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Caring for Plants

I was a little scattered and a little off track today. I wanted to make a slide presentation for the teachers on Monday, but I never got around to it. Eaddie wanted to go to the park, so I had her take me to my house while Summer went to the gym. Dad came by to meet Kevin and take Bác Vân’s old mattress to the dump. Mom stopped by at the same time, and then Doug came out to see everyone. I loaded up the bike rack and a couple bikes for Eaddie, which got me super sweaty due to the humidity. It threatened rain, but it never came down.

I eventually had a shower, and then Summer picked me up for lunch. We found Eaddie at Kroger so I could return the bike lock key to her, and then we went to New China. We ran into Sharon there, and she stepped over from their table to talk for a moment. The sentiment about the district seems as shaky as ever.

Summer didn’t feel great after we ate, but we still made time to go by a junk store in the old mall parking lot. I guess they buy pallets of returns and fill a bunch of bins with it, and then sell things for a set price that drops every day of the week until everything finally goes for a buck. It was mostly pilfered junk, but we picked up some Andes mints, a bag of coffee, and the most surprising find of all, a sync module for my Blink camera.

We laid on the couch when we got back to the house, and I played a game on my phone while Summer watched TV. Eventually Eaddie was ready to come home but had to do something with the bikes first, so I met her at my house to put all of that away. Then we came back to the house for the night. I watched Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 3 with Summer, and then it was off to bed way later than I intended.

Just a little watering routine. Nothing to cry about.

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Too Much Milling About

I got up with the girls this morning, but then napped for a little bit longer before going home to shower. I planned to take some Ridgewood Brothers BBQ to the mill as a gesture of goodwill since I still hadn’t actually accepted their job offer yet. Gary didn’t answer my call, but then responded to my text to say that they ended up filling the position earlier this week. I was pretty upset, but it wasn’t much of a surprise after all the time I had wasted since the original offer. Part of me thinks I should have just left the school without any qualms, since I had no evidence that the superintendent was actually putting forth any effort to increase my pay. Maybe he has, but he’s certainly not any good at communicating his intent.

Around that time, Eaddie finished at band practice. I told her I was free for lunch, so she came to pick me up and we went to Ridgewood ourselves. She made me get the two meat plate because she wanted a bite of some ribs, so I wasn’t quite as satisfied with my meal as I usually am. Then we went back to my house to get my car, but ended up leaving it there to stay on the charger.

As we left, I noticed she had things strewn all around the car, and my lip balm had been tipped up on its side, leaking out all over the place. Fortunately there was a removable rubber tray and it wasn’t terribly difficult to clean up. I was mostly upset that my lip balm was wasted all because the girls couldn’t pay attention to what the hell they were doing in my car.

When we got back to the house, I sat and played 20 Minutes Till Dawn on my phone. I brought my little 8BitDo controller, which made the game a lot more playable. Summer eventually made it home, but didn’t want to get back out. Eaddie and I went back to Ridgewood to try their pork belly pops and some brickle bars. We were in and out, but then got stopped by a train for several minutes as it went back and forth in front of us.

We loved the porksicles, and the desserts were great too. Then I laid in Summer’s lap while she watched TV, and played more of my new game until bedtime.

I like to think I would have been less happy there anyway.

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4 10 2 5 8

My car didn’t get a full charge this morning, but I still had plenty to get around. I was a little bit early to work, but not enough to comfortably stop for a coffee after getting stuck behind some slowpokes. My mind scrambled to fix as many major issues as I could, while being tugged in about a dozen different directions. Overall I enjoy the pace and how things are different every day, but it comes down to wanting more money. I shouldn’t be making “tech” level pay for what I have to know to do that job.

Kim came in late after one of the kids stepped on a rusty nail. It seems like every day it’s something, but I can’t get too mad if she’s there on a day off. We’ll see how long her days are when she’s actually on contract, but I’m not super impressed by the summer help any more. I have a feeling I may just be too ambitious for that district, though.

Denise was working with new hires for orientation, so I met up with them later to distribute some Chromebooks. I still don’t know where any of them are going for inventory management, but I can do that on spreadsheets for now, and then the next guy probably won’t care. There was some leftover pizza from feeding someone, so I had that for lunch.

I eventually headed home, where Summer had beat me to the charger. I changed, and then just took her to her house so her car could charge overnight. Eaddie decided she wanted chicken for dinner, so I ran to Popeye’s and ordered there after having repeat trouble with my payment getting refunded on the app.

After we ate, Eaddie and I listened to some Zelda music for a bit. Then I tried to help Summer finish some loan paperwork for the house. She had some kind of Social Security Number on her credit report that she didn’t recognize, but I’d never seen anything like that before. I guess we’ll have to contact the agencies to figure out what that’s about.

No more three day weekends for awhile…

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Out of Summer

I stopped by Burger King for breakfast since I left the house a little early this morning. I felt better after getting a little more sleep last night, and made it to work feeling relatively refreshed. Most of my day was eaten up trying to calm down the cafeteria manager, but we did find a legitimate issue with an old password being used with our Cognos Downloader script. After that, the new students just weren’t showing up on her POS because the year hadn’t started yet.

Kim came in and worked with me for most of the day, but we were a little bit all over the place. We still didn’t enroll any more Chromebooks or wire any carts. We simply won’t be ready for the start of school, and I don’t think I care.

I left work pretty late because Kim’s daughter brought her laptop in for some help. I guess she interrupted an update that caused her wireless card to stop seeing any networks. Luckily I was able to find a USB wireless adapter and performed some updates that got her working again.

Summer was home before me, so when I asked about dinner plans, she just said, “yes.” I called Taco Villa for a taco salad and nachos, ran by the car wash for a quick, 75-cent wash, and then picked up the food. The three of us picked at everything I brought, and then I played some EVO on my Steam Deck until everyone went to bed.

I’ve been your Summer IT guy.

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Carti-B

The maintenance folks brought our Chromebook carts back from Plainview purgatory for us, so after Kim got there this morning, we went out and cleaned them up a bit so we could load chargers into them. My days are only going to get more and more scattered as people start filing into the building, and it’s difficult to care a whole lot when I don’t know where I’ll be in two weeks.

My days are boring without any real peers, or places to go for lunch. I’ve just been snacking on random things throughout the day without anything for lunch. Kim did mention that someone had a coffee pot for us to keep in the office, so that will be nice to have.

Later in the afternoon, I had my phone interview with a lady from the EEOC. She was really easy to talk to, and did a good job of explaining the process and answering my questions. Now I’ve just got to make a decision, in the middle of picking my career for the foreseeable future, and trying to purchase a new home.

I got home late, went to Taco John’s for some food, and then went up to Summer’s to eat with the girls. Then it was a pretty early night to bed since I’ve been so exhausted since this weekend.

I’m gonna sue, sue, yes I’m gonna sue!

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Crying Over Spilled Coffee

I was up a few times in the middle of the night, and woke up still very exhausted this morning. I had to stop by Casey’s for a coffee on my way to work, and then I fought a heavy head for most of the day. I thought I’d poke around the Ubiquiti stuff a little more, but then random things just kept happening. I had several people come into my office, and even a phone call and some emails. I’m nowhere near ready for the start of school, but somehow the stakes feel even lower than before.

Alisha said the repair wasn’t going to be ridiculous, and the sellers agreed to pay for the truss repair and the bad nail in the roof. I really wanted the trusses to be fixed before we agreed to buy the house, just in case something else went wrong, but hopefully the inspector and the guy giving the quote for the repair today were both right, and it won’t be a big deal. I signed some more paperwork, and then made my way home.

Eaddie started marching season, so she was out in the car all day. I stopped by Casey’s again a couple times for some rewards, and then made it up to Summer’s house. She had a rough day and was sat in front of the TV, so I ate some leftovers. It was a pretty quiet evening, except for a short, mad dash to renew some registrations on some vehicles and then upload some paperwork to the bank for the loan. I have a feeling I’ll fall asleep pretty quickly tonight.

Needs more music for my ears.

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Three Early Five Me

Julie finally fell asleep last night after screaming at me for an hour about how early she had to get up. I showered at night so I could just jump out of bed at 3:15, giving me 45 minutes to do any last-minute packing, and then we were off to the airport. There wasn’t really any traffic because of how early it was, and we ended up waiting at the gate for a couple hours before boarding. The trip back to Fayetteville was even faster than the trip up, at about an hour and 15 minutes.

We got to the car and headed toward home, stopping at a Sam’s Club and then a Vietnamese place called TyPHOon for lunch. The phở was pretty good, but the bánh mì was really lean on filling. From there, we made it to Ozark so Dad could take over driving from Julie. I just played my Steam Deck the entire way.

Once home, I unpacked and decompressed for just a little while before heading up to Summer’s. Eaddie has been driving herself around in the Murano, so I guess I’ll be taking the Model 3 up there overnight now. I should be able to charge up fast enough in the morning while I shower, to keep up with my usage throughout the day.

Summer made a turkey breast in the slow cooker, along with mashed potatoes and broccoli salad. I ended up taking over the gravy, which turned out super salty from saving all of the drippings. I kept trying to fall asleep after that, so I popped an iron pill and went to bed early.

Oh, man.

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Fish and Family

We slept in a little bit today, but the fire alarm went off shortly after I got out of bed. Mom and Dad evacuated, but Julie and I never got to that point. I got dressed and picked up some breakfast to bring back to the room, and then went down for some oatmeal once my parents were ready to eat. We killed a bit of time in our hotel room afterward, and it was all I could do to mask the loud TV with my headphones until we were ready to leave.

Somebody found a different boat tour with a paddleboat instead, and we met everyone there for a 45 minute ride down the river. It wasn’t terribly hot out, and we saw a bald eagle in a tree on the edge of the water. When we finished the tour, we headed straight to Two Brothers Roundhouse for a distillery tour and tasting.

By the time we got there, I needed the drinks. It was like competing for oxygen in the car. It was a neat building that used to be a turning station for trains. A couple of the spirits were really good, and after a slightly extended tour with the bar manager, we found a table at the restaurant for an early dinner.

The food was really good, and we had some great conversations. We parted ways with Aunt Diane, Brandan, and Nicolle, and the rest of us went to a downtown area in Geneva for some ice cream at a Kilwins and a brief walk to another chocolate store before we headed back to our cars. We said our goodbyes, and made our way back to the hotel so Julie could get her beauty rest.

I’m still waiting to be impressed by how quickly you can fall asleep and quit bitching at me.

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Melodical

I got up earlier than I really needed to this morning for my shower, and then went down for breakfast by myself. since Julie had already brought food back to the room, and my parents weren’t awake yet. I went down again with my parents once they were ready, and by the time they finished up, it was time to head to the church.

We made it to the St. Michael Romanian Byzantine Catholic Church, which had the longest name of any church I’ve ever seen, to meet up with the other pallbearers before the service. There weren’t a ton of people there, but it was nice to see so much of Thea’s family show up. We didn’t really speak to any of them, but later we talked with the cousins about how family is such an important part of Asian culture.

The service itself felt long, partially because we spent much of it standing while the priest melodically spoke or sang the prayers repeatedly. It was an interesting experience, and then John gave a great eulogy at the end. The burial was short, and then we returned to the church for the reception luncheon. Thomas came to sit with us briefly, and I think that was the most I had ever talked to him in my entire life. I was really happy that we could start closing the gap between all of the cousins.

After the reception, we headed back to the hotel for a while. Julie really wanted a Chicago-style pizza, but just as she and Dad were deciding where to find one, Tom called and invited us all back to his place for the evening. We ended up taking pizza with us, and we ate and socialized for a few hours. It really was a good time, and seemed much less stressful than yesterday as everyone was still kind of waiting to get everything done. I learned that Angela was into pottery, and I showed her Suzanne’s Instagram. I brought my Steam Deck to show Brandan and John, discovered that Nicolle knew Shang Tsung, and then had a laugh at my laundry routine.

We tried coming up with plans for the next day, but nobody committed to anything. We ended up leaving late and getting back to the hotel, where everyone promptly went to bed after a long day.

One’a thems.

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Good Jhaab

I got everything loaded up this morning and my parents picked Julie up, and then had her drive to get me and head to the Fayetteville airport. The timing worked out fairly well, and we didn’t have to wait too terribly long before we could board the plane. Then the flight was only about an hour and a half to O’Hare. From there, we took a rental car to a sandwich shop called Al & Joe’s. It was predictably complicated to order food for the four of us, but it was decent food. I had a pastrami sandwich which was heavily center-loaded and not cut all the way through. Mustard got all over my hands, so I just had to thoroughly clean up afterward.

From there, we made it to Tru by Hilton, which seemed like a small, “trendy” hotel. They had a pool table in the lobby, so after a little bit of rest and then fighting over who would talk to whom about when to go where and what to eat, Dad and I went down to play. We were both pretty equally bad, but it was fun. Then we ended up going to Thomas’s house to gather for dinner.

It was great to see the cousins we hardly knew, and meet all of their partners or otherwise. Brandan spent most of the time grilling burgers while the ladies got everything else ready. We really didn’t want to make anyone host, and had hoped to take them out to eat, but after two events in such a short period, maybe this is just how it goes. All I have to say is that people had better expect a potluck for our parents, because we’re not hosting a bunch of judgmental family in our time of grief.

We had a reasonably good time in spite of the added stress, and hopefully this weekend we’ll have some time for fun. It sounds like nobody really expected us to be around for this long though, so we’ll just see what happens.

I think we were pretty much the last ones out of the house, and we made it back to the hotel reasonably quickly. Julie and I stayed up chatting for quite a while, which turned a 10-minute blogging routine into a two hour ordeal. We’ll be up early for breakfast and a funeral tomorrow, so hopefully the bed will be comfortable, but not so comfortable that I won’t be able to get up in the morning.

One, big, happy.