06/22/2003 - 12:31 a.m. | stacy, can't you see you're just not the girl for me?

How to make Nate pissy for a second day in a row: 1) Plan entire day around waking up at 6. 2) Wake up at 7:20. Shoot. And I have to work at 7 all next week, so I don't see a good habit forming.

Hours: 7.5 (no break, 8-3:30)
$$$: $70.something (maybe?)
CDs:
-"Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots" - The Flaming Lips
-"Welcome Interstate Managers" - Fountains of Wayne
-??? - Checchyerina
-"Think Tank" - Blur

It wasn't what you would call a super day at work. Pretty much from the get go, I broke everything. Harve made a U of I joke as I entered ("Guess class doesn't start until 8 at U of I, huh?" Oh, shut it, smelly), and Snake King was holding (and possibly drinking) a bottle of Budweiser. Now, see, why do they get to make fun of me? Those two things right there could be limitless entertainment for me. But noooo - respect. One way street, I guess.

So, they stuck me on the "good" winder today - at least, the one everyone else seems to like in comparison to the one I normally work on. I see absolutely nothing good about it. You have to pull the handles too far of a distance, and the wire gets caught in stupid, stupid places and makes the gears get all misaligned (TERRIBLE grinding noise, by the way) so you have to take it apart, and blah blah blah! I've never had problems like this with the other winder, even as a newb. Somehow I even overheated the motor on it. So, work was not speedy in the morning, and Ginger was there welding, so I couldn't, even though I am vastly better than her. You know, I don't think I like anyone who works there. Not because they're bad people or anything, just on principle.

Anyway, I made shit money and got moved around a lot, and then Ginger left, so I had to weld anyway. So, right before I start, Snake King says to me, "Well, we'll just keep winding as long as you make panels, and once we run out, I guess we'll call it a day." Perhaps I am mistaken, but to me this sounds like, "Nate, the slower you work, the sooner you get to leave!" No problem, boss! But actually, it does turn out to be sort of a problem. I figured, "Oh, I'll just take my time more than I usually do. One winder is supposed to be faster than me, so Doughboy and Travo should have no problem." Uh, I obviously forgot who I was talking about because OH MY GOD WORTHLESS. The narc goes around making random phone calls and just vanishes for long periods of time (hot date? must be the black wifebeater and beat warmups, you silly fuck), presumably because he hates using my winder that much. And Doughboy, the efficiency expert (why do I get the feeling, he whited out the "in-" in front of his title?) spends so much time trying to calibrate the straightener and cutter that I think he would be better off doing it with his bare hands. Harve and Snake King don't help because they seem to have to think out loud to somebody, and those two are prime targets ("Yeah, I gotta go to the grocery store, and I need eggs and butter and ham and..."), so I eventually just went back to working at full speed. Dad stopped by with a copy of the Harry Potter book for me! He was gonna leave it in my car (tee hee - magic!!), but I am far too paranoid that someone would steal my decade old maroon LeSabre, so I had it locked. But it was really nice of him! Thanks, Dad!

"He�s got me running around the office like a gerbil on a wheel / He can tell me what to do, but he can�t tell me what to feel / Hey Julie, look what they�re doing to me / Trying to trip me up, trying to wear me down / Julie I swear it�s so hard to bear it / and I�d never make it through without you around"

Left work at 3:30, and my car was scorching, so I decided the best move was to drive without pants. I was right. Radio sucked, but it's almost amusing now - how long will the streak continue? When's the last time I heard a song I like on the radio? Arrived at Dank's after 4 (detour because the cops decided to have a party or something - one of them did the universal sign for "turn around" or possibly "woo - party!"), put pants back on, found parking spot (difficult because it's Swedish Days there - I thought it was just a big party at first; darn affluent Genevians). We drove to the Charlestowne Mall and got tickets for HULK (no "the") and then got s-video cable and pizza!! HULK was, uh, I dunno - not great. Ang Lee just likes to make everything look like it's flying. Also, needs more HULK, less Jennifer Connelly. Took him like half the movie to show up. And, if you could give me a complete explanation of the last 20 minutes, please help me out because it was batshit insane. I'm having a glass of HULK chocolate milk now. Yes, they have to milk him regularly. And it makes your poop green! If I've mentioned this before, it's only because it's so important. From Justin to Kelly was completely mediocre, even the kids who paid to see it kept getting up to leave during the songs and returning for more intricate plot. Characters included Nerdy Guy (because he has glasses and got too much of a suntan!) and Evil Jewel (named for her wicked demeanor and her passing resemblence to everyone's favorite big-boobed, nasty-toothed, poetry-writin' diva), without whom there would have been no movie. Apparently, she just HATED the idea of Justin and Kelly getting together and went to ridiculous ends to make sure it didn't happen. But it did! She was waaaay too malicious, especially for being Kelly's best friend or something. "MUAHAHAHA I'll give Justin my cell phone number, so I can send him text messages instead! And I'll lie about it! MUAHAHAH" Running low on steam. Back to Dank's for juice and FF7 hilarity (...) and then back here. I was paranoid that this guy was following me and flashing his lights, so I took great pains to lose him. It's never boring in Paranoid Land.

On a final note, I think holding bobby pins in your mouth is really cool. Something about it - just... indescribably sexy. Listen, if I were normal, I wouldn't be alone, would I? So, I'll take my bobby pin fetish and move on without you.