Tips. And Other Orders Of Business.

So, working in a restaurant, of course, you get tips from time to time. And the way it works at our particular restaurant is that when you receive a tip in any form, you put it in the tip jar, to be distributed equally later. (Or almost equally. Mamun tends to give me a little more than him usually, and Mario tends to take the bigger half for himself.) On a good day, I'll end up with four or five, sometimes even six dollars. Other days it's only fifty cents or a dollar. Anyway, it adds up nicely, and since I save every cent of my paychecks, I use my tip money for fun things, like movies and Taco Bell. It's not a ton of money, but I can live with it. Okay, now if you're a delivery person, you don't have to deposit your tips in the tip jar, and you get a tip every time, with the amount, of course, varying according to the size of the order. And I hear Erik and Mitch complaining, every day, about how 'this guy only gave me a six dollar tip, and his order was like sixty dollars!' or 'I've been getting two dollar tips all day, this sucks.' Which seems like a small tip, but what you don't realize is these guys a) work much longer than me and therefore b) make anywhere from seven to twenty-five deliveries a day. And usually at the end of the day they leave with fifty to eighty dollars, sometimes even more. It's ridiculous, because this is in addition to their salary, which, at $7.00 an hour, is lower than mine (because it can be below minimum wage for any position that receives substantial amounts in tips that eventually make up the difference), but like I said, they also work much longer (except Mitch who's still the newb) and therefore get much more (granted, they are in their twenties, and this job is their living). But still. Anyway, my point is, if I had a car, I would definitely be a delivery person, because they get ridiculous amounts of money in tips. Daily.

I used to have other orders of business, but I forgot them or else they're just not that important and I no longer feel like writing about them, so I believe I'm done now.

cute.

i dunno, stuff.

Learning to break open cans without an opener had proved much easier than Jack had thought it would be. All she'd needed was a sharp knife, which was one thing she had no shortage of. Once she had figured out how to open the multitude of cans available to her, the food problem had ceased being a problem. She was just digging her fingers into the jagged edges of a can of Campbell's Tomato Concentrate when there was a huge bang from the door. She looked up in fear; the only sounds she had heard for the past three weeks were produced by herself, aside from the occasional distant explosion. She got hurriedly to her feet just as the door banged again, shaking the entire room this time. They couldn't have found her, they couldn't, there was no way. Her hideout was secluded and secure; even if they had found her, there was no hope of them getting inside the room.
And yet her reassurances were shattered as there was yet another bang, this last one producing a dent in the door along with a deafening boom that resounded from every wall. It sounded as if something huge and very solid was hitting the door, and Jack couldn't think of what it would be. The crazies, as she had begun to call them (she still couldn't bring herself to use the word zombie, it was far too horror-movie-esque, not to mention it would be admitting this horrible reality to herself in a way that she was not yet prepared to do), were nowhere near big enough to produce the sound she was hearing, although she couldn't think of what else could be making it. They weren't smart enough to use anything like a tool, and anyway, why would they want to get in this room so badly? They couldn't know she was here; the room was smell-proof and completely sealed. There was no explanation. Unless...maybe she was saved. This idea, as soon as it had taken form, latched onto her mind and spread like the infection itself. Yes, yes, she was saved, the army had somehow defeated the crazies, and knew about this saferoom and had come to rescue her, knowing that the only way in was to destroy it.
Unfortunately, just as she began to get excited and hopeful, though deep down she knew this fantasy was far from true, she heard a terrible, inhuman yell from outside the room, from right outside the room, and with a final thunderous bang, the door flew in on itself, flying like shrapnel from a bomb and narrowly missing Jack.
Jack's heart began beating wildly and her stomach plummeted; she felt something warm running down her leg and realized she had wet herself. There was nowhere to run. This room was the only safe place left in the world, for all she knew, and now, they had found her. They weren't supposed to be smart, they weren't supposed to be strong, they weren't even supposed to know she was here, and yet, there they were, grotesque and wild and hungry; she could see thousands of them outside the door from her position in the room, the first one loping toward her even as she made this observation, and before she even had time to scream and throw her hands in front of her face in some feeble attempt at protection, they were upon her.

Vonce Zere Vas Ze Boy.

Vonce upon a time, zere vas a leetle boy named, Ze Boy. Ze Boy had no family, and no friends, and no von vas zere to give heem a name, and so, he vas, Ze Boy. He alvays vundered how he vas born, but zere vas no von to tell heem. So, von day, Ze Boy vas valking in ze streets of ze leetle Deutschland town he leeved in. All ze people who saw him looked at heem vis deegust, because, he vas a dirty hobo child. Eenstead of being a nice people, and geeving him a home or a food or a drinks, zey yelled at heem and shook zeir fists. Zey said, "Oh, Ze Boy, you dirty leetle hobo child! Vhy do you ruin ze sights of our nice leetle Deutschland town vis your grubby leetle face?" And Ze Boy turned his grubby leetle face in shame and sadness, for he had no reply. He vas very hungry, but no von fed him. He vas very tirsty, but no von drank him or gave him dranks. He very much vanted a home, but no von homed him. And so Ze Boy vandered ze streets all ze day.
Von day, somesing extraordinary happened. Ze Boy vas looking in ze garbage for ze food or ze dranks, but he did not find anysing. As he began to valk avay sadly, he somesing shiny out of ze corner of ze eye. He turned hees grubby leetle face to see vhat it might be. He saw zat it was steeking out of ze corner of ze garbage, een a place vere he did not see before. He rummaged in ze garbage to grab ze shiny sing, but ven he tried to pool it out, it was beeg and heavy. He pooled vis all hees might, but he could not get it out. So, he tried to tip ze garbage. Ven zat did not vork, he deecided zere vas only von sing to do. He climbed eento ze garbage, and tried to deeg it out from zere. But ven he rummaged srough ze garbage to see vat ze shiny sing vas, he saw zat it vas a beeg metal tube. He vundered how it vas so shiny, ven it vas in a garbage, but he deecided it must have some kind of non-stick, non-stain qualities. He looked inside ze tube, but all he could see vas darkness. "Zat's veird..." he said, and vas surprised ven hees voice echoed, as eef ze tube vas very deep. He vundered briefly if perhaps zere vas somesing valuable at ze bottom. Ze rational part of heem asked, 'Vhy, Ze Boy, vould zere be anysing valuable at ze bottom of ze metal tube zat you found in ze garbage?' but Ze Boy paid no attention to ze rational part of heem, and proceeded to clamber into ze tube. As soon as he let go of ze side, expecting to drop the few inches to vere ze tube met ze bottom of ze garbage, but to heez surprise and panic he began to fall as if from a very large cliff. He yelled out, but hees voice echoed meaninglessly from ze sides of ze tube; no von could hear him, and if zey could, no von vould care. Zen, just as suddenly as eet had happened, Ze Boy stopped falling. He vas on ze ground as eef he had not just fallen vhat must have been hundreds of feet. He got to hees feet, brushed heemself off, and looked around. Deespite ze fact zat he had looked into ze tube and seen nossing but darkness, ze area zat he vas in showed a beeg light coming from a leetle beet avay. Ze Boy valked toward ze vight, unteel he found heemself in a large archvay zat led to a brightly lit forest. Ze Boy vundered vat vas going on.

The End of an Era

Just like the poster says. Anyway, I don't really feel like going on and on about the wonder and magic of this amazing movie, but I will say a little. This honestly is the best movie I've ever seen. There is really no other movie in the world that I've seen that is better. It's so good. I cried almost the entire time. Almost every change they made, made sense, and fit. They all definitely fit. There were parts that made me literally gasp and go, wow, that was awesome. And it was really powerful. You actually felt things, emotions. It wasn't just watching a movie; you were part of it, you were there, and the people and their stories were real. The acting has gotten so much better. They did so well. Especially Snape. I cried the hardest for him. And Fred. Plus there were little bits of humor thrown in that made you love all the characters even more. And things like, when the dementors came swooping down on the castle, Aberforth, who had seemed the most cynical and resigned of all, was the one who produced the colossal Patronus to drive them away. Or when Lavender was getting eaten by Greyback, Hermione was the one who screamed, "NO!" and cast a curse that sent Greyback flying out the window behind him, even though in the previous book she had despised Lavender. That part made me cry especially hard. I can't stop thinking about it. I want to see it again, so badly. It's not over yet.

A Sincere Apology. Kinda.

The Excitement Builds. (Rapidly.)

I probably don't need to remind you, because you already know, but in case you don't, there are FIVE FREAKING DAYS UNTIL IT COMES OUT. Until the end. In five days, there will be nothing more to look forward to, to anticipate, to count down. Anything else will simply be an extra, an add-on, nothing nearly as exciting as waiting for the next book or movie to come out. Shaking with excitement as you open the cover and it creaks with newness, turn to the first page and read what your eyes have never seen before. Or getting chills, literal chills, as the first few notes of that all-too-famous theme song begin to play, and out of the shadows or the clouds come those jagged silver letters, spelling out the name of the newest movie, where you get to watch the books come to life. Sure, we'll still watch the movies and read the books and listen to the bands and sing the songs from the musical and talk about it forever, but after this we'll have nothing new to talk about. This is the end. And after watching the trailer almost religiously, slapping anyone in the vicinity who talks or breathes too loud, and becoming transfixed with wonder as tears involuntarily gather in my eyes, I'll finally get to see it. I'm actually going to watch it. I'm going to see it. At midnight. And I won't talk the entire time, and neither will anyone else that I'm with. And I'm probably going to cry, so don't laugh at me, expect it. But perhaps you will too. I am going to see this movie! I am so happy. Five days. It all ends here.









p.s. I am aware of Pottermore. I know there will, in fact, be new things to talk about after this. But Pottermore, like I said before, is just an extra, and it's not the same. It will be exciting of course, and maybe help the depression that we'll all feel when it finally sinks in that this really is the end, but it is not the same.

I'm On My Way

If you want something done, you have to do it. That seems obvious, right? Well it's not. If you want something for yourself, you can't depend on other people to do it. You have to do it yourself. That's how I got my room painted. I kept waiting and waiting for my parents to do it and they never did, until one day I started ripping the wallpaper off the walls, and whaddya know, and month later my walls were purple. That's also how I moved downstairs in the first place, actually. They kept saying they would do it eventually, maybe, perhaps in the summer, and I was like yeah screw this and started moving my stuff in there. And so, it makes sense that it's also how I'm going to Senegal. I know my entire family isn't going to go again for a long time, and I'm definitely not waiting. So, I applied like crazy at a good 70% of the businesses in Chan, and finally got a job. Phase 1, complete. Now I just need to make $3000. But I have an entire year, and I'm getting there. Well not really, I mean I'm not even close, but every hour I work is progress, right? Right. So I'm on my way. And a year from now, I'll be at the airport. The reason it will be a year from now today is because two years ago today is when we went last time. July 2nd, 2009, to July 25th. And so next year I'm gonna go on this day. Most likely. Only I'm staying a month instead of three weeks. Anyway. The moral of the story is, when you want things, you have to get them. Yourself. The end.