So tonight was a good one. Me, my brother, and our friend Ryan from Rockford hung out and went to a few bars. Prior to going to the bars, I slipped into my normal mode of falling into the background....not really being a part of the conversation. It's amazing, though, how much I change once I have a few beers in me. So yeah, we had a good time.

After we got done at the bars, we realized how hungry we were and so we went to "The Uptown Diner" and got some food. We hadn't been there but 2 minutes when this chick from the next table down starts calling out "GREEN HAT.....GREEEEEEN HAT!!!" in an obvious reference to my green Mickey's Malt Liquor hat. I just ignored it. But she kept calling it out periodically over seriously like 30 minutes. After that I figured I could handle the situation in 3 different ways: 1. Continue to ignore it. 2. Take off my hat and continue to ignore it. 3. Get up, and go sit down next to them and strike up a conversation. I chose the latter. So, the next time this super annoying chick called it out, I got up and sat down at their table and asked them how they were doing and "what's up?" It was obviously the last thing they thought I was going to do. It was pretty funny. Suddenly they weren't so bold anymore and they got really lame. When my food came, I was like "well, I'm going to go eat now. Have a good night!" When I left, I heard one girl whisper to the other, "oops!" It was pretty funny. If they were fun or normal girls it would've been alright. But they weren't. They just thought they could get away with anything. But they couldn't. Muahahaha.....

I really thought today was just going to be one of those days. I woke up with some not-so-good thoughts in my mind and they really didn't go away. Work was *meh*...I had 2 drive-offs, which really should've put me in a worse mood, but they didn't. I think it was because we got our paychecks tonight. And I was happy to FINALLY have some money again...so happy, that I called up G-Master after work and we went to the casino. I have so responsible with my funds lately that I needed to do something frivaless, so that was good. I actually would've come out 15 bucks ahead, but I was having too much fun to quit then. I ended up only 5 bucks behind. G-Master, as usual, had a great night and ended up something like 50 bucks ahead. But I had fun. I usually lose like 20 bucks in 10 minutes, so to last for 2 hours and only be behind 5 bucks was amazing. I needed a night like that. Of course, I'm going to be spending the next two nights at bars...but oh well.

In other news, one of my roommates is starting to be really stupid. In this last year he started dating a 26 year-old chick he worked with. He wasn't really around that much, but he was enough for it to be ok. May Term he was NEVER around. Next year he is supposed to live with us in Knights Village, but it turns out he's thinking about living off-campus....most likely with this chick. We all got an email from the Res-Life dude asking us if we had somebody for that spot, otherwise they'd have to fill it. Now, most of you know I've had some serious beef with the Res-Life guy (Pete Armstrong), but I have to give him props for actually asking us if we had somebody before they gave out the spot. In the past they would've just filled it....maybe he saw my name on the list and decided he'd give me one year with out screwing up my living arrangements. So anyway, we gotta find a guy to fill the spot for Fall Term. We have two more people for Winter Term coming back...but if any of you know someone who needs a spot, email me. I've already lost Justin, Nate, and Wuertz. Tell me, Wartburg Folks, who else is there in my room that is any fun?

I've been known to have some crazy dreams in the last few years...but I think this one is the oddest most random yet. Below is what I can remember of it.

I want to go see the meteor shower. Rob Shriver steals some coordinates in relation to the shower to use in some evil plot, but me and Steph Jones can get them from a lab out in the mountains.

We go to the lab, find out he’s using laser beams to find out something more than just a meteor shower. It’s something I can remember learning in my college math course, but I can’t remember quite how to do it. But then an alarm goes off -- the police are coming! We have to cover our tracks, and sabotage the lab on the way out. A few minutes later, Rob calls us and we find out that by destroying the lab, we’ve started a chain reaction that may end the world as we know it.

He’s driving to the top of a mountain in a white van, in order to see the shower. Steph and I start hiking up this huge mountain. The meteor shower happens...but then something below the surface of the earth explodes. The entire mountain range is falling apart...people are dying left and right, but Steph and I get away. We hike over to this snowy area...but then an avalanche happens. Again, we just barely get away...and finally we reach the top of the mountain, where we meet Brandon Newton and my brother.

It’s up there that we find out that our actions in the lab, coupled with a world-wide experiment has blown away 25% of the Earth, from the inside-out. What have we done?

And then I woke up. It was such a vivid dream too. Weird.

Now everyone of my roommates has a cellphone. The only reason I mention this is because one of them, John, would always borrow someone else's phone while I was in Denver to call me and leave me some strange drunken message. But now he has his own phone. And he called me at like 1:30....I think they were all at the local bar Joe's, 'cause there were a lot of people in the background...and I'm pretty sure I heard Nate and Justin in the background as well. Anyway, John calls me up and sings me just about the entire Snoop Dogg song "Drop it Like it's Hot" (I'm assuming it was playing at the time) and then hangs up. It was strange. But it also made me wish I was there. Oh well.

So there I was, sitting on my deck reading and lying out in the sun in a pool of sweat (the thermometer read 94 degrees in the shade) and realized as I looked up at the cloudless sky that it was a perfect boating day. Although I couldn't get it all arranged with my dad, brother, mom, and cousin during the best part of the day, we did eventually managed to get out on the lake. It was nice. Lots of stupid Jet Ski traffic, but nice. And the water was so warm! I mean, we've had 90 degree weather ever since I got back to MN and only like one day of rain. The water was literally about 80 degrees. It was like bathwater. It was so warm that, other than being wet, it really didn't cool you off all that much. But it was still nice.

So we cooked out at the lake and spent the evening there. My brother and I did some swimming and diving off the edge of the boat. Until, that is, he yelped out "Something bit me!" and got out of the water as soon as he could...I quickly followed. Turns out, we were swimming amongst a school of amazingly bold Blue Gills and one swam up and bit my bro (and I'm not kidding) right on his nipple. It was kind of funny. I mean, I've heard of Muskies bitting swimmers, but Blue Gills? There were a bunch of them swimming around our boat right near the surface. It was crazy.

I think the plan to spend some time with Chad's parents got nixed this evening. Ryan, an older friend from Rockford, is going to meet me and my bro in the cities at a bar. So I don't think I'll go all the way up there on Sat., just to come back to Lakeville and then, ultimately, to Minneapolis again with Jess. So I'll have to go up there some other weekend. Oh well.

Oh yeah, and that alarm for the fuel gauge that Draz claims every car has? I was driving with the radio off because I was in between good stations....so I would've heard it if the car had one....so there.

I think as long as I have it in small doses and as long as I work with decent people, SA isn't so bad. Tonight was actually quite enjoyable. I really can't remember the last time I said I liked working there. But, if I could toot my own horn for a second, I also know that I'm a dang good gas station worker. I guess, though, I'd be good at any job after 4 summers. Anyway....

Speaking of gas stations, I almost found myself out of gas in the middle of Iowa today. I was about 10 miles out of Clear Lake, when I looked down and saw the fuel light was on, and I thought "huh....I wonder how long that has been on?" They really should make an alarm or something to go along with the light, because I could've driven until I ran out of gas and not even noticed the light. Needless to say, I was coasting to the pump. Yes! And then I had to pay 30 cents more a gallon than it is in Lakeville.

On a totally different subject, I got this weekend off...even though I crossed out my request, since I decided to go down to Iowa early this week, instead of this weekend. But I still got Friday and Saturday off. Booyea! So it's lookin like I'll spend Friday hanging out with Ryan Johnson in the Rockford area...maybe spend the night in Rockford. Visit Chad's parent's Saturday during the day....stop by the gravesite...maybe smuggle a beer into the cemetary and drink one with Chad...and then it's lookin like I'll be able to celebrate Jess's 21st with her and a bunch of people I probably don't know. Yay! Of course, I have to work Sunday morning, so I can't drink too much...but it'll still be fun.

I tell ya what I'm REALLY looking forward to: my first SA paycheck Thursday night. Man, my checking account is SO LOW right now! Yikes!

Just a quick update for the faithfuls before I head to work. It was amazing to be back in Waverly, even if it was for a short time. I swear...time stands still there. Or maybe the reason why it stood still was because I was with my roommates and they're generally pretty lazy. It was so relaxing there, though. I loved it. I got to their house a little later than I had planned (stupid road construction), but was still able to do a little drinking with some of the guys. But, alas, I passed out early. Probably because I'm a little bit of a wus, but maybe because I had worked so many days in a row and had worked that day as well, and then drove 3 hours. Who knows.

Yesterday Nathan and I just kind of laid around all day....it was so hot! My goodness...then I finally got my trombone from the school. That was good. There was some talk of going mini-golfing, but those plans fell through when we heard about $1 night at the Waterloo Bucks baseball game. $1 beers, $1 dogs....plus we knew the girl at the gate and she let us in free. Good times. After that, a bunch of us headed out to the volleyball courts with a few coolers of beer....and played a few games...but then the lights turned off. Bummer. Oh well. I had fun. Alright, I need to head to work....but I get tomorrow off as well. Woohoo!