Thursday, May 31, 2012

First Months Back at First Home


On the first day of summer I called Hen House and found out I work on Sunday from 4-8, Monday from 3-8, and Friday from 1:30-10. That day I also e-mailed Cassie Burghoff, whom I became a quick friend of, asking for us to stay in touch over the summer and get together some next year. My work schedule got changed so I don’t work Sunday, but I did go to work on Monday and Friday. On Sunday I had a parmesan chicken dinner my mom cooked, the first home-cooked meal I’d had in a while.
On Wednesday, my Granddad picked me up at my house and we went to Winstead’s and Barnes and Noble before going to the Pathless Land like we used to do before I went to UCM. On Saturday when I was with my dad for the weekend, I went to a local bead store and bought three blank pendant pieces on which I would hammer a design with a nail to make a necklace for my mom, grandmom, and Sherry for Mother’s Day. On Sunday I went with Mom, Dave, and Cam to a local Prairie Village restaurant called La Provence for Mother’s Day and at work I filled out a W4 form. That day I saw my old friend Alex Habib’s mother at work and she gave me his cell-phone number.
The next day I started doing something I did before I went to UCM. I dug through the Lego bucket at home and put the pieces to the Harry Potter sets, which got scattered a long time ago, into bags according to which set they went to, put the ones I didn’t know which set they went to in a separate tub, put the pieces to a lego ninja fortress into a separate bag, and put all the megablocks, bionicle, playmobile, and connex pieces I found in their own boxes. I also hammered a flower on the pendant for my mom and gave it to her. She loved it. I hammered a Chinese symbol for harmony on a necklace for my grandmom, who loves Asian art, and I hammered a cross inside a Star of David for my stepmom. When I went to the Pathless Land with Granddad the next night, I gave him my grandmom’s pendant, which he said she would love. When I got to my dad’s house, I gave him Sherry’s pendant to give to her and Dad said she would love it. The next day I went to my art class with Jack and worked more on some watercolor drawings and on Friday I worked from 1:30 to 10.
On Saturday I had a day off so I rode my bike to the Corinth library and checked out two books: The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Screenwriting and The Lonely Planet Guide to Travel Writing.  The next day when I went to work, I found out I work on Monday from 6-10, Friday from 1:30-10, and Saturday from 7-3:30.

On Monday the next day I went to work from 6-10, and on Wednesday I went to Winstead’s with Granddad and Barnes and Noble before going to the Pathless Land. On Friday I went to work from 1:30 to 10. Dad picked me up and told me that I my History class I got a C, and in my Creative Writing class I got an A. Dad told me the THRIVE staff sent a very good report about me along with it too.
The next morning I went to work from 7 to 3:30.  I found out that day that my work hours for the week are Sunday from 4 to 8, Monday from 6 to 10, Friday from 1:30 to 10, and Saturday from 7 to 3:30. When I got home I read the report from the THRIVE staff and it was very nice. I went to work on Sunday and Monday and went to Winstead’s, then Barnes and Noble, then to the Pathless Land with Granddad, and on Thursday I went to my art class with Jack.              
On the second day of June, there were hot dogs and burgers provided to employees during their breaks. After I got off work I walked home and looked in the store in the Prairie Village shopping center Bag and Baggage, where I saw Lonely Planet Phrasebook India and Lonely Planet Phrasebook Africa which are two places I have long wanted to visit. I got home and ordered a book called Cinema Nirvana: Enlightenment Lessons from the Movies. I also placed two books on hold from the Corinth Library by Robert D. Kaplan author of Ends of the Earth: Imperial Grunts and Eastwards Towards Tartary: Travels in the Middle East. The day after that I went to my art class and work, and the next day I ordered a book online called Upside-down Zen: Discovering the Marvelous in the Ordinary. 

            My Granddad on my mom’s side of the family was coming into town to visit us so I asked if I could get someone to cover me at work on Friday. I went to the Pathless Land with my other Granddad as I do most nights, and the next day I went to work and found out my shift was covered. My pop-pop, as we like to call him and his girlfriend Sandra came in on Friday and we had dinner along with Cam’s girlfriend Nora. Then the next day I went to work from 7 to 3:30. The next day I went to work and the day after that I went to my art class then later to work.

            The day after Monday I watched some birds in my backyard for an hour. I also rode my bike for half an hour and swam in our backyard pool, which I figured I’d better do before time runs out to do it. My granddad was away in Canada so my dad and I went to Pei Wei for dinner and I got a bottle cap for my collection that I started to do from my Kirin Beer. Then we went to Half Price Books and I looked at a book on Harry Potter collectibles. My brother Jamie, who recently studied abroad in China, came home from Evergreen College in Olympia, Washington. 
            The next day I found out my neighbor, Mrs. Han offered to pay me to pull weeds from her backyard on my way to work. The next day I went to work and after that I pulled Mrs. Han’s weeds. I went to work the next day and the day after that I had a day off and went to my family lake house at Lake Lotawana and Jamie gave Dad and I souvenirs of his trip to China. I got a wooden Hotei head (Hotei is the fat, laughing Buddha), a Chinese dream catcher, and a pencil from the Chengdu Tibetan hotel. There I watched the birds and my grandparents came and Jamie showed us photos of his trip to China before we went to dinner. I also talked to my friend Erin.
            The next day I went to work and asked off for the fourth of July and the day after that I had a day off during which I found some photos from my middle school and high school years and put them in the photo albums I got in Warrensburg. On Wednesday, instead of going to the Pathless Land with my granddad, I worked from 4 to 8 because of I was covering for another courtesy clerk.
            On Friday I went to work and found out my work schedule for the next week was Monday from 3:30 to 8; Wednesday from 12 to 5; Thursday from 3:30 to 10; and Saturday from 1:30 to 10. The next day, after work, Jamie, my stepsiblings Kate and Graham, who were in from town, my mom, my stepdad and I went to eat at Elsa’s Ethiopian Restaurant where we quickly filled up on Beef Tibbs, Doro Watt, injera, and other food of Ethiopian cuisine. The day after that Jamie and I ate lunch with and stayed over at our Dad’s and ate dinner with our grandparents before Jamie left for Evergreen the next day.
            The next day I went to work and the day after the next day I went to work and went to the Pathless Land with my granddad and on the way he gave me some coins he brought back from his trip to Canada. I went to work the next day and I got hired by Mrs. Han to water here plants and feed her cats on Sunday and Monday. I went over to her house so she could tell me what to do and I helped her moved her geranium plants from her upstairs balcony to her backyard.