This one time, I tied my shoe, and...

mmm... my hands reek of ginger and cinnamon. It's a sickly delicious flavor. My reeking hands are a sign that good food was made! (here's a cooking secret: go light on the cumin when on pasta)

but anyway, the news!

So much has happened lately, I don't think I can recall it all in one sitting. Here goes.

So, yesterday, I woke up late in the day(noon), as usual. I'm starting to get really frustrated with my shifted schedule, because I keep expecting to wake up and the having the sun just rising. It's kind of reassuring to see the sun rise when you wake, and set when you sleep. Most people in my age group never wake up at 7 and crash at 11:30 (especially on a consistent enough basis), but after trying it (and I used to call myself a night owl!), and leaving it, I miss it. Sure, I always felt slightly tired. I like to keep going till i'm exhausted (a nightowl trait), and so I consistently stayed up too late too much. Sure, I felt that time, in the long run, was passing by too quickly (they say you've live half your life when you're 20!). But, I got so much done each day. Boom! Boom! Boom! One task, one event, one chore, done one after another, and before I knew it, I had completed so much, I had learned so much...

Sadly, I base my life's worth on what I've done (though I give a little bit of credit to what I know). Am I just a mindless zombie who may only work?

The work takes the pain away, pain that I don't have anymore. My pain was stolen by time while I was busy working, I think. Time seems to steal everything eventually (don't I sound gothic?)

If I were playing an RPG, like, say, Seiken Densetsu III, I would name my character Chronos. (too bad I work too much to play, yes?)

and that brings me to back to video game playing. I got off video games quite easily when my new job started up. I don't miss them at all. It was so boring, just investing so much time to yield secret treasures, I hated it.

So many people are wasting their lives playing these distractions. It's heinous! I did it, and after sampling the real world, it was so good that I don't think I want to go back to video games (although I might engineer one that has all the fixes that I think need to be made, but that would be in the far future). People who play them a billion times are typically so shallow... they don't even know it!

A lot of those people have potential. It saddens me to see it suppressed by the box.

Whoa! Way off topic! So precious! So Siam! Whow!

Anyway, (as I was saying) I woke up late Sunday morning, and was pissed. I got myself ready for the day, mowed the lawn till done (done!), went inside, tried to study for japanese class (4-6!) but couldn't because of phone calls from friends, so I settled on making a schedule of to-do's and a generalized plan of my week.

I learned a lesson last week. With the shift in my schedule giving me a jet-lag effect, and my lack of planning bringing little structure to my life, little is getting done. I need to double up and take hold of my plans (which have been in such high gear now that I can't stop them. Everything must continue!)

A little side note, I always warp my plans whenever some sort of special occasion occurs (special in that it doesn't happen all the time) I feel that I can put off other things, but not the special event!

And now, back to our regular viewing experience!~

Anyway, I left the house early to study at my teacher's house (free of distractions, packed with lots of references!), and was driving down broadway (the long way to Richard's) to get gas at CostCo...

Hey! Little Japan's is open! I can get that covetted sesame seed grinder that I've always wanted! YYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

YAY!

so, I go in there, and find my sesame seed grinder. But!

BUT!

I see lots of dishes. Lots of dishes that appealed to me. I must have them!

So I bought them! And nice soap! And Panco batter!

Now, I have to mention the title of this story. You are reading the classic tale of "Darrel and the $200 in his pocket". I got $200 because I was entitled to a share of the deposit of the apartment I used to live at. I was meaning to deposit it at the bank but... well, it burnt a hole in my pocket! (that and I have enough money to buy a decent used car, which somehow justifies my frivolous spending)

After going to little Japan, I continued on my way to Costco for gas. After getting the gas, I decided, "Hey, let's go into Costco!" And off I went, to the maginificent Wholesale monstrosity that is Costco (at least they pay their employees $40,000-50,000/year). After reviewing certain items, I decided to buy a new 100 pack of CDs(the ones that I had at home were crappy. The brand of CD-R that costco has is really good) and some of their higher quality olive oil (from Tuscany. Good stuff). I was really tempted to buy a new hard drive, since I keep filling my computer up with stuff. But, I didn't. I keep thinking about a 600 gig hard drive instead (you know I'll love it when it suffers a head crash). With these goods in hand, I left CostCo for Staples.

At Staples, I purchased 2 10 packs of DVD-R's on sale.

Now, I saved more money buying the DVD's than the CD-Rs!

for CD-Rs:
$26/(100 CDs * 650 Megs per CD)=$.40/Gig
for DVD-Rs:
(2*$12)/(20 DVDs * 4.7 Gigs per DVD)~$.255/Gig
Good deal!

So, after that, I ran off to WinCo where a hearty welcome by Evan ("You have a lot of nerve coming back here, buddy")and Dezzie ("Let's go over here, where the bad man isn't at") made my day (actually, all but Dezzie and Evan greeted me with smiles and happiness at my presence) I bought some various items, then ran off to Japanese class, because I was late.

At Japanese class, we studied some more fictional japanese stories. Very fun, though I was still disoriented and tired from my flip-flopped schedule. Then, in anticipation of Paul and Erin for old movie night, we cooked this awesome pasta! As we slowly edged toward thinking that they had flaked out, we ate what we had made and started the movie. First movie that we saw was Dead on Arrival, a very well done movie involving an insurance broker who was poisoned with an incurable poison and has very little time to figure out the case before he dies. The second movie, (an Alfred Hitchcock film) 39 steps, was about how a guy gets framed for the death of a British spy and must foil enemy spies' attempts to prove his innocence.

Both were very good, and when I got home I cleaned house (and talked to Meghannraye) till 2 in the morning (I was very restless)

Before I move on, I'd like to say that Meghannraye has been sticking up for me at her workplace... She's been such a big help, defending me whenever she hears any gab about me at work (primarily from Dezzie and Evan). After I left WinCo earlier, (and got my "warm hearted" greetings from Dez and Evan), Meghannraye went to break and found Evan and Dezzie talking. "You were communicating with the traitor, weren't you?" Said Dezzie. "Why can't you put it all behind you, Dezzie?" She said. "You know, he only quit early to get back at Randy(the manager)." "He did?!?" Said Dezzie. "Why?"
"Because he was treating him very badly." Said Meg. "That's not fair! Randy treats me bad, too!" and then Dezzie left. Evan was still left, so she went up to him and said, "And what's your problem?" "He's selfish." "How is he selfish? I don't understand." "He's just a selfish person" He wouldn't give a specific reason, and then he left.

Meghannraye has been helping me clear up problems in ways that I can't do by myself. She's such a great person.

Anyway, so I finished cleaning my bathroom at 2 in the morning and went to sleep, apprehensive of what was to come in the morning

THE DENTIST

I had a hard time sleeping last night. Just had my mind thinking about all kinds of things (what's more, sleeping at 2 is early for me now) But when I awoke in the morning, I was half awake. I got up, brushed my teeth and flossed (to clean anything that could've possibly gotten in) and went off.

The trip to the dentist was crazy. Maybe it was rush hour or something, I don't know. I was half awake on the road. People merging, others cutting people off. I would've had serious road rage if I weren't so tired. I had to slow down so many times...

Meh, what do I care now?

I got to the dentist on time, and learned a good lesson

ALWAYS FLOSS YOUR TEETH

I got in that dentist chair (does the dentist sit in it?) and had the pleasure of having 4 big cavities sealed. Yum. The numbing was fun, but trying not to swallow that water that was used to flush my drilled teeth was not. It was like spending 2 hours swimming with a snorkel, with water coming over the air tube. It was annoying! What's more, the smell emanating from the teeth when the dentist drilled reeked of asbestos (which it wasn't, but was definitely something ground up). In the end, I made it, and have a dental checkup in a few weeks (hopefully not when I fly back to Utah). The dentist is worried that, if the teeth don't get better, some root canals may be necessary.

Yum... pain...

I brushed my teeth every morning and every night. Sometimes even more than that. It was the flossing that mattered. Never did it. I'm ashamed!

So, I drive back home with a MASSIVELY numbed mouth, take a shower, and fall asleep in my empty living room (I want to get a table with chairs, but all we got is driftwood and a credenza)

Woke up on the floor feeling better, and ran off to do laundry. After starting the wash cycle, I went to Tin Can Mailman and bought a few interesting books, one a former HSU book on the history of china (still used) and another being a very nice Japanese dictionary. Then, I got some lunch at Smugs and nearly gagged because of my new fillings (I guess there was junk still in my mouth that never got out that I ingested. It made me sick)While doing my laundry, I found Adrienne at a phone booth

Who's Adrienne? I believe she was in a post a long time ago. She's involved in the Duncan <-> Page saga, which is a sad tale of how Page who couldn't stay faithful to Duncan, but wanted to be with him, and how the mischievious Oliver tainted her mind (and I'm not kidding or being biased. Her dressing style and everything is 80's punk, just like Oliver. She talks like Oliver. It's creepy) and how only Oliver won in the end (and Page coming out with the shortest straw). Adrienne is a roommate of Evan's, former porn star person, a cook, wannabe Japanese fluent person, and very interesting person to spend time talking to. Because a lot our big projects are (coincidentally) the same, we spend a lot of time together, working together to help eachother out.

Anyway, after Evan lost his telephone/internet due to failure to pay, Adrienne was unable to contact me. She used to contact me once every few days at my old house, but when her house lost telephone service she stopped, and when I moved it all turned worse (and since she's roommates with Evan, with Evan treating me so badly as of late, I didn't want to try to get back to her by visiting)

After exchanging formalities, Adrienne told me about how she was moving out of Evan's house to Jeriah "the Tank"'s house. Jeriah is a painter and a good one at that, but I don't enjoy being at his house that much. Jeriah is called the tank because, well... let's just say that his privates remind people of a tank. Jeriah has nude parties, and I'll never forget the first few moments meeting Jeriah (when Adrienne was there)... anyway, I'm gonna have to find some way to deal with this, but at least I can get ahold of Adrienne!

Back to the story! Me and Adrienne both had laundry (coincidentally) that was processing, so we decided to run around Arcata. First stop, the Oxygen bar/Colonic Irrigation place. I had the bright idea of peeking in the windows to see if we saw anything interesting but we threw that idea down and decided to walk in to get a brochure on all of it. Instead, all we got was an oxygen bar "menu" with flavored oxygen types and prices, presented by a weird lady in a very odd but tidy office. We left since we didn't want to spend money.

Next, we went over to Granny B's Chocolate and had ourselves yummy chocolate dipped, caffeinated toffee, while shooting the shit with the baker (we like to cook, so does he!) All kinds of interesting talks about dessert recipes ensued, and me and Adrienne agreed that we'd have to try some.

Then, me and Adrienne walked to the laundromat, having a whole bunch of fun, with me hoarding a whole bunch of toothpicks from the bakery. We said our goodbyes at the laundromat, after agreeing that we really need to get in much better touch with eachother, and that there's many odd similarities in the strangest of places between us.

You know, It's strange. I haven't thought about Adrienne or toothpicks in such a long time. I used to enjoy chewing toothpicks every day last summer, but then I stopped and never thought about it after that. No reason, just stopped.

But somehow this morning, I had this insane longing to visit Adrienne, only to think, "Wait. I can't visit Evan's house. Too many problems!" and then thinking about how to defeat that. I couldn't think of any way except to see her at school, so I tried to put that idea to rest, but I still wanted to visit her.

Now, this is weird because I don't think about Adrienne at all. Mainly, we stopped really talking in late March and I didn't think twice about it (I have too many friends. If you don't try hard enough to get in my life, someone else will!) I still don't think about her. But this morning (before I met up with her) was odd.

What compounds it is that simultaneously, I had really wanted a toothpick in my mouth when I wanted to see Adrienne. Weird, huh? When I got that toothpick with the free sample on it at the bakery, I felt very suspicious.

What the hell? Two things that I had yearned for earlier simultaneously in the morning, neither one a normal want, had become mine, simultaneously. What's going on? I guess we'll never know.

Anyway, cleaned my house completely after getting home, fixed my car up, began to backup my computer for immediate linux-ization (decided on Fedora, though I wanted to go for something more hardcore (like Debian) since I've spent way too much time on linux in the past to be stuck with something more simplistic, but was talked out of it by Eric Anapolsky), but got sidetracked by her grace, the Jaeger. It was worth it, though

Whew! Massive post, and I'm so tired I'm just giving the facts without any interesting detail!

He who has a why to live can bear almost any how. ~Friedrich Nietzsche