May 19, 2006 2:40am

Another screwed up evening. Today (at work) I had a cluster teacher’s schedule to do. A cluster’s schedule means that I have various classes to teach instead of one. I did a lot of walking from classroom to classroom (with [about] a 50lb. shopping cart filled with my teaching supplies. However, with a cluster’s schedule, there is no classroom room to clean up at the end of the day, and no report to leave for the regular teacher letting him (or her) know what was done in class. The end result was that I was out of the school building at 3:09. I could have been out of the building at 3:00, if I organized my materials better.

Anyway, my plans were to go to the local copy center to make photo copies, come to my shoebox (change clothes go shopping for a spring jacket, and buy a small flashlight for my keychain. Also, I wanted to upload the various blog entries for this month. For the regular readers of this blog, I still have not posted any blog entries for this month. Even though I now have internet connection at home, I’ve been reluctant to go on-line during the work week. For me, a planned “brief” trip usually turns into a couple of hours on-line.

Recently, I’ve been forcing myself to use the rowing machine. How? I force myself to exercise before I eat (or even make) dinner. After exercising (even briefly), then eating dinner, I fall asleep only to wake up in the middle of the night. I was hoping this evening would be different considering I was in my shoebox about 4:05. I should know better by now.

As soon as I walked through the front door, I had the feeling it was going to be another less than great evening. I walked passed the young couple’s room (the first room with a hole kicked in the door); the lights were off in the room. The hallway light was burned out (reason for the flashlight). I think I’ve mentioned the inconsideration my neighbors have about leaving the hallway light on at night, so I am in no hurry to replace the bulb. Sorry, I’m getting sidetracked.

When I walked into the hallway, I was greeted by a pleasant “hello, how are you? from the Screamer. Oh crap, I thought I would have at least a day or two of peace and quiet (relatively speaking in a building where every other room seems to have their stereo blasting at one time or another).

I’m rambling and it is very late. I need to shorten this.

The young lady knocked on my door wanting to talk, and being the kind of person that doesn’t know how to say no, I invited her to talk. She stood at the door for about an hour and a half. Highlights:

she was sorry for the disturbance last night.
she was the one who was throwing things last night.
she blacks out when she gets angry and doesn’t remember anything.
she gets angry when her boyfriend blocks her out.
she gets jealous when her boyfriend spends more time with his friends.
etc…
Oh, her boyfriend pays for everything (food, rent, etc…)

There was a heck of a lot more, but it is getting late.

She also explained that there is some kind of “situation” with one of the girlfriends upstairs that is why she was afraid to go outside today. She told me that she was scared, nervous, shaking, etc… She couldn’t sleep being so worried. She explained that she wanted to clean up (both the pile of dirty dishes that have been sitting in the kitchen for about a week, and the room that she admits trashing herself), but she was so worried about the situation with a girl upstairs about something that was said last night.

All day the weather was beautiful. It was a beautiful spring day (the reason for the spring jacket). Unfortunately, the weather report said “chance of evening rain showers”, and the weather report was correct. It started rainy while I was out getting the jacket. I had wanted to walk around see what was available, but since I was trying to beat the rain, I just bought the first cheap jacket that I could find. I’ll try to attach a photo.

I returned to my shoebox, and about 10 minutes later, the young lady returned. Another hour conversation passed. Basically, she loved my macaroni & cheese and wanted to know how I made it, what ingredients I used, how much it would cost…

Oh, and would I mind going to the store to buy the ingredients. I reminded her that mac & cheese would not be a good make-up dish because her boyfriend doesn’t like a lot of cheese. I also reminded her that it was raining. It turns out she just had a taste for mac & cheese (she especially loved the cheesy crust I made with mine). And, she did not know that it was still raining.

Please don’t think for a minute that since I haven’t said anything, I am buying any of the **** she is feeding me. My problems are 1. I don’t know how to say no, and 2. I don’t know how to say shut up.

No, I didn’t go to the store. Unfortunately, the young lady did mentioned that she was worried that her boyfriend was still angry, and I did suggest that that she could get his attention more if she cleaned up the room she trashed. I knew they were not breaking up, so I was not upset (too much) with playing next door psychologist.

The evening went fairly quiet. With only one more interruption (she wanted to borrow my newspaper to read her horoscope), and only one complaint (she was very tired cleaning up her (boyfriend’s) room. I guess she was too tired to wash her dirty dishes which are still sitting in the kitchen (with the addition of a couple of cups removed from the room she cleaned, and the bowl after eating some of my sherbet -- she had not had sherbet in a long time [and wanted to know where I bought it]).

After rowing for about 30 minutes, and eating dinner (I ate leftover spaghetti I’d made last week). I watched the series finale of “That 70’s Show” and “Will and Grace”. I thought both finales were boring and a waste of time (both to make and to watch). I managed to stay awake to watch the entire last episode of Will and Grace before I fell asleep.

I woke up about 2am. My neighbor’s boyfriend returned about 2:30am. Can you believe that the Screamer actually yelled (just briefly) the minute he walked in, but now they are quiet…but only for the moment.

It is now 4:13am in the morning, and my dirty dinner dishes are staring at me. I am very glad it is Friday. By the time I wash my dishes, and take a shower, it will be about 5:30. Since I get up about 6am, I can kiss going to sleep goodbye. I really need to get my life together. Not to mention, I need to grow a backbone.

Well, since it is too late to go to sleep, I might as well “briefly” go on the internet and check my e-mail.

Post Date Sunday, May 21, 2006 7:58pm