I have never worked a nine to five in my life. I definitely did not intend that sentence to make me sound nearly as spoiled and lazy though. Anyway, I had to work in the Children’s section today at Barnes & Noble, which is why if you came (T!) today, you missed me in the café. Apparently no one told me that story time at 10:30AM was part of my job duties this morning because at 10:20AM, Mike Koller came into Children’s and asked me what book I was planning on reading to them.

Can infants to 3-year-olds even understand words, let alone a story or am I being absent-minded to children’s abilities nowadays? Anyway, luckily I was zoning and shelving some Bernstein Bears (We have tons covering all moments of childhood from visiting the dentist to junk food, check it out.) and noticed some fatherly books, in light of Father’s Day yesterday.

I can’t remember the last time I read aloud to an audience with a mean age of 2, so I kind of chuckled in between a few sentences when I realized how ridiculous of a situation I was in. It was only after that that my co-worker told me that she and another co-worker were peeking over at me and laughing at my expense as well.

So, after that fairly short fatherly book, some more parents and their children came in so I felt obliged to continue reading as to not disappoint–I mean, story time is only on Monday mornings! At some mother’s request for a rhyming book, I dumbly grabbed “Cat in the Hat” not realizing that it was a LONG-ASS BOOK and children have the attention span of goldfish. I guess reading to a couple of parents was cool too–they did applaud after all.

Thumbs down to “Let’s hang out”. Seriously. I think a perk of — is realizing all of your annoying/unnecessary/seemingly-unique habits/interests/people and getting rid of it/them/him/her completely.Graudation was today and I don’t remember feeling anything particular. Lunch was good, hanging out with KP was better. I’m looking forward to seeing my sisters and nephews next week but not so much to starting work again tomorrow. Finish later–

Why are people so easily offended by complete strangers? Their opinions are fleeting.. it’s the opinions of those you care about that matter. At least that’s what I believe.

Anyway, this morning/afternoon at graduation practice, I nearly wanted to just melt into the grass. I stupidly wore cowboy boots and just prayed the entire time that I didn’t end up with some absurd tan. Admist all of that praying to the sun gods, I somehow managed to be pushed into the wrong line, leading my line, as I have the amiable and highly honorable role of being row leader, to a completely wrong row. Anything to humor myself in that awful heat, I suppose. At least Kathie and I got through a couple minutes of my Hindi lessons on my ipod.

PS. Pick up the San Jose Mercury News this Monday, June 18th. If not, just look at the business section!

Closing Time by Semisonic was the last song I remember hearing during lunch and I’ve listened to it more than twenty times since. Actually, I refuse to write now because it’s nearly 3am and I have a feeling whatever I do manage to type will be drowned in emotions and terribly incoherent. It’s more or less just an overwhelming feeling being awake alone, waiting for someone to sign online or just to co-exist right now.. at 3:02am. Maybe we shouldn’t wait for these coincidences though.. I think I’m going to go see somebody.

And maybe we need to go a little bit out of our way to ask someone to sign our yearbook. In the mean time, there are still so many people I’ve yet to exchange yearbooks with…

Not that I am known to go on endless rants via blog, but N does get a lot of the rebuttals from me. It’s hard to evaluate your emotions because when else do you do it besides when you are furious or overwhelmingly jovial, when they are at its peak. Come to think of it, I don’t really care! I am very content right now. (Aside from my N key not functioningly properly. I have to hit it really hard to work. Funny out of context–N is not functioning properly.) Maybe it’s because I am surrounded by this perpetual state of bleakness, but it feels so good to sit down and think, “Shit. I am happy.” Appreciate it!

Okay, so aside from all the sentimental mumbo-jumbo that we, as seniors, are prone to at the end of year… I’d like to take a moment and exercise my self-asserted grammar and syntax control. It is “centered ON” not “centered around”. You revolve around something and you center on something. And, did you know that while you are reading an article on NY Times, you can highlight then double click a word to define it? How neat is that!! I think it’s really neat.

Yesterday, I tried, for the life of me, to sustain a casual, intelligble and reasonable conversation with Ms. Vaeth concerning graduation during lunch only to be walked away from in the end. I saw her sitting in Cougar Hall eating a double-patty chicken sandwich, so I decided to sit down with her and talk to her. I asked her several (Why does “several” seem to not do my questioning justice?) questions–”Do you really feel like it’s proper and justifiable to impart your values onto an entire class who feels otherwise?”, “Would you compromise your values for the sake of others (the seniors)?”, “Who is on the graudation committee and how heavily does their concensus affect your decision?”, “Why is it necessary to conform to neighboring principal’s ideas?”, “Isn’t it more important to continue a tradition that has been set already?”, “Don’t you feel it’s the class president’s honor to address his class?”, “What role will the class president play in graduation?”, “What, if any, are the negative outcomes of having a Speaker-at-Large at graduation?”, “Don’t you think it’s important to be able to relate to the speaker and by limiting it to only Valedictorians, you are also limiting that pool?”, “Isn’t graduation more than just academics?”, “Are any of the plans for graduation final?”, “Is there a definite schedule of speakers?”, “How many Valedictorians actually want to speak? How many submitted speeches?”. I think I was conveying my concerns and obvious position on the matter and she did as well, and our opinions are on opposite sides of the spectrum. Basically, what I gathered from that conversation was that a) she will uphold her opinions regarding what is “important” at graduation–Academics only, b) the only student representation we have on this matter is through the graduation committee and c) everything is tentative and we have until Tuesday, June 12th, our first graudation practice, to change things. Journalistic persistence at its finest, I’d say.