Honestly, I didn't mean to be away this long. First, there was no Internet account at my new job, and then they kept me horribly busy. Combine that with Geocities fucking up so that I couldn't put up a new entry even when I found the time to write one, and you've got my explanation for going so long without updating. I sent one update to my update list, and I'll be including that as an entry -- the one before this. Look for it.
Anyway, Dirk's got a new job, at Lowe's. He'll be making $9.00 an hour, and his schedule will be from 5 a.m. to 2 p.m., with Saturdays off. He was quite adamant about having Saturdays off for practice. I was so proud of him. It only took him 5 days to get a new job after 7-11 fired him. It was the first job he interviewed for, too.
I'm still pleased as hell with my new job, even though I found out they're stripping me of my within-grade increases. Apparently, I wasn't supposed to get them under the Student Temporary Appointment. So, I'll just be a GS-3 step one. That's perfectly fine with me. I need to turn in my paperwork for health insurance. Hopefully I'll remember to fill it out.
We didn't end up getting together with Letisha on Memorial Day. At first I thought she'd either flaked off or gotten pissed because I called so much. I admit that I made a pest of myself trying to get in contact with her so I could solidify plans, but I just wanted to make sure it was actually going to happen. Otherwise, I wanted prior warning so Dirk and I could make other plans. She disappeared on Friday and Saturday (to visit her grandmother in the hospital, I later found out), and I talked to her on Sunday morning, getting her to promise to call me with directions to her appartment. The call never came, and I never got in touch with her again that week-end.
I later found out that she'd gotten arrested for assualt. Stay with me now. Her kids had been playing in front of the appartment complex, on the sidewalk and the no-parking zone. An angry young woman pulled into the no-parking zone, almost hitting Letisha's children, parked her car and went inside. She only stayed inside for a few minutes. When she came out, she threw her car door open in such a way that it slammed into the head of Letisha's youngest daughter as she rode by on her bike. Letisha's daughter was knocked off her bike, striking her head on the concrete.
Letisha had vowed not to say anything to the woman when she almost ran over her kids, because she could see she was upset. But when this woman injured her kid, and was about to just leave without saying a word, Letisha lost her temper. She marched up to the woman and demanded, "Don't you think you owe my daughter an apology?" The woman, who was of latin descent, cussed her out in Spanish, then switched to English to insult her (I gathered from what Letisha said, that a lot of the insults were racially-oriented. In case you're awful slow, Letisha is black.) Keep in mind the fact that Letisha is about 5'1" or so, and only weighs 116 lbs. She punched the woman, and they got into a huge fight in front of Letisha's apartment building. The woman drove off and called the police, who arrested Letisha for assault.
They didn't let her make any phone calls for a while, because Letisha was "sassing" them (her term, not mine). When she finally called her mother, and her mother got her out on bail, it was already Monday. The arraignment didn't last long, and the assualt charge was dropped, because the judge agreed that the bitch who hit her kid had it coming, and should have gotten worse. Even the woman herself couldn't say anything in her own defense.
However, Letisha's cousin and her cousin's friend were watching her kids, and neither of them would tell me where she was, so I assumed she was angry with me for calling so much. I didn't talk to Letisha until I e-mailed her at work today, and she couldn't believe I thought she'd be mad over something so minor. In fact, she didn't get home until very late Monday night.
It was a good Memorial Day for me just the same. I brought Dirk over to my house at 10:00 in the morning, and we spent the entire day in bed. My parents were fishing in Norfolk, and didn't come home until Dirk and I were cooking dinner last night. We went to a park that overlooked the river and watched the sunset. The only flaw in the day was the horrible steam burn I got on the back of my hand while cooking for Dirk. I kept ice on it for most of the evening, then smeared toothpaste on it. Toothpaste works astonishingly well on burns.
I've been thinking about getting a new car, since my mother's willing to cosign on a car loan. I'm not too convinced that my car's in especially good shape, and it would do marvelous things for getting me a credit rating (a good one). I just need to talk to Dirk about it some more. I want a Chevy Cavalier, like my parents have, except I want mine to be silver. Only $14,000 you know. I need to figure a few more things with Dirk out, first.
Now that I've basically caught you guys up, I'm going to bed. I plan on writing an entry tomorrow, and it should be about more in-depth stuff. Goodnight.