to dry. This flood was a lot of trouble, but it would have been much, much worse if we had been gone any longer or the cold water actually flowed right. The fact that the valve does not work properly was both part of the cause for the problem in the first place and part of the reason things weren’t any worse.
Johanna and I left at 2:30 and went to Murphysboro to celebrate Christmas with Clara’s family. Her daughters Christina and Camilla were there, along with their 4 children, who range in age from about 5-10, I think. Before dark, my dad asked me to come outside with him and film some things with his camcorder. He showed off some green vegetables in his garden and the new extension he’s building onto the barn. The vegetables are still alive because he keeps them covered up with plastic at night.
After dark, the family gave the children some of their gifts. I wish I had been filming the reactions on their faces each time they opened a gift, as they were always extreme. One of the younger boys, Andrew, could not get one of his gifts to work, so he angrily yelled out, “THIS IS A PIECE OF JUNK!”.
Next, we had a small dinner. My brother, Keri, Johanna and I all ate in the living room, while everyone else took the kitchen. My brother and I smoked a cigarette after dinner in the unfinished front room of the house, which has doors separating it from any other rooms. All the kids invaded the room just after we finished, and all of them smelled the smoke and started saying that cigarettes would kill us.
After that, the children opened the rest of their gifts and the adults opened all of theirs. I got a small screwdriver set from Chris, which I joked did not cost the required $5 to $10, but he said it actually did.
Two of the kids gifts were baseball-sized rubber balls that flashed different colors and had hundreds of soft rubber tentacles on them. Somebody shut off all the lights, then we all started throwing the balls at each other. The game started out peaceful, then slowly progressed into something much more violent. I was hit hard in the head several times, probably because I had been throwing balls of wrapping paper at people all night.
Next, some of us went into the kitchen to drink some wine and play Catch Phrase, which Clara had purchased as a gift for the whole family. I was on a team with Keri, Christina and Ted(oldest boy). Playing with Ted required some assistance from Camilla because he did not understand many of the phrases in the game, which you must describe to your team without saying the words. My team won all the games, of course.
After the games, Johanna and I left with my brother and Keri. We first went to their house, where we met up with Eugene, who has been a friend of my brother’s for many years, but does not live here anymore. We then all went to Mugsy’s in Carbondale to have some drinks and watch people make fools out of themselves in Karaoke.
I saw a few people there from the past, including Alex Rushing, his brother Andy, Gretchen’s brother Ted and Randy Tibbs from second grade. The most unexpected person from this group was Randy Tibbs, whom I had not seen since grade school. I remember him as being one of the most crazy kids in my class, but I can’t remember exactly why I think that. Two memories I do have are him getting suspended for kissing a girl and his leg getting terribly broken on a merry-go-round. The kissing incident happened on the playground in second grade when he made out with Tonya Stanton in front of a couple hundred other students. The merry-go-round incident happened when his leg got caught underneath it. The break was so bad that the bone was sticking out of the skin. The merry-go-round was removed from the playground shortly afterwards.
My brother and I spent quite a bit of time talking to Ted Howard, who said he is off work for while because he got hurt recently. Johanna spent most of her time talking to Eugene. We all left at 2 o’clock, then my brother and Keri dropped Johanna and I at the apartment. As soon as they drove away, I realized that my camcorder and our gifts were still in the back of the car.

December 21, 2005
Wednesday:

Lee woke me up at 10:15 this morning because I needed to move the car so he could get his truck out of the driveway and go to physical therapy. He has three therapy sessions per week for his junk knee.
I then sat on the recliner in the living room for an hour and typed on my laptop. Johanna got up not too long after me. We both used the Internet for a while, then Lee returned home around 12:30. Next, we all went to lunch at Taco Bell.
Back at Lee’s place, I copied several gigabytes of music from my collection to his, then Johanna and I headed back home about 3 o’clock. We did not stop once and arrived in Carbondale at 6 o’clock. The apartment was freezing cold because the heat had been turned down very low since Monday afternoon. I spent much of the evening using my computer, taking a break to make 8 sausage and egg biscuits and watch an episode of South Park with Johanna.

December 20, 2005
Tuesday:

I got up at 9:30 this morning and sat in a recliner in Lee’s living room while drinking water and typing on my laptop. I was not feeling too good because of drinking Segrams 7 liquor last night. Even drinking a little bit of that brand always has bad results, which I now remember learning about 9 years ago, and won’t probably ever forget again.
Lee got up not too long after me, then we sat and talked until lunch time. Johanna was slept a while later. We all ate at a small diner nearby, where I had a great roast beef sandwich.
Next, we decided to go into downtown St. Louis and visit the Arch because Johanna had never been in it before. The sidewalk leading up to it was covered in hundreds of small green turds. Its entrance is underground, and that area also contains a museum and gift shop. Security to get in is much like an airport now, but I remember there being no security at all just a few years ago. Lee’s knee brace set off the metal detectors, so he had to be patted down.
We first all spent a few minutes looking at the museum, which has exhibits about the history of the area and the Arch. The best thing there is a huge stuffed bison. We next bought tickets to the top of the Arch, which is 630 feet high. People are taken up inside of tiny pods, which are not even big enough to sit up straight in. The pods move slowly, so the trip takes a few minutes. At the top, we spent about 15 minutes taking pictures and looking at the view. The windows on the east side show mostly only the river and farmland, but the view on the other side is the skyscrapers of downtown St. Louis. I was first looking at the farmland with Lee, then he said, “OK, now lets see some capitalistic monopolizing”, meaning he wanted to look at the other side. Lee always has interesting ways to say things and rarely talks without making up words. I pick up on these made up words and use them all the time when we talk, which keeps us laughing constantly. Johanna probably things we are crazy because we spend so much time talking nonsense and laughing about it.
We returned back to Lee’s house at 4 o’clock and found a big styrofoam package in front of the door that said “contains 5lbs dry ice” on it. It was sausage that Lee had ordered and we instantly started making plans on interesting ways to dispose of the dry ice later.
Johanna and I went to sleep from 4:30 till 6, then we all had dinner at a restaurant along the river that is inside of a big two-story log cabin, which also contains a large gift shop. We all three ordered pizzas, which were excellent.
We then returned back to the house and decided it was time to get out the dry ice. We were quite dissappointed when we realized that it had all evaporated already. Instead of playing with dry ice, I asked Lee to give Johanna a demonstration of his stereo speakers, which have a retail price of $3500. We first listened to a Pink Floyd song loud enough to shake things on the walls, then watched some fight scenes in the movie “The Matrix”.
We next went to Lee’s friend Jamie’s house, which is just a couple minutes away. Jamie has a basement that is designed to look just like a bar, which is where we stayed the rest of the night. His friend Pace, a 6th grade teacher, was also there.
The highlight of the night was a Karaoke system set up in the basement, which got almost constant use. Johanna kept picking out 80’s love songs for me to sing and just couldn’t seem to hear enough of it. There were two microphones, so many terrible duets were sung. Lee was the bartender most of the night, and the bar was stocked with enough stuff to make just about anything.
Later in the night, Pace asked Johanna if she had any single friends back home. I mentioned Kaisa’s name and he instantly became obsessed. I filmed a video message from him to her, then he sent her text messages on his phone.
A very fun night.

December 19, 2005
Monday:

There was a disturbance outside both last night and the night before. I heard what sounded like two guys about to fight the night before. It was 3 or 4 AM and one guy was violently cussing out another by the bike racks. The yelling woke me up, so I looked out the window and saw one guy swinging a broom at the other. After watching them for a few seconds, it looked like they knew each other and were just playing around.
The disturbance last night was more extreme. A woman started screaming around 4AM, and a pounding sound could also be heard. The screaming became more and more desperate, so I decided to take a look. I had heard screaming once before and not went to look, and that’s when Dawn started her apartment on fire. This time it wasn’t a fire, but a drunken disheveled-looking young man trying to beat down a door. He was at the other end of the hallway, which meant that there was a closed fire door between the two of us. I looked though the small window in the door, then he saw me and went into another nearby apartment. I was laying back in bed a few minutes later and heard what sounded like a cop walking through the hallway.
The water was not working when Johanna and I got up this morning, which is the second time in a few weeks that it has been shut off without any warning. Johanna asked me how long the last “water-break” was, which sounded like an over-positive description of the situation.
We were about ready to leave for lunch when it came back on. We then decided to stay and eat at home. It didn’t actually make a difference whether or not there was water, because we only had a sandwich and a hot dog, then didn’t do dishes afterwards.
My sister called around noon to say that her and Clara would be coming to drop off the car. She was driving it and Clara was driving her daughter’s van. Three of her grandkid’s were riding with her. They all left after a few moments, then Johanna and I packed the car and headed to Lee’s house, which is north of St. Louis, in Godfrey, Illinois.
We made a stop in Murphysboro to fill up the gas tank, then took the scenic route along the Missippi River and up Rt. 3, which passes through about a dozen little towns. We stopped to take a few pictures along the river, then stopped to take some more in the town of Ruma. Johanna started laughing when she saw the town’s sign, then told me that the word ruma means ugly in Finnish. So, I took pictures of the “Ugly Community Park” sign and a white water tower that has “Ugly” printed on it in huge black letters.
We stopped a few more times near Godfrey, once to ask for directions and call Lee, once to stop at a liquor store and once so I could take pictures of a huge refinery. The sun was going down behind the refinery’s hundreds of smoke stacks, which made for some great pictures.
We found Lee’s house with little problem, then all sat inside and talked at the kitchen table for a while before leaving to go eat dinner at a nearby Mexican restaurant. We returned back to the house afterwards, then spent the rest of the night there. Johanna went to bed not too long after midnight, then Lee and I stayed up till about 3. I hadn’t seen Lee in about 1 and a half years, so we had a lot to talk about. He had reconstructive knee surgery 6 weeks ago and will be off of work for at least another 2 months, then have to continue wearing a knee brace for years to come. The accident happened when playing basketball just a couple days before he was supposed to come meet me in Finland over the summer.

December 18, 2005
Sunday:

Johanna and I walked to Save-A-Lot in the early afternoon. I wanted to ride the bikes, but she didn’t. We had to wait for a train on the way there, which she said was the longest she had ever seen. At the store, we bought 5 bags of food, which was almost too much to carry. We then had to wait for another train, and a big crazy black woman waited behind us. I could tell there was something wrong with her just by the way she looked at us as we walked by. Then, she started loudly and mostly incoherently rambling off racist comments about white people, using the word “bleached” very often. She followed us and yelled for another block after the train passed. We encountered more crazies just a few minutes later. These two homeless-looking guys yelled things at us from a porch, then clapped as we passed. Johanna must be getting the impression that American’s are crazy, because she has met unusual people most of the times she’s been out.
We arrived home about 2:30, then didn’t leave again for the rest of the day. I made generic Tuna Helper and peas for dinner, then we had a couple drinks and watched Forrest Gump. I talked to Lee on the phone after the movie and agreed to come up and visit him tomorrow.

December 17, 2005 - Saturday

I slept in till after noon today because I was up really late last night with Josh L.
Johanna had already gone out for a walk before I got up, then came back around 1 o’clock. I left an hour later to play racquetball with Mike and John. I was hoping that Nic and his friend Larry would be there at the same time so we could play walleyball, but they never showed. Walleyball is like volleyball, only it is played on a racquetball court and the ball can be bounced off the wall.
Mike, John and I played 4 games over two hours, all of which I lost. Having 3 people on the court can be a real mess sometimes because people run into each other, and that happened a lot today. We once all fell down at the same time.
Back at home, I ate a leftover hamburger and some stuffing for dinner, but Johanna wasn’t hungry. We walked to Schnuck’s later in the evening. Larry and Cindy were working, so I talked to both of them for a moment. I wanted to rent a video, but Cindy said I had a 4 year old late fee of $8. Nic and Larry just so happened to be renting videos at the same time I was there.
Back at the apartment, we watched the last hour of the Truman Show and a few minutes of Saturday Night Live.

December 16, 2005
Friday:

I left the apartment at 11 o’clock this morning to buy some Saluki basketball tickets that Clara had requested. I stopped first at McDonalds to get some lunch to eat, then bought the tickets at the arena.
I spent the rest of the afternoon at home. Johanna slept or watched TV while I got some pictures online and burnt some music onto audio CD’s for my dad and Rufus. Johanna left to go for a walk at 4 o’clock. She got back just after dark, then we watched some crime shows on TV and I made a dinner of cheeseburgers and ramen noodles. I smoked a cigarette outside after the meal and talked to my neighbor Jesse for a while, then went to play racquetball with Nic at 7:30. We played three games and I won them all. The first game was a skunking, which is a score of 8 to 0.
He brought me back home at nine, then Johanna and I got ready to go to see the movie King Kong with him and Sara at 10 o’clock. They came in two different cars to pick us up because neither of their back seats were empty. I had a flask of whiskey in my pocket and a bottle of rum in Johanna’s purse. I ordered a large diet Coke(Johanna) at the theatre, then went into the bathroom and poured half in the toilet and filled it back up with the flask contents.
I was somehow thinking that I would hate the movie, but that wasn’t the case, as it seemed to reassemble Jurassic Park. I left my seat during the middle of the movie to get a soda refill. I went to the bathroom first to rinse out my cup in case the employee refilling it had a good sense of smell. After filling it, I went back into the bathroom to pour half out. A little boy was going into the bathroom at the same time and he asked me if I was watching “Kong”. I said yes, then he excitedly proceeded to say how awesome it was. But, before getting too far into the movie, he asked if I was at the nine or ten o’clock showing. He was at the nine and I was at the ten, so he was careful not to give away the end of the movie, which was very thoughtful for such a young kid.
Back at home after the movie, Josh L. made a surprise visit and we talked for the next couple hours.

December 15, 2005
Thursday:

I went to the university to sign up for classes this morning at 10 o’clock. The first part of the process was talking to the advisor for my major, Brooke. All FLIT students must always have her fill out a class recommendation form before they sign up for classes. It took her about 30 minutes to figure everything out with my situation and fill out the paperwork. She had me take a form to my Chinese professor to fill out, who also told me I got an A in his class. Last year I would have gotten a B or C for the same performance, but this year’s teaching assistant grades very generously. I think the professor knows this, because he had a weird look on his face when he saw my grade.
The next part of the registration process was going to the Liberal Arts advisement office, where I was signed up for the classes that Brooke had recommended. There, I had to wait just a couple minutes in the waiting area, then a pudgy little man with a very blunt personality called my name. In his office, he forcefully yanked Brooke’s paperwork out of my hand. I really think this guy hates his job, but he did calm down a bit towards the end of the meeting, which only took about 10 minutes.
My next stop was to pick up my debit card at Tres Hombres, where it had been since I accidentally left it last Friday night. I had called and stopped by before earlier in the week, but the employees could never find it because the owners were not present. An owner told me on the phone this morning that it had been denied when they attempted to charge it, but I checked my account online and found that it had actually been charged. So, I went to retrieve the card today, then took it to the bank to ask what was going on. I was told to wait a minute, then a woman took me to her office in the back to straighten things out. She first saw that Tres Hombres had put a staple through my card, so she pulled it out, then looked at her computer and said that the bar had received payment. She printed the screen, then stapled her business card to the printout and put the bank’s stamp on it.
I took this paper back to Tres, then the bartender told me to talk to the owner, Gary, who was talking to people at the end of the bar. Gary looked at the paper, then asked me to wait while he called his credit card company. He told the bartender to give me soda or beer while I waited, so I had two sodas. The owner came back about 10 minutes later and asked me to come to his office with him, which was in the back area of the store at the end of a maze of alcohol boxes and merchandising materials. He had the credit card company on hold and needed to see my card so he could tell them the number. The phone call took about 10 more minutes, then they were finally able to confirm that payment had actually been received. As we were walking out of the office, Gary told me that this unusual situation arises once or twice each year. I would have just let them figure out the problem on their own if this was not a business that I visited on a semi-regular business. I just didn’t want to have any problems in the future because they thought I skipped out on a bill.
Back at home, Johanna wanted to go to the Rec Center again, so that’s what we did. There, we first got her a guest pass, then I realized that I had brought my driver’s license instead of student ID, so I went back home to get it while she waited. We then went into a racquetball court for about an hour. There were more busloads of kids present today, but one court was available. Johanna improved her skills and hit about 50 percent better than yesterday. We played a game and I won 15 to 2.
After racquetball, we each ran a mile on treadmills, then went into the weight room for a while. Our last activity of the day was a few minutes of basketball. I went to the equipment desk to check out two balls and was told that none were available. The student worker saw me looking at the pile of them behind the counter and said that they were women’s. I told him it didn’t matter. I examined one for differences after he handed them to me, but all I could tell was a very slight difference in weight. Johanna didn’t even notice that.
We got back to the apartment around 4 o’clock, then Johanna went to sleep and I used my computer. We left again after 6 o’clock to eat dinner at El Bajio’s with Tim and BJ, who picked us up at the corner of a nearby street on their way there. Josh also ate with us, and he was already at the restaurant waiting with a table when we arrived.
I ordered a pitcher of beer to share with the others and a giant stuffed tortilla for myself. Josh’s conversation was just as good as my tortilla, but I felt like I constantly needed to look around to make sure no small children were nearby. He left not too long after finishing the food, then the rest of us sat and talked for another 30 minutes.
Tim and BJ then dropped Johanna and I back off at our place.
I left again at 10 o’clock to meet Josh at Marina and Emily’s house, but Johanna didn’t go because she was tired. I stopped at the Old Town Liquors on the way to buy a 6-pack of Keystone. Everyone was watching episodes of Saved By the Bell when I arrived at the house. Emily’s birthday started at midnight tonight. Also at the house were two other guys and another roommate. Pizza arrived after watching two Saved by the Bell episodes, then everyone but Josh, Marina and I left the room or the house. We watched the movie Jack Frost, which is about a killer snowman. The snowman is created when a truck carrying a death row inmate named Jack Frost crashes into another truck containing a genetic research solution. A girl in this movie plays Nadia in American Pie 3 years later. She was raped and murdered by the snowman in this movie. The snowman’s carrot nose is suspiciously missing during that scene.
Marina was working on homework during the movie, so Josh and I were the only ones really watching. I rode my bike home right after it was over. There, I smoked a cigarette and took a couple pictures before going back inside. I was using the slow-shutter function to take a picture of the apartment building when I noticed that it also made the clouds and moon look very interesting.

December 14, 2005
Wednesday:

Today was the first day of 4 weeks without any schoolwork to do. I expected to work at the bookstore for a few hours, but called Carl and was told to call back on Friday to see if there was any work to do then.
I made Johanna and I egg, cheese and turkey sandwiches for breakfast, then we rode bikes to the Rec Center and stayed for several hours. It was her first time there. There were hundreds of little kids crazily running around everywhere. The first thing we did was play racquetball for about an hour, and Johanna did a lot better than I expected, for a girl. No offense against girls, but they are never usually any good at the game. But, Johanna actually can consistently hit the ball and is not scared of it, even when it’s coming at her very fast. Unfortunately, she almost always misses balls when they land behind her.
There was a bloody Band-Aid in the middle of the racquetball court, which was lying in a layer of dried blood. We jogged 7 laps around the track next, which is one mile. I didn’t think Johanna would make it through, but she did, and even ran fast on the last lap. Then, we went into the weight room and I showed her how to use some of the machines there. She did several different exercises while I checked out two basketballs from the equipment desk. I passed Laura by the weight room and we said hello. We met at Schnucks a few years ago when she used to buy bread for her business, Harbagh’s Café. I always thought she looked really young to own her own business.
Johanna also did better at basketball than I expected, and even made a couple three-point shots. We played a little one-on-one, but not for long. We left the building at 3 o’clock. There had been drizzle falling on our trip to the Rec Center, and it was still falling when we left. Before going back to the apartment, we made a stop at Save-a-Lot, passing through the abandoned Washington School property on the way. That building, at the east end of College St, is about to be torn down to make way for a new police station.
We quickly both fell asleep after getting back home, then got up at 5 to make salmon, corn and macaroni and cheese for dinner. We watched an episode of the Simsons and King of the Hill during and after the meal, then I edited video on my computer for the next couple hours while Johanna continued watching TV.
We watched the movie Monsters Inc. on DVD on my computer at 10 o’clock.

December 13, 2005
Tuesday:

Today was much like yesterday, as I slept in till 10, then started studying for another final exam, economics. Johanna left to walk to the mall, post office and Wal-Mart at noon, and I went to the library at that time.
I checked out the economics textbook, then studied for two hours. The book could only be checked out for that amount of time, so I tried to renew it after, but was told that I couldn’t because other students had been asking about it.
So, I went back home at two o’clock, then Johanna got home about 45 minutes later. I watched TV while eating lunch and discovered that Tyra Banks has her own talk show. Her guest was the porn star Tyra Spanks. The real Tyra was trying to convince the porn star to get out of the business.
I went back to the library at 4 o’clock to try and check out the same textbook again, but it was not available. I sat at a nearby computer and went over my notes while waiting for it to be returned. I noticed that a girl from my class was also sitting nearby watching for its return. I had asked the student workers to tell me when it was returned, and they did. Before checking it out, I asked the girl if she had used it yet today. She said that she hadn’t, so I let her have it.
The test was held at 5:50 in the Faner building. I was smoking a cigarette outside beforehand while talking to a political science student, who said that he was going to law school then becoming a politician. He at first thought I was in his class, but I wasn’t.
As usual, the classroom was about 90 degrees and I didn’t understand much of anything. I thought that the test would mostly contain familiar material, but that wasn’t the case, as it contained very little that we had reviewed last week. It was relatively short, yet most of the class was still working after an hour and a half, so I am assuming that everyone did as bad as I think I did. That’s great because there will probably be a curve. As I have said before, the teacher of this class is a nice guy, but one of the worst teachers I have ever had. This is the second class we have had together and I am making sure it will be the last.
I returned home at 7 o’clock, then watched an episode of Sex and the City and South Park with Johanna. I cooked myself a chicken breast and noodles, but Johanna didn’t want any. Next, we watched the movie “Sleeping with the Enemy” while having popcorn and a couple drinks. I accidentally burned the first bag of popcorn, so we threw it away and made a second. Johanna had never seen the movie, but I at first mistakenly thought I had.

Decenber 12, 2005 - Monday

The police ordered the display shut down because it caused traffic accidents.
Monday:
My whole day was spent studying for a statistics final exam. I slept in till 10 o’clock, then started studying right after having a couple bowls of cereal for breakfast. Johanna walked to buy groceries at Save-a-Lot at noon, then I took a lunch break when she arrived back home a couple hours later. I fell back asleep for an hour after lunch, then continued studying till stopping for dinner at 6 o’clock. I cooked beef steaks, macaroni and cheese and peas, then went to school to take my statistics test at 7:30.
I didn’t know the answers to about 50 percent of the questions because they were unlike what I had spend the day studying. Luckily, there were 20 points worth of extra credit problems at the end, which I probably did correctly. I have never heard of that much extra credit being offered in a class before, but I have also never been in a class where 50% of the students were failing, so I guess that was the reasoning.
I spent most of the 2 available hours taking the test, then returned home. Johanna and I then each had a Hawaiian Punch and rum drink and watched a couple shows on TV.
I have another test tomorrow night, so the day will probably not be any more exciting, but then I’m done with the semester.

December 11, 2005
Sunday:

Johanna and I got up at 10:30 this morning, then went to a free Christmas brunch in the apartment’s office building at 11. The first 50 people in the door each received 8 quarters to do laundry with at the recently reopened laundry facility.
There were about 20 other people eating when we arrived, including Dawn, whom I introduced Johanna to. There were several dozen different things to eat and drink on two different tables. I was most interested in the biscuits and gravy, but I was too slow and another guy got the last of it. That’s the second time this week I have missed out on biscuits and gravy, as a similar situation also happened at Mary Lou’s on Wednesday. The biscuit and gravy gods must not be on my side. I should build a huge biscuit shrine.
As soon as we finished eating, we left in the car to go hiking at Little Grand Canyon. We drove many miles down route 127 before I realized that we had passed the turn for the canyon. I stopped at a little diner and two old men told me the general location. The second try was a partial success, as we at least found the turn-off. We then went about 15 miles down little winding roads before I realized we had passed it up again. I turned around and then amazingly passed it up a third time. It was eventually found by watching the cars odometer and measuring the exact location from a sign that read, “Little Grand Canyon 3(miles)”.
No other cars were in the parking lot when we arrived, and there were few tracks in the quickly melting snow. We hiked down into the valley and were met with a slippery situation when we neared the bottom. The last 500 feet or so of the descent leads through the bed of a stream that is cut 10 to 40 feet deep into solid rocks. This part of the trail was my main interest today because 10-20 foot icicles sometimes form here after snowfall. Few icicles were present today, but there was quite a bit of ice on the rocks we were walking on. Johanna was never very sure of her footing, and I once almost slid off a 4-foot drop, grabbing hold of the rock wall at the last second.
Despite the lack of giant icicles, there were still plenty of cool ice formations to be found, the best of which was on the bluffs at the bottom of the canyon. There, a waterfall had frozen into an ice wall that was about 6 feet high and 4 feet wide.
The total length of the trail loop is 3.6 miles, so it took us a couple hours to walk the entire thing. We encountered another difficult area as we ascended out of the valley. There, a thick layer of ice was covering a stairway that was carved into the stone, so we had to climb a 7-foot high rock wall, which Johanna was terrified of doing. I had to push her up, then climb myself.
Back in the parking lot, we encountered an area of bloody snow with two huge mangled animal legs nearby. I put one of the legs in the trunk to give to Janie, my dad and Clara’s dog. Driving out of the area, I realized why we had not found the place on our first attempt; the sign had been destroyed, probably by a collision with a car.
We next drove into Murphysboro, first stopping at a gas station, then a car wash, because we gave the car back to Clara today. We went out to the house and it was empty until my dad came in from working outside. Clara came home a few moments later. Janie jumped on Johanna and got her shirt muddy. We were already both really dirty from the hike. Just before dark, Johanna and I walked out to my storage area to put the sleds there. The sky was turning bright red at that time and I snapped a few pictures.
Back inside, Clara had chili for us all to eat, which was excellent. Afterwards, we all tried some liquor that Johanna’s parents had sent for my dad and Clara. They also sent a candle and some chocolate.
My dad brought us back to my apartment at 6:30, then we fell asleep until 8. Next, we watched the move “The Incredibles”, which I highly recommend to anyone. We ate potpies and Jello after the movie. Johanna had made the Jello a couple days ago, which was her first ever attempt. She hadn’t even heard of it before coming here.
After the meal, I went out into the stairwell to smoke a cigarette. There, I also talked to my upstairs neighbor Cassie for a few moments, who was coming in from smoking outside. Next, Johanna and I sent out an email stating our Christmas gift requests. My family all just drew a name to buy a gift for this year so everyone does not have to spend so much. Somebody also set up a Secret Santa Hotmail account so everyone can send their wishes out to everybody.
p.s. Johanna’s nickname is now Meatball. She misunderstood something I said the other day and thought I was calling her that. It was so funny that I had to start.

12/10/2005
Saturday:

I realized before I got up this morning that I left my debit card at Tres Hombres last night. I had given it to the bartender at the beginning of the evening so I could keep a drink tab, then forgot to pay the bill and get the card back when we left.
I called Clara at 10 o’clock to confirm we were going to a basketball game tonight. She said that someone from the bar had already called there about the card. Johanna and I went there an hour later, but the bartender said that she could not find the card and that I would have to come in and talk to the manager tomorrow morning.
We next went to the bookstore because I was supposed to work today. I introduced Johanna to Kelly and Carl, then she looked at books for a few minutes before walking back home.
I only worked for about two hours, half of which I spent alphabetizing the gardening section. Carl and Kelly had a table set up at the front of the store with punch, cookies and coffee, but not many customers showed up to have any of it. So, with my paycheck, I also received a bag of cookies.
I was back home by 1:30. On Johanna’s walk home, she had stopped at Save-A-Lot to buy some food and gift-wrapping paper. She was now chatting on the computer with a guy that just had a baby 12 hours ago. He already had a picture of it online. She is friends with his girlfriend.
I spent some time in the mid-afternoon getting new pictures online, then made salmon, corn and ramen noodles for dinner at 4 o’clock. We fell asleep for an hour afterwards, then got ready to go to a basketball game with my dad and Clara. Just before they arrived, I drove to Old Town Liquors to pick up drinks for a party we planned on attending after the game.
They came to pick us up immediately after I returned home. We walked into the arena just as the national anthem was being sung. As we took our seats, cheerleaders were running around on the court and the band was playing, which caused Johanna to say, “this is very American”. Is that a good comment or a bad one?
About 10 seconds into the game, she said, “look how much better the other team is”. It’s a good thing she wasn’t gambling.
Clara had the foresight to bring some homemade snacks and water with us, then Johanna and I got some popcorn during halftime. I tried to explain things about the game to Johanna as it progressed. She said that the teams took too many breaks, but I think she enjoyed herself. The Salukis ended up winning by several points.
After the game, my dad and Clara decided to join Johanna and I at Marina’s 21st birthday party, which was at her home just a block from my apartment. We found a parking spot near my apartment, then they waited as we went inside to get the drinks I had bought earlier. I also had a bag of ice sitting outside in the snow.
We then all walked to Marina’s house, which is only a block away. She was outside moving her car when we arrived. There were several people inside playing flippy-cups, but the only one I knew was her roommate Emily.
Josh showed up a few minutes later. He instantly recognized my dad and Clara from this website, and they also recognized him. A Christmas tree was being decorated with smashed beer cans in the living room, which Clara and myself each contributed one piece to.
She and my dad left by 10 o’clock, then Johanna and I stayed for 3 more hours. A couple people had been fairly drunk when we arrived, and at least half of the people were that way by the time we left. One guy was even propped over a trashcan in the living room by 11:30. Many new faces could be seen in the house at any time, as there were always new people arriving, most of which seemed to be cinema/photography students.
Despite the high BAC’s, Johanna and I still found plenty of good conversation and ended up having a really good time. Maybe others will write the same thing about us in their journals.

December 9, 2005
Friday:

It was 6 degrees(-14C) when I woke up this morning at 9 o’clock, but apparently had been down to about 0 earlier in the morning. Even Johanna was surprised when she saw the temperature.
I rode my bike to statistics class, where we reviewed for the final exam and had a small quiz. I then had another hour before my Chinese final exam, which I spent in the computer lab. The exam consisted of 20 multiple-choice listening questions and 12 writing ones. By the end of the hour, most of the class had still not finished with the writing part, so the teacher let us all come into her office and work on it longer. The office is tiny and 4 or 5 student teachers work there, so it was not a very good environment for test taking.
I finally finished after another 30 minutes or so, then went on to economics class. After that, I went to the arena offices to buy basketball tickets for my dad, Clara, Johanna and I for a game tomorrow night. Next I tried to see my advisor in the Faner building about signing up for next semester’s classes, but she was not in her office.
Back at my apartment, Johanna had just arrived back from a bus trip to the mall and Schnucks. She said a guy at the mall saw her sitting at the bus stop and had asked her if her bike was stolen. At Schnuck’s, Todd in the meat department recognized her from my website and asked if she was from Finland. Then, she was in another part of the store and an unknown employee asked how she knew Todd. Johanna figured that this guy also recognized her from the website, but that actually wasn’t the case, he was just making conversation. So, it must have sounded weird when she replied, “Oh, he knows me from the website”.
I had to go back to school for an economics final exam review session at 5 o’clock. My neighbor Cassie was coming into the building as I was leaving, so we talked for a couple minutes. I drove the car back to school and stopped at Yesteryear Tobacconist along the way, where I bought two ounces of Luxury Bright tobacco from the old man and woman that run the place. At the end of the review session, I asked Joline if there was a price on the giant Abraham Lincoln head in her living room, but she said it was priceless. I thought I could maybe get it cheap and give it to my dad sometime.
I arrived back at home by 6 o’clock, then Johanna and I left at 8:30 to meet Leslie and her friends at Tres. We rode the bikes there since we planned on having a couple drinks each. The temperature was probably in the teens at that time, and a guy walking by said we were brave.
At the bar, Leslie had reserved 3 tables in a corner of the room. There were several people with her when we arrived, but I only knew Lucas and Ashley. I hadn’t seen Ashley for years and she said she now has a 14-month-old child. Later, Mike Sm. also came, along with other people that I didn’t know.
Johanna and I stayed at the bar until just before midnight. I spent most of my time either talking to the people I knew or a friend of theirs named Molly, who is a ceramics student. She said that she was so broke this semester that she hadn’t turned on her heaters once yet this semester, even last night. I don’t know how she keeps her pipes from freezing.

December 8, 2005
Thursday:

Snow had just started to fall when Johanna and I got up at 8:30 this morning, and continued until mid-afternoon, leaving behind about 3 inches.
Until 11:30, I studied on and off for the speaking part of my Chinese final exam, which was at 12:20. I went to school a bit early so I could print out directions for a statistics assignment on the computers at the Faner computer lab. While having a cigarette outside the lab afterwards, I heard a person say that they had never seen this much snow before, but there was only about an inch on the ground at that time. I also noticed a blue backpack just lying by itself in the snow, then a big guy walked up to me with a camera as I was looking at it. He said his name was Cassie and that he was from L.A. and had also never seen this much snow before, except when skiing. I invited him to go sledding behind the arena at 3:30 with Johanna, my brother and I.
The assistant Chinese teacher did the speaking tests individually in her office. There were other people going in and out of the office all the time, which was kind of distracting. I did well enough on my test to pass, but my speaking skills still have a lot to be desired. After the test, I was asked to fill out an evaluation form for the professor.
Next, I walked into the Student Center bookstore to look at a statistics book so I could write down the assignment that is due tomorrow. The paper I had earlier printed out listed problems on certain pages of the book, so I planned on just writing them down. The plan didn’t work because the textbook section was completely blocked off. It had also been blocked off the last time I needed to use the book, but was only blocked with tape that I could just walk past. This time, the barriers were heavy furniture, so I decided to just go to another bookstore. I saw my brother reading a Hurricane Katrina picture book when leaving the store. He was dressed up because he had a presentation to do at 3 o’clock. I looked at the Katrina and talked to him for a few minutes, then went on to 710 Bookstore.
There, the book section was open, but they were all out of the statistics books. So, I returned home, then Johanna and I spent the next couple hours lounging or wrestling. She really loves to wrestle. I don’t mean like real wrestling, but just the horseplay kind. We also made up an exercise where one person lays on top the other stiff as a board, then the person on bottom does bench presses using the person on top.
We left the apartment at 2:30 to go sledding, making at stop along the way at the last bookstore in town. There, they also had their textbooks blocked off, so I just asked a girl working at a desk to bring me the book. She asked me why I needed the book, so I said that I was comparing it to an older version to see if I would need to buy a new one for a class next semester. She went to get the book, then I used it at an unused counter nearby her. As soon as I got paper and a pencil out of my pocket, she said, “you’re not doing homework with that are you”. I said, “no, I’m going to write some things down and see if they are the same in my older edition of the book”. I then kept writing for couple more moments before she said, “well, were not supposed to let people copy things out of books, so I’m going to have to ask somebody if this is OK”. I then just said “forget about it” as I walked away. I’ve probably spent about $1000 at this store over the past four years, and I’ll now never spend another penny there.
We next went on to the arena and found about 10 other people already sledding on the same hill. I parked in a parking lot at the top of the hill that required SIU parking decals. Clara’s car doesn’t have a decal, but I figured that no tickets would be being given since snow was covering everybody’s decals.
Cars were parked at the bottom of the hill we sledded on, but two parking spaces were empty below the section of it that Johanna and I claimed. That spot was also good because the snow had already been packed down there. The hill was about 75 feet long, which was enough space to get the speed to propel the sleds another 30 to 40 feet into the parking lot. We had to be careful not to hit parked cars or slide underneath passing cars. I came real close to hitting a girl that was walking to her car because we didn’t notice each other until we were on a collision course in close proximity.
My brother never showed up, but lots of other students did, one group of which came to share our section of the hill. One of these people came with an inflatable sled, which traveled much faster than the plastic ones. The guy that used it ended up hitting parked cars multiple times.
We left about 4 o’clock because Johanna said she was freezing about 10 times. Back at the apartment, we ended up falling asleep for the next hour and a half, then got up and watched the episodes of the Simpsons and Friends while our chicken bake dinner kit cooked in the oven.
After that, I spent a few minutes studying for a statistics quiz, then we watched the movie Christine on my computer, which Johanna had never seen before.

December 7, 2005
Wednesday:

I had a dream early this morning that I was in an arena inside of a space station. This multi-leveled arena was full of thousands of people partying and I just wanted out because the party had a serious hitch to it; every hour or so, the roof would open up and a gigantic alien would reach inside and scoop out one person to eat. The aliens had eyes the size of cars and hands that were giant hairy claws. I tried once to leave, but saw one of the big eyes looking through a window at me. The people stayed at the party because it was so good and the chances of being eaten were one in tens of thousands.
I had my alarm set for 8 o’clock, but ended up getting up an hour earlier because I thought it would be a good idea to study for my 9 o’clock marketing test a bit more. I was at the library by 7:30, then checked out a textbook and studied until the class started. I rode my dad’s bike to school today because I only had one lock for both it and my bike. I knew there was better chance that a bike would be stolen at school rather than at my apartment, and I didn’t want to leave my dad’s unlocked anywhere, so I decided that the best thing was to ride it to school and leave mine unlocked at the apartment. The truth is, that it was probably too cold today for anybody to even think about stealing a bike. I forgot my gloves and my hands hurt after just 60 seconds of riding. The weather was really terrible today, but at least was sunny.
I finished with the marketing test at 9:30, then went to my statistics classroom and read a newspaper till that class started. I ended up leaving by 10:15 because I could tell that the teacher was not going to discuss anything useful. I would have just sat though the class had I not wanted to go out to breakfast with Bruce before he left town. When I got home, Johanna said that he had already packed up his things and gone to visit people at Schnucks. I called his cell phone and he agreed to meet us at Mary Lou’s in 10 minutes. We arrived a few minutes before him and got a table. Johanna said the place looked very “American”. As soon as we sat down, a waitress came to declare “last call” for biscuits and gravy. I asked her to get a cup of coffee for Bruce and I, but she would only get one for me because she thought Bruce’s might get cold before he arrived. Bruce came a few minutes later with biscuits and gravy on his mind, so we had to break the bad news to him. I ordered a sausage and cheese omelet and it was wonderful. Johanna ordered a hamburger and fries. The food took longer than normal to arrive at the table. When it did, Johanna curiously examined her burger, then asked if it was “normal”. The burger just consisted of two buns and meat, but nothing else. So, I explained to her that ketchup and mustard were on the table and the vegetables next to her burger were meant to be put on it if desired.
After the meal, Bruce headed back to St. Louis, and Johanna and I went back to my place. On the way in, I carried my dad’s bike up to the room with me so I could ride mine the rest of the day. I then left again a few minutes later so I could go take a Chinese test, which I was not fully prepared for. It went a little better than expected, then during my one-hour break, I smoked a cigarette outside and used the computer lab.
I was really tired by the time my 3 o’clock class started, as I had been up late last night and gotten up early this morning. The whole class was like a dream. I opened my eyes once after dozing off, and was surprised to see that the room was dark. I at first thought I had slept through class and it was nighttime, but then realized that the teacher had just turned off the lights in order to use a projector.
I went straight to work after class, and stayed there until 5:45. The cat was back today. He had been gone for the past two weeks because of the construction. Back at home, Johanna was watching TV on the couch. She said my dad had been by earlier to drop off some DVD’s for me to copy and to give me a pair of dress pants that was too small for him.
I was planning on cooking dinner at home, but decided to eat out because I wanted to go to Walmart and I needed to check the antifreeze level of the car. Clara had left me a message saying to check that because she filled up the radiator with water this summer when the car overheated. I wanted to go to Wal-Mart in order to buy a sled for tomorrow because there is 2 to 4 inches of snow in the forecast. I thought it would be a fun thing to do with Johanna and that I would also invite some others. On the way to WalMart, we drove through the university so I could scope out some potential sledding locations. I decided on a hill that leads down into the parking lot of the arena. Johanna didn’t know what I was looking for because I wanted to make her guess my intentions. She didn’t guess until we went to the sled section at Walmart. We bought two small disk-shaped sleds for $4 each, then bought apple juice and Hi-C. I used the automatic checkout with no problem, even though I had two big sleds.
Leaving WalMart, we stopped at the Taco Bell drive thru. The voice at the box just said, “Hello, how are you?”, then went silent. I said a couple things to it, but got no response, so we drove on up to the window. The cashier looked a little upset, so I hope our food was safe. Back at home, we watched a video on the Internet as we ate, which my brother had forwarded to me in an email. The video was of a small house that had been decorated with Christmas lights that blinked along with music that was transmitted to passing car’s radios. These lights actually did a lot more than just simply blink, or the video would not have made it all over the Internet and thousands of cars would not have lined up to take a look. I read later tonight that the police had shut the display down because it caused an accident.
From 9-10:30, I studied for the first part of my Chinese final exam, which is tomorrow. It is a speaking section, so I had Johanna read the questions that the teacher will ask me, then I answered them. She has a Finnish Chinese accent.

December 6, 2005
Tuesday:

I dropped Johanna off at the mall on my way to Chinese class at noon. She had planned on riding a bus there an hour before that, but couldn’t get ready in time to catch it. I worked for three and a half hours after class, then went home at 4:30 because Bruce was coming into town from St. Louis at that time.
He arrived at my apartment a few minutes after I did. Johanna had already been back from the mall for a couple hours. She said that the bus schedules I printed out for her were all wrong, both the bus numbers and the times, but the information came directly from the Saluki Express website.
So, Bruce, Johanna and I first sat down and each had a beer, then I drove us to have dinner at 17th Street in Murphysboro. Bruce insisted on paying the bill, even though he was the guest. Next, we returned to Carbondale, stopping at Westroad Liquors to buy some more drinks. We then made a short stop at the cellar, where Bruce commented that the place hadn’t changed a bit since he was last there three years ago. I ordered a cranberry and vodka for Johanna, which had about 3 shots of liquor in it, but she finished it no problem.
We were then back at my apartment by about 7 o’clock, which is where we stayed for the rest of the evening. We all sat around and just talked and listened to music for a while, then played some games, including darts and online trivia.
Later, we watched the video that I had shot when Bruce and I camped at Ferne Clyffe in May. We ended the evening by watching a couple episodes of Blind Date.

December 5, 2005
Monday:

My alarm went off at 8 o’clock this morning and I decided to skip the two classes that I had set it for. I got up just after 10 o’clock, then left to run some errands. First was a stop at Great Clips to get a haircut. There were two women working that appeared to be old friends. While my hair was being cut by one of them, the other told this story; “My friend told her husband that she was thinking about having a boob job. Her husband said that it would be a lot cheaper if she just stuffed her bra with toilet paper. She told her husband that it just wouldn’t be the same as having surgery. Her husband replied, ‘Well, you use toilet paper on your ass all the time and look how big that got’”. This story was not told as a joke.
The woman that was cutting my hair then told me an interesting story. Her daughter just joined the National Guard and some of the other soldiers make jokes that this daughter needs a pressure relief valve. I was thinking to myself that this must mean the girl has a bad temper, but no, it is because she has a ‘ghetto booty’.
My next stop was at Save-a-Lot to buy some wheat bread, fat-free milk and apples, which was all for Johanna, of course. I parked in a nearby gas station parking lot because I missed the turn for the Save-a-Lot parking lot. They had a sign that said they would tow non-customers, so I shopped quickly. The cashier gave me a very sarcastic, “ho, ho, ho”.
I then went on to the WDBX thrift shop to buy a tie for the externship program interview that I had later tonight. Their tie rack only had about 10 ugly stained ties on it, but then I found a shopping cart full of them between an isle of shirts, and picked out a good-looking dark-blue one for 80 cents.
My last stop was at the bank to cash checks from my last two weeks of work. I went to the main branch of my bank, which is the Old National near the strip, in the hopes that the checks would be cleared quickly. They need to clear quickly because I have to pay rent before tomorrow and my account is getting pathetic.
Back at home, I made Johanna and I sandwiches for lunch. She says that I make really good ones; 39 cent generic packages of ham and imitation cheese. My secret ingredient is mayonnaise, which I guess is uncommon on Finnish sandwiches.
I spent time in the late morning and early afternoon studying while Johanna watched TV. Entertaining her is sometimes as easy as making her sandwiches, as she watched a live speech by the president today and giggled through the whole thing.
I left for Economics class at 2 o’clock and Johanna went out for a walk. I had planned on riding my bike to class, but realized at the last second that that was not an option because there are now two bikes and only one lock since my dad dropped his off for Johanna to borrow. So, I took the car to school and had no problem finding a parking space at the student center.
I started falling asleep about 15 minutes into class, then woke up when the teacher started talking about current events. He mentioned a speech that a Cambridge professor had given at SIU last week, which was about child labor. Apparently, after the US passed laws banning imports from foreign companies using child labor, the number of child prostitutes in the world rose sharply. Lots of companies fired all their child workers after the law was passed, then many of these children either died or sold themselves.
After class, I went into the Faner computer lab to print out maps of Carbondale for Johanna. I tried to print one in color and the color printer broke after I paid 90 cents for the copy. A big shy employee came and told me I would have to go to the library for a refund if the page did not print when he reset the machine. I probably would not have gone to the trouble to walk all the way to the library, but the page ended up printing anyway, after waiting about 5 minutes for the printer to warm up and get comfortable.
Back at home, Johanna was in a wrestling mood, as she often is. It took about 20 minutes to wear her out, then we ate some food. She told me that while she was walking earlier, a 50-year-old-looking creepy hillbilly had stopped and asked her if she needed a ride.
Next, I had to start getting ready for my externship interview, which was at 5:45. I wore almost all thrift shop attire, including the suit I bought for $12 a couple weeks ago and the 80-cent tie from today. The suit fits so good that nobody will ever suspect anything.
The interview was with a woman named Anita Hutton on the second floor of the student center. She was a very friendly professional woman who told me that she regularly takes Harley cruises around Europe. This interview was not really much of a traditional interview at all, but was more for familiarizing me with the internship program and answering any questions. I mostly just chatted with the woman, but she did give me one piece of information that could be very valuable.
. A Chicago-based company called the Illinois Trade Office has requested a FLIT student, and I am the only FLIT student who has applied for this program. The fact that they made a specific request means that there is a very good chance they would offer me an internship or a job after completing the externship.
I returned home about 6:30, then went back to studying Chinese. I left again at 8 o’clock to give Rufus a ride home from work. He is a saw-blade salesperson for a telemarketing company on the north side of town. I was back home by 8:30, and Johanna was already sleeping at that time. I stayed up using the computer till about ten, then also went to bed early.

December 4, 2005
Sunday:

I got up just after 8 o’clock this morning, then started studying for my Chinese final exam after having a couple pieces of toast for breakfast. I kept studying for the next few hours and Johanna went for a walk later in the morning.
I talked to my friends Greg and Bruce in the early afternoon. Bruce will be coming to visit from St. Louis on Tuesday, and Johanna and I will be going to visit Greg in Salisbury, Maryland in early January. Salisbury is just a couple hours from Washington D.C., so we will be making a couple trips there.
I continued studying through much of the rest of the afternoon. Johanna helped me study Chinese by reading some words to me. She can’t read many Chinese characters, but is good at pronouncing the words when they are written in English letters, which is a system called pinyin. She took a Chinese class with me in China, and also took another one in Finland this semester.
I took a study break for a while in the mid-afternoon and made ham sandwiches for both of us, then went to the library to use a textbook at 3 o’clock. I drove the car there expecting plenty of extra parking spaces, but was actually really lucky to get one. I needed the textbook to do an Economics assignment that is due tomorrow. As always with this class, I don’t really think I did much of it correctly, but I always seem to somehow get at least 75% of the credit.
It just took about an hour to “complete” the assignment, then I returned home. Vulture cars were circling the library parking lot and a car accelerated towards me as the driver saw I was about to leave.
Back at the apartment, I studied Chinese for another hour, then cooked Johanna and I a dinner of generic hamburger helper and green beans. It was her first hamburger helper experience and she seemed to like it, which is not necessarily a good thing.
I went to the Rec Center to play racquetball with Nic and Carl at 6:30. Johanna had earlier planned on also going, but changed her mind. Nic, Carl and I played three games of three-man racquetball and I was the loser each time. Nic won two of the games and Carl won 1.
I came back home at 8 o’clock, then got ready to go out to a movie with Nic and Sara at 9:30. Johanna and I met them at the University Place theatre just a few minutes before it started. They had picked the movie, which was called Eon Flux. In the lobby, Johanna and I got popcorn and water and Nic and Sara got a large coke. The theatre is being really cheap with their water, which is served in small cone shaped cups that collapse if you grip them too hard. Sara took her coke into the bathroom and mixed rum with it. Ears walked by as we were waiting for our food. Ears is the guy that used to own the Liberty theatre in Murphysboro, which no longer shows movies. He started working for the University Place theatre after his closed. I don’t remember his real name because everyone always just called him Ears, due to the fact he has big ears. I remember being in his theatre as a kid when other kids would pick on him. They would start throwing things at the screen, then when he would come in to stop them, everyone would start yelling, “Ears!”. I think he lived with his mom the whole time he owned the theatre.
The movie we watched tonight was very unusual, which can be a good or bad thing, but was mostly bad tonight. It was set 400 years in the future and about half of it was outrageous fighting scenes. To its credit, there was a lot of very original and well thought out imagery. I don’t think any of us really liked it, though.
Afterwards, we all went across the street to Steak N’ Shake. Nic and Sara had food, but Johanna and I just had cokes because we had eaten so much popcorn. There was a bottle of hot sauce on the table that was powerful enough to burn the inside of our noses when we took a whiff. The sauce was actually a clear liquid, and it had little green peppers floating in it. The nutrition information on the bottle said that the serving size was 23 pieces, which really confused us because 23 of those peppers could maybe kill a person. We decided that they probably meant 23 drops of the liquid that was in the bottle. Nic put about 50 drops into the ketchup bottle before we left.
We returned home at midnight. When parking the car, we found one single spot that was available on the whole block, and I was thinking how it is strange that there is always only one space left.

December 3, 2005
Saturday:

I cooked myself some eggs, toast and hot dog for breakfast at 9:30 this morning. Johanna has recently become prejudice towards eggs, and she wasn’t interested in the other stuff I had either, so she defiantly ate a bowl of cereal.
I called the bookstore at 10:30 to see if they needed help today, which they did. I drove the car to work just after 11 o’clock. It was cool and drizzling at that time, and the weather didn’t change much all day.
I spent most of my workday moving books from one location to another, including the categories of home improvement, gardening, presidents, addiction and abuse. One of the abuse books was called “Opposites Attack”.
Clayton and his wife came into the store while I was moving home improvement books. I used to work with him at Schnucks for many years. I was his boss for a while, and he was mine after that. Later in the day, Aaron Brower’s brother and his brother’s wife were in. I didn’t recognize him at first, nor did he recognize me. He was making some small talk while I reorganized the presidential section, when I thought to myself that he reminded me of Aaron Brower. We still didn’t remember each other yet. He asked me if I liked the job, and I said it was a lot more laid-back than my prior one at Schnucks. This is where we made the connection. He asked if I knew his brother, Aaron, whom also used to work at Schnucks. We had met once at a party Aaron hosted a couple years ago, and had talked for a long time that night. Not only does he look a lot like his brother, but his wife also looks a lot like his brother’s wife. Also with them, was the daughter of his wife, who appears to be about 8 years old.
A shelf collapsed on me just before I was about to go home. I was putting gardening books on it when one of the brackets underneath gave way and spilled all the books onto the floor. It collapsed a second time after I fixed it, but the third time was a charm.
I left work at 4:30 in order to be ready to go out to dinner with my dad and Clara at 5:30. Clara had left a message last night saying the location was a surprise and that we should dress up a little bit. Since then, Johanna had asked multiple times what she should wear. She was ready by the time I arrived home, and was wearing black slacks, a shiny black shirt and a black jacket. I was getting dressed when she suddenly changed from the slacks into a black skirt. Just before we were about to leave, she demanded that I wear a suit jacket so she wouldn’t look over dressed.
My dad and Clara arrived at 5:45 in the Suburban. They still wouldn’t divulge the location we were heading for. Going east out of Carbondale, we hit a 15-minute detour because the Lights Fantastic parade was about to start, then continued all the way through Herrin. After passing that town, we turned off into a small village I had never heard of, called Chittyville. There, we drove up to an abandoned school that had a few cars in the parking lot. A man standing there and smoking in the drizzle told us where to park, then directed us to a door at the back of the building. That door led into a small gymnasium, which had five well-decorated tables on the floor. A stage on one wall of the building was full of lighted Christmas decorations. We were the firsts guests to arrive and I recognized the woman that seated us as being from the antique car club that my dad has been a member of all my life. So, this was their Christmas dinner, but it turned out to be different than previous ones I had attended.
The woman who seated us mentioned that we would be solving a mystery tonight. Our table had two pages of information on it about this mystery, which involved a department store Santa being murdered. Each of the other tables contained the same info. Each table needed a name for itself, so my dad titled ours the “Gargoyles”. Other guests began arriving soon after us. Four people joined our table, two of which I recognized as long-time members of the car club, Steve and Carrie Alley. I also noticed many other familiar faces around the room, as I have been to car club events many times during most of my life. Another person at our table was a herpetologist friend of my dad’s, who just so happened to be carrying a picture of a snake with him. He and my dad have gone on a couple snake hunts together, sometimes seeing as many as 40 a day.
Dinner was served at 6:30 and the food was great. A woman came around to each table during the meal looking for volunteers that could play the parts of suspects in the Santa murder mystery. I volunteered to play the part of a shady photographer named Nick Flashburg, then the woman gave me two cameras to carry as props, one of which was a Polaroid that worked. She also gave me a piece of paper with information about my character and a speech that I would later have to read.
About halfway into the meal, a man wearing a Santa costume and a Chevy hat unexpectedly came into the gymnasium. He then went around to each table giving everyone gifts. I received a basket of chocolate. Santa started acting strange after the gifts were handed out. He asked if anyone would like to sit on his lap, especially any of the younger ladies. Then he took out a bottle of Heaven Hill rum and had a drink of the dark-colored liquid that was inside, which turned out to actually be tea. He made several other comments about his suit itching, then took more drinks from the bottle as he headed for the door. He stopped in the middle of the room and fell to the floor, spilling the rum bottle in the process. A group of people then came out from behind a door with a stretcher and loaded him onto it. He was so heavy that they could barely lift it.
Next, the woman organizing the event called all the volunteer suspects to the front of the room after everyone was done eating, then we each had to read our speech into a microphone. I gave Nick Flashburg an exaggerated southern accent that brought a lot of chuckles from the audience. I had to tell how I was a photographer working with Santa on the day he died.
We then had to be questioned one at a time by the teams at each table, and were directed to give answers according to the information that was on the sheets we had been given. The teams did not know the information on the sheets, but had been given clues as to what questions they should ask. Each of the suspects had to be questioned by each of the teams twice. I sometimes had a hard time remembering all the details about my character.
After the second round of questioning, each team was given ten minutes to answer a sheet of questions and make their guess as to who the killer was. Three out of the five tables fingered me as the culprit. Nobody guessed who the real killer was; the seamstress that made Santa’s suit, who was played by a 13 year old girl.
All the suspects were called back to the front of the room after the game was over, then each of us was given a little bag of candy. The party was now winding to a close and everyone was leaving. On the way out, Johanna and I stopped to talk to a friend of my dad’s named Joe Mann, who has a collection of 300 clocks, including the huge kind that are in town squares. He invited us to come have a look sometime.
My dad, Clara, Johanna and I then got back into the suburban and drove back into Carbondale, stopping at Longbranch coffee house to hang out for a while longer. There, Johanna and I both had a hot chocolate and my dad and Clara both had coffee. We sat at a table for about 20 minutes then drove on to my apartment. There, my dad gave his bike for Johanna to borrow while she’s here, which he had in the back of the truck.

December 2, 2005
Friday:

I had cereal and toast before breakfast this morning. Johanna insisted we buy fat free milk last night, which is a light gray color that tastes like water. I put it in Total cereal and she was shocked that I added sugar. She must not have taste buds.
I went to Marketing class at 9 o’clock and the air was so cold that it started to hurt my face in just the short amount of time it takes to get to class. Before the class started, Lou told me that we had a substitute teacher in statistics this week that was even worse than the real teacher, so I decided to skip that class.
Back at home, Johanna had already gone back to bed. I started to study Chinese, but also fell asleep after just a few minutes of it, then got back up 45 minute before class and studied again.
I spent my one-hour break between Chinese and Economics class having a cigarette outside and using the Faner computer lab. There, I printed out bus schedules for Johanna and noted any bus stops she might like to visit, like the mall. I went to Economics 10 minutes early and Joline asked me how to say a bunch of things in Chinese before class started. The guy sitting behind us said that the word for “hello” sounded like a sick cat, so I told them the word for “cat”, which sounds even more like a sick cat.
As I was smoking outside earlier, I noticed that a bike in decent condition was unlocked and leaning against the bike rack. After Economics class, I put it on the rack and made it look like it was locked with an unfastened chain-lock that was on it. I did this because I thought there was a chance it was abandoned. If it’s still there on Monday, I will ride it home and give it to Johanna to use while she’s here.
Back at my apartment at 3 o’clock, she was still in bed, but at least reading a book this time. She started reading a book yesterday that I had taken from the books that the bookstore was giving away. It’s called the NewlyWed Handbook and I only thought it would ever be used as a coffee table book, not that anyone would ever actually read it from cover to cover.
We then ate a late lunch. She had a hot dog and an apple and I had leftover stuffing and a chicken breast sandwich, that was also made from leftovers. Next, she told me she wished there was a mirror and a shelf in the bathroom because she doesn’t want to do her makeup in front of me. The bathroom is tiny and only has a toilet and shower in it. The sink is in the bedroom. So, I moved a mirror from the bedroom to the bathroom, which is the one I found by somebody’s trashcan the first week I lived here. The only space to hang it was on a doorway to nowhere, which exists because the apartment was converted from two dorm rooms. It can still be opened, but just leads to the wall behind the kitchen sink. I had to remove a small towel rack to hang the mirror there.
Making a shelf in the room required a trip to Lowe’s. There, we also explored the store because Johanna had never been to a hardware store that big. The lines were really long when we were ready to leave, which is not usually a common occurrence at Lowe’s. As I was checking out, I saw a guy I used to work with at Schnuck’s. It has been so long that I couldn’t remember his name, but I clearly remember him always intentionally knocking down signs in the meat department whenever he would see me putting them up. I heard him call my name from a few feet away, then we talked for just a couple minutes.
Johanna had gone out into the parking lot before me. We met up at the car, but she waited till I moved it to get in because it was parked too close to a cart collection rack. That gave me the opportunity to act like I was driving off without her.
Back at home, I built the shelf in the bathroom, then started studying for the oral part of my Chinese final exam. That part of the test is on Thursday and teacher gave everybody study guides in class today so we can study over the weekend. Johanna slept yet again as I studied. She says that she not only feels jet lag, but is also feeling sick.
I typed this journal at 7:30 and she read it over my shoulder, getting mad at the fact that I wrote that she was embarrassed to put on her makeup in front of me. Apparently, I’m mean. We watched the movie Mystic River at 8:30, which I borrowed from home the day after Thanksgiving.

December 1, 2005
Thursday:

Johanna was up at 7:22 this morning, even though she hadn’t fallen asleep till after 3 o’clock last night. Maybe it’s jet lag, but maybe it’s also just the fact that she sometimes has trouble sleeping.
Earlier in the week, I had told Carl that I would go into work at 10 o’clock this morning, but I decided last night that I would just call this morning and say I wouldn’t be in till after my Chinese class ended at 1 o’clock. Unfortunately, I could not make that call because my computer’s sound was not working. It had gone out the other night when Rufus and I were making prank phone calls overseas. The same thing had happened before, but it always had started working again when I reset the computer. Not this time. But nothing I do at the bookstore is usually urgent, so not calling was really not that big of a deal.
I now planned on studying Chinese till the class started, but decided not to go after I studied for a while. I did not have enough time to cover all the material we would be going over, and the professor teaches on Thursdays, who as I have said before, always puts students on-the-spot. I instead decided to go to work at 11:30, taking the car and dropping Johanna off at Schnucks along the way so she could do some shopping.
The first thing I had to do at work today was put together a Christmas tree, then move a couple pieces of heavy shelving. The construction work on the store was almost finished except for a couple small things. I spent the rest of the day moving sections of books, including sex and new age. All the sex books had to be alphabetized, which included titles like “Going Down”. Nic came in and invited Johanna and I to a movie tomorrow night with him and Sara. We will probably go unless I have tons of homework, which is likely.
I got off work at 4:30, then went back home. I knocked on my apartment door and said, “Toothbrush Inspector, open up”, as I heard Johanna walk up to it. I had joked with her about that yesterday because of the TV inspectors in her country. I had awakened her from a nap and she looked exhausted. She continued lying in bed while I did some things on my computer. I was happy to see that my website could again be accessed. I had sent a message last night to the person who owns my hosting service, saying that my IP address had been blocked. He replied that he needed more information, but I guess he didn’t after all. If anybody else is having problems accessing this site, then let me know because you might have been blocked too. Getting to access my website again was not the only good computer news tonight, as I was also able to fix the problem with my sound. I had suspected that the problem could be beyond my skill level, but fixed it by just disabling and re-enabling my sound card.
After that, we were both starving and decided to cook dinner. I made a pork steak for myself, a chicken breast for her and peas and stuffing for both of us. We next decided to go shopping at Walmart. Johanna had been looking forward to going there because she sees it as a kind of sight seeing. Finland doesn’t have many stores that size.
While we were shopping for food, she looked quizzically at a package of premade Jello, which reminded me she previously said she had never heard of that or Kool-Aid. So, I bought both. We checked out at an automatic checkout and she also said that she hadn’t seen one of those before. She mentioned that it looked incredibly complicated, so I must of looked like a real stud when I successfully scanned $50 worth of groceries with it. Little did she know that this was my first real success ever with the machines, even though I have tried to use them about a dozen times.
Back at home, I gave Johanna a Kool-Aid making lesson. She then tried it for the first time and was neither impressed nor grossed out. After putting away all the groceries, I spent a couple hours using my computer while Johanna watched TV.