MY LIFE - JUNE 1999

Monday, June 21, 1999

You know you're going to have a good day at work when 45 minutes into your shift, a customer has already swore at you. You just know that the day is going to be a good one when people purposely wait for you to come in so that they can take their break, a break that should've been taken an hour before I even arrived. You know that the day is going to be a good one when the associate you have to work with all night is sick and cranky, in addition to being a strange person.

Welcome to my day at work. It was an interesting one. First things first, a customer comes in with seven prescriptions that he wants to pay for ahead of time. He doesn't actually intend to pick the medications up at that point in time. He just wants to pay for them now and let someone else pick them up later. We're really not supposed to do that simply because we can't ring a prescription out without an rx number, which we cannot get until we put the actual prescription in. That doesn't persuade him. In fact, after telling him that, he says to tell the pharmacist (who was Steve tonight) that he wants to pay in advance and that he doesn't have time "for this bullshit" as he put it. Steve told him the same thing. He said we had done it before, prompting me to wonder how.

In any case, Jenny came back from her break so I high-tailed it out of there. I really wanted nothing to do with anything that happened from that point on. That's the other thing though. Jenny worked a 12-5 shift. Usually, people on that shift take their break at 2 or 2:30pm. Apparently, Mike has been either making them wait until I get in or has been crying so much, they figure they'll just wait for me since I don't usually say much. Either way, I told Mike that there's nothing wrong with him covering a 15 minute break and that I'm not exactly pleased with coming in and covering breaks right away. I never had to cover a break for someone working 12-5 before because they usually took their break before I came in. Now all of a sudden, break time's been moved and I seriously think Mike's behind it. He feels since he has to ring in the morning that he shouldn't have to cover a break and that he'll just tell those working that shift to wait for me. Thanks Mike. I appreciate it.

Schumacher was in another great mood tonight as well, so there was a lot of crabbiness going on today. Steve and I would ask him something, but wouldn't get much of an answer out of him. Apparently we aren't good enough for him to communicate with. So I shot him with a squirt gun. I just had to see how much his hair would absorb anyway. Let me describe his hair. Think Vanilla Ice in the early 90s without the gel and hairspray and you have Shoe, as we call him. His hair looks so ridiculously funny, you can't help wonder what the hell happened. It also tempts you to see how absorbent it is as well. Which I did. Several times lately too. I never thought that anyone's hair could be compared to a sponge, but his can. It's kind of weird.

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I'm growing again. I must have grown about 3 or 4 inches within the last six months because I'm getting to be a good four or five inches taller than my dad when before I was only a inch or so taller. I hate the pain associated with growing too. There's really nothing you can do to get rid of it, and it hurts pretty badly sometimes. I've been getting it frequently too, which means that I'm not imagining things when it seems that I'm a little taller than I was before. For a while it seemed like it was just my right leg that was growing though. I was beginning to think that maybe I was going to be a bit lopsided, that I would look weird walking because I'd be slanting towards my left.

That fear has now been alleviated with the fact that it's my left leg that hurts like hell from this growth spurt. Why did I have to be such a late bloomer anyway? It seems that only now I'm finally starting to get my development underway with my facial coming back more frequently and in more areas than before. I knew I was behind most everyone else, but it's been ridiculous. Sure, I'm around average height, but other areas haven't exactly been developing very quickly.

It seems that the rest of my body has decided to fill-out all of a sudden. It's been interesting so far, so I imagine it's only going to get to be more of an adventure down the road.

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Jennifer e-mailed me the other night and among other things, said that she felt that I worried way too much about everything. In a sense, she's right. There are a lot of things that I do worry about, usually the little stuff that really doesn't need to be worried about anyway. I can't remember if that's what I said (chances are, I'll probably say something here that I should've, but didn't, mention in my last e-mail; my apologies), but it's how I feel. I do worry about some things a lot, but a lot of it is justified. Not fully, but at least somewhat by what I've been through in my life. Not always disclosing things to people, not always being able to trust people, that comes from a life where I've found myself being mistreated for saying too much or trusting people too much. I will for the most part say what I feel, but it doesn't always come out right. I have a way of garbling things that's unmatched by any other human alive, and part of it's my speech impediment, the other part is my inability to find the right word at times.

I do have a slight speech impediment. I stutter, sometimes very badly. It does create some very funny situations, usually after I take the stutter and turn it into complete nonsense before starting over, but it can make explaining things difficult. There are some words that I just cannot get past without stuttering a couple times, and that immediately takes away part of the meaning of what I'm trying to say. This hasn't been a very big problem since most people tend to notice it right away when talking with. I really can't always speak clearly, and that's made things interesting.

My other problem is finding the right word. I'm really good at not being able to think of the word that I need to say and even better at finding a word that makes what I'm saying sound really stupid. I not only can't find the word I need, I can't even find a similar word or comparable word that might help me out. Instead, I tend to find the word that makes absolutely no sense at all, or I just can't finish my thought and the other person thinks I'm an idiot. Or I say the wrong thing and end up in a fairly complicated mess. I'm really good at saying the wrong thing. If it were a profession, I'd probably be champ since I'm so good at it. This may sound like I'm bashing myself, and in part you're right. But it's also the truth. I just cannot talk sometimes.

I can usually get myself off the hook, but not always. So far, I haven't said something so bad that a person has hated me, but nor have I really said anything that's made someone think the world of me consistently. It's also probably why I botch jokes too. Nothing ruins a good joke more than someone not being able to tell it, and that's something I'm really good at too. It isn't the biggest problem of my life, but it doesn't always help me either.

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I think all of Cleveland got a major scare last night when Tribe slugger Manny Ramirez was hit by a pitch on his knuckle. You could practically hear the entire city stop breathing as we all waited to see if the team's offensive leader was seriously injured or not. You could probably also hear the sigh of relief when he got back up and trotted to first and the bigger sigh of relief when it was disclosed that it was just a bruised finger and that he was day to day. Even the ESPN announcers showed concern over it. The Indians then proceeded to just absolutely beat up the Seattle Mariners, 13-5 as they just beat up the Seattle pitching staff. The starter for the Mariners saw his Earned Run Average go up by about 2.3 runs, from 3.05 to 5.40.

Some notes from last night's game...How about the fan who dove and missed the foul ball in the left field stands, winding up on his back on the field after hitting the railing and doing a 180° somersault in the air? ESPN showed that particular segment about four times, and announcers Jon Miller and Joe Morgan kept poking fun at the guy. The cameras also focused on him several other times, as Miller and Morgan took additional shots. It was the funniest thing I'd seen in a long time...Great comment from Morgan on ball misplayed by the Mariner's pitcher in the game last night. After Miller remarked that they were watching the replay in slow motion, Morgan came back with "It was hit in slow motion." Kudos to Joe for that one...The Indians scored 10 or more runs for the 14th time this year...The Mariners have scored 10 or more runs and lost five times...Indians' lefty Ricky Rincone had gone 10 1/3 innings without allowing a run, but has allowed six runs and three home runs in his last 1 1/3 innings pitched.

Now, onto tonight's game. Bartolo Colon probably threw his best game, going 7 and 2/3 innings, allowing just two runs on five hits, two walks, and five strikeouts. He should've gotten the win and not allowed a run at all, but the bullpen couldn't close out the deal for him, giving up two base hits to score three runs, which gave the Mariners a brief 3-2 lead. I say brief because the Mariner bullpen returned the favor, walking the tying run in with the bases loaded in the eighth inning. The Indians later won the game when former Indian Jose Mesa threw a wild pitch with the bases loaded in the bottom of the 12th inning, giving the Indians a 4-3 win. And now...

Tribe Watch '99

Tonight's game
Seattle, 3
Cleveland, 4 (12)

Record as of June 21
46-21, best in baseball by a long shot.