LAST MONDAY-THIS WEDNESDAY, FO SHO!!!

the journal is updated woo yeh-ah how awesome SIGN THE GUESTBOOK, IT'S BEEN A LONG TIME NO SIGN!

[ant's writing in italics; mine's straight up]

monday after work, andrea called and said she'd help clean my room up and it was such a good idea. i felt like asking, "do you really want to?" but would she ask if she didn't want to? one of the bowers twins was out on the porch with lauren and i clued them in to my plans for the night-having a girl over because she offered to help clean! bowers whispers to lo, "i never knew cleaning could be so dirty."

anyways, andrea made her way over and so did tony and matt, too, to watch. she did so much and it was nice of her one of the nicest things a girl's (anyone's) done for me. we were all worn out by the time the room was spotless, and so i drove matt tony and her over "the hump" behind ramada because it's our thing. everyone got hand-me-downs for the occasion that they've worn since, and really i wanted to thank andrea (Mom nagged me each day of the week to do something for her - a movie, out to eat, "you could even call it a date, nate," she said one morning; she's funny). called her the night of to thank her and the week has since slid on. i thought it was a bizarre dynamic cleaning the basement with three friends but, bottom line: room got cleaned!

tuesday night i over-slept the choir concert with the franz ferdinand album playing. later than never, ant headed on over because i'd wanted to talk to him and nick and tony also came over. we weren't up to much, but it was an alright time woo. kicked off a nighttime away message theme: "IN BED WITH MY BLOW-UP DOLL YEA."

wednesday at the cemetery:" I guess I’ll start out with cemetery highlights. This past week was supposedly our most hardcore of the summer as it was the week leading to Memorial Day. I think this past week was probably the easiest we’ve had. Sure we worked hard Monday and Tuesday, but Wednesday we spent half the day at the Elkhart Municipal Airport doing the easiest spinning I’ve ever done. They ended up giving us a pizza party for lunch and when we finished with that we helped Stubbs out at Grace Lawn for the rest of the day.

Gowdy and I walked out to the approach lights at the airport on Wednesday to spin but found only rocks and three feet of weeds. I mentioned that I’ve seen that field my whole life but never walked in it, and probably never would again. The Grace Lawn truck was leaking fluid at the airport. Ryan rambled on and on about the airport employees huffing gas all day long, a tank for the jets, a tank for the employees. The airport manager was very professional about his job leading us to “taxiway bravo 3047-niner” It’s the Elkhart airport, just point and say, go to that one, left or right. We were the airport bitches really, spinning around buildings, fences and hangers. Kristi told us our job was important, a matter or security and safety. Yeah, don’t want any Coachmen CEO’s tripping on weeds on their way to their jets. It was fun though, a day away from the cemetery. Of course we related it to the sitcom, an on-location shoot. "

wednesday evening, nick and i made it out to graber and kurz's senior band concert. andrea and kristi sat with and they got in at the student rate of $1.00 and they had a lot of fun with it - if they can have that much fun at a high school band concert think how much fun they'd be at a real concert! looked andrea's way and said, "wow, whenever i think of jazz i'll think of you two doing that [they were acting like they were turned on]; jazz equals..." and she nods, "yeah, naked." hugged lindsey huang at intermission and she put it in her diary; it was cute! graber is a stupendous dulcimer player in fact the only one i've ever heard. kurz's solo consisted of him setting up the ol' dulcimer, and did we cheer!

the second set, the jazz band was amazing! the trumpets were amazing; no high school trumpet section or player i've ever heard compares to seth and those kids together. after the concert, the girls left without saying goodbye; i'm a goodbye person no doubt so it bothered me. it was strange, and kurz said it all, "they disappeared like a fart in the wind."

got to see tony matt and julia from germany (she was visiting; we made her and neva's year last year in may! and she is amazing pretty.) after wtaching the pacers lose to detroit and sacked out to Boondock Saints, a movie with tony and them at eggink's. picked up a cool word for dubya in the movie - "fuckass," ha! at one point julia asked what a dreamboat was when it was used in the movie and matt goes, "and so it begins," as far as having to explain to her american slang words.

thursday at the cemetery:" Thursday the Rice Crew managed to get all our spinning done by 1:35 so in words of Ryan we “beat our cocks until 4 o clock.” "

thursday night was phil's bonfire! i carpooled andrea nick tony and stubbs it was a party in gowdy's car! it really got me when, just a little after we'd arrived, phil tackled me from behind, smothering me with a blanket. i only know him so well and it just really got me. tried playing frisbee in the dark just him and me and that was fun. he just stood around it was hard enough for me to get it to him, he had me running the shed's direction a lot, ha. it was his going away until we don't know when.

" People in attendance: Trevor, Drew, Suzy, Krause, Ruthann, Nick, Katie, Amber, Stubbs, Gowdy, Tony, Erin, Charlotte, Kristi, and Andrea. It was good old fashioned fun, Amber brought Rice Crispy Treats and there were Smores and Tony got me on a fake phone call and I juked him out in Frisbee and we tackled each other and Nick, Erin and Katie drove to Edwardsburg in Erin's Jeep, and we recounted job and college stories (Tom even came up!). Tony made a tent over Matt's body and Gowdy and I thought it was Awesome Magazine awesome and jumped in and thought it collapsed. Tony went to 7-11 and bought me a Tollhosue Cookie Candy bar and surprised me and it was oh so good. Matt made a chair sculpture and I bulldozed through it. Katie was making Erin tell her funny stories and they get along really well, both really like each other. Sad to say goodbye to Phil, won't be seeing much of him over the next several years...

friday, upkeep at the cemetery: Friday was my favorite day of work thus far. In the early morning we picked up sticks and emptied trash. Heather finally showed (gowdy joked about her being the only one in the truck with a girlfriend, but get this - they're on a break!) and she worked with our crew for the morning (looks like she’ll be spending most of her time with us). We split into teams and it ended up being Ryan and me doing most of the sticks and Louie, Zack, Heather and Schofield driving around doing trash. Ryan and I get along well; I guess anyone does with him, though. He told me about driving the shit out of the trucks and how the dump truck was his favorite. We were accosted by an angry lady with a dog who asked why the street sweeper was driving around the cemetery while a funeral was occurring. Ryan asked if she was sure there was a service this early in the morning (8:15) and she said she thought so, there were a lot of cars and a hearse. “Is he oblivious?” She asked of the street sweeper. Ryan wasn’t sure how to react, but simply said that we’d check on that. We knew there was no service scheduled for the Friday before Memorial Day and so we cut some limbs with a noisy chainsaw. We ate cake at first break for Jerry’s “Big Dog” Birthday. The cake was awesome and turned our lips and tongues blue. There were pieces left on Tuesday, but they have since been eaten.

We finished most of our work by lunch and celebrated being done with the Memorial Day work by eating Volcano’s pizza and breadsticks as well as peanut butter cookies Ryan baked the night before. The rest of the day was awesome; Geoff and Stubbs found a couch on James St. and brought it into the break room. It was covered in bird shit and smells like smoke, but we got it in livable shape and sprayed it down with Lysol. I’m just hoping it doesn’t have lice. Grace Lawn crew also found a really small bike that needed welding. I think they liked the idea of fixing the bike more than the idea of actually using it. Dave welded it back together for them and Gowdy, Stubbs, and Ryan all rode around on it, looking like apes on a unicycle. Gowdy seemed best at it, but Ryan got the most laughs. He’s a big guy, and big people on little things are funny.

The rest of the day we hung around in the back of Grace Lawn and sat in the trucks. Stubbs, Schofield, Geoff and Ryan did their usual routine which Friday involved using Karate moves on sticks, putting sticks in their pants to look like giant boners, dancing, and throwing rocks at passing trains. I kept my distance in the truck, feeling tired (I never feel as tired as I do when I’m at work) and knowing I couldn’t compete with anything they had up their sleeves, or in their pants. They’re fun to watch, funniest combination of people I think I’ve ever seen.

Late afternoon the Elkhart Truth came out to take pictures at Prairie Street of Gowdy and Randall working but she said she wouldn’t take pictures of them pretending to work. I guess she didn’t get the concept of pretending to work by actually working, like starting the spinners and working. Anyway, she came over to Rice and Zack, Gowdy, Ryan, Schofield and I all spun a small section over and over again hoping to get in the paper. Ryan ended up getting in and our reasoning is that he’s put in four years he deserves it. Kristi let us go ten minutes early Friday and we missed final Jeopardy.

Sounds of the Cemetery: “Would you like an orange?” “No, I’m trying to quit.” “Would you like a Dorrito?” “No, I have to drive later.”

random cemetery factoids: Gowdy, Louie and I felt like Ghostbusters wearing the blower packs on Friday. Lonnie likes to give things to Gowdy. Last week he gave him a Cemetery Dept. Fleece Jacket. John always describes attractive younger girls as “cute as shit.” Lonnie snuck a raw hotdog from the fridge. I even tried to catch him doing it, as he was rummaging through the fridge and I saw him pull it out as he was leaving the break room. He fooled me! Must’ve hid it in his belly. Rice crew got two compliments in one day about how the cemetery looked and John said it was the best spinning job he’d seen since he’d been there. " headstones are 0 to 18 inches in height, whereas larger stones are called monuments. should've seen stubbs' look he gave me when he saw lonnie in the driver's seat of the truck with "she's poison" by bobby brown on 80's flashback. baby black birds are inhabiting the shed at praire street and have shit all over; one landed in the trash can and i had to rescue him! lonnie ran into an old friend of his who was a nazi in wwII and we saw big momma herself at big momma's restaurant lol. dave told me to remember to get to work on time monday (no work monday - monday memorial day).

friday night was at rodino's. went with stubbs, michael jackson, and andrea and had a great time. ryan peterson and geoff rambow (hah, andrea: "who's that guy with his hand in his crotch?") were there rocking their high school letter jackets and who else was there: aj rodino, eric brooks, kristi, and the only other names i remember are bob and brandon, but they were not it. got there and raced andrea in drinking southern comfort with dr pepper. by a time, i was really drunk (way to state the obvious!) and we sat around to ryan's made-for-stubbs-hip-hop mix and a lot of people had taco bell and i beer-bonged a paps blue-ribbon and got in the pool an' played b-ball there was a lot of hand-checking and in the hottub my memory isn't that shabby and i loved how everyone got along resting against each other in the tub! it was very hot, and ryan tells me i refused to get out of the hottub and it took 20 minutes (i don't remember changing back into clothes - it's a wonder i did; i definitely looked down in the morning to see what i had on). he also said i insisted on hugging geoff before he took off earlier in the night. in eric's truck, ryan got us taco bell late and phil, charlotte, erin, and kiran were there - i was excited but no one would let me out of the truck to hug phil. slept in rodino's basement in a recliner, drunk-dialed erin lol, stubbs passed out, and awoke in the morning at 9 a.m. when ryan poured cold water on my face. after so long matt took me to burger king and home.

schofield asked anthony in the truck tuesday, “so how messed up was gowdy?” ryan replied, “he was pretty messed up both nights, we couldn’t even get him out of the hot tub on friday. i was like, ‘gowdy, it’s 3am, you need to get out of the hot tub.’”

SATURDAY WOO!!

ate lunch at michelle's with michelle, seevs, mike, adam, jasmin, casey cox, arin ruble, matt hinman, and heather michelle's mom. i was in a mood that resembled a buzz and cracked jokes while downing michelle's mountain dew - it's been a long time coming (no mountain dew for a year!). jasmin and i liked the cut-up carrots. heather with her arm in a sling rolling brats was haha-look-at-that funny.

" Went to Nate’s early and Mike and Seevs were there and I said “high guys.” Tony and Matt showed and we four guys were real men getting groceries for the party. Bought hotdogs and hamburgers, buns, plates, pop, chips, salsa, ice, good stuff. Came back and set up, moving the antiques and important things out of the way, got chairs set up, did some cleaning. Called Felipe and he was set to come and the people in attendance were: Gowdy, Nick, Tony, Stubbs, Felipe, Erin, Charlotte, Hillary, Katie, Meredith, Dom, Jason F, Liz C, Graber, Kurz, Beccy, Shannon, Jeff, Kiran, Nik, Andrea, Kristi, Ryan p, Ozzie, Julia, Mike, Seevs, Michelle, Louie, Jamien, Lindsey S, Cessna, and Dvynn. Wowowow a lot of people. I didn’t get the opportunity to talk with everyone I wanted to, but it was so much fun. Ryan (who I constantly referred to as “boss” when I introduced him to people) made hilarious observations on Tuesday about all the people he interacted with while at the party. See if you can guess who all the people are based on the descriptions, oh won’t this be fun!

-There was this guy wandering around in a skull helmet all night.
-And then that black girl was kind of passed out on the stairs.
-That kid from Mizzou must’ve told me fourteen times that he was going to see his girlfriend this July in New York or St. Louis or somewhere.
-Oh, and Amy Wyne’s little sister, she was scaring the hell out of me, I had to get away from her, she kept rubbing my shoulder and getting really close and putting her finger in my face.
-You (Anthony) were messed up, but you weren’t half as bad as that Greek kid, I don’t even think he could walk; it was just people carrying him around all night.
-Then there was that guy in the suit, I don’t know where he came from.
-You (Anthony) came up the stairs and first thing you said to me was “Ryan, I vomited on myself!” And I said to you, “Yeah, I was wondering why you were rockin the plaid boxers. I thought you done pissed yoself.”
-You all were hella messed up.

Tony and I were keeping pace with each other, and I kept urging him to drink more and more but he told me that we had all night and to slow up a little, but I didn’t listen and ended up eating too much (blaming the sickness on Matt’s hamburgers just for fun) and smoking too much (never smoke and drink, it makes Gowdy over, it makes me vomit) and drank too much and vomited too much on Tony’s hand and in cups and on the floor and on my pants and eeee. Katie (and Meredith) cleaned up and I slept it off for a while. Woke up and most everyone was gone but chilled with Gowdy, Tony, Nick, Erin and whoever else was around. Shannon was busy upstairs. Jeff was somewhere in there too. Parties are fun and you don’t talk about them more than a couple days after and that’s why you can do ridiculous things. Gowdy was snapping pictures all night [did a picture run]. We had three cases of beer, Jaeger, Rum and Vodka and they were pretty much cleaned out. Not enough people paid for as many that were there and drank but it worked out and everyone ate and had a great time. Everything always manages to be a big blur and that’s the downside about getting drunk, don’t always remember all the fun you had. I guess it’s interesting coming to work after the weekend and having coworkers tell you things you said or did. Gowdy always manages to throw the best get-togethers, however, parents found out about the party and while Gowdy probably wouldn’t have had another one anyway, he’s definitely not having another one now. "

party notes: there's never been that many people at the gowdy residence woo!! charlotte said what i was having was a get-together because a party is where you don't know everyone who comes sleeps over. whoever dumped sprinkles across the counter is a fucking dumbass. tony and i's shot glasses on lanyards were put to use! matt, good-job grilling. bob marley, the cure, and felipe's hip-hop mix were especially played downstairs. nik got the sickest and shared my bed passed out with charlotte and then with an ant wearing my home ec plaid shorts and charlotte's loyola hoody. lots of people threw up (jay called it "the gratuitous substance-induced regurgitation" - he had ant in mind, ha!). felipe wins the award for being the most paranoid but it was great to see him and i danced around in his phat farm sweatshirt but he left it for me to dance in next time! dom came!, and her fam's moving to fort wayne so seeing her many more times might be few and far between. jeez, i hope mike was the highest; their spot is at the side of the porch behind the bush-trees. beccy and kurz got together for the night and shannon, jeff brock - HAHA. ant donned the ross perot "now there's a choice" shirt! i haven't seen tony that drunk since new year's, tony had that smile that never leaves, he fell on us on the couch four too many times..., and wow a lot of people i've never seen them after that many drinks. everyone was safe - dd's all over and tony nick ant erin charlotte jeff and seevs stayed the night, in every bed or mattress. it's the last time, but given the same thing over again, it was worth it, a great time!

early wee hours of sunday I stayed up with Gowdy while he tripped on the pill that I turned down from Mike and we went up in the treehouse. Maybe under normal circumstances I wouldn’t go into such detail about drugs in my blog, but for not being completely sober by that point with Gowdy being pretty messed up it was something that was really memorable for me. I think it was the first time I can think of where I’ve been sober and really felt some sort of understanding and empathy for someone who wasn’t sober. Normally it irritates me to some degree, but not on Saturday. Gowdy was explaining to me what he was feeling. He described it as feeling normal until you stare at something and it starts moving on you. When we walked out to the treehouse we looked up and he explained how when you look at the grate/fence along the top of the treehouse you can see the dark about the grating, and the dark below the grating and then the light in-between each of the diamond shapes formed by the crisscrossing of thin wood pieces. The light beyond the grating in Gowdy’s eyes seemed to move back in forth, and the contrasts between lights and colors became really sharp, crisp and clear. While up in the treehouse, he noticed how lights bounced off my face, blooms on trees that didn’t actually exist, purple tints to leaves and the bluing of the sky as morning approached. I talked to him about Diamond Lake and spending my summers there to keep his mind focused on something or anyone and he said it really makes you feel nuts. I have trouble explaining all of it in here, but ironically enough, it’s a moment of our friendship that I don’t think I’ll forget. Sitting next to the person you know better than almost anyone and who knows you better than almost anyone and knowing you’ve known them for a shorter time than most people do when they know so much about someone else and watching the sun rise either sober or high it doesn’t matter just do what feels good talking through the morning.

Friendship revolves around the moments in which you have no misgivings about doing something that means something to someone else. My real friends will do anything for me. I wish it were that way with everyone.

After we both noticed it was well into morning, I decided it was time to crash. I woke up randomly that morning with everyone else asleep, and I was checking in on everyone and Gowdy and charlotte were talking in Lauren’s room. I came and joined them, we talked for a while and then Charlotte took off. It was funny her calling her cell phone to find it in the bed and me throwing the covers around following the ring. Once Charlotte left I couldn’t sleep so I cleaned up and basically woke up everyone around me up. Tony, Seevers, Erin, Jeff and I watched an episode of Ninja Turtles after I cleaned and then I jetted off to the lake with family for the day. "

sunday morning up with charlotte from a little after 6 or so to until the time ant peeked in was fun. i was on lauren's top bunk and she was on the bottom; only our second time talking really really. she brought up her "business proposition" with stubbs in the bathroom (why she picked the bathroom i don't know) and i was already half-aware of it because i had met and taken pictures of her just afterwards because i had been on my picture run lol. she had asked his major and he'd said it was business - "perfect," she'd said. ryan called him during and she'd planned it sober (why the bathroom, charlotte!?) and and and...to say what someone else said, "that girl's got balls and i love it!"

ant's hangover got worse and worse as the sunday progressed, and tony's hangover was major...and i, i never get hangovers woo!! jeff and i braved the storm to eat at DQ and i went on to sleep from 3 to 9. nick came over for the next pacers-pistons game and three hours, three breakfast hotpockets and three beers later, katie was with me i was undercovers in underwear then ant then mike and shawn came and it was good bumming around in the basement. ant played online Lingo with nick; they are the shit at that game. and we OVER-analyzed the mary-kate and ashley calendar, we don't know which is which but we can tell them apart one month to the next!! oh and i guess stubbs went to rodino's for a good time they skinnydipped guys got naked together he agreed to charlotte's terms ;p

" Monday I mulched all day [i, nate, gowdy, did some work with trash bags and cleaning the toilet and putting lawn chairs up in the fort and so it goes...] until it rained and then had dinner with Grandma. After while I went to Gowdy’s. Julia (her last night in town!), Matt, Tony, and Erin came over and we went to Hacienda for dinner and my Grande Quesadilla was only $.55 more than Erin’s little baby cheese one. "

after dinner we went back to the house on gage st and watched Club Dread. i was out of it almost even walked into the ladies room when at hacienda and hadn't realized it was julia's last night in the u.s. finished the movie with tony and erin and that's when the fam came home and one by one started piecing the weekend together: lauren's room was messier (messy in the first place, just the wrong places now), a few things were misplaced, seevs' jacket was on the coatrack, and that lamp chimney jeff broke did me in - Mom was at it getting to the bottom of things still the next day even after i'd said yea there was a party.

ellen monday IMs "woo"

imlniu: so, ive been spending lots of time on the guinness book of records site, and im wondering if there is any relation to the beer company
runnastud03: hahahha
runnastud03: ive wondered that too
imlniu: really>
imlniu: SOUL MATES

" Tuesday at the cemetery seems a big blur. We definitely took spinning a little slower and we are working less and less. There wasn’t much to spin so we did a good job of looking busy and washed the truck. We’re trimming bushes and trees the rest of the week. Did I sleep Tuesday? I have no idea, I can’t believe it wasn’t an exciting day at the cemetery, but I can’t even think of anything to say about it. The only things I can remember about it are all the comments Ryan (and others) made about the weekend, maybe that’s all there was. " backing ant up, the most exciting part of my day was a lady at the cemetery giving me a bag of black licorice twizzlers woo.

" Tuesday after work I went to Gowdy’s to watch American Splendor [it was a dinner and a movie date woo!]. When I showed up Lauren told me he was dumpster diving at Central with his mom for the antique glass piece that Jeff broke on Saturday [which costs $117 to be replaced; at least there's a replacement out there - it was one of Gma's antiques]. I thought about just leaving, I didn’t want to be caught in the middle of that, but I stuck around. When I came back Gowdy’s mom was nice to me as always, showing me the remnants of the piece. After a little delay we watched the movie American Splendor and it was super cool and I’d recommend it. Gowdy’s family treated me to Spaghetti and he and I watched the Pacers game but he fell asleep so I watched the last quarter at my house and felt really sad when it was all over. It was one of the worst playoff games I’ve ever seen…reminded me of watching IU this season. After such a disappointing finish I had nothing to do but sleep. So I did. " tony came over and i was too tired to get out of bed for him so i turned off the lights and tucked myself in, too.

"Today I came through with donuts and everyone was appreciative and Ryan said I was one up on Heather because she never did that last year and now I can hear all the cool stuff that they only tell certain people. Whatever, people enjoyed them. We trimmed all morning and did trash in the afternoon. I was super tired today for some reason and so I slept from about 2:30 on, so Gowdy will have to fill in on jokes. Jerry was in usual form today, even in my sleep I heard him making noises. It’s becoming like a book club in the break room, I’m going to start bringing a book, everyone reads! [gowdy is finishing slaughterhouse five] And I hope everyone is reading this, and enjoying their summer, high school kids are done as of Thursday! Hope to catch everyone soon…enjoy each other. " all i have to add about work is that i almsot mowed a toad and lonnie brought in donuts for prairie st crew, too - leftovers woo.

ok so...andrea called about a journey's party with kristi no no no didn't want to do that, ant had something with meredith's parents friends, but wait wait wait meredth dropped tony off, with CHEESECAKE WOO!! we're gonna rent and watch Adaptation, tony and erin and me. we so gon have fun! tah tah! and i'm glad Mom just went grocery shopping because i've been eating hotdogs one after the next. meredith said well i could have gone shopping - did this weekend, and bought hotdogs, meredith...

looking ahead to this weekend, harry potter 3 is out friday and i might go to see it with the double-daters tony meredith ant and katie, who wants to be my date this time!?seevers...? nick...? working at kramer's saturday morning and then it's newlywed jeff gowdy's wedding reception at 6:30! sunday is shannon's grad party 1-4. after this weekend, june 26 really, i'm going to guster, ben folds, and rufus wainwright with ant katie and erin yea. hunter says ben is best, so i'm in.

in other words, it's been a big week i should say.

--nate

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