I never would have thought a day with no chemistry class could suck this much.

Today I met a boy who stood on one of the walls of the front Shriver Patio and sang to praise the God he believes in because he had some time between classes.  I also met Rob, who stopped to talk to him about it.  I left a note on his backpack.

You are much braver than I.

But we do.

Some psych study thing about playing Memory with people's faces.  Hooray!  Tonight I am going to the Phi Delt gates, where Colorguard Rachael is giving out free pancakes with some unnamed organization from 10-12.  I do not want a pancake, but I want to be friendly to her.  Yay hidden motives!

Classes are alright so far.  I need to start doing chemistry practice problems.  BUT I did some extra credit for chem, and will be doing some for geology tonight.  Botany is interesting and not all at once.  I love psychology.  I want to get a psychology degree and then work with tigers.

Actually, what I want most right now is to sleep.  After walking to the gates and back.

I am in a terrible, terrible mood this afternoon.  Hopefully the walk to band and practice itself will erase it.  I love tubas.

Remind me to tell you why it bothers me.  It's not important, but...yeah.

Cabot, I accidentally forgot about you yesterday, and I'm sorry.  I was thinking about how every boy I've dated has worn glasses...but you don't.  ...you wear safety goggles?

Every boy I have ever kissed can play the tuba.  hahaha

Not being okay is okay.

There are some things I've been meaning to post about for a while.

Evan
At the Riverside Olympics at the original store on July 13th, I was talking to Evan.  He is my favorite person I have met at Riverside, besides Cabot.  We are completely and absolutely different, but I love him and I think he likes me quite a bit as well.  He is even dating the other Michelle just so it's easier to pretend it is me, I'm sure of it.  Anyway.  This is going to seem totally insignificant but we were talking and he made sure he still had my number and I had his.  Out of nowhere.  And that meant a lot to me, that he wants to make sure that we can still contact each other, despite having absolutely no reason to.  Maybe he feels the same connection I feel, or maybe cares about me the way I care about him, or maybe I'm completely wrong and he wanted my number in case he needed an emergency worker at the store this summer.  I don't care.  I have his number, and he has mine, and he checked that it was so.

Al
Al is the founder/owner of Riverside.  On Friday, he was at our store because we had just given out coupons and were expecting a huge rush (which we got).  At one point, he told me, "If you ever want a job with us and someone tells you they don't have one, tell them to call me.  You are welcome here anytime."  Schwhat?  I didn't think Al liked me very much, and wasn't even sure he remembered that I was the same blonde-haired girl he worked with every day three years ago, and here he is, offering me guaranteed re-hire?  It was quite surprising.  I am only used to criticism and awkward jokes from him.  To be told that was just...nice.  And I want to remember that niceness, even if I never have to take him up on the offer.

David and Stas
David and I went to Stas's grave today.  It was my first time there since we had a band competition at WCU the day of the funeral.  Apparently my grandmother is also buried there, but I haven't been to her grave since I was a preteen at most, so I had forgotten.  I wish I had known so I could find it.  Maybe I will go over Thanksgiving break.  We just hung out and talked about high school for an hour or so.  I had to pee like crazy.  A nice man who worked for the cemetery tried to help us find the grave, but David beat him to it.  Instead, he told us about the metal pegs in the ground that mark the lots (Stas is in lot 214 on Oak Hill) and the family plot corner markers that were popular a while back and still square off the cemetery grounds.  His name was Mark.  On the phone, he talked to a woman named Renee.  People are important.

I now own a pair of underwear from Victoria's Secret, because they mailed out cards that you could trade in for free underwear, no purchase of anything necessary.  And I like underwear and free things!  Hooray!

Still, I do not know her secret.  She flaunts it everywhere; you'd think someone would have figured it out by now.

We celebrated Matt's birthday today by going downtown to meet him and Murdoch for dinner.  They have been friends since the sixth grade, and Matt's friends were over all the time from then until they graduated high school.  Now he and Murdoch are roommates, so he's the one we see the most.  He comes to family birthdays sometimes, and Matt goes to his family members' birthdays.  Mostly for free food.  I love that he knows us.  Murdoch knew exactly what I was going to order tonight, and what grade my aunt teaches.  He and Vicki have apparently had talks about his relationship with his girlfriend, Stephanie, and Stephanie's goals of being a teacher.

I love friends who become family.  Who can walk into your house anytime, even when you're not home.  Who knows extended family members.  Not just their names, but their personalities and jobs and can hold a conversation with them, feeling perfectly comfortable.  That's cool to me.  I like people who are like that with my family (Murdoch, Heidi, Cabot, Sarah, Laurie) and being that with other people's families (Sarah, Heidi, Cabot).  It makes me happy to see people connect more deeply than is "normal."

Why shouldn't we all treat each other like family?