The Long Return
Hey journal.
Long time no see.
What've you been up to?
Word, word.
Oh, yeah, I think you mentioned something about that in February.
Me? I've been pretty good. You know.
Oh, well I guess I was working at my mom's office for a few months there over the summer.
Huh? Heh, yeah.
Right, so then I started school up in the fall. Hopefully it's my last semester.
They're alright. I've got three writing intensives and one of them is killing me. I just can't write about that shit.
Let's see, I'm in one class which is all about groups and there's-
Oh, um, Human Computer Interaction. It's about, like, the interface of a program. Stuff like if a button on the screen represents the effect that it will have in the program. How intuitive a program is. That kind of shit. Anyway, there's this chick in the class named Carmen. At first I wasn't in her group. But then my group kicked me out and I got into her group. She's from Spain and she's really beautiful. I'll get you a picture later. Then I got to know her and she's really cool and we had a lot in common. But I'm living in Durham and so it's difficult to see her because I'm not there at night and we're both in class during the day, you know?
Right.
Really? I didn't know that. That's rough, journal.
Ok, well one day I had left her around 5:30PM when she was going to a class and I had to go to catch a bus to the train station. This was on a Thursday. Oh, I still worked in my mom's office on Fridays and in fact that may just now be ending because they have someone to replace me full-time now. Alright, so I really should be in Durham Thursday nights. I get to the bus stop. I'm there for about 3 minutes before the world outside of that small shelter went insane. Wind started blowing really hard everywhere. I mean, branches were falling down. Then the good Lord brought the rain in. It just started pouring, you know? These two other people ran under the shelter and then a car drove up and picked one of them up. The other guy asked if I was there for the Park & Ride. I was not. I said I was there for the HEAT. Then, a minute later, the HEAT bus drove right past the stop. The guy's like "Was that your bus?" I'm like "Yeah..." The Park & Ride came by and the guy left. Then a lady runs in from out of the rain and asks me if I got there before the rain came. I said I had and she said I was lucky to which I did not respond.
Huh? Alright, alright. Sorry. So, another HEAT comes later from the other direction and I ask if he's going to the depot. He says he isn't. I told him what happened. He said it's impossible and that I must not know the schedule. I tell him I've been riding daily and always had been picked up before. He said I was screwed. I walked off the bus and it's still raining really hard, but I just don't care anymore. I'm kind of thinking about how now I'll get to see Carmen again after her class. Then as I'm walking I realize that I have the song that was playing on the bus stuck in my head and that it's lyrics are "Whatever will be, will be". This seemed like a sign to me. I get back to Carmen's class and tell her what happened. We use someone's cell and I call home. Dad picks up and I tell him to tell mom to get on AIM so I can talk to her about picking me up. When she gets on, she refuses to give me a ride. Journal, if you knew my mom, you'd understand how strange that is of her to do. Anyway, I go back and wait for Carmen to finish with class. We go to her place and I call a friend to ask if I can stay the night at his place. He's not answering. Then her and I get dinner and a beer. Then we come back and she has me look at her homework. Friend still doesn't answer the phone. We're sitting on her bed next to one another with a book between us. It was the kissing scene in the school-time romance movie, you know? But her head position was strange and I was an idiot and didn't do anything. Eventually, the friend answered the phone and said he was busy, but in about an hour. Carmen and I decide to go to a bar to play darts for that time. We get there and the dart boards are taken, so we get beers. I saw a different friend there and we met and talked about old times and shit. The place-to-sleep friend comes and picks us up, drives her to her place and we drive to his place. I kick myself for not doing anything for the rest of my life.
Yeah. It's a long way to go for no punch, but that's how it goes sometimes.
Penny-Arcade hosted a chat on X-Fire awhile ago. Only about 200 people that entered would be invited into the chat. I got in. By coincidence, so did Sawyer's roommate, Mike. We talked a little bit. Then the chat got underway. I noticed Mike left toward the end before they announced the winners of a random drawing for laser cels and something else. He also happened to win. I tried to get in touch with him in a variety of ways. I looked him up through his school's online directory. I called Sawyer to ask for a number that would work. I did a bunch. Then I IMed the guy running the prizes and told him Mike left before the prizes were announced. He said Mike had 5 minutes to respond or they would go to me. After some jokes and confusion about whether I really wanted to take the prize or not, the prize went to me. I then called Sawyer and told him not to tell Mike he won. Turns out I emailed Mike while I was trying to contact him, so he found out anyway. Now, I didn't care that much about the laser cel, but I wanted to give it to Cartland who was an insane Penny-Arcade fan when we were living together. Mike got in touch with me to tell me that when he got my email about him winning the drawing and not claiming the prize, he was so bummed that he bought the other laser cel which he liked better. Then when he found out that I had got the prize, he said he wanted me to keep it because I had tried to contact him. Awesome.
Scroll to the very bottom
I had been told by Cartland that he was showing up in Durham soon, but I didn't know what day. So it was a surprise when he turned out to be in the passenger seat of my mom's car as she picked me up from the train station one night. We get back home and hang out for awhile. I gave him the laser cel and he was really happy about it. He goes to get some stuff from his car and comes back to tell me his car had been broken into and a lot of his stuff was stolen. He had been parked there for maybe 3 hours. He didn't seem too broken up about it, although he didn't like that there was no CD player anymore. That kind of device helps the 6 hour drive back to the eastern shore of Virginia when you're alone. There wasn't much to be done about it though. We went to Greensboro the next morning together and practiced whistling with fingers in our mouths on the way there. We planned on seeing DrewDean's baby, but DrewDean and SarahDean were hesitant about a lot of visitors at once. Later on, they said it was okay and we went to see the baby with S-Man. It was cute. We ate popcorn and cookies and looked at the thousand or so pictures that had already been taken of the 2 week old baby. Qdoba trips occurred. Um, I spent the night at S-Man's while Cartland went to some visit some other friends near Greensboro. Cartland got a new CD player for his car. He and I were invited to a pirate party, but outfits would have to be provided by S-Man. They were. Cartland and I went to the store to get beer for the party and I forgot my ID, which meant Cartland had to buy it. He and I had had a discussion about whether the new CD player would work without the faceplate. I was attempting to prove that it would work when I dropped the faceplate in the car and cracked it. We got to the party and started getting sloshed on a mixture of wine and booze that they were calling "grog". I was also drinking beer and also occasionally having tequila shots. At one point, I was triple-fisting alcohol. Anyway, I don't really remember much about this night. I remember that I kissed Chesapeake, Cartland's friend from Berkshire Theatre Festival, for a long time, but I don't remember how I started kissing her or how the kissing ended. I don't remember much about anything after the kissing, though I think I woke up next to the side of the house around 4AM and everyone was gone. I was going to try to walk my way home, but I found Cartland's suburban slept on a cannonball in the back seat while Cartland was in the front. We woke up and discussed the night. During the party, I had apparently stolen some girl's shades and put them on. Cartland had then taken them from me. We met with some of Cartland's theater friends from school and had lunch and other stuff. It was kind of strange conversation. I couldn't get into the rhythm of it. Cartland and I went back to Durham. That night we played New Super Mario Bros and it was one of the best multiplayer experiences of all time. We outlined an idea for a Nintendo-MTV contest in which contestants compete on the originality, uniqueness and creativity of pictures of themselves playing a handheld device. The plan was to have it look like we are unicycling in the road with traffic behind us while playing Nintendo DSes. The next day, we got the picture and submitted it before Cartland left for Virginia.
Wait for number 4
I had been planning to be PeeWee Herman for Halloween months before the holiday. However, on the day, I didn't really have anything prepared. An hour or so before some of Jill's friends were going to show up to take her to Franklin St., we started getting my costume together. White tennis shoes, a grey suit that was too small, a white dress shirt, handkerchief, cut my hair, spray painted a white ribbon red and made it look like a bow tie, etc. Also, Jill had told a friend of hers that he could host a party of 25 or so people in our basement while we're at Franklin St. without asking my parents. Jill is dressed up like Ms. Yvonne from PeeWee's Playhouse. Jill's friends arrive and we're off to Chapel Hill. Chapel Hill was a lot of walking. It was pretty cool because everyone screamed "PeeWee" at me, but it's a little awkward, cause what do you do? Some guys had me do the dance that PeeWee does on the bar counter. No one recognized Jill's costume.
Long time no see.
What've you been up to?
Word, word.
Oh, yeah, I think you mentioned something about that in February.
Me? I've been pretty good. You know.
Oh, well I guess I was working at my mom's office for a few months there over the summer.
Huh? Heh, yeah.
Right, so then I started school up in the fall. Hopefully it's my last semester.
They're alright. I've got three writing intensives and one of them is killing me. I just can't write about that shit.
Let's see, I'm in one class which is all about groups and there's-
Oh, um, Human Computer Interaction. It's about, like, the interface of a program. Stuff like if a button on the screen represents the effect that it will have in the program. How intuitive a program is. That kind of shit. Anyway, there's this chick in the class named Carmen. At first I wasn't in her group. But then my group kicked me out and I got into her group. She's from Spain and she's really beautiful. I'll get you a picture later. Then I got to know her and she's really cool and we had a lot in common. But I'm living in Durham and so it's difficult to see her because I'm not there at night and we're both in class during the day, you know?
Right.
Really? I didn't know that. That's rough, journal.
Ok, well one day I had left her around 5:30PM when she was going to a class and I had to go to catch a bus to the train station. This was on a Thursday. Oh, I still worked in my mom's office on Fridays and in fact that may just now be ending because they have someone to replace me full-time now. Alright, so I really should be in Durham Thursday nights. I get to the bus stop. I'm there for about 3 minutes before the world outside of that small shelter went insane. Wind started blowing really hard everywhere. I mean, branches were falling down. Then the good Lord brought the rain in. It just started pouring, you know? These two other people ran under the shelter and then a car drove up and picked one of them up. The other guy asked if I was there for the Park & Ride. I was not. I said I was there for the HEAT. Then, a minute later, the HEAT bus drove right past the stop. The guy's like "Was that your bus?" I'm like "Yeah..." The Park & Ride came by and the guy left. Then a lady runs in from out of the rain and asks me if I got there before the rain came. I said I had and she said I was lucky to which I did not respond.
Huh? Alright, alright. Sorry. So, another HEAT comes later from the other direction and I ask if he's going to the depot. He says he isn't. I told him what happened. He said it's impossible and that I must not know the schedule. I tell him I've been riding daily and always had been picked up before. He said I was screwed. I walked off the bus and it's still raining really hard, but I just don't care anymore. I'm kind of thinking about how now I'll get to see Carmen again after her class. Then as I'm walking I realize that I have the song that was playing on the bus stuck in my head and that it's lyrics are "Whatever will be, will be". This seemed like a sign to me. I get back to Carmen's class and tell her what happened. We use someone's cell and I call home. Dad picks up and I tell him to tell mom to get on AIM so I can talk to her about picking me up. When she gets on, she refuses to give me a ride. Journal, if you knew my mom, you'd understand how strange that is of her to do. Anyway, I go back and wait for Carmen to finish with class. We go to her place and I call a friend to ask if I can stay the night at his place. He's not answering. Then her and I get dinner and a beer. Then we come back and she has me look at her homework. Friend still doesn't answer the phone. We're sitting on her bed next to one another with a book between us. It was the kissing scene in the school-time romance movie, you know? But her head position was strange and I was an idiot and didn't do anything. Eventually, the friend answered the phone and said he was busy, but in about an hour. Carmen and I decide to go to a bar to play darts for that time. We get there and the dart boards are taken, so we get beers. I saw a different friend there and we met and talked about old times and shit. The place-to-sleep friend comes and picks us up, drives her to her place and we drive to his place. I kick myself for not doing anything for the rest of my life.
Yeah. It's a long way to go for no punch, but that's how it goes sometimes.
Penny-Arcade hosted a chat on X-Fire awhile ago. Only about 200 people that entered would be invited into the chat. I got in. By coincidence, so did Sawyer's roommate, Mike. We talked a little bit. Then the chat got underway. I noticed Mike left toward the end before they announced the winners of a random drawing for laser cels and something else. He also happened to win. I tried to get in touch with him in a variety of ways. I looked him up through his school's online directory. I called Sawyer to ask for a number that would work. I did a bunch. Then I IMed the guy running the prizes and told him Mike left before the prizes were announced. He said Mike had 5 minutes to respond or they would go to me. After some jokes and confusion about whether I really wanted to take the prize or not, the prize went to me. I then called Sawyer and told him not to tell Mike he won. Turns out I emailed Mike while I was trying to contact him, so he found out anyway. Now, I didn't care that much about the laser cel, but I wanted to give it to Cartland who was an insane Penny-Arcade fan when we were living together. Mike got in touch with me to tell me that when he got my email about him winning the drawing and not claiming the prize, he was so bummed that he bought the other laser cel which he liked better. Then when he found out that I had got the prize, he said he wanted me to keep it because I had tried to contact him. Awesome.
Scroll to the very bottom
I had been told by Cartland that he was showing up in Durham soon, but I didn't know what day. So it was a surprise when he turned out to be in the passenger seat of my mom's car as she picked me up from the train station one night. We get back home and hang out for awhile. I gave him the laser cel and he was really happy about it. He goes to get some stuff from his car and comes back to tell me his car had been broken into and a lot of his stuff was stolen. He had been parked there for maybe 3 hours. He didn't seem too broken up about it, although he didn't like that there was no CD player anymore. That kind of device helps the 6 hour drive back to the eastern shore of Virginia when you're alone. There wasn't much to be done about it though. We went to Greensboro the next morning together and practiced whistling with fingers in our mouths on the way there. We planned on seeing DrewDean's baby, but DrewDean and SarahDean were hesitant about a lot of visitors at once. Later on, they said it was okay and we went to see the baby with S-Man. It was cute. We ate popcorn and cookies and looked at the thousand or so pictures that had already been taken of the 2 week old baby. Qdoba trips occurred. Um, I spent the night at S-Man's while Cartland went to some visit some other friends near Greensboro. Cartland got a new CD player for his car. He and I were invited to a pirate party, but outfits would have to be provided by S-Man. They were. Cartland and I went to the store to get beer for the party and I forgot my ID, which meant Cartland had to buy it. He and I had had a discussion about whether the new CD player would work without the faceplate. I was attempting to prove that it would work when I dropped the faceplate in the car and cracked it. We got to the party and started getting sloshed on a mixture of wine and booze that they were calling "grog". I was also drinking beer and also occasionally having tequila shots. At one point, I was triple-fisting alcohol. Anyway, I don't really remember much about this night. I remember that I kissed Chesapeake, Cartland's friend from Berkshire Theatre Festival, for a long time, but I don't remember how I started kissing her or how the kissing ended. I don't remember much about anything after the kissing, though I think I woke up next to the side of the house around 4AM and everyone was gone. I was going to try to walk my way home, but I found Cartland's suburban slept on a cannonball in the back seat while Cartland was in the front. We woke up and discussed the night. During the party, I had apparently stolen some girl's shades and put them on. Cartland had then taken them from me. We met with some of Cartland's theater friends from school and had lunch and other stuff. It was kind of strange conversation. I couldn't get into the rhythm of it. Cartland and I went back to Durham. That night we played New Super Mario Bros and it was one of the best multiplayer experiences of all time. We outlined an idea for a Nintendo-MTV contest in which contestants compete on the originality, uniqueness and creativity of pictures of themselves playing a handheld device. The plan was to have it look like we are unicycling in the road with traffic behind us while playing Nintendo DSes. The next day, we got the picture and submitted it before Cartland left for Virginia.
Wait for number 4
I had been planning to be PeeWee Herman for Halloween months before the holiday. However, on the day, I didn't really have anything prepared. An hour or so before some of Jill's friends were going to show up to take her to Franklin St., we started getting my costume together. White tennis shoes, a grey suit that was too small, a white dress shirt, handkerchief, cut my hair, spray painted a white ribbon red and made it look like a bow tie, etc. Also, Jill had told a friend of hers that he could host a party of 25 or so people in our basement while we're at Franklin St. without asking my parents. Jill is dressed up like Ms. Yvonne from PeeWee's Playhouse. Jill's friends arrive and we're off to Chapel Hill. Chapel Hill was a lot of walking. It was pretty cool because everyone screamed "PeeWee" at me, but it's a little awkward, cause what do you do? Some guys had me do the dance that PeeWee does on the bar counter. No one recognized Jill's costume.