July 4th @ MindSay

Anecdotes Lifedotes:

I need to get my ass to Wal-Mart but I figured I'd just type this first. Things that have been happening recently or whatever.

When I originally got my foot tattoo done, Brian told me to come back in three weeks to check up on it. So I did, and he told me it was going to be another two weeks for it to heal. SIDE OF THE FOOT TATTOOS NEVER HEAL. I mean, I know he warned me, but seriously, I thought three weeks was a long amount of time. lmfao so five weeks is for-fucking-ever.

And while my tattoo is in dire need of touch up, I think I'm going to hold off on it until the first week of September. If I get it done in a week and half, then I will be stuck in flip flops for Warped Tour. I can't wait until right after that, because then I have Green Day . . .and then Slayer/Manson . . .and then Crue Fest. All in August. I cannot be wearing flip flops in a pit. If I get the touch up the first week of September, there will have been roughly 4 weeks of healing before Blink-182, and (assuming it takes the same amount of time to heal) I think I can manage sneakers for one night.

Magen and I are going to see RENT on Tuesday at the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center :] :] :] :] :] :] Adam Pascal and Anthony Rapp are reprising their roles as Roger and Mark :] Sooooooooo excited. While I have seen countless bootlegs of the performance (and the movie, of course), I have yet to actually see it live. And I get to see it live with Adam and Anthony <3 Soooooooooo amazing :]

I am off tomorrow. I always get what I want,and I didn't want to work on the 4th. Usually we close, but last year we stayed open because it was a Friday and Anthony was worried on missing out on lots of money. I was entirely determined to be off this year. Brent, however, assumed we were staying open and told Anthony he would open only if we closed early, and Anthony agreed. Mad at Brent, I asked him why the fuck he wanted the store open, and when he realized that we weren't going to be open until he had something, texted Ant to say "I DON'T WANT TO OPEN ON THE 4TH"

The very next day, while Anthony and Brent are working together, Anthony says, "Did Justine talk you out of it?"

lol so now Anthony keeps complaining that we are closed on the 4th and it is all my fault. IDGAF, Anthony. I am not fucking working.

(lol @ when he originally told me Brent was going to open, I made SUCH a huge deal: "UGH! I FUCKING HATE WHEN BRENT DOES THIS BECAUSE THEN I HAVE TO FUCKING WORK," all said loud and fast and WHINY AS FUCK.)

I may touch on this in more detail later, but I keep debating on whether or not I should go back to school in the fall. I could just forgo classes and apply for graduation. In the past, I have always taken a full 12 credit schedule (which is 4 classes in regular semesters and 2 classes in summer semesters). However, I only signed up for 3 classes this time around. While all 3 are classes I really want to take, I think that if I go back I am going to drop it down to 2. Today, that is the plan. We will see how long this lasts for.

Also, just because I want to mention this . . . when I was with Jen the other day, I mentioned how her "boyfriend" (they have been together since our sophomore year, but they have not technically been together for awhile now, even though they are still together. I think Jen calls herself the "pseudo girlfriend"? Or maybe it's they're technically still together even though they're not. Whatever.) had been hitting on me through MySpace . . . and I keep trying to ignore it, but it's annoying. Everytime the three of us are together he blatantly hits on me in front of her and I fucking hate it. Jen told me she tells him that he needs to stop because I don't like being hit on, but "He doesn't believe me! I keep telling him, I have known this girl since she was 11. I know she does not like being hit on!"

lol @ how I haven't changed since I was 11.


AND OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG MIKEY CUT OFF ALL HIS HAIR, I AM FUCKING HEARTBROKEN OMG OMG OMG OMG
He looks like he did when we first met 3 years ago, except much taller.

Speaking of 3 years, nearing the end of July will be my 3 year anniversary at the pizzeria! That's a big commitment for me!

 

Enjoy some fireworks!

 

 

Shiny blogged us through the past 10 years of Fourths.  I shall blog about today. 

Today.  It was an exercise in stress control.  We all managed to sleep in this morning, which was nice.  Av decided that he wanted to go bowling, but with ShinyDad and his girlfriend coming over, we decided to stay home and straighten up the house.  We also had plans to meet up with friends on the National Mall.  So Av and I baked carrot muffins and brownies to bring with for our picnic.  I went to the grocery store to get supplies, and that was an exercise in patience as I ended up in line behind every slow dumb ass who ever went shopping.

Back at home, it was back into clean up mode.  Av put on his cape and became "Super Avi" picker upper of shoes and toys.  Something about a little boy running around in a t-shirt, underwear, and a cape - too cute.

Then the storms rolled in.  While I was out shopping I heard that there was a tornado watch.  Ok.  Sky was cloudy but fine.  Then we watched the news as the storms got closer, and worse, and then we were upgraded to a tornado warning.  And the thunder started.  And we were waiting for the family to arrive.  And then they evacuated the National Mall.  And the family arrived.  Since they were predicting the storms to be off the Mall by 7:15, we decided to go out to dinner near home and then head downtown, rather than having a picnic on the Mall.  So we went to Friday's.  And it took forever.  Fireworks were scheduled to start at 9:10.  We finally left the restaurant at 8:25.  I was just a mess of stress.  We had no idea what traffic would be like, as most of the roads were closed and we knew the bridges would be shut down at 9.  Our backup plan was to go to the Pentagon to watch from there if we couldn't get into the District.

Now I am fortunate enough to work for a federal agency that is on the Mall.  I was even more fortunate to get a parking spot for the evening.  Shiny finally called his friend and resigned himself to the fact that we wouldn't make it down to the Lincoln Memorial in time.  We hit the road, and just drove towards my office.  Of course the exit that I needed to take was blocked off.  This meant an alternate route.  This meant going around the long way, to get back to where we needed to be, to take an illegal U-turn, to ignore ShinyDad who was offering help or asking too many questions while I was freaking out, to not curse out loud at the slow car in front of us or the people slowing down to park illegally, to ignore the running commentary that Av had going in the back seat with ShinyDad's Girlfriend (which was actually a cute conversation), ignore my instinct to go back to the Pentagon, and do my best to not get into a fight with Shiny because we were both just so tense by the whole thing.

We managed to get to my office at 8:50.  I'm told my name wasn't on the list, but I know the officer, and there was a spot available.  Then we unload the car, and the water, and the brownies, and the muffins, and the blankets, and the cameras, and head on into the building to go through security.  It felt quite privileged that we didn't have to go through one of the security tents set up along the Mall.  The officer on duty was really sweet, and we gave her one of Av's muffins.  Then it was out the door, and right across the street to the perfect spot for fireworks watching.  The area we were at was pretty empty, and aside from the officers on horseback in front of us, and a few people behind us, it felt like we had the whole place to ourselves.  And we only had to wait 10 minutes for them to start!

Av was very apprehensive about the fireworks.  Immediately - before they even started - he had buried his head in my shoulder and covered his ears and told us he wanted to go home and didn't like them.  Once they started though, he eventually peeked an eye out, and then turned around, then totally got into watching them.  The entire time with his hands over his ears (we should have brought my earmuffs!).  10 minutes into the show he decided he wanted a muffin.  I couldn't get it because he was sitting on my lap, he couldn't get it because that meant taking his hands off his ears.  It was amusing.  In the end, it was a big hit with him, but he was so tired and couldn't wait to go home.  Back in the building we went, bathroom break taken, and we hit the road.  12 minutes later we were home safe and sound.  Smugly zooming past all the traffic while we were in the HOV lanes.  Awesome. 

Of course tomorrow it's back to work/school for all of us.  Hopefully Av will be up for getting up for school.  In the meantime, all the stress was worth it, the brownies were delish, and another Independence Day is under our belts.

To continue where I left off on the last blog entry:

July 4, 2007:  We dec...

You know what?  Go over to socKs's blog for the story. She tells it much better than I.

(I'll post some video tomorrow, I think...)