:: Venting Insanity ::

:: Thursday, September 11, 2003 ::

candlelight vigil



Light a candle today and remember.

:: Tuesday, September 09, 2003 ::

home today
Well, I stayed home today. Dad didn't say if Bill wanted me back in, so I'm guessing not yet. I hope this doesn't last two long. I still have some things to pay off, yet.

mongo boring class
This class is too easy for me. I finished all my classwork early. And she's giving us a shitload of homework, too. We have to do a five minute speech on some computer topic. And, since there's no projectors, we can't even do it as a Powerpoint Presentation.

Damn it.

I'm so not looking forward to this.

Maybe I can push for her to let me do a Powerpoint thing if I promise to bring it in on discs for everyone in the class. ^_^;; I also have to think about what I'm going to do. The due date is going to have a serious impact on my topic. She didn't give us a due date. If it's soon, I can probably do something about the test units from work. If it's later in the semester, I can't be guaranteed instant access to a working unit for demonstration.

Maybe I can get a couple copies of the various literature. I might have to beg Billy for them, though. Since money's real tight, I would probably have to bring them back. ^^;;

And then, we were allowed a break while the slower people in the class finished up one of the little exercises we were doing. I went and got a soda and a Rice Krispies Treat. This is the first teacher that has actually told me I can't have food and drink in the lab. No one else has cared. Then, as I looked around the room, I was the *only* one told to put it in the back of the room. Not a single other person got up and put theirs in the back of the room. And the teacher didn't make mention of it again.

O.O;;;

I'm going to go insane.

:: Monday, September 08, 2003 ::

ow! what a way to wake up!
Mom came in this morning, telling me I have to get up because Auntie Lyn and Nana were coming over. I thought, 'yes, at one o'clock.' She said they'd be there in a little while. I sat up. It was only 10 am.

A little while? But... but... Damn. I flopped back down. I only had a few minutes to get up and get showered now, didn't I? I hate rushing... I really hate-

Holy crap!

My right calf muscle suddenly cramped up, and painfully! I pulled my leg up in reaction, and then flexed my foot up as I tried to stretch and massage the cramp out. Pain, pain, pain, pain, pain, pain, pain, pain, pain. Oh, God, why won't it stop? I have to get up, I have to take a shower, there's no way in hell I can walk like this...

Well, the cramp finally subsided. Mom wasn't yelling, yet, so I figure I'm safe on time. I limped into the bathroom, used the massage setting on the shower head to try and loosen up my muscle some more, and then finished getting ready.

Bad start... I wondered if it was an omen.

a beautiful day and everyone's at the mall
So, Auntie Lyn and I went over to the Verizon store at Smithaven. We get inside, and they're taking names to see salespeople. The Sprint store is nothing like this. The woman tells us it's a half hour wait.

I balked.

"Oh, nevermind then," Auntie Lyn said, and we left. "I'm not waiting half an hour just to get a new phone," she complained as we headed back to my car.

So much for that.

day at the lake
We got to the club just after Mom and Dad got there with Nana. Lunch was nice. The lake was calm and blue from the clear sky above. There was a gorgeous breeze blowing east down the river that feeds the lake. We set up our chairs and ate our lunch, while Dad prepped the mowing boat. I went with him to 'mow the lake'.

Like most lakes and rivers do, this one gets clogged with undergrowth. To maintain the flow of the river and prevent the fish from getting choked, the club bought a pontoon boat that has a large plow like thing on the front to cut the growth with. There's only one problem. Some of the fish get pulled up in the plants. So, we usually take a second person out with a net to catch them as they come over the back of the conveyor and dump them back in the water.

It's kind of fun. We had all sorts of fish today. No turtles, though. I love catching the painted turtles. They're fun. The snappers are just plain ugly and nasty, though. They actually hiss at you.

colorful dots in the sky
As we're enjoying our lunch, we can hear the plane from Skydive Long Island circling above. Mom recognized it first. As we watched it fly across behind the house, little black dots become visible falling behind it. Then, these colorful stripes suddenly explode out of them. It's the parachuting class! It was fun to watch them. They start spinning about and swerving back and forth in little zig zags. It was fun to watch. We saw about three or four classes go up throughout the day. As Dad and I came back off the boat, one waited till the last minute and we could actually hear his chute open.

>FFFWWWOOOOOOOSHH!!!<

At first, I didn't know what it was, but then I caught sight of him through the trees.

wildlife encounters
We had a few sightings today, too. The club is in a majorly rural area, and we get all sorts of animals hanging around. Today, we saw two great blue herons and two hawks flying over the lake.

The biggest thing was the sheer number of caterpillars. It seems that the caterpillars around here migrate. The weird part is that they all do it at the same time. Across roads. So... now the roads all look really dirty... but it's actually (ewwww!) squished caterpillars!

Of course, we found a bunch making their way along the grass at the club. I picked one up on a stick and held it towards Auntie Lyn. She squeaked, yelling at me to throw it in the water.

I'm so mean sometimes... {{evil grin}}

long day
We were actually there a really long time. We didn't leave until after six. Now, I'm like really tired from two long days of fresh air and sun. @.@; Luckily, I don't have to work tomorrow. I wonder how long it'll be until Bill calls me back in...

:: Sunday, September 07, 2003 ::

blah
Well, not much new to post... {{sigh}} Despite the fact that Bill doesn't think he's going to have money to pay me with. He told me to take some time off and he'll call me back later. He said it'll most likely be sooner than later, but he would call me back later. {{another sigh}}

party on the canal
However, I did have a fun day today. I did have to go to this stupid Career Services Workshop at the school (and make a 10^th copy of my résumé), but we got out early. Yay! Then, John S. came over and we watched 8MST. I gave him his birthday card, too. {{whispers}} Don't tell anyone, but he's going to be 30 tomorrow... ~_^ We got almost half way through the series. Yay! Then Mom called from the deck party she and Dad were at asking if I wanted to come down. John drove me down and I rode home with my parents. It was fun! Yay! John left the party early because he had to be home for "surprise" birthday cake he wasn't supposed to know about... LOL.

Anyway, this house is down in Mastic, like two blocks from the Smith Point bridge. It's halfway down the street and has a canal in the backyard. They don't have to worry about any grass because they did the front in white marble stones in a small circular driveway and the back is a giant deck... all the way to their dock. They have one giant oak tree coming up out of the middle of the deck. It's HUGE, but it's a gorgeous tree and covers the whole deck in shade. It was a nice end of summer get together, too. Cathy and Nick were there, so John got to say hi. It's been a while since we've hung out with them. Cathy didn't come to my Home & Garden Party, so she didn't get to see Estelle the other weekend. But, it was good seeing them again. Lori was there with her two boys, John Eric and Devon. Not Lori from where I work, but Lori from where Mom works. I know like three of them. There's another Lori that works with Mom, but she's not very friendly with the group Mom hangs out with, so she wasn't there.

Anyway... I got to meet a few more people, too. It was very nice. There was a really soft breeze blowing down the canal, and the weather was clear as crystal. We even had a good view of Mars from the deck. They were catching blue claw crabs from the canal, and doing a bit of fishing, too. They only caught one fish, and I don't remember what kind it was. The crabs were really fiesty, though. We had a pair of barbeque tongs and they kept attacking them everytime we reached in the bucket. Then, they would all hold on to each other, so, when you picked one up, you got a chain of about four or five crabs. It was hysterical.

lunch outing
Tomorrow, Nana and Auntie Lyn are coming out for lunch. I'm taking Auntie Lyn up to the mall to get a new phone. She tried going today, but she sometimes gets panic attacks in large crowds. Today was a bad day for her. She's hoping that, if I'm there, she'll be calmer.

more ouchies
My thumb hurts. Don't know why... it just does. But this one hurts often. I think I did something to it when I was little. It doesn't straighten as far as the other one. {{sigh}}

But, at least my neck doesn't hurt as much anymore. I still get the occasional twinge, and I don't have 100% range of motion, yet. However, it isn't anywhere near what it had been on Monday. I'm feeling a lot better now.