The Michael Swayne Story V: King of his Castle

Allow me to start this entry talking about my brother and his return home. Dad and D (my brother, real name Paul) came home, and after he unloaded his stuff from Dad's truck I asked about details on why he was moving back home. All I got was "I just wanted to move back, that's all." So, I was lied to, and once again kept in the dark about everything. I guess I should take that as a good thing. After all, if I knew about what my parents did I would probably have been sent to prison along with them. Moving on...

I woke up this morning and started watching Danshi Koukousei no Nichijou. It's a funny anime produced by Square-Enix. I didn't have high expectations of it, because the description the site gave for it was a little bland. But it is funny, and I laugh at least once per episode. It's more like a collection of short skits, rather than a story-based show. It's a pleasant change to what I usually watch.

I got to work at 9am this morning. I immediately started on finishing the paper. I didn't have to work too hard on fitting everything together, because a half-page ad was sitting in the Inbox when I checked it. I did have some difficulty with an ad being transferred from Quark to Adobe. It was a display ad I made about the Christmas Food Giveaway happening next week. It looked fine on Quark, but when I transferred it to Adobe all that was there was an enlarged picture of the ham picture I put in it. Misty told me that I would have to remake it. What happened was I hit the wrong button when I was transferring it. So, I deleted the ad, and pasted a new copy of the ad in its place. Then I made sure to not hit the bad button.

At noon, the paper was sent to press and I begun work on next Thursday's paper. I set aside two pages for the Fire Safety double truck (Double-truck: an ad that fills up two pages) and one page for this month's Christmas coloring (the paper gets published Dec. 6). After that, I moved the ads from this week's paper that are renewed to next week's paper.

*It is a little confusing writing about two issues of the paper, especially since this week's paper doesn't arrive until tomorrow.

Then, I began working on the ads Gabby and Misty sold so far that day. There is a full page ad that I have to build from scratch. It's of a shoe store and their Christmas sale. So, I was looking at a bunch of overpriced (though they're on sale) shoes for the last 2.5 hours of the workday. In the end, I made no progress with the shoe ad other than getting all the shoe pictures saved to a folder.

After Misty left for the day, and while I was working on the shoe ad, Gabby randomly asked what Iris (and indirectly, me) would think if she were to date someone of another race than hers. We both said were okay with it, because one loves who they love. Then she dropped a bomb on us. The person she likes is one she met online. Two days ago. On Chat Roulette. We told her the possible dangers of meeting someone online, but it didn't sink in. Not that there is anything wrong with online relationships advancing to real life relationships. It's just that she has practically named her kids, and she has only known this person for two days. I don't care what people say, you don't truly know a person after two days.

Then, by some strange force, the conversation was shifted to me and my lack of interest in relationships. Here's the conversation:
Iris - Cyan
Michael - Lime
Gabby - Plum

"Michael, have you ever had a girlfriend?"
"No."
"Have you ever had a crush on someone?""No." I start smiling.
"I think you're lying."
"No, it's just we have had this conversation before." We have this conversation every six months or so. It was funny having it again.
"Do you want a girlfriend?"
"No."
"Oh."
"So, you've never had a crush on someone?"
"No."
"What about your sister's friends?"
I shoot Gabby a look of total disgust. "Ew!"
"What?"
"You know my sister and how she acts. She acts just like her friends!"
A few seconds go by, with the only sounds being Iris and I at our computers.
I know someone you'd be good with.
Tell me.
No.
Oh, come on.
It makes no difference to me if you tell her, go ahead.
Tell me.
No.
Look, I am not from here, so chances are I won't know the person. You can tell.
I think you should go with J. D.(Name withheld for privacy. All I know about this person is that this person is a guy. And his name, of course.)
I shoot Iris a puzzled look.But I'm not gay.
With that, the conversation stops. We proceed to continue working.

When Iris asked Gabby to go to the store and buy some more envelopes, Iris tells me "I'm sorry if I made you uncomfortable. I didn't mean to assume you're gay. A lot of my friends are gay. Most of the guys that have cut my hair are gay." Then I replied before she could go on. "The thing is, I am just not interested in relationships. During school, all that mattered was school. Even now, I am focused on work and that's all I allow myself to focus on." After this, Iris said, "I will find someone for you to go with, mark my words." Then Gabby came back from the store, and we began to work again.

But I didn't tell Iris everything. And to save you all the trouble of looking it up in my journal, I will tell you all now. I don't have the hours needed to look it up myself (I wrote a lot in that journal). The truth is, I am not interested in either gender. That's who I am. I consider myself non-sexual. I have never been attracted to a person in a way that makes me think I love them, or that I want to have sex with them, or anything like that. I am not opposed to having a relationship with another guy. It's just that I don't prefer guys or girls. I just don't think of relationship type stuff.

I plan on telling Iris everything on Friday when we are working together again. I didn't tell her today because Gabby came, and she isn't the most understanding toward people's feeling. She is immature in that regard. And besides, she's related to me. Stuff like that isn't talked about too much in our family, so it's just really awkward.

*It's not weird talking about this stuff with anyone here, because of the anonymity of the forum. After all, there are only two TFF members that I am within a day's bike ride from (Josh_R and Lacquerhead), and as far as I know i am not related to either of them. Besides, I consider most of you friends. Though, not the kind that I want to have move in with me or have kids with (unlike some coworker of mine).

Anyway...

I got my check today, and I even cashed it at the store. I earned $130 this week. So, that means that tomorrow I am sending my last computer payment in. Which means that I will have my computer by Christmas. Which means that I am almost very nearly through with using this crappy borrowed computer that has to have an hour loading time to watch one 30-minute anime.

*This computer has over 350 fragmented files that cannot be defragmented. The space remaining on the thing is only 35%. I have tried to fix it, but I can't do too much for fear of breaking it. After all, it was like this when it was lent to me, and it is not my job to fix it. I think it is because of all the uTorrent crap on this thing, as well as all this music that was put on here through not-so-legal means. I use programs (like Spotify) that are authorized to let people listen to music for free. I don't have to download songs to keep them. I just have to listen to a commercial once in a while. It's just like the radio. Those Swedish people got it right when they made Spotify.

**I didn't mean to sound like I was trying to advertise the program. It's just that good.

Now it's time to complain. Dad said that because the fire was going in the garage, we would go play pool. Here's the current scores:

D - 6, Me - 2
D - 5, Dad - 11
Dad - 12, Me - 3

I had a much better night than our last session. All the games I won were because I got lucky. Dad did his fancy jumps, like always. My brother's specialty is shooting behind his back. He is great at that. My brother just didn't have the luck that I did, or the skill Dad had tonight. He won quite a few, but when he lost, he lost bad.

I was complaining. Since both my Dad and brother smoke, the garage got really smoky really fast. I was finding it difficult to breathe. So instead of saying anything to them about it (because they never do anything about when I do), I got one of the painter's masks we have and put it over my mouth and nose. They asked me why I had it on, and I said I couldn't breathe. They took the hint and stopped smoking. For a little bit. When their nicotine cravings kicked in again, they lit up again. And again I put the mask on when I couldn't breathe.

Also, Suzy showed up. Again. As if once today wasn't enough. She ruined our family fun time by showing her face. When she arrived, the smile on my face disappeared, and all the fun had evaporated as both her and Dad were smoking like a pair of frieght trains (my brother left to go visit his friends). So once again I put the mask on. Then when Dad and I finished our game, I said I was done playing and went back to the house. Dad could have said that he wanted to spend time with his kids, but he didn't. He also didn't mind when I left, because he had his "friend" and her son there to keep him company. It just really bugs me that he drops everything, including activities with his kids, to hang out with Suzy and his other friends. He was always writing in his letters that he missed or can't remember most of his kids lives because of the drugs, but doesn't want to make up for it by doing things with us now.

Anyway...for what seems like the thousandth time I've said "anyway"...

So, tomorrow the plan is to work my route. Then go to the Post Office to get a money order for the computer payment and check the office's P.O. Box. Then take the deposit to the bank. At 10am, open the office for business and work on next week's paper. Then go home. Friday is my scheduled day to work. Which is a little confusing. When I took the job of composer, I was told to come in Fridays, Mondays, and Tuesdays. But because the office was closed last Friday, I had to work Monday-Wednesday. And since Gabby originally had scheduled to be off this Friday, I was told to come in to make sure the office had someone here. Then, we remember that I am to come in on Fridays anyway.

Anyway...time to wrap it up (it's 11:12pm)...

I have to wake up early, so that's all for now. I hope to see you around the forums, and until I do...

Later!

Michael