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After work today I stopped to get some gas and take a leak. When I went into the gas station the restroom door was locked. I waited patiently outside for the person using it to hurry up and get out. A few minutes pasted and I was a little surprised when the door opened and an ugly lady walked out. I was confused at the time but I brushed it off because I figured the women?s restroom was full and she really needed to go. At least that?s what I thought until I got into the restroom and saw that the seat on the toilet was still up and I started putting two and two together. Ehhhhhhhh!!!!

Three days I’ve been here in my house. I’ve left only a few times, and of those, it was only for an hour or two. I’m starting to get a terrible case of cabin fever. I want to get out and do something, anything, just leave for some period of time. I just don’t feel like I can. I’m still feeling pretty worn out from what I thought was a stomach virus. Today being day number three and I’m still not feeling 100% better. It makes me think its a little something more, flu like even.

So here I sit being horribly bored. Also my girlfriend has been at work all night so I’ve been horribly bored and by myself. I don’t really like watching TV and I think I’ve read everything on the internet. I haven’t felt creative enough to write anything worth reading and I’m kind of tired of playing my Playstation. All the movies at the video store were ones that I wanted to see with Heather and I’m not really tired enough to go to bed or take a nap. I don’t really have much energy to get anything done around the house and my cat has been busy being a cat and has slept most of the day. Now for no reason she has decided to give me some attention, but it’s only by sleeping here on my computer desk as I type this.

I bet this would have been a fantastic three days off of work had I actually felt well. I can think of a million things right now that would have been great to do. Regrettably all I’ve seemed to accomplish is a lot of sitting and a lot of lying down.

I’m going to work tomorrow whether I feel better or not. I’m going to drink a lot of coffee and maybe even complain to whoever will listen. Also I’m going to be there all day and although I may do a lot of sitting I’m going to get something accomplished. Most importantly though, I’m going to get out of my house.

I was going to write a story about how even though I was sick yesterday, I almost kicked a guy down some stairs, but instead I thought this would be more interesting.

Just in case you didn’t know, my girlfriend has the best luck when it comes to winning stuff off the radio. She does it all the time but normally the prizes are so crappy that she never goes to pick them up. She just likes to win. However, sometimes she gets lucky and wins nice things.

For example:
Jessica Simpson concert tickets back last June
A trip to L.A. back in November to see the American Music Awards.
2nd row tickets to see 3 Doors Down on May 4th.

Well this morning she and I were going to actually make a trip down to the radio station to pick up her 3 Doors Down tickets. Since it’s a little bit of a drive and she won these tickets some time ago we thought it would be a good idea to call the radio station first to make sure that they were actually there.

We searched high and low for another number to the radio station but all we could find was the number they have you call to win prizes. Well the forces that be just happened to have us call at the exact moment they were giving away something. Next thing you know my girlfriend is now the proud owner of a $25 gift certificate to some tanning place and we still don’t know if they have her concert tickets

When Heather got home from work on Monday night she asked me if I wouldn’t mind cooking some quesadillas. We buy them in a ready to make bag that comes from the frozen food section. It only takes a couple of minutes to make them and they are mighty tasty. Although it was late when I made them we both through caution to the wind and ate this large meal all the while not worrying that we would be going to be soon.

I believe it was around 2:30 AM when I woke up with what seemed like a fever. I laid there shaking and trembling and no matter what I just couldn’t get warm. I woke Heather and asked her to take my temperature. It was 94.7. Although this is a low number I think our thermometer is busted and it reads 2 degrees low. So in actuality I think my temperature was more like 96.7. Nonetheless I still felt terrible and Heather being the good girlfriend that she is went off to find me some more blankets.

The blankets helped some but I still laid there shivering and shaking until about 5:30. I never thought getting up to pee would be such a difficult task. After I was finally able to stumble out of the bathroom I walked into the kitchen. My head was spinning and I was extremely dizzy. I needed to get some water bad. I didn’t even make it back to the bedroom before I had to make a pit stop and drive the porcelain bus.

After sitting there for sometime, calling for a guy named “Ralph”, I finally felt a little better. When I got back in bed I woke Heather up to let her know that I got sick. Apparently part of the whole recovery process is to let someone know how terrible you feel, that way they can feel sorry for you. Since she was awake then, we talked for a few minutes and came to the conclusion that it was the quesadillas. However, since she didn’t get sick I told her it was because I ate “the black piece of chicken”. She dismissed my story for the pile of crap that it was but for whatever reason I kept telling her “I knew I shouldn’t have eaten the black piece”.

The way I felt yesterday and then how I’m starting to feel this morning leads me to think that in actuality I got some sort of stomach virus. I’ve been having body aches, head aches, room spins, and the ever present feeling of nausea.

I’m the type of guy that hates to admit that I’m actually sick, so if you ask me what’s wrong I’m probability going to tell you that I ate a black piece of chicken. It seems funnier to me than a stomach virus.

Last week I got this email from my computer programming teacher:

Talk about freaking out. All semester long I’ve honestly not put any effort into this class. There is just something about it. I hate every minute of it. It’s not something I want to do. Although I’ve gone to every class I just really haven’t tried at all.

After coming to the realization that I might actually fail, I’ve been working on these programs hardcore for a couple of days. Now however, I can safely say that after about 30 more minutes of work I should have these programs done. Also not only will I have them finished but the way that it’s looking right now, I’m going to end up getting a “B” in this class. Not to bad for someone who would have rather jumped off a building than learn COBOL.

Yesterday morning at work, my boss and I headed to the cafeteria for a coffee break. Once there we noticed that the cafeteria workers were setting up something special, in celebration of earth day.

They had a table full of hamburgers, potato salad, beans, and fixings. It was the makings of what looked like a wonderful affair. Coffee cups filled, and a need to get some work done we headed back towards the office.

As we were leaving it was almost like the stars had aligned and things that were meant to be were put into motion. My boss just happened to looking back at me, talking about a report as she was walking through a doorway. Also at that moment a cafeteria worker was rounding a corner and coming through that very same doorway as well, only she happened to be carrying a HUGE cream pie. Everything happened so fast but my boss’s face literally came two inches away from getting creamed with that giant pie.

Unfortunately for me, her reflexes were too quick and she pulled away just in the nick of time. The cafeteria worker veered and swerved while tiring her best to keep the pie balanced. Once everything was ok she looked at me in a most apologetic way.

Seeing that this was something right out of a movie the only think I could think to yell out was, ”THAT WOULD HAVE BEEN HALIRIOUS”. Suddenly the cafeteria worker’s face didn’t seem so sorry and instead had turned into one that was somewhat scornful. I’m sure she had worked hard on that pie but obviously she didn’t quite appreciate the humor in the situation we were all in. I mean come on, how often do people actually get hit in the face with a pie, much less giant pies for that matter?

At the beginning of this month I received my cell phone bill from Sprint. It was nothing unusual; I get them all the time. At least that’s what I thought until I opened it. I was scanning through it when I saw my current balance was $88.73.

“Holy Crap”, I thought “Why is my phone bill so high this month?”

It wasn’t until further investigation that I realized I never received a bill for last month and now I was over due. I didn’t think it was a big deal; I was just going to pay the whole thing when I paid the current bill.

With the bill being due on the 20th of this month I waited until I got paid on Friday morning to send the money in. Because I pay it electronically, five full days in advance should have been plenty of time. Well Sprint being the phone service Nazi that they are called me on Saturday asking me to make a payment over the phone. Surely they had to be joking. I had just made a payment the morning before and their calling me at work trying to get money from me. Without loosing my cool I explained to the guy that I had already paid it, and the money will get to them before my bill is due. He told me that was fine and I brushed it off. I didn’t give it another thought. At least I didn’t until today.

Everyday I call my girlfriend when I get off work to let her know that I’m heading home and to ask her how her day has been. It’s just something I’ve always done and I’m sure that I always will. Today however, when I tried to make that call I was immediately transferred to Sprint. The guy on the other end hardly said hello before he was trying to get me to pay them to restore my service, which had now been cut off.

Annoyed to no end I gritted my teeth and I told them that I made that stupid payment and my bill wasn’t even due until Wednesday. I was hot. I couldn’t figure out what was going on, and I asked to speak to a manager. The guy calmly talked me into waiting until I got home and checked my bank account to make sure the money had gone through, because without some kind of confirmation they couldn’t do anything about it. Although I should have cussed him and his momma up and down until they turned my phone on again, it made sense at the time and I agreed to do just that.

I gave myself a little time to cool off when I got home and I went about my normal evening routine. Then after awhile I sat down and looked at my bank account. My payment posted on Friday. My blood started to boil and my breathing got real deep. It looked like Sprint had my money all weekend and not only did they call me they cut off my phone. I was ready to bust some heads.

I called them right up and I enlightened them that I paid this bill. I explained to them that I had a confirmation number and this money was no longer in my account. I informed them that this is ridiculous and we need to get this worked out. Finally after I finished with all my ranting the guy at the other end explained that I needed to talk to a different department about this and he was going to have to transfer me. Although what he really meant was I don’t want to listen to you because I’m not even in your country and I’m going to put you on hold until the phone hangs up.

Fifteen minutes later I called back and asked nicely for someone to help me. When this lady went through the same spill I had heard for the 3rd time today I asked her if I could just speak to a manager because I just wanted to get this resolved. I heard a couple of beeps and a click and magically I was transferred to somewhere here in the United States.

Although she was the first one who could speak perfect English I can’t remember her name. I didn’t matter anyhow because all I needed to know was that she was a manager and she was going to get this resolved for me right now.

Once again I stated my case and I went into great detail of what was going on. I told her that my bank says that Sprint should have my money. I let her know how stupid their system is that it doesn’t at least give their customer’s until the next billing cycle to make their payments before they cut off their service. I told her I was upset that no one had been able to help me and that I am very disappointed with Sprint right now. She apparently sat there and let my complaints fall on deaf ears. She was not ready to help. It was then that I believe I started to shake. I was so upset with them I wanted to throw my phone across the room and smash it into a million pieces.

I then asked the manager how long I had had my account with Sprint. When she told me I opened it in February of 2000 I almost hit the roof. In a very stern voice through a locked jaw I asked her if she could tell me why after 5 years of service they cut my phone off for being late once. After 60 non late payments, they think I’m some jerk who isn’t going to pay my bill. Did they think after all this time with them that I’m just going to say “You know what; I don’t think I’m going pay for this anymore”? Apparently not only did they think this, but the gratitude I get for being such a loyal customer for such a long time is them not wanting to work with me, even after I explained I had already paid my bill and my money would be there in a matter of hours.

I think it was then that she realized that maybe it might be a good idea to get this fixed. Maybe this guy who’s been on the phone for a freaking hour might not be lying about paying his bill. Maybe as a huge conglomerate of a company they may be being a bit to self righteous about this whole matter. It’s just $44 bucks that only 20 something days late. No one’s life is on the line. No one is going to lose their job over this.

I tell you what; if I didn’t get such a good deal on my cell phone rate I would take my number and go elsewhere. I would happily pay some other service provider for another 5 years so as long as they listened to me when I had a complaint. I would do it even if it meant that the service was not quite as good just out of spite. After today I see that with Sprint I’m not a loyal customer. I’m just $44 bucks a month and some phone number in a computer. They could care less about me recommending them to my friends or mentioning them as a good organization to do business with. They are just some stuck up a-holes who did nothing but piss me off. So as I stand here on my soap box preaching about the evils of Sprint I just want everyone to know that I’m sending a big SCREW YOU out to all those people that run that company.

So in case you need to get a hold of me, my phone is turned on and it works great.

I’ve been awfully busy this week. I had a test on Tuesday and then a project due on Wednesday and unfortunately, I procrastinated until the last minute on doing both of them. The test that I had was in my business law class. The same business law class in which my professor hasn’t been there for several weeks (see story below), and it was going to be a monster of a test. This monster test was over seven chapters of material. Seven! Because my teacher hadn’t been there, that meant that there were no notes to study. All I had were just seven chapters from book and a highlighter.

I started studying on Monday night at 6:00 when I got home from work. I tore through those seven chapters in a little under four hours. I had those things so full of bright yellow and blue lines they might have caused blindness if opened in direct sunlight.

When I finished coloring the chapters I then had to go back and make “study sheets” for each one. “Study sheets” as my teacher calls them are anything you think you should know about a particular chapter, hand written, on a piece of note book paper front and back. You can then use these “study sheets” during the test. It’s a sweet deal except you spend so much time making them, that 99% of the questions you will already know. It truly is a great way to study. But once again because the test was over seven chapters, that meant I had to make seven pages front and back of these notes for the test.

I worked as hard as I could but by 12:00 I was beat, and all I was able to finish were two chapters. I called it a night and went to bed. Then I woke up early the next morning and worked on them again for an hour and a half, until I had to go to my first class.

By the time I finished class my head was swimming. I had been studying for this test for seven and a half hours and then I had to go home and study some more. I walked through the parking lot where I thought my car was parked and looked around. I couldn’t help but notice my car wasn’t where I thought I’d left it. Confused but not totally freaked out, I walked up and down every aisle of that parking lot pushing the button on my keyless entry every couple of steps.

After awhile I called Heather and told her what was going on. She agreed to meet me at school to help me look. She was on the other side of town and it was going to take her awhile to get there. While she was on her way I continued to walk. Up and down, up and down I walked, pushing that keyless entry every step of the way. I was slowly but surely starting to think I ought to be scared. I noticed that I was at a loss for emotion about my circumstances because the seriousness of the matter was something I should have been concerned about, it just wasn’t registering in my brain.

Finally when Heather showed up I spotted my car. I guess I must have missed it the first couple of times I walked by, because I honestly didn’t remember parking so far away. Also I wasn’t able to find it with the keyless entry because it was now dead. I guess there wasn’t much juice to start with in that battery and I just ran it into the ground pushing that button so many times. Furthermore to make matters worse the car next to me was literally six inches away from me and it practically took a can opener to get in.

After I found my car I was relieved but still out of it. I had lost my car because my brain was so full of business law stuff and there wasn’t even enough room in there for me to freak out about it. It didn’t take longer after that to finally give up with the studying. It was just too much at once and I couldn’t handle it. I was crammed full.

Naturally I’m glad I didn’t actually lose my car and although I know the steps I should take to get the matter of a stolen care resolved, I honestly had no idea what I was going to do.

For the past three weeks my business law professor hasn’t been in class. He’s been in the hospital getting better. While he’s been gone his son has been coming in and having us sign a roll sheet, then either watching a video or just letting us leave. All and all it hasn’t been so bad except that we were worried about what had happened to our teacher.

Before I tell you this story let me give you a little background on this teacher. On the first day of class he was going over the syllabus with us when he pointed out a sentence that was typed in bold letters. It read, “If you have to call for an emergency, please ask them to bring a deliberator”. He then proceeded to tell us that he has already had three heart attacks in his life time. One of which has been while teaching class. Therefore, he then gave us specific instructions on what we needed to do with a pill case that he keeps in his pocket just in case something were to happen to him.

This little tidbit of information at the time was slightly unnerving. It’s always scary to think something might happen to someone while in class, but when your teacher is telling you, “if I go down, this is what it is, and this is what you need to do. My life is in your hands” you feel that a large burden of responsibility has been put on you other than making a good grade.

Although, luckily nothing happened to him while in the middle of class he unfortunately did have a serious medical problem. Apparently at the beginning of last month he suffered from a mild stroke. It didn’t seem to affect him much and after getting checked out he came right back to work. We as a class wouldn’t have known anything was different except he kept telling us about it. Then two weeks later he suffered from three more strokes and he had to be rushed to the emergency room.

Then while being treated in intensive care he suffered two heart attacks. Luckily for him, at the time of the heart attacks he was in the hospital hooked to a bunch of heart monitoring machines and was able to get assistance right away.

Now after all that my teacher seems to be doing better and is back teaching class. You can tell he is still recovering but overall he seems to be doing fine. The thing is, if we were keeping score on this guy he would be down 4 strokes and 5 heart attacks. The question is, at what point do you think maybe you might want to retire and take it easy?

If that was me you better believe I would be doing a lot less working and a lot more fishing.

On Saturday, while driving to work I saw several donkeys in an enclosed area. They weren’t doing much, just hanging out being donkey. That’s when I started to wonder why people even keep donkeys anymore. Other than a novelty purpose I don’t see a need for them. I mean sure it would be great to have one if you were selling tacos on the corner. But then of course you would have to ruin a perfectly good sombrero by putting holes in it for the donkey’s ears and I just don’t think its worth all that trouble.

I think as a society we should let the donkeys go. Perhaps set aside some land in Montana were the donkeys can run free on the open range. Or maybe perhaps somewhere in Mexico might be a more natural habitat for the now liberated donkeys. Honestly though it’s hard for me to imagine “wild donkeys” so I really have no idea where they would go or what they would do. Maybe that’s why we haven’t let them go. Maybe they are just so domesticated that they would just wonder aimlessly though our streets. But we’ll never know until we try it.

I just think it’s silly though to keep them pined in like that for no reason. Sure it’s cool for when people come to visit because then you can say, “Huyuk, wanna see my donkey” but that’s it. The same goes for peacocks, llamas, and all those other animals’ people seem to want to keep as pets even though they don’t do anything with them.