Hey, I'm back to clean up my page a bit. I haven't been coming here much (next to not at all, actually), so I decided now that I have an hour or so to myself, I'll get caught up. I see lots of deviations have been made, and for that I'm happy -- everyone here is so talented, and I like to see what they accomplish. I have been thinking about doing another drawing, although I don't know of what yet, but it will be up next week if all goes well. I would do a short story, in fact I just might, but it's so much easier to promise a drawing than it is to promise a story. Stay tuned.

It's entirely likely, looking at the date of my last entry, that I've already told you all about my new job as a security guard. As I began in mid-July and the last entry was almost mid-August, yeah, I'd say you guys know. I've gotten the hang of it and am out of my newbie phase. Now I'm doing three nights a week from seven til five in the morning at this food processing plant, which at first, I didn't get why I was there because there's always a ton of people there, so what do I need to protect? Then I was enlightened very early on by this man who came to me and told me that he would be taking raw materials from the yard out back, and he needed my permission. Since then, I've felt more empowered -- people have actually yelled "Security!", but only to get my attention, not because something big was happening. So far, the worst I've dealt with at the plant is a power outage, and I simply had to patrol as usual, but paying even closer attention to things that could be going wrong. At this other place that I've done security for, a housing complex, it's a shorter shift, but much scarier. I told Season one night that I was a coward, and it was true. One night when I worked there, I came to the fourth floor of the apartment building, and heard this woman yelling at her husband to leave. Not knowing what to do, I called my supervisors and they said confront her, as she may be the crazy woman that lives on that floor. She shut up after I knocked three times, but not before I heard something to the effect of "cutting into pieces". Hmmm. It didn't help that earlier that night I could have sworn I was being followed on my patrol, and there was a car backfire that sounded a lot like a gunshot.

In other news...well, this directly relates to the last bit. I am beginning to train as a manager at McDonald's in one week, due to the last manager-in-training needing to take a leave of absence. Not much higher wage to begin with, but raises and bonuses come every few months, plus that title of "manager" will look damn good on my resume. As I need to devote forty hours a week to this new position, my new job has to go on the back burner. I told them I was giving them a two week notice on Monday, but my boss said it didn't have to be that way -- I could do a permanent on-call kind of thing, where they could call me, and I could say if I wanted to work or not. Neat.

I was going to add more, but I have many other things to tell, and I don't want to write a novel about what I've done in the last month, so we're moving on. I joined a gym not far from my parents' house (more on that house in a second), and I'm in my third week of working out. The first two weeks I spent doing cardio, gearing up for my free personal trainer consultation that happened this last Tuesday. He set me up for a five-month program that should burn fat and add muscle. I did day one, which is back and biceps, and felt pretty fine for the rest of the day, then yesterday came and my arms were SORE. I went to bed as quickly as I could after getting home from security, and woke up to find my arms even more stiff. I immediately went to the Internet for help, and it said aspirin (GOD, why didn't I think about that? Really, that never occurred to me), a bath, and drink more water. Two out of three aint bad...look at what I'm drinking: Coke. Anyway, I did a heavy leg day yesterday despite the pain in my arms, but today is shoulders and core, which don't really have to do with my arms either, except if I do free weights for the shoulders. I'm kind of afraid to go do that. I might, though.

Let's see, two more subjects that I will roll into one. Dad tried to keep secret that he was losing the house that we just got three years ago, and suddenly me and my sisters felt a blast from the past. The same damn thing happened, oh, seven years ago? Maybe eight. We were scared for what was going to happen to our parents, and me and Kath offerred our tiny spare room in our apartment, but Dad has done some legal mumbo jumbo without knowing what he's doing, and has saved it for now. But he is looking into a job across the state where he can fix planes like he used to in the air force. I thought that was a great idea. He loved doing that, and with Mom going with him, she could find a job she would love, and not one that makes her hate life like now. They don't know for sure yet, but I kinda hope they will. Now, on the subject of the air force, Dad once again has been pushing me to go, and I once again said I'm going to be a conscientious objector. But this time he found out, like I ever kept it a secret anyway, why I'm doing the air force. In the back of my mind, yeah, yeah, I'll be doing a great deed for our country. But, and if you cared enough to search many entries back, everyone knows that I'm doing it because it's a means to an end. I want to go to college. The parents screwed me over there. The air force will pay for my college and teach me a language. Good deal. I'm losing weight so that I can sign up. But dad did not like my reasons. Aw, poor baby.

Okay, like I said, I could have embellished each of these topics with more detail, but you've got a rough sketch of what has been going on for me. It really has been the longest day ever -- four days off in two months is not my idea of a fun time. But now it'll get better. I'm a manager. I'm on my way to the air force. And I can rest easy knowing that my parents will probably find peace. Heh, as much as that is possible for them, anyway.

Ice