After PHP class, but before my ACM TDC meeting, I went to Chick-Fli-A for lunch. On my way back to campus, I saw a sight. Some Marines were busy with a fund raising car wash at the old Media Play parking lot. To attract people, one guy was standing in the median on Abercorn. He had only shorts on, but you couldn't see them. They had him made to look like the only thing he had to wear was a carboard box. I thought it was funny. Seems an old guy in a Toyota on the other side of the road didn't think so. He was in the left lane and slowed down. He had a sour look on his face and he sure honked at the solider. I looked over at the guy and his hand looked as if he had just flipped the solider off. The solider yelled at the guy.

Some people have no sense of fun.

Today, I've come to a conclusion about my life. I am running myself into the grave at my current pace. When I get a cold sore, it's usually a sign that my body is not coping well. Last night, my brain was so fried from my tests, I couldn't think straight. I'm worn out. So, I'm on the verge of dropping my PHP class. Something has to give. PHP is an elective for me. As I was telling my professor about it today, I used the "It's not you; it's me" line. He had a good chuckle at that. He told me I'm doing fine in the class. I told him I want to learn it still. He told me even if I drop it, I can still attend class. Now to think of it over the weekend.

[♪ Listening to: "Love Has a Hold on Me" - Amy Grant]

I am drained from my Calc test and Client/Server test. Both required a lot of thinking and writing. I gave them my all. That's all I can do. I'll see how I do next Tuesday.

The only other thing I did today was pay a bill for my dad at the hospital. It was a bill concerning Beth. As I was leaving the parking garage, some old lady in her big honking Town Car could not pull out of her slot. She tried 3 times before allowing me to pass. The traffic in the garage was quite backed up on the other side. If you can't drive it, park it and drive something that you can drive!

I could go to sleep at the moment. TiVo is recording CSI.

Thursday Threesome:

Onesome: Clean-- as a whistle? Can you whistle? When did you learn? ...and with pursed lips or with that finger thing? I can't whistle!

Twosome: Air-- quality: an issue where you live or not? ...enough to move? The only time the air is bad is pollen season in the spring.

Threesome: Act-- Hey, do you 'act your age'? Sure, that's subjective, but what do you think? ...or better yet: what do your friends think <g>? I know I don't act my age. Some days, I'm immature. Other days, I'm a 47-year-old. At least I'll admit it!

In other news, I have one monkey off my back! My student job has just launched the project we are working on live onto the net. Just at the moment that I type this, the internet is down in the room. However the project is Integrating Information Retrieval into Undergraduate Curricula. This is what I spent most of my summer working on.

Well, I'm off to study for the 2, count them: 2, 2 tests I have today. One is Calc. The other is Client/Server.

My past year has been one emotion roller coaster after another. However, I think I had a lesson or two to learn from this troubling time. I think my main lesson has to be trust myself. I am learning to trust my abilities. I am learning I can live alone when and if the time comes. I am learning to further refine my ability to be a rock during a crisis. The other night, my father told me I'm getting the house when he dies. Of course, he's planning on living another 30 or more years. However, he's decided that I'm the child of his that's the most capable of handling finances. I've earn his trust in that regards.

My other title for this post could have been "I didn't win the booby prize; I won the grand prize." In a way, I did. My goal in life at the moment is to get out of school and do the best in the final few classes I have left. When I finish, I'll have a Bachelor's Degree. One day, when I'm ready, I can go back and get a Master's Degree. I only have promise in my life at the moment.

However, I do need to rest. I have this fever blister on my lip that's I've had since Thursday. It's having trouble healing because it cracks open and bleeds whenever I open my mouth. My Special Topics professor saw it on my lip yesterday and told me to get some rest since I looked sick. I'm trying. I only had PHP class today and did an hour of work. I'm taking today easy. At the moment, I'm typing the page or so I wrote for the Film paper due on Monday. Tomorrow, I only have tests in my classes. Friday will be spent in PHP class, again, and working on the ACM site. My weekend will be spent on homework. Once I get past turning in this essay, I'll have some pressure off my back.

Yesterday, I did pick up the new Amy Grant live album. Great pick up. If was refreshing to hear old songs in a new light. Shame Best Buy didn't have the DVD companion when I was there. I was lucky just to find the album behind all the other Amy Grant CDs.

[♪ Listening to: "Hope Set High" - Amy Grant]

No telling how long Un chien andalou will be on YouTube, but here it is, in all its glory. I just finished the reading about it for class tonight and STILL don't get this film. It just does nothing for me. I think the only thing I can say about this film in my 7 page paper is how is related visually to another film we've watched in class.

Over the weekend, I found out my brother wants to move to Atlanta to be with his friends. He was thinking about Emory, but that's out of the question. My father doesn't money to send him to a private college. I told him about Georgia State University. It's in Atlanta and it's a public school. My brother is now of the business to make As all the semester to raise his GPA to try to transfer to a school in the Altanta area. That reminds me, there is Kennasaw State in the area, too. If he can't get into GSU, he can try Kennasaw. Oh, I they have a new public college in Gwinnett county as well. For sure there are public schools in the area and won't have to go too much into debt to attend.

This morning, we got some painful news about the A/C. It's going to cost $9,500.00 to replace the A/C unit, duct works, and the whole shebang. My dad became depressed about it. I told him not to worry. It will all work out. We need this work done on top of a new bathroom. Damn old house! However, once we get a new unit it, it will be the right size for the house. The current one is not. We'll save on power. We'll just have one unit running instead of many window units. I'll talk to him later, but I told him to go for it. I guess with this little problem, we'll be getting the bathroom taken care of in a bit. I guess while the work is done, I'll be showering in the trailer or on campus in the rec center. Last night it was so hot, I moved into my mother's room to sleep with the A/C unit on in there. Looks like I'll have to do that again tonight.

Okay, off to read about Stagecoach and Hollyowood in the 1930s and 1940s.

Here at the house. My dad's working on getting a new unit. Until then, we're relying on window units. It's like being back at Grandmother's house in the early 1990s. She didn't have central heating and air, like most of her neighbors. For some reason, every time the airport offered free stuff done to the homes in her Nashville neighborhood as compensation for living under the flight path, Grandmother turned them now. My mother would get frustrated with her mother that she didn't take the offered up. As a result, Grandmother's house was one of the oldest homes in the neighborhood, not just in age, but in life, too.

Grandmother's house did have an A/C unit in the living room window. When we would stay at her house while in Nashville, the whole family would sleep in the living room. We would shut the doors surrounding the room. My mother would yell if we left the doors open to the living room. Considering my mother craved her A/C, I don't see how she could stand staying at Grandmother's house. The rest of the house was hot in the summer. Cooking must have been hell for my mother. No wonder she took up Tetris back in 1991.

Yes, Tetris. My mother became addicted to it in the summer of 1991. We spent most of the end of July and beginning of August that year staying in Nashville. My mother just wanted to catch up with her old friends. The neighbors at Ft. Bragg thought my mother had left my father because we were gone so long. No, she didn't. We kids were with her most of the time. We would go to her friends' homes. She'd catch up with them as Nicki and I would play with their kids. When weren't at those homes, we were usually at Grandmother's home. Grandmother had no cable at the house, either. So, our forms of entertainment boiled down to 3 things: Over-the-air TV, Nintendo, or cards in the dining room. I was 12 at the time and big into Tetris. I could only get to about level 9. One day, my mother asked how to play the game. I didn't think she was serious about playing it. By the end of that trip, she could get to level 2. She loved that game until her death. My dad surprised her in 1996 by getting her the SNES Tetris/Dr.Mario game pack. She said that was one of her best gifts ever.

As for 1991, when we weren't sweating at Grandmother's or off at an old friend's, we did two other things. We would be at Grandma and Grandpa's at the pool. Thank goodness for that pool! The other thing is that we were hanging out with Alice and her kids, Joshua and Jessica. Josh and Jessica were each a few months younger than me and Nicki, respectively. That summer, we spent time listening to New Kids on the Block, Amy Grant, have Josh spray us with his new SuperSoaker, going to Wave Country, and catching fireflies.

That was my 2^nd to last summer as a kid. The next summer spent in Nashville was my last. After that summer of 1992, I had to grow up. My dad went to Egypt and Grandmother started to get sick. I'll save the summer of 1992 for another day.

[♪ Listening to: "Dreaming Of You" - Céline Dion]