The Final Days of March

3 28 03

My stepfather Jeff is visiting us for about a week. He's an over the road
truck driver so around every month or so, he gets a week off and has to
spend it somewhere, he's been generous enough to share his company
with us for those weeks more often then not. Don't misinterpret me; Jeff
is an all right person. He's easy to get along with as long as you don't
have to live with him for extended periods of time because he does a
lot of things that really piss a lot of people off. First of all, he's extremely
loud. His voice booms through the entire house, it's almost always at
the pitch of a shout. Consider that, along with his tendency to pretend
that he's "the boss" of the house whenever he visits. I've found him
numerous times trying to smoke inside, puttin his dirty feet up on the
good furniture, and falling asleep on the couch with a beer teetering on
the brink of spillage. All this pretty much combines into what I like to
refer to as the household rag. Whenever Jeff visits, everyone starts
acting like homicidal bitches that have been bleeding for five days
straight.

Eric has decided that he wants to take a vacation. I guess that's a
clever way of renaming unemployment so you don't have to feel so bad
about it. It can be quite amusing at times to see how he can simply
justify a lot of the things he does. He's leaving for Washington today to
visit friends, and to tell the truth, I'm really a bit worried about his
intentions. Eric has been known in the past for not being the most
reliable person, and if he plans on just picking up and moving to
another state without letting Teresa and I know, I wouldn't be surprised.
As such, I've had to put off getting a car because I want to be prepared
to cover June's rent if I have to. I won't even get into the reason why he
lost his job; I'll just say he was stubborn, which doesn't seem out of the
ordinary for him.

Today is inventory at work. A team of people with counting devices
comes into the store and counts every product we have on the shelf,
then goes in the warehouse and counts everything back there. It's a
massive task, one that requires about a week of preparation, and
therefore everyone is kind of on edge to make sure it goes smoothly,
plus most of the managers are worn out and exhausted because
they've all had to work longer hours then usual. The weird thing is I've
never heard of a drug store having inventory every 2 months. In fact the
only other company I've ever seen do inventory so often are high-end
jewelry & clothing stores. Not that there's anything wrong with accurately
knowing what you have in stock, but it's kind of a waste of money to do
it on such low end merchandise.

3 29 03

Today is sure to be a busy day. I've got to do laundry, clean my room,
work out, and hopefully go do something fun if I have enough time. I
can't believe I have to work tomorrow. I hate working on Sunday, it's the
pits. Not only is the store unimaginably slow, but it's also one of the best
days to go out and do things.

I've created my own radio station. It's a very unique system, in the fact
that it tailors itself to what I like; it considers my ratings of songs, artists
and albums, and then plays music that I think I would like. I've
discovered quite a few good new musicians and bands thanks to it.

Update - Once again I've been cock blocked out of the laundry room. I
swear every house wife in San Diego decides to do laundry at the
precise moment I begin walking down to the laundry mat. Fuck them.

3 31 03

The last day of March is finally here. It's been a long month for me. I met
a lot of new people and decided a few of them weren't worth knowing.
However at the same time I've come to realize that there are people
right in front of me that are really great people. Friends that I can rely on
to listen to me when I have to get something off my chest, and they'll
actually care.

In the past few weeks I've discovered a lot of amazing music. Artists
that I've never heard of before are suddenly surfacing right in front of
me, keep checking the music section for lyrics & links to the artist's
websites.

Last night I identified a problem I've had with myself for a long time. I've
never been a person that people would call "cheerful". When I smile, it's
a forced activity. There is strain in it, it's as though I see the light in
situations, but it doesn't quite make the impact it should upon my heart.
It's the expression on my face, an expression I've seen before; so
perhaps it's heredity. Now that I've named it though, I can change it
when I realize I'm doing it. Apathy. It's poison and my mind has been
steeped in it for far too long.

Thank god, I've finally won the battle against the laundry mat. It's a good
thing I got a Monday off, it seems the teeming masses of housewives
take a break on week days. On my way out today I noticed that the stair
well is ready to collaspe, the support beams are seperating from the
main landing. Very bad. Someone could get hurt and very possibly
killed if the stairs were to fall.killed if they were to cave in.