Sunday, July 24, 2005:
Soo...I can't remember what spurred me to start typing here but even though I should be in bed I'll continue, since it's been over a month and I'm sure you all miss me immensely.
Trevor left because of a bad back or some BS. Cody got picked up by the cops which is depressing because he's by FAR the nicer of the two, Trevor just...strikes me as a psycho, for lack of better words. He likes to hurt small animals and brags about it, among other things. Plus he's a slut. And a hypocrite. Goes on about how he's so pissed off at Cody because he started doing drugs(aka pot) again, and I said "you know, Trevor, you do drugs too[he smokes, chews, and is a freaking alcoholic I swear, all he ever talks about is getting drunk or how bad he wants a beer/SoCo/Jack Daniel's], they're just legal." "But, I mean, he was doing DRUGS!" "Yes, alcohol and nicotine *are* drugs, and alcohol isn't even legal for you yet." "But I mean, it's legal for other people! Just not this age!" "But they're STILL DRUGS, Trevor! And actually, pot could be considered less harmful than alcohol. I mean, you don't hardly hear about the pothead that was high and ran people over, or the pothead that beats his wife and children half-to-death, or any of the things you hear about alcoholics doing..." "Well, I just KNOW people LIKE THAT." (said in a very haughty tone, IMO he was just making crap up because he's too stupid to get a simple point)
He also happens to remind me very strongly of a Vandals song:
"My Neck, My Back"
I'm a gonna get my worker's comp check.
I'm a gonna buy you ots of food.
I'm a gonna drop some bricks on my head.
I'm a gonna be laid up for good.
My neck, my back. My neck, and my back hurt.
I had another accident, someone tell the management.
I'll be in my kiddie pool recovering.
I'll get my tools another time.
If my spine, if it ever realigns.
My neck and back they really hurt.
And I never will recover, and I never will recover,
And I never will recover, and I never will recover.
I'm a gonna get my worker's comp check.
I'm a gonna buy you lots of food.
I'm a gonna drop some bricks on my head.
I'm a gonna be laid up for good.
Compassionate society has a whole variety of saftey nets and benefits.
For anyone that's ever been a victim of negligence, stress, fatigue or recklessness.
Offer me a settlement. Just offer me a settlement.
Cuz I gotta stay at home.
My neck and back is nearly broke.
I kind of won the lottery.
I'll take what they are offering.
Vicodine and Ambien and watch alot of television.
My neck and back they really hurt.
And I never will recover, and I never will recover,
And I never will recover, and I never will recover.
I'm a gonna get my worker's comp check.
I'm a gonna buy you lots of food.
I'm a gonna drop some bricks on my head.
I'm a gonna be laid up for good.
My neck, my back, my neck and my back...
To summarize: I think he's a stupid, bigoted idiot and I really can't stand him.
Also, we(being Lydia and I) ran into Mr. T roughly...a week? two weeks ago? And it was cool. Nice to see him after so long. At Subway, of all places. After seeing War of the Worlds, which is a pretty good movie and has very neat special effects, and is surprisingly close to the book. Except that they showed the aliens, which I did not like. I also saw Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and it was good, not as dark as I expected, but very funny. I have a laptop coming on Tuesday. I'm getting a digi camera and an MP3 player soonish too.
It's too hot outside. Too humid too.
I'm going to bed now. Night night.
From the mouth of Michelle // 11:39 PM
Thursday, June 23, 2005:
I HATE MY JOB!
argh, I am getting so sick of working. The 40 hour weeks, and the hours. They're all good and dandy except by the time I get home, shower, and eat something, there's no time left to do anything else, and/or I'm too tired to do anything. I have no time for artwork, no time for crafts, no time for reading or videogames or hanging out with friends. That's bad enough, but after today I'm seriously considering quitting.
Cody and Trevor have everyone fooled thinking they're like, these uber-sweet kids or something. Granted, they seem to have had kinda a rough life(from what I gather), but they're not super-poor or anything. They're nice enough about 50 percent of the time, when Cody's not acting like a stupid stoner(which was amusing at first, but now the "saying really stupid things and laughing like it's hilarious" act is getting REALLY OLD and very ANNOYING) and Trevor's not acting like he knows everything. But it's like, as soon as the supervisors are out of sight, it's pot-alcohol-cigarettes blah blah blah, like I'm supposed to be impressed or something.
What this is leading up to: we're supposed to get our checks on Thursday. Cody and Trevor got their's on Monday. I didn't get mine until Thurdsay, which pissed me off because I had next to no spending money at Warped Tour. Today Trevor announces at break that he overheard Sue(boss person) telling someone that they got their checks first "because they needed it more". WTF?!?! Trevor's check is going towards alcohol, cigarettes, and a freaking tattoo, and Cody's is going towards pot and CDs. How do I know this? Because they brag about it when the supervisors aren't around. Yeah they're REALLY in need! Poor kids!
Not to mention that Lydia's got to work on cushy indoors jobs all week because she knows some of the people, while we've had to be out in the heat and sun working and only getting to go inside on breaks. Even today when I'm all sunburned to hell, I got to blow off the trail with a heavy leafblower(without a strap because that'd rub on my sunburn) while she got to glue stuff to posterboard indoors. I'm not mad at Lydia about this or anything, but it's really getting on my nerves nonetheless.
The last straw was when I went and asked Sue about working shorter or something. I said could I work an hour less a day, a day less a week, or an earlier shift(8 to 4:30 as Lydia does now, because of softball) so I had more free time. She said she wouldn't even consider any of them and was very rude about it too.
So yeah, I'm very strongly considering turning in my two weeks notice tomorrow and going job-hunting on Sunday with Jessica.
But Warped was AWESOME. Everyone was so friendly, and everything was so cheap - lots of free stuff too. I got to meet Hawthorne Heights, though I'm not a huge fan of them at all, and less so after meeting them. They were just...not outright rude, but not very enthusiastic, standoffish and such. But a mutual friend of Jess and me won the backstage pass thingies and couldn't go so we got them. I also got a poster signed by the All American Rejects(that I'll probably sell on ebay, haha. along with the signed HH album reissue). The best person we met, IMO, was the guitarist from Rancid. He was just hanging around behind the Ernie Ball stage when Big D and the Kid's Table was playing, and Jessica recognized him. She went up and asked if it was him - actually she found a picture of him in a magazine thing, walked up to him, and goes "is this you?". He was like "haha, yeah, that's me!" and we go "well can we get some pictures please?" So we have pictures of both of us with the dude from Rancid. That's the only band(person) we got up close and personal with that I actually kinda like the band, so I was the most excited about that, haha.
I'm really sunburned though. A strip on the stomach and back(for most of the day I was wearing a tank that came up a bit, and all day I was wearing long shorts), my shoulders and neck BAD, the back of my legs are bad, and my face is burned pretty bad too.
From the mouth of Michelle // 7:26 PM
Wednesday, June 15, 2005:
Woah-oh, they say he's got to go, go go Godzilla!
whoo-ooo-ooo
(can you tell I'm loving the new music software we got? Keep finding songs I didn't know we had...)
It's called MediaMonkey and it's free at download.com in case anyone's interested.
I'm going to be the only one at work tomorrow and Friday. Lydia has basketball camp and the two dudes have visitation and funeral stuff because their ex-step-dad got struck by lightning on Monday and died. The chances of that are like eight million to one.
Today kinda sucked. But I'm going to bed now so end-of-entry.
From the mouth of Michelle // 9:17 PM
Monday, June 13, 2005:
HAHA, I didn't know we had this song!
The roof, the roof, the roof is on fire...we don't need no water let the...
From the mouth of Michelle // 10:51 AM
Sunday, June 12, 2005:
How many members of the Bush Administration does it take to replace a light bulb?
The Answer is TEN:
1. One to deny that a light bulb needs to be changed
2. One to attack the patriotism of anyone who says the light bulb needs to be changed
3. One to blame Clinton for burning out the light bulb
4. One to tell the nations of the world that they are either: "For changing the light bulb or for darkness"
5. One to give a billion dollar no-bid contract to Haliburton for the new light bulb
6. One to arrange a photograph of Bush, dressed as a janitor, standing on a stepladder under the banner "Light Bulb Change Accomplished"
7. One administration insider to resign and write a book documenting in detail how Bush was literally "in the dark"
8. One to viciously smear #7
9. One surrogate to campaign on TV and at rallies on how George Bush has had a strong light bulb-changing policy all along
10. And finally one to confuse Americans about the difference between screwing a light bulb and screwing the country.
From the mouth of Michelle // 8:14 PM
Saturday, June 11, 2005:
I'm not feeling too bad. A little puffy, and very sore, but not as bad as I could be I guess.
Things went fairly well...when I woke up I repeatedly asked if I had called any of the nurses a bitch. For some reason, I was absolutely terrified that I had. Afterwards, we picked up the prescriptions at May's, went to Shake's where I got a small chocolate and hot fudge concrete(and THAT was good after FOREVER of not eating), and then I had a few of mom's fries from Burger King(tore them into lil pieces and sucked on them kinda). I remember that I started crying because when the Shake's lady gave mom the concrete, I tried to turn my head some and croaked out "thank you" and she barely looked at me. Then I went home and had a huge bowl of mashed potatoes. Not too long after I threw everything up, we decided it was eating too much too soon. But that really sucked because then the acid made all the cuts hurt like hell. So I went and laid down some more then had some pudding. And laying down watching movies and wandering onto the computer was about what constituted the rest of my day.
Also, because I forgot them before, a few last day of school pictures: 
Britt and I
Me mohawking Nick's hair(with lots of green hair gel)
Jess and me behind the finished product
I'm sure I had more, but that's all I have uploaded ATM, so you'll all have to live :P
From the mouth of Michelle // 12:15 PM
Friday, June 10, 2005:
Urgh. I get my wisdom teeth out today. I'm starting to get really thirsty. It's at 11 am, and I'm not allowed to eat/drink for 6 hours beforehand - was going to wake up at four or five and eat something and go back to bed, but I totally forgot. So yeah. I'm not looking forward to it either; maybe it's just because I've never really had any kind of surgery/operation whatsoever done, but the thought of someone cutting up stuff inside my mouth alternately makes me want to gag and makes me feel slightly hysterical.
Work's not so bad, for those of you wondering. Got a job at Carver, and it's...meh...I guess. The two guys I work with...well...at first I couldn't stand either of them - they're 16 and 18, brothers. Both HS dropouts. The older one(Trevor) smokes and chews. The second day I worked there, the younger one(Cody) asked if I smoke, and I said no. The day after that he asked if I partied, and I said no. He goes "Geez, what DO you do?!". I wasn't sure how to react at the time, but my immediate reaction(from the voice inside my head, thoughts from which I vocalize at school, but not usually around people I don't know that well) was "OMG! I don't do drugs or party?! What am I DOING WITH MY LIFE?!?!". So I kind of had the impression they were both total losers. But it turns out the main reason the younger one dropped out is because he was getting all kinds of hell at school for dressing different. And he seems nice enough, and just got enrolled in a GED class, so hey, I can stand him well enough, even if he does still strike me as a bit of a pothead/partier type person. The older one however...yick. He's a real hick, and he has a HORRIBLE attitude. Everything someone does, he has to go "Ya know, it'd work better if they did it THIS way..." because of course, being a high school dropout, he just happens to have infinite knowledge of the universe and the way things work. If anything bad happens, there's no way he was at fault. I.E.: The boss-person saw him shining a laser near Cody's eyes. She yelled at him, told him it was a safety hazard, and told him if she saw him doing it again he'd be fired. Later that day on break when we were waiting for Cody to get there he starts talking to me about how she's such a bitch and "I didn't shine it IN Cody's eyes, I only got the edge of his sunglasses, and besides, I have this friend who got really drunk and shined a laser in his eyes for an hour straight, and he still has 20/20 vision!" Riiiight.
*ahem*
The original reason I wanted to post: I was looking on an art site I visit and a photograph of an Indonesian child writing a story was featured. I go look at the description, which is as follows:
Banda Aceh, Aceh, Indonesia
May 28-29, 2004
I met this girl at a Banda Aceh displaced people's camp, sponsored by the Japanese government. She was 11 years old, and wise beyond her age. The other children were ecstatic to see us, but what surprised me the most is that they want to share their stories. This is the basis of a book I was helping with called Letters from Aceh which will be published soon.
Nurmalahayati started talking about it by herself and then she offered to write her story for me. She told me that she wants the world to hear it.
I promised her.
Now it's your turn to hear her story.
I posted it below in Indonesian first and then translated as best as I could into English (the Acehnese add their own dialects, so some words were difficult to translate)
The English version and what followed:
Tsunami Story
During the earthquake, my mother was looking for me. After it happened, some people returned from shore and said that the ocean was dry. We went home. My father ran to the mountains. My uncle was working close to the water. My uncle came home, and after that my uncle wasn’t there anymore. My mother saw a car and put my younger brother on it. My mother and I kept running. After that my mother sat down on the road. I told her “Mother, don’t sit on the road. We have to run to the mountain fast.” After that my mom said “the water is rising”, so I took my aunt and my cousin’s hand and looked at my mom. She took my other brother. A tanker truck helped my cousin, Faisal. I was without help [on the mountain] for three nights and three days.
Question: How is life after the tsunami?
I'm scared.
_________
Name: Nurmalahayati
Grade: 3rd
Village: Leupung
Age: 11 years
Sunday, 26th December, 2004
Survived
Adnen (50 years old) – Mother
Sabirin (20 years old) – Cousin
Safuran (18 years old) – Older Brother
Faisal (14 years old) – Cousin
Nurmalahayati (11 years old)
Didn’t Survive
Father
Older Sister
Younger Brother
Cousin
God bless all the Tsunami survivors in Aceh and the rest of the affected areas.
It's really amazing how...what...2,000-5,000 Americans die and it's on the news for months and everyone's horror-striken by it, but 500,00-over a million non-Americans die and it's on the news for a few weeks, then we all forget.
From the mouth of Michelle // 8:36 AM
