This and that.

Well, it's been too long already. I don't want my ratings to go down, so I'd better keep up the posting, eh? I watched the Red Sox tonight. Game 5, down 3-1 in the series, a must win, obviously. And of course they did behind the studnificent pitching of twenty-game-winner Josh Beckett. What a beast, seriously. Eight innings, eleven strikeouts, filthy stuff again. Well, so that was kinda fun. Not much has happened this week, thank God tomorrow's Friday and Monday is payday. I went hiking with some friends this Sunday, three of them T.A.C. graduates, Clara D. and the two older Lyons sisters. That was nice, don't get to see a lot of them these days even though we live within twenty or thirty minutes of each other. I don't see a lot of females at all, which is a little sad. Okay, maybe a LOT sad. Maybe I should go down south to look for some chiquitas in Santa Paula, eh? Heh heh heh.....riiiiight. Just kidding, of course.

The foliage is quickly leaving the trees (I'm so clever) and my school has a huge tree out back, under which I feel obliged to rake every freaking day. Otherwise the ground's just covered and eventually they'd be ankle deep. I keep on keeping on, though. It's my constant sadness. That's about all, not very much happening (as usual), like I said.

Just for the heck of it I took a quiz on the summitportland website to see if I was qualified to participate for a local depression study. I answered like five out of eight questions "yes" and I only needed three. What's up with this crap? People, react to me. Do you believe in this whole depression bit? I believe in it, but not the way it's approached. Doctors now treat it as a medical illness and put people on happy pills. In my (vast) experience, most people who have feelings of anxiety, insecurity or guilt usually ought to. I just heard another local news story about a couple run down by a driver on the street and the driver never stopped, just took off. It's happening more and more. Two people! Is there any way it would cross your mind to keep going after hitting someone??? Anyway, I think depression is a general sickness of the soul. Met any depressed saints lately? I didn't think so. Well, Evan and Emily, tell your friends to visit this blog, because you can't carry the load on your own. I'm out.

Saturday

Hi all (or should I say "both"?),

Today was a blast. Well, not really. Woke up around 9:30 (slept great) and immediately went to work washing my parents' junky cars. A minivan and a couple of cars, all three white with layers of dirt built up over the years from them being washed once a year max. We'd agreed the night befor that I would do this in return for my dad paying for a family dinner at the Country Kitchen Steakhouse in Portland. Given the choice I might have opted out of the dinner, but as it was I devoted three hours of my day to cleaning those cars, inside and out. Ancient pop spills on the rugs and in the cupholders, mildewy smell and hand smears on the windshields from my older sister, upon whom we can not prevail to stop wiping the fog off in the morning with her bare hand. Ah, yes.

Oh, managed to get out and buy some cigars. I like the thin sweets best. I get too high on the big ones.;) Not that one can ever be "too high". Bought a cigar cutter, too. That was something I lacked. I realized once after having only smoked a few cigars outside of a T.A.C. dorm party (at which there was always a fellow handy with his cutter) that it was difficult to suck out any smoke. And I'm not supposed to have to "suck" to get smoke out, right, so what the heck? Ah, yes, young grasshoppa, that's why that guy cut the end off. Some bite it off, but that gets messy and annoying. I don't want to swallow the leaves. Live and learn, right?

Anyway, had a nice meal afterwards. Halibut steak and a baked potato. But it's one of those joints where the appetizers are just as good as the main courses and so you've gotta eat a ton before your platter gets there. Onion rings, vegetables with dip, fresh french bread and salad and I only ate half my halibut, but it was all great. Went to Powell Books (massive used book store) afterwards and bought some comic books. We were rushed for time and I couldn't find the history section, so that's all I got. I'm reading Band of Brothers by Stephen Ambrose right now, though. Excellent book, excellent shows of the same title. Strong language and violence, though, kids.

Oh, and so we got home and watch the Red Sox vs. Indians for four hours, into extra innings. The score still tied 6-6 going into the 10th inning and the Sox lose 13-6!!!!!! What the ****************???? I was ticked off. Freaking losers, hate 'em forever, don't care to watch anymore, see you Monday for game three, of course. Anyway, so it's a best-of-seven series and they split the first two games at home, that's all good and well. But they freaking have to go to Cleveland for three straight now! Bad, bad, bad. Stop not winning already! Well, I feel a little better, but not much! I guess I'll shut up now, not really much planned for tomorrow, except sing with the Schola and full choir at High Mass. I REALLY don't like Schola, it's hard (partly because I don't practice). But I can't read music, I'm not confident enough to sing out and I'm just not enthusiastic enough to listen to music cds to memorize the stuff. But they need bodies and my voice isn't bad. Well, it's lousy in the mornings, but I guess that's natural. I'm tired, should go to bed. Happy Sunday. Maybe I'll go hiking tomorrow with my friend, I dunno.

Salutations

How the time flies, eh? I'm trying an experiment. I've reconnected with a lot of friends via Facebook in the last couple of months and it's made me think maybe someone would look at my blog now if I try it again. I think I had two loyal viewers before....we'll see how this goes.;)

I'm not up to much right now, just working (still) at an elementary school in a sort of jack-of-all-trades. My job consists of arriving at the building to open it at six every weekday, vacuuming and trashing (that's janitor-speak for collecting trash) the office area and gym. Then I catch a quick nap (er...only on break time, of course) and at some point before the kids get out to their first recess I walk all around the school sweeping up cigarette butts, beer bottles, birth control devices or whatever else the teenagers left behind the night or weekend (those are worst) before. Glamorous, huh? Anyway, I'm done with that by 9:30 or 10:00 and so I find various things to kill time until student lunch at 11:40, which we start setting up the cafeteria for at 11:15. Lunch is over by 12:50, we finish clean up around 1:15 and eat our (I have a lunch helper who comes in at 11:15 and works afterward until 8:00) lunch which the cafeteria ladies are kind enough to give us from the leftovers. The food's pretty mediocre, but it's free and I don't go out for lunch. I finish eating by 1:45 and kill some more time until 2:30 at which time I can go home.

Sorry if that was more info than anyone wanted, but I don't usually talk about work because it doesn't thrill me, so this is the most you'll ever hear about it.:-P "As-needed" jobs include electrical system checks, keeping janitorial supplies stocked, responding to teacher needs (from trying to fix broken pencil sharpeners to hanging whiteboards on walls, to any number of random maintenance jobs, or making requests to district maintenance when it's a big project. I also get to keep and maintain a lot of paperwork. It's an old school with some asbestos insulation and tiles in some areas, so I have to do deterioration inspections twice a year to make sure no one's in danger of contracting mesothelioma (no dictionary required, thank you).

Well, that's kind of a basic outline of the crap I do. It doesn't pay badly, but it's not a living, either. I live with my folks for now (any of you ladies want to marry me so I can have an excuse to move out?) because it's cheap. I'm tossing a few ideas around about what to do next job-wise. Ideas range from city jobs like road crews to police, to getting a trucker's license and driving for a living. Heck, you can haul in some cash doing long-haul, though it's not easy if you have a family. I basically committed to spending at least a year at Burton Elementary and it'll have been a year this April, so I've got to start seriously looking for something pretty soon. I could stay where I am forever, but that wouldn't be cool, and you all know how I value my coolness.

I have two friends in this state (speaking physically, as in the State of Washington: wouldn't want to confuse any liberally-educated friends about what "state" I refer to). One is one of my best friends who I've known since I was fourteen and who I look up to a lot and trust with pretty much anything. The other is a sort of casual tennis buddy I met by chance. He's in his late thirties and we don't do much except play and talk about tennis. I have some casual acquaintances at church and at work, but nobody I'm close to on a deep level. My tennis partner is the only friend I've made since I left T.A.C., although I've managed to reconnect with a few old ones in that time, so that's nice. Okay, abrupt ending here. I'm tired of writing about myself. Let's talk about you! Just kidding, but good night. That's "how I'm doing" in a nutshell. You asked! If you want to know more, call me at 9-1-1. God bless and drink lots of water.