31 December 2002

31 December 2002

Oh, I can check my grades today. This should be fun, right?
Spanish 101: A
Juvenile Delinquency: B
Criminology: B
Forensic Science: F
Wait, what was that, was that an F. Yep it was, from now on when I see people studying from the previous years tests and they are exactly the same I am either going to say something about it or ask for a copy too so that I can be one of the idiots messing up the freaking curve for the people that are really trying to pass the damn class on their own. The idiots that would show up for class on test day with a copy of the test in hand would miss one question and ruin the curve. I wasn’t a happy person when I saw that. So I will be taking that class again, hopefully he will use the same book next fall so I don’t have to spend another $100 on a book.

After we checked our grades we went down to Lander Marine to work for a while, I washed and dusted a shelf full of boat parts. That was the last little bit of work that dad could think of for me to do. Dad paid us today. He had set aside $400 to pay us for doing the inventory, he thought it would take us 4 8-hour days to get it all done though so he would be paying us about $6.25/hour, which would have been a slight improvement from the $5 we used to always get paid for helping out. He calls us up to the front counter and starts writing out the slip for the paid out, he is paying us $10/hour. I almost fell over, then I tried to tell him just to pay us like $6. “When your mother and I decided we were going to have you do this I set aside $400 to pay you girls, it didn’t take nearly as long as I thought it would so it is pointless for me to pay you $5/hour. So now we went a little over $400, but your work has been a great help.

Grandma had invited us to go to lunch with her at China Garden the night before so we packed up and headed out the door for lunch. Dad made me drive Jenn’s car to lunch so Jenn had to ride with him. I don’t know if she was getting a lecture from dad about her behavior the night before or if he was slipping her some extra money, because he felt bad that I got nearly $100 more than her. I was going to ask but I forgot, with all the other goings on it wasn’t high priority.

After lunch Jennifer took off to go have hot chocolate with her friends and I went out to the Storage Unit to find my photo albums and look for my bad of hair ties and clips. (When I left Wyoming last January, I left with the hair tie in my hair and that was it. Of course I have bought a few in the year that I have been here, but all my favorites where in Wyoming and my parents didn’t know where they were. For a while I was panicked thinking that I had given them all to Bonkrood when I was in Great Falls, but I couldn’t really see her taking them from me because her hair was so short when I left and she already had a ton of hair ties that she didn’t even use at the time. Then I thought that my mom might have gone crazy and taken them down to the thrift store because I left them. I found them and the world was once again a better place.

Jennifer came out to the storage unit to pick me up and we went back to Lander Marine so I could give my dad the key and give his cell phone back to him. The guys are all standing around having a beer. So my dad sees me drink for the first time ever. Jenn and I have a beer with the guys. Jenn now believes me that 2 Dogs is better than Mike’s Hard Lemonade. Jenn has a second beer and we go home.

After dinner while I was sitting at the computer once again scanning the many pictures that Jennifer thought she absolutely had to have for her scrapbook, Johnny decides to show up at the front door, he goes right back to Jennifer’s room like he still belongs in there with her. About an hour later Angela shows up so I holler at Jennifer to let her know that we are coming back to her room and as I get back to the door through the crack I see Jennifer straightening out her clothes. Must have been another one of those benefits visits that she said there would be no more of after he made her mad when she wanted them and he told her no.

Forty-five minutes later there is another knock at the door and I think oh how much fun, James (the boy that made Jenn feel so good about herself watching movies and trying to feel her up and then ignored her this afternoon while they were having hot chocolate.) is here now too. I was mistaken, it was Chris, Jenn’s ex-boyfriend from before Johnny. He hunted down our phone number here in Grand Forks and has been calling all the time trying to get Jenn to take him back.

Jenn was his first everything and the relationship got to serious too fast and it spooked him so he broke up with her. Several failed relationships down the road, the most recent leaving his girlfriend pregnant and him absolutely excited about being a father ended when the girlfriend told him to get out of his apartment, she was going back to her ex-boyfriend and getting an abortion, he decided he was still in love with Jenn.

My parents hate him with a passion, always did so he wasn’t allowed into the house, I saw him and quickly stepped out and closed the door behind me. I absolutely love Chris, I loved him when he was best friends with my cousin Erica, I loved him when he was dating Jenn, all except that time he sprayed Easy-Cheese all over my windshield, and I love him now. He treated Jennifer like a Queen, and I was really upset when mom tried to drive them apart. I just wanted my parents to give him a chance, to see that Jenn was the one corrupting him not the other way around.

He just bought a new 2003 Cavalier and got his own apartment again, after the last girlfriend kicked him out of his apartment me moved back in with his mom. He is looking for a roommate so joking around he asked me to move in with him because I would be able to buy his beer. About that time the door opens, out come Jenn, Johnny and Angela. Jennifer is going to put some things in her car and is planning on taking off with Angela. She sees Chris and since he is there to see her she stops to talk for a while, decides to ask me what I think she should do, just take off or go in and ask to go. I tell her, if she takes off she will be in more trouble, she already asked mom if she could go out earlier and she said no, if she asks dad she is going to make mom mad at dad. We talk for a while, dad finally decides to peak his head out to see who the third knock on the door was and I ask him if he would bring me my coat.

I decide that I am going inside to get shoes and tell Jennifer that if she is just going to take off she better do it while I am in the house so I don’t get in trouble for not being a good babysitter. She decides to follow me inside and ask dad if she can leave. I go back outside to keep Angela and Chris company. Johnny had already taken off. Chris is on the cell phone trying to find someone to buy beer for him because I won’t. He hangs around for a little bit longer and then decides to take off. Angela and I go inside and hang out with my mom while Jenn and dad go rounds.

Dad got the whole I’m 19, you should treat me like an adult speech. Jenn decides she is leaving even though dad told her no, but he tells her she better be home by 10:30. She stays out until almost 2am. What a great start to my new year, my mom isn’t speaking to Jennifer, mom is mad at dad for letting Jennifer walk all over him so she isn’t speaking to him either, because Jennifer needed to be punished for disobeying the night before, and I am stuck in the middle trying to decide if it is okay for me to talk to this person without upsetting the other.

HAPPY FREAKING NEW YEAR!