so many titles, i cant pick one...lets go with happy st pats

okay, so a brief update on the job. it started out feeling more like 8 hours of recess. sam allowed us to watch movies between calls, we (the spanish dept and i)juggled with a mini soccer ball, me and my new music friend paul played guitar at lunch, i played the freerice game online, and there was just an overall sense of merriment and casualness all around. i dont know if i mentioned this also, but the building itself is an old mall which has been renovated and now has a trampoline, bball court, game room with pingpong and videogames, a huge cafe/open area, and a workout room. so yeah, less of a job, more of a party.

but before i get into that, i should mention the first whole week of work i was real sick. i was throwing up and sweating like mad at night, i was too dizzy and pained to stand or walk in the day, and still tried a few times to come in and be a friendly voice.

i survived. so the next three weeks were filled with this fun time with my good friend sam at the helm and plenty of fun people to keep me busy. then i got the news. a night shift was being implemented. sam was taking the new post. what followed was very unexpected. not only was he taking his guitar with him, he was taking more than half of our team of 25 people and moving to the other side of the mall. : (

so today was day one without them. it was tough. sams office is stripped of the frank sinatra posters and character. the office is quiet without my dwight-like cubicle neighbor josh and my other cubicle neighbor who talks like he is black. and my new boss is actually concerned with my job performance...what? sam would actually pull me away from calls to come hang out in his office and play guitar for him. this guy is screening my calls and critiquing me.

its more of a job now, but i am still really enjoying it. in the past two weeks i have moved up from being 110th or so out of 210 to being number 17 for the month. so i am hoping i will continue to prosper. if i do, i will be promoted in a matter of months to the sales floor.

so thats work. in my social life, i have met many new people recently and it has been a welcome addition in the craziness of life. most notable are the journey girls. 4 gals who are all uniquely interesting and fun. i went to sashas wine bar with them once and the next night was invited to a sneak peak of watchman. it was fun. we actually kind of had to sneak into the sneakpeak. we butted.

tonight i hung out with them again for st pattys day. which is rapidly becoming one of my most beloved holidays. it never fails to bring a sense of excitement. the green, the booze, the nostalgia. it is after all the day of my first contact wearing in london! i was actually suppose to be seeing maps and atlases for free, but the show filled before i got there~! sadness down the windowpane...

but the night was not ruined. i went and had a grand ole time in the cwe. went back to the chase garage for the first time since i left and saw its improvements. saw dan akroyd at sub zero promoting his new vodka. i saw the coneman himself. and i also had an interesting talk with a man named rich and his lady nancy. i jokingly asked him if he had 'earned' his beads and he straight faced told me that he didnt have to earn anything, bc he made 50 an hour. i laughed and asked what he did. he was a painter (gray haired, beard, hippyish). then he got really cool and introduced us to nancy, the love of his life. they told us the story of how they met bc she needed a painter and he did it for her for free, then she made him dinner. and something about how she played oh danny boy on the flute and made him cry. it was beautiful.


also, in my social life, i played a few hockey games in my friend josh's league for him. on the day of the championship we had to play a game to get into the champ game. in o.t. i scored a one timer. it was exhilerating. then in the big game we had a huge brawl. as it was being sorted out by the refs one of the opposing players came onto our bench and sucker punched josh. 6 of our guys then jumped him and the refs and owners freaked out. josh was bleeding, everyone was holding up fists. it was over. we didnt get to finish.

its 3 in the morning...i gotta stop typing even tho i want to tell the story of the victor wooten show...later.

an effort to catch up, part 1

sweet jesus i need to update! i forgot about this, because im back in st louis and quite busy. so im just going to go ahead and tell a few stories from the past 2 months. hopefully i will remember more while typing, because i know ive forgotten alot.

1. looking for jobs suuuuuucks. i applied like a madman and got nothing. except once i did get a callback from a craigslist app. she said it was a group interview at a hotel downtown. so i thought that sounded interesting. i went and instead of the 15 people that were suppose to be competing against me, there were 4...huh.

so i sit in the front row, fifteen minutes early, hoping the other ten will show. instead, 2 of the 4 tell the person in charge that the had planned on printing their applications out at the hotel ups store and the printer was broke. so since they had no apps they just left without telling anyone. so the women in charge says, 'well we had this set up for a group, but since there are only two, we will just interview you one at a time. greg youll be first.' so she sent the other girl to the hallway to wait. i got grilled with a bunch of really dumb questions about who my contacts were and how i could help start a company. what? i thought i was applying for an administrative assistant position... (oh yeah, i didnt mention that there was a panel of 'judges' consisting of friends of the lady 'in charge.')

after i answer the silly questions i am sent to the hall to retrieve the other girl. i look up. i look down. no one. she had left her folder on a table. ...so i guess i won by default.

then the lady said she liked me and would call me, but she had this expression that said, 'im lying to you right now, i cant believe no one but you showed up.' it was funny. i wouldnt have worked for her even if she begged me.

2. i finally found a way to make money. i was summoned for jury duty. $12. i really enjoyed myself. first i took a shuttle to the courthouse. then i sat in a room that looked like a bus stop for 3 hours while i read steinbeck and talked to the two ladies next to me. then my number got called. i was filed into another busstop area with 26 other people. i recognized one of the girls, she dated an old high school friend. i didnt say anything because it didnt look like she remembered, and even if she did, i hate seeing people who havent seen me in 2 years because i inevitably have to discuss hairloss.

then we were very slowly escourted to the criminal courthouse and very slowly put into some sort of order unknown to us, and very slowly shuffled into the courtroom. as soon as we sit down we are told to rise for the honorable judge. then as soon as we sit down again he tells us to go to lunch. stupid.

the line at subway was epic. out the door for over an hour. i felt so bad for those minimum wage workers.

then we get back in and spend like 4 hours being asked questions. and being forced to listen to stupid answers to the questions. especially this one guy who wasnt all there. the question was 'have you been affiliated with any political campaigns in the last two years?' and this guy. this guy was overweight, thick glasses, greasy hair,and had on a fanny pack. his response to this question was something about how he made a belt for president kennedy, and how it didnt fit and he had to put an extra hole in it. and then he just randomly, in the middle of his rambling, said 'and goldplated fingernail clippers.' everyone laughed. it was too weird to properly explain.

then the question was asked, 'do you recognize anyone in this room?' i was under oath, so i stood up and said i did. they asked who. i said, well i dont know her name. they said can you point to her. so i pointed and said, the girl with the pink hair. she looked at me like a stranger of course. and everyone looked at me like i was insane. it was uber awkward and pointless.

then finally, the jury was picked. it was something like 10 girls and one dude, which seems biased. the trial was about some guy who stole $26,000 or so from the community colleges. he looked super creepy.

i was so glad i didnt get picked because i really didnt want the responsibility of deciding where that guy lives for the next 10-15.

3. me and kevin were excited. our boy dan was coming in town for a one night only reunion. we planned a night of bar game competition. darts, pool, shuffle board... but after darts (which dan won in the coolest way possible, see pic) we called sam, our old college buddy, and found out he was willing to hang. he is also a tough one to get face time with so we dropped the competition. dan wouldve won it all anyways, who are we kidding?

so we left to go meet sam at brennans. oh yea, meet sam. sam is a baller. he likes nice things and he likes to take care of his friends. he is tons of fun. but anyways, on the way there dan opens the van side door and jokingly yells at a guy on a bike 'gas guzzler!' or something silly like that at a red light. this yahoo freaks out and comes over to the van and starts yelling at us telling us we are pussies and using alot of expletives. dan and kevin lock their doors. and i proceed to get really pissed. this moron who is void of humor is touching my van and my friends just sat there. i mean come on, there are three of us!

as we drove away and left the biker in our dust, i stopped being pissy as i realized that kevin actually kept his cool. this made me happy that kevin was still happy because for the past year he has been wanting to fight anything that moves : )

so we make it to brennans (a wine/cigar bar in the central west end) and meet sam at his bmw. we proceed to have a fantastic night of socializing and merriment. during which time sam asked if we needed a job. i didnt take it too seriously, bc he has dangled this in front of me in the past, but told him i was interested.

4. two days later, sam calls and tells me to come in for an interview.

i dress up, go to u.s. fidelis, and prepare myself for a grueling interview. and then sam meets me at the lobby. apparently he is my interviewer! we just chat a little bit about the job and i fill out an app and he says, alright you got the job. it was the coolest thing ever.

so now i am in the presales dept at a car warranty provider. every day i get to see my good friend sam, which makes the day pretty easy. not to mention he has a guitar in his office which i play every lunch break. god is cool. i will tell more work details next blog...

also, i moved into my sister carries house because it cuts the commute in half. i am super excited. and they seem to be as well because of nights like tonight. i am babysitting whilst they go have a life.

i do miss the city. i do miss the outdoors. but i am quite happy with this season of life and am trying my best to enjoy this day and not think about all the potential the future holds.

first entry of 2009

whoops...forgot about the blog. i havent had my own computer set up for 2+ weeks and ive been dealing with holiday madness. not to mention that nothing immensely noteworthy has come up. just your typical holiday fun. family gatherings, family drama, family fun. lots of food and presents.

long story short, i am back in st. louis and very happy about it. i am sick of living in my parents house and sick of being funemployed tho. i am ready to be a functioning member of society, which is a nice change for sure.

i am currently looking into nursing and fire fighting as career options. kelly thinks i would be a good teacher, and maybe that would be good too, but right now i am kind of leaning towards the fire fighting. it seems challenging, rewarding, and time worthy. also, i would have side time for other things like music. my only real concern for going in the ff direction is wondering if i would fit in at a firehouse. all tv shows and stuff show only frat guys as firemen. with all of the downtime, i am just wondering if i would be miserable trying to relate to them.

hopefully more to come later, happy new year.

selling my lovely lady Lucille

I sold my car today. I tried last night. It was a long stupid ordeal, and i wrote about it after both showdowns with the imbeciles:

Tonight was brutal. I got five calls for my car, and decided to take the one from the ‘charity,’ because that sounded nice and trustworthy. Couldn’t have been more wrong. It was the shadiest experience I’ve had in years. First I call the charity three times from noon to three and they say they’ll call me back to send someone over. Finally he says he will send someone to look at the car at 5. I wait. I call. He strings me along. At 7ish this joker finally comes. He is in an old beat up BMW and is a greased up mechanic. He first wants a test run so I offer to drive. He gets in the driver seat, and drives it down the street and back with me. I say, “It needs repairs, but it runs impressively well.” He says, “What you say,” in a broken Spanglish manner. I sarcastically say, “It runs well,” like I am speaking to an old man (bare in mind I didn’t sleep the night before). He says, “Eh, what?” again. I can’t believe he actually didn’t just understand the sentence “It runs well.” “Nothing,” I say.

We get out and he looks under the hood. I tell him everything that is wrong on a written list, he points at things that I just told him and vaguely expresses that it needs to be fixed, never actually saying any car part or term. I agree with his mumbling impatiently.

Finally, he says he will give me $400. I say $800. He speaks gibberish until I am annoyed and I say all right $700 and I won’t go lower. He calls his boss. They talk and offer me $500, then $600. I refuse. He hands me the phone with his boss on the line, and the boss says $600? I say, “Sir, you know my price by now. I am sorry for wasting your time. Goodnight.”

Then the mechanic guy rambles about how he should get $20 for coming to look at the car…what?! No, I am done I tell him. He says, $650. I say $675 and that is it! He says okay. Yes! A deal.

Then he says something mumbled about my signing the papers and he will give me a $100 deposit to meet tomorrow for the rest of the money. I say I will sign paper, but not a legal document because then he would own the car. He acts like an idiot and agrees. Then he gives me $90. I tell him he just handed me $90. He says “no, no, that’s one hundred, we’re straight.” I count his bills like he is a five year old back at him. Very loudly and slowly I count them…20. 40. 60. 80. 90. We stare at each other blankly for like ten seconds. He says, no no, this hundred. I give it to him, and say what kind of charity is this. He says ‘charity?’ My eyes open wide and I ask, ‘who do you work for?’ He says, ‘only my boss. Me and my boss.’ I say what about the charity? He says oh this? And shows me the supposed charity entitled “Functional Social Solutions Inc. ” and says oh yes, I work for them. I shake my head. This is so shady. I should have known this was a scam from the name of the place.

He hands me the 100 and I get distracted. I sign a piece of paper and write something vague about how if we don’t meet by eleven tomorrow the deal is off. He asks for the keys. I say ‘Are you kidding me?’ He says, ‘Then give me the papers.’ I say ‘here is your money, goodnight.’ And he quickly says, oh no no no. Take the money. Let me call my boss. I take his money and say goodnight.

He was a stupid filthy scammer and hopefully won’t come back tomorrow and I will keep his filthy money.

To put salt on the wound, two people called after this encounter and offered to buy the car for $800 cash tonight and they were the first ones to call who spoke English. I had to refuse… feeling bound by my word to a scoundrel. Worse night in a while. I still can’t sleep now.

I realized late in the night that the stupid thing I wrote out meant absolutely nothing. It didn’t have the car’s name on it at all and wasn’t even full sentences. So I tried to get a hold of the other two buyers after Tom and Mom assured me that I was in no way legally bound. Sadly, neither of the two buyers had their phones on. That seemed shady as well.


Day Two

Well I did fall asleep, and woke up at 9 in the morning to prepare for selling my car. I was pretty resolute after wasting an entire day by being pushed around. Today I was going to be a businessman.

Mom helped me find the only other necessary paperwork aside from the Title, which is the Bill of Sale form. I went to the library and printed it out from the dmv site.

Then I got home and soon “Mike,” the “boss” from the “charity” called and said his guys were waiting outside…an hour after he told me they were almost there. I came out and it was the same dumb mechanic and then another guy, who also spoke broken English, but was very nice. After yesterday though, I was in no mood to feel vulnerable again, so I just got right to it.

I pulled out the Bill of Sale, which I had filled out before they arrived, and said all right you sign this first. The little mechanic stared at me confused. He said, “Oh yes, do you want to sign this?” and showed me some official looking paper that said something about tax exemption or write offs or something. I said, “Listen, last night was very shady and I don’t want to be involved with this charity anymore. Let’s just do this legally.” The mechanic stared confused, and then said “So you give us the title then?” I asked for the money. He gave me the right amount this time and I said, “Hey, you learned how to count last night huh?” His friend laughed. Him, not so much.

Then I said, “I have the title, you will sign it after you sign this.” He said, “no no no no. I don’t sign.” I said, “You are kidding me. Then forget it.” He said, “wait wait wait…I will call.” He calls Mike and speaks Spanish. Then he gets off the phone and says, “Okay I will sign FCC.” What?!

I say, “That doesn’t make any sense at all. I hate to bully you around but I will need a name and I need to see your license as well.” He looked like I just told the cops he was an illegal alien. Then his nice friend said, “You are okay, that’s okay. That’s right.” So the mechanic, not the other guy, pulled out his ID, which was most likely expired, but it looked like him and it said Pedro Munoz. He proceeded to sign the BOS as such. This is the only thing I could see that I could have been taken for. He could have forged the Title under a fake ID (It was Arizona). What would happen then, I wonder?

Anyways, I pulled out the title and read it one more time and had him sign it. Then I went to take off the license plates. The mechanic said, “no no no, we need those.” I said, “These are my plates, they are legally under my name, and I am taking them. You need to go to the DMV and get a temporary plate. I hate to bully you (I said that a few times throughout). The mechanic just said, “no no.”

I shook the nice guys hand and the mechanic just walked away mumbling something about me being a “mother fucker.” I walk in my apartment.

Five minutes later Mike calls and says, “Arthur, you have to give them the plates.” He was angry and loud. He said, “In the State of California you have to give over your plates.” I said, “Well, I’m not sure about that sir. In Missouri that just doesn’t happen.” He insisted and said they would give me a receipt and send the plates back to Missouri via the DMV or some BS. I said, “Well, I didn’t know about that, but I will look it up and call you right back.” He said, “Well hurry up now Arthur, my boys have been waiting long enough for this crap.”

I called mom for advice and she suggested calling a dealership. I got a hold of Ford and the lady said, “Oh you definitely give them your plates if you are selling them the car. Just to double check, I will connect you with Nancy so she can verify. I walk outside with the plates as I am on hold. I say I am sorry to them and hand them the plates. He puts on the back one and throws the other in the passenger seat.

They are heading to get in the car as I remember that I didn’t get a receipt. I turned and said, “Wait.” And Nancy got on the line. I said, “Hello Nancy, do you know my situation?” as the guys looked at me to say something to them. She said “Yes. You definitely do NOT give them your plates, whether you are at a dealer or privately selling. You keep those and exchange them in Missouri.”

My eyes widened. Wow that was close. Knowledge is power.

I thanked Nancy and walked to the passenger seat and took one plate. I said I was keeping them. And I looked at the plate on the car, hoping they didn’t just drive away before I got it off. I felt in my pockets hoping I had something. I pulled out a penny! Awesome. I bent down and started unscrewing the plate with the penny. Then ole Pedro hands me the phone with an irate Mike.


“Arthur?”
“Hey Mike.”
“Arthur?!”
…
“Arthur?”
“Still here Mike, what do you need?”
“Arthur? Hey! You can’t do this to me! You can’t do this after you’ve signed the title. How can we drive that car now?!”
“Sir. The legal way to do it is to get a temporary license from the DMV.”
“Arthur, I’ve been doing this for years! How are we supposed to drive that car around now? The DMV is closed!”
“Sir. You have been doing this illegally for years then. You should have…”
“What am I suppose to do now!”
“Sir, you should…”
“Huh, tell me what am I suppose to do now?”
“Sir. I’m telling you but you keep yelling. Can you stop?” (Very condescendingly)
“Yes. What?”
“Monday, the DMV opens again, you can…”
“Oh forget it! I hate the way you do business, you know that Arthur?”
“Well, to be perfectly honest sir, I LOATHE the way you do business.”
“What?”
“Loathe. Is that too big of a word for you sir?”
“I…you don’t even know what that means!”
“Alright.”

I hand the phone back, with the plates in my hand. I shake the nice guys hand, and he apologizes and agrees that I did the right thing. Then I sit and watch as my baby, my first love, my little lady Lucille drives away in the hands of evil, terrible men. A bittersweet moment for sure. She taught me one final lesson before we parted, and I will not soon forget her.

observations, sickness

dom came in town again yesterday and we got little caesars and watched walle again. then zack and me both started sneezing and feeling crappy. ive been blowing my nose nonstop for the past 24 hours. sucky.

right now i am locked up in my room with a great cup of hot tea and the best fugi apple ever made. i am listening to miles davis and am about to read 'human universals.' but i didnt know what universals meant so i went to look it up and promptly got distracted.

kelly met annie lebowitz tonight. so thats cool.

also, i went to the observatory. i have been wanting to do this since i got here and finally dragged my butt up there. i really shouldve waited til i was feeling better so i couldve gone on the hiking trails, but i only have 12 days left here so time seems precious.
i really only went to the observatory bc i am a huge fan of 'rebel without a cause' and thats the climax scene locale. i really enjoyed looking at everything and relearning a bunch of astronomy facts and whatnots. i was surprised when i got to a timeline of the universe. they stated the bigbang theory as fact. no theory behind it. this has me really curious about carbon dating and whether or not the bbt could coexist with creationism. i am interested in thoughts if u wanna share. if not, that seems pretty bold of whomever owns the observatory to just throw that on an exhibit.

anyways, tomorrow i am going to try and set up interviews for chicago and will be going to dollar bowling night one last time. tonight i will probably make a schedule for my last days here to sell possessions, say goodbyes, prepare for the new season, and have fun!

good news

well, things have made a bit of a positive turn over the past few days. i got a call late sunday night from shannon saying that i was to be on set at 6am monday. that was very exciting, and i left my house at 5 in the morning. it was so cold and i wasnt expecting it to be. nor was i expecting to be doing an outdoors scene in my 'office' attire. as anyone who has spent time with me in cold weather knows, i shiver pretty badly, and i was shivering so much i honestly couldnt hold my coffee cup. it was embarrassing having such a hard time controlling my own body. i had to set my cup down for a while because i was spilling it!
then right after we got breakfast they directed us outside. and again, we just started walking back and forth to the direction of background action and cut. it was fun talking to some of the other extras. one guy was telling me that i was really lucky to have gotten work that day bc it was only union actors on set! then sarah (shannons friend who got me on set) showed me the call sheet with my name on it. it doesnt really matter much, i will still be a blur behind the actual actors, but it was fun to know. i was paid 130 bones for 3 hours of looking pretty. then they said thats all! so at 9 am i was done working and i went to the community college and played piano.

tonight was also a nice change, it rained! me and zack went for a walk while it was just drizzling and then it started pouring so we ran home. fun times.

in other good news, lindsey is out of the hospital and doing good.

also, kyle and i are going to record some more music tomorrow.

and i watched the blues game tonight on vs. and they freakin won.

oh sake bombs.

For zacks bday we went to this place Tokyo delves sushi, which was complete madness. The outside was not unlike a club with a long line and big bouncers with a list. When you walked through the door you were greeted by a line of waiters and asian bartenders screaming ‘heeeeeeyyyy!!!’ This reminded me of college potluck nights when we greeted people very similarly. Everybody gets in and you immediately have a sake bomb. Everyone would fill up their beer mugs under the mini wooden kegs, then put their chopsticks on their glass. Then we’d put a shot of sake on top and the waiter would yell “SAKE!” and we yelled back to him, “BOMB!” Three times or so and then he would slam the table and our drinks became one big mess of alcohol. Then we chugged. I hadn’t eaten all day under the impression this was a sushi night I was getting myself into. After two bombs I was feeling very light.
Before I knew it they were playing ‘my humps’ and we were up on their chairs get-getting love drunk.
After 6 sake bombs and lots of sushi and chair dancing, we got a very sobering bill. $867 for 15 people! Ouch. So we paid and got out of there quickly.