The Grab-Bag (It's Been That Long)

Sorry sorry sorry.

Am I forgiven? Ok. Good. You see, I've been busy busy busy and blogging at 0200 in the morning just doesn't happen so now I'm left do it on fumes the night before I head back to school. O yeah, school starts tomorrow. But that's only one part of a great many things that has happened in the last week. I've written down all the events in my notebook and am now gonna relay it to all of you. Don't you feel special?!? As always folks, it's not chronological (how could it be?) so just try to keep pace with me. . .

- Shall I begin with work? Ok, I will! This is the place that I have spent most of my time. Since I blogged on Tuesday night, I have spent many hours at the Italian countryside. I worked 5 hours on Friday and 6 on both Saturday and Sunday. I had off Thursday and I'll tell you about Wednesday later. Tonight I showed up for work at 1600 and found myself to be off of the schedule. Apparently, they had changed the schedule this weekend and I had not been told. Well, it was fine with me as I got to hang out with Heather for a few more hours! I now work tomorrow, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. Can't wait! O actually, I can. At least it will be a good check!

- Ok, so Wednesday. I know this was forever ago, but bear with me. I actually spent most of the early afternoon dreading going into work and catching up on HOUSE with Heather. I wanted someone to cover my shift because I wanted to stay home and watch the mucho-anticipated ROSE BOWL. Well, the three girls I called all said they were working! Huh??? That's what I said! Why there were 4 hosts scheduled on a Wednesday night, I'll never know, but it helped me greatly! I called and asked Tim if I could volunteer to stay home :D - - He said that I needed to come in (1630) and if the others showed up, I could leave. They all got there and I got to go home and I showed up in time to change and I landed in the living room recliner right at kickoff. Talk about perfect. What followed was maybe one of the greatest College Football games of all time as Texas upset two-time defending champion USC 41-38. After that, I headed over to Heather's as I had promised and stayed the night on the couch over there after watching OLD SCHOOL. There's Wednesday. Whew!

- Did I mention that I start school tomorrow? O I did. Ok, cuz I swear that I don't want to go SO BAD that I am trying to forget about it! Guess it's not working.

- Been playing a lot of DIDDY KONG RACING on NINTENDO 64 with the brother. He's getting really good which is scary. It's like watching a video of me when I was his age. You see, I beat one of the MARIOs when I was 4. The whole game. I beat it. He is definitely on his way to surpassing the legend of Justin when it comes to video games. We'll just have to wait and see how is MADDEN skills are. That is the true test!

- I had to work overtime on Saturday (1200-1830 instead of the scheduled 1200-1600) so I had to rush to get the sister and head to AVC to view the always-entertaining basketball game between DCHS and PARACLETE. For those of you who don't know, Paraclete is the local Catholic high school and is the big rival of Desert Christian. I always loved playing in these games, as the crowds were always the largest and loudest. Aimee and I sat in the front row and enjoyed an ugly game. Both teams played sloppily and neither really deserved to win. The game was tied at 21 at halftime and the Knights tied the game at 42 with 10 seconds to play on a gutsy shot by guard Michael Hendricks. Unfortunately, they were too busy celebrating as the Spirits (that's Paraclete, by the way) threw the inbounds pass over the press and the guy took it in for the winning layup with just under 4 seconds to play. It was a tough loss for my alma mater, but it's going to be a learning experience regardless. Afterwards, I asked Heather to come over and she did. She ended up staying over (see the give-and-take in the relationship ha ha) and we spent a good deal of Sunday together as well. I got her to stay as long as I could stay around myself. I had to work at 1600 and we parted ways then. Thanks for staying so long baby. I had a great time as always!

- So what did I do on my day off (Thursday)??? Well during the day, I took Heather to a matinee of THE PRODUCERS starring Matthew Broderick and Nathan Lane (don't forget Uma Thurman and Will Ferrell). It was a fun film to watch and the songs were very entertaining. Though not for everybody, I found it to be a great 2 hours! Grade: B+ . . . After the movie, we hung with my family til 1700 when we met Emily at Mallory's house for a surprise. You see, it's Mallory's 20th birthday on 01/08 (that was yesterday) and the only day we all could get together was Thursday. Our early present/party/whatever was taking her down to THE GROVE in Los Angeles to eat at THE CHEESECAKE FACTORY. The crew was only 6 people (Mal, her boyfriend Mike, Emily, Justin, Heather, and myself) and we got down there around 1830 I think. We put our names down on the list (35-50 minute wait said the host - ha ha) and walked around THE GROVE. Nice place. I'll be going back for sure. We ended up waiting an hour and fifteen minutes (stupid host - just joshin!) but then got our seat and begun our great meal. I got pork chops which came with applesauce AND mashed potatoes! It was all very good and then came the dessert. We ordered 2, count them, 2 slices of cheesecake (cmon, it's the freakin' CHEESECAKE FACTORY). We got their original cheesecake but with strawberries on it (good very good) and their NEW! Godiva chocolate cheesecake (O! My! Wow!!!!). It was a lot of fun and I'm pretty sure that Mal had a great time. Thanks for being born friend! We missed our buddy Cy though. Even though he would have made 7 (unless he brought one of his wives back with him - ha ha bud!) we all said at least once that it would have been nice to have him there. March cannot come quick enough. It's just weird around here without him. . .

- I'm going through my country music phase. I do this occasionally. It usually occurs right after my classic rock phase, although notsomuch this time around. I'm listening to Kenny Chesney as I fall asleep, Garth Brooks as I clean my room, and KTPI as I drive to work. It's weird. But I enjoy it. So sue me! Or don't, cuz I really need every dime I get!

- I went 3-1 in the pool this week (it's the playoffs now). That's good, but I don't think good enough to win, as my total points were way off! I had predicted 188 total points in the 4 games (I was suspecting high scoring) but there was only 129 scored. Dang defense!

That's all for right now (that's a lot, what am I talking about!) cuz I'm tired and it's now 0015 on Tuesday morning. I gotta get up in less than 8 hours because I have to get to school early to buy my parking permit. My first class isn't until 0930 so that will be refreshing this semester. I'm also working tomorrow at 1700 but I will do my best to give y'all a complete rundown of Day 1 of Spring Semester 2006. That's all I can do: My Best!

Goodnight folkages - sleep o so good and dream o so sweetly

- - - "The Fuhrer (Adolf Hitler) was not a mousy momma's boy. The Fuhrer was butch!"
- - - Franz Liebkind (Will Ferrell) in THE PRODUCERS

Dreading Waking Up,

JUSTIN