"why is that funny, mr. iworkinacemetarywithdeadpeopleinsteadofbringpeoplethejoyoffajitas?"

update to entry @ 3:03 a.m.

saw Troy with aric jen ant shannon and erin it wasnt's too bad but it was long enough 2 hrs 40 minutes jeez. then we came to my basement where katie r was over for a little while and kristi andrea and stubbs were last to go. we all played bandu together what fun. it was fun watching ren and stimpy and girls gone wild info-mercials, too. night i'm sleeping in this morning yes!

--nate

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gonna just get this down fast i want to get down what's been happening the last few days...

my dad carries floss with him in his jeans pocket. hah!

wednesday: cemetery day 2

notes in no particular order (boringer than usual, because of the amount of time i have to write *sad face*) -

the crew consists of jerry (44 yrs), dave (since bruce gowdy worked there), tony (25; should double check these #s), lonnie (15), jim (6), ryan (4), geoff (4), stubbs (2), ant, randall, louie (first day is going to be monday), heather (2 or 3? eventually coming in), richard (cool black dude but he quit today, ant said he talked with him for like an hour the other day), and me (2)

with ryan's 4 yrs cemetery experience he is getting an internship at the 4th-largest cemetery in the country in indy it looks like. he is a die-hard republican and keeps teasing me randall and ant for being liberals. he said to jerry the foreman, "jerry, i don't think you know what's happening out here." ... jerry: "i don't think if i did you'd be out here." ... "ha, i don't think if you knewhat was going on you'd be out here."

all day we poured cement foundations for stones and did that til 2 skipping lunch, longest i've worked straight at that job.

it was ant's 1st day in; he needed help with the punch-card system lol..."how do i do this? i've never used one?" ahha i remember saying that. it was a good opportunity for him to meet everyone, working in a group the whole day and all. the guys razzed "the new kid" about having to bring in donuts and pizza for us.

i've picked up on jerry and dave calling each other nicknames. dave calls dave wilbur, and jerry calls dave (damn i can't think of it!), and lonnie they call him clyde?

what a boring cemetery day 2 post. to enliven it, i'll include ryan's nicknames of fill in the blank: flap snot, pink velvet sausage wallet, clam's beard (the bad omen kinda).

memorial's jazz cafe

shannon and erin took me out thus saving me from nothing-going-on wednesday. lonnie waggoner can play the trumpet! bobby malicoat winked at me, during the gold rush singers' set. sat in between shannon and erin and beccy took care of the popcorn, shannon bought me mountain dew woo! ryan meisner is a super rad memorial sophomore. a girl was trying to get him and me to dance during the Dancing Men song hahaha. tony called while ant katie r lonnie shannon erin beccy meisner and i were all hanging around in the school's cafeteria (the show's setting) and was singing over the celly, "i'm a little teapot..." - kids thought he sounded drunkish.

beccy let me drive her volvo (i have a soft spot for driving volvos woo ;p) and we raced (and beat!) shannon and erin to a closed ritter's ice cream. shopped around finally found taco bell and got tacos after 11 because starting that day that taco bell is open 24 hrs. beccy is shannon's friend. she is offbeat funny and artsey, likes pots, can stretch gymnastics-ish but didn't, and she was distracted from her homework.

thursday: cemetery day 3

thusday, if i had written before now, i would've had the time to elaborate on the art of punch cards and their do's and don't's; deciding with ant and randall that law school for us is about becoming environmental policy lawyers; all jim's crew (him stubbs and geoff) ever hears about is jim whining about lonnie, and how thursday jerry and dave helped the prairie st catch up on! dave mowed and jerry spun, haha tho i'm positive he doesn't know how to string the spinner (a weedwhacker) himself; they talked back at the break room how "gowdy was spinning so fast i was keeping up with the dave on the mower" lol; i've been spelling kristi (with an i) wrong, lonnie was driving us in the truck with tony's hip-hop station playing it was fucking hilarious; dean shirley the foreman before jerry of 25 yrs was in the office and asked if i was bruce's kid....boring (not the job itself!), but shorter.

NIC track meet

before going to see brent and the central guys run, had to travel to sb with dad to take my honda with bad brakes to richey's and he is on a weezer kick and in the car he fingers the guitar tablature to parts in the songs lol (picture it, guys - bruce gowdy...), then we got expensive gas at 7-eleven, then stopped at home and had volcano's, then ran him over to lauren's band concert at pm, then i made it to penn for the meet in time for brent's 800...he loooked tired and didn't do so hot. i'm thinking a 2:08, god he's faster than that. disappointing, but nice sitting with his parents and gparents and talking with jeff morningstar about him and seevs' drug tests for nibco and how thosewent. if you think about it, it cost like $3 in gas just going to penn. Dad's truck's (what he calls his van) tank costed (bad tense lol) $44 to fill.

thursday night

fun fun. first seevs came over. kurz was bored so told him to come. then beccy was at the back door. before we knew it, shannon lindsay danielle (all next-year's iu-ers) tony stubbs mikey graber aric and jen were parked at gage st, here in the basement - Dad calls it "nate's hotel." we had fun just chillin' haha. made ice cream, sat on the butt-grooves bench, danielle is really nice girl, lindsay thought a mexican on a tramp was funny stuff, did stubbs wear a bandana?, tony was all about the grapples (apples bred with grapes) but thru away a fatty snack aww, got to see beccy's art notebook woo with vagana's in it!, shannon is booby-touchable, kurz had swim stories lol, seevs played video games talked of going to see his gf in indy today and how he bonded with his dad over failing his drug test because his fake piss was too hot ("kid, your piss's on fire!") and beccy gave him a thc-peepee tester what a happy kid he was.

midnight people started making exits and grabes mikey beccy and me we had fun in "the treehouse" in the backyard - mikey's immune to pot lol but he makes good jokes, grabes talking about how drugs happen and beccy saying she didn't care it's a time when you can act stupid and really be stupid. i dunno what all i said (but know what it was about!) i was talking a lot though. i was "over" as hunter said and ant likes to, and with beccy it up in the treehouse was the darn'dest thing when her phone rang hahaha it was like a wake-up call or something; forgot everything being talked about at the moment without realizing what the subject had just been. so, the guys left (after grabes sprayed febreeze frickin' everywhere!) the girl went to sb kinda too bad high together is much more fun than high alone and me and seevs sat there on the brown-striped couch staring for awhile. seevs is great and here's to him being a great guy. i wish i would've listened to him more he had good things to say i was preoccupied mostly with this...

the heat of the moment of getting LOLLAPALOOZA TICKETS (a show i'll admit to going to) with stubbs and louie for CHEAP $53 two-day session at tinley park chicago july 29 y 30, and with lives-in-western-suburb-of-chicago ellen from iu (woo!) and her friend. don't know where we're staying that night might will probably camp out - doesn't really matter just want to be at the concert. it's okay ellen and friend are camping girls! YAY SUMMER FUN!!

ANNND...the cure live in chicago august 12 with muse mogwai and interpol. louie really definitely wants to get to that concert with me. ellen, her too, to the concert.

louie's gonna bring the mogwai album plus 2 ep's to work with him, and ant his pictures from our loyola trip, one greaty with vanessa ellen (kt's roommate this time) and mwa.

friday: cemetery day 4

not much to say really...was tired it rained on and off and after spinning in the rain (i'd rather rain over muggy sunny heat weather any day), and the temp dropped 25 degrees in 30 minutes, and lonnie remarked how he'd pick randall and i over "any of those other guys" as far as work ethic. we must've spun with a little help from jerry nearly half the cemetery this morning it was exciting. i'm on a mower monday!! hhaa moving up the cemetery hierarchy heh.

right now, listening to pumpkins' machina II don't know if it's a real album or ripped compilation or what. tony's drunk right after work it's just what egginks do get two cases and drink them down. stubbs is making the ticket transaction right now, too! 15%-ghetto ant is picking me up with shannon and erin to meet jen and aric and a bunch of people to see brad pitt with no pants on in the movie Troy woo. mike says 4 or 5 of us can drink at thomas' tonight. don't know how things will go but it's friday night people be happy!!

--nate

tony's been drinking...

Eggheadfourlife: hey i have to shower, then we will see
runnastud03: fine
Eggheadfourlife: dont try to fine me
runnastud03: ok
Eggheadfourlife: i dont have the money

chicks come and go she says

imlniu (ellen): chicks may come and go, but david bowie is forever.
imlniu: always remember that.
runnastud03: thats Awwesome magazine awesome
runnastud03: hahha ill try
runnastud03: you can play with girls once in a while but you can play david bowie anytime

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Saturday, May 15, 2004
Wednesday-Friday: An Update

I haven’t updated since I started my cemetery job. With waking up early, working (sort of) all day, and trying to get to bed at a reasonable time, blogging just hasn’t been first on my list. But it’s Saturday now and I have some time. I made it up before 1pm today woo and I thought it best to lay this it all out here.

My job is really fun. I don’t know how else to put it. I’m getting paid to work hard sometimes, others I’m getting paid to wash cars, change light bulbs, watch TV, and play Uno. Unlike the previous jobs I’ve had, I like nearly everyone on the crew. And those that I haven’t particularly taken to, I don’t have to see them. I work at Rice Cemetery which is the headquarters basically, where everyone comes back to for break/lunch/clocking in and out. My TEAM LEADER is Ryan Peterson, a Memorial grad who I knew of in high school. I also work with Jeff Schofield, also a Memorial grad (Gowdy’s the only central rep) and he’s pretty quiet which is nice when it’s time to get down to business. I also worked with Richard on my first and second day, but he has since quit. I’m not sure why, Kristi thought maybe it had something to do with back problems, but I don’t think that was it.

I talked to Richard for a long time on Thursday during and after washing the cemetery car. He was asking me about movies I liked and all sorts of other things. Everyone assumed he was quiet and didn’t fit in. But I think he could have if he would have given himself a little bit more time to feel comfortable around everyone. He really is very smart, his vocabulary particularly impressed me. At one point he said to me. “I’ve always liked that movie The Beach, with Leonardo DiCaprio. I mean, it’s not greatly made, but visually it’s beautiful. I’ve always had this interesting infatuation with deserted islands, and I think I live vicariously through those types of films.” It’s too bad he quit so early.

I got the new kid treatment from everyone the first two days, and none by Friday. Louie will be around soon, so he can get some of that. It doesn’t bother me in the least being picked on by those guys. I kind of feel like if no one says anything to you, they don’t really care about you. Like McCasland always said to me in Chemistry, “I only make fun of the people I like.” Another thing I’ve picked up on about these guys is they’ll argue and get you going for the pure sake of arguing and getting you going. Ryan cares no more that I’m a Democrat than I do that he’s a Republican. And when he says things, by my nature it really gets me going and I want to say something back. But I refrain because I look at my intentions. And when he’s making a crack about my liberalness, it’s to get a rise/response out of me. And me coming back with something thus far hasn’t been to get the same reaction from him, but rather to prove why I think I’m right, which no one really wants to hear. One of these times I’ll have some stereotypical tongue in cheek response to throw back at him, but so far it hasn’t come around.

The first day of work I spent the first hour down at the Municipal Building filling out tax forms. Work starts at 7:30; Municipal Building doesn’t open until 8. By time I filled out the forms, drove back to the cemetery and met up with Jerry and Dave, it was getting close to first break. Jerry introduced himself to me in the professional foreman way, rubbing his dirty hand on his shirt and then offering it to me and calling himself Gerald, which no one except Vicky from the office calls him. He and Dave asked me where I went to school and if I was a friend of Gowdy’s. I told them yes and they told me they wouldn’t hold it against me. I told Jerry I was living with Gowdy and Stubbs next year and he said, “Oh that damn Gowdy’s just like a clown I swear.”

It was neat having my first cemetery experience by watching/helping Jerry dig a grave, clearing the sod from the top, watching Dave dig the hole, and then Jerry throwing a ladder down the hole to smooth out the side walls. With each step down, Jerry seemed to shove the ladder further and further into the soft ground before hopping off and knocking dirt, exposing the foundation of the grave next to it. Dave (probably the nicest guy of everyone) told me about testing for where the foundation of the of the adjacent grave is and how you only get to have about two inches between one grave and the next, which makes using the back hoe a real art. He asked me about previous jobs I’ve had, how I looked familiar because he shops at North Pointe Martin’s, and wondering if I knew his son Andy. It was nice having someone be so interested so early on in the game. When it was break time, which came really suddenly, Jerry took me up to the break room and I experienced the first real atmosphere of all these guys together.

The first break actually became lunch because we had to pour concrete in foundations for the rest of the day at Prairie and back at Rice, so we wouldn’t have the time to be coming back for lunch. Everyone seems so interested in what everyone else is eating, making comments about Lonnie’s smoked sausages, Ryan’s hot pockets, or Randall’s rye bread. Randall has the unfortunate (or fortunate) situation of having a mom who has the homemaking skills of Martha Stewart. A standard PBJ doesn’t really exist in the Monger household, and comments about Randall’s homemade Rye Bread Sandwiches made me laugh just thinking about his mom meticulously making his lunch for him.

The rest of the day was long, taking wheelbarrows of cement and dumping them in holes for the rest of the day. It wasn’t hard work, just the kind of work that makes you check your watch. But in-between loads, everyone talked and had a good time. It was probably the last time the whole crew would be working together and it was fun. You got razzed if all your cement didn’t make it in the hole, if you went out of order, or if you couldn’t maneuver your wheelbarrow up a hill. Ryan and Geoff were the jokers of the day, picking on everyone, including our choice of music and political affiliation. Ryan overheard us talking about Environmental Policy Law and he called us on our liberalness and Tony the gravedigger said something about being tree huggers. I pondered what a black man was doing siding with conservatives, but maybe he isn’t political. Geoff made comments about John Mayer and Dave Matthews and I also pondered what he and Ryan listened to in terms of music. I found out the next day. While riding in Ryan’s car over to the Mausoleums he was blaring rap music and I was like “Ah, so this is why they have qualms with Dave.”

After finishing with foundations around 1:30 we basically sat around in the break room and did nothing. I tried sleeping a little, we talked about the differences between Memorial and Central and when clock out time came, everyone lined up just as Gowdy put it in the story and my first day was over. I went to Gowdy’s after work and he read Rolling Stone while I read his journal. We ate chips and dip and he made Lemon Lime Drink that Pranav gave him down at IU. It tasted pretty awful. I left for dinner after a while and then called Katie and we went to Jazz Café to hear Lonnie.

Lonnie and his dad played together as has been done in the past and his dad sang and that was awesome. I felt a little weird being there at first. When I approached DL he said to me “Hey, welcome back. Thanks for coming to Jazz Café or as we like to call it, Alumni Night.” I didn’t talk to him much, because we were already 25 minutes late so we found a spot and chilled. I saw so many great people that I hadn’t missed but feel like I’m missing now, including Trevor and Drew Lundberg, Ms. Harrington, Lonnie’s dad, DL and Mr. Wade, Kyle, and Jo. Meisner was in his usual form, doing the Armadillo movements for Katie. Alex has a girlfriend! It makes me so happy; it’s like when nice guys don’t finish last. He’s my favorite underclassmen. He’s the type of guy that comes to your grad party and stays. I want to hang out with him this summer. At one point Ed came up to Brit, Alex, Katie, Meisner and I and said “Hey Alex, the sooner you clean up the sooner you guys can fuck.” And Meisner was like “Hey Anthony! Did you hear that, the sooner we clean up the sooner we can fuck!” I like high school kids haha.

Katie and I left everyone after Gowdy was driving Beccy’s Volvo around and after I had a thumb war with Brit. She’s undefeated. We didn’t do too much the rest of the night as I got funky, rehashing past things that I thought I was over but I’m not. They’ve since been resolved in my head though, and I’m glad things don’t tend to eat at me for too long.

I was up late Wednesday talking to Collin of all people online (don’t worry, no more drama) and so I was dead tired when I woke up to go to work. We spun in the rain on Thursday and between Richard, Schofield, Ryan and I we got a lot of stuff done and worked our tails off until break. It’s kind of exhilarating when you’re spinning in the pouring rain. You’re just spinning as fast as possible to get the section done so you can take shelter. We did that both Thursday and Friday. I can’t remember too many exciting things about Thursday except that I saw a Mausoleum for the first time and we talked about the bugs in there, how Ryan likes the air freshener smell and Richard and I washing the Cemetery car. We got out of an afternoon of spinning because of the rain and we spent that time in the break room again, supposedly waiting for it to clear, but everyone really knew we were just waiting for 4 o clock.

After work I went to Katie’s and we stayed around the house, not doing much. Tony and Stubbs came over for a while so Tony could surprise Meredith before she went to work. After they left Katie and I watched David Letterman (only about the second time we’ve watched TV together) and I went home a little after 12. My self appointed curfew is somewhere between 11 and 12 because I have to get sleep in order to make it to work by 7:30.

Work Friday was similar to work Thursday except when the rain came it came hard. We had four rows left to spin when the rain came pouring down in huge drops. I watched Schofield chuck his spinner in the rain because it ran out of gas just as the rain fell and so it was Ryan and I finishing up the last rows. Ryan was laughing menacingly while he was spinning and I was just going as fast as I could. It was a moment, something where if I were making a movie or writing a story, I’d make it the opening scene. After we finished the three of us walked back up to the building as a dry Kristi watched us approvingly from the porch, trying to somehow relate to us being soaked. Schofield and I hung our hats on the rack and water dripped from them all afternoon.

Earlier in the day we put on safety vests and spun out by the statue and the Boulevard, which hasn’t been done all spring. The grass by the fence was pretty high, and it seems the higher the grass the faster the time goes while spinning. When you’re spinning down in the dirt with little weeds, a row can seem endless because the progress is so much less rewarding than stones with twenty four inches of weeds around them.

We also spun around the Mausoleum’s for a funeral out in one section back there (I don’t know section numbers yet) and also out by Section 14 for a baby’s funeral scheduled for today. They told us the grave was in Section 2 and we walked up and done that section looking before Ryan checked the paper and realized it was actually section 14. In the break room Dave told us about how the lady was bitching about the headstone being crooked and dirty when she looked at it. Ryan put the headstone on the foundation and his cleaning it consisted of wiping the stone with his dirty gloves. When we went back out, Dave and Jerry were righting our wrong, cleaning the headstone with water and getting the grass/dirt around it in proper order. The rest of the day I played Uno with Stubbs, Geoff, Ryan and Randall. I never won, but it was a ton of fun. It’s great being out at the cemetery, and getting paid for it. I’m not sure how else I can say it.

Last night I went to Troy with Jen, Aric, Gowdy, Shannon and Erin. Erin, Shannon and I grabbed Wendy’s beforehand and then grabbed Gowdy. I saw Alex again at the movie and when I went to the bathroom and he was standing at the urinal I said, “Hey Alex, you ready to see Brad Pitt naked?!” and he replied, “Oh you know it, that’s why I’m getting it all out now so I don’t have to leave halfway through and miss anything.” The movie was just okay, a little long, but it was something to do. After the movie we went to Gowdy’s hotel and Katie came over. The latter part of the night was eeee. That’s all I’m saying.

The blog kind of puttered out at the end here…sorry about that. But anyway, I’ll update a little more often and catch everyone when I can. Have fun and enjoy the nice weekend.

::posted by Anthony Catalino 5/15/2004 02:18:04 PM

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