Chapter 5: My Summer Got Slow

Approximately one week has passed since my last entry. Everyone is away for one reason or another. Most of the girls have left town for the long weekend (including Jody). Craig has been off camping for the past week or so. Tina is under what could be considered house arrest. Jason is doing nothing, but has no ideas. And Tony, well, from what I can understand, was just too lazy to get up this morning. As for myself, I'm up on a ladder, scraping paint off the side of the house.

The cordless phone in my pocket rang (I took it outside and put it in my pocket, okay? It's not weird or anything, I just needed the phone nearby because there was no one inside). As usual, it's my mom from work "checking in" on me. She goes on with her regular questions, and I went on with my "tired voice" answers:

"Did you have breakfast?"

"Yes."

"What did you have?"

"Food."

"What kind of food?"

"Edible."

"Alright. Are you doing anything today?"

"I dunno."

"Have you finished painting the house?"

"No."

"Okay, I'll see you later."

"Bye."

Yeah, basically you just saw the transcript of phone calls between my mother and myself for the past three years. They're all the same! Yeah, so anyway, I was up on that old, aluminum stepladder scraping the old stuff off to make room for the new stuff. I had the chips flying into my face, up my nose (I'm a little smaller vertically-wise than most), in my eyes, I almost fell here and there. Ya know. Regular stuff.

The phone rang again. I quickly pulled out the little black phone and hit the button.

"Hello?" I query.

"Hi," Jason answers, "is Ernie there?"

"Hey J."

"Oh, hi." I still can't believe he doesn't recognize my voice yet. "So . . . whad're YOU doing?"

"Scraping paint off the house."

"Eh heh heh heh."

"Shut up. S'not funny!"

"Sure it is. Hey, you doing anything later?"

"Nope. You got an idea?"

"Hell no!" Ya know something? You can always trust Jason to bring your hopes up really high and kill them really fast.

So J and I talked a bit about whatever, and he told me about how everyone else has plans or is "doing something". So once again we have nothing, but this time we didn't follow through with the old ways, and didn't go for a bike ride or anything. We both went back to our bored-to-hell lives due to low imagination. Oh, and I have another side of the house to scrape now!

A couple of days later, I was back outside, painting. The night before I was out with my other group of friends (which, for sake of simplicity, I won't get too much into). We had just seen "The Blair Witch Project", and were talking about it at one guy's house. Oh, by the way, I recommend that movie to people. That movie was indeed creepy as hell! Aaaaanyway, I spent a little too much time there, and didn't get home for a while. This, in turn, got my mom REALLY angry. I couldn't believe I got through the ordeal without grounding me! There was a lot of scolding and she said I'm not going anywhere until I'm finished painting.

Yeah, so I painted. I painted for about two-three hours straight. My throat got really dry and sticky and I was getting tired of almost falling off that ladder so much. And to add insult to injury (the time when I DID fall off), I killed a blue shirt (which now has white streaks across it). Well, I finished painting. I can do stuff now. I'm gonna . . . . . ah crap! I still don't have an idea. Hell, I'll just go downstairs and use the compu . . . oh damn. Corran's on it. I guess I'll settle for N64, except it's starting to get a little boring, seeing as we only had three games since last Christmas.

After playing the "Cradle" level in "Goldeneye" for the umpteenth time, that shrill little Panasonic cordless telephone rang again. I picked up, it was Jason again (still not recognizing my voice). I won't get into it too much. I'll just say that it ended with him saying that he'd call around a bit. So I played the Cradle level again, and watched Alec Trevel-whatzit fall off the little platform. Again. Finally J called back. He says to me,

"Go to Tina's place in about half an hour."

"Okay, see you there."

"Bye." Well, I guess Tina's out of house arrest now.

Half an hour and two minutes later, I got to Tina's place. She went to the same Elementary school as me, so she lived pretty close. I rang the bell, and Tina answered. Her hair was blonde with black leopard spots now. Jason was right behind her. She told me that she got a new puppy, and asked if I wanted to see it. I'll give you two guesses on what I said . . . if you said "yes", you were right! I met her new addition to the household in the kitchen. While we played with the new dog, I noticed the faded spots on the floor that told of Tina's head's "drippage". Yeah, so after getting acquainted with the puppy, we decided to rent a movie.

On our way down the hill to the local "Rogers", we discussed "Blair Witch". Apparently, it spooked them a lot more than me. Of course, Tina had a cat hacking up hairballs while she tried to sleep, which didn't help any. However, we all agreed that it was "creepy", rather than "scary". Upon reaching the place, it took us another ten minutes to discuss what to get. Basically no one wanted a scary movie (wusses!). Instead, we got "American History X", which I thought was a good sign for these two. This was a movie with a "deeper meaning", and seeing that we all chose this, it made me think that Jason and Tina might have promise in the world of "multiple levels". This is the main reason I go to watch movies with my other friends. Ya know, the "other guys".

The movie was good, I must say. It story was a compelling one, with a reformed racist who tries to keep his younger brother from following the same path. It really gets to you, and so on, and so on, yada yada yada. I'm not a critic, I'm not a film reviewer, all I can say is that it was good and you should rent it if you haven't seen it yet. Anyway, movie aside, we were all happy because we did something today. Yeah, so I went home, past ten (but I called my mom earlier to say I'd be home later, so she wasn't mad), and went downstairs.

Well, it seems Corran was done with the computer, although he wasn't quite done cleaning up AROUND the computer. I'm talking pop cans, dirty plates, HIS SOCKS! I yelled upstairs for him to "GET YOUR ASS DOWN HERE", but apparently, he "didn't hear me". Of course, I'm pretty stubborn, so I wasn't going to clean it up. I just put it all aside and went online (again).

The little red ICQ flower turned green. I double-clicked on it and saw who was online. Let's see . . . Tony's out for good . . . no Jason . . . no Robyn . . . . . Tina doesn't have ICQ . . . Jody is not there (typical) . . . and . . . . . . . . hey! Sam's on!

-(uh oh)-

Hello?

Well well well, if it isn't my favorite out-of-town person. How are you today?

Crappy. Very Crappy.

"OH, how SO? I don't KNOW why your day BLOW(ed)?" (Okay, I cheated on the last one)

I've got exams! I've been studying for about four hours now, and if I do bad on this one then all heck breaks loose and my whole course of action gets messed up!!!!

Seems like a tad bit-o-embellishment, eh?

No, not really.

I see.
Hey, I ever tell you about how I CAN'T study for a test, and if I do I do bad?

No, but if I do that I'm as good as dead.

Fair enough, fair enough.

Yes. Anyway, how are you? Do anything interesting?

If "interesting" includes going on a trip, win the lottery, see Star Wars for the 700th time, asking out a certain friend and sssssweep her off her feet . . . . . then no.

Awww, that's a shame. Hey, I won ten bucks from a scratch-n-win last week!

Yeah! Giddyup on that!

Huh?

Never mind.

Okay.

Yeah. So, did YOU do anything interesting?

Nope.

ARRGH! Why is it you must always use such conversation stoppers? It puts ME in a really awkward position. It's not like I really have anything interesting to say . . .

Ernie! That was absolutely apocryphal...I do not use "conversation stoppers!". My mind is just concentrated on other matters...such as studying for these damn exams!

"O, I C" (take this extremely sarcastically).

. . . . . . . . Go to sleep!

Whatever.
Actually, it is pretty late. See ya later.

Hah! I win!
Gosh, how terribly rude of me. "Sweet Dreams!"

I then closed my connection to Lynx Internet.

So basically I had a pretty good day, I did something. Ya know. But then again, one day in one week doesn't do a lot. JEEZUS! WHAT'S WRONG WITH ME?!!! Well, see ya later.

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