Spring Break, Day One

Scott Hardie | March 17, 2002
Left Macomb at 4:15. Kelly was getting off work in Galesburg at 5:30 and really wanted me to meet her boss, so I was happy to be leaving early for a change. Then I realized I was out of money, and had to stop at an ATM. Then I realized I was out of gas, and had to go to the station. I wound up getting to Kelly's workplace at 5:35, finding only an angry Kelly rapping her fingers on the desk.

Slow meal at Steak 'n Shake afterwards. Their placemats promote their service, reminding you (over and fucking over again) that it's a Restaurant, not a Workaurant like fast food places. We could have eaten a meal at and left the McDonald's next door in the time it took our drinks to arrive. Why S&S promotes their "service" is beyond me.

Drive home was fine. We crept into St. Charles up Peck Road, and there's a brilliantly bright new Walgreens at the corner of Peck and 64. Peck and 64! That used to be open fields! There's no sign of the rec center that was there; I think that's a condominium now.

Talked for a little while to Kelly's family, then went to bed. Bad dreams about school all night, not turning in my work on time, having teachers laugh at me or criticize me.

Kelly ate breakfast without me (I was checking my email) and we had a fight about it, then we went out. She bought a bow for Amtgard at her brother's workplace, a used sporting goods store. We stopped in the pet store next-door and petted the puppies. Kelly's now determined to get a dog, even though I really don't like dogs... We'll see.

Went to her ear doctor. She's fine. That's good news.

Meant to go get a haircut. My hair is shaggy now and I need a shaven face. But we dallied too long out on the town, and the barber shop was closed for the weekend. I could go to a salon, but after that barber vs. salon bitch-fest on Voodoo Toaster a while ago, I don't think I could do that.

Ate lunch at Gino's East. Good, but not great. Slow service again. Wtf? I don't think I'll go back; it's good pizza, but not good enough to crave. On the way out, Kelly stopped at the candy machine, a crane-game with lots of miscellaneous candy in it. After she claimed one piece, we found that the crane still worked, so we kept going. We must have gotten a dozen pieces of candy before the crane finally stopped reacting. Rock. None of it was good, of course, but hey. :-)

Horrible headache in the afternoon. My head felt like it was trying to burst open. I took some aspirin and a two-hour nap, and it only got worse. Kelly gave me some Tylenol PM, which took away the headache after an hour, and caused no drowsiness. Not bad.

Dinner with Kelly's parents. We told Mrs. Lee on Friday that we weren't sure what we'd be doing for dinner, but we'd probably eat here at Kelly's place. We'd leave a note when we knew. Well, we called Ryan in the afternoon to make plans, and agreed to have dinner out that night. Mrs. Lee got mad, saying she'd already started cooking dinner, and we couldn't just change our plans like that. I wasn't willing to argue with her, so we canceled on Ryan and agreed to go over after dinner.

Before we left, we got a call from Lori, who we'd been trying to reach all weekend. She had her baby on Saturday morning! First name Everett, middle name unknown. She sounded calm and happy on the phone - ah, drugs. Lori, if you ever read this, congrats!

We had brought "Moulin Rouge" home on DVD because we thought Lori would love to watch it, so we wound up watching it with Ryan and Brenda instead. Brenda fell asleep about thirty minutes in, but Ryan watched the whole thing and said he liked it. Kelly, who's been reading my X-Men comics lately, wanted to play an X-Men video game, and Ryan has plenty, so he hooked up his Dreamcast and they played for about an hour while I watched. Having enjoyed the excellent game that is Super Smash Bros. for the past few weeks, I was disappointed in that game (Marvel vs. Capcom 2). It looked like a Street Fighter II clone, and a half-assed one at that. Anyway, we turned it off and chatted for a little while, but it was late and time to go home. I really like Ryan and Brenda. I keep thinking that we have so little in common and why should we keep being friends, but every time I'm with them I have a great time and I always want to keep talking. I don't know how much we'll keep in touch in the future, but I hope it's for a long time. They're moving to their new house in Dekalb on April 5th. Ryan got laid off from Microplastics, but he says there's a job that he thinks he can have by next week. I'm really looking forward to their wedding. Matt, will you be wearing a tux?

Came home, went to sleep, had repeated nightmares about not turning in homework and being criticized for it. Maybe if I wasn't six pages into a thirty-page assignment due Tuesday, with another twelve pages for other classes unfinished, I'd have a cleaner psyche. I don't know what I'll do, but I'll do something. I don't want to think about my homework right now, but when I'm in the mood later I'll talk about why the paper is so hard to write.

Now it's Sunday and we're doing stuff. I'll write about it tomorrow.

Matthew Preston | March 18, 2002
A Walgreens at Peck and 64 huh? Wow, that's surprising! It's surprising that I don't know what Peck road is.

Sounds like the whole food situation isn't going very well, hopefully your luck will change.

I would like to see what you look like now with shaggy hair. Come to think of it, you need some new pictures of yourself on the web. Some of these are getting kind of dated.

I am a little worried that Tylenol PM didn't make you drowsy! From living with you before, I can only come to the conclusion that you are tired all the time and you just don't notice a little kick from a sleeping agent. Still having sleeping troubles? I hate insomnia.

I look forward to spending time with everyone for Ryan and Brenda's wedding and I wish I was there to play video games and watch movies with you all.... and no, I won't be wearing a tux.

Scott Hardie | March 18, 2002
Peck Road ran between Route 38 and Route 64. It would pass you on the left if you were driving out to Ryan's house.

Yeah, I know I need new photos. I don't have occasion to take any. My camera and Kelly's camera only work sometimes anyway. I'll get some before the move.

Yes, still having sleeping problems. Too many nightmares these days; I wake up many times during the night.

I didn't think you'd be wearing a tux. I won't either. :-)