so today is the first day back in school for you high school kids. i feel really old when i say that. but before you come home and start to complaining about how horrible school is, consider my vacation and my day:

1. my car blew a rod (read: RAN OUT OF OIL) in lebanon and thus will not start; i checked today and it has, in fact, been impounded. i don't know whether they're going to charge me to get it out, but i need to so i can try to make a little money selling it so i can get a new car. as for now i'm borrowing a friend's car.

2. they've been cutting hours at the plant. i work at the dell factory in lebanon, which didn't get nearly as many orders as expected, so they've been bringing us in late and sending us home early for a little over a week. it's supposed to last another three to four weeks, and i'm not even breaking even on paying for the gas it takes me to drive there and back, which brings us to three and four:

3. my borrowed car ran out of gas today on the way home. luckily i was right by the home of a guy i know from high school who took me over to a gas station with a gas can and bought me a couple gallons without expecting me to pay him back.

4. i have to get a new job. it wasn't so hard to get a better job when i was making $7.00/hour part time; but $8.50/hour full time is a little tough to beat around here for an 18 year old. my best leads are the nursing home my friend's uncle owns ($8.50 or more), ingram books (evidently $10.20+), an audition i have friday for a record deal with the blue desert label, and one other which i won't mention until i have more details. other than those, there's nothing, really.

5. i'm sick and tired. metaphorically and literally. i'm sick of working. since i was 15, i have been working my ass off constantly, except for my 2.5 month post-catfish-house unemployment period, where i was working my ass off looking for a place to work my ass off. every job has been manual labor, for the most part progressively more diffcult, and always getting longer. i went from part time 4-5 hours 3-4 nights a week to 8 hour days to 9 hour nights to, now, 10.5 hour days. i feel i've payed my dues. i want a better job. not going to get my hopes up, but i'm getting angry at my job situation. also, i'm tired, and i have a sinus infection.

6. spherion got my address wrong. my temp agency - the one that got me working for dell - got my address wrong, so momentarily i will be going to the post office to pick up my check that i was supposed to have friday.

that's basically the major points. there's more, but that should be sufficient to make everyone feel more fortunate than they did before ;)

happy new years, everybody. little late, i guess, but oh well.

--mike