Luke Grown Up

It’s Saturday morning, and I’ve been up since 8 AM.  “Why?” you’re probably asking. Well, lately I’ve been getting up at 8ish whether or not I have anything to do, and it’s been helpful. I have the whole day at my fingertips, and I feel better all day and tired earlier, so I sleep more fitfully. Also, I happen to be working right now, so I had to get up early just to get here. Though I didn’t really want to, considering I was up until 2:30 because my friend and his girlfriend were vomiting simultaneously in my bathroom until about that time. Naturally I wasn’t too thrilled about it, but I suppose it doesn’t matter now that I’m up. I’ll probably take a nap when I get home. Other than that, not much else to speak of - things are going well! I’m happy! WEEEOOOOOOOO

I sit before the computer a bruised man. My heart aches and the word “Please” has become my internal mantra for the day.

This entry is not about love lost or even anything mundane or trivial. Indeed, this is a big deal, but at this point, I don’t feel much like discussing it. I shall distract you and myself by telling you about my grown-up life.

Much has changed since August. I have moved into my new apartment with my new roommate. Both are better, though the apartment is a tad smaller. The day before I moved in I called Comcast to get our Internet and cable set up, and our appointment was somewhere near September 10th.  This was a bad news story for us. Luckily, my roommate (Bill) has a girlfriend that lives in an apartment complex right nearby, and she told him that Comcast was poaching around the complex in their trucks, so Bill went over and asked them if they could come to our place - they said yes, and the next day we had HD cable with a DVR and a wicked fast Internet connection - observed speeds up to 3 Mb/s down. That is the fastest connection I’ve ever had, so I was pumped. I was also able to finally get my Media Center PC up and running thanks to Ed (my roommate from last year) and a lot of tinkering. It is awesome. Our place came with almost all the furniture, so we had to buy very little, and it made life so easy. I have a meal plan, so I can eat at the DC 6 times a week, which is clutch. This way I don’t even have to make dinner anymore-  I just gorge myself at the cafeterias on campus.

Class is going well. Both are worlds easier than Organic Chem, so I’m happy.

And jobs! Oh jobs. I am working for IT at my school 20 hours a week. I still work at that electronics store, but I’m done. As in, I have shifts this week that I’m not showing up for, nor calling in about. Now, I know this is a bad idea on several fronts, I’m burning my bridges and so forth, but honestly, I don’t give a shit. The job sucks, and I was only there for a few months, and I wouldn’t want to put that on my resume anyway - “HEY I SOLD COMPUTERS AND SHITTY WARRANTEES FOR A WHOLE SUMMER”. Besides, they were completely inflexible when it came to hours - I had to change my availability THREE TIMES because I wasn’t available to work enough on the weekends (first I was just doing Sunday, then Friday/Sunday, then all three, which is absurd), and they wanted me to work 24 hours over the course of the weekend. Not wanting to kill myself with stress or the inevitable gun I’d buy at the nearby Dick’s Sporting Goods, I decided to be very passive and just stop showing up. I have never done this before in my life, and I think now is the best time ever to do it. With all the management floating around in there, who gives a shit anyway?

Well, that certainly took my mind off things for a little while. I shall be working Monday through Thursday, so you can probably expect some entries in the near future. Maybe even more than one a day.

To those that read this blog regularly (or semi-regularly), I hope you don’t think that I am a whiner. I think I’m dealing pretty well with most things now, so I think I’ll be ok. There is only one major thing in my life that is bothering me immensely at the moment, but I do believe it will be sorted out soon. I can only hope.

Please.

Someday I hope to have children. Among the one or two I plan to have, I want to have a boy. Obviously I would love a girl too, but sometimes a guy just wants a little guy running around. I’ve had a lot of time to think these past months, and it’s given me time to formulate some of the points I would like to tell him. Most of these could be told to a girl too, but I think if I were to tell these to my boy, he would respect them, especially if I told him at a young enough age. So let me start.

Son, when you get older, you won’t have me looking out for you all the time. You’re going to be an independent, successful young man. However, there are things that could stand in your way. I want you to learn from my experience. Some of these points may seem more trivial than others, but I can tell you that they are all important in some way.

1. Always shave the mustache first. Whether you’re using a manual razor and you’re low on time, or you’re using an electric razor and the battery dies, you will at least have a symmetrical partial-shave. While it is tempting to leave the mustache for last, this is always a bad idea - the mustache will make you look like a child molester, and you’ll be stuck with that look for at least the rest of the day. Believe me.
2. If you’re at a mall, avoid the food court at or before 5 PM. It will be filled with nothing but fat people.
3. Read. Not just magazines or the backs of cereal boxes - actual books. Literature is extra points. Your brain will thank you, and to be honest, it’s usually better than reruns of Charles In Charge.
4. Work your ass off, wherever you are. Jobs and school are important, and working hard at both will guarantee you that you will do better and better things as time goes on.
5. Stay away from rap music. It’s bad for your worldview.
6. You’re not Irish, don’t pretend you are. Your mom may be half-Irish, so that makes you at most a quarter Irish. Your heritage is richer and worth more than poisoning your liver night after night and listening to Dropkick Murphys and rationalizing it by saying, “It’s ok, I’m Irish. This is what the Irish do.” Have some pride for yourself and don’t base your identity around stereotypes of your partial nationality.
7. Don’t waste time with shitty women. It’s bound to happen someday, but after your first block of time with one, learn from it. Recognize that you squandered your energy on something that was not worth it, and move on.
8. Don’t ever buy reality television shows on DVD. Just don’t do it.

Boy, I hope you learn from the follies of your old man. I don’t expect you to understand the implications of each of these points immediately, but in time the truths will reveal themselves. I also recognize that if you’re anything like me, you’ll forego all of this advice and do it all on your own. While it is satisfying to do it all and learn on your own, let me put it to you this way. Mankind has been making mistakes for tens of thousands of years. The only way we have the technologies and novelties we have today is because people learned from those fuck-ups. So don’t be stubborn - read this list, take these points to heart, and think everyday. This is by no means a hard-and-fast set of rules that will govern everything, but this will at least get you started.

I love you, son.

I’m making it through. This summer, easily the WORST of my life, is almost over. There is not optimism or pessimism about this - it was terrible, plain and simple. But at least it’s almost done! That’s good.

Class is so-so. Work is so-so. However, I’ve got a place to live, and I will have a job for the fall, as well as a couple classes to take.

Best of all, I have the love of a wonderful woman to carry me through it all.

Last, I will be moving from today.com sometime soon - the ads have become too much, and I don’t think it’s worth it to anyone to have ads up, since I’m not getting paid anyway (they get you good by only paying out after you make 50 bucks - a feat that can take at LEAST 2 months, but which I will not reach for at least 6).

I will continue this blog as time goes on, but right now, there is nothing too special to discuss - I will keep y’all posted.

Yes, I said “y’all.”

There is this guy I know loosely. Since winter break I’ve been seeing him regularly here and there. He lived in my dorm, he was in my winter class, and then he was in one of my spring semester classes. Now I ride the bus with him to and from class. It’s fucked up. It’s as if the Fates are telling me that I should be friends with him. We live near each other (still), and we’re both pre-med.

Obviously the Fates are fucking retards, because they’re not seeing him clearly. Either that or they’re sympathizing with him because he too is a fucking idiot. Here’s what I mean:

• He looks like a caveman: short, stocky, beady eyes, flat head, big ears. He looks like he hasn’t fully evolved.
• He only wears a combination of these things: Nike flip-flops, socks, sweatpants, mesh shorts, a black Nike hoodie, and Under Armor. That’s it. I have not seen him wear any other clothes, and I’ve seen him nearly every day for fucking 7 months. It’s the summer and he still wears that stuff.
• He rarely (if ever) did his homework in our winter class. It took him at least a week and a half to go to the Continuing Education office and pay for the course, but I’m almost positive he never went and paid for it at all. Meaning, he sat in class for 3 long weeks and it amounted to nothing for him.
• In the spring, he sat sullenly in the discussion section and didn’t say a word, fidgeting in an exaggerated fashion, waiting to get out of the room. One time when I left he bestowed upon me his wisdom: “I hate that guy [the TA, a middle-aged graduate student]! Everything that comes out of his mouth is soooo stupid!” Uh huh. Though the TA didn’t always use class time effectively (one time he walked in with a huge roll of paper towels and wiped off his mysteriously soaked desk, then calmly asked the class, “Anybody want some paper towels? I got a whoooole roll.”), he knew what he was talking about and tried to help us understand the material.

Now, I may or may not have the makings of a doctor myself. My grades aren’t the best and I haven’t done any work in the health field yet. But this dude has no chance. He is a bottom-feeder content with mediocrity, listening to shitty rap while he plays on his overexpensive phone. But that’s okay with me. If he applies to med school, which I hope he does, he’ll make me look that much better.

I’m now down to a pretty workable routine that still needs some tweaking, but it’ll work for now. My friend Bill and I just put in our applications for a place that’s really close to campus, and we are awaiting a call back.  The rent isn’t too bad, considering the proximity to campus and such.  I’m doing the best that I can with what little money I have, as I haven’t really bought anything but food (and one ticket to The Dark Knight) for weeks now.  I haven’t even had to fill up the gas tank on my dad’s car yet - he’s lent it to me for the rest of the summer and all I really do is drive to work and come home. I would love to go to Boston to see Sara but that requires money that I definitely don’t have. When you’re taking class, it’s hard to make enough money to do anything extra, unless I wanted to kill myself and work 50 hours a week (which I guess wouldn’t be that bad - I would definitely get more stuff done, I bet).  Things aren’t going badly, per say, but my parents keep freaking me out because all they talk about is money. Granted, money is a big deal, but I can’t focus on my work if I’m talking about money all the time. I make ends meet how I need to, and I never intend on being late with my rent.

I just wrote an article for today.com about the Sprint Cup. It was pretty god-awful, but I thought it was funny. I basically just talked about the biggest losers and why we need them in order to have winners.  Hopefully they like it.

Anyway, I have work in a couple hours, so I should probably get started on my lab report that’s due tomorrow.  As long as I can make it to the fall, I think I’ll be okay.

I’ll keep you all posted on anything interesting!

You can thank this post to one factor and one factor alone: procrastination.

Right now I am not doing my lab write-up for tomorrow’s lab because I just don’t want to. It’s one of those things that feels overwhelming until you start it, then it gets much less so. I hate lab, and I hate Organic Chem more on the whole.  They suck!

Anyway, I have a couple of pretty decent posts coming up soon - I just have to write them.  Also, since today.com is no longer paying me for one post a day, get ready to see more than one a day sometimes.  Just sometimes.

Keep on reading - it will get better. I promise.

So I spent the weekend in Boston with Sara, and it was well-deserved. I had a blast with her, got to see my friend Sean that I haven’t seen since last summer, and had some good times. My parents got me some groceries, did my laundry, and gave me their car for the summer. I know, I’m very lucky. This weekend was the only thing keeping me from wigging out, since I actually got outta here and saw some cool dudes. The summer is almost half over, and so is this goddamn awful Orgo course.

I also just realized, as I’m looking for a place for the fall, that I have no way to get to work without the bus.  I can take the bus, but it’s going to be a pain in the ass. Again.  Now I’m starting to get stressed again. Now, don’t get me wrong - the bus is a great asset, and a great idea in theory. But when buses only run hourly and I have to transfer, it’s a pain in the ass.

That is all.

All I have left is one more day, and then I’m outta here.  I have class, review session, lab, and work today, and review and my exam tomorrow, then I am OUTTA HERE.  For the first time in a month I’m venturing outside of the bubble of this hippieburg, and I’m happy about it. Maybe I’ll actually see some real people!

More exciting is the fact that I’ll see SARA! Hopefully she likes the surprise I put together (after I give it to her I’ll tell you about it, don’t worry!).  I’m pretty damn stoked, I must say.

Which leads me to ask you, the readers: was there ever a time when looking forward to something, and when it finally arrived, it was awesome? Leave a comment!

Tomorrow is Monday. I am doing pretty well right now. I worked all weekend, and I was able to sell a LOT of stuff at work - I feel a lot better about it, because today was a big day and I was able to do my job really well.  At the end of my shift, the manager thanked me personally for my high level of energy on the floor. I was really pleased with it, and I felt proud.  But I was just myself and I told the truth about the products, and people were glad and bought them.

The only reason I picked up this computer right now was because something weird happened to me regarding music. Lately it’s been happening that I’ll have a song in my head, and when I turn on my MP3 player, that will be the first song that comes up (it’s perpetually on shuffle).  It’s a very strange thing. Anyway, I am lying next to my laptop doing some work for my Organic Chem class, and I’ve had Wilco’s “Leave Me Like You Found Me” stuck in my head for awhile for no reason - I haven’t heard it in awhile. Well, my arm slipped and hit the front of my computer, where the media buttons are located. I didn’t realize I had Winamp running since there was no music playing, but I did, and my arm caused the playlist (also perpetually on shuffle) to skip a track and play the Wilco song that I had stuck in my head.  Odd stuff.

Now Ween’s “Waving My Dick In The Wind” is on, and it’s awesome. Ol’ Jimmy Wilson is a real good dancer, even though he’s an old man now.   If you don’t know what I’m talking about, just listen to the goddamn song.