Tag: friends

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Meet the Girls

Summer got up and out this morning to pick up Autumn. Eaddie slept all morning until they got back to the house. Jesica texted and said she would be in town, so we decided to meet up for a quick lunch and then some shopping for dinner.

Summer, Eaddie, and I went next door when Bác Vân called with some mashed melon. It was strange and tasteless, but the sugar made it better. Jesica got there and met Autumn before we made it back inside, which I have to assume was awkward and hilarious. From there we went to Burger King for a quick lunch, and then to Walmart for groceries.

We ran into Brandie on our way to pick up kabob skewers, but Summer and Jesica just kept on walking like a pair of awkward children when adults start having a conversation. Eventually they made their way back around so I could introduce them. I think they were mostly shocked that Brandie already knew who they were from my talking about them.

We rounded the girls up and made our way out to start prepping the shish kabobs. We decided to grill at Summer’s house so the girls could get a couple good nights of sleep at home before school starts on Monday. Summer and Jesica had some wine and chatted while I prepped the food. It was a good way for them to get to know each other, and it gave us plenty of time to get hungry again after such a late lunch.

The kabobs turned out pretty great, and the girls all ate over Dinner for Schmucks. Autumn couldn’t finish the movie before passing out as usual. Eaddie had to be told when to go to bed. Jesica was ready to pass out by the time the movie was over, so we let her sleep on the couch. I guess it’s leftovers the rest of the week.

You may say I’m a dreamer, but I’m not.

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Do you even lift, bro?

We split into uneven groups at work today. I, as usual, was on the heavy-lifting crew with Dale and Ryan. We spent all morning removing SMART boards and projectors from the middle school. We ended up taking down one we weren’t supposed to, but that’s just another day in the hood. While we were there, I ran into – or rather was trailed by – an old classmate, Mark. He stopped me to say hello and let me know he had just moved to the district. It was quite the blast from the past.

My foot had been bothering me quite a bit, so when we took a break for lunch and everyone went out, I decided to stay in and have some leftover pizza from yesterday. After lunch, the three of us went to the junior high to do more of the same. The difference there was that I knew my building and stopped us from doing the three extra rooms that weren’t supposed to be done. We even had some extra time to hang one TV because we didn’t have to wait for painters. Once we got back to the shop, I got to hear Jason complain about how heavy the one sever battery was that they lifted. I was quick to let him know that we lifted every single one of them when we unloaded them from the truck, moved the pallets to the correct building, and then unloaded everything into the server room by hand.

I left work and went to Summer’s as she got some things packed for the evening. I picked Eaddie up at karate and was recognized by an old acquaintance, Kyle, that was an instructor there. He was missing all the hair I knew him by, though. From there, we went to my parents’ house to swim for a while. Summer met us there and swam until it was time to eat. Mom made bún bò Huế, which I guess isn’t really atypical for their anniversary. It is summertime, after all, and there’s mint to be eaten. I wrecked Eaddie’s face in some foosball before we headed back home for bed.

It’s a tough job, but the chairs aren’t just going to sit in themselves.

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Ghastly Gasping

We got hit with a pretty bad storm last night that knocked out power for half the town for the better part of the day. I was fortunately only without power for a couple hours compared to some others, but it still wrecked my sleeping for the night. I tried sleeping everywhere from the bed, to my computer chair, to the recliner. I had the most luck in the latter, but even that was very sparing as I found myself waking up gasping for air just as soon as I’d get a little deeper into sleep. When the power finally came back on around 4:30, I went back to sleep in the bed and dreamed that I met Elon Musk and proposed an idea that he liked well enough to offer to send me to Mars. Summer wasn’t too happy about it, but I didn’t get to go anyway because I had to pee too badly. His loss.

When we finally got up, Summer and Eaddie left and I ate some leftovers for breakfast. I didn’t do a whole lot else on my own because I was still pretty run down from the mixed night of sleeping. Josh wanted to go out tonight since we missed last night, so once Summer got back from working out, we met him at the Dardanelle Club for dinner and drinks. Our waitress seemed like maybe she was having an off day, but we made the most out of what we had.

After dinner, Summer and I came back home and watched some TV while I did a load of laundry. Here’s hoping to no more surprises tonight.

Like the crack of the whip, I snap attack!

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Caress Your Balls

A brief interruption in power woke us up really early this morning. I didn’t feel particularly tired, so I got out of bed pretty early for a Saturday. Most of this morning and afternoon was just a lazy day. I spent some more time fighting with my media server, and Summer napped for a while. We eventually got out of the house to meet up with Ronda and Steven for some Fat Daddy’s.

On our way out the door, Summer checked the mail and found my free pair of glasses from Zenni Optical, courtesy of EyeQue. They seem to have a lot of glare, even from the reflection of my own eyes on the back of the lenses. They’re fine for near-sight, but looking at anything far away seems way blurry at first. My eyes will adjust eventually, but I think they’re giving me a headache. It’s definitely time to go back to the eye doctor to find out my official prescription anyway.

After dinner, we all went to the bowling alley for a couple games. I don’t think any of us had been bowling in quite a while, but it was a good time. It went by faster than I expected it to. Steven won the first game, and then Summer squeaked by me for the win in her extra frame at the end of the second game.

We stopped by the Walmart Neighborhood Market on the way home because Summer wanted some cake, and we watched The Office until bedtime.

Yakety yak!

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Pursuit of Trivia

It was mostly a pretty slow day at work. We spent most of it cleaning out computers at a few campuses. I spent a disproportionate amount of time driving when we had to visit London. Dale, Allen, and I met Summer at Ruby Tuesday for $5 salad bars. The service was pretty slow. I think only one of us ever got a refill at the table. Then the afternoon was more miscellany.

After work, I came home and started washing socks before getting ready to go to The Old Bank for trivia night. Summer wanted to meet up with Jenna, and we ended up joining forces with Summer’s Quiz Bowl cohort Johnny and a couple of his friends. It was a slow night for trivia with a substitute running the show. We placed third, and I wasn’t completely useless. My shining moment was being able to spell “szechuan.” We placed third.

All in!

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The Long Shot

After a weekend of feeling how I assume this camel must feel, I took a shot and waited for Summer’s bus to get back to town.

Five hours of melting in the sun later, they showed up and I’m happy to report that things worked out. I’ve been bitter and cold for so long that I kind of forgot how not to be. It’s time to raise that guy from the dead. He wasn’t perfect either, but he was definitely less cynical, and probably a bit nicer too. At least he acted like it.

You’re dumb, and I hate you. Welcome home.

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Radio Silence

She said we weren’t good for each other. I asked for some time, and she said she would think about it until the end of the day.
But she had already thought about it for much longer than that. I just didn’t know it.

She said I hurt her feelings when I joked. I asked her if she would talk about things and work on it with me.
She quietly shook her head.

In a relationship that should be two people communicating, she chose not to communicate.

She chose not to work on us, expecting instead to fall into some effortless fairy tale fantasy.

If something is wrong, you have to say something is wrong. You can’t go on telling someone they’re perfect in every way, and then expect them to know that something needs to change. Some people are more compatible than others, but no matter what, every single relationship is a choice. Sometimes that choice requires a lot of hard work.

I wish I had been given a choice at all.

Thanks for your support.

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We’ll All Float On

I tend to not let myself get too excited. It helps to mitigate the disappointment when shit goes sideways.

Only days until the finish line. I let myself get excited. Summer was finally here. We were supposed to leave for New Orleans today for the quiz bowl tournament. Not only was I excited, but I spread that excitement to my friends, and they were excited too. They’ve been asking me about our plans, and letting them know I wasn’t going was splitting myself open again every time.

I let myself get excited. Summer had so much in store for us. For the first time in such a long time, I was looking forward to the future. We were going to take a trip to Wisconsin to pick up the girls after their stay with her sister. It was going to be such a fun trip. I was so looking forward to it.

The support structure is here in full force. Hardy and true. Built to withstand so much worse.

But even a clean break leaves things broken.

So, are you coming to the game?

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RJHS hosted – for 10 points – what team’s car show?

After a fit of a night, I got up this morning to go to Summer’s quiz bowl car show at the junior high. We had too many last-minute ideas that we just had to write down for next time, but she and the kids did a great job. They had a pretty decent showing, and I even managed to get Allen and Kristen to show up together.

After the show, I went home until it was time to head to Summer’s house to watch the kids while she and Jenna had a girl’s night out. They went out for dinner, then a show at Front Street while the kids and I watched the first half of the first season of Stranger Things. Summer was ready to come home around the same time we finished our binge session, and then it was bedtime for all.

“This might be too scary for Mom.”
    – The ten-year-old

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…unless you’ve got POWER!

Today was pretty exhausting. Lemme tell ya ’bout it.

I was at Oakland again for testing until lunch. I had to run around the cafeteria quite a bit to work on a phone issue, so Miss Donna offered me lunch that I took home for later. I took off after lunch so Summer and I could go to Conway and get some things from Sam’s for her car show this weekend. We stopped at Chipotle for lunch first, then hit the Club.

I don’t know how we did it, but we managed to fit several hundred various drinks, chips, and buns into the back two thirds of the Murano. It took us two trips through the store and checkout line to get everything because I wasn’t sure exactly how much we could fit in there. It went better than I expected, but we left some things for purchase back home. After we finished shopping, we went across town to Marble Slab for some ice cream it was super melty because the Slab wasn’t frozen properly but it tasted good all the same.

When we finally got back home, I dropped Summer off at her car that was at the shop for an AC check and went to the junior high to unload. The girls met me there and actually got everything unloaded by the time I returned the keys I borrowed from across the building.

From there I went home and got ready to meet Hope at Front Street for her birthday. She said most of her friends bailed, so I couldn’t let myself be one of them. It was nice to catch up a bit, and I made it out for under 10 bucks.

I finally got home and walked in to a strobe light in the living room. Most of my power was out, both to ceiling lights and outlets. Some of them were supplying a little power so I could see filament burning, but they weren’t bright enough to produce any light. The outside breaker blew again too, so my air conditioning was completely out. Luckily it was cool enough outside to just open some windows around the house. The refrigerator still had power as well, so I can at least get some sleep before dealing with it tomorrow.

I saw a guy wearing a t-shirt that said “never yield” let another guy pass by him. I wonder if he appreciated the irony.