The Last Day of 2004

For the past few days, we have been watching the news unfold about the tsunami that hit the coasts along the Indian Ocean. An enormous earthquake occurred off the coast of Ache, the northern region of Indonesia’s island of Sumatra. It resulted in a large tsunami that wrecked the coastlines of Indonesia, Thailand, Sri Lanka, India, as well as other countries as far as Africa. The death toll is well over 100,000 but I suspect the real number to be far larger. India and Indonesia are heavily populated and there was to be more than that.

Admitedly, the US news media hasn’t been reporting this tragedy satisfactorily. In addition to my regular views of NBC, CNN and FOX, I have been watching BBC. I think that they have a higher stake in this story as it involves India. According their morning broadcast, the UK has donated 50 million pounds while the US has pledged 18 million. It seems kind of embarrassing for the US to be upstaged by the UK and now China. Yet, I still get defensive when people say that Americans aren’t generous enough. True, we may not donate as large of our GDP as other nations, but in real, concrete terms, the US does donate more than others. In this instance, I think we could be doing more but our money is being stretched in the war as well as other relief operations. In a way, I’m glad that China is taking on some of the burden. So many other “world powers” are all talk but China, in this instance, is acting like one. Kudos for them.

Here in Michigan, all is well for the most part. I am disappointed that Sara has already left and that I was not able to see her over break. I’m now trying to get a hold of Season to see if she wants to do something tonight. So far, no word back. The weather today is great. It may reach 60 today which is really warm for this time of year. It feels almost like spring has arrived for the sun is shining warmly and there is no snow on the ground.

Christmas Day

This year’s Christmas has got to the most low-key ever. I don’t think any of us were really excited about the day. This year we didn’t go to Florida. Mom and Dad transferred their timeshare slot to this summer so they could take their trip to Hawaii. So today was just like any other day except for the few minutes we took to open what few presents we had this year.

I really couldn’t afford gifts this year but I gave Kris a gift card to Best Buy. She got me a DVD of “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off” which is probably one of my all time favorite movies. Ferris Bueller really is my hero. My parents got me three dress shirts and that was it.

What I am really looking forward to is hanging out with some of my friends.

[Bitter]

I went with my Dad to South Haven to look at some cars. When I was being brought home, my dad said, "We're going to get you a car." Well I had interpreted that to mean that I would be getting a newly purchased used car. I was wrong. Dad gets a truck. Mom gets a car. I get the crap ass van that my sister was driving while she gets Mom's old Saturn. I should be happy that I am at least getting something to drive. But I'm not. I'm bitter. Does that make me a bad person? It sure sounds like it.

I'm home!

If you guys need to contact me, go ahead and use the home phone number. My cell is roaming in this area.

I came in yesterday and I am still unpacking. So maybe I'll update after the weekend.

My Last Night on the Job

[Listening to "The Final Countdown" as I write.]

Tonight was my last shift. It's kind of sad that I won't be seeing some of my fellow coworkers and dare I say friends any more. Luckily I got to see some of the people that I liked for the last time.

I had return to where I had started-- the dishroom. I hadn't worked dish for almost a year but I really kicked ass tonight. I was working efficiently and it was actually enjoyable. My only complaint was two gentlemen who obviously didn't know the rhythm of dish. It was pretty frustrating trying to work with them. It's not that they didn't work... they just didn't work in proper step.

Liz stopped early that night and gave me a hug goodbye. I had given some serious thoughts about asking her out. It's a lame excuse, but I had only met her about two months ago at Brian's birthday celebration at the Peanut Barrel. She and a few of us stayed until 2 am just talking. As the rest of the semester I had enjoyed taking my lunches with her in Abbott. She and I were both at graduation together and I am glad that I was able to walk with her.

When I was leaving at the end of the shift, Brian came up to me and shook my hand. It has been a blast to know Brian and I certainly will miss him being around. I probably will never find the word "BITCHES" ever offensive again. Like me, he is interested in politics. I hope that he gets that internship in Washington D.C. next year.

With Brian were Britt and my boss Mario. They got the clue that this would be my last time that I would see them. Mario shook my hand as well. It was a pleasure to work with a boss as awesome as him.

Britt is probably one of the friendliest persons that I know. She actually reminds me a lot of Rachelle Wiler. Like Miss Wiler, Britt was also in AFROTC. I wish that I got to know her better but I wish her well.

There are many others that I wish that I could have said goodbye to. I would have liked to list you guys but there are a lot and I know that I would forget some of y'all. But you know who you are. It's been an honor.

Went to the office as a visitor

I told Derek that I will be dropping into the office sometime this week and today was the day. While I was going down there, I thought that it would be likely that one or both would not be there. It was a pretty good assumption because when I got there, only Chris was there. I talked to him a little about a job offer that I really wasn't thrilled about. It was the only position being offered with the House and it was a part time office worker for 10 dollars per hour. Curiosity got the best of me and I asked what their positions paid. He said starting out, I should expect $25,000 per year. Well it certainly was better than $18,000 that posting was offering. But he did give me pause to at least consider that I should consider biting the bullet for it would be only a few years before I reach or surpass $30,000.

When Derek came in, we talked a little bit about some other stuff. He also showed me Rep. Nitz's new computer. The representatives were given HP tablet PC's which look pretty nifty. Derek certainly seemed proud of them. He knew that I was concerned about finding a job, so he personally called human resources to see if there might be any job openings that weren't posted. I really appreciated this gesture. There was something, but more info was needed. If he hears anything, I should expect a message from Derek. Cross your fingers for me!

My visit had to be cut short because of some lunch that was being held. From what I was told, it was for people who did door to door so I was invited to join them. It was kind of short notice and it seemed to me that his buddies that had just dropped by had already made some kind of plans. Besides I had to be back for work in a few hours.

I'm going to have to take them out for a drink should I make it back to Lansing.

It's Done

I've taken my last exam as an undergrad. Won't it be something if I completely fucked this one up? Actually I think I did okay on it. Depending on how well the group presentation went down, I think I can project a 3.0 in this class. 3.5 if both my exam and group project went well.

Happy Birthday to my Dad and my cousin, Jason. I usually don't remember anyone's birthdays. So be thankful! j/k.

Yes! I wasn't such a loser

At commencement, when they read your name, family will hoot and holler. I knew that my parents wouldn't do such a thing. Before I went up there, I tried to remind myself to listen to see if I got anything. I really was expecting silence. Not that it mattered, because I was in a state where I couldn't even hear my own name. I was so concentrated on not somehow tripping up in front of a few thousand people.

Now I see that at least a few people did raise their voices for me. Thanks Amy, Dusty, and Christian. (And probably Jaemi, Jeff and Rob.)

Commencement

had to have a picture...

Well today I walked. Although it's not official yet, but I've taken the symbolic step to being an alumnus of Michigan State University.

The day wasn't starting off very well. I called my parents while I was getting ready. They said that they would not be coming to pick me up. So I wouldn't see them until after the ceremony. I stayed on the concourse in case Liz decided to call me on the cell. But with time running out, I went downstairs. While I was going to the line, she and Megan (also from the cafe) waved me down and I cut in line. It was good that the person that I cut in front of was not offended. She said that I should be with friends.

We marched out there and took our seats. I looked up in the seating on the slim chance that I might see my parents. But, I decided not to worry about it. The whole ceremony didn't seem to take that long. The individual recognitions seemed to be short. Only was the guess speaker's speech seemed to cause time to stand still.

Unlike in high school, there wasn't a time where we threw our caps in the air. Granted there were quite a few people who did toss their caps out but the great majority did not. I paid money for my cap and tassel. I wasn't going to just throw them away!

When I got back up to the concourse, I saw Christian, Jaemi, and Jeff along with some other Filipinos. I didn't know it, but Rob was graduating too. I wonder why he didn't mention it before. But I stayed with them until Rob showed up and I congratulated him when he did.

Kris found me and brought me to where Mom and Dad were. They took me out to lunch at Golden Wok where we had a good lunch. I gave them a few things to bring home and they left around 2:30 so they can get home in time to make dinner.

My Last Day at the Office

Quiet. My last day was quiet. I don't know if was just my imagination, but my last day was extremely quiet.

I left at the usual time for the bus. For some reason the 8:30 didn't arrive as usual. I leave a few minutes after the 8:20 bus pulls away from the bus stop. So I had to wait until 8:43 (yes I remember the exact time) before another bus came by. That put me about 15 minutes late. What a time to start being late: my last day.

When I got in, Chris smiled and pointed at my watch. To my surprise, Derek was there. He was on time? It's always been the other way around. We made some joking comments. I said something to the effect that I was starting my bad habits-- taking after them.

I finished the pile of papers and the last of my letters. I filed them away. The only thing that I didn't do was respond to Mr. W___ who I find aggravating. He had written earlier, worrying about being shot at by hunters on his land. Apparently he thinks that Michigan laws are supposed to be able to enforce themselves. Well this time, he wanted to know when he was getting broadband. --- Oops! That's what happens when you live out in the boondocks-- you don't get certain services. Anyways, I wrote to him about the initiatives to get broadband out to as many people in Berrien County as profitable. Yes, I mean profitable. He then writes back asking if the initiative is all that smart. WTF? At least we're doing something. I'm sorry if he didn't like DSL, but he doesn't seem to understand that this government doesn't mandate companies to provide services to everyone that requests it. We're not going to tell SBC to connect his home to DSL. We're not going to tell Comcast Cable to expand their lines out to the rural areas where they would probably loose money. If he needs to have broadband, then he's either going to have to move his ass back to town or pay up some big bucks for satellite or T-1.

Now that I've ranted... I cleaned up my area. By the time I was preparing to leave, Chris had left for lunch. I said my goodbye to Derek and he got me a gift. This is where my Filipino side comes out. I said thank you for the gift and I didn't open it until I got home. But I said that I was going to come back next week. I need to get some contact info for them. Plus, I've got to get them something.

A Full Day at the Office

It was a top-notch day at the office. I ended up staying from 9-5 just like a real worker. If work was like this, I don't think I would quite mind.

I got to the office at the usually time-- just a few minutes before nine. Sometimes Chris is already there, sometimes not. If not, then occasionally, a sergeant lets me in. So I went in and found out that Rep. Nitz didn't entirely like one of my letters that I was going to send to one of his constituents. This particular constituent was worried about farm land disappearing and whether he should invest in property. I had told him what I could remember about the Land Division Act but I guess that wasn't enough. I didn't want to research through the law to find out what he needed so Chris just recommended that I print out the entire law and let him worry about it. Good idea! So it was done. I wrapped up that one letter, and some others.

Before lunch, Derek took me to the Capitol again. There we listened to three representatives who were leaving due to term limits. My impression of these speeches was that they were overly sentimental and self-sentimental. Of course, if I was in their positions I would want to make a speech as well, but I don't think that I would take it to that kind of level. That's what a blog is for! Neal got up and recognized me and I stood up and waved back down at him. It was an honor to have my name mentioned on the House floor.

Derek took Chris and I out to lunch at this bar/pub called Kelly's. I think that this is a place where he and his buddies hang out. His two associates David J. And Brent V. Were there having there as well. Chris mentioned that Derek should just automatically have half of his paycheck deposited into that establishment.

When we got back to the office, Chris had me write out a tribute for a county commissioner. I got all the info and tried to inflate the tribute a little bit. I still don't think that it was good enough. I looked it over when it was printed and so did Chris. It looked fine enough and I was sent to the House, where they were still in session, and had it signed. Because I was am not allowed on the floor, I had to have a sergeant deliver it to Neal. Neal then took it over to Rep. LaSata (who represents northern Berrien County) for him to sign. When he gave it back to me, he told me to take it over to the Senate and have Sen. Jelenik sign it. Again, I had to have one of the sergeants take it in. I got it back. When I got back to the office, I had to call a page over so that it could be delivered to the Governor's office.

For the rest of the afternoon until 5, I went through most of the papers and packed up some of my stuff. As I was about to leave, Derek asked me how I liked a full day of work. To be honest it was the best I had. It was definitely better than yesterday. He also asked me if I wanted to go grab a beer. As tempting as it sounded, I just wanted to go home. It was getting dark and I have to start preparing for my parents to by. I thanked him for lunch and I headed out. The sun had set for the day.

Appreciation

A view...

I don't think that I have enjoyed my internship half as much as I am now. Could it be that I am missing what I will soon not have? Could it be that maybe I'm getting the hang of it? I do know that leaving now is a bit awkward. I wish that I had another semester to stay with them.

On Tuesday, Neal gave Derek, Chris and me some Christmas gifts. Neal took a trip to Indiana and bought them each two cartons of cigarettes. Now that I think of it, he had asked me a week earlier if I smoked as well. I told him that I didn't. I got a card and a $50 gift card for Speedway.

Today, I went into the Capitol and saw the House in session for about half an hour. I think the Representative was planning to announce my presence to the floor (or however they term it), but there was some procedure in which none of the reps could talk.

Tomorrow, I may have another chance as the House will be in session once again. I vaguely remember something about Derek saying something about lunch, but we'll see.

Are you fucking kidding me?!

ACLU Wants School Bus to Stop Driving by so Many Churches

MARSHALL, TX – The ACLU has learned a school bus that transports children to and from Marshall Elementary School passes 8 local churches per trip. “That’s too many,” said ACLU spokesperson Pete Peters. “Those churches expose children to crosses and catchy little religious phrases, things that kids should not be exposed to while being driven by governmental busses.”

The Republican led city council says that it would be a logistical nightmare for the bus to avoid the institutions of religion. “The bus would have to start its route an hour early and the kids wouldn’t get home until an hour later,” says City Councilman, Jeff Todd. But Mr. Peters insists he’s worked out the details. “I planned it out on Yahoo! Maps this morning,” he said. “When the bus is on Main Street, instead of turning left on 3rd Avenue, it should take a right on Austin Street, a left on Magnolia Street, a left on Pine Lane, drive through the Wendy’s parking lot, drive across Crazy Jeb Bellows ranch, make a U-turn over the center divider on Perkins Street and BAM, you’ve got a bus route that gets everyone to school and doesn’t compromise anyone’s civil liberties.”

Kris's surprise

Over Thanksgiving, Kacey let my sister have two of her hamsters. Earlier this semester, Kacey's hamster had a litter and she wanted to get rid of them. An arrangement was made that Kris would get two females which she did. Before I left, I told Kris that I think that one of her hamsters looked like it was going to die. It was not very active and slept outside of the little boxes that I made for it.

I got a voice message from my sister today. She called to say that the hamster did die. But here's the kicker: the other one had a litter. We weren't counting on of those things to be pregnant. I wonder what Kris is going to do. I think that she would want to take care of them. But I can definitely see Mom and Dad taking those offspring and flushing them down the toilet. I'll write on this again, next time I hear from her.

Racing to the end (but resisting)

My last days here are fast approaching...

Today at work, I had a lot of fun. When I came in, I thought that this was going to be one of the crappiest days ever. Before I had made it into the House Office Building, the spool for my ID badge had broke which would have caused my badge to hang just above my knees. Then when I got into the office, I noticed that I had left mailing labels in the printer and were printed on-- again! I made the same mistake just the day before. It certainly didn't bode well for my evaluation that my supervisor was going to complete that day.

Yet, at the end, I was feeling upbeat. I had on my own solved a large constituent problem concering broadband access coverage in Berrien County. One of the constituents even wrote back and said that he appreciated the depth of my response. My evaulation turned out better than I expected. I really hope that Derek's comments were genuine because all through this semester, I felt that I wasn't working up to their expectations.

And to top it off... a slider from Krispy Kreme! Nothing can cheer this fat ass up like a artery clogging donut from Krispy Kreme.

Ken Jennings loses

I'm a Jeopardy watcher... at least I watch it whenever I can. This summer, my two neighbors and I watched the show and saw Ken Jennings emerge from obscurity. Jeopardy had recently changed their rules and now allow champions to return as long as they keep on winning. Previously, a champion could only come back to complete five episodes. For the rest of the summer, we kept track of Ken Jennings to see how he would do. It was amazing that this guy was going on for so long. Then the end of summer came and the show ended its season... so Ken was going to come back.

Well, I never thought that he would have lasted this long but tonight the end came for him. On his 75th episode, he missed the question allowing Nancy Zerg to win. The answer was, "Most of this firm's 70,000 seasonal white-collar workers work only four months a year." Mrs. Zerg wrote, "What is H&R Bock?" which was correct. At that point, she was one dollar ahead of Ken. Ken still had a chance to win if he had the correct answer and if he bet more than one dollar. But alas, he questioned, "What is FedEx?" As soon as that was revealed, he gave a little tap on his stand and you could hear gasps and groans from the audience. At the end, the show showed the audience which gave him a standing ovation.

Ken was awesome and I bow to his superior trivia knowledge, but I'm glad that he is going to have to move on. Best of luck to him.

Reception at the President's house

President and Mrs. Peter McPherson
request the pleasure of you,
the graduating student,
at a
Reception for Fall Semester Graduates
of
Michigan State University
on Monday, November 29, 2004
6:00 to 7:30 p.m.
at Cowles House

A few weeks ago, I got this invitation in the mail. Although, I only know of one other person who is graduating with me, I wasn't sure that I would be comfortable at this event. Surely Liz would not be going. Yet, I had this nagging feeling that I should go. This was an opportunity that only comes once. I would have a chance to actually go to President McPherson's house and meet him in person. Even if I knew no one there, I thought that I should give it a go.

Sometime last week, I asked Liz if she was planning to go. She said that she did plan on going, but we didn't really make any plans to go together. More likely, we were just going to meet up with each other should we decide to go. At that time, I was still not committed to going. Then this weekend I made the decision to go for it.

With the reception starting at six, I had an hour to get home and get ready. I wanted to get a hole of Liz first to ask her what kind of attire would be appropriate, however she was not home. I thought that it would be safe if I wore my suit. It turned out to be a good choice. Although a lot of people came in semi-casual (that is a slacks and a shirt), I didn't stick out. There were quite a few who dressed like me. Also, Liz turned out looking great in her outfit.

I arrived a little past six following a small group to the door. I met two Univeristy officials who I did not know. I think one of them was from the Board of Trustees but I could be wrong. President McPherson was at the end, shaking hands of those who came in. I'm not good at this stuff so I managed to say, "Good evening sir, it's nice to meet you." He put his hand on my shoulder and said, "congratulations and welcome."

I made my way though to the living room where I made my name tag and got a drink of soda. I didn't see Liz there yet, but I did see that Mike Glasby was there. Mike lived across from me when I first moved into Phillips as a freshmen. Although we've never been friends, we've ran across each other over the years. I last talked to him towards the beginning of the semester. I thought that he was going to stay for the next semester, but I guess he's out of here as well. So I chatted with him for a little while.

I got something to eat and while I was coming out of the serving area I saw Liz. I got a hold of her and we talked about this and that. We were able to find a relatively isolated room on the eastern side of the house. We looked at some of the President's knick knacks. There were a couple notable things that came from the orient, a signed football, a congratulatory check by the IRS, and more.

While we were in there, we heard some clapping and we went out to hear a short speech from the President. He introduced us to his new grandkid. When he was done, he passed by Liz and I and Liz did some shmoozing. We returned to the room and talked a little more about how we would donate money. It was a bit odd to talk about what we would do with money we had not earned yet.

We left a little after seven. When we left, we went to the back of the house to see the tree that one of the room surrounds. It as if the tree grows out from the house. It was kind of interesting to see. I'm glad that I went tonight. Even if Mike or Liz had not showed up, I can at least say that I've been in the President's house. Honestly, not many Spartans can say that.

Thanksgiving driving nightmare

I had called Dad on Tuesday to see if he would have liked to come up early on Wednesday to hopefully beat out the snow that would be coming. It was supposed to turn over from rain to snow around noon but I thought that if we started out earlier, it wouldn't be as bad. Instead, he came at 2 and we went to Sparrow Hospital. I don't understand why he wanted to pay my hospital bills in person. So we didn't end up getting on the highway until 3.

Stopped on I-94

As soon as we got on the highway, I knew that it was going to take a while to get home. I didn't, however, expect to take as long as it did. On I-94 from just before Battle Creek to quite a ways after Kalamazoo, traffic was horribly congested. It was most horrible by the cities. In the picture above, traffic was actually at a stand still. One car who was directly in front of us, broke down and the people had to push it off the road. Also, whenever we did move, we had to negotiate broken sheets of ice.

We stop for a rest...

I can pretty much guess that Dad was getting sick of being on the road. So we got off twice when we got the chance. Dad needed a nap so we stopped at Meijer where he took a nap. I went inside to buy... paper clips? For some reason, I got sent in for paper clips. I took my time though so he could catch a few more z's. Then we also stopped by Arby's. It had been a long time since I had an Arby's roast beef sub. Damn, that was a good sandwich.

Once we got to Berrien County and I-94 widened, the road became clear and we were making good speed. But then we had to slow again on Cleveland, a local road.