It's always something at SA. It really is. I got a phone call today that 3 of our employees up and quit. Today. One of them was the overnight guy last night...the other two were supposed to work the day shift. Today. Insane. They wanted me to come in and I would've, except I don't have a car and my parents were off somewhere, only to get back just in time for me to drive to work....because as far as they knew it was a normal day. I definitely wouldn't have minded the overtime. That's always nice. I'm sure I'd get burned out eventually, but I wouldn't mind working everyday. I've got a good routine: Sleep until 1 p.m., get up and eat a leisurely lunch while reading the newspaper, take a shower a little before 2, play a video game for the last 20 minutes before work or sit and talk with the parents, work from 3-11, get home and do random stuff until 2 or 3 a.m. It's a good system. As great as days off are, it always sucks big time to go back to work after you're away. Yeah.

So tonight I was working with the newest 3-11 girl, Bianca....on a sidenote, you'll notice how many people I've mentioned that I work the 3-11 with. In the month or so that I've been at this SA, all I've worked is 3-11 shifts and right around 5 different people have filtered through the shift with me. At any rate, I was working with this chick and in a lull, we were talking about her nearly brand-new Monte Carlo. I couldn't figure out how she could afford it when she was (and let me preface this by saying she's super nice and fun to work with) A. 19 years old, 2. working at a gas station, and F. has a kid. Her reply was, "yeah, I used to be a stripper." Now what the heck to you say in reply to that? Everything that first popped into my mind would've gotten me in trouble. Really, the only safe reply is the one I used: "oh." The sad thing is, I had to pretty much recommend that she should quit this decent job and go back to her old one. She can't make the payments on her car with the relatively meager gas station salary...especially while she's going to school and raising a kid. I never thought I'd say it, but she was actually better off being a stripper. How many times can you say that? Sorry...that was a random series of thoughts.

Last night I was talking with Meredith and she said I need to be doing more things that make me think. She's right, of course, since most of my days pass without me ever thinking one real thought. My mind is literally blank most of the time at SA. So then last night I was thinking of a new story to write....and my mind drifted to the summer after 6th grade. Lots of stuff happened that summer. It's a good transitionary stage, since I was going into the BIG 7-12 Rockford High School. That was also the summer where two worlds collided for me when Steph Jones dated Chad. Since the work would be fiction, which my writing professor so aptly defined as lying with style, I can take lots of different experiences and pack them all into that one summer. In other words, the classic coming of age story. But then I started thinking about who the intended audience would be. (Just like the marketing capabilities problem, Saienga) Who would want to read a story from that age? Are adults interested? I mean, I can get into a lot of deeper feelings if I go that route. Or would kids in the Junior high age group be interested? I think I can still go deep into feelings, but the swearing has to be kept to a minimum. Or would College-age people like it? I think not on college students, because that's yet another coming of age time. I think I'll have to go with the young adult group.

At any rate, that's another plot that's sitting on the back burner. I need to write more from experience. That's what I need to do. That's why "The Cellar Door" is going to be transfered from Upstate New York to Iowa. That's a much easier place to write about. Yeah. Ok. Enough of this. I've got church tomorrow. Yikes...in like 6 hours. I hate myself already.