Cancer Benefit today

Went to a Cancer Benefit today. It was pretty cool. Went alone though, Andrea couldn’t make it cause of some car trouble. . .

It was a benefit thing for this guy and his family. Word is he got like a month left to go. Kinda sad, has like 6 children, all pretty young. They had an auction. Id have to say it was my first auction, and man was it kinda crazy. These two guys were all talking super fast, like... that Matchbox guy fast. Remember him? Like I think he was a Guinness Book fast talker. I didn’t participate in it though. Although I probably should have. They had some pretty sweet gift certs going out, like, spas and hotel stuff. But oh well. There was an apple pie. Nothing too special about it other than it was cooked by this old lady who was sitting at the table in front of me. The pie sold for $340. What's cooler is that the auctioneer said this sounds like a $420 pie when he was at $20. I was a little disappointed in the fact that the auctioneer didn’t call out to people by using their clothing. (i.e. $200 to the man with the funny hat! ... $300! to the man with the even funnier hat!)

Towards the end, everything that was being sold to eat, like cakes and soda and stuff was just given out for free, took me home a bunch of brownies and two cases of water bottles.. hope that was okay. I mean it would have all just gotten tossed anyways.



When I got home I wanted to listen to a song named "Forgiveness". Was in the mood, for it. I decided to break out my phone book thing where I have been keeping the phone numbers that my father gave me awhile back. For those who don’t know, my father lives in Washington state (last I heard) and I haven’t spoken to him in over a year, probably 2. I decided while listening to the song to give him a call. Some of the phone numbers were disconnected. There was one though, apparently the phone number of a co-worker of my grandmother in Washington State (father's side). She sounded really old, but apparently when I said I was the Grandson of my Grandma, she knew who I was cause she said "From new york?". I gave her my phone number so I guess whenever she gets it, she will either call or give it to my father. Last time i spoke to him he said after i was done with college that we should go on a road trip. Of course at the time i had plans to move out to an entirely other state, never told him though. Eventually I moved and havent spoken to him since.

Line in the song says "Let it fucking go why dont you". Sure why not, is what I say.

bought some groceries, and two pens. The pens cost 3.50. They better be darn good cause i'll be upset if they arent. I mean i get free pens at work. But they suck. So i figured if this would improve the way my memos look when i have to hand write them then .. it is worth it . eh?

Anyways Later ya'll
KOT

I was in a bunker

I was in a bunker. Yesterday around 3pm while at work and on break, we were talking about how weather. and how I am a little fearful of tornados. Being I'm on the north peak or tornado ally, I will most likely get to experience one sometime. Anyways we notice that it is really nasty looking outside. Someone in the break room mentions that they were on the phone with a client who had just spoken to our major competitor which happens to be in the same city, and that competitor a few minutes ago just went into their shelters. Which was weird cause you'd think if one business was doing it then other businesses should do it as well. well... 2 minutes after this news was talked about, we heard the tornado sirens go off. 10 seconds after that, a broadcast over the PA for us to go to our designated tornado shelters. Which I thought was a little crazy. The department floor cleared out in like seconds. And everyone was crammed into a few rooms and bunkers. It lasted for about 30 minutes. After which we went back to work....

of course 10 minutes in being back to our seats, another PA announcement comes on telling us to go back to our shelters.

Eventually while in the shelter, my time is up for the day, and I got a movie to go see. Had plans to go see anchorman with Andrea and some friends. So I get a little itchy to get the heck out of there. But I've never been in a tornado shelter before nor have I ever had to worry about there being a tornado outside. Some people made light of my inquiries while in the shelter. "Like is this normal" ... "What happens next"... yadda yadda.

I eventually say I got to go and make a break for my car. The sky when I leave the building is amazingly beautifully clear. I can see blue sky and very few clouds. ... Then when I turned around... Nothing but black... Lightning .... And what would seem to me to be the worst looking storm I have ever seen over a city. ... I then decided to turn around because the view was much better with all that behind me.

Things are going okay. I finally got Cable Modem, so I can now check email and make purchases again. Bought something yesterday from NewEgg.com. don't know if this good or bad. Rent got paid and bank account looks alright. Hopefully it will look better next pay day.

I have taken pictures of the new apartment and things and will be posting them up when I get the chance. Doing editing jobs and web stuff is a little difficult when doing it on a laptop. Kinda get frustrated at little things, like the size of keyboard and lack of speed, er its an old laptop.

Anyways time to go to work and make some money

KOT

HAPPY 4th of JULY!

(Pic: Cloe, Andi's new cat saluting the flag)
HAPPY 4th of JULY!

Just spent the night with Andrea looking at fireworks. Times is rough. I've probably said it before. But I fear my expenses are matching my in flows. Which sux2beme cause then IM not retaining anything. I guess I will know in at least 2 more months what's going on with my money situation. I blame any low earnings on the fact that I just moved into a new place so I'm spending more on things that I only need to purchase once. Like the security deposit on my apartment, furniture like a huge bed and tables and chairs. Hopefully after 2 months I wont have to be spending as much as I have been these past few weeks and things will actually look more on the plus side. My job, although I'm loving it, isn't really paying much right now. Hopefully some raises will eventually kick in and I'll be a little bit more set.

On a side note, my brother just got a job. And he is getting paid 40/per hour. Which is pretty kick ass.

So things are going alright. Other than my whole money issue, its okay. Still worried about my car and all. Its running fine, but with it being my only means of transportation, I constantly worry about it. I don't have a new mechanic yet out here and I think id feel much better if I did have one. Give it a check up every once in awhile. Shelling 50 to 100 just so I could be told "She's running good". Kinda eases any worries, even if it may be a waste of cash.

Went up to Chicago recently, for something called the "taste of Chicago". It was fun. Never been to Chicago till this time. And I must say, it really didn't, excite me. Like it didn't do anything for me. I guess maybe I didn't see very much of it. But as far as land marks and tourist attractions go, there wasn't really anything to ohhh about. I don't know why but I always thought that the Sears Tower, was all nice and shiney like our crystal's building in NY. But its really this black faced plain old tower. Marvel? I think not. Took a boat ride, similar to our "circle line" in NYC. Was nice, water was ALOT cleaner I thought. Hmmmm although I was out in the water, and there was a barrier reef, I just realized, that when I was on that boat, I thought I was out in the ocean, but I realize, I was just on a really big lake. Heh, go figure.

The LOOP, which is the train station out in Chicago, wasn't all that at all. I was hoping for something a little bit better, but actually it was a lot less. Not really all that appealing to look at actually. Those new trains we got running up and down the Manhattan lines are much better. But I must admit the recorded voice on the LOOP is a lot more pleasant to listen to. Ethan had told me that they call it the LOOP cause its a train that goes in a large circle. But that left me thinking it was just some lame ass circle like the Disney world monorail. Actually the LOOP has a loop that circles the main part of Chicago, DOWNTOWN, and then separate trains break off into several directions spanning the most populated parts of the city (much like a firework, if you can imagine that shoots off in separate directions from its center). But leaving a lot of area to fend for themselves on buses for Public transportation. I said it before, and I'll say it again, you never really do realize how convenient the MTA is when you don't have it anymore to get you places. Incidentally chicago's name for the system is CTA. Can we say posers? And they have this lame ass version of the Metrocard, which really isn't all that aesthetically pleasing. Just a plain piece of plastic. Someone needs to tell this CTA that these cards are prime advertising space, like our metrocards have.

I have some new pictures of my NEW apartment that I shall be posting shortly. Don't know when though. With the lack of a really good computer and a fast connection (currently on dial up at my girlfriend's place) its kinda difficult to get anything computer/internet related done.

Don't know what else to say right now, I'll be back sometime soon. Cable modem should be hooked up by next weekend. So I should be updating and actually be back on AIM by next weekend.

Check you all later
Keep on Trucking
Dante