:: 2004 17 June :: 2.18 am

Tonight was interesting. I went to Grand Haven to hang out with Katie and her family at the state park there. Her grandparents have a lot rented for the week, and they have their RV there. We had fun playing Sequence with her family. Then we walked the peir and went swimming. It was cold but tolerable once you went under. When we got out and changed, we got ice cream and walked down to the musical fountain. Tonight's feature was a Tribute to Elivis. When we got back to the RV, katie drove me in her grandpa's convertable back to my car. It was the first time I'd ridden in a car with the top down. I'd say it was fun. Overall, I had a good time. Katie' is a great friend. Sometimes it's a bit awkward because it seems like we don't have much to talk about, but I don't know. We both realized that we were the only people we've actually seen from our class since graduation. That changed tonight, though. Kenesha called me at 11:30. I called her back and Andre, who was over there, decided to come over here. He picked me up and we went to Lena's to try and find a bunch of people who were going to a bon fire or something like that. Well, we went to lena's and saw some cars, but we couldn't find anyone. We searched everywhere, before deciding to to one of the parks. Actually, we went to park at Marinatha, the Christian cult, and lucas showed up. He drove andre and I to the park on the back of his car. I"m just glad I didn't fall off. Anyways, Andre insisted that people were at this place on the beach, so we had to walk a long ass way through dark woods. After about 15 mins we found the "spot" but no one was there. Not wanting to walk back through the woods, we followed the beach back to the park area and back to the road. Andre pretended to lose his keys, which if he had woulda been realllly bad. Fortuneately, he was just playing a joke one me. As we were leaving, Lucas showed up with Laren Korabik and asked what kind of alcohol andre wanted. As he was driving me home, he admitted to only drinking a few times. That's different than how I pictured him. Actually, i don't know how I got the notion of him that I did, but the stuff that nick said stuck in my head. It's so hard when one person says one thing and another person says another. So that was my interesting night. I gotta work a suicide shift, so I"m out.

Do you want to play with fire?

:: 2004 16 June :: 4.05 pm

Last night I had a lot of fun. Emily and I hung out at her house for a change. She taught me some swedish. Mitt nam i Justin. Javla idiote! We stopped by G&L to drop off a note to Stacey. Now I have twice the reason to hate my job; emily said she felt "bad energy" when she walked in. I agree. That dump is do depressing to work at. You have no idea how happy I am when I get to clean the lot...outside! Seriously, working at G&L is causing a significant mental and physical decline in myself. My brain is turning into mush, I haven't exercised in a month, and I'm getting pimples. Can I quit? And tomorrow I have to work a suicide shift. Shoot me now, or just call my boss and tell him/her that I suddenly became a quadraparapalegic! To top it off, Eric called me into his office today. I thought he was gonna give me the talk where he announced they were or weren't going to raise my pay...but no, he wanted to tell me that I can't have the evenings off next weekend, so I can't go to friends' open houses yet again. I want to quit : (

2 burns | Do you want to play with fire?

:: 2004 15 June :: 12.35 am

Just got back from Katie's. We watched "Along Came Polly" with her family. It's an okay movie, but not as funny as I thought it'd be. She invited me to go boating on thursday, but surprise surprise...I have to work. Oh well. Today I bought a fan for my room and one for my mom. I also picked up The Sparrow from the library. It seems like an interesting book. Tomorrow I have to work, so I'm out.

Do you want to play with fire?

:: 2004 14 June :: 3.37 am

Just got back from the Blink 182/No Doubt concert, and let me say, IT ROCKED! Surprisingly, I was okay with the fact that I was going with two total strangers. Well, one of them was brandi's friend, Krista, and the other was her friend's friend, Crystal. They met me up at the old JC Penny parking lot and we took off at about 1:45 (they were supposed to meet me at 1:00, but everything still worked out). The car ride on the way down and the way back was long, but I stayed awake the whole time and it wasn't bad because someone was always talking the entire way. The venue was Tweeter Center in Tinley Park, IL (NOT exactly chicago, as the tickets said, but once again, it all worked out). We got some lunch at Quiznos before heading inside the venue. I think a band called The Nervous Return was playing their set out in courtyard-like area. I guess they were good, but I didn't hear a whole lot of them. Crystal and I went and stood in line to get some offical band gear. She got some stuff for family, and I, the selfish one, bought myself a blink182 t-shirt (which I left in her car by the way), a hat, and a wrist band. When we headed inside the center, which was really like a big, open, outdoor building (if that makes sense), there was some Australian band opening. Originally, my ticket was a section away from Krista's and Crystal's, but I was fortunate enough to find a seat by them. After a little wait, guess who comes walking out of the audience/side of the theater? None other than Gwen Stefani. That entrance was great because no one even noticed she was there until she started talking. No Doubt gave a great performance. They played some old stuff and some newer stuff. I don't consider myself a real hardcore ND fan or anything, but I knew all the lyrics to their songs. I can't remember what they opened with (definitely something off Tragic kingdom), but they closed with an encore presentation of "Sunday Morning." Gwen is such a beautiful, cool person, and to see her probably less than 100 feet away is awesome. She really gets the crowd into her show. When ND left, there was a longer wait for blink. It was actually kind cool though because they let people text this number and their message would appear on the screen. That was fun. Let me dispell a myth, however. A lot of us heard that blink sucks in person, but they were on tonight. At first they came on singing "feeling this" to some wierd, slower tempo, so I kind of questioned how good they would be. But after that they rocked the stage. Travis had a broken foot, but he continued to do his thing on drums. At one point (now I don't know how he did this because no one saw him leave) he started playing on some platform between the first and second levels. Both Mark and Tom seemed very personable with the audience, which was good. The coolest part of the night was when Mark went on some speel about how people used to hold lighters up and how he likes technology so we shouldn't hold lighters up anymore. Instead, he asked the audience to hold up their cell phones. How cool was that! I looked across and saw the faint blue light of hundreds or thousands of phones. It was sweeet. One thing I noticed was that ND dropped the f-bomb almost as much as blink, which was kinda surprising but also funny. There's probably more I could write, but I am extremely tired. I'm out.

2 burns | Do you want to play with fire?

:: 2004 13 June :: 12.03 am

SNL + Lindsay Lohan = Hott
So today I did the open house thing. Went to Katelyn's, Allen's, George's, and Lena's. I also went to Amber and Jenny's (it was together) and Mike's, but I didn't have anything for them because I wasn't planning on going. Plus it was awkward because with the exception of Jenny, I really don't know those people that well. Katie was my open house buddy. I hope we get to hang out this summer. We talked about possibly visiting each other during spring break next year and going to florida. Kate's such a great person...I know it'd be great. Anyways, tomorrow is the blink 182 and No Doubt concert. I still gotta get in touch with my ride. Brandi decided not to go so I'm going with her friend and her friend's friend...and I only met her friend once! I know it's late, but I'm gonna try to call her.

Do you want to play with fire?

:: 2004 9 June :: 5.34 pm

Okay, where to begin? Well for starters, I found out my housing assignment for next year. I'll be in the Simpson Living Learning Center (it's the honors dorm basically) but I don't know my roomate yet or if I even have one (I'm supposed to). Other good things that happened today: I finished the All Night Party yearbook page and I got up early to see Ai off and wish her goodbye. Some white kid, Ryan, who spoke Japanese showed up. Him and Ai seemed really great friends. He's going to chicago next year too, so maybe Ai will have to come to chicago like she said. I'm really excited because Ai promised to send me a video of Tokyo, and I believe she'll send it. She said that if I ever come to Tokyo, she'll host me...but I don't know how likely that will be in the next five years. Still, I hope we keep in touch. Now on to graduation and the afterparty which I have been holding off on. In the morning we went to a grad mass at our parish. Kristen read the first reading and I read the second. At communion we went up to the alter to pray with Fr. Bernot. During the sign of peace he shook my hand and said I should become a priest...ok? At the end of the mass all of us grads (there were 4 of us) got gifts: Bibles. They're nice Bibles, but I already have three! Anyone need any Bibles? When 5:45 rolled around, my parents were already headed to the Fraunthal and I was heading over with Emily and Andre in the car. Emily sat with my family and Andre and I gave Mrs. Wilson our bags (to be inspected) and quickly put on our caps and gowns (everyone was already dressed). Mrs. Wiewora called us in line, we walked past our teachers through the lobby, and eventually headed down the ailes while the band played "pomp and circumstance" in the background. It was nice. As usual, Mr. Powers had to say something. I don't remember the order of events after that, but I recall that Gary sang/played his untitled song that he composed for the class, Alexa and Tom sang "the Prayer", the senior video was projected onto a screen, we got up row by row to get our diplomas, we switched our tassles (following Katie's poem), and we listened to Mr. Holt's speech to us, which basically said that we need to determine what our purpose from God is. I cleary remember walking backstage, waving at Leeah and Katie, and Mr. Shepeich telling me that he'd be listening for my name in the stars as I did theater at Loyola. Well...I'm not doing theater at Loyola but hopefully while I'm in college there. I remember Mr. Powers announcing my name. Since Fr. Bernot is the "real" parish priest anymore, Fr. Jim and Fr. Mark presented me with my diploma. I walked across the stage. Mr. Powers shook my hand and said something, but I didn't hear what he said. When the ceremony was done we all went outside to get pictures with our friends and family. I gave everyone a hug and told them congratulations. Finally....we packed on two busses and went on the All Night Party. At first they drove us to the "Y" and all of us were upset, but then they collaborated and took us to Topo's for dinner. I still don't know weather that was just to throw us off or what . Anyways, the food was good. I sat with Nick, Melissa, Regina, Sarah, Nicole, and Paul...which was a bit awkward, especially since there were two couples there and one of the other girls admitted to liking me (shivers!). They announced mock elections afterwards. I didn't get anything, but Jill and Nick got worst driver; andre got best artist; kenesha got class slacker; katie got most likely to succeed and done most for the class. Shortly, we were put back on the bus and driven all the way to the Holland Community Aquatic Center for swimming, smoothies, and more. I didn't go swimming, but I took the only yearbook pictures. When we were allowed out of the pool area at 2:00amish I got two airbrush tattoos of the chinese/japanese characters for peace and energy. I got my handwriting analyzed which was really cool. This lady looked at my writing and told me that I want to be a leader, I'm a people-person, I'm determined, I can keep a secret very, very well, I'm a tiny bit kiniving and I have a slight temper at times. She thought that business was a good field for me based on those traits. Perhaps I'm too trust, but I believed in what she told me, even though Brandi said she told her the same things almost. I went rockwall climbing, and that was really fun. It wasn't those 30 ft rockwalls you imagine, but it was the kind that's like a vertical treadmill. I wanna get one of those things for my penthouse in Chicago! Around 3:00am we went to the community room for door prizes. I won a foldable outdoor chair (woopy). But they gave away some cool stuff like a microwave, tv, and dvd player. I think the senior gift was good: $30 certificates to the script office so we can pick out whatever gift certificates we want. I'm thinking Best Buy so I can get some good CDs...but maybe I should go somewhere that has the college stuff I need? Well, we headed to the beach when we were all done in Holland. It wasn't Pere Marquette like I thought it'd be. Instead, we went to the bronson park area. The senior dads had started a bonfire. There were doughnuts and juice, and Mr. Powers showed up to say a few words (surprise, surprise). It was nice though. I had a good time, and I venture to say the rest of the senior class did as well. I didn't really say goodbye to anyone though. I figure that anyone that matters to me I'll still see later in the summer. As for everyone else, I'll probably never see them again.

Do you want to play with fire?

:: 2004 8 June :: 11.44 pm

Today I worked another 'suicide shit.' At 4 o'clock things looked hopeless, but 10:00pm rolled around, I punched out, and a bunch of us had a waterballoon fight. This was the first night that I closed with sadistic/psychotic Jeff as manager. He was actually cool to close with, except that I had to close the entire kitchen myself, including the sandwhich station and fryer, which I haven't done before. Afterwards I gave Jessica, the drive-thru girl, a ride home. Tomorrow I plan on getting up early to say farewell to Ai (she's going back to japan), then I gotta head to school to work on yearbook. Miller's urging me to finish the page tomorrow but don't know if that's gonna happen. We'll see. I still gotta update about the all night party when I get a chance. Probably tomorrow.

Do you want to play with fire?

:: 2004 7 June :: 10.57 pm

I want to update about the all-night party, but right now I am too tired. Instead, I will recap the dream I had during the 7 interrupted hours of sleep I got this morning. Pretty much the whole senior class was in it (go figure) but the part I remember best was Anne telling me to take the ferry from Muskegon to Germany. She said it only took 4 hours. Well, if I could get to Germany in 4 hours by boat, hell yeah I'd be there!

1 burn | Do you want to play with fire?

:: 2004 4 June :: 11.39 pm

I just got back from hell...I mean work. Ten and a half hours, with 45 minutes of break, only the breaks aren't really breaks to me because I'm still cooped up inside that dank, depressing building. A brief glimpse of happiness came to me when Katie stopped in and said hi. Then the rest of the evening was steve going psycho because I don't talk much and talking down to me (I think he does it subconciously). At least he helped me close the kitchen tonight. He did the sandwhich station and drained the sick grease trap we call the fryer. I haven't had to do either yet, so when the day comes...it will suck. Right now I want to watch Paycheck, but my dad's watching The Samauri. It looks crappy if you ask me. Maybe not crappy, but just too dark and deep. Well, tomorrow I have to work and go to people's open houses. I think I might also get my "mullet" modified.

1 burn | Do you want to play with fire?

:: 2004 3 June :: 11.06 pm

Today I was suffering from exhaustion. Last night I went over to Katie's house to watch the play DVD and I ended up staying until 3 am. It was worth it though. Gary was over there too and all of us just had a really random, in-depth conversation. It was kinda awkward when they were going on and on about piano and organ playing, considering that I know nothing about either. Anyways, I had to be at work today at 11:30. I only had to work till 2, so it wasn't bad, but tomorrow I work from frickin 11:30am to 10:00 pm. Someone shoot me...or just stop by G&L on Henry & Sherman to save me from my terrible job. Not only do I work the longest shift ever, but I miss Katie's open house. I wanted to go boating with her and Ai tonight, but I was too tired, emily was over, and we were "celebrating" my dad's birthday. Cake is kinda gross. Why can't we have happy birthday brownies instead? I tried watching the Matrix, but fell asleep and decided to watch tv instead when I got up. Scream 2 or 3 was on so I watched that. Oh yeah, I got my hair cut today. It looks...different. Kinda funny. I'm not sure if I like it because it reminds me of the beginnings of a mullet. The sides are all short and the back is all long. How does that work? Even if it is a bad hair cut, oh well. I should get some sleep. Tomorrow will be hell.

1 burn | Do you want to play with fire?

:: 2004 31 May :: 3.40 pm

Last night I got back from my 2-day excursion to Chicago. It was a blast. Emily's parents dropped us off at our hotel, the Hilton Garden Inn, and then went to Schaumberg, IL to do their own stuff. The hotel we stayed at was nice, but the best part about it was how close it was to Michigan Ave. I don't think I've ever walked down Michigan Avenue, so that was a lot of fun. What I find most fascinating about the city is all the interesting people. Just walking dowtown we saw people playing instruments for money and handing out political pamphlets. we even saw this girl who stood up on a platform, dressed in a victorian outfit, and froze perfectly still in these poses. Her eyes were fixed, even with all the people going by. I don't know how she did it! As part of our agreement, Emily and I compromised on what we'd do. She wanted to shop, and i wanted to do something cultural, so...we spent the morning shopping at stores like H&M (I ended up buying some graduation clothes there) and in the afternoon we went to the Museum of Contemporary Art. Even though I'm terrible at interpretting art and getting what the artist is trying to say, it was interesting to see all these modern art works. One display that was revolting, though, was a video clip of this woman giving head to her big toe. Is that gross or what? On the same wall, there was also a picture of a woman with a bush...and a dick! Excuse me while I puke. Some of the better displays, however, were the photography (they had a series of pictures of girls at the big 10 colleges wearing ski masks and holding books), some scultpures, and a really awesome old-style silent documentary on the murder of the royal Czar family during the Russian Revolution. I liked the contrast between the narrative words and the silence (except for the sound of the film rolling). It made the film more dramatic. Anyways, we ended up going to lunch at the California Pizza Kitchen. That pizza was alright, but it wasn't like the stuff I had at Giordano's about two months ago. We ended up going back to the hotel and getting ready to go clubbing. We called a few places, but everywhere we found was for 21 & up, so we decided to ask someone at the "speciality shop" we were headed to. Emily said the website said it was by Loyola Unviersity, so we rode the "el" to the Loyola stop only to find out that we were VERY far from the store we were looking for. We walked a long way down N. Sheridan just to find the place, which we did. That was interesting. When we were checking out, emily asked the cashier if she knew of any night clubs for 18 & up. The cashier said "are you looking for gay or straight?" and emily responded "straight, preferrably," trying not to be rude...but I thought it was funny. When we got out of there, we took the easy way and instead of backtracking to the Loyola stop, we found the nearest "el" station, and rode back to Michigan Ave. We decided to go to Ghierdeli's (can't spell it, but they're famous for their chocolate) for some ice cream. It was the most expensive ice cream Ive ever had, but definitely good. When we got back to the hotel we aksed the front desk if there was anything going on at night that we could do. She was going to tell us some places, but when we interrupted her to tell her we were only 18, she stopped herself to tell us there was really nowhere we could go except to Navy Pier to watch the fireworks. Emily and I decided that fireworks can be overrated, so we decided to wander around downtown some more. We took the "el" to the Washington Street exit, but most of it was businesses and shopping, so the place was pretty much deserted. By that time we were hungry because we never ate dinner, so we decided to go to walgreens to pick up some snacks and go back to the hotel. It was past midnight by this time anyways. The next morning we got up and went down to the hotel restaurant for breakfast only to find out that the continental breakfast was $10. We decided to hit up the Rock-n-Roll Micky D's instead. The Hard Rock cafe was across the street, so we stopped by the pick up emily's dad a t-shirt. Then we headed back to the hotel to check out, and went back to Michigan Ave to shop some more (well, mostly I watched emily shop). We had to be back at the hotel at 3:00 to meet her parents and leave, but when we were coming back from the water tower place, I saw Mrs. Alexander, her husband, Anne, and Anne's parents! It was so strange to see someone I knew from Muskegon in Chicago, but it was awesome. We told them that we had to go catch our ride and pointed them to the H&M store. When we were a block from the hotel, emily's mom called to ask where we were. We got there and I explained that it was my fault we were held up, but then she said that her and henrick didn't even get there until a quarter after three. Anyways, the weather was cleared up by this time (it had been raining REALLY heavily earlier) and emily's mom wanted to do some shopping. We had an extra hour and a half, so emily and I walked down Michigan Ave, crossed the river, wandered around some side streets, came back to Michigan Ave, stopped at the apple store (where I decided that I want to buy an ipod for college) and went back and waited at the hotel. Overall, I'd say that Chicago was once again a blast, even though emily and I coudln't find anything to do at night. I can't believe that chicago teens don't have a night life of their own! Well, we did hear that there was a club somewhere in the suburbs, but they should have more stuff for teens downtown. Unless you have tickets to a show or some other plans, the only thing to do in chicago (if you're under 21 and don't have a fake ID) is to shop and eat. Hopefully, once I start college there and become situated, I'll find some more stuff to do.

1 burn | Do you want to play with fire?

:: 2004 29 May :: 12.34 am

I had to work 4-close tonight, but it wasn't so bad. Eric was managing and Will was working, so I didn't have to close the kitchen by myself. Earlier today I stopped at school to take care of some yearbook stuff. Laura and Jessica started the Senior Seminar page. I had to make some changes, but they did a good job. My story is almost done, too. I just need to write some captions and it's done. As for the total yearbook, there are 3 seniors who aren't featured that much, so I have to hunt them down at the all night party...another page that I'm doing. Well, tomorrow I'm off to Chicago. ("I'm a chicagoan till chicago end" - lyric from dilated people's "this way" that I got stuck in my head). Emily's family is picking me up at 7:00 am and we're spending the weekend there. I'll be back sunday night with a follow-up post.

Do you want to play with fire?

:: 2004 27 May :: 10.41 pm

Just got back from baccalaureate night. I got my gold cord for 3.8 to 4.0 GPA (there was only 9 of us). I also got my NHS stoll. As for scholarships I got the MCC Faculty Scholarship for $200. It was kinda ironic because I asked Mrs. Dornbos to recommend me, and she was the one who handed it out. Stefani Gilbert also got it. Tonight we also found out about the Muskegon County Community Foundation scholarships. I got a measely $700. True, it's better than nothing, but not nearly as much as I needed. Hopefully it's at least renewable. Stefani Gilbert got $4,000 from it! As for awards I got pins for play and yearbook. I also got recognition certificates for English and Social studies, as well as a plaque for 4 years of "academic excellence." Mrs. Wiewiora announced that I got the Michigan Competitive Scholarship, but I can't use it out of state so it's pointless. Overall, the night wasn't bad. Katie walked away with a garbage bag full of awards...practically. I still don't like my job, and they just fired a cook, but wednesday was pay day, and I got to see the fruits of my labor. A whole $180 some dollars, after taxes of course. Stacey said she should be able to hire me full time in the summer, but since I don't like my job I don't want to work full time. Maybe I'll get used to it. If 20 hours a week is bad, how much worse will 40 be?

3 burns | Do you want to play with fire?

:: 2004 23 May :: 11.20 pm
:: Music: incubus

1 burn | Do you want to play with fire?

:: 2004 22 May :: 2.28 am

Okay, so nothing much happened today but I still felt like shit. I went into G&L to write down my schedule for next week. I told steve, the manager on duty, that I had trouble with two of the days: monday, because of job shadowing, and thursday, because of baccalareate. Well, steve tried to call stacy, the manager who does the scheduling, but she wasn't avaliable so he called eric, who wanted to talk to me. "Justin, what did you tell me last week?" "Uhm...that I couldn't work Saturday or Sunday." Yeah, I know it's my fault that I didn't get my "conflicts" in on time, but I learned my lesson, move past it. I know eric's gonna say shit about it tomorrow. He's strange like that. One minute he can pretend to be all buddy-buddy and the next he's a prick. Oh well. Maybe they'll fire me...hahaha, only in my dreams. I don't like working with food, going home all dirty, but it's money. When it comes to it, the anticipation of going to work is much worse than the work itself...even though I nearly got second degree burns last night (it was my fault - I'm a dumbass). Later tonight was a little better. Emily and I watched the rain and lightening off the grand haven pier. Then we rented the worst scripted, worst acted movie ever. Even scary movie 3 was better than that. We ditched the movie idea and talked about all the ho-ish people at catholic. That was fun. Well, I gotta get up early for good ol' work. Is it september yet?

Do you want to play with fire?