so, apparently i shouldn't demand comments anymore

so this past weekend i visited mer in the 'burgh (people still have trouble with this concept, *sigh*)... it was def a good time... i took the train out (my dad was convinced this was the best way to do it, and when he gets like that it's best not to argue with him)... took me 5 hours and was actually rather pleasant, that is if i don't think that i could be in london in those same 5 hours... mer and laurel picked me up from the station (laurel had driven out that day, and actually got stuck in a little traffic)... that night we went to a place called fuel and something (i can't remember) for dinner and then chilled in mer's ghetto apartment as we decided what we wanted to do that night... laurel didn't want to go out, the dvd player wasn't working and so we decided we would just sit tight and go to bed... the next day i woke at 12 to find the girls chatting in the kitchen... i was talked into going to a place called cafe lulu's for breakfast/lunch, only when we showed up did i figure out that this was a chinese place (not such a big fan of chinese), i had some fried rice... then it was into the car to go shopping... bah... though i'll give them credit they really only stopped in at express and the gap... so it wasn't too bad... we spent the next 3 hours seeing the davinci code... which wasn't too terribly bad... (could have been done better in my opinion)... then dinner at tgi fridays (an exclusively pittsburgh expirience, i know)... back to mer's apartment for some chilling and uno and duckhunt and a raspberry flavored beverage that i haven't had since school ;-) woke at 1130 the next day, packed up, had a lovely breakfast prepared by mer and then it was off to the train station for the trip home... which was more comfortable, but much longer, since once we crossed the susquehanna the train went at like 3 mph, for what reason, i know not... a good weekend overall... i thank mer and laurel!!...

- Silliness -

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***

Aw, man. How long is it going to keep raining like this?

The nice button up shirt that he had picked out especially for today had soaked through and was now starting to cling to his back. It wasn’t anything special, like the man wearing it. It was a good shirt, slick with vertical blue and white stripes, didn’t fit too tight. Wearing it made him feel comfortable.

“Ketchup, relish, and the mustard on the side.”

Damnit! Remember when they used to make these things purely out of meat and not this fake vitamin-healthy shit?

“Oh, and some coffee.”

This early, he needed the extra kick that caffeine offered. He knew he would regret it later when he tried to sleep.

He smirked: “Keep the change.”

The joke was that he always paid with exact change. He knew what he was going to buy, what it cost and kept the appropriate amount of money on hand. For any unexpected purchases, as rare as they were, a handful of bits of metal, seemingly worthless aside from the likeness of long dead men etched into their sides, were always within easy reach.

One of these uncommon purchases was being used, in vain, to block the drenching rain. With a name like The Oceanside Informer, he found himself picturing clear waters, feeling soft sand and a cool breeze, sipping on some bizarre drink with the cliché, tacky and rather delightful mini umbrella.

If only this image was something even remotely close to being true, then he wouldn’t be walking down this crowded street on this dark early morning munching on God-knows-what-anymore with his shirt clinging to his back and a newspaper held above his head.

Why was Denver such a shithole this time of year? It had been raining for three – no, four days straight now.

The thing was disintegrating in his hands and his shoulder was sore from holding it over his head. The newspaper hit the other undesired items in the trashcan with a satisfying THWACK! There would be a copy sitting on his desk when he got to his office; hopefully it would be a bit drier than his last one.

Now entirely exposed to the elements, he furrowed his eyebrows to keep the rain out of his eyes. He hated having to do this since it made him look angry; not the look he wanted to give off as he glanced at the ladies passing him on the sidewalk.

Perhaps a nice friendly smile to counter the menacing eyebrows?

It came out as more of a smirk and from the look on their faces he decided instead to study the various cracks and lines in the sidewalk that lead to his office. By altering his pace he could avoid stepping on any of the divisions between the slabs of concrete. The boredom of having walked this stretch for what seemed like his whole life found him doing this often.

The Boss had a client today, didn’t he?

The side alley was dark and gloomy, smelled strange too. Walking back here to the side entrance always made him feel uncomfortable, but his directions were clear: the Boss hated interruptions while he had potential buyers.

The business of selling humans was nothing new in town. It required a degree of skill on the part of the seller. Part of the talent is in the creation of a trusting relationship between the buyer and seller. This was, after all, a dangerous business to be in and if there was no trust there was no business. This atmosphere was destroyed when he barged into a meeting between his Boss and a huge buyer. The Boss had been furious. From then on he was not allowed to go through the front door on days when the boss was with clients.

While he hated this kind of treatment, one never talked back to the Boss. He took shit from no one. He could recall that once a politician from the surrounding islands thought that he should get a special “government discount.” He had unknowingly insulted the Boss when arguing for said discount. The loss of his earlobe made him see reason and accept the Boss’s terms.

The Boss had taught him, amongst other things, how to handle hotshot clients. Things like handling the money and finances were easily learned though quite boring. The more interesting lessons always dealt with the power aspects of this business. With the Boss as his mentor, he had learned all the elements of this business, even taking part in some of them himself.

Reaching for his keys his mind wandered… families being separated, a mother clinging desperately to her child… struggling just to have her own flesh and blood for a few moments longer… pleading, crying, screaming, begging and begging and begging… her resistance to the man holding her back… scratching, clawing any bit of him that presented itself as a target… the THUD! of his fist meeting her face causing her to crumple to the floor… the temporary pain in his hand was quickly forgotten as the ecstasy of power flooded his mind… the competing sounds of the child’s sobbing next to its mother and the laughter of the men who found humor in their evil task.

The smirk was back. A chuckle escaped the back of his throat and out through his mouth. It grew to an uncontrolled laugh then slowly subsided. He stopped.

But the laughter didn’t.

“Who’s there? What do you want?”

More laughter.

His breathing was becoming staggered and his eyes were scanning every inch of the dark rainy alley for the source of the carrying on. It yielded no answers. It was dark and soggy. There were dumpsters filled with all sorts of things, most of them unpleasant. The heavy raindrops hammered off their metal forms. Something in the sound was making him feel so vulnerable, like he was six years old again, in an alley such as this.

“Your worst nightmare. Justice.”

“Wha- What?” What the hell was this guy talking about? “What the hell are you talking about?”

Whoever he was, this chump had him by the throat in the blink of an eye. CRACK! He fell to the ground, splashing in a puddle, his nose broken. His assailant stood above him, staring at him. Staring through him. He could see, even through the rain, the anger, the fire burning in his eyes. His adversary squatted down next to him, offered him a soaking handkerchief to clean up some of his blood, then reached into his pocket for something. He couldn’t see what it was with his eyes full of stars, but next he felt a prick in his shoulder, and the world slipping away…

Who are you? Do you know who you are messing with?

so... what have i been doing for the last few days?

well... not all that much worth mentioning... just a lot of sleeping and putzing... the sleeping part is getting really bad though... like i've seen the crack of dawn these past 3 days... not good... so the alarm clock got busted out last night, and my wake up time will now be noon to start me getting tired earlier so i go to bed earlier... or that's the plan anyways...

yesterday i mowed the lawn and today i mulched a bit... i'll mulch some more tomorrow... i'm nearly done with the second season of er, and that's the last season the library has so that addiction will die off shortly... which is good, cause then i might do more productive things in my spare time like writing (i know i've posted about writing in like all of these posts, and you are all like stfu and just write... so maybe i will :-p)...

in the meantime, i've been reading 2001: a space odyssey and now i suppose i should watch the movie again and see if it makes anymore sense, i imagine it will... but it's interesting how the book was written after the movie... perhaps just to explain that incredibly odd movie

we don't need no stinkin' titles...

i really need to work on my sleep schedule... these days i go to bed at like 4 and get up at like 2... not the best thing in the world, i know... i partially blame it on my addiction to er and my wanting to talk to friends online... like for most of the evening i talk to jordan and whoever else is on, she stays up till like 12ish or 1ish, and then steff shows up, lol... mainly cause i miss her when she gets on earlier in the evening... so she stays on for another hour and goes to be at around 2ish... and so i'm like, oi i really wanna watch er, cause it's soooo good... so i do, then it's 3ish... then i'm like i need to read before in order to get to bed, so i do... and it turns out to be 4ish... yea...

i'm thinking this will change when i get a job, and speaking of which i went out and applied to kohl's and the caddyshack today... we'll see where that goes, and if it doesn't i'll give up and go back to isaac's...

i tell you, i love the girls from home... i played risk (which i always own at) with mlee, vicki, and miller last night (i owned once again, sorry mlee)... it was good fun, aside from some of the drama and indecisivness that ensued (but that's to be expected with girls :-P)...

tonight i'm giving joe a ride to hershey where he's playing at a coffee shop out there, i'm surprised no one else is going, for all the time before he starts maybe i'll take a book or my story to work on, since with all this spare time you'd think i'd work on it more, but i guess not (slacker)...

too much laundry and free time...

so these days i really don't do much, but according to steff there is always something to write about... i'm still hooked on the first season of er, sooooo gooooood... mmm... i'm totally buying it so everyone can witness this next year... this also reminds me that i'm going to miss the currently reading/watching thing on xanga... bah...

this past weekend i went to the burgh to visit my nana and pap-pap for mother's day... it amounted to about 6 hours in the car... but what bothered me the most about this was that when i told people that i was going to the burgh they didn't understand, they thought i meant harrisburg or something... i'd like to point out that pittsburgh has an H at the end of it, making it different from any other burg... not to be an ass, but the city just won its 5th super bowl and it demands respect, bitches!!

with all the spare time i have, i should really get back to writing, you would think the compliments i've gotten would motivate me... i dunno, my writing style kinda sucks on it, i have no idea where it is going so it takes me for forever to get the next bit of the story done... and plus there are things like er and talking to people online to distract me, and i should probably be working on cleaning my room and such... someday i may finish...

giving blogger a go...

so i suppose i'm jumping off the xanga ship and trying out the whole blogger thing... hardly anyone is on xanga anymore (must have been a high school thing with most of my friends) and most people i know these days are either here or on livejournal (i like blogger better), though blogger is *smidge* more complicated than xanga i suppose i'll put up with it, for now...

things i think i'll miss about xanga: smilies! where they hell are they here????, clicking one button and seeing all the posts i normally check, that, however was only for xangas so the fact that there weren't so many to check after a while kinda doesn't make that so useful, kudos and such! they were fun even if there was no point to them... customizeability, even though the templates here are nifty, i still liked being able to change my own colors and such... oh well

not like i post on these things all that much regardless of where it is, but yea... i'm here so, yea...

Boxes still fill my room...

so... yea, is it sad that i kinda like mowing the lawn? i mean aside from the fact that i sweat quite a bit and it is hard work... it's sort of meditative... you keep going round and round with music in your ears... plus you get out the sun for a bit and whatever you drink afterwards always tastes really good... so yea... i mowed the lawn today, first time of many, maybe my thoughts on it will change by the end of the summer... but whatev...

i watched the first two shows of er (borrowed the first season from the library), such a good show... but yea, then i got together with joe, shaffer, mon and allie to go to see dc united play the city islanders at cv... (still waiting for other non-penn staters to come home)... it was a good game, nice to see some soccer (football, :-P) and chill... i got out of the house today which was nice... now i just have to start being productive, probably by getting rid of some of these boxes... oi...