052202

 

San Antonio, TX

Wednesday May 22, 2002

                   Man, each day is better and better than the last.

                   This morning I woke up early. I still didn’t have any food in my pantry and I woke up hungry. I had no cash or cigarettes either. I set a plan. My plan was to catch the bus to the donut-shop, tell them that I didn’t have any cash, and that for the past week or so I have been going in there and buying a donut for breakfast everyday, and if they could hook me up with a cinnamon twist. The guy at the donut shop was cool and agreed. I told him I was going to sell my plasma today and that I would pay for the donut later on. He told me not to worry about it, that if I didn’t have time to pay today, that I could do it next time I came in. Cool, credit at the donut shop.
                   I exited the donut shop and walked past this grease-monkey oil-change gas station. At first I walked by it, then I got to thinking and walked back to it and asked one of the monkeys if one of them had a cigarette I could have. Of course they all smoke there so I figured it was a sure thing, and I was right. See, that’s what I get for thinking.
                   There I was again, back at the bus-stop, jamming out to Weezer and eating my breakfast, then smoking my after-meal cigarette. When I got on the bus at home before, I had no means for these luxuries, sometimes all you have to do is ask.

                   Well anyway, the bus finally came at 8:07am and I rode it to my head-injury bullshit program. I went inside, clocked in and went to the classroom. Some of my other head-injured classmates were already there.  I sat down. The teacher is never on time. What kind of role-model is that for a rehab place, eh? Well, I am having a bit of trouble remembering exactly what happened next(remember I’ve had two head injuries! Hehe) but I am sure it was just the same old boring shit they make us do that doesn’t challenge me one bit.
                   They reminded me of the Head-Injury Association picnic they were having later on today from six to eight at this park downtown. I had forgotten all about it, I had planned for my ex-girlfriend to come, if not just for the free food.
                   I called my ex-girlfriend on her cellphone and asked her if she still wanted to go to the picnic and she said yes. I told her to catch the bus and meet me at the Easter Seals in an hour. She showed up and I gave her a hug. She then told me that she wanted to borrow her mother’s car(her mother worked at the veteran's hospital adjacent to the bus transfer center) and go to the store and buy some chips or something for the picnic. I resisted a bit, I hate having to drive anywhere, especially since we were already at the transfer-center and a bus that would take us to the grocery-store was sitting there waiting to leave.
                   She had some more reasons for wanting to get her mom’s car. For one, our dog Stuart was at my apartment and she wanted to get him for a couple days(we have joint-custody of Stuart).

                   Just yesterday I had pondered on how I could get Stuart to her apartment without a car. The bus driver that drives the bus that goes from the donut shop to my girlfriend’s apartment had told me yesterday that he wouldn’t mind if I brought Stuart on the bus. As long as he was the driver, he would let it slide. I even grabbed a schedule and asked him to circle what times he would be the driver. The driver also told me that tomorrow would be his last day on that route, so if I wanted to take Stuart on the bus, it would have to be tomorrow.
                   Now the donut-shop stop, in particular, is a little less than a mile away from my apartment and I doubt the first bus I would catch would allow a dog on the bus. I had planned to walk Stuart to the donut shop the next morning and catch the bus to my girlfriend’s apartment, thus eliminating the need to arrange transportation for Stuart. I just had.
                   I was looking forward to taking Stuart on the bus the next morning and I didn’t want her to get him. She moaned and groaned some more and I finally gave in. I asked her, "Okay, you want Stuart tonight? We’ll go to my place and get him with your mom’s car, he’ll spend the night and tomorrow, I’ll come over and take him to the donut-shop on the bus and walk him to my apartment." She was cool with that idea, I had made it a win-win situation.

                   Okay, be right back, cigarette break.

                   Ahh, nicotine.

                   We took her mom’s car(she can never borrow her mom’s car without me because she doesn’t know how to drive a standard) and drove to my apartment. We put a leash on Stuart and drove back to her place. She got a change of clothes and a little bit of weed(for the picnic, of course). We took the car back to the hospital and boarded the bus that would take us downtown where we would then transfer to the bus that would take us to the park by the zoo, where the picnic was being held.
                   We arrived at the picnic half an hour late and filled up our plates with hotdogs, chips, and cookies. Everyone was having fun, playing this dumb sandbag baseball game. It wasn’t real baseball by far. The players would just throw a sandbag at this board that had holes labeled "1 run, 2 runs, 3 runs, out, and homerun." Hey, it was fun to the dudes in wheelchairs that couldn’t play real baseball. I didn’t play at all. I was too busy eating shit and talking to people.
                   I had burned a badass punk-covers-of-old-songs CD for the picnic and I popped it in the CD player they had there. I sat down to finish eating and I could see people singing along to the songs. It was cool. Someone had brought a little Dalmatian/Labrador/Pit-bull mix puppy that my ex-girlfriend fell in love with, she played with him forever.
                   Eight came and everyone packed up and left. One of the teachers there, who was a catholic mother, like my mom, hooked me up with all these leftovers from the buffet tables. Not only was I entertained at the picnic, but I got to take home all this yummy food for my barren pantry. Kickass, eh? Having head-injuries can really pay off sometimes, hehe.

                   Before she left, she told me to be careful and to "stay clean." Something tells me that she knew I was stoned the whole time. I didn’t care too much.

                   My ex-girlfriend and I got in some stupid argument and she made me give her my copy of her apartment key, for some reason. She told me, "I don’t have a copy of your key, you shouldn’t have one of mine." I don’t know what got into her, she’s lived with me for over four years. You think she would trust me a little better. The only reason she didn’t have a copy of mine was because I had just moved in and the leasing office lady had given me the master-key that would open any vacant apartment there(told you she was cool). The maintenance dudes hadn’t made me a key yet, since I moved in so quick.

                   Chasity and I walked to bus stop by the zoo entrance and waited. We caught the same route, the one we had ridden there and rode it for a while. We were aiming for the park where we caught the same bus on our way to the picnic. I asked the driver if we had past it yet and he told me that he didn’t go to it on this trip. Unbeknownst to me, the bus alternates with another route so we were on the wrong bus. We noticed this still downtown, so we got off the bus and walked a couple blocks to a stop where we would wait for the one bus that would take us all the way home.
                   I offered my ex-girlfriend the chance to just come home with me because since I had moved, I took the bed and she had been sleeping on the floor with pillows and blankets. She reminded me that our dog, Stuart would be at her apartment alone, and she had to work tomorrow morning. As we waited for that bus, I looked around downtown and was amazed at how cool it was. I’ve lived here since I was three and I had always hated downtown because I tend to stay away from crowds. It was a weekday night however, so there weren’t that many people out and about. Now I think downtown is rad. I might move downtown one of these days. It would be ultra-convenient bus-wise and the buses run all the time downtown and cover like a hundred percent of it.
                   The bus eventually arrived and we got on it. While we were on the bus, I recognized this girl I had talked to yesterday. I remembered she was only sixteen years old. I had seen her kissing on some dude at the bus stop and I struck up a conversation with her. I asked her, "How old is your boyfriend?" She replied, "Twenty two." I was like, "Damn, that’s some risky business, how long have you two been together?" She said, "Oh, about eight months." I then asked, "Were you fifteen and he twenty one when you got together?" She answered yes. I told her, "I don’t see anything wrong with that, if you two have been together for that long and you know you can trust each other, who gives a shit how old you are?"
                   Ah, air conditioning is nice, especially when you don’t have to pay for it. We got to my ex-girlfriend’s stop and she got off, after giving me a hug and saying bye. Originally I had planned to go to her house, blow up this pool-mattress we had bought a while back, so she could sleep on something soft. After blowing up the mattress I wanted to jog home(about five miles). I didn’t want to sleep on the floor that night, especially when I have a comfortable California-king-size bed at home. I have been meaning to start jogging again anyway, even though all the walking I do riding the bus keeps me pretty active, so it wasn’t a big deal to me. She kind of got offended that I wanted to go through all the trouble of jogging home than to just stay at her place, but I told her it’s what I wanted to do, "There’s a method to my madness." Hehe.
                   I had considered jogging from her apartment to mine, but as we neared her stop it just dawned on me that the bus I was on was going to go my old work, which is like a twenty minute walk to my apartment, so I decided to stay on the bus. I got off and began to walk all along with three HEB bags of food I had gotten from the picnic. I stopped at the gas-station on the corner and used the payphone. I called this dude, Waylon, who lived nearby, to see if he wanted to hang out and check out all the shit I had on my computer. He didn’t answer so I said forget it and walked home.

                   That pretty much wraps it up for today, it’s 2:04am and I am tired. I have a four-day weekend. No head-injury bullshit tomorrow and we don’t have to go Monday either due to Memorial Day(I think). Time to relax. Ahhhhhh, Okay, I’m going to smoke one last cigarette before I crash. Peace.

Next day..