Back to School Season

On the first day of the month, I went to my shift from 10 to 4 and afterwards I went to the Pathless Land with my granddad. I worked from 1:30 to 5 on Friday and the next Monday I worked from 7 to 10. On Wednesday I worked from 10 to 4 and after work I talked to Mom about birthday presents for mine was coming up rather soon. I mentioned the Lego architecture sets, which I had several of at home and she said, “Hey ,why don’t you bring them to school?”

             “Ok, yeah,” I said.

I went to the Pathless Land with Granddad that night and I worked on Friday from 1:30 to 5 and on Sunday I got a call from Phil the manager saying that they could use me on that day until 6:30. I got there and 1:30 and when I got off work my mom told me that Jack’s mom needed treatment tomorrow and Thursday so he wouldn’t be going to art class. Her sister was also flying in from Boston. That night I e-mailed Cassie, one to tell her about Jack’s mother so she would be forewarned if she saw her, and two, to wish her a happy birthday for her birthday was on August 14, where mine was August seventeenth, making her almost exactly one year younger than me.

                I too did not go to art class the next day because I had a psychiatrist appointment with my new doctor, Kevin Mays replacing my old one who retired this summer. Before I went though I got a call from Phil asking if I could fill in a shift down at the Hen House on Roe from 2 to 7 and I said yes. So the next day I went there and when I got off my mom, Dave, and I watched Casablanca from the library, which was mentioned in Cinema Nirvana.

                I worked again the next day and went to the Pathless Land only Granddad wasn’t there that time. He and my grandmom were in Maine, so I went with my dad and he had a good time there. The next day I went to my art class and afterwards Mom and I took Jack to Pizza 51 restaurant before going home. It turned out Jack’s mom’s operation had not worked, but they were going to take her to the hospital tomorrow to try it again. For the rest of the time, Jack and I swam for a little bit, though we soon stopped because the water turned out to be way too cold, and for the rest of the time we watched Family Guy episodes on the DVR. That night I packed The Skull Mantra, The Case of the Man Who Died Laughing, Surrender or Starve, my bird-watching book, Upside-Down Zen, Cinema Nirvana, and The Origins of Myth and Symbol, along with my journals, Lego Architecture sets, my altar supplies, and my flute.

                The next day I got new shoes as I seemed to have already outgrown the one's I got at the beginning of the summer. After work, my mom, Dave, Jamie, Cam, Nora, and I went to Elsa’s indulging in exotic Ethiopian cuisine as we had earlier this summer. When we got home I opened presents. I got a blue and black Mexican poncho, or drug rug as Jamie at Evergreen State College likes to call it; a book called 1616: The World in Motion about how that year impacted the course of history through changes in society in Europe and Asia and the slave-trade in Africa; I got a Lego Architecture set called the Sungnyemun based of the Sungnyemun gate in South Korea; a marker sketchpad; and a Hotei figurine with a bell inside it. For those of you who aren’t full time Buddhists like me, Hotei is the fat, laughing Buddha you see in Chinese restaurants.

                It was a pretty good birthday and the next day Dad and I went down to the barber shop in Prairie Village where I got a haircut. Then we went down to Target where we got shaving cream, razor blades, toothpaste, neo-sporin, deodorant, soap, shampoo, tea, snack food, and a binder. I went to Old Chicago to eat with my dad, Cam, and Nora for my birthday and then Dad and I went to Barnes and Noble where I got a book Treasures of the Buddha on sacred Buddhist art and architecture throughout the world and two penny folders for my coin collection. Then my dad and I got home and I opened his present, which was a xylophone from Ten Thousand Villages, a store selling handicrafts from the third world to help artisans in those countries, since he knew I collect ethnic musical instruments.

                The next day before heading off to UCM with Dad and Jamie, I went to Mom’s and got my clothes and other things I needed for school and we loaded them into my dad’s car. Then before going off to school, we went to my grandparent’s house where I got my birthday presents: a decorative calligraphy brush and a DVD called Blessings: The Tsoknyi Nangchen Nuns of Tibet, which talked about Tibet’s Buddhist nuns and how they successfully preserved their faith under Chinese occupation. Then we said goodbye and drove off to UCM.