My bread story

Yesterday at the grocery store I was checking out my favorite aisle, the discounted foods section, and came across a loaf of french bread. The bread, only 89 cents by the way, had this motto printed on the side: "Time to Eat Bread Again." This raises a lot of questions. When was it not time to eat bread? My first guess is that this is in reference to the Aktins no-carb diet that took America by storm. But that was what, 7 years ago? Are we just now getting back to being a bread-friendly country? That's a long time to recover. Perhaps it took that long to cleanse America's colons of all that beef, since that is apparently the only thing people eat on the Aktin's diet. This makes me wonder what kind of damage the Aktins diet did to the bread industry. Maybe it ran some of them out of business? Is that why this bread is only 89 cents? I just picture some bread factory shutting its doors as its owner stands in the parking lot, fist waving towards the heaven, cursing Robert Aktins and his carb hating habits.

File this under W for Well Ain't That A Bitch.

So yesterday I woke up to my alarm going off only to realize I was supposed to be at work RIGHT THEN. "Idiot!" I said to myself, "Why did you set your alarm for right at 10 and not earlier?" So I raced around like a chicken with my head cut off, brushed my teeth, got dressed, skipped breakfast and was about to race out the door when I looked at the clock once more. I realized it was 9 o'clock, not 10, and that my alarm was really just a reminder that I had to be up in an hour. "Oh how silly", I thought as I jumped back into bed, "At least I'm not really late." I quickly fell back asleep and continued sleeping for 2 whole hours, missing my REAL alarm plus 2 phone calls from my boss, wondering why I where I was.
The really silly thing was that I was only scheduled to work one hour, 10-11, and I had volunteered to come in and help the other person who would have been working alone. Luckily my boss was cool with it, and even seemed to see the humor in the situation, so no real harm was done.
But still, it was a quintessential "Well ain't that a bitch?" kind of moments.

Observation

I was watching a bird wander around campus yesterday and noticed he had something sticking out of his mouth. My first thought was that I had caught him mid-meal. I realized it was actually a giant leaf and a few twigs. This is when I came to my realization: birds don't really have hands. Thus, anytime they want to pick something up to move or carry it, they must use their mouth. Sounds kind of shitty to me. Think about all the things you pick up in a normal day, for all the various reasons one might pick something up. Then imagine putting them in your mouth. And on top of that, if you were a bird, it should almost go without saying that you wouldn't have any pockets, so forget about using those to carry things.

Party Time=Excellent

Some bands played on campus tonight in Kellogg Circle. It was a great mix of good people and great weather. I consider today the Official Start of Summer. Start spreading the word nationwide.

The last few days have been filled with anticipation as I wait to hear about a possible internship for with the Kansas Department of Health and Environment. I'd be pretty stoked about it if I got it, but we will just have to hold our breath for now till they make a decision. If I don't do the internship I'll move back to wichita and work for Borders again. So if worse comes to worse, I'll spend my time in a bookstore making delicious smoothies. Not a shabby way to spend my time.

It's 4 A.M.

This is about the time I start to get nervous. The halls are dark and much too quiet.
I've been working the night shift at Best Western for only 2 weeks and already I've detected a pattern:
The first part of the shift is invigorating. I know no one will be around so I'm free to catch up on reading or surfing the web.
After a few hours it sinks in that I haven't spoken to anyone all night. It gets me a little spooked. I realize how big this hotel really is.
The final few hours are marked with a steep decline in energy. I am starting to suspect this has something to do with how much I eat during my shift. If I don't feed myself during that 8 hours I'm at work, my body gives up trying to function and wants to go into sleep mode.

Overall it's a great job. I work Fridays and Saturdays from 11pm to 7am. You'd be right to assume that I don't get a whole lot of business during those hours. My boss allows me to do just about anything I want; watch movies, use the computer, read or do homework. The golden rule is, "Don't fall asleep." Sounds like a no-brainer but you'd be surprised how many people BW has had to let go because of it. And the people who do stay awake can't keep the job for more than a few months. Turnover is very high here, my boss told me.

The job's downside is it takes up my weekends almost completely. It wouldn't be a problem, since my social life has shrank considerably since all my closest friends moved away last year, but the weekends used to be my time to spend with Jill. But, now I spend them here. Jill and I are trying to work out a new schedule (Mondays, it looks like) and I hope it goes well.

Another bonus is I get a lot of time to think. And learn. Tonight I studied up on Rahm Emanuel, the soon to be Chief of Staff for Obama. He sounds like an interesting, if not over the top, kind of person.
From one online source:
"The most infamous Rahmbo story of them all is the one that begins with the dinner the night after Bill Clinton was elected in 1992. Among those present at the dinner table was ABC News anchor George Stephanopoulos, who watched while an overwrought and clearly exhausted Emanuel began ranting at a long list of Clinton "enemies." As he shouted each name, he stabbed the table with his steak knife: "Nat Landow! Dead! Cliff Jackson! Dead!" Apparently, others joined in."

Maybe it was one of those 'you had to be there' moments.

Lettuce Ketchup

Over the last 2 months I've:
Returned home to KS. It's good to be back.
Started school.
Loved school. I'm only taking twelve hours (or 4 classes) and it's amazing. I'm actually doing all the assigned readings, and really getting into the classes. I hope I never have to take more than 4 classes again. But in order to do this I'd graduate somewhere around 2020.
Not Found a Job. The reason I'm taking less hours is to find a job. And I can't find one. Emporia is a wasteland for employment. The only place I didn't try was Dillons, and that'd be a huge step backwards for me. I worked there for a year and a half, I worked my way up the totem pole from bagboy to fuel clerk, I'm not about to start down that path again. It'd be like redoing high school, you know?
Decided on a Halloween Costume. I'm Luigi and my brother's Mario. Finally, an excuse to buy overalls.
Started Writing Satire Pieces for the School Paper. I'm calling it "A Series of Emporian Events". Do you think that's clever enough?
Become Hardcore into Politics. Can you ever get too into the election? I'm debating that as we speak.

Life has been grand lately. Today my brother returned to KS after a month in Seattle visiting our sister. Turns out he likes it so much he's moving there for good. I'm bummed that he's leaving Emporia after only living there 3 months, but I don't blame him. He wants to figure out his path in life, and I know that journey can't happen in Emporia.
Ok, more to come soon. Promise!

So Monday was my one-year with Jill. Crazy huh. It flew by. This is, by far, the longest I've ever been in a relationship. The longer I'm in this relationship the harder it is to describe it without sounding cliche. It feels like we've been together forever. I don't know where I'd be without her. She is the ying to my yang. Etc, etc. I guess that's why they've become cliche, because people have been saying them everytime they've fallen in love for thousands of years. To celebrate we took a walk, read for a while, then cooked a really delicious dinner of pasta, steamed carrots, and corn on the cob.

We leave for Kansas on Monday. It's a grab bag, that's for sure. I don't want to go back to seeing Jill once a week. I've grown pretty fond of getting to see her morning noon and night. But I'm also excited to get back to Emporia, see my brother, get classes started, etc. (Ha, I guess it doesn't matter how excited or not excited I am, it's going to come anyway isn't it?)

Tomorrow our mutual friend Lizzy comes to visit. She's flying in and then driving home with us. We are going to the Aquarium, the beach, and maybe the WWII museum.

Do you think there's a beach museum somewhere? Or even just a museum located on a beach? I think that'd be a good idea. People would pay money for a museum on a beach.

Another brilliant thought I had last week: You know how in cartoons they have those light bulbs turn on above their heads when they get good ideas? Do you think in the future they will replace them with CFLS? Will kids even know what old light bulbs looked like?

Tomorrow is my mom's birthday.

I got her:

1. A Beatles album

2. The book A Guide to Civilized Conversation

3. A nice picture frame with a photo of Jill and myself

4. I chipped in on some kind of glorified hotplate contraption that's supposed to make baking easier.

5. A bouquet of flowers, delivered to her office.