Week 3

Monday.  Chris came over after school, and we watched some TV and played video games: ATV. We counted all my change and bought pizza from Papa John's. Lee had to work, and we couldn't get a hold of Dewenter. So we ate our pizza, and a telemarketer called the house and Chris answered it. This is how the conversation went:

Chris: "Hold on, let me get my dad." He gives me the phone.

Me: "Hello?":

Telemarketer: "Are you the man of the household?"

Me: "I think so, yes."

Telemarketer: "We're doing a survey. What's your area code?"

I give it to him.

Telemarketer: "Do you live in Springboro?"

Me: "On the edge of Franklin."

Telemarketer: "Is that a 'yes' or a 'no'?"

Me: "Yes?"

Telemarketer: "Where do you shop for clothes?"

Me: "Wal-Mart."

Chris can't stop laughing.

Telemarketer: "This call is being monitored."

Me: "Okay..."

Telemarketer: "How do you get to your Wal-Mart?"

Me: "Go down the road, take a right."

Telemarketer: "I didn't know there was a Wal-Mart in Springboro?"

Me: "You drive a while before you turn right."

And then the telemarketer hangs up the phone.

Tuesday. I took my Art exam and left school around 9:20, and I picked up Bowden and Lee an hour later. I took Bowden home and Lee came to my place, and we ate leftover pizza and watched the movie Big Daddy. We picked up Chris and Pat, and I had to take Dad's truck. Chris was being a jerk the whole time, but what else is new? We went to Borders, then Half-Price, where I bought Kurt Cobain's autobiography Heavier than Heaven. Chris gave me some weird sandalwood incense that reminds me of acoustic guitar stores. Lee and I split off from Chris and Pat and went to Family Tree Music on Main Street, and we got a friendly note from the Genesis Hair Salon. We drove over to North Park and walked trails and splashed through the creek till sunset.

Wednesday. "Marvel at the simple things in life; take pleasure in existence; go without hurry; work for your food; love God; love others." The secret to joy is Jesus, and the secret to happiness is simplicity. The good life, I believe, is a life with God and without cares, worry, or hurry. A simple life. I took my Geometry exam, and back home I talked to Pat for a while. He's falling away from God, is apathetic about everything. I don't understand what's happening, why this is happening, maybe it's his girlfriend? I started a blog called "darker than silence," but I can't figure out how to get it works. I mainly want a blog to storehouse my digital writings. Jeff came by the house to talk with Dad about The Garage. Mom and Dad went to a funeral, and I had hot dogs and mac-&-cheese for dinner. Lee came by to pick up his cap and magazine, and Mom gave him $50 so he could get a yearbook. She's nice like that.

Thursday. Ams and I went to breakfast at McDonald's, and I nailed my US/World Studies exam, and thus I am done with school until Tuesday! I picked up Lee, as well as the Derek kid that got fired from I.G.A. and his Chinese girlfriend April (she has a deep accent). Why are foreign girls so attractive? We dropped Derek and April off, and Lee and I hit McDonald's for lunch: I got a 5-piece nugget, a double cheeseburger, a McChicken and fries, and Lee got two hamburgers and some nuggets. Grand total: $7.00. We went to Lee's to eat our food and watch the TV show 24, and when Chris came home and we went to a park, then drove around for a while, navigated the trailer parks at Palm Harbor. We went back to my place, and then we went to Zach's but he wasn't home. We were going to prank the Southards but then they pulled up. Zach was going to a friend's place, and Kristen was being all quiet. Darrel wanted us to leave, so we skulked away. We went back to Lee's, and then I returned home to help Ams babysit (at least until Paige, the little girl, got scared of me). Kristen was supposed to come babysit, but she never showed up. Ron and Aisa are part of Mom and Dad's bible study. Everyone was gone by 9:00. I spent the evening talking to Corey, and he told me I'm the most spiritual kid he knows. I'm not spiritual: I just know, accept, and am not ashamed of the truth. Spirituality is an off-hand, over-the-counter, pleasant-preacher phrase. Buddhists are spiritual; Muslims are spiritual; New Agers are spiritual. I don't clamber after a euophoric, suspended enlightenment; I don't lie prostrate before Mecca; I don't smoke pot while chanting tunes to an unknown god. I know God--he is my Creator, my Friend, my Savior. I am alive in God's light, alive in the truth, and I'm not ashamed of it. I told Corey, "I'm not spiritual, I'm just alive."

Friday. I remember Rikki, my unofficial girlfriend for several months, from a couple years back. She looked a lot like Chelsea E., a freshman at high school. Rikki didn't care about outward appearance. She liked me on the inside. She would kiss me and I'd kiss her. She'd come over and we'd crawl into the crawlspace, and we'd lie to next each other suspended in the darkness, our little paradise, and we'd talk for hours on end about everything. Oh, she adored animals. She wanted to be a veterinarian. We also went swimming a lot. Rikki--a treasure. But then she moved, and things fell apart... I woke around 8:00, worshiped and prayed for a while. I worked 3-8:00, and Ricky was there working 4-9:00. Today was the equivalent of slave-work: there was rumored a big ice storm, and everyone panicked and swamped the grocery store. I brought two bottled frappuccinos home with me, and Mom, Dad, Ams and I ate at Olive Garden. I took a hot bath back at the house and read a "Contagious Christian" booklet and started reading Heavier than Heaven. Cobain was a loser, but an interesting loser nonetheless. While chilling in the sauna-bath I drank one of the frappuccinos. 

Saturday. This morning icicles dripped from my windowsill, and the windows were iced over with frost. The road was caked with ice, and it was still sleeting when I woke up, and it was still sleeting when I drove into work: 9-3:00. We were going to go to New Carlisle to hang out with Dad's side of the family, but that fell through because of the ice storm. I went over to the Williams' and hung out with Bryon, Pat and Chris. Bryon got a new off-brand guitar, and we had a worship session in the kitchen. Chris and Luke went to their dad's house, and Pat and Bryon came over to my place. We ate supper, and Pat finished his detail-job on the old Alvarez I traded in. It looks pretty great. Corey's in the hospital because of some snowboarding accident. We talked a lot about 412, as we tend to do, and when they left I did a bible study, spent some time in prayer, and drank some coffee before jumping into the hot bathtub before bed. 

Sunday. At church we're going through Acts, and today's message was entitled D.A.R.E. The acronym stands for Devotion to God, Amazement at God's power, repentance, and Expectation of Jesus' coming. The tag-line: "Dare to have a fresh, awesome walk with God!" Corey's doing better, had to get a bunch of stitches on his head. Chris, Pat and Hank came over (Hank's name is Pat, too, and his last name's Hague, but we just call him Hank: it's easier to distinguish between him and Pat Dewenter that way). Hank left to see Ashley, and Pat D. and I ate supper. We all watched Office Space on TV, and I taped it. We went over to the Williams' and spent the night there. We watched Nirvana: Unplugged yet again. Hank came over to the Williams' after seeing Hank, and I fell asleep on the sofa and woke up to him, Chris, and Pat D. playfully beating me. I responded in kind, and many screams filled the house; and by the end of it, I was upstairs with Lee just hanging out, and the three of them were slowly crawling up the stairs, huddled behind a plastic tricycle as their defensive weapon. I chased them down the steps: Pat D. bolted into the living room, Chris ran screaming into the family room, and Hank took off into the kitchen, sliding over the tile. I chose him as my target--it's rather arbitrary, really--and I grabbed him by the shirt and threw him bodily to the ground. He begged me to stop and I laughed, and we all rejoined and decided it was bedtime because we were all tired.