I woke up the next day to my dad and Joey.  And my dogs!  Apparently the police found them and took them to the station.  My dad told the lady at the station, "I believe you have our dogs in custody."  They got a kick out of that.  So I got my dogs back.  Either way I learned to appreciate the dogs being around even when they tear up the house.  Same can be said for people in my life as well.  Even though people around me give me grief sometimes I know that I will miss them when they are gone. 

After waking up again, I got up and got ready for school.  I arrived again at SWIC and sat in the class.  I hoped that the teacher was not that the same one a had for my previous TWO classes.  I hopes were rewarded with a new teacher.  A guy teacher at that.  He was wearing jeans, had a collared shirt, and his face was going for the unshaven look.  His hair was long and greasy looking.  Was this my teacher or some serial killer?  Anyway this guy seemed ok I guess.  We did this thing were we broke into small groups and introduced each other and our ethnicity.  Mexican was not a category.  Anyway, that at least kept my mind occupied.  The rest of the class was him talking.  This guy should have been a History teacher.  All he does is talk about history.  I want to read and discuss the literature.

The next day I went to school like usual and then drove to SIUE for a meeting with an English advisor.  I had some questions for him like when the hell would I be able to graduate.  My advisor was Mr. Schmitt, an English teacher I had before.  He was always really cool and it was good to see him again.  He told me what I needed to do and what I needed to take.  He told me it would probably take me at least a year to graduate.  I suppose that wasn't horrible news but I still have much yet to do. 

The meeting went well but I felt overwhelmed.  I don't know why but those meetings wear me out.  I cruised back home to rest and prepare for a three hour class later that night.  But I couldn't relax.  Laura wanted to know how the meeting went and I know why.  I told her.  I don't know lately I've been feeling lost.  I can't help but feel like I'm in a race and no matter how fast I run I'll never win.  But at least I'll finish.  But also I'm not getting any younger.  Time is moving far too quickly and I'm still nowhere on track.  Things need to happen soon or everything I want will pass me up.  I just don't know what to do.  I feel like I'm in the middle of the ocean trying to find my way back to shore.  But at least I am on my way and Laura helped reassure me.  Sometimes that's what I need.  Some reassurence.  Even if it is a lie.

Anything good happen today?

It's Monday morning and I feel like I have just been hit by a bus.  It's 9 o'clock and my alarm is going off.  I hit the alarm to shut it up and lay in bed for a five minute cheat.  I crawl out of bed and head to the shower.  My nose is stuffed up.  That's not a good sign.  I get into the shower and I KNOW I am in bad shape.  I feel terrible.  I am sick.  Why I don't know. 

I get dressed and ready to start my first day of school and what a way to start, feeling like hell.  Luckily all my clothes were laid out and ready for me.  I got dressed and got on the computer to of course check facebook like most people do.  Nothing.  I killed some time then went off to school.  Not SIUE.  I'm going to SWIC.  All my classes were full at SIUE so SWIC was the only option.  Not that that was a bad choice.  It's closer and cheaper than SIUE and not as bad as its reputation. 

So hear I am at SWIC.  I park and enter the building.  I took a summer course here but now there are actually crowds of people here of all sorts of types.  It was weird to be here again.  I felt like a man in a foreign country.  I arrived at my classroom.  Not a large crowd in there.  I sat in the back.  After a short wait my teacher arrived.  A woman probably in her sixties.  She was a frail little thing but her gray hair was hidden by an unnatural red coloring.  Who is trying to fool?  Anyway, I was hoping for a guy but she might do.  She seems nice.  After explaining the class we break into small groups of three or four.  We look over this picture of an old stage in our book as well as introduce ourselves to our other members.  We then had to talk about the picture and introduce the other people in our group and a "fun fact" of that person to the whole class.  Kind of boring but we'll see how it goes.

The next class was English Literature.  A full house that class is.  Coincidently two people in that class that were in my summer class.  That's a pleasant surprise.  What's not pleasant is when the teacher came into the room.  The same damn teacher I had for the other class!  At least I know what to expect.  Still it's weird to have the same teacher for back to back classes.  We did the same B.S.  We split into small groups and introduces ourselves and talk about why English Literature starts at the Middle Ages.  This teacher will probably bore me.

After a pleasant first day I was feeling rather pleases with myself.  At least I'm not in Math anymore and I talked to my fellow classmates from my summer class.  But I still felt sick and now I had to go to work.  Luckily work was relatively dead.  I read most of the time and tried not to do more than I had too.  Work seemed to last for an eternity even though I got out around eightish.  I went home but it was a slow ride.  My brother still had not called me about the dogs.  I forget to mention earlier that the dogs had escaped.  That helped to ruin any good thing that happened that day.  I got home and was greeted by no dogs.  "They're not here," my dad said.  That was a bad sign.  Normally they come home or are found quickly and returned to us.  Our dogs are well known in the neighborhood. 

I was greeted by a package in the mail.  It was from Laura.  I opened the package and found a card and a University of Chicago shirt for me.  Joey received candy "snakes" and a carabiner.  I loved the shirt but the card touched me the most.  It almost made me cry.  It was nothing spectacular about it.  I wasn't written to be sentimental.  But it's probably the best thing anyone has given me in recent memory. 

I got online and told her all about my day, my illness, and my dogs.  She seemed genuinely upset.  I could tell, even over the 300 mile distance between us connected only by the signals of the internet.  As much as I tried to relax I couldn't.  I kept thinking about the stupid dogs and what would happen if they didn't come back.  Laura said she would pray for them to return.  What a sweetheart she is.  But right now I am exhausted and need to go to bed so I can go to school for day two and hopefully get over this cold.

Update!

  Well I haven't updated this in awhile and I thought I should.  I'm making some changes.  When I first made this it was to have some rants on it that people would find amusing but I really don't feel like doing that.  Actually I haven't felt enraged in quite awhile so thats good for me but bad for my rant site.  So I'm just going give an update on where i am right now. 

Right now I'm taking a class at SWIC.  So many people hate that school.  I personally have no problem with it.  I love the class I'm taking now.  The teacher is a little out there but that's ok.  Also it's now July and KY Lake has come and gone.  My folks me and Joey went to Bowling Green two days before KY Lake where there was a whole lot of nothing.  We saw the Corvette Museum which is ok i guess.  We also went inside two caves.  One was like a boat ride where we went about  20 feet into this cave and came back out.  That was kinda weak but the other cave was huge and we actually went a little deeper into that cave so that was better.  Then we went to the lake where it turns out our cabin was flooded so we stayed at another place for the first night.  That was weird.  Plus i was the oldest of the kids there.  That was strange.  Luckily Brad and Kevin and Johnny showed up the next day thank god.  Still no David or Michael.  Oh well.  So after they showed up it was the lake as usual.  And normally i find it real boring but Kevin made a good point.  KY Lake is the only time when we get free food and no work.  That's a pretty good deal i must say.  So the Lake was fun except Joey fell on his ass..... well his face actually and chipped a tooth which i can barely see but apparently that ruined Joey's year.  What ruined my year was me drowning my cell phone.  I never felt so fucking stupid.  Actually it pisses me off a lot when people bring it up like a joke.  I'm never making fun of anyone that ruins their phone ever again.  So I might get a new phone but who knows.

So when I'm not at work or school I'm with my friends or if we finally get our schedules to match then i see Laura.  When I came back from the Lake I made a surprise visit to see her.  I think she liked that.  I was glad to see her.  I missed her.  But more recently as in last Sunday I came to her house to see her.  I don't know why but her parents make me nervous.  I feel i can't be myself around them.  I know they probably don't think highly of me.  I know they don't think i'm worthy of their daughter.  Makes it hard for me to want to bust out my wonderful personality.  It makes me wish i was a wealthy conservative white man instead of a poor liberal mexican.  So dinner (not supper) is quite interesting with them to say the least.  But it's a free meal and a good meal at that.  Laura doesn't want to spend money and doesn't want me to if i don't have to.  And her parents are nice to me even if they don't approve of me. 

But Laura and I went to the sculpture park.  That was cool.  We also visited her friend and we all went to a bar and played pool.  I lost of course as i scratched as i sank the last ball.  GRRR.  He is a good guy and I can always tell the friends that Laura really really likes.  I spent the night then the next day Laura came to my place.  Poor her.  My parents that same time had me pull up the damn bush in the front yard.  Fun fun.  So Laura came and we saw the new Superman movie which was fantastic.  Then we ate at the Emperor's Wok.  We ate until we exploded.  Then Danny and Derek came over and we played cards and Yahtzee.  That was real fun.  Laura spent the night and we went to the park and walked the track.  Then we went to the mall.  We saw the puppies but the lady wouldn't let us see the dog.  Apparently it can't handle too much love.  We were gonna go to the humane society but it was closed for the 4th of July.  So we went back to my house and ate pasketti.  Then Laura wanted to leave but i wanted to see the fireworks so we went by the shrine and saw them from afar.  Hardly the riverfront but it was better than nothing.  So it was a great time for me anyway.

We did a lot of stuff that I wanted to do so i think i owe Laura a day where she can choose what to do and where to go and I'll be the driver.  Laura seemed distant the whole time and even now.  I hope she's okay.  I don't mean to smother her but I can't show her of tell her how I feel enough.  The more i think about it the more i just feel like she is so perfect for me.  Who else will laugh at my jokes? Or laugh when i act goofy in public and not be embaressed? Or step inside my house with my parents?  Or put up with me in general?  Or know what i'm thinking?  Who else will let me be me?  I've always heard that there's plenty of fish in the sea but there really isn't.  Not for me.  I don't want to screw up what i have now.  And i pray that somehow our destinies our goals can coexist.  I hope she knows how I feel and feels the same way.  I hope......

Rant of the Week: X-Men 3 review.

  ::SPOILERS BEWARE::

So I saw the new X-Men movie titled, X-Men: The Last Stand.  As a fan of X-Men and all nerdy films I have to say that I enjoyed the movie because I'm in love with the genre and was a fan of the comics.  But once I heard that the series was getting a new director my feeling was that it was gonna suck.  The rumors all around was that it was gonna suck and compared to the other two X-Men movies....yes it did suck.  I came into the theatre thinking the movie would be about a 3 on a scale of 10.  However it exceded my expectations.  I'd give the movie a 4.  There were many dumbs things in that movie one being the misuse of the characters, and another being the absence of closure unless i'm missing something.  

The characters were not used properly in my opinion.  For example everyone dies.  Was it really neccessary to kill Cyclops in the first 5 minutes.  Jean Grey dies YET AGAIN.  Why?!  Xavier.  DEAD.  Is it possible to bring these characters back to life because to me they're essential to X-Men.  Why was it neccessary for the writers to KILL them?  Another stupidity in that movie was the introduction of Angel.  He was hyped a lot for this film and all he does is break out of the room only to save his a$$hole father at the end.  That's his role in the movie.  LAME.  Oh but there was a sentinel in the movie.  You get to see its head wow, cool.  Why have a sentinel in the film if its role is fricken pointless?  Whatever.

Also there's the absence of closure for many characters.  Pyro is defeated by Iceman.  Ok cool but is he dead?  Does he get captured?  Juggernaut.  What was the deal with him?  He hit his head?  That's it!!!  That stopped the Juggernaut?!  LAME.  And finally Magneto.  He is still alive.  How much more can they do with Magneto.  Everyone dies but the main villain.  Kill him off so that other villains from the X-Men universe can shine.  If people want him back just use one of the many loopholes to bring people back to life.  The point is that there wasno closure for any of the characters hell even for the ones that died.

The absence of logic as well as any inkling of creativity also hurt this film.  There were many GREAT twists in X2 but X3 was just kinda chugging along.  It's still worth a view i guess but don't be surprised if it's a little disappointing.

Rant of the week: FNGs