a rather boring but busy last week 

a rather boring but busy last week

This past week, like all weeks since we got back, and like most weeks since we’ve been in TX, was a blur. I have no idea what all happened. I subbed one day in gym class. That was awesome. Best sub job yet. There is an aide in the gym class, so she knew what to do, and knew all the kids, and I just got to sit there. the kids played 2 ball soccer in the gym. 2 balls at once. All I had to do was keep score. Simple enough. The kids were third to fifth grade and most of them started pissin me off. After a minute or so of playing properly they would start catching the ball and throwing it. I figured it wasn’t my place to say anything though since the aide was there. finally she reprimanded them, so I then I got to too. that was fun.

Also this week we went to our TABC class to get our certificate to be a TX bartender. That was a waste of four hours. The class could have easily been 2 hours long, but the instructor had a propensity for telling long pointless stories and informing us about all the things that he thought was wrong with the world. I didn’t learn much. Mostly the class is to put the fear of God into you. If someone is drunk in your bar and crashes you could go to jail. If someone underage drinks in your bar you could go to jail. Those I sort of knew. BUT there’s also wacky TX laws: the owner of the bar can’t be drunk in the bar or you get in trouble. And you are not allowed to ever be drunk in the bar where you work. That’s plain stupid. I understand not being drunk when you’re working, but not being drunk ever? TX is stupid. He also said that in TX the only place where you can’t get a Public Intoxication Citation (a “Drunk in Public” for VA folks) is in your own home. If you’re in a parking lot, in a car, or even in your own front yard you can get one. That’s dumb. Someone in the class asked what about if you were drunk in your home and the cops came and asked you to step outside to talk. The instructor said that you should invite the cops in—unless you’ve got drugs or something in the house.
He also said the TX is geographically 85% dry. That’s wacky. Maybe I’m in the wrong place. Maybe I’m an alcoholic.

I missed 2 questions on the exam by still got my certification. Mary said she got a 100 but she doesn’t really know. Either way, we’re both official now. Mary worked her first shift on Thursday night. It was exciting. She made over $30 in tips, but I suspect that at least $10 of that was from RM and MK who were up there for part of the night. Mary is getting on good terms with the regulars. Except for the one table of them that she pissed off.

I work my first shift tonight. I’m a little scared. We’ll see how it goes.

We worked one day at the antique store this week, and I worked almost every day doing the management gig. For the first time I started doing some stuff besides data entry. That was exciting. Maybe I can learn what I’m doing. Up until this week the only management duty I had done was going to wake up the one singer to get him ready for a gig. That was great. Phone rings and the other manager tells me to go wake up the singer b/c there was a cancellation and they had to get there quick. So I did it. It’s cool to do some other stuff. But, waking him up apparently made me $80. and that’s cool with me.

And we put a deposit down on the RV. Woo hoo! We took some pictures and I’ll try to post those this week. We took a tour of the RV park. It’s a little wacky. There’s one guy there who lives in a conversion van. Guess he uses the communal toilets and showers pretty frequently. Or then again, maybe he doesn’t, who knows. Unfortunately there is another RV there for sale as one of the most beloved residents of the park died 2 days before we left our deposit. She was apparently 82 and chain smoked and used to hang with Willie Nelson and kept the hand gun the size of a cannon in her nightstand.

The people that own the RV are quite cool. Total hippies. If they weren’t moving they’d probably be our friends. Even though they have a kid. They’re fun. The girl is 28, the guy is 42. they met in Thailand. She’s from TX, he’s from England. He built the addition to the RV. For a while they were carnies and made tons of money. No kidding. Did you know carnies made tons of money? I didn’t. but now that’s a possible money makin idea. It sounds hard though. But maybe worth it if things get tough enough. They told us how it all worked.

Friday we got pretty smashed with RM and MK. We drank lots of beer and a little tequila. In our first week in TX we met a guy who told us the secret of good tequila--- just get 100% pure agave he said. And then it didn’t matter. Since then we’ve had tons that were pure agave. And they were good. Saturday we had one that was pure agave. It almost made me yak. Twice. Guess it’s not true all of the time. Be warned. The previous weekend some people stopped by RM’s and gave him a real pretty bottle of tequila called milagro or something like that. Mary tried it and said it was smooth. We saw it in the liquor store the other day. It cost $73. yikes. Who would spend that much? What in the world? $73?! And it’s not even a huge bottle. Friday night they were drinking a different kind of milagro. It was not smooth and was not good. Blech.

Last night mary went out clubbing with some girls. I was invited but politely declined. I was just going to lay low and try to get some of my finances in order, but I went and hung out with some old college friends instead. It was good.

The end.