Fear the Crab

I was in Longs with a whole bunch of co-workers. We were there because we were on our way to the beach, and we wanted to get things. Strangely enough, the items we were getting had nothing to do with the beach at all, and we were all in our duty free uniforms. I remember browsing the shelves for things that I wanted, and as I walked around, I traveled close to the windows and the door that lead outside. I looked outside to see what the weather was like, when suddenly I didn’t look where I was going and ended up nearly stepping out of the store with a basket full of merchandise. Thankfully I managed to steer away from certain doom before I crossed the line, but I kept thinking that Longs was going to send a security guard to check up on me. While browsing for gum, I noticed an undercover security officer trailing me. But I wasn’t hiding anything, and if he approached me I was going to tell him the truth, that I wasn’t watching where I was going, and in my dream that actually would have worked.

I went to pay, and was standing behind two other customers. It was odd that Longs’ registers were all inside little booths, and these booths formed a circular island in the middle of the store. There were these separators that you’d find at airports or Disneyland, which would accommodate long lines. The first customer left, then the second mentioned something to the sales clerk, and the two of them left the store. Those of us in line, especially me since I was next, began to wonder what was going on. I looked over to the door, and noticed that there were four sales clerks standing around there, just talking. Meanwhile, everybody else was done with their shopping, and they came by to see what was taking so long. I explained what was happening, as far as I could tell it, then I noticed that the line was getting super long, even at some of the other registers.

Eventually the sales clerk came back, and I got ready to pay. Unfortunately, she came back with another customer, and took her in front of everybody so she could be rung up. This happened twice more, and apparently it’s because this dream Longs had special 10-minute parking stalls for customers, meaning that if you parked there, you had top priority to be serviced because you only had 10 minutes. At this point I was getting quite upset, especially after being snubbed in line and all the other sales clerks not doing anything to help out. Irene and Min kept coming by to find out what was taking so long, and even Maile came into the store. Finally it was my turn, and strangely instead of having a basket full of little knick knacks, I was buying a pair of boots that in reality I got a couple weeks ago. My dream total ended up being over 200 dollars for one pair of boots. When I was done with my transaction, I stepped one window over to their service counter, where a young man was there. I asked if he was the manager, and he said yes. I then proceeded to tell him everything that went wrong with my visit. I said that I could understand how the clerks needed to service those people in the 10-minute stalls, but that left no excuse to have four other clerks standing around talking story while the line gets longer and longer. The manager seemed sympathetic.

However, before he could do anything or say anything in response, I found myself watching an anime cartoon detailing the end of a futuristic civilization. There was some sort of nuclear blast, or that’s what I was led to believe judging from what I was seeing. I remember the scene was underground, and there was a subway train that transported people to different sections of the underground city. There was no sound (it was a dramatic moment, I guess), and I felt that this cartoon was really cool because of the way they drew and how they wove their story. When the subway doors opened, no one came out, but rather this melting heat wave spilled out and turned the area into an oven. Even the walls were melting.

Here, the details of my dream are blurry, but I do remember an escape pod containing a robot and a monkey, crash landing on a planet. The monkey survived, but the robot did not, and the robot was the only thing that could tell the monkey what to do on this new planet. The monkey then turned into a group of five people, all trying to figure out their role on this new planet (which looked like Earth). I was among those people, and I remember opening up the flood gates in our yard and watching all this water spill out into the street. We wanted to judge the peoples’ reaction, and their reaction was to throw baseballs through our windows. I got rather sick of that, so I decided to leave and take a walk down the street, which led me to be find myself…

…in Longs, with a whole bunch of co-workers. We were there because we were on our way to the beach, and we wanted to get things. Strangely enough…

That little loop forced me out of my dream, with help from a power saw.

Work surprisingly kept me busy. I suppose it’s not too abnormal, considering that Fridays are run nights and the night hours are generally the busiest. Still, it was a change from previous months of boredom. Thankfully I did not have to help that many customers, since I took it upon myself to put away most of the run. I did have to break down and sell things to people, though.

When school starts, I’ll be seeing less and less of Maile than I care to think about. We both have classes on Tuesdays and Thursdays, but mine start in the morning and finish around lunchtime, while hers start at lunchtime and finish in the late evening. Then she has to work the next day. Combine that with my working more nights, and it seems only Wednesdays and perhaps Saturdays are when I will get a chance to see her. That also means I won’t get to see Titan as often.

In the name of all dairy products, WHY?!

Tonight’s Invader Zim episode:
A Plague of Babies

I was on my way to a party at a restaurant, which was thrown by the Japanese club. I was in a sectioned limousine, sectioned because there was a compartment in the car for the front seat, middle seat, and rear seat. There were five other people with me, three women and two men, all of whom were also going to the party. We were delayed by weird circumstances, such as having to change our clothes because what we were wearing wasn’t fancy enough, and making pit stops at shopping malls so someone could browse shelves.

By the time we got to the restaurant, it was quite late, and I knew that we were going to get into trouble. To make matters worse, there was a lot of our things still in the car, what with having to change and all. I asked if we should take everything, and everyone said no, that it was all right. So we all left the limousine, and headed up some stairs for the restaurant. Yet I was feeling that we should have taken our stuff, because the limousine wasn’t ours, it was like we rented it. I ran back downstairs, but unfortunately, the car was gone, with all our belongings.

I was quite pissed at everybody, and stormed back upstairs to confront them. However, I couldn’t find them. Instead there were some people I had never seen in my life, such as a “club” of geeky-looking people that greeting each other by pressing their faces against one another and yelling Tarzan-like words. It almost seemed to me that they were the animation club. There was also a club of drama enthusiasts, but they seemed to also like brown, styled hair and heavy makeup. I recall one of my college friends as being in that group, but rather than go and talk to her, I settled for smoking a cigarette and waiting for Maile to come to my rescue. She was on her way, but before she arrived, the party was over, and people began to ask me in Japanese how to catch the bus or taxi home. Seeing as it was so late, I wasn’t sure if the buses were still running, so I went to look for a phone book that had the information phone number. For some weird reason, I couldn’t find it, and given my mood from earlier events, I decided to give up. Before I could cry, or continue my cigarette, I woke up.

Today Maile and I took Titan to the dog park. It was a bit rainy and very humid, but it was enjoyable. Titan even ran around the park like an excitable dog, but it required me to act as something to chase. We didn’t stay that long because it was too hot and Titan was getting tired (or so we led ourselves to believe). I’d say an hour was the longest we spent there.

Had “breakfast” food for dinner: scrambled eggs, bacon, portuguese sausage and rice. It filled me up pretty decently, and I took an hour nap.

Today was payday. Nice timing, considering the extortionable amount of money I spent the past week. I still wish I had more hours, though.

Didn’t do too much today except pretend I was a mushroom. The temperature in my room kept that daydream to a minimum, however.

I ate at Stuart Anderson’s with my family and relatives. I had the whiskey NY steak with petite lobster tail and Texas shrimp. I couldn’t finish it all, what with the salad and Wagon Wheel appetizers. The leftovers will be tomorrow’s dinner. My mom and dad shared a prime rib combo with fried prawns (or something like that). My aunt and uncle used my dad’s coupon for a “dinner for two” consisting of prime rib and shrimp, with that chocolate cake that sinks to the bottom of your stomach. Maile also had the prime rib and fried prawns, if I remember correctly. What with so much prime rib, and my own plate overflowing with food, it’s hard to remember what everyone had.

I discovered something strange about the wireless internet card I bought yesterday. When I tried to run the PC card settings, it told me there were no drivers for it. It’s strange because according to Windows, I have four different drivers for the card. I tried checking online for any updates to the drivers, but I couldn’t find any in the places I looked (Windows update, ORiNOCO site). I will wait until school starts to talk to the IT department and see what they can do, otherwise I’ll contact tech support for answers. It looks like the first day of school will be a long one for me.

I registered for fall session today. It was a bit of a nail biter, because I woke up at 1030 hours to check the availability of ICS 211 and there was only 1 seat left open. My registration appointment was at 1330, so I had 3 hours to wait on the edge of my seat hoping that class wouldn’t close. I did have another section open to me, but it would have been on a different day at a different time, and I didn’t want to go to campus more than I needed to. Thankfully, that 1 remaining seat stayed open until it was my turn, and so I nailed that sucker with double-stick tape and a big sign stating “MINE!” That was a huge relief, especially after stressing about the class for the past week (the second class, ICS 241, had stayed open the entire registration process, so no worries there).

After registration I drove to campus to pay my tuition ($1135.30) and renew my ID card. Then I walked to the bookstore to buy what I needed, which only turned out to be one book ($75) because the materials for ICS 241 remained the same as the one I had for 141. Since I had saved a bit of money on that, I decided to splurge those monies into getting a wireless internet PC card. I’ve already installed it, but I can’t configure the card until I actually return to campus and talk to the IT department (and also to be in range of their wireless servers). In the meantime, I can take the rest of the week to enjoy the last days of summer vacation.

I took a two hour nap and I must have been exhausted, because the moment my head hit the pillow I was out like a digested green apple. Perhaps that wasn’t the correct metaphor to use, but given the experiences of today, I don’t care because I’m happy and content. Maile and I took Titan to the nearby school in the evening to walk him, and he had tons of fun running around the big field. It seems he has happy memories of that place, because when he was younger Maile would take him to that very same field and he’d run amok. I guess when he’s at the dog park he’s not too familiar with the area, so he prefers to stand around, drool, and mooch attention from the other owners. We plan to go to the park on Thursday, if nothing else interrupts.

I was back at the U of Puget Sound, in the basement of the Student Union Building. I was in some office, for reasons which I do not know, and I was actually not supposed to be there. I was sneaking into this office as a favor to someone else, who required a paper or file from the back rooms. I felt highly paranoid as I conducted my business, but I was able to leave without being stopped.

As I left the building, a professor came up to me and said I needed to come with him to the Fiscal Office. The reason was because he had forgotten to tell them that I was now living in a special house-dorm with a few of my friends, and we needed to correct it if I wanted to remain there. As we were walking to the office, I noticed that the professor was accompanied by a few other faculty members, and I came to realize that they were all sycophants and hung around him merely to leech off his fame. I could overhear their whispers, and they said amongst themselves that I was the teacher’s pet, though I had no recollection of even taking that professor’s classes.

On the way to the office, I received a phone call from Jumi. We engaged in idle talk, and then she made mention that she was still working at the sheriff’s department. That conversation seemed to twist the dream into a “daydream” within the dream, because I was then thinking about a fictional time when I worked at a television station, helping their broadcasts by positioning lights, and I even began to think about the fictional time that I had to apply make-up to these actors and actresses.

My dream returned to “normal,” and we made it to the fiscal office, which turned out to be a mock-up of the Customer Service Counter at DFS. The line was long because the person working the counter was slow and did not do things in a timely manner. I realized that after we had all approached the counter, we would have another wait for the fiscal office cashier’s window, and I began to worry that I wouldn’t have time to get my next class. Yet I couldn’t leave, because I needed the professor’s help in telling the office where I was living and why I was living there (I think he had to vouch for me and sign some papers). I remember thinking that maybe if I at least made it past the CR counter, I could skip out and go to my next class. A foolish thought, but it was the last one I had before I woke up.

Nothing much happened today. I bought The Transformers: The Movie DVD, and justified the purchase by observing that the video I have is grainy and the color contrast is less than acceptable.

Turns out my desktop computer is still acting slow. The defrag and cleanup/scan seemed to have helped some, but the desktop is otherwise affected by some unknown factor. This only goads me towards buying a new computer. I need to wait until after I pay for my tuition though, and it looks like this semester’s costs will run me a little over a thousand dollars, not including books. I’m only going to take two classes, too. If it seems like an unreasonable amount of money, you’re right. The university, however, considers me a post-baccalaureate student, which is a level that is between undergrad and graduate. I also register last, and am ineligible for financial aid. This is the price of pursuing a second degree, but there are some benefits that counteract the high cost. For example, I only have to take those courses that I am interested in and that count towards my final goal of an ICS degree. I don’t have to fulfill any cores or accumulate a specific amount of credits. It may seem difficult, but hopefully the end result will open up new paths for me in life.

Not much happened today. I did some desc work on CheesyMUD and made a few mobiles, but that’s about it. Some would say I’m barely doing enough to warrant my immortal position, but I would disagree. Later.

At work it was a slow day. Nothing exciting occured, and the only notable thing worth mentioning was that Irene claims to not snore when she sleeps. I asked her how she can say that when she’s asleep and likely can’t hear herself snore. She says it’s because Tolkien never said anything. I think he’s being polite.

I’m trying to figure out why my desktop is so slow. By slow I do not mean machine speed, but rather the annoying fact that if it’s left on for a while, it will actually “act” slower. It’s as though something is chewing up all the processor time and it’s clogging up the pipes like a garlic chili dinner down the toilet. Among the clues that tell me this is the fact that my system clock gets slower and slower, to the point that it could be midnight in reality, but the computer will think it’s 2230 hours. The processor sounds like it’s regurgitating leftover spiced ham, and as it’s doing that the mouse is ill-responsive like a needle skipping over a broken record. I’ve removed some programs I no longer needed, one of which being ProgressQuest, a “hands-free” type of game that runs on its own. My suspicions fall greatly upon that cheeky monkey. I removed it, and after a reboot and disk cleanup/scandisk/degfrag I’m going to let it “sit” for a while and see if that fixes the problem. A deep gurgling in my stomach tells me that’s not the end of the problem, however. We shall see.

Today’s Invader Zim episode(s):
Megadoomer
Lice
Germs
Dark Harvest

This morning I woke up with a very sore stomach, the kind that makes you double over into a fetal position and not want to move, except you have to move because if you stay still the pain takes over your lower eyelids and makes you scream like a baby. Well, maybe it wasn’t THAT bad, but it was horrible. I almost used it as an excuse to call in sick to work. In the end it turned out for the better, because I did absolutely nothing at work. If I had stayed home, I would have done the same thing; I just wouldn’t have gotten paid for it.

The only thing that happened at work was the realization that sometimes, when you’ve grown up and matured into a true adult, suddenly the people you used to know are still thinking like little kids, and as a result are not as pleasant to know anymore.

I watched Animal Precinct tonight, and every time I see that show I am amazed and appalled at the ignorance and stupidity people have in this world. It is horrifying what these so-called “pet owners” do to their charges. Tonight’s episode there was a case where owners tied up 13 newborn puppies into garbage bags and threw them into the trash for the garbagemen to pick up. If a neighbor hadn’t heard the crying from inside the can, all of the puppies would likely have been lost. In the end, however, only 2 of the 13 survived. The owners were, naturally, arrested. There was also a case of a dog being muzzled with what looked like a coffee can, and even a dog that had its throat cut wide open with a knife. The show is not for the faint-of-heart, but at least those stinky ignorant dirt-people get what they deserve.