Paul: 16 days, 3 hours, 42 minutes, and 43 seconds

so. i think my manager needs a swift kick in the ass to teach him a lesson about leaving the store a complete mess for me to walk into the next morning and have to clean up. seriously, it's embarrassing to have customers walk into such a pit. and i really wanted to kill him for it this morning. little plastic bags and shreds of paper and tags on the floor, here and there fallen products and a messy pile of phones in thier boxes. the place looked like shit. they should at least be calling me the assistant manager for all the stupid crap i somehow become automatically responsible for. i open and close the store all the time and always have to tell bruce how to do everything. really, for all intensive purposes, i am the assistant manager.

/end bitch.

on a brighter note, i can't wait till sean finally gets through all the hiring paperwork so he can start. he stopped by today before i closed up and just talking to him for five minutes made me remember how much i love to have friends like him. he makes me laugh and smile and light up, and i'd forgotten about all that after doing nothing but working with ungrateful customers all day. friends like sean make me feel all warm and fuzzy and happy. and i wish i had more like him. and, on that note, i wish i saw him more than once every couple of weeks for five minutes. ..but that's why he applied to work with me. (:

i think that's part of what is so great about larry. it's a slightly different dynamic than the one sean and i have, but it results in the same kinda feeling. friends first really is a wonderful thing. i think i might paint something for him tonight or tomorrow, but i've yet to decide what. i just want to paint something, anything in general, but lately i've had a lack of imagination.

tomorrow == day off. yay! jimmy G. is gonna be finishing off the garage in the morning. well, finishing the framing part of it at least. they're doin such a great.. quick job. it's nifty. i'm gonna hang out with him tomorrow night. and we'll probably do a whole lotta nothing, but it's nice to see him again. i've only hung out with him one day since uh..8th grade just about. and that one day was roughly over a month ago.

--note that two and a half hours have just passed--

this is why i don't update often. anyway, sean hasn't called about further plans for tonight, the brat. that's his downfall. he's horrible with plans and always cancels. makes things really irritating. but, whatever, i'll just burn some cds and paint something tonight. eat some grape tomatoes, have some ice cream, relax. larry's goin to a cookout. he has another sunburn. silly boy. i've arranged to hang out with tom the night before and the day of my flight to san fran so i won't be wandering around alone waiting to leave. i'm lucky to have good friends like him. don't even know him very well if you really think about it, but we're just automatically good, reliable friends. funny thing after spending the entire semester in class with him, not saying hello, and constantly thinking of how much he reminded me of rincewind even though they're nothing alike.

anyway, party post. i know everyone is probably looking to compare notes/opinions on last night's birthday party for steve. for those of you who weren't there, i was one of only two people who didn't drink all night. which, is a little surprising to me because i expected to be the only one. i'm afraid that some of the people there last night might be offended by my opinion of the going-ons, but i'm just being honest. the night seemed to start off with shot glass chess, that being the center of much attention. it looked neat and all with all the light shining on the glass, but i find that at a lot of parties involving young crowds, alcohol often becomes too much of a focal point. i just kind of sat around and watched for a while. then the strip twister started while chess was still going on, which is all fine and dandy, but i didn't watch because i didn't particularly want to see any of the people involved without their clothing. not my cup of tea. after a couple of hours the chess was finally over and people started moving around a bit more. steve was then available for social interaction, and i went and talked to him for a bit. if it weren't for steve's birthday, i honestly wouldn't have shown up at all. it was a long drive, and it's been a long week.

a few more people filtered in later on, such as masha and her boy, and paul. and one more person i don't know. nice to see paul and masha though. and i had a good time hanging out with people. and i'm happy everyone else had a good time, but really, just not my cup of tea. i just think it's kind of a waste to put so much weight and so much focus on drinking or getting drunk at parties. there are plenty of other fun activities that don't involve alcohol. even just good company is enough for me. but don't misunderstand. i'm not talking about the simple fact that people were drinking. it's just the amount of focus applied to the drinking, and the fact that, for example, a girl who was completely capable of standing up and making it to the last stage of twister, suddenly started saying how incredibly drunk she was over and over while redressing and stumbling like she was going to fall over just from standing up. i mean, first if she was perfectly capable of playing twister, she can certainly stand upright two seconds later without trouble. and second, i think it's really silly when people feel the need to tell everyone a million times how drunk they are or in some cases how stoned they are. no biggie though. it's just not my cup of tea, that's all. but no more pink stucco parties for me. from a sober point of view, it's a little too boring for a two hour drive.

now, hopefully after that no one is mad at me. and i guess i should vaccuum the livingrooms now. :/