So I picked up my brother’s friends recently and they reminded me of a really good story. Over the summer, my brother had his friend, Edwin, stay the night. It was no big deal, nothing out of the ordinary. Edwin stayed over, I saw them a couple times that night and then I stayed at a friend’s house as well. Seems perfectly normal right? WRONG. Let’s fast forward a few days. I woke up really early and had to go to work. I had washed my uniform the night before so I walked downstairs to go get it. I had just showered so I had nothing but a towel on. Then, out of nowhere, I hear someone say “Oh hey Zoe”. I scream and turn around to see Edwin sitting in the corner of my basement. Turns out, Edwin had never gone home! He had lived in our basement for almost a week and no one knew except for my idiot little brother. So I told my mom and she was just as shocked as I was. But she wasn’t mad because Edwin was very clean and obviously very quiet. He just didn’t want to go home so my brother kept him as a stow away. Which is fine… I guess. But it’s a little unsettling that someone I breast knew was in my house for days and I didn’t even know about it.

So we might get a snow day. Which is great. I could really use a day to catch up on some last minute missing work. But, I’ll still have to go to work no matter what. They know I only live 30 seconds away spill have no excuse. But I’ll be driving whether school gets canceled or not. And the last time I had to drive in heavy snow… it did not go well to say the least. A few Monday’s ago, when we all had to drive home in that shit show that was a snow storm, my car was really loving to sliding everywhere. Granted, my car slides when there’s a single drop of rain, so I was really not doing so great. Somehow I made it almost all the way home without any major incidents. So after mild sliding and thirty five minutes, I was almost there. Like literally fifteen seconds away from pulling into my neighborhood. That’s when while going 20 in a 40, my car hit ice. I was pumping my breaks and then I realized I wasn’t going to stop in time to not hit the car in front of us. So I swerved into the turn lane hoping we’d be able to stop and go again. ……NO. We hit a second patch of ice and my car did a 180 into the other lane and we were almost T-boned twice. We made it though. So I got home and hyper ventilated for a good five minutes and then took a nap. But needless to say. This impending snow is really stressing me the fuck out.

Finals week is coming and everyone is stressed… yay! I am especially stressed because I am just trying to pass a math class. If I can pass, I don’t have to take any finals that I have an A in and I get to graduate early. If I can’t pass, I DO have to take all my finals and I have to stay at Marquette High School for a whole extra semester. It really wouldn’t be that bad, but I really want a semester to work to cushion that out of state tuition. I would stay in state, but Missouri kind of sucks and I would really like to study Marine Biology. And being that there is no ocean in our great state, I have to leave. So between trying to pass math, applying to schools, and working thirty hours a week, I am really out here struggling. So I am pretty stressed and very tired, but if I can manage to pull this off, I can finally get some rest and actually enjoy winter break for once knowing that I don’t have to go back. But it is a long shot. So I’m really hoping for a miracle or something. But I guess I’ll figure it out either way. Next semester really wouldn’t be all that bad based on the joke classes that I am scheduled to take. It would not exactly be a heavy course load. So, we’ll just hope for the best and prepare for the worst I guess.

It is only a few more days until my best friend, Aria, comes back. She has been gone since September 2nd. Because we literally spent every day of the Summer together, it is easy to say that I miss her a lot. Beyond her being gone, the army only allows her to get her phone every Sunday. This means that she can only call or text for a few hours one day every week. It’s a really frustrating way to try and keep in contact because she has limited time and like twenty people to call. Group FaceTime’s are helpful but it’s also a little chaotic having ten people talking at once. BUT, the army gives its soldiers two weeks for Christmas. She’ll be back in just a few days. It’s been way too long and all I want is to be able to watch SVU in her room at 3 am. (It’s our favorite past time). But I know I’ll have to share her with our other friends and especially her boyfriend. I’m just excited to see her again in any shape or form. Also, we told her boyfriend she wasn’t coming home for another week. This way, following Aria’s wishes, we’re going to to some big surprise where she pops out of nowhere when he’s least expecting her. So, that’ll be fun. And she’s actually spending her second week in Florida with her family so we all only have seven days which is really rough, but I know we’ll most definitelyfind a way to make them really really count.

I’ve decided to get rats. My father says I am not allowed to get rats, but I’m going to do it anyway. I doubt anyone will even notice that I have them for at least a couple of weeks. I found an ad on Craigslist for a lady who professionally breeds rats. It’s pretty weird, but I didn’t want to go to the pet store. It turns out that pet stores have rodent mills where they mass breed and house rats, hamsters, and guinea pigs. It’s pretty gross. So, I decided I didn’t want to support that kind of establishment. So I drove all the way out to Florissant to get rats from a lady in a White Castle parking lot. It was pretty shady. However, I got three rats, all different colors, and they’re all seemingly fine. One is a bit more skittish. One is more calm. The last isn’t shy but he radiates crackhead energy. Did I have permission to get these rats? No. Did u just do it? Yes. Did my dad find out within five minutes of getting home? Yes. He was mad but also it was pretty funny. He told me to name one of them Buckeye because he’s an Ohio State fan. So I’m not in too much trouble but my parents aren’t happy I secretly hauled ass to North County to big five dollar rats out of a mini van in a parking lot. But hey! I lived.

As many already know, I work at Mod Pizza. The job has its pros and cons. One of the pros is that I get a free pizza with every shift that I work. By now, I’ve tried all kinds of pizzas. My favorite is the pineapple pizza. I really don’t understand why people think it’s so absurd. It’s delicious and I won’t believe otherwise. I usually use so much pineapple that you can’t see the cheese. Also, working at a pizza place, I have seen much worse combinations than pineapple. Try barbecue sauce, Gorgonzola, and roasted apples. Or mushrooms, pesto, anchovies, and roasted apples, AND pineapple. The real evil here is anchovies. We only keep one pan of them opposed to the 20+ pans of every other meat. This is due to their deserved unpopularity. They’re so disgusting, we have to change gloves after using them. I usually refuse to touch them if I can help it. The slimy texture is cringe inducing. But to get back on track, pineapple on pizza is amazing. People who have class know that sweet and savory is a perfect mix. Duh. Also, even if it’s not your favorite, there are far worse things people are doing with their pizzas. So stop hating on pineapple, and start hating on apples and anchovies.

Many people my age have been rejoicing. Nickelodeon put an old show, “Victorious” , on Netflix.The show originally aired in 2010 when I was in second grade. The show is about high school students at a performing arts high school and all the characters are beyond reality. The show was one of my favorites growing up. Sadly it only lasted for three seasons. It’s ok though, because I’m reliving each episode again as I binge watch it on Netflix. I only started a few days ago and I’m already starting season 3. It’s not a huge accomplishment though. Each episode is only twenty minutes and no commercials because it’s Netflix. I forgot how funny the show was. Also, 18 year old me gets a lot more of the hidden jokes then 8 year old me did. Now, I just need Drake andJosh and iCarly to be put on too. Then, I will really feel complete.

As the great Michael Scott once said, “Sometimes I start a sentence and I don’t even know where it’s going. I just hope I find it along the way.” I relate to that on a deeper level. At the moment, I need to write a blog post. Why? Because I got so caught up in working 30 hours a week and going to school, and getting my project done for Studio Directing, that I forgot to do them. Right now, I cannot find a single thing to write about. So I am going to write about my current writer’s block. Which sucks by the way. So here I sit in my bed on a Friday night typing up a blog post about absolutely nothing. But as Tom Delonge once sang “Here I am, I’m trying”. I think that’s all that really matters. I could be out freezing my ass off at the football game, but no. I’m at home freezing my ass off while I do homework because my father refuses to turn up the thermostat. What is it with Dads and thermostats? Anyway, so here I am trying to come up with something. But, I can’t. So I hope The Office and Blink 182 references are enough to spice it up. Side bar, Lisa just texted me that there are frozen pizzas in the freezer. What a queen! So now I am probably going to heat up one of those and watch Netflix and do my best to ignore the Trig test that I have Monday. Not to mention the six and nine hour shifts I have this weekend.

There’s a very interesting man that lives in the neighborhood next to mine. He’s known for multiple arrests and complaints for his art. What is his art? His house. His entire house and lawn are covered completely in art. The man is elderly and says his art is a tribute to the holocaust. His garage door is huge portrait of the gates of the gates at Auschwitz. His yard is covered in trees. Each tree has lights and ornaments. There are Jewish stars in many of them. One has an old kitchen sink nailed to it. There is no grass. The ground is covered in mosaics of painted marble chunks and glass. Huge, colorful, wooden spiked stick out of the ground. They have since been topped off with plastic balls by order of the city. The house has been around since before I was born. I always loved it as a kid. The neighbors hate it, but I always found it beyond fascinating. Once you get past just how crazy it is, you can really appreciate it. The time, thought, and talent put into the house is humbling. The house itself is an amazing work of crazy art. However, the man that owns it is even more fascinating. He’s a retired art teacher who lives alone. He drives a car many people can recognize. It’s covered completely in stickers. The vanity plate is “stickr”. He came into my work at the pizza place last night. The man is quite the conversationalist. Most of what he says can take you on an acid trip. But, if you really listen, he actually makes some good points. He told me to live my life to fullest because it goes by fast. He told me that I should pick a religion that made the most sense to me. He talked about the meaning of life and how to treat people as if they were your family. It was really interesting. He seems like he’s had too little or too much medication, but he certainly has a lot to say.

This is the house for reference.