Two Dozen

 It’s been a few days. Elle, my roommate from Arizona, and one of her co-workers visited, and since they’ve left I’ve just been hanging out with people and whatnot. Today I just lounged around, feeling kind of crappy. I woke up late too, not late for anything particular, just late in the sense of not being able to go to bed at a decent time to get up for work in the morning. Alas.

I wondered if it would be awkward with Elle and her co-worker, Mike, staying here…and it was somewhat, but it wasn’t too bad. They’re both pretty quiet by nature, at least in person. I am reserved and serious on my own, but around other people, I’m a goofball. I got used to it, though. Saturday we just sat around and watched shitty movies(to laugh at, of course) and early-mid 90’s Nickelodeon shows. I kind of felt bad, I’m sure they didn’t come up all this way just to do that, but they didn’t seem to mind. We had plans to do something Sunday, which ended up being a trip to the coast, specifically Crescent City, California, which is 2-ish hours away. There was the added perk of curiosity, we wanted to go there anyway, and that want was augmented by the notion that the harbor had apparently been destroyed by the Pacific Coast’s brunt of the infamous tsunami on Saturday. Alas, we got a half hour into the trip only to find that the road to Crescent City was closed, hilariously also due to weather, though with the route it was because of fallen trees. The only other path to there from Medford was about three hours longer, so we went back home. It was also raining at least 70% of the day every day, which made going to do things difficult. We went and bummed around at Goodwill, Grocery Outlet and the mall, and made it fun enough for doing nothing in particular.

I don’t remember Monday, I worked, and then I think there was more watching crappy stuff. Tuesday was my birthday. I worked, and then I think we went to get stuff for the party. The party was interesting, a mix of the heartfelt and the ridiculous, which is pretty much standard for the group. I was the victim of a facebook trolling, which I didn’t know about until like, two days later. Torrey brought me a giant, cardboard birthday "card", which started off with everyone writing something on it, and later degenerated into a bunch of vulgar genital pictures. Again, standard. I felt like they could have made more effort with the dicks, I was hoping for Superbad-quality drawings. Oh well. I had to cut the party short around 1:30 in the morning, my guests and I wanted to go to bed, and everyone else wanted to stay up, and be even louder than before by playing Rock Band.

Wednesday we went and bummed around Ashland, and took an extremely unnecessary amount of pictures. Fun. I cut my hand trying to chop down a bamboo tree, That wasn’t too smart. All in all, we didn’t really do anything overly noteworthy, as our plans were dashed by the weather generally. It was still fun, and somewhat costly, as I fronted the gas money for wandering around, a bunch of snacks for the trip that never happened to the coast, and food and stuff here and there. I feel like I owed it to Elle, since I barely had gotten there to help her with bills and whatnot before I moved back, twice.

Thursday morning I ran with Scott and Skyler. Skyler runs all the time, since he’s joining the military. We ran two miles, well, Scott ran about a third and couldn’t get any further, but I persisted. It was the hardest thing I’ve ever done. I felt like I was going to die, and like I couldn’t breathe. Every time I would want to stop or collapse, Sky would pick me up and push me to keep going. Now that I’ve done it once, I know I can do it again, but goddamn, that was a nightmare. It will be worth it. My stomach felt horrible that night, I got maybe 3 hours of sleep, making the next morning’s work shift un-fun. I don’t know if that was my body trying to be healthy and rejecting the horrible food I eat or not. I will gladly destroy myself in the name of progress. However, we haven’t done anything since then, other than taking  a couple hour walk last night. The longer I wait to run again the harder it will be. It’s something I can do on my own, but it’s much easier to have someone pushing you along and encouraging you to better yourself.

Friday was a magic event. It was fun enough, but people were REALLY loud. Also, someone who usually gets too drunk definitely got WAYYYY too drunk. I was kept up for an hour or two after everyone else left because they were harfing in the bathroom loudly. I drank on my birthday, which was a mistake; no more. I need to set an example, and keep an eye on things more. The drinking is kind of getting out of hand, plus if I drink, I forget to ask other people to clean up, so thus I end up picking up trash and cleaning dishes for a couple hours. Also, I learned some things I didn’t know about people that I thought I knew well. It’s always interesting to learn why things are the way they are. I’m continually reminded of my lack of a past, in contrast with others who are consumed by theirs, and how it’s only a good thing.

I’m getting good hours this week at work, for once. I’ve been slacking on looking for a night job. No more fuggin’ around, there are no guests this week, and no birthday parties, I have no excuse but to improve.

Oh yeah, and thanks to those who gave birthday wishes, and any who posthumously may do so after reading this entry 😛