*01.04.2004 - 11:24 a.m.*

Wow...what a fucked up way to begin a new year...

First off, thank you Dave, Duwayne, and George for visiting me yesterday during my break. Now, the stories...

So, yesterday at work, I had to pee. And I called the manager and asked to take a 10 minute break so I could pee. Eventually, someone came to cover me, and I left to go to the bathroom. I enter the bathroom and the first thing I notice is that there's water all over the floor. There's a note on one of the sinks saying that the sink is leaking, and not to use it. So I go into the first stall...and there is water on the floor. The toilet is leaking. So I go into the next stall...where some brainiac customer has tried to flush a newspaper.

I go to the back and look for a plunger, no such luck. So I ask the manager in the back where the plunger is becuase someone tried to flush a newspaper. He goes into the men's room where he finds the recently used and not washed off plunger. I go to the woman's room, and plunge out the newspaper, but now I can't get it out of the bowl. So, kind off getting desperate because I still need to pee, I reach in and pull out the soaking newspaper, promptly disposing it in the lady's waste receptacle by the toilet.

I wash off the plunger as best I can, clean the dirty water off the seat, spray the seat with disinfectant, wash my hands, return to the stall, and, at long last, pee.

I head to the back room, my ten minute break now almost over, and relate to Kim, one of the cashiers, what just happened. She gave me her commisserations, and was about to leave when she said

"By the way, whenever you have guy friends, boyfriends, whatever in the store, they are always really cute...especially the ones with the long hair."

"Thank you! I'll tell them you said that!"

"I already have a boyfriend, but if I did't...yeah, your guy friends are all really cute."

And with that, she left. I felt happy for some reason.

So, I come home...and I talk with Dad and Sean and Lauren. We make plans for Lauren and Sean to come visit during spring break. During that discussion, my Dad calls saying that an old school friend of mine recently died of kidney problems. I knew her from kindergarten to about 5th grade, and I was actually thinking about her a week ago, wondering where she was now. Now I know, Siggy Kugel is no longer with us. So, that was upsetting. Then Dave said something, and that ended the night for me.

So, in this new year, I've already have love and loss, joy and sadness...it makes me worry what the rest of the year will be like.