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5-20-02 // 9.17 am we are all made of stars Back at work, guzzling coffee and modifying stored procedures. This has been a bit of a jarring re-entry into the working week, as I was accosted by my supervisor the moment I walked in the door and given more tasks to complete. I mean, yeah, that's what they pay me for, but at least wait till I've grabbed a cup of caffeine. Saturday night was the mini-mini-break to Quincy. Have you ever had one of those days where just about everything you try your hand at just seems to not work out the way you planned it? This was the kind of evening I was having. The driving route I decided on ended up being full of passes over rickety river bridges and long stretches of dark, empty, creepy two lane highways. The hotel I'd booked turned out to be not particularly soundproof, plus the people in the next room kept shouting. At one point we think the guy threw the girl he was with up against the wall. At some point, our annoyance at the noise changed over to fear for what was going to happen next. So we alerted the front desk of what was going on, and left for a different hotel. Got to the new hotel (much nicer, quieter, and more soundproof...thankfully), and after a bit of paperwork type stuff, the guy working the front desk told me that my debit card had been declined. At this point my head was just throbbing. Erin had already gone up to the room, so I called up there and told her I was going in search of an ATM to figure out what was going on with my account. Found a terminal and discovered that my bank had not, in fact, credited my checking account with the money I put in there Friday. Normally I wouldn't be so angry, but the clerk assured me that this money would be in there, plus I had a receipt stating my new, pumped-up account balance. So I withdrew what was left in my account from pre-deposit...that, along with what cash I had left in my wallet (plus ten bucks I had to get from Erin) was just enough to pay for the new room. So yeah, all that left us with like 15 bucks until we got back to St. Louis. It was like midnight before we even got to sit down and eat the cold pizza/hot wings/sandwich I'd ordered at the first, murder-y hotel. Oh, and in the morning, we couldn't find the Jesus Tree or the weird Valentines museum. We drove around and saw no sign of either. I dunno, I just wanted things to be perfect, I wanted the mini-mini-break to be especially relaxing for Erin, considering she had an extremely long, tiring week. We managed to have a great time in the moments where the insanity died down a bit. The drive there and the one back were particularly smile-inducing. I like that we can just sit there, hand in hand, and not say a word for about 10 miles...and not have to say anything, you know? We also had some really great conversation on the way up, in the creepy perpetual dusk. And being able to fall asleep with my arms around her, and wake up with her curled up against me? Absolutely perfect. It was just a great weekend, in general. The weather was nasty Friday night but it didn't matter, we kept each other warm and smiling. Saturday and Sunday afternoons, just being with her, hanging out in the city, shopping, playing Nintendo, going to diners, laying underneath a blanket on John's trampoline. Everything...just incredible. Around 11 o'clock last night, I just wanted to rewind the past few days, and start over on Friday evening with seeing Erin's car pull up in front of my house. So yeah...I planned the worst trip ever. But I hope I made up for it otherwise. Now I should get back to work. Not that I particularly want to do so.
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