Unincredible Pizza, Beaumont, and the Justice System
A few weeks ago I recieved a friendly little letter notifying me of my mandatory court appearance set for yesterday morning at 10. So lucky me, about 9:45 I found myself sitting in a tiny room outside the court room as the judge finished up ruling on evictions. The whole process wasn't very exciting. I felt like the odd man out when the people around me were all paying their attorneys and discussing their plans of action. I slipped in the court right at ten and proceeded to wait another fifteen munutes or so for them to finally finish up. That's one thing I have learned in this whole process... nothing is ever on time. Ever. The evictions didn't end until fifteen minutes into the traffic docket's time, so the traffic docket didn't start anything for another fifteen minutes or so. Also, the whole judicial respect rules (no talking reading writing, chewing gum,touching your cell phones etc.) seem out of place in these rather informal sessions. Basically all that happened is that the judge called the docket open and left, and then they called everyone up in alphabetic order to talk to the prosecuter one on one. After you had decided on your charges and, in my case, had them dismissed, you sat and were called up to a clerk that told you how much you owed and when you had to come back if needed. It was a system that was a little more suited to having people stand in a line and go up to a window rather then having us all stewing in the court room. Anyway I got my charges dismissed, with only $20 of dismissal fees and managed to get out of there at 11:30.
I planned for the day to be a productive day to get things I would need to take off of work for done so after I left court, I drove out to Beaumont to give Mr. Stevenson my Humanities portfolio, talk to Mrs. E, and sell my books. The first two went off well and I spent awhile just talking to the admins... some of that was welcome, some of it was not. I met one of the new seniors, Johnathan I believe his name is, Natalie's boyfriend, and he was pretty cool. Sucks for him though, because he was 20 points off of making the honors program on his SAT.
Selling my books didn't go so well however. Last semester I probably spent between $500 and $600 on books. I didn't want to sell back my judicial process books, so that is a significant portion of that, but I though I would still get a decent amount back. Haha. I was wrong. Out of all of that, I got $7.00 back. They wouldn't take my spanish book at all that was probably $250, nor my Photography book that put me out $70. And then they would only give me onr or two dollars for the books I got for english that cost me about $10 each. I sold the ones like Rime of teh Ancient Mariner and The Bonus Army, just because I couldn't fathom anyone wanting to buy them. The former because you can get it for free online and the later because it really was that awful, but I am now stuck with Dico y Hecho and several other books that are just as useless to me now.
After getting shafted on my books, I went ahead and left Beaumont and met up with Lauren, Matt, Michael, and Shannon at Incredible Pizza. Houston, I have noticed, is beginning to be plagues with 'all in one fun plexes' that boost massive arcades, glow in the dark minigolf, bowling, go karts, lazertag, etc. without necessarily being all that fun. The two I have been to recently are Main Event and Incredible Pizza, which while they technically have a good thing going for them, and endless entertainment, fall up a little short. I can only play so many arcade games, last about two holes of mini golf, one round of cruddy lazer tag, and one game of bowling before I have no interest anymore. And while there is a lot there... none of it is particularly good. My favorite game at Incredible Pizza was this motorcycle racing one that you actually leaned on the motorcycle as you went around the course. This, however, was not enough to hold my attention. We tried mini golf, but I've never been a big fan of it, and we ended up more bowling then anything else. We watched the old Yours Mine and Ours... which was a bit trippy, and ate some food off the buffet you have to buy when you go in, but it really wasn't the best place. I guess the best description of it based on veteran Clear Lake venues is Mr. Gattis with a CiCi's Pizza tied in.
On the upside, I went shopping Sunday with John and got to wear my new red polka-dot shoes... That was exciting?
I planned for the day to be a productive day to get things I would need to take off of work for done so after I left court, I drove out to Beaumont to give Mr. Stevenson my Humanities portfolio, talk to Mrs. E, and sell my books. The first two went off well and I spent awhile just talking to the admins... some of that was welcome, some of it was not. I met one of the new seniors, Johnathan I believe his name is, Natalie's boyfriend, and he was pretty cool. Sucks for him though, because he was 20 points off of making the honors program on his SAT.
Selling my books didn't go so well however. Last semester I probably spent between $500 and $600 on books. I didn't want to sell back my judicial process books, so that is a significant portion of that, but I though I would still get a decent amount back. Haha. I was wrong. Out of all of that, I got $7.00 back. They wouldn't take my spanish book at all that was probably $250, nor my Photography book that put me out $70. And then they would only give me onr or two dollars for the books I got for english that cost me about $10 each. I sold the ones like Rime of teh Ancient Mariner and The Bonus Army, just because I couldn't fathom anyone wanting to buy them. The former because you can get it for free online and the later because it really was that awful, but I am now stuck with Dico y Hecho and several other books that are just as useless to me now.
After getting shafted on my books, I went ahead and left Beaumont and met up with Lauren, Matt, Michael, and Shannon at Incredible Pizza. Houston, I have noticed, is beginning to be plagues with 'all in one fun plexes' that boost massive arcades, glow in the dark minigolf, bowling, go karts, lazertag, etc. without necessarily being all that fun. The two I have been to recently are Main Event and Incredible Pizza, which while they technically have a good thing going for them, and endless entertainment, fall up a little short. I can only play so many arcade games, last about two holes of mini golf, one round of cruddy lazer tag, and one game of bowling before I have no interest anymore. And while there is a lot there... none of it is particularly good. My favorite game at Incredible Pizza was this motorcycle racing one that you actually leaned on the motorcycle as you went around the course. This, however, was not enough to hold my attention. We tried mini golf, but I've never been a big fan of it, and we ended up more bowling then anything else. We watched the old Yours Mine and Ours... which was a bit trippy, and ate some food off the buffet you have to buy when you go in, but it really wasn't the best place. I guess the best description of it based on veteran Clear Lake venues is Mr. Gattis with a CiCi's Pizza tied in.
On the upside, I went shopping Sunday with John and got to wear my new red polka-dot shoes... That was exciting?