LONG entry
Jul. 10th, 2006 04:34 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rena_librarianWritten at home very, very late Friday night...
So, let's see, my life...a few nights after the whole tire thing, Robert and I closed together, dashed to Mickey D's to get something to drink (usually I get orange juice but this time I got a chocolate shake), and sat in the parking lot (in whatever car we took, we take turns, this time it was mine) talking. We were there incredibly late--late enough to see the garbage man come! OMG! This guy comes at, like, 4AM, and his truck takes the huge Dumpster and lifts it over the back and everything in it falls into the truck! I had been wondering how they got it all out, I figured they had to put some poor guy in there and he had to throw it into the truck. So now I know.
Anyway, when we got ready to leave, I took both our empty cups and threw them into the Dumpster. And, of course, the lids were off because I put one inside the other, and I got vanilla milkshake all over my arm and in my hair and on the side of my face. EW. Go me.
So then I got back into my car and...it wouldn't start. Robert has jumper cables and we thought we were all set, but neither one of us could remember what order to put on the cables, so I had to call Nico, who talked us through it. (The benefit of these late-night car repairs is that I LEARN from them. I could jump a car now. If I had jumper cables, anyway. I should get a set! O_O) We managed, despite the two free ends, left on the ground, setting off sparks, lol. By the time I FINALLY got home, the sun was rising.
The nice thing about Mom being gone is that Dad doesn't have a clue when I get home. Mom claims she doesn't go all the way to sleep until she hears me come in, and the next morning she has a pretty good idea of when I got home. Dad, on the other hand, is clueless. He was SNORING when I came in and didn't stop as I moved around the house, getting my PJ's on and putting my uniform in the hamper and stuff.
(And yes, Nico, I have learned my lesson--if I need air conditioning in my car during my break, I should just RUN my car rather than run the AC on the battery. Shut up.)
Wednesday before last (the 28th), to make up for the whole coming-and-changing-my-tire-at-2-AM thing, I took Nico out to dinner and a movie. (My dad seems to think that I went out on a date. But then he doesn't know Nico's gay. And also said, when asked, that he would call it a date if I had been with a girl, too, so he just doesn't know what it means, apparently.)
Anyway, between dinner and the movie (A Prairie Home Companion, which, by the way, DON'T go and see it unless you're a fan of the radio show like Nico is, because it totally had NO PLOT, was basically just a live-action version of the radio show--I told Nico that he was finally even for my making him sit through All I Want), we had some time to kill, so we went walking in a cemetary in Flippin. Discovered a common interest in hauntings and things supernatural, and have agreed that we should go on a haunted-house roadtrip, possibly even stay overnight in a haunted house. ^_^ I also went back a day or two later and took some pics of one of the graves, but I don't want to spoil that until I get the pics back, so that bit can wait. ^_-
Spent Saturaday night in St. Louis. Nothing really out of the ordinary happened. Got pics of the kiddos which I will share when I get them developed. Bought fireworks on the way home and shot off a few when we got home that night. (Me and Dad, that is, for the record Mom went to St. Louis a few weeks ago and is still there and likely will be there for another week or two.)
I had the best Fourth of July ever, encompassing some of the nicest moments of my life and some of the scariest. It was definitely NOT the ho-hum holiday I have with my family. (Which reminds me, I think it was the first holiday other than New Year's that I did NOT spend with my family. That's a milestone for me, lol.)
We got together and watched the fireworks on the dam. Several of us met at Nico's house (me, Jacqui, Robert, Robert's brother Justin, and later Justin-from-work and Wigz) and killed the time until almost-dark by watching Nico bake lemon bars (which, apparently, only I actually liked) and playing Uno. Then we drove down, parked, and walked a ways to the dam where we staked out a spot with Gail (who used to work at Taco Bell and now works at Walgreens and who I never actaully hated but never particularly liked, either) and her kids. I have pics from all that, too, and can't wait to share. Nico let me lay my head on his lap for the actual fireworks, which was nice. We all kept discussing how the display compared to that of cities we'd seen (Nico in Chicago, Gail in California somewhere, me in St. Louis) and I mentioned that Alicia had told me that she'd once seen a smiley face firework, and I swear the very second the topic died out, THERE WAS A SMILEY FACE FIREWORK IN THE SKY OVER OUR HEADS. OMG.
Where we were sitting, the fireworks were practically directly overhead, when a few of them trailed lower we worried about getting hot ash on us, but it never happened.
The ride to the dam from Nico's (we all piled into Justin-Robert's-brother's SUV--me and Nico in the back XD) had taken about ten minutes, probably less. The ride back took half an hour due to traffic. Gah. But we sang Weird Al songs (Jacqui's a big fan) and it was all cool. I had brought some of the fireworks with me to Nico's house and we set them off in his yard.
Which reminds me, Dad and I have perfected the technique of setting off bottlerockets: put a dozen or two of them in a bottle with a narrow neck, and put a lit sparkler down in between them. They'll all go off one after another. (Well, usually there was one left over, but whatever. Half the time that one turned out to be a dud anyway.)
After that, Nico, Wigz, and Justin-from-work were headed to a party, so we all had to leave. I drove Jacqui back to her car in Mtn. Home (in the parking lot across from Taco Bell) and Robert and his brother Justin followed in their car (they had followed us on the way out, too, because he didn't know where Nico's place was). So Jacqui got out of Laurien and put her stuff in her car, and had come between Laurien and Justin's car so we could all chat, when suddenly this car pulled in (it had driven by on the street between the relatively abandoned lot and Taco Bell, so they had probably seen us sitting there). The driver asked in rap-talk (not that there's anything inherently wrong with rap-talk) what there was to do in Mtn. Home, and we told the two guys that there was NOTHING to do in Mtn. Home at that hour. (It was 11:30-ish by then.) Then they asked if we had cigarettes, and we said no, none of us smoked. (Which isn't entirely true, Jacqui will smoke socially if she's offered a cigarette, but she doesn't generally carry them and she didn't have any on her that night.) Justin was all, "There's cigarettes at the gas station down the street," trying to be helpful. The guys drive off and we're all just looking at each other, like, "Dude, what was with that?" Then the two guys loop back around, and this time they're all like, "No cigarettes, what you gotta be like that for, dissing us?" Jacqui edged around between my car and hers, and the guys are kind of talking to Robert and Justin. This is starting to feel weird now, so I've got my eye on my phone so I can grab it and call 911.
Justin's gotten out of the car, and I don't know what he said but he seemed to calm down the driver (according to Jacqui after the fact his name was Matt), and Robert got out and the conversation seemed friendly and I thought I had been paranoid. I rolled my window back down. "Matt" was all, "Sorry, didn't mean no disrespect, it's cool, it's cool." He walked over to my car, with Jacqui right there, and put his hand on my rolled-down window (I was so ready to roll it back up and keep my finger on the button even if the tips of his severed fingers fell into my lap), and asked, "Can I borrow your car?" I just kind of looked at him and he said he was kidding. (I asked Jacqui later if I had a deer-in-the-headlights look when he asked it, and she said that I pretty much had it when he started moving toward Laurien.) He walked back over to Robert and Justin. Then something else got said (possibly by the passenger) and Robert said "We don't need none of that shit."
At this point I start visualizing Robert and/or Justin falling to the ground, clutching their stomach and blood spurting everywhere and thinking what good friends they've been and thinking that maybe I should haul ass, but also thinking that A) starting Laurien would divert the two guys' attention to me and I'd be the dead one and B) I shouldn't abandon any of my friends.
So I rolled my window back up and eyed my phone again, and I don't know what got said but Jacqui was inching back to her car (she said later she was ready to drop to the ground with the first sign of a gun), the passenger (who was way more spastic than the driver) and finally the guys got in their car and did some donuts on the gravel, really reckless shit, and drove away.
Robert gets back in their car and Jacqui's standing there between the cars, and we all kind of look at each other again. "Were they ON something?" I ask, and Justin told me that they'd offered to sell him and Robert some cocaine. Jacqui and I had planned to sit and talk, but I was all, "Do any of you feel safe here right now?" and no one did. Robert and Justin left, and Jacqui and I both drove our cars to the McDonald's parking lot. (Their drive-thru is open 24/7, so it stays lit and monitored.) Jacqui got in Laurien and we talked about what had just happened (she hadn't heard about the coke, either) and after about fifteen minutes I'm all, "Do you think we should call the police?"
We wrestle with it (we don't have the number and we can't call 911 because it's not technically an emergency anymore since we all got away), but then it occurs to me--"What if we DON'T call and someone gets, like, RAPED because of us?" So I call information for the number of the Sheriff's Department and then give the phone to Jacqui, who calls and tells them she wants to report a reckless driver, and then tells them, like, the make, model, and probable year of the car (how people can TELL this by looking, I have no clue! I recognize, like, five cars, one of those being fellow Le Barons XD), and that it had Missouri plates, and that the guys had mentioned Springfield (a town near the start border, about two hours from Yellville), and that they had been threating to use a gun. (I never heard THAT but she said that the guy had said he'd go get his "blaster" and "bust a cap in yo' ass!") She asked to remain anonymous.
I told Jacqui that in retrospect, the passenger had reminded me a little of Gollum. Loony and spastic, and he didn't seem to want to stand up straight. Amazing, the things you pick up on when you think you're about to get shot. Jacqui said, "I can just see you, if they hadn't been threatening us, going, 'hey, would you do me a favor and say "My precious?"'" XD Dude, I just used three sets of quotes on the end of that sentence! Go me!
We get to talking about it some more, and we get the idea that now that we've called the police, maybe they'll come back to the lot looking for us again and get arrested, and we decide that we want to watch. So we drive both cars back to the proper Taco Bell lot and park behind the landscaping where we can see the other lot across the street. Lots of cops keep driving by, but no huge bust. We keep discussing it and wonder if they got busted at some gas station (after all, we did tell them that's where the cigarettes were). So then we decide that we should check around at all the 24-hour gas stations and at Wal-Mart, so we get in her car and drive around Mtn. Home, blasting stadium music and just make a big loop looking for flashing red-and-blue lights, which we never found. (I still had my phone to call 911, and my camera to take pictures of them should the opportunity arise.) At one point we saw a car that was the same color and we thought it had Missouri plates, but it turned out not to be.
So then we drove back to Taco Bell and sat and talked, and as it was getting close to 2:30 and I had called Dad at 11-ish and told him I'd be "leaving soon," I told Jacqui I had to leave at 2:30. But as it got to be 2:25 Nico called me and asked where I was, and when I told him, he said he'd be right there. So he and his roommate (the husband--he lives with a married couple) showed up a few minutes later.
He was quite drunk (well, he says he wasn't THAT drunk, but he was more drunk than anyone I'd ever been around--and before anyone asks, his sober roommate was driving, Nico ALWAYS has a designated driver) and he told me a lot of things like "I won't ever feel that way about you, but I hope you find the guy of your dreams someday because you deserve him," and he gave me a lot of hugs and kissed my forehead. Sadly enough, bewteen that and the whole laying-in-his-lap thing, that means I actually got further with him that night than I ever have with any other guy. XD A lot along those lines got said, but I'm not going to share it all, partly because I'm pretty sure he won't want everything that was said plastered all over the internet and partly because there are just some moments in life I want to keep to myself and savor.
After a little while we went over to where Jacqui and Matt (Nico's roommate, not the coke dealer! XD This was the night of repeated names!) and talked with them, random stuff. Nico said he wanted to go to McDonald's, then changed his mind, then changed it back. Eventually he and I drive over to McDonald's in Laurien, with the top down (when I'm alone I generally leave the top up, but he likes to ride with the top down so we put it down more often than not, he refers to it as "going topless" XD), and we get some burgers and head back to Taco Bell, where Jacqui and Matt are in her car listening to music. After Nico and I finished eating we all got out and joke around for a little bit. Jacqui and Nico were dancing--it got down to grinding, and I have to admit I'm insanely jealous of Jacqui and wishing I'd had the guts to cut in. I took pictures though. ^_^ (I can't say I'll share a lot, if any of those, but I took 'em. They may not turn out at all, lol. We shall see how the "night flash" mode on my camera works.)
So then Nico and his roommate leave (he had to get up and be at work at 11 later that morning, and by now we're pushing 4 AM), and Jacqui and I sit and talk until 4:30 (when I told her I had to go). Actually, we kept moving, like first the asphalt, and then Laurien's trunk, and then I got in Laurien and she stood. We were restless, lol. I saw the sunrise again. o_o (Dad asked me the next day what time I got in, and I was all, "I didn't look at the clock"--which was true--"I think it was three-ish...")
The next night (the 5th, I was off work because it was a Wednesday) we set off the rest of our fireworks. I've overcome my fear of catching my hair on fire insomuch that I lit more than half of them. ^_^ I'm pretty sure I would still get skittish if I had to sit with my back to an open fireplace or someone was standing behind me, carrying a candle. Though one of the bottlerockets came shooting back down and hit me on the shoulder, and that was kind of scary at the time. As soon as I knew it was off me, I was more worried about my shirt than anything else. XD
On Thursday, like I said, I got off work at 11 and went to a midnight showing of POTC2. (OMG. That was only last night. It seems longer than that!) It was AMAZING. I really don't know what to say that won't spoil it (I'll think on it and get back to you all), other than: if you've spent even a SECOND worrying that this one wouldn't be as good as the first one, it was a second too many. It was FANTASTIC. Oh, and sit through the credits, there's an Easter Egg just like the first one.
But stuff happened at the theater--one guy showed up dressed like Jack Sparrow. Well, he had a red bandanna with fake dreds and had blacked up his facial hair, and was wearing a sports jacket, lol. Some random person said--rather loudly--"We should clap!" and we did. The guy started waving and was all, "Thank you, thank you...I'm in the movie! Enjoy!" XD It was pretty funny. I was kind of surprised that he was the only one, though. At least the only one I spotted, they did have, like, six screens open. (Some of the closers got out in time to go see it, too, but none of them were in the same screen as me, so none of us got to sit together. Sucky.)
I originally sat about four seats from the end about halfway up (WOOT for stadium seats, OMG!), but a big party showed up and asked me to move down a few seats and so I ended up almost dead center, with a stranger on each side. The person on my right took no notice of me at all, but the guy on the left was kind of chatty. Kept playing with his phone, texting, I guess. He asked, before the previews started, "Do you mind? Would it bother you?" And I was all, "Huh?" and he held up a can of beer and said, "If I drank this?". I shrugged it off--I figured if he got to be a disturbance the theater staff could deal with him, and if not, then he wouldn't be bothering me, but if I made an issue of it he could get mad at me and Lord only knows what could happen then. (I think the whole almost-getting-shot thing was pretty influential in that decision, lol.) He asked once or twice if his fidgeting was bothering me, but I told him no. Honestly, until he asked, I was so caught up in the movie I'd very nearly forgotten there were other people there at all. XD Anyway, at one point he talked with me for a moment (the movie had slowed, but not by much). I kept answering him politely but quickly, hoping he'd quit so I could watch, lol. "Where do you live?"
"Yellvile."
"Where do you go to school? Or are you done?"
"I graduated ASU."
"Where? In Fayetteville?"
"No, here. Mountain Home."
"What's your major?"
"I got my Associate's." (This seemed to confuse him, so he asked...)
"But what do you want to be?"
"A librarian, eventually." (He was cute, so it befuddles me as to why he didn't laugh at me and quit talking right there.)
"Oh. What are you doing now?"
"Working."
"Where?"
"Taco Bell."
"That sucks." Before I could reply to that, he goes, "I have a cousin who works there."
"Oh really? Who?" (By this time he had gotten me a little curious. Maybe he was so drunk I was pretty to him. XD)
"Amanda."
"Wiggins?!" (There ARE two Amandas there, and it surprised me that it was some I know relatively well, as opposed to someone who's, like, just started or whatever.)
"Yeah! Tell her I said hi. Tell her Brandon said hi."
"Brandon?"
"Yeah. You'll do it, right? You won't forget?"
"No, no. I will."
So that was cool. Though, after the movie ended, I got up and went down nearer the front to sit with the other geeks and wait for the Easter Egg--"Jack Sparrow" was one of them XD--and I wrote "Brandon" on my hand so I'd remember. (Breathing in smoke from the sparklers had brought on an allergy attack that was still in full swing, I sniffled through most of the movie and by the time it was over my head was really hurting. I'm surprised neither of the people next to me noticed.)
I saw my friend Paul from Acting Class on my way out (well, I'd seen him walking to his seat all the way up in the back corner, but hadn't got his attention or had the guts to get up and invite myself to sit with him) and he did say this about the ending--"That was The Two Towers, is what just happened there!" The ending is a shock all around, but as much as I loved his LotR reference, it was really more like Back to the Future Part II--the filmmakers KNOW there will be a third movie, and in fact are already making it, so rather than scramble for things to build on from the predecessor, they're building them in.
For those that don't know, BttF2 ends with the two characters getting separated, Michael J. Fox left in 1955 and Christopher Lloyd getting sent to 1885. Then Michael J. Fox gets a FedEx letter from 1885, delivered to that very spot, and then realizes he has to find a way back to 1985 (current time when the movie was made) and that's how the third movie starts. Also, Elijah Wood's first "big movie" role was a cameo in that movie--he's a kid in Cafe 80's. ^_^ Ahh, things DO come full circle.
Anyway, the sun has risen outside my window. GACK. Granted, I don't HAVE to be up until 2:30 in the afternoon because of work, but I think Dad misses me when he doesn't see me. G'night.
Late Sunday night...
Went to Nico's last night after closing. When we got there his roommates suddenly had a BABY. Not their own (though considering that the wife has put herself through six or seven miscarriages, they might be desperate enough to kidnap one O_O), but they were babysitting. And the kid (a five-month-old called, oddly enough, Cody XD) was crying. Turned out to be some relation of Matt's (he called the mother his adopted sister, and I didn't ask how literally he meant adopted). I have to wonder what kind of parent(s?) would trust those two with an actual human life, but whatever. I mean, they kept the kid alive and well, I guess, but--gah.
Anyway, for probably twenty minutes I sat there watching (and feebly trying to help) Nico trying to calm the poor kid while Nico's roommates had a cigarette. (This is the kind of thing that they do, they totally didn't ask if he minded--and I would have been a far sight more upset than he seemed to be.) Lesson learned: I have no business being a mom and would probably kill any offspring I produced, and Nico would be an absolutely awesome dad. Quirky, but awesome.
Finally the roommates returned and took over; I daresay they didn't do much better, but Nico and I went in his room so we didn't have to hear the crying. Somehow we got on the subject of Chicago again, and that led to skyscrapers (if the buildings that are proposed actually get built, Chicago will, once again, be home to the world's tallest building, possibly even three of them) and we got to looking at pictures and proposals online and stuff. Pretty amazing what can actually be BUILT these days! OMG. Image-google "Fordham Spire" and see what I mean.
While I was there Nico decided to have a rum-and-Coke, and as he was putting medicated lotion on his hands at the time (he's allergic to the sanitizer water and more than a few of the other chemicals at work) I poured it for him. I smelled the rum bottle (Captain Morgan, no less!) and it actually smelled pretty good, like the vanilla you use when you bake, and when I said as much Nico had me dip my finger in the rum and taste it. It tasted more or less the same as vanilla extract, IMHO, including the burning sensation that you get from its being so strong. (Please tell me that I'm not the only one that has sampled straight vanilla extract...) At any rate I liked it, so that's now officially four different kinds of alcohol that I've tried and four that I've more or less liked. I'm sensing a slightly disturbing pattern.
On that note, I told Dad about the other three on the way to St. Louis. He was actually totally cool with it because I explained the situations and how very little I'd had. We were talking about how he fit the profile of an old English professor, and I said I could picture him in a smoking jacket except he didn't smoke and he said he used to smoke a pipe (which is apparently entirely different). Somehow that led to alcohol, what he liked and what he didn't, how he and Mom used to drink on special occasions, how Grandma Strobel was actually ordered by her doctor to drink one bottle of beer every day when she was pregnant. (Apparently since it IS made from grains and all, it actually has nutritional value, and in moderation it can be beneficial. Later on she was told to drink "near beer" which is the same stuff sans alcohol. And it was kind of the 1940's, so this didn't surprise me a whole lot.)
Back before he was all uber-upright-citizen/local-public-figure/leader-by-example, Dad even made his own wine. ^_^ Apparently it involves leaving grape juice in a closet for several weeks (months?), and while I'm pretty sure I remember all the steps, I'll refrain from sharing in a public arena. ^_- His reasoning now is that while he doesn't see anything wrong with drinking in moderation, someone might see him having one drink and then use that as an excuse to go and get rip-roaring drunk.
I was supposed to go to camp today for Rock Haven Reunion, but after staying and closing at work (which I partly volunteered for, but partly pretty much had to do because of Ken's detail cleaning list that I simply would not have finished otherwise) I slept until, like, 2:45. I suppose I still could have gone, but I just had to borrow gas money from Dad yesterday and he wasn't really thrilled with that, and I really hadn't seen him all week because he works during the day (like a normal person, lol) and I generally have to be at work around the time he gets off, and he's asleep when I get home and he leaves before I get up...gack. So today I got to sit down and watch a little TV with him and stuff.
He actually COOKED, and for himself, because he made fish. (I'm allergic to seafood.) Dude, I would REALLY have to want a particular food to actually drag out pans and flour and cook on the stovetop JUST FOR MYSELF. Even granted that he made enough to last him, like, all week in his lunches--gah. I feel like when I pull out a cookie sheet and make a pizza in the oven for myself that I've gone to a lot of trouble. (Which is all kinds of sad and pathetic, I know, don't bother reminding me in comments.)
When I first woke up, Dad was asleep (a majority of Strobels, myself included if I actually go to church, are proponents of the Sunday Afternoon Nap), so I watched The Family Man, which I bought several weeks ago and hadn't watched yet. It was pretty good, not the ending I was rooting for but a good ending nonetheless. Is it just me, or does Téa Leoni TOTALLY look like the human version of Princess Fiona in the Shrek movies? (I will try to find screencaps to prove this later.) Mostly through the eyes, and the freckles. It took a second go-round to figure out who she reminded me of, lol.
So, let's see, my life...a few nights after the whole tire thing, Robert and I closed together, dashed to Mickey D's to get something to drink (usually I get orange juice but this time I got a chocolate shake), and sat in the parking lot (in whatever car we took, we take turns, this time it was mine) talking. We were there incredibly late--late enough to see the garbage man come! OMG! This guy comes at, like, 4AM, and his truck takes the huge Dumpster and lifts it over the back and everything in it falls into the truck! I had been wondering how they got it all out, I figured they had to put some poor guy in there and he had to throw it into the truck. So now I know.
Anyway, when we got ready to leave, I took both our empty cups and threw them into the Dumpster. And, of course, the lids were off because I put one inside the other, and I got vanilla milkshake all over my arm and in my hair and on the side of my face. EW. Go me.
So then I got back into my car and...it wouldn't start. Robert has jumper cables and we thought we were all set, but neither one of us could remember what order to put on the cables, so I had to call Nico, who talked us through it. (The benefit of these late-night car repairs is that I LEARN from them. I could jump a car now. If I had jumper cables, anyway. I should get a set! O_O) We managed, despite the two free ends, left on the ground, setting off sparks, lol. By the time I FINALLY got home, the sun was rising.
The nice thing about Mom being gone is that Dad doesn't have a clue when I get home. Mom claims she doesn't go all the way to sleep until she hears me come in, and the next morning she has a pretty good idea of when I got home. Dad, on the other hand, is clueless. He was SNORING when I came in and didn't stop as I moved around the house, getting my PJ's on and putting my uniform in the hamper and stuff.
(And yes, Nico, I have learned my lesson--if I need air conditioning in my car during my break, I should just RUN my car rather than run the AC on the battery. Shut up.)
Wednesday before last (the 28th), to make up for the whole coming-and-changing-my-tire-at-2-AM thing, I took Nico out to dinner and a movie. (My dad seems to think that I went out on a date. But then he doesn't know Nico's gay. And also said, when asked, that he would call it a date if I had been with a girl, too, so he just doesn't know what it means, apparently.)
Anyway, between dinner and the movie (A Prairie Home Companion, which, by the way, DON'T go and see it unless you're a fan of the radio show like Nico is, because it totally had NO PLOT, was basically just a live-action version of the radio show--I told Nico that he was finally even for my making him sit through All I Want), we had some time to kill, so we went walking in a cemetary in Flippin. Discovered a common interest in hauntings and things supernatural, and have agreed that we should go on a haunted-house roadtrip, possibly even stay overnight in a haunted house. ^_^ I also went back a day or two later and took some pics of one of the graves, but I don't want to spoil that until I get the pics back, so that bit can wait. ^_-
Spent Saturaday night in St. Louis. Nothing really out of the ordinary happened. Got pics of the kiddos which I will share when I get them developed. Bought fireworks on the way home and shot off a few when we got home that night. (Me and Dad, that is, for the record Mom went to St. Louis a few weeks ago and is still there and likely will be there for another week or two.)
I had the best Fourth of July ever, encompassing some of the nicest moments of my life and some of the scariest. It was definitely NOT the ho-hum holiday I have with my family. (Which reminds me, I think it was the first holiday other than New Year's that I did NOT spend with my family. That's a milestone for me, lol.)
We got together and watched the fireworks on the dam. Several of us met at Nico's house (me, Jacqui, Robert, Robert's brother Justin, and later Justin-from-work and Wigz) and killed the time until almost-dark by watching Nico bake lemon bars (which, apparently, only I actually liked) and playing Uno. Then we drove down, parked, and walked a ways to the dam where we staked out a spot with Gail (who used to work at Taco Bell and now works at Walgreens and who I never actaully hated but never particularly liked, either) and her kids. I have pics from all that, too, and can't wait to share. Nico let me lay my head on his lap for the actual fireworks, which was nice. We all kept discussing how the display compared to that of cities we'd seen (Nico in Chicago, Gail in California somewhere, me in St. Louis) and I mentioned that Alicia had told me that she'd once seen a smiley face firework, and I swear the very second the topic died out, THERE WAS A SMILEY FACE FIREWORK IN THE SKY OVER OUR HEADS. OMG.
Where we were sitting, the fireworks were practically directly overhead, when a few of them trailed lower we worried about getting hot ash on us, but it never happened.
The ride to the dam from Nico's (we all piled into Justin-Robert's-brother's SUV--me and Nico in the back XD) had taken about ten minutes, probably less. The ride back took half an hour due to traffic. Gah. But we sang Weird Al songs (Jacqui's a big fan) and it was all cool. I had brought some of the fireworks with me to Nico's house and we set them off in his yard.
Which reminds me, Dad and I have perfected the technique of setting off bottlerockets: put a dozen or two of them in a bottle with a narrow neck, and put a lit sparkler down in between them. They'll all go off one after another. (Well, usually there was one left over, but whatever. Half the time that one turned out to be a dud anyway.)
After that, Nico, Wigz, and Justin-from-work were headed to a party, so we all had to leave. I drove Jacqui back to her car in Mtn. Home (in the parking lot across from Taco Bell) and Robert and his brother Justin followed in their car (they had followed us on the way out, too, because he didn't know where Nico's place was). So Jacqui got out of Laurien and put her stuff in her car, and had come between Laurien and Justin's car so we could all chat, when suddenly this car pulled in (it had driven by on the street between the relatively abandoned lot and Taco Bell, so they had probably seen us sitting there). The driver asked in rap-talk (not that there's anything inherently wrong with rap-talk) what there was to do in Mtn. Home, and we told the two guys that there was NOTHING to do in Mtn. Home at that hour. (It was 11:30-ish by then.) Then they asked if we had cigarettes, and we said no, none of us smoked. (Which isn't entirely true, Jacqui will smoke socially if she's offered a cigarette, but she doesn't generally carry them and she didn't have any on her that night.) Justin was all, "There's cigarettes at the gas station down the street," trying to be helpful. The guys drive off and we're all just looking at each other, like, "Dude, what was with that?" Then the two guys loop back around, and this time they're all like, "No cigarettes, what you gotta be like that for, dissing us?" Jacqui edged around between my car and hers, and the guys are kind of talking to Robert and Justin. This is starting to feel weird now, so I've got my eye on my phone so I can grab it and call 911.
Justin's gotten out of the car, and I don't know what he said but he seemed to calm down the driver (according to Jacqui after the fact his name was Matt), and Robert got out and the conversation seemed friendly and I thought I had been paranoid. I rolled my window back down. "Matt" was all, "Sorry, didn't mean no disrespect, it's cool, it's cool." He walked over to my car, with Jacqui right there, and put his hand on my rolled-down window (I was so ready to roll it back up and keep my finger on the button even if the tips of his severed fingers fell into my lap), and asked, "Can I borrow your car?" I just kind of looked at him and he said he was kidding. (I asked Jacqui later if I had a deer-in-the-headlights look when he asked it, and she said that I pretty much had it when he started moving toward Laurien.) He walked back over to Robert and Justin. Then something else got said (possibly by the passenger) and Robert said "We don't need none of that shit."
At this point I start visualizing Robert and/or Justin falling to the ground, clutching their stomach and blood spurting everywhere and thinking what good friends they've been and thinking that maybe I should haul ass, but also thinking that A) starting Laurien would divert the two guys' attention to me and I'd be the dead one and B) I shouldn't abandon any of my friends.
So I rolled my window back up and eyed my phone again, and I don't know what got said but Jacqui was inching back to her car (she said later she was ready to drop to the ground with the first sign of a gun), the passenger (who was way more spastic than the driver) and finally the guys got in their car and did some donuts on the gravel, really reckless shit, and drove away.
Robert gets back in their car and Jacqui's standing there between the cars, and we all kind of look at each other again. "Were they ON something?" I ask, and Justin told me that they'd offered to sell him and Robert some cocaine. Jacqui and I had planned to sit and talk, but I was all, "Do any of you feel safe here right now?" and no one did. Robert and Justin left, and Jacqui and I both drove our cars to the McDonald's parking lot. (Their drive-thru is open 24/7, so it stays lit and monitored.) Jacqui got in Laurien and we talked about what had just happened (she hadn't heard about the coke, either) and after about fifteen minutes I'm all, "Do you think we should call the police?"
We wrestle with it (we don't have the number and we can't call 911 because it's not technically an emergency anymore since we all got away), but then it occurs to me--"What if we DON'T call and someone gets, like, RAPED because of us?" So I call information for the number of the Sheriff's Department and then give the phone to Jacqui, who calls and tells them she wants to report a reckless driver, and then tells them, like, the make, model, and probable year of the car (how people can TELL this by looking, I have no clue! I recognize, like, five cars, one of those being fellow Le Barons XD), and that it had Missouri plates, and that the guys had mentioned Springfield (a town near the start border, about two hours from Yellville), and that they had been threating to use a gun. (I never heard THAT but she said that the guy had said he'd go get his "blaster" and "bust a cap in yo' ass!") She asked to remain anonymous.
I told Jacqui that in retrospect, the passenger had reminded me a little of Gollum. Loony and spastic, and he didn't seem to want to stand up straight. Amazing, the things you pick up on when you think you're about to get shot. Jacqui said, "I can just see you, if they hadn't been threatening us, going, 'hey, would you do me a favor and say "My precious?"'" XD Dude, I just used three sets of quotes on the end of that sentence! Go me!
We get to talking about it some more, and we get the idea that now that we've called the police, maybe they'll come back to the lot looking for us again and get arrested, and we decide that we want to watch. So we drive both cars back to the proper Taco Bell lot and park behind the landscaping where we can see the other lot across the street. Lots of cops keep driving by, but no huge bust. We keep discussing it and wonder if they got busted at some gas station (after all, we did tell them that's where the cigarettes were). So then we decide that we should check around at all the 24-hour gas stations and at Wal-Mart, so we get in her car and drive around Mtn. Home, blasting stadium music and just make a big loop looking for flashing red-and-blue lights, which we never found. (I still had my phone to call 911, and my camera to take pictures of them should the opportunity arise.) At one point we saw a car that was the same color and we thought it had Missouri plates, but it turned out not to be.
So then we drove back to Taco Bell and sat and talked, and as it was getting close to 2:30 and I had called Dad at 11-ish and told him I'd be "leaving soon," I told Jacqui I had to leave at 2:30. But as it got to be 2:25 Nico called me and asked where I was, and when I told him, he said he'd be right there. So he and his roommate (the husband--he lives with a married couple) showed up a few minutes later.
He was quite drunk (well, he says he wasn't THAT drunk, but he was more drunk than anyone I'd ever been around--and before anyone asks, his sober roommate was driving, Nico ALWAYS has a designated driver) and he told me a lot of things like "I won't ever feel that way about you, but I hope you find the guy of your dreams someday because you deserve him," and he gave me a lot of hugs and kissed my forehead. Sadly enough, bewteen that and the whole laying-in-his-lap thing, that means I actually got further with him that night than I ever have with any other guy. XD A lot along those lines got said, but I'm not going to share it all, partly because I'm pretty sure he won't want everything that was said plastered all over the internet and partly because there are just some moments in life I want to keep to myself and savor.
After a little while we went over to where Jacqui and Matt (Nico's roommate, not the coke dealer! XD This was the night of repeated names!) and talked with them, random stuff. Nico said he wanted to go to McDonald's, then changed his mind, then changed it back. Eventually he and I drive over to McDonald's in Laurien, with the top down (when I'm alone I generally leave the top up, but he likes to ride with the top down so we put it down more often than not, he refers to it as "going topless" XD), and we get some burgers and head back to Taco Bell, where Jacqui and Matt are in her car listening to music. After Nico and I finished eating we all got out and joke around for a little bit. Jacqui and Nico were dancing--it got down to grinding, and I have to admit I'm insanely jealous of Jacqui and wishing I'd had the guts to cut in. I took pictures though. ^_^ (I can't say I'll share a lot, if any of those, but I took 'em. They may not turn out at all, lol. We shall see how the "night flash" mode on my camera works.)
So then Nico and his roommate leave (he had to get up and be at work at 11 later that morning, and by now we're pushing 4 AM), and Jacqui and I sit and talk until 4:30 (when I told her I had to go). Actually, we kept moving, like first the asphalt, and then Laurien's trunk, and then I got in Laurien and she stood. We were restless, lol. I saw the sunrise again. o_o (Dad asked me the next day what time I got in, and I was all, "I didn't look at the clock"--which was true--"I think it was three-ish...")
The next night (the 5th, I was off work because it was a Wednesday) we set off the rest of our fireworks. I've overcome my fear of catching my hair on fire insomuch that I lit more than half of them. ^_^ I'm pretty sure I would still get skittish if I had to sit with my back to an open fireplace or someone was standing behind me, carrying a candle. Though one of the bottlerockets came shooting back down and hit me on the shoulder, and that was kind of scary at the time. As soon as I knew it was off me, I was more worried about my shirt than anything else. XD
On Thursday, like I said, I got off work at 11 and went to a midnight showing of POTC2. (OMG. That was only last night. It seems longer than that!) It was AMAZING. I really don't know what to say that won't spoil it (I'll think on it and get back to you all), other than: if you've spent even a SECOND worrying that this one wouldn't be as good as the first one, it was a second too many. It was FANTASTIC. Oh, and sit through the credits, there's an Easter Egg just like the first one.
But stuff happened at the theater--one guy showed up dressed like Jack Sparrow. Well, he had a red bandanna with fake dreds and had blacked up his facial hair, and was wearing a sports jacket, lol. Some random person said--rather loudly--"We should clap!" and we did. The guy started waving and was all, "Thank you, thank you...I'm in the movie! Enjoy!" XD It was pretty funny. I was kind of surprised that he was the only one, though. At least the only one I spotted, they did have, like, six screens open. (Some of the closers got out in time to go see it, too, but none of them were in the same screen as me, so none of us got to sit together. Sucky.)
I originally sat about four seats from the end about halfway up (WOOT for stadium seats, OMG!), but a big party showed up and asked me to move down a few seats and so I ended up almost dead center, with a stranger on each side. The person on my right took no notice of me at all, but the guy on the left was kind of chatty. Kept playing with his phone, texting, I guess. He asked, before the previews started, "Do you mind? Would it bother you?" And I was all, "Huh?" and he held up a can of beer and said, "If I drank this?". I shrugged it off--I figured if he got to be a disturbance the theater staff could deal with him, and if not, then he wouldn't be bothering me, but if I made an issue of it he could get mad at me and Lord only knows what could happen then. (I think the whole almost-getting-shot thing was pretty influential in that decision, lol.) He asked once or twice if his fidgeting was bothering me, but I told him no. Honestly, until he asked, I was so caught up in the movie I'd very nearly forgotten there were other people there at all. XD Anyway, at one point he talked with me for a moment (the movie had slowed, but not by much). I kept answering him politely but quickly, hoping he'd quit so I could watch, lol. "Where do you live?"
"Yellvile."
"Where do you go to school? Or are you done?"
"I graduated ASU."
"Where? In Fayetteville?"
"No, here. Mountain Home."
"What's your major?"
"I got my Associate's." (This seemed to confuse him, so he asked...)
"But what do you want to be?"
"A librarian, eventually." (He was cute, so it befuddles me as to why he didn't laugh at me and quit talking right there.)
"Oh. What are you doing now?"
"Working."
"Where?"
"Taco Bell."
"That sucks." Before I could reply to that, he goes, "I have a cousin who works there."
"Oh really? Who?" (By this time he had gotten me a little curious. Maybe he was so drunk I was pretty to him. XD)
"Amanda."
"Wiggins?!" (There ARE two Amandas there, and it surprised me that it was some I know relatively well, as opposed to someone who's, like, just started or whatever.)
"Yeah! Tell her I said hi. Tell her Brandon said hi."
"Brandon?"
"Yeah. You'll do it, right? You won't forget?"
"No, no. I will."
So that was cool. Though, after the movie ended, I got up and went down nearer the front to sit with the other geeks and wait for the Easter Egg--"Jack Sparrow" was one of them XD--and I wrote "Brandon" on my hand so I'd remember. (Breathing in smoke from the sparklers had brought on an allergy attack that was still in full swing, I sniffled through most of the movie and by the time it was over my head was really hurting. I'm surprised neither of the people next to me noticed.)
I saw my friend Paul from Acting Class on my way out (well, I'd seen him walking to his seat all the way up in the back corner, but hadn't got his attention or had the guts to get up and invite myself to sit with him) and he did say this about the ending--"That was The Two Towers, is what just happened there!" The ending is a shock all around, but as much as I loved his LotR reference, it was really more like Back to the Future Part II--the filmmakers KNOW there will be a third movie, and in fact are already making it, so rather than scramble for things to build on from the predecessor, they're building them in.
For those that don't know, BttF2 ends with the two characters getting separated, Michael J. Fox left in 1955 and Christopher Lloyd getting sent to 1885. Then Michael J. Fox gets a FedEx letter from 1885, delivered to that very spot, and then realizes he has to find a way back to 1985 (current time when the movie was made) and that's how the third movie starts. Also, Elijah Wood's first "big movie" role was a cameo in that movie--he's a kid in Cafe 80's. ^_^ Ahh, things DO come full circle.
Anyway, the sun has risen outside my window. GACK. Granted, I don't HAVE to be up until 2:30 in the afternoon because of work, but I think Dad misses me when he doesn't see me. G'night.
Late Sunday night...
Went to Nico's last night after closing. When we got there his roommates suddenly had a BABY. Not their own (though considering that the wife has put herself through six or seven miscarriages, they might be desperate enough to kidnap one O_O), but they were babysitting. And the kid (a five-month-old called, oddly enough, Cody XD) was crying. Turned out to be some relation of Matt's (he called the mother his adopted sister, and I didn't ask how literally he meant adopted). I have to wonder what kind of parent(s?) would trust those two with an actual human life, but whatever. I mean, they kept the kid alive and well, I guess, but--gah.
Anyway, for probably twenty minutes I sat there watching (and feebly trying to help) Nico trying to calm the poor kid while Nico's roommates had a cigarette. (This is the kind of thing that they do, they totally didn't ask if he minded--and I would have been a far sight more upset than he seemed to be.) Lesson learned: I have no business being a mom and would probably kill any offspring I produced, and Nico would be an absolutely awesome dad. Quirky, but awesome.
Finally the roommates returned and took over; I daresay they didn't do much better, but Nico and I went in his room so we didn't have to hear the crying. Somehow we got on the subject of Chicago again, and that led to skyscrapers (if the buildings that are proposed actually get built, Chicago will, once again, be home to the world's tallest building, possibly even three of them) and we got to looking at pictures and proposals online and stuff. Pretty amazing what can actually be BUILT these days! OMG. Image-google "Fordham Spire" and see what I mean.
While I was there Nico decided to have a rum-and-Coke, and as he was putting medicated lotion on his hands at the time (he's allergic to the sanitizer water and more than a few of the other chemicals at work) I poured it for him. I smelled the rum bottle (Captain Morgan, no less!) and it actually smelled pretty good, like the vanilla you use when you bake, and when I said as much Nico had me dip my finger in the rum and taste it. It tasted more or less the same as vanilla extract, IMHO, including the burning sensation that you get from its being so strong. (Please tell me that I'm not the only one that has sampled straight vanilla extract...) At any rate I liked it, so that's now officially four different kinds of alcohol that I've tried and four that I've more or less liked. I'm sensing a slightly disturbing pattern.
On that note, I told Dad about the other three on the way to St. Louis. He was actually totally cool with it because I explained the situations and how very little I'd had. We were talking about how he fit the profile of an old English professor, and I said I could picture him in a smoking jacket except he didn't smoke and he said he used to smoke a pipe (which is apparently entirely different). Somehow that led to alcohol, what he liked and what he didn't, how he and Mom used to drink on special occasions, how Grandma Strobel was actually ordered by her doctor to drink one bottle of beer every day when she was pregnant. (Apparently since it IS made from grains and all, it actually has nutritional value, and in moderation it can be beneficial. Later on she was told to drink "near beer" which is the same stuff sans alcohol. And it was kind of the 1940's, so this didn't surprise me a whole lot.)
Back before he was all uber-upright-citizen/local-public-figure/leader-by-example, Dad even made his own wine. ^_^ Apparently it involves leaving grape juice in a closet for several weeks (months?), and while I'm pretty sure I remember all the steps, I'll refrain from sharing in a public arena. ^_- His reasoning now is that while he doesn't see anything wrong with drinking in moderation, someone might see him having one drink and then use that as an excuse to go and get rip-roaring drunk.
I was supposed to go to camp today for Rock Haven Reunion, but after staying and closing at work (which I partly volunteered for, but partly pretty much had to do because of Ken's detail cleaning list that I simply would not have finished otherwise) I slept until, like, 2:45. I suppose I still could have gone, but I just had to borrow gas money from Dad yesterday and he wasn't really thrilled with that, and I really hadn't seen him all week because he works during the day (like a normal person, lol) and I generally have to be at work around the time he gets off, and he's asleep when I get home and he leaves before I get up...gack. So today I got to sit down and watch a little TV with him and stuff.
He actually COOKED, and for himself, because he made fish. (I'm allergic to seafood.) Dude, I would REALLY have to want a particular food to actually drag out pans and flour and cook on the stovetop JUST FOR MYSELF. Even granted that he made enough to last him, like, all week in his lunches--gah. I feel like when I pull out a cookie sheet and make a pizza in the oven for myself that I've gone to a lot of trouble. (Which is all kinds of sad and pathetic, I know, don't bother reminding me in comments.)
When I first woke up, Dad was asleep (a majority of Strobels, myself included if I actually go to church, are proponents of the Sunday Afternoon Nap), so I watched The Family Man, which I bought several weeks ago and hadn't watched yet. It was pretty good, not the ending I was rooting for but a good ending nonetheless. Is it just me, or does Téa Leoni TOTALLY look like the human version of Princess Fiona in the Shrek movies? (I will try to find screencaps to prove this later.) Mostly through the eyes, and the freckles. It took a second go-round to figure out who she reminded me of, lol.
