Wednesday, April 05, 2006

Absence

Lets not beat around the bush here. I've been absent. In fact, i've been away from an internet connection. I know you guys probably got a little worried there. But don't worry, i'm still alive. Actually I happen to be working on a house for 30 days, and there is no internet there. It's such a bummer. On the bright side though we're getting alotta work done. I did my first day's work on this house 3 months ago, and it's amazing how different it looks now than it did then. Now, considering how long it's been it should be completely done. But you have to understand we were only able to work average of 2 days a week there. In fact one month it was only 2 days for the entire month.
At any rate it's great feeling to look at something like that and see how much you have personally done on it.

In other news, Saturday, April 1st turned out to be a GREAT day. It started small, I woke up at 6:00 a.m. long before any other soul in the house would stir, and dragged my near-lifeless body to the shower. Now when I call it a shower it is merely so it what I am talking about would be recognizeable by my readers. It is in fact a slipper mud pit of certain doom, a breeding ground for evil demons, grotesque monsters, and hair clogs the size of rodents. (You wouldn't believe how good of an adhesive dried seamen can be when it comes to sticking clumps of hair together, it all mixes in what used to be a drain, and is now a uselsess clogged up hole, you see)
Anyway, lets not harp on that.
After my shower, I dragged myself downstairs to make myself some breakfast.
No eggs.
No cereal.
No pancakes.
EUREKA!! No...wait...that's oatmeal. Oh well better than nothing. (Ok anyone who's tasted my oatmeal know's that's not true, but there's no way i'm taking a 4 hour test on an empty stomach. )
That's right, I was up this early cuz I had a test at 8:00 a.m. at a nearby highschool. The SAT test to be exact. This is a good thing by the way, just so everyone knows. I need to get a high score on this test to graduate by Wordstock. (Fingers still crossed for that one, won't know for a few weeks).
Anyway, after my gruel, I was driven down to the highschool for what I thought would be a small test, 30 participants tops. Wrong again!
Now having been homeschooled all my life i'm slightly ignorant about public schools. I'd seen them in movies, and i'd been in them from time and again, but I hadn't been to one in quite a while, and definetly never one of this size. Sure on the outside it looks like a very large building, but on the inside it's a labyrinth of endless corridors, winding staircases, hundreds of classrooms, olympic sized sports areas (several of which on the inside). If not for the aid of very clearly defined signs i'm sure I would've been lost for at least half a day. Anyway, after about 10 minutes of brisk walking (yes it was that huge. We're talking at LEAST 1000 students) i arrived at the sign in table. I was shocked when I saw about 150 students sitting around waiting to be called to their testing rooms. Luckily most everyone had already signed up, so the line was only a few minutes wait.
Once the test began I was immidiatly glad i'd studied up on the SAT beforehand, there were lots of helpful things i'd learned from it that I could now put to use, and i'm pretty sure it increased my score.
There were 2 types of subjects on this test. Math, and English. English was a breeze (not that the multiple choice words were too easy, in fact on average i only knew what 3 of the 5 words meant.) Nevertheless by simple process of elimination and a bit of common sense I found it to be slightly less than challenging.
Of course that was just the english. The english was a good 75% of the test, but the other 25% was still challenging. Actually I should rephrase that. The algebra was challenging. The math was split up into Algebra, Geometry, and Arithmetic. Algebra was the only hard one. It's a shame i've forgotten most of it. I learned it too long ago. At any rate i'm pretty sure I got a decent score.
Ok well, once the test ended I waited outside the school for about half an hour for my ride to pick me up. When it finally did I was informed I would be going to the home I live at for a few minutes to pick up some bread. (Remember for 30 days i'm staying at another house fixing it up) Oh well, I guess this was a good chance to check my mail. The day had been pretty good so far after all.
As we drove up I noticed a recognizeable white SUV and trailer on the street. No way! Who was that beachbum on the phone wearing, shorts, a wifebeater and flip-flops on the driveway? That couldn't be the kid I used to jump off of closet shelves with, make secret forts, and be beaten up by our older brothers with.
Upon closer inspection it is obviously the same person. I havn't seen Mike Paone in about a year, but it hasn't done too much. A little more muscle definition, a little more hair on his face. That's about it.
Anyway, he came over and worked with us for the rest of the day, work including a few priceless April fools pranks, some which could have ended funnier, provided there had been different circumstances. For example, if shirts soaked in uiren would dry faster then unsuspecting victims wouldn't know any better and put them on. Unfortunatly if they are still wet there is little you can do about it. Nevertheless, I had fun.
I also found out later that at the very end of the day my niece was being born.

Ok well I better end. Getting late. Sorry for my absence. See ya.