Febuary 2005

February 28, 2005
Monday:

I did not go to class today because I got home so late last night, and it was raining in the morning. I stayed at home all day and did homework, updated my website and slept for an hour in the afternoon. Carolyn was home all day too because she was off work. Mike got home from work early in the afternoon, and the two of them went to the rec center.
Carolyn offered me her car to drive to work because the weather was not good. The rain had changed to flurries earlier in the day, and the temperature had been dropping ever since. Carolyn also gave me some Burger King coupons, which I used to buy dinner before I went to work. I had a double cheeseburger, five piece chicken tender and chicken sandwich all for $3.
I worked with Randy and Fred tonight. Randy and I had to clean the beef section of the meat case before I began cleaning the cutting room. At the end of my shift, I put up some joke signs I had made earlier in the day on my computer. I put one of these signs on the bulletin boards of 5 different departments in the store. The sign was a “Bathroom Break sign-out sheet”. It is in response to a break sign-out sheet that we are now suppose to sign every time we take a break. -click here to see it-
On my drive home, there was a dusting of snow on the ground, but none was falling. Mike and Carolyn were already asleep when I arrived home at 10:30. I made a cigarette and smoked it, then went to bed at 11.

February 27, 2005
Sunday:

I worked from 6-2 this morning. In the morning, I was with Kevin, Carolyn and Mark. Randy came in at noon. There was not as much work to do as yesterday, so I went home 30 minutes early. I was then going to get a haircut at Great Clips, which is right next to the store, but there was a one-hour wait, so I went home. To protest the wait, I put my overly-long hair into a Mohawk.
I then talked to Johanna for a few minutes. I went to Buckley and Jen’s house at 3:30. At 4:30, we came back to my place and picked up Mike and Carolyn in Jen’s car, then the five of us headed to a Goldfinger concert in St. Louis. We stopped at a Mcdonald’s to eat dinner on the way. There were a lot of old people in the restaurant that stared at my Mohawk. Carolyn had 4 cherry tomatoes on her salad that she did not eat. I named each one of them and made a memory game with them. They were Jack, Jerry, Jill and John, and each tomato was slightly unique looking. I would pull a random tomato or two out of my hand, and the first person to guess the names won a quarter. Jen was the big winner, and I still owe her a couple quarters. As we were on getting ready to turn onto the interstate on-ramp, I threw Jack, Jerry, Jill and John out of the car window and watched them roll and splatter.
We arrived at the Pageant Theatre around 7 and waited in a line outside for about 5 minutes. This is where we encountered the first of many rude Pageant staff members. This first man was a very overbearing line monitor. Inside the door, I was patted down twice, then a huge man looked at my ID for too long.
The theatre was at least nice inside. It is a two level structure that can hold thousands of people. The back is an over-21 section with a bar, which is where we stayed through the evening. Here, we ran into many more staff members with chips on their shoulders. The bartender was one of the worse. Each time he gave me my change he would stare at me like I was suppose to tip him for every drink. One time he sarcastically said, “Thank you VERY much” when I put all my change back into my pocket. The last time I went to the bar, he only gave me two of the three drinks I had paid for and said, “where’s my tip”. I had not planned on tipping him at all because of his attitude, but I gave him a dollar so he would give me the other $4 beer I paid for. Another rude staff member told us that the stools we were sitting on were not close enough to the wall, then came back later and told us to keep our area clean, because we had sat empty cups on a ledge behind us. This is the first time I have ever been told to keep a surface at a bar clean. Buckley responded to this man by saying, “Your job, buddy, and I don’t see any trash cans anyway”.
The first two bands of the evening were not very good, especially the first one, which featured a lead singer who could not even hold a tone. The second band had a female singer. Goldfinger got onto stage a little after 10, and it was a very good show. I was very surprised when the singer let about 200 people come onto the stage during a song in the middle of the show. The staff had a very hard time removing all these people after the song. They attempted to keep people from diving off the stage, but 3 or 4 still made it.
The show ended before midnight, and we then headed back home. We stopped at a White Castle for dinner on the way home. Buckley and I sang parts from some 80’s love songs while we waited for our food in the lobby.

February 26, 2005
Saturday:

I worked from 6-2 today. Kevin was nervous all day because two of his bosses were in town and we were running behind. One of them was Chuck P., whom I had not seen since returning from Macau. He used to be my boss, and I knew him through my friend Lee before that, so we have known each other for quite a few years.
I also worked with Todd, Carolyn and Paul today. Todd was late and he said it was because he took a huge girl home last night, but he was just joking(maybe). At the end of my shift, Carolyn had me climbing through all of our dirty storage areas to find missing pieces of our smoked meat case.
The weather was good again today. Sunny and about 50 degrees. Mike was outside with Damien when I arrived home, and we went to play racquetball at 3. He checked the game rules on the Internet before we left, so we played slightly differently today in order to follow the rules more closely. He beat me in the first game and the second game. I ended the second game at 8 points because I had zero. We played two more games after that, and I won them both.
Carolyn got home from work at 6, and Mike and I went to Sam’s Café and took dinner to go shortly afterwards. Carolyn was gone by the time we got home. She had gone to Amy’s to do some “scrapbooking”. Not surprisingly, John came over at 7:30. We played a few hands of poker with chips, but no money. I won. We watched Damien chew up a Miller box.
At 9:30, Mike and I put our bikes into the back of John’s truck, and we went to Calahan’s(bar). Tavis and Katie had come into town tonight. They moved to Cincinnati a little over a month ago, and this is the first time I had seen them since. Brandy, Jeff and Jared were also there.
I rode my bike home around 11:30 and went to sleep. (work early)

February 25, 2005
Friday:

I slept on a mattress in the floor of the living room last night. I had dreams all night that I was a wrongly convicted fugitive who was running from the law. My dad woke me up at 6:30 and dropped me off at home on his way to work. I then slept for another hour before going to Accounting class at 9. I arrived home from school at noon, and Carolyn was just leaving for work. I made myself a roast beef sandwich for lunch, and read a few pages of a book I found on the table, called “Lovely Bones”.
I took Damien outside to play at 1. The weather today was sunny and mild, with a temperature of about 50. Damien always knows when the weather is nice, even if he has not been outside yet. He will trot around the house like a small horse, and whine if he does not get taken outside every once-in-a-while. He did this today, and he was more energetic than ever when I took him outside. He played so hard that he quickly fell asleep after we came back inside. He wanted to play again when he woke up. It is a cycle.
A woman named Kasey called on the phone at 2. I don’t know who the woman was, but she thought I was Mike. Before we realized the misunderstanding, she started talking about things and people that I had no clue about. When she realized I was confused, she asked me if I knew a person named Bagwell. I said no and she seemed really shocked. It turns out that she was shocked because Bagwell is one of Mike’s relatives and she thought that Mike did not know his own relatives. After a pause, she asked me if Trina was my mom, then I knew what had happened. The woman laughed for a long time when I told her who I was.
I spent the afternoon doing homework and other things on my computer. I was supposed to talk to Johanna at 4, but she was not online. Mary(Macau) sent me a message when I logged on to Messenger. She is still in Macau and is attending school there again this semester. Today, we used our web cams and chatted for about an hour. Carolyn got home from work at 4, and Mike arrived at 6. The two of them made quesadillas for dinner, which were huge and great. After the meal, the three of us took a trip to ABC Liquor to buy some beer, then went to Buckley and Jen’s house. We all hung out for about two hours, then we came back home.

February 24, 2005
Thursday:

There was a couple inches of snow on the ground when I went to school today, but it had melted from all paved surfaces. I came home after Chinese class, then spent the afternoon writing emails and editing a video. I sent one to Bruce, and he then called me at 3. I was surprised to read in his email that he and Shannon are expecting a baby in September. We are going to try and visit each other soon. I also chatted with Dash(Macau) online for about 30 minutes. We used our webcams.
Mike and Carolyn were in and out of the house all day. They were expecting a large number of Mike’s family members over for dinner, so Carolyn spent alot of time preparing homeade chicken pot pies for everyone.
My dad came to pick me up at 4:30, and I then went home with him. At the house, I first went to my storage area to get the 3 good-luck statues that Dash had given me when I left Macau. He had asked me to send him a picture of them so he could give it to his mom, who originally owned them.
My dad, Janie(dog) and I went on a walk just before dark. We walked through the woods and into the park(there is a state park bordering the property) for about 30 minutes. My dad picked some mushrooms along the way that we later had for dinner.
Clara had dinner ready shortly after we returned from the walk. It was a great meal of deer, mashed potatoes, greens, corn and brussel sprouts. I was so hungry that I ate two large plates, then had a bowl of walnut ice cream for dessert.
After the meal, my dad showed me all of his pictures from the trip that he and Clara had taken in Mexico for 8 days earlier this month. I will post them on this site tomorrow. Later in the evening, we watched “Without a Trace” and some of the news. They went to bed around 11, and I then wrote Chinese characters for an hour, which are due in class tomorrow morning.

February 23, 2005
Wednesday:

I went to all 5 hours of classes today. It began sleeting at 10 and did not stop all day. I got my test back in Macroeconomics and I got an A. I also got my test back in Chinese, and I got a D. I was surprised about the D. I had thought I understood the test well, but I really didn’t.
I had lunch at the Student Center cafeteria, where I ate spaghetti, garlic bread and a chicken sandwich. When I have entered the student center over the past few weeks, I have been noticing a display about sexual awareness, which features a giant condom and information about safe sex. One of the captions reads, “How do you like your eggs? If the answer is unfertilized, then ……etc”.
I went to Management Information systems class 20 minutes early so I could chat with Johanna online. When class started, we had to create a spreadsheet to figure interest rates. I discovered that a 1$ loan for one year with a 23 trillion percent interest rate would require monthly payments of $19 billion.
A person sat down next to me in HPWES class today and said, “Do you remember me?” At first I had no idea, then the person said he was on old neighbor from Stave Mill Rd.(where I grew up). I then immediately recognized him as Keith Conrad. Him and his older brother had ridden my school bus with me for 10 years. I had not seen either of them for many years. During class, I remembered that he had picked me up when I was walking on Stave Mill Rd. drunk several years ago in the early hours of the morning. I had no recollection of that night until I saw him today. His brother, Nathan, picked on me for years on the bus. He must have flicked my ears at least 10,000 times over 10 years. I could have easily moved to the front of the bus during all those years, but I had continued to sit in the back and let him torture me. Despite his flaws, he did stand up for me when another student tried to beat me up one day. This other kid had also been flicking my ears, and I had just turned around and punched him in the forehead one afternoon. The kid responded by sitting on me. Nathan Conrad told him to get off me, and when he refused, Nathan punched him in the face.
I now only go to HPWES class one out of the three days it is held, and today I remembered why. Our discussion slowly degenerated from Karl Marx to the movie “The Matrix”. The discussions can be funny sometimes, but I am not willing to sit through a two-hour break on Mondays and Fridays just so I can talk about “The Matrix”.
My ride home was painful. The sleet pellets had become bigger and more frequent. It hurt every time they hit my face and ears. Rufus called me around 3:30, and Mike and I went to play racquetball at 4. The sleet had changed to snow then, but it was still too warm out for it to cause any problems.
I became dizzy during the racquetball games and had to quit in the middle of the second game because I could not even focus on the fast-moving ball. I don’t know what was wrong with me. I had eaten well during the day and had enough sleep last night. I went to Mike’s truck while he went to the weight room. After a while, I felt better, but still very tired.
Rodger H. was in town tonight. I was supposed to hang out with him and Randy, so I called Randy when I got home. He told me that Rodger could pick me up on the way to his house and gave me the phone number. But, Randy had told me that Rodger was already passing through the town of Duquoin, which meant that I would be ready to leave by the time he got here, so I didn’t call. About an hour later, I decided to call Jen because she had told me on Saturday that she was off work tonight. I went to her house around 8. She was home alone when I arrived, then Beth and Steph got home from work at 9:30. Jen and I had been playing some cards earlier, and we just sat around and talked after her roommates arrived. The girls all ate a dinner that Jen had been cooking. I said I was not hungry because I planned on later eating some beef stroganoff that Mike made today. Steph got out a weird fruit later that looked like an orange on the outside but was very dark red inside. We didn’t know what it was, but it was very good.
I came home just before midnight. It was still snowing outside and it had started to stick to everything except the streets. It was the kind of snow that will even stick to the smallest objects. The ride home was difficult because the snow got in my eyes when I looked up.
At home I ate some of the stroganoff before going to bed.

February 22, 2005
Tuesday:

I had a Management Information Systems test today at 8. There were 76 stupid questions and zero questions that will ever be relevant to anything. This is a really pathetic subject.
I spent my one-hour break studying for my 10 o’clock Chinese test. I was able to finish all but two questions, so I am sure I passed.
After having lunch, I met Nic on campus and we played pool til 1:30. I then went home and talked to Johanna for an hour. Mike and I were planning on playing racquetball at 6, but I was told that all courts were full when I tried to make reservations. Carolyn went into work at 6, and Mike and I went shopping at Kroger. We bought a whole basket full of groceries for $50 and put it all on his Link card, so we really didn’t pay anything. We bought some beer on the way home.
We then grilled 4 leg quarters and two sliced potatoes. The chicken caught on fire so badly that flames leaped several feet out of the grill and burned Mike. We thought the food would be ruined, but it turned out perfect.
I then studied Chinese until 11. I finally have a textbook for the class, after 5 weeks without one. That is because we began using a different book today, which I purchased a couple weeks ago. I then spent another hour editing a video on my computer before going to sleep.

Monday February 21, 2005

I got my accounting test back today and was very surprised to have gotten an 85%(B), as I was hoping to just get a C. I was fully prepared to do even worse than a C. I spent my one-hour break writing emails in the library. I had received a message from Uli (Macau German exchange student) that said he had been in the hospital for two weeks after leaving china because of stomach problems. His illness sounded exactly like what I went through for a week after returning from Thailand, but mine eventually went away as soon as it had began. He also said he is staying with his girlfriend in Helsinki, so I offered to visit when I come in May. I also sent an email to Milon(Macau Holland exchange student).
As usual in Macroeconomics class, I kept falling asleep. I realized right before class that I had locked myself out of the house. I always keep my key in my wallet, and I had not brought that today.
Mike had told me on the phone last night that he and Carolyn would be home at noon, so I got home about that time and waited. When they did not arrive after a few minutes, I began walking around the house looking for any potential way to break in. I circled the house once, then sat down. Then I circled the house again and sat back down. Damien was going crazy barking the entire time. I then circled the house a third time and found that one of the windows was not locked, but I could not get the screen open. I used a pen to make a hole in the screen, then unlatched the screen and pushed the window up. Damien kept trying to lick my face as I crawled in the window. Mike and Carolyn arrived home just minutes after I was inside.
I then had some homemade vegie pizza that they had brought back. After that, I walked to the lumberyard down the block to pick up a couple things I needed. I talked to Johanna for an hour from 1:30 to 2:30. It is now less than a month before she arrives.
I spent the later part of the afternoon studying for my Tuesday Chinese test, then cooked a hamburger for dinner and went to work at 6. I was disappointed to find that Randy and I were suppose to clean the entire service meat case before I could clean the cutting room. We were suppose to wait until 7 to start, but I knew I would not be able to get done in time if we started that late, so we began the job as soon as I arrived.
I arrived home at about 10:45. Mike and Carolyn were just getting ready for bed. I took a shower and used my computer for a while, then went to sleep about 1.

February 20, 2005
Sunday:

The whole day was mild and drizzly. I worked with Fred, Clayton, Kevin and Randy. By 2pm, there was not much left to do, so I left early at 2:30. After playing with Damien outside and taking a shower, I fell asleep for two hours.
I got back up at six and did some dishes and had a snack before beginning to study Chinese. Jen K. called to say that her and Buckley will be going on a planned group trip to a Green Day concert in May for Mike’s birthday. Mike then called me to see if Jen had called, because he wanted to know how many tickets he should buy. I had thought him and Carolyn were coming home tonight, but I was wrong.
Until about 11pm, I alternated between studying, eating and watching TV. I cooked a hamburger for dinner and watched 2 episodes of “That 70’s Show”. I later had trouble falling asleep, so I got back up for a while and studied for my Management Information Systems test until I was tired. It was very effective at making me sleepy.

February, 19 2005
Saturday:

I got to work at 5:50. I used the few extra minutes I had to eat a fresh warm doughnut and drink a chocolate milk. I worked with Carolyn, Kevin, Matt and Paul.
I worked hard all day. As usual, I took lunch to go from Burger King. Mark B. came in to see me for a minute.
That lazy Mike was asleep when I got home and didn’t get up til after 3, but I am sure he was probably up most of the day before that, or maybe he is just that lazy. I did some laundry and did work on my computer for the rest of the evening. Mike and Carolyn left at 5 to drive home and spend the night with her family. They left me as the weekend dog-sitter. During the afternoon, I got calls from Jeff, Nic and Jen. It seems that either nobody calls me some days or a lot of people call me other days. Jeff is celebrating his birthday tonight, so I told him I would meet him at the Cellar at 9. Nic said that he would meet me there also, and I told Jen I would call her back after she takes a nap. Everybody got a nap but me today.
When it came time to go out, I called Jeff to tell him that I was too tired. Jen called me back at 9 and I told her the same thing. Nic and Sara did come over for about two hours at 9. The three of us had a couple drinks and watched a video that Nic and I had previously filmed.
Damien went crazy the whole time they were here. I have never seen him that bad. He peed everywhere and even pooped in a couple places. It is not all that unusual for him to pee when he gets excited, but he never poops. He would not even get near Nic and Sara, and just growled at them the whole time. When it came time for me to go to bed, I tried to get him to sleep in his basket, but he insisted on crawling under the covers with me, and he then slept there all night.

2/19/2005- Oops, this might be lost. It was an account of tunnel exploration....
Protected: Special Edition

This post is password protected. To view it please enter your password below:
Password:
Enter your password to view comments

2/18/2005
Friday

My accounting class was suppose to get its tests back today, but the teacher told us at the beginning of class that they were not graded yet. I heard sighs around the class because we had been told all week that we would get them back today. I was hoping to verify that I at least got a C on the test, but I guess I will have to wait for that good news.
The American teacher taught my Chinese class today. Normally the Taiwanese teacher teaches on Fridays, but the American had been out sick all week, so he decided to teach today. He is one of the most eccentric professors I have had. He has spent much of his life surrounded by Chinese culture, which has caused him to seem more Chinese than American. He looks American, but speaks in a strange high voice and has many odd mannerisms. I think I have mentioned this before in this journal, but it is just very wierd. He is a very good teacher, though.
I had a test in my Macroeconomics class. I had decided to study very little because I thought the test would be easy, and I was right. I am sure I got an A, as the test followed the study guide almost completely. For lunch, I found that plates of Chili Mac and Garlic bread were on sale for $2.39 at the student center cafeteria. It was a nice break from Mcdonalds.
I spent my the rest of my two-hour break using the Internet at the library. I was happy to find that my $725 tax return had been deposited into my checking account today. My last class of the day, History and Philosophy of World Economic Systems, kept making doze off again today. The class meets three days a week, and on Monday’s and Wednesday’s I have a 2-hour break before it. It is very hard for me to stay at school during those two hours when it seems pointless to sit through this last class of the day. Today I learned that there will not be an exam until March 3, so I have decided to now only attend the class on Wednesday’s, when I have another class just before it that is very nearby. I never take notes in the class and there is no attendance policy…..so now my Mondays and Fridays at school will be three hours shorter.
I stopped at Schnucks on my way home to get some food, because I had promised Mike and Carolyn I would make dinner tonight. There, I talked to Randy and Carolyn for a few minutes while I tried to decide what to make. I noticed that a brand of complete ready-to-cook dinners was on sale for half price, so I decided on the turkey and stuffing casserole version of that. When I paid for the food, I used my new link card for the first time. When I got my receipt back it listed that I had an available balance of $95……nice.
I then went home and took all of the ingredients out of the ready-to-cook dinner box, and put them into a casserole dish as the directions described. I then put the dish into the refrigerator to store until I was ready to place it in the oven. I wanted to get rid of all the ready-to-cook evidence before Mike and Carolyn got home, so they would think I cooked the dish from scratch. I put the trash into a separate bag and put it underneath other trash in the trash can outside.
Neither of them got home from work before 6, so I spent the next couple hours playing with Damien outside, using my computer and sleeping. Matt P. called at about 5:30 and I talked to him for a few minutes. I started cooking the dinner as soon as Mike and Carolyn got home. I also cooked sweet potatoes, long grain rice and made salad. During the meal, Mike asked me, “Where did you learn how to cook this”, and I said it was something I had made before. I thought that both he and Carolyn were suspicious of me, and I told them the truth at the end of the meal. My dad called while we were eating. He and Clara had just arrived home from their vacation in Mexico. He said that they had traveled all around the country, never staying in the same place more than two nights.
I had finished editing Mike and Carolyn’s engagement interview to Carolyn’s exact orders just before she got home at 6, and I burned three copies of it for them. After dinner, she put each of the CD’s into cases and printed a cover for the cases on photo paper, which showed a picture of her ring next to flowers. They looked very nice and she will give them to family members when her and Mike go to her home this weekend.
Nic stopped by at 9, and hung out for a couple hours. I went to bed at 11.

2/17/2005
Thursday

I had a dentist appointment today at 8. Mike was getting ready for work at the same time I was getting ready for school. He had to go to Centralia today and give a 30-minute presentation to a group of bank managers and executives. He spent last night getting his clothes clean, polishing his shoes and putting the final touches on the presentation. I’m sure he can’t wait for today to be over.
At the dentist, today was the second part of a two-part appointment. I had the same student hygienist as last time, and I think that she might be the world’s most depressed hygienist. During my last appointment, she seemed sarcastically depressed, but this time it was for real. A teacher always has to come and check the student’s work, and the teachers are always busy, so the patient and hygienist just have to sit and wait for the teacher to do the check before the procedure can continue. I talked to the depressed hygienist each time we waited on a teacher, and tried to cheer her up. I even got her to laugh a couple times. While I was talking to her I noticed that she had short black hair, and I realized that all of the most depressed people I know have short dark hair. Is there a correlation? If so, then the cure would be simple…..dye the hair to a lighter color, like blonde. I know here is also a stereotype for blondes, but I would rather be dumb than depressed……maybe.
My only class of the day was Chinese. The normal Tuesday-Thursday teacher was sick, so the Wednesday-Friday teacher taught today. I could not answer a homework question and she told me to do the homework before class, but I spent three hours on Chinese last night and did not have time to finish the homework. At the end of class we were shown slides of the city of Beijing. I turned in an assignment after class, and talked to the teacher for a few minutes about my trip to Beijing in September. I realized that it was the first conversation I had with a Chinese person since coming back to the US, and it made me miss China.
A few days ago, I had told Nic I would meet him when he got out of class today at 12:15. So, after Chinese class, I killed some time by eating lunch at the student center and then going to the computer lab. I met Nic on the third floor of the Wham building after his class let out. We then went to the Student Center and played pool. Nic beat me in all three of the games we played. He said he had been playing a lot lately, so I don’t feel bad. I was planning on going to his boxing class with him at 2, but while we were playing pool I remembered that I was suppose to go to the Public Aid office in Murphysboro at 2 o’clock to pick up my Link card. I called Carolyn from Nic’s phone to make sure a car was available, then went back home. I had a few extra minutes before I needed to leave, so took Damien outside to throw his tennis ball for him. Mike got home early from work just before I was getting ready to leave. So, I then took Carolyn’s car and went into Murphysboro.
At the Public Aid office, I had to wait about 10 minutes, then had to watch a 20 minute video about the Link card system before I could get my card. After the video, my name was quickly called, and I went to the front desk, where I was given a Link card after signing a form and choosing a PIN number. I now have $70 free dollars to spend on food every month.
I then headed back to Carbondale, and was almost involved in an accident. I was at the stop sign by Hardees in Murphysboro and a small truck was coming down the highway. I could have gone before the truck, but I just decided to wait for it to pass. I then pulled onto the highway and proceeded to the busy intersection with Route 13. The light was green, so I began to pull into the intersection and make my turn. I quickly hit the brakes when a line of about 10 cars sped through in front of me at full speed. A car in the lane next to me did not notice the oncoming traffic and narrowly missed being sideswiped by a truck going at least 50 MPH. The lights going both directions were green! There were several cars waiting to turn onto the highway, and this situation could have easily resulted in a pileup of several cars. Luckily, everyone waiting to turn saw what happened to the first car that pulled out into the traffic, and they then all stopped. I was thinking that if I had not waited on the truck at the stop sign for that extra two seconds, I could have easily been the first car into the intersection. I was also thinking that I could have gotten a lot of money for an accident that was the fault of traffic lights.
So, the lights in the turn lane eventually turned red, and everyone then just waited for them to turn green again. When they did turn green, the lights worked this time and displayed a red light to the oncoming traffic. Usually, everyone has a lead foot when a light turns green, but this time everyone one proceeded into the intersection like snails, and watched the other traffic very closely. I then stopped at the next gas station down the road and used the pay phone to call 911 and report the problem. I made the call just in case nobody else had reported the problem, and I am glad I did because the operator was not aware of the problem. He realized the seriousness of the situation immediately and hurriedly asked me to describe basic details of the event, then quickly said “Thank You” and hung up.
As I was just getting into Carbondale, I heard sirens behind me and then saw two police cars behind me with their lights on. Before I could completely pull off to the side, they passed me at double the speed limit. Crazy day on the roads.
Before going back home, I stopped at Schnucks to get my paycheck. There I saw Crystal Stokes, whom I talked to for a couple minutes. She gave her and Mike’s phone number, and we talked about the three of us maybe doing something this weekend.
Back at home, Damien kept following me around and whining, so I took him outside to play ball again. I then came in and took a shower before getting started on homework. I first studied for a Macroeconomics test that I have tomorrow. I only spent a little while studying, and I don’t plan on spending much more time tomorrow, because I know it is easy enough to pass without studying at all. I took a break from studying to put a copy of the engagement interview video I made for Mike and Carolyn onto a VCD, so they can play it on a DVD player. Carolyn also wanted me to cut a couple parts out that she thought could be slightly offensive to some family members.
I stopped studying at 6:30 to eat the dinner Mike had made, which was chicken breasts marinated in mustard and white wine, salad and French fries. We put the chicken breasts on buns. While eating, we watched the VCD I had just made, so we could make sure everything was working OK. There was a several second segment where the picture froze and the audio kept going, but it was otherwise OK, except that Carolyn noticed another part that she would like cut out.
After cleaning up the kitchen, I began studying Chinese. I sometimes have to spend up to an hour just trying to translate a single short paragraph. Tonight, I came across a sentence that said, “Wang Peng eats morning rice at 8 o’clock, and attends electric brain class at 9”. After about 10 minutes of looking at the sentence, I finally figured out that “electric brain” meant computer. Duh.
Mike and Carolyn were gone for the rest of the evening after dinner. They went to Murphysboro to tell his mom that they were engaged, and they took the VCD copy of my interview to give her. They returned home about 10, which was just when I was getting ready to leave for Tres Hombres(bar). Walt had called me earlier and told me he was in a new band that was playing there tonight, called Minimum Wage.
When I arrived at the bar, there was nobody I knew there except for Walt. He was sitting with his parents, and he introduced me to them. I had brought my camcorder with me because I knew there was a chance that I would not know anyone there, and I thought the camcorder would give me something to do. I thought I would make a video of his band for my website, since some of the people that visit it regularly know Walt. I only had 6 minutes of tape left in my camera, so I recorded a few minutes of the band and also a couple minutes of me interviewing his parents.
I left the bar after less then an hour. After returning home, I edited the video I had shot, then used the Internet for a few minutes before going to sleep.

2/16/2005
Wednesday

I got my Chinese test back today that I took last week. I was hoping to just pass, but I was just two points from an A! I was very surprised, and I think part of my grade was luck, but I have studied a lot. I got a 52% on the first test, so this was a big improvement.
I found a newspaper in Macroeconomics class, and saw an article about the telephone pole that Mike and I had seen cracked in half last night. A semi truck driver had hit the support cable of the pole, according to the newspaper article. Most of the businesses on the strip were out of power most of the evening, but luckily the power was on and the grills were working at El Grecko’s when Mike and I were there yesterday evening.
After eating lunch at the student center, I chatted with Johanna until my 12:35 class started. The extreme boringness of that class is driving me crazy, and it is unfortunately an hour and a half long, but luckily meets only one day a week.
I arrived home at 3. Carolyn was home looking for jobs online, and Damien greeted me with a tennis ball in his mouth. He is learning my schedule. He also get very excited when he sees me rolling a cigarette, because he knows I always throw his tennis ball for him when I go outside to smoke.
Mike and Carolyn left around 5 to go have dinner with his grandparents. They are making rounds to tell everyone they are engaged. Since they were gone during dinnertime, I had to fend for myself tonight. I found some frozen hamburger patties in the freezer, and cooked two of them. Carolyn has used Microsoft Excel to make a frozen food inventory, which she keeps on the freezer door. Each time we use any frozen foods, we have to mark them off of the chart. So, tonight I found a bag in the freezer that was labeled, “3 hamburger patties”. I took two patties out of the bag, and used white-out to change the “3” to a “1”, then I updated the chart to show that two hamburgers had been eaten.
I watched some TV after the meal, and Mike and Carolyn came home around 7. At that time I ate chocolate marshmallow ice cream and apple cobbler(made by Carolyn) for dessert. At nine, I set up my camera on a tripod and turned the living room into a studio to interview Mike and Carolyn about their engagement. I had them sit on the couch together with Damien. I put the vase of roses Mike gave to Carolyn on the coffee table in front of them, and brought in extra lights to make the normally dark room bright. The interview lasted about 20 minutes, and it turned out very well.
I spent the rest of the night studying Chinese and getting Mike and Carolyn’s video ready for the Internet.

2/15/2005
Tuesday

Jennifer told me last night she would give me a ride home today, so she woke me up at 10:30. I had planned on going to my Chinese class at 10, but overslept. Jennifer dropped me off at Schnucks because my bike was there. I then rode it home and fell back asleep soon afterwards. Mike and Carolyn asked if I would like to go to Giant City Park with them because the temperature was up to almost 70(21 Celsius) today, but I was too go with them.
I was suppose to meet Nic on campus at 12:15 and talk to Johanna online at 2, but I overslept until about 2:30. I then got up and made myself a sandwich, which I took outside to eat. Amy came over around 5 to give some engagement gifts to Mike and Carolyn. After 6, Mike, Damien and I went to Buckley and Jen’s house. They returned from New Orleans yesterday.
They gave me a souvenir T’shirt, and Mike got 3 little bottles of hot sauce. We all dried a small drop of the sauce, and it made our mouths hurt for 20 minutes.
Mike and I left Buckley and Jen’s house a little after 8, then dropped Damien off at home and went to El Greco’s for dinner. There was a large utility crew with about ten trucks and a couple dozen workers across the street from the restaurant. A power pole had broken at its middle and was hanging precariously over the roof of the Hangar. Some of the power lines had fallen onto the ground.
I ate a polish sausage, fries and a soda, which in a combo for $4.02. We returned home after the meal, and I then went into my room to study. I also printed something from the Internet as a joke for Carolyn. It was from a site that provided legal advice. The section I printed out stated that an engagement ring is technically the givers property until the wedding. So, a man can sue a woman if she does not return a ring after breaking an engagement.
I added Dash(friend from Macau) to my contact list on MSN Messenger tonight, and he IM’d me just a few minutes later. We chatted for about 30 minutes. I let him view my webcam, but he would not let me see his because he said that there was something wrong with his room.

Monday
February 14, 2005

(Mike and Carolyn got engaged today – pictures and video coming soon. Mike bought her a one carrot diamond ring last week. It was a secret until today.)
Today was a very long day, which started at 8 AM, and did not end until 4AM the next day. It all started when I got ready to go to school at 8. Tera was still here because she had stayed last night. We left the house around 8:30, and Tera immediately realized that she had left her phone inside the house. I then realized that I had locked me key in the house, so we went to Schnucks so I could borrow Carolyn’s key. Then, we went back to get Tera’s phone, and after that she dropped me off at Buckley and Jen’s house, because my bike was there.
I had thought Buckley and Jen were suppose to get home late last night, but they did not appear to have returned yet because newspapers were in the driveway and all the lights were still on. So, I took the papers inside and fed Bob and Carl before I went to school.
I arrived to accounting class about 10 minutes late, and we spent the classtime reviewing for this evenings test. I spent my one-hour break eating breakfast at the student center cafeteria and studying accounting in a lounge of the Faner building. After macroeconomics class, where I fell asleep multiple times, I spent my two-hour break in the Faner computer lab, where I chatted with Johanna and spent more time studying for my test.
I was also having much trouble staying awake during my last class of the day. After that, I had 40 minutes before my Accounting test. I went to the room in the business building where it was to take place and did some final studying there until the test began.
I am pretty sure I passed the test, but it was not at all a success. I think I did very well on the 25 multiple choice questions, but I did poorly on the written section of the test, which was worth 50 percent of the grade. I just hope I got a C. I would be very surprised if I did any better than that.
We were not allowed to leave the testing room after finishing the test. This was due to the fact that I took the early test. The main test began at 5:30, and the school does not want students who take the early test to have a chance to speak with people who are taking the later test. There were less than 10 people taking the test with me, and the person administering the test let two of them leave early, which caused an argument from a student who was not allowed to leave early. The teacher of my accounting class was called in to speak with this student, and she was upset that the test giver had let two students leave early. She did not allow the other student to leave early.
We were released at 5:25, and I then had 30 minutes before my shift started at Schnucks. I got there about 25 minutes early, and went upstairs to eat in the break room. Last night Carolyn had told me she would leave me food in the break room refrigerator, and there I found a plastic bag containing a fork, napkins, a bun and a plastic container containing barbeque and scallop potatoes. I have good roommates.
I worked with Paul and Fred tonight. Paul and I spent the first two hours of my shift cleaning the pork case, and I began cleaning the cutting room after that. While I was in the back spraying down the equipment, the service bell began to rapidly ring, then I saw Rufus stick his head in the door. He was there with Jennifer, and this was the first time I had seen them since returning from China. We had planned on going out on Wednesday night, but decided that tonight would be better. So, I left work at 10:30 and met Rufus and Jennifer in the parking lot. On the way to their place, Jennifer told me that they had gotten married on January 28th. Rufus and Jennifer live a few miles outside of Carbondale, in a rural area where his family also lives. Rufus and I stayed up til about 4AM. Mallory and Madison(his daughters) were not there because his family had them for the night. Jennifer hung out with us for a few minutes, but spent most of the night doing other things in another room. I slept in Mallory’s bed, which is child sized, but comfortable.

Sunday
February 13, 2005

Carolyn and I both had to work at 7 today, so she came by Buckley and Jen’s house to pick me up. I am glad she did, because a lot of rain had moved into the area overnight. At work, Clayton bought us all breakfast from Burger King.
There were not enough people working yesterday, and today there were too many. By 12:30, Mark, Matt and Randy had also come to work. So, I decided to leave an hour early and get a ride home from Clayton. I then watched some TV with Mike until I began talking with Johanna online at 3. Today we discussed the possibility of her enrolling in grad school at SIU next fall so she could get a student Visa and stay in the country longer than 3 months. Three months would be as long as she could stay without a visa.
I watched a bit more TV after the conversation, until Mike and Carolyn got home from the grocery store with a huge load of groceries. Tera called around 5:30. I had thought she was leaving town today, but she told me she had decided to stay an extra day. She sounded mad that I had not gone out with her last night, or called to cancel. I invited her to stop by later and have a drink with me.
Mike, Carolyn and I ate a meal of pork steaks and scalloped potatoes at 7. I did the dishes after that, then went back to studying for another hour. Tera called me back around nine, then came to the house to pick me up. We went to the Hangar(bar) and sat there for two hours, then came back to the house. We talked and played a dice game until around midnight. Tera had been planning on spending the night at a friends house nearby, but decided it would be easier for her to sleep at my house then see her friend in the morning.

2/12/2005
Saturday

I got up for work at Buckley and Jen’s house this morning at five. Before leaving, I performed the one task they gave; feeding Bob and Carl. They were chasing each other around the tank when I fed them. I thought that they may have been hungry and were trying to eat each other, but who really knows.
My day at work went quickly today, as it always does on the weekends. My shift was thirty minutes shorter than it usually is because we are no longer scheduled for a 30-minute lunch. I took both of my 15-minute breaks together so I would have enough time to eat lunch, and got some food to go from Burger King.
I was surprised to see Tera in the store around noon. She moved away at the same time I left for China, but is in town visiting friends. I talked to her for a minute and we agreed to meet up later in the evening.
I went home at 2, and fell asleep until 3:30. I then talked to Johanna online for 30 minutes. After that, Mike and I went over to Buckley’s house and watched the movie “Stuck on You” till he had to go to a school group meeting at five. I would like to see the rest of the movie.
I then studied for my Monday accounting test from 5-6:30. Mike and I ate all the leftovers in the fridge for dinner. I rode my bike to Jen’s house at 8:30 because Steph had called earlier to say they were having a party. On the way there my jeans got caught in the gears of my bike and ripped several inches. When I got to the house all the lights were off and nobody was home. I had planned on staying at the party until 10, then meeting Tera at the glove factory(art school and studio), but decided to just call it a night.
So, I went home and gathered some things into my backpack, then went to Buckley and Jen’s house. I stayed there again tonight because they are still out of town. I spent a little time studying, then watched TV for an hour before going to sleep.

Friday
February 11, 2005

On my ride to school this morning, I saw Fred walking to work, and I walked with him for a few minutes before continuing to school.
I have a test on Monday in my accounting class, the first test of the semester. I realized today in class that I am actually going to have to study quite a bit. The exam is scheduled during the time I have to work on Monday, so I asked the teacher after class if I could sign up for the early exam, which is on the same day two hours earlier. The teacher asked my why I wanted to take it, so I told her I had to work, and she then told me “no”. She then paused for a second and said “Work is not an acceptable excuse, but you can do it this time”.
After Chinese class I asked a guy in class if I could copy some pages of his textbook. This guy has come to class before in military uniform. We could not get the nearest copy machine working, so we went to another one, but could not get that one working either. I like the students in Chinese class. I think they are all interesting, so far.
I was planning on going to my last class of the day, but decided I did not feel like waiting around for two hours after lunch. I was sitting in the library when I just decided to go home and skip class.
Damien and I fell asleep at 2:30, and I got up at 3:30. I then talked to Johanna online for 2 hours. Gretchen came online during our conversation, and sent a hello message to me through MSN Messenger. Gretchen and Johanna expressed an interest in speaking with each other when discovered that I was speaking with both of them at the same time. So, I invited both of them into a chat room and the three of us spoke together for almost an hour. I didn’t know if it was a good idea at first, but I am glad we all spoke together because it was very good conversation……..hum.
Mike and Carolyn cooked a dinner of Cajun Talapia, rice and vegetables. After the meal, I went to Buckley and Jen’s house. I had told I would feed the fish while they were gone, but I decided to just take over their whole house. This way Mike and Carolyn get their house to themselves, and I can make sure nobody Buckley and Jen’s house. So, I sent there just after 8, then took a shower and watched TV till 11. Good Night.

2/10/2005
Thursday

My dad and Clara were supposed to leave for a trip to Mexico today, and I guess they did because I have not heard otherwise.
I think I barely passed my Chinese test today, and that is great, as it means that I have come a long way in the past 3 weeks. I suddenly have new hope that I may not fail after all, but we will see. Chinese was my only class of the day, so I came home afterwards.
I first made myself 2 grilled ham and swiss victory sandwiches after arriving home, then took Damien outside to play. The skies finally cleared up today, but the temperature barely made it above freezing, if it even did at all. From 12-2, I worked on a Microsoft Excel project for a class, and I also talked to Johanna for an hour online. She had just arrived home from her overnight student cruise to Estonia, so she was very tired. She forgot to turn off her audio after our conversation ended. Carolyn and I listened for several minutes as she spoke in Finnish to a friend who had called her on the phone. The only word we understood was “OK”.
It is great for Johanna and I to now be able to actually speak to each other without any phone charges. The sound quality has been better than I expected, with just a very slight delay and very occasional brief interference. I highly recommend that everyone spending a lot of money on long-distance try it. I use Skype.com, and I run it at the same time as MSN Messenger. Skype provides the audio, and Messenger provides the video.
At 2 o’clock I went to Buckley and Jen’s house. There, Buckley gave me a key so I can feed his fish, Bob and Carl, while he and Jen are in New Orleans over the weekend. He said that Bob and Carl get fussy if they are not fed before 9 in the morning. I think I will just at Buckley and Jen’s place most of the weekend so Mike and Carolyn can have the house to themselves for a change.
I returned home about 4, after playing video games and watching TV with Buckley. Jen had been in bed most of the time I was there because she has the flu. Everybody I know has had the flu but me. My throat has been a little sore for 4 days, though.
I spent the rest of the afternoon at home doing homework. I finished my Microsoft Excel project, then uploaded it to the class website. The teacher of our class is very computer-savvy, and manages all aspects of the class through the Internet. But, his system is not perfect because his website would not let me upload my file. It gave me an error message that said, “ERROR: No Error”………..I think that describes computers very well sometimes.
Carolyn went to work at 6, so Mike and I decided to have dinner at Fazoli’s(nice Italian fast-food restaurant). Mike had coupons for both of us, so we each got a huge meal for just $2.77, which included unlimited breadsticks, a salad, fettuccini, spaghetti and lasagna.
We returned home after the meal, and I then continued working on homework. I also began looking for a May ticket to Helsinki, Finland. I possibly found one for $400, but I have to make a phone call to get it, so I will call tomorrow and see if it is legitimate. I am skeptical because it sounds too good to be true. I was also happy to find other more reliable looking deals for around $700, which is quite a bit less than the $1000 that I expected to pay for a summertime ticket.
I spent from 9:30-11 studying Chinese, then went to sleep soon after that.

2/9/2005
Wednesday

The weather was still very unpleasant today, with dark skies and drizzle. The temperature also fell during the day, which caused the rain to turn to flurries later in the day. I went to all of my five classes. In Chinese, a guest speaker from Taiwan gave a presentation about the New Year there, because today was their New Years Eve. This speaker brought in dumplings for the class to try, which were very good, and gave away 3 paper good luck charms to students who could answer questions about the presentation after it was over. I won one of the charms because I remember that wearing black was bad luck and wearing red was good luck.
During my 45 minute lunch period, I bought the next two books that my Chinese class will be soon using. They cost me another $50. I was hoping that I could buy them online, but they were actually cheaper to buy at the bookstore than they were at Ebay’s textbook site, Half.com. I had heard that you can only save money buying online during non-peak book-buying times of the year, and I guess I have proven that fact true.
While I was eating lunch, I read about a potential dream-job offer in the Daily Egyptian, and that I thought I should share it in case anyone was interested. It read something like this, “House manager needed for local sorority housing 35 girls……….”. So, if you are sick of your old job, pick up the Tuesday edition of Daily Egyptian. The ad did not say that the position had to be filled by a female.
During my last class of the day, a student from Paraguay told the class that a Nicaraguan war criminal his county had been harboring was assassinated by bazooka just a few blocks from his(the students) home.
I arrived home just after 3. Mike was there working on a paper when I arrived. I made myself a Cajun turkey and swiss sandwich, then I relisted the 3 wrong Chinese books that I had mistakenly bought on Half.com during the first weeks of classes. I was happy to find that all the prices had gone up since I bought the books, which means that I will make a small profit if the books sell, which they should since I listed them at a price that was a bit lower than others of the same kind. This is the first time I have ever made a profit on a school textbook. I usually loose a couple hundred dollars a semester.
Carolyn came home from work at 4, and she had brought a huge inflatable rooster home with her. La Choy brand soy sauce had sent 2 of the roosters to Schnucks, and William gave one of them to Carolyn today. The rooster is now a table decoration.
Mike and I went to play racquetball at 5. Just before we got to the Rec center, Mike remembered that he had forgotten his ID, so we had to go back home for it. When the games finally began, I won the first one of the day, which gave me a 4 game winning streak. Mike has never had a 4 game winning streak, but he did win the second two games of the day. We were too tired afterward to go to the weight room. We stopped at Schnucks on the way home so Mike could pick up a head of lettuce.
Back at the house, I used the lettuce to make a salad, and did the dishes. The rest of the food was ready at 7:30, which was a frozen pizza and hot wings. After eating, I spent the rest of the evening in my room studying Chinese. I have another test tomorrow that I will surely not pass, but maybe there is still a little hope that I will catch up with the class before the semester is over. I also returned a call from Rufus, who had called while I was at the Rec center. I talked to him for about 10 minutes, and am planning on meeting him at the Teletrack(bar where you can bet on horse races) next Wednesday night.

2/8/2005
Tuesday

Three out of five of my classes are just terribly boring, and one of them is at 8 on Tuesdays. It is called Management Information systems. I am glad it only meets one day per week. It also has a lab section that meets on Wednesday afternoons, but that is not nearly as bad as the classroom section. Today in the classroom section, we were told about the parts of a computer; CPU, output devices, input devices……….things that have been covered in at least a dozen different classes since the 7th grade. No wonder that so many people choose to go into technical schools instead of getting traditional degrees. I should have done the same thing, but now I am too far along to change things.
At least this terribly boring class always gets out at least 50 minutes early. After it ended today, I went to the bookstore to buy a book for Chinese class, but did not end up buying it because I noticed that we will only use a few more pages of it before moving on to another book. I did write down the ISBN#’s of the new books that we will use in the class in a couple weeks. I had hoped I could use these numbers to find the books online, and hopefully buy them cheaper. After the bookstore, I went to Mcdonalds for breakfast and then spent a few minutes in the Faner computer lab before Chinese class started.
The teacher has quit calling on me in class to answer questions since I sent him an email last week saying that I had no idea what was going on in class. I am glad about that because I really hated not being able to answer questions that the rest of the class found simple.
When I arrived back home today, Carolyn was home early from work because she was still sick. I took Damien outside to throw his tennis ball for him, and the drizzly weather made for a very messy dog. But at least he knows to stand still and let himself be toweled off before he comes inside. I talked to Johanna on the computer from 12 –1. She told me that she will be leaving on an overnight student cruise to Estonia in the morning. It sounded like a lot of fun. She also told me that she thought it was absurd to have a McDonalds on-campus, as something that unhealthy would never be allowed on a college campus in Finland.
I fell asleep from 2-3, and got up after Mike came home from work. I had him drop my bike and I off at Schnucks when he went to school at 3:30. He had asked me to buy elbow macaroni, a green pepper and soda for the dinner he was planning on making tonight. While I was in the store, I also talked to Fred, Randy and Todd for a few minutes, and bought some sandwich materials and dryer sheets. After I checked out, I put all of the food except for the bread into my backpack for the ride home.
Back at the house, I filed my taxes with Telefile(file on the phone). I made so little last year that I am getting most of the taxes I paid back, which means almost $800 will be direct deposited into my bank account in the next two weeks. That is a lot more than I expected.
I then studied Chinese until Mike got dinner ready at 7. We ate breaded pork chops, macaroni and cheese and a salad. From 8-10, I watched the final show of The Amazing Race. I really did not plan on watching it, but found myself doing so anyway because it was being filmed in China. I also watched a few minutes of the local news afterwards, and there was a story about trains stopping at intersections in Duquoin. The story said that the police issued tickets every time this happened. I never knew that the police could give tickets to trains. When they give tickets to these stopped trains in Duquoin, do they just walk up to the locomotive and hand the ticket to the conductor? Could the police also pull over a moving train? If it did not stop could they pursue? In an extreme situation, such as a stolen train, would they try to derail it? Does anyone have answers to these questions?

2/7/2005
Monday

I had class at 9 this morning, but it was raining outside and I decided that I did not want to get wet, so I stayed home. Carolyn was off work today, and was awake when I got up at 10. We both ate some Fruit Loops with marshmallows for breakfast. After that, I asked to borrow her car so I could apply for a LINK card(government aid for food). There were several documents that I needed to take with me, and a copy of my rental lease was one of them. Since I am renting from Mike and Carolyn, I am not on their lease, so Carolyn and I devised a solution. We wrote my name into her and Mike’s lease, then took it to Schnucks and made a copy. The copy was perfect, as it was impossible to tell than my name had been written in after the document had originally been signed.
I then took Carolyn home before going to the LINK office in Murphysboro. I arrived at 11:15 and was told that I would not be able to get an appointment before lunch, and that I should come back at 1. Before leaving, I went to another nearby office that offers assistance paying electric bills. A secretary there told me that I would be eligible for the plan, but that Carolyn would have to apply since her name was on the bill.
I then got back into Carolyn’s car and drove to a pay phone so I could call her and say that I would be coming home later than expected. Next, I drove to my home in Murphysboro. Nobody was there except for the dog when I arrived. All the doors of the house were locked, and I had considerable trouble remembering where the spare key was placed. Once I was inside, I made myself 3 frozen burritos for lunch and looked at my mail. The only good mail was my W2 form(tax form), which will now allow me to get my tax refund.
I left at 12:30 and headed back into town. Before leaving, I found my Mao Zedong statue in the house, which I had been missing since returning home from China. I found it on a dresser next to a statue of an angel.
Before going back to the LINK office, I went to a tobacco store, where I bought a cigarette making kit for $8, which will allow me to make 100 cigarettes. Back at the LINK office, I had to wait about 45 minutes before I could speak with someone. A guy I knew came into the waiting room during that time, and I spoke with him for about 10 minutes. I still cannot remember who he is, even though I recognized his face well.
Finally, an older lady named Patty then took me to a cubicle in the back of the building and asked me questions as she looked at my documents. The whole process took about 15 minutes, and then I headed back towards Carbondale. After I had gotten about a mile outside of town, I remembered that Carolyn had asked me to brink her home a kiwi-strawberry frozen Mister Misty from Dairy Queen, so I turned around and went back for it.
I arrived home shortly after 2. I then attempted to make my first cigarette with the kit I bought today. The first time was a failure, but the second time was a perfect success. I began chatting with Johanna around 3, and today we were able to get audio working for the first time. We are now able to have both video and audio in out conversations, which is very nice……and free. Sometimes the Internet is great.
At 5, I made dinner of some left over roast beef and beef stew, then went to work at 6. I always clean the meat department on Monday nights, but tonight I also had to clean the meat case. That is just too much cleaning for one night, and I was sick of it by the time I got done. I am glad I have the next four days off.
After I got off work, I spent a little time studying Chinese before going to bed around midnight.

Sunday
February 6, 2005

I worked from 7-3:30 today. I have been working with Clayton every Sunday morning, and he was there today also. He bought the two of us chocolate milk and doughnuts for breakfast. Carolyn came in at 9, and she was not in a good mood. She had been up sick for most of the night, and was not at all happy about having to come to work.
I got two cheeseburgers and some chicken fingers from Burger King for lunch, which I took back to Schnucks and ate in the break room. Mike came to pick me up at 3:30 because it was raining outside. Once we were back home, I spent about 30 minutes chatting with Johanna.
Jared and Matt both came over around 4:30, and Carolyn got off work at that time also. We all hung out in the back yard for about 30 minutes while Mike BBQ’d some chicken wings for the Super Bowl party at Buckley’s tonight. Mike, Jared, Matt and I went to the party at 5 o’clock. Mike drove his truck, and the rest of us just rode in the back. It was still drizzling outside, but Buckley only lives 2 blocks away, and the temperature was quite nice.
Carolyn came to the party about an hour later, and she brought my camera with her, which I had forgotten to bring. There was a lot of food on hand in the kitchen; 2 different kind of quesedillas, bbq ribs, potato skins and hot wings. Everyone got ready to leave soon after the game was over at 9:30. Damien went crazy while we were all in the kitchen gathering out things. He did this because I kept slapping his but with a piece of cardboard. He was even biting my pants and pulling on them as he jumped, growled and barked. I think it was the most energetic I have ever seen him, even though he is usually very energetic all the time. As soon as I stopped hitting him with the cardboard, he sat down calmly and stared up at me, like he wanted me to keep doing it.
To get home, Jared, Matt and I rode in the back of Mike’s truck again. Then we all hung out in the back yard for another 30 minutes before Matt and Jared left. During that time, Matt and I went back to Buckley’s in Mike’s truck because we had forgotten some things there.
I was in bed by 11.

2/5/2005
Saturday

I did not sleep well last night because I had a strange dreams all night. In some of these dreams, I would wake up in my room to find that my computer was using itself, like it was alive. Carolyn came to work at noon today, and the first thing she asked me was, “Where you using the computer at like 3 in the morning?”. I said no and asked why. She then told me that Mike had said he heard someone using the computer in the living room at that time last night. Maybe both of the computers in the house should be destroyed, but we don’t have money for new ones, so I guess we will just have to deal with this problem.
Nothing else special happened at work today, except when a lady told me that she bought a whole chicken recently that was “bloody”. I wanted to remind her that she had bought a dead animal, but I just told her about our refund and exchange policy instead.
My ride home from work at 2:30 was very pleasant, as the temperature was around 60, and the skies were partly sunny. Yesterday afternoon was just as nice. When I arrived home, I cautiously turned on my computer. The computers were definitely up to something last night because the network connection between the two of them was not functioning, and had to be reinstalled. When I was finally able to get it working, I found that my website was down.
Mike was asleep when I got home, but he got up about an hour later and we left to go play racquetball. I called before we left to reserve a court, because we have been having problems finding open courts in the evenings. We first went to Wal-Mart to buy racquetball gloves. We decided to buy the gloves because it is hard to hold the racquets when our hands get sweaty. We at first did not see any gloves in the store, so we asked the cashier working in the sporting good department. This cashier was a young skinny guy, and he rolled his eyes when I asked him where the gloves were. He did show us where they were, though, and we had him check us out afterwards. As we were paying, an employee yelled rudely on the intercom throughout the entire store, “I NEED A MANAGER TO REGISTER 4 ASAP. THIS IS THE SECOND TIME!”. Wal-Mart is just not a pleasant place during busy hours, but at night it can be quite the opposite, as it is huge, empty of people and full of almost everything a person could possibly need.
The racquetball games were a complete success today; for me at least. I won all 3 games for only the second time ever. Two of the games were very close, though. Mike was not happy, but he took it better than I would have. The more we play this game, the more competitive we get. Losing badly can be really bothersome now, and I’m not sure if it was just a coincidence that Mike came within a couple millimeters of hitting me with fast balls at least 8 times during the last game. One 100+ mile per hour ball actually grazed my ear. I can’t complain though, because I have accidentally hit Mike in face several times with just as powerful balls.
After the games, we spent a few minutes in the weight room, then headed home. We stopped at ABC Liquor to get a 30 pack of Keystone Light(beer) for the Super Bowl party at Jen and Buckley’s house tomorrow night. Back at the house, we grilled meat outside, as the temperature was still over 50. After the meal, we mostly just sat around and watched TV. Carolyn came home from work at 8 and joined us. We watched a show about a train on a mountain ski slope in Austria that caught on fire in a tunnel in 2000. All but 12 of the 160 people on the train died. The mile-and-a-half long train tunnel ran uphill at a 30-degree angle. The twelve people that lived decided to go downhill after exiting the burning train, while the rest went uphill. The ones that went downhill were following an off duty firefighter that happened to be with the group…..lucky for them, but I bet the firefighter feels bad that he didn’t lead all 160 people downhill.
I have now learned two valuable survival lessons over the past few weeks; one..get away from the ocean if it recedes a half-mile, and two…go downhill in burning train tunnels.

2/4/2005
Friday

Before I left the house today, I did something I don’t usually do in the morning; ate food. I usually wait until my break at noon to eat on campus, but today I had two peices of toast and half of a leftover quisedilla. It was nice to not be hungry during my first three classes. I am usually starving by the time noon comes.
I can’t say anything very exciting or funny happened during classes today. During my break, I went to the computer lab instead of eating lunch at the student center. There, I sent an email to the coordinator of the study abroad department because I recently noticed a problem. At the end of each semester, all of the grades are posted online, and mine for last semester just read “Study Abroad - Inc”, which means that the University of Macau has given me an incomplete for the semester. I assume that this is because my Business Communication teacher would not allow me to take her final exam before I left the country. This teacher was only allowing students to take the exam on January 3rd, which was a week after I left. It is common practice to allow exchange students to take exams at different times because the semesters at thier home universities start and end at different times. This teacher I am speaking of is the same one I described several months ago as an American hater. She was rude to me even though I rarely had any interaction with her at all. She is married to an American, so my theory is that her husband is mean to her and she takes it out on other Americans. Maybe I am going out on a limb with that idea, but I really don’t like this woman.(Update: I recieved an response to the email I sent to the study abroad department, and the incomplete is not my final grade. It is just put there temporarily until SIU recieve my final grades, which could be a few more weeks. But I still don’t like that teacher).
I went to my last class of the week at 2. The older student who likes to talk was doing alot of it today, and sighs could be heard all over the classroom each time he spoke. This older student also has a very loud exaterated laugh, and another student imitated the laugh out loud during class today. The teacher told us about a private corporate army for hire in the United States. This private company is hired by our government and the governments of foriegn countries hires to supply additional troops if the traditional armed forces needs outside help. Wierd.
When I arrived home, I made myself a sandwich, then chatted for an hour with Johanna online. I was home alone for about an hour, then Carolyn returned from taking Damien on a walk around Campus Lake. At 6, her and I went to 17th Street(restaraunt) in Murphysboro, where we met Mike, John, Amy and Dylan. I ordered a plate of BBQ with fries, baked beans and 2 beers.
I rode home with Mike a little after 7. I then just spent some time using the Internet before going to sleep at about 9(I have to get up for work at 5).

2/3/2005
Thursday

Carolyn took me to court in Murphysboro this morning at 10. Last week, she had agreed to take me today, but had forgotten about it until I reminded her this morning. She had an appointment with a career counselor at 11, but cancelled it, saying it could easily be rescheduled.
The court was running behind by about 15 minutes today. Groups of people enter courtrooms every two hours, and the group in front of mine did leave until 10:45. As Carolyn and I were waiting, we saw Amanda and Josh come in for their divorce proceedings. Josh was 10 minutes late and Amanda was kind of upset about it, I think.
When my group entered the courtroom, Carolyn and I waited for over an hour and my name was never called. When the judge said, “Was anyone not called”, I went up to him, and his assistant looked my name up in her computer. I was then told that the bail I paid two weeks ago had covered the costs of my unpaid ticket, so there was no reason to be there. I had been told two weeks ago that I had to be there, and my name was even on a list outside the courtroom…….waste of time. I missed Chinese class for nothing.
By this time, Carolyn was almost running late for work, but she had brought a change of clothes with her in case of a situation like this. She always plans ahead. She had me just drop her off at Schnucks because there was not time for her to go home. I went to Burger King and got some lunch for her, which I took to her just before she started her shift. While I was in the store, I also picked up my paycheck and deposited it to the bank.
I then came home in Carolyn’s car. The first thing I did was take Damien outside and throw his tennis ball for him. Jeff called me shortly after I arrived home, and he came by about 20 minutes later. Mike came home from work just a few minutes after Jeff arrived.
Jeff left a little after 2, and I started chatting with Johanna at that time. Mike left again at 3 to go to school. I continued chatting with Johanna until almost 4, then I vacuumed and cleaned the house a little. Next, I fell asleep for a little over an hour.
Mike was back when I awoke, and he had brought back groceries to make beef stew. I helped him cut up an onion, then sat down at my computer. I was suppost to pick up Carolyn from work at 8, because I had taken her car this morning, but Mike picked her up instead. When they got home, we all ate the beef stew and grilled cheese sandwiches. I spent the rest of the evening in my room writing Chinese characters. Each week we have to learn about 30 new characters, and each one of them has to be written 15 times and turned in at the end of the week. So, that means that about 450 characters have to be written every week, and some of them are very complicated. It took me over two hours to write them all tonight.

2/2/2005
Wednesday

As I was getting ready to leave the house this morning at 9:45, I noticed the sound of water outside, and I did not like to hear it. It was raining more than lightly, and I got so wet on the way to school that I did not completely dry out during the entire 6 hours I was on campus today.
In Chinese class, I got the test back that I took yesterday, and I think that the 52% I received was quite generous, considering that I really did not even finish half of the test. I ate lunch at the student center cafeteria after Macroeconomics class. I had the same thing I ordered on Monday, which was spaghetti and garlic bread, but today I added a baked potato for 99 cents. As I was paying for the food, the cashier handed me a survey, and told me that I would receive a free cookie if I filled it out and returned it. This cashier has been working at this same cafeteria since the first time I ever attended SIU, which was 5 years ago. He used to act very depressed all the time, but for the last year and half, he has been almost excessively friendly. The change happened sometime between the time I quit school and returned.
I took my Styrofoam box of food to the seating area and read the Daily Egyptian while I ate. I was still hungry after the meal, so I filled out my survey for the free cookie. It was an unusual survey because it asked questions like, “If we were to improve the appearance of our staff, by what percentage would our business increase?”. Silly questions if you ask me.
The friendly cashier was more than happy to give me my free chocolate chip cookie, and I ate it while I went to my next class, Management Information Systems. There, we are working with MS Excel right now. Today, we reviewed the process of making charts, and we followed along at our computers as the teacher gave us instructions. We created a bar chart, and then changed it in dozens of different ways. The work was not going to have to be turned in, so I made my chart as ugly as possible. I used a picture of green lilies for the background, and put a picture of an orange sunrise on each of my bars. I changed the font color of all my chart titles into florescent shades. It was beautiful.
I fell asleep a couple times during my last class. The discussion moves so slowly that I am starting to hate going. On my bike ride home, the rain had stopped for the first time today. There was still some mist in the air, but it was not a problem. Mike and Carolyn were not home when I arrived, but they arrived about 30 minutes later. Mike had to take some things to a bank in Salem earlier, and Carolyn had ridden with him because she had the day off from work.
After they had been home just a few minutes, Carolyn offered me food from a big plate of cheese, meat and crackers that she had just made. As I was stacking meat and cheese on a cracker, she put a big leftover sirloin steak in a plate on the floor for Damien. I had been planning on eating the steak for dinner, because I knew that Mike and Carolyn were going out to eat tonight, but I was too late. Before I realized what Carolyn was doing, the dog had his mouth on the steak. I am not petting him for the rest of the evening, and I probably won’t even let him in my room after Mike and Carolyn leave.
I fell asleep from about 4:30 to 6, and I think that Mike and Carolyn left sometime around 5 to go out to dinner. They were celebrating the passing of 2 years since they met each other. They returned home not too longer after they had left, and they had brought food from Panerra(a deli-style fast food restaraunt). They said that they had decided to not go anywhere fancy for dinner, and they even brought me a sandwich, bread and soup home. They told me that they thought it would be appropriate to get me something on thier aniversarry because I had introduced them to each other. Nice.
After the meal, I spent some time studying Chinese, then watched the last half of the movie “Manchurian Candidate” with Mike and Carolyn, which they had rented on thier way home. After the movie I continued studying and doing other things on my computer until about 11:30.

2/1/2005
Tuesday

Already February, I have been home 5 weeks now, and it already feels like I have been home a lot longer than that. It is strange to think that everything was so different just a little over a month ago.
February started off OK. I had class at 8 this morning, but the hour-and-fifteen minute class only lasted about 45 minutes, because the teacher let us out early. A group of students gave a presentation before class about some kind of student business organization that they are a part of. They said that the alumni give them so much money that they all travel to Florida every spring break for free.
I spent from 9:15 to 10:00 at the Faner computer lab, studying for a Chinese test and checking new software I put on my website. This new software tracks IP address of visitors to my site. In the last 12 hours, there have been about 15 hits for the United States, France and Finland. I know Johanna is in Finland, but I do not know who is in France. I recognized all the US visitors though.
My Chinese test did not go well, as I expected. I did not have time to finish more than half of the test. The first part involved listening to a recording of a conversation, then answering questions about it. The rest of it was writing sentences and reading a paragraph written in Chinese. While I failed this test, I seem to have picked up a lot of the new characters quickly, so I believe I should do better on the next test, when I have caught up on even more characters.
After Chinese class, I went into the bookstore at the student center and bought the workbook that I need for Chinese class. I had ordered it online, but I was sent the wrong one. I couldn’t wait for another one to be sent through the mail, so I was forced to buy this one at twice the cost. My textbook for the class has still not arrived, and I will also have to buy that soon if it does not come. I am beginning to think that the seller does not intend on shipping it to me.
After leaving the bookstore, I rode my bike to the CCS workshop that is near Schnucks. CCS is a company that works with disabled people, and it has hundreds of members living in this town. At the workshop, the members build furniture, which is later sold. They are paid by the hour for their work I went there to meet Mark, whom I have known for a couple years. His was with a friend in a drunk driving accident about 20 years ago. His friend died and he almost did. He lost his leg, and the left half of his brain was crushed.
Mark and I were going to eat at the nearby Subway, but decided to take his truck to Quatros and eat pizza instead. I put my bike in the back. After the meal, I rode to his apartment with him. He loves cameras and has intentionally attracted media attention several times over the past several years. So, I though I would make a small documentary about him for my website, which he of course thought was a good idea. But, shortly after we arrived at his place, he remembered that a cleaning lady was suppose to come soon.
We agreed to meet up again another day, and I rode my bike home. I then spent about an hour and a half talking to Johanna on the Internet. After that, I continued using the computer to check email and study Chinese. Almost the only subject I have studied yet this semester is Chinese. The others seem so easy in comparison. Mike came home from work for a minute at 3:30, then went right to school. Him and Carolyn came home together at about 5. They started cooking dinner as I continued studying Chinese. I used to offer them help, but they always refused it, so now I just wait for them to ask, but they rarely do. Tonight Carolyn made chicken breasts stuffed with stuffing, green beans and a salad.
I did the dishes after the meal, then went back to studying in my room. Carolyn typed a document about me on her computer while I was working at mine, and sent it to me though our network. You can see it at the link above, if you have not already. I quit studying at about 11, but stayed up until midnight doing my laundry and using the Internet. Carolyn showed me the website of a really unique artist called Dale Chihuly. You can see his website if you click -here-. Use the small arrow on the bottom right of the screen to scroll through his work.