Well the day is nearly at an end and what a day it has been. I taught swimming lessons this morning before Jaydeep left for his new home in town. My mom took him in our van. My van is currently suffering from a lack of a working serpentine belt. The last two that were in it got chewed up and shredded up and torn up into pieces and destroyed and messed up and mangled beyond repair. So, I don’t have a vehicle. Anyhow, my mom forgot to return to get me and take me into town to work, so I was a few minutes late because I rode my bike in through the sweltering heat. Then, I worked for a whole bunch of time, and helped a whole bunch of people. Now, in this day and age, it seems that people have a massive fixation with how “fresh” things are. I was being constantly bombarded with questions from customers at Panera today regarding the supposed “freshness” of our food. For instance, one lady wanted the Cherry Danish “Now, that is fresh, isn’t it?” This lady had obviously rotten teeth and poor hygiene. “I mean, it hasn’t been sitting out ALL DAY LONG has it?” So I answered her as politely as possible. “Uh, yes it has.” Then she sighed and replied “Alright, fine, I’ll take it.” All I could think was WHAT THE CRAP. Another customer bought the last two Cinnamon Cruch Bagels that we had. Me: “Well here you go, you got the last two!” Her: (it is always women who give me this crap too, ladies, could you please explain WHY THE CRAP you do this?) “Oh, they aren’t, like, 4 days old, are they?” Me: “Uh, no… there is no way in [the vast burning expanse of damnation where many souls lie in eternal torture] that they would be even ONE [freaking holy crap why are you so stupid I can’t understand why in the crap you even care that they would be old who cares the pioneers had to cure their meat with salt and keep it for months and you are concerned about two retarded bagels] day old.” Her: “Oh.”

This happened an obscene number of times today. Finally, I gave up on trying to understand what the big deal was and drank some straight espresso concentrate. Now that stuff will curdle your innards quicker than you can retch at its awful taste. I got a two hour break from work during which I walked over to the Cla-Zel, where I learned the poor Joel Wukotich was royally “f***ed up” in his own words. I walked down to Grounds with him and he ordered some tea to help ease his nausea. It was there that I fatefully ran into Dan Moats. The kid is cool and all that and recently suffered the loss of one parent… but by golly he talked my ear off for the better part of an hour while I was trying to work. I guess that I am just anti-social. Though, I didn’t try to get away from him or ignore him, I actually listened and sometimes I think that can be enough for some people. They just need somebody to listen to them for once in a while. I may not have enjoyed it, but perhaps he got something out of it and if so then I am happy about that.

Well, I went back to work then and a tornado came through the county and all that jazz happened. But that’s not exciting. I got to wash a bunch of dishes… now that was cool! Anyhow, at the end of the day I called my parents and they came and picked me up and picked up my bike. And now I am finally unwound from coming back from work and I think that I am going to get something to eat and then hit the hay!

¡Adios amigos!

Joel “Albert the man” Manahan