ps on the free flight

pam and i thought we were the bomb, collecting about 100 cups in just one night. we went to a party at our friends dustin and jen's house in atlanta. we met up with some others; we played games and ate junk. it was a grand ol' time. we told joey about our escapades into the dankness that is the wendy's dumpster. he, in return, told us that he and his (3 or 4 others, i don't remember) roommates were doing that, too. they scored about 90 cups. each. joey was telling us how he actually put his ENTIRE BODY into the dumpster and just went to town. ahh, good times.



ugh, we were so jealous.



but we haven't gone back diving recently, but we need to get on it cause those tickets ain't gonna pay for themselves.

more bored than a plank of wood...aka shanka's pity party (for one)

so leanne is in cali at a wedding, and ginger has moved (and with most of the furniture in the living room, except the christmas tree) to her new place. and all friends i have phone numbers for (that's a whole one person) are out of town for the holidays. so shanka has been racking up some serious player hours on iwin.com in the spades room (if you visit, look up me under almeria@iwin.com. i could use a familiar face. you know what i mean.) good thing leanne left this comp behind, else i don't know what i'd be doing now. cleaning my room? washing my clothes? moving my things to my new room? cleaning the mess i made in the kitchen? ugh. thank goodness for the glorious, glorious internet.
oh, and i have no idea what i'll do for the new year. when i'm home, we shoot firecrackers. when i'm in atlanta with kedra, we'd go to the downtown party. but the last 2 new years i've spent in amsterdam. i'm sorry, but unless i go to frickin' new york times square and watch the ball drop with that old guy any time soon, nothing's topping ringing in the new year in dam square with actual fire being thrown at my feet. so i'm all sad. :( pity me. pity!

how sad is it that i don't know anyone's phone number? lol if you know any, have my friends call me! the only thing ginger didn't own was the telephone.

you can't spell "christmas" without "dysfunction"

in all seriousness though, mine was a lovely christmas. i got to see my former 4 ft 7 in (139.7 cm) little girl niece as a 5 ft 7 in (170.2 cm) pre-woman (i'm 5'5" or 165.1 cm). craziness!! my mom was completely civil!! my great-niece loves me even though she doesn't know me (but you just wait till she does! then it'll be a different story!).
today we went to the mall of georgia, which i swore up and down i'd never been to. but then i remembered once the church choir sang there. but i never really went inside, so it didn't count. we went there to get a couch, since our third roommate ginger is packing up and heading east (east athens) and she's the actual grown up and with furniture. (we need a new roommate!!) so leanne saw this couch she wanted when she was in savannah yesterday, and called to see if it was in athens, and asked for it to be put on hold for her to pick up the next day, and left her name and number with some unnamed associate at the store, and was told "no problem" by said unnamed associate, and today rented a uhaul at 130 pm for 100 bucks, and drove 45 minutes to the mall of georgia, and applied and was approved for the store credit card so that she could get an extra 10% off her purchase for today only, and was told (after the credit card approval, mind you) that someone had called today and asked to come and see the couch, and she pleaded that she was the better deal as the person who called today said he was coming to see the couch and she was willing to buy the couch now, and was told to wait until 7 pm, and waited until 7 pm, and called back to check the status of the couch, and was told that at that very moment the guy was buying the couch. it was a frustrating day indeed.

on a good note, i had an interview at a temp agency today. it went very well. i may have a job in 2 to 4 days!! i sure hope so...i can't buy all this junk at now after-christmas discounted prices without money!! the government and their stupid rules!!


the moral of the story: when dealing with people in retail, make sure you get all their vitals (first name, last name, middle name, nickname, home address, telephone number, social security number, credit card number, PIN number, blood type) before you do any business with them lest they forget they ever spoke with you.

learn to dumpster dive for the low, low price of 19.95!

so wendy's (yall remember wendy's...biggie fries, biggie drinks, and coming soon, biggie bankruptcy) has this idiotic promotion where one can collect either 24 oz or 32 oz size drink cups, cut out the coupon on the side, and get a free flight anywhere air tran flies in the us. i mean, it's so great especially for the broke college student. or the me, who still lives like the broke college student except for the college student part. so you collect 32 for a one way and 64 for a return. you probably have to pay taxes, but seriously, that's a great deal. so my friend pam and i decided that we would totally take advantage. there’s a little colorado wedding in january, and if it’s not a black out date, i’ll be introducing my friend to the new mr. and mrs. ball. yay!!
so tuesday night, on a whim, we decided to hit up the wendy’s close to her house. armed with a garbage bag and a stool, cause we are some shorties. i think we scored about 15 cups that night. a wendy’s employee strolled up and said, “yall looking for cups, aren’t you?” with pam conveniently hidden behind the door, i was the one scrambling for an answer. “what’s your name?” pam said molly. shanka said shanka. hey, i’m an amateur at this whole thing, but i’m learning. he told us about a coworker who could “hook us up, for the right price, you know.” we were alls excited about some stolen goods. we came back to meet with said coworker, struck up a mighty fine deal, then hauled our butts out of there with the handy excuse of having to go the bank. seriously, what kind of witness would that have been? pam suggested taking him a chick tract, but his soul is messed up as it is, stealing from his company and all. he sure doesn’t need jack chick to do him in.
so after we scouted out the wendy’s on alps and on the east side (both too well lit…we’d return later), pam remembered that there was a wendy’s in monroe. it’s about 930 now, and monroe is about an hour away. sure, why not? it’s not like we have jobs or any pressing obligations.
monroe was sweet, man. we got about 25 cups. but not before stopping at the local wal-mart for some latex gloves, a little flashlight, and some chocolate covered cherries. the door to the little enclosed space of this dumpster had a metal rod at the bottom, and it made this horrible screeching sound. so much for being discreet. people placing drive thru orders were staring at us from their cars. afterwards we went to the door, and the restaurant was locked, but there was a lady eating inside. pam asked her if there was some trash we could throw away for her, as we were trying to collect these cups. “all i can say, ladies, is check the dumpster.” little did she know. we cracked up once we got back in the car.
then we headed to another wendy’s about 20 minutes away. that was pretty sweet as well; we got about 15 cups. by this time pam and i were starving. poor girl was all queasy from the smell. i was a little concerned that i wasn’t… we decided to get the dollar menu. what the hell were we thinking?? we just went through all that delightful wendy’s garbage and it made us think “mm, mm, i sure could go for a wendy’s jr. bacon cheeseburger right now.” thank goodness pam had some antibacterial stuff in her car (makes you wonder why she was so well prepared, doesn’t it?) we slathered on a bottle each. and i still ate with latex gloves on. i’d show the pic, but we had the wendy’s fry box in the picture with me licking my latexed finger…we’re not trying to get sued, you know. but email me if you really want to see it.
we decided to stop in watkinsville on the way back, cause surely there’s a wendy’s there. there was not. but it was a nice ride anyway, mostly because as we were heading down a long stretch of highway, pam suddenly stopped. then she slowly backed up, and turned right into a dark gas station. i was a little scared cause i wasn’t sure why we were stopping, and so abruptly. turns out pam saw a cup on the side of the road (my side of the road, mind you!), backed up, pulled up next to it, and was very disappointed to discover a cup from kfc. that, unfortunately, was not the only time kfc’s dark blue cups would foil us that night.
then we went back to athens' east side. still quite lit up, but not as many cars, so we’d thought we’d give it a shot. by now we had this down to an art: after parking, we’d “latex up”, i’d hop out of the car, and she’d pop the trunk. i’d get the box, she’d grab the flashlight, and we’d head on. so we’re doing a great job, at least i am, cause i grabbed the prime position. i got about 10 cups in about 3 minutes, i was on top of my game. pam says, “uh oh, i just saw a police car roll by.” i say give me about 10 more seconds….i’d gotten up to 17 cups by now, and i wasn’t ready to quit yet. then pam walks toward the car, and i follow her, but not without noticing out the side of my eye a silent patrol car pulling up right behind pam’s car! and i’ve got all this evidence in my hands and on my clothes! one day it would be a great story for the grandkids “yeah, i got arrested for stealing funky dirty cups from a dumpster. good times.” who needs that on their record?? “so, how many you got there?” he casually asks, still seated in his car. i look down and sheepishly answer “35.” he proceeds to tell us that there is an ordinance on dumpster diving (it’s illegal) but this particular wendy’s is okay with it as long as you ask first. also that if he needed a plane ticket, he’d probably do it, too. but the real gem was “you guys are the third group tonight caught in this dumpster.” hahaha it was soo great! he let us go, and we just about died in the car laughing.
we went back to the wendy’s close to her house, but the guy we stiffed on the earlier deal was standing outside, smoking a blunt, so we casually kept driving by. we came back around 20 minutes later, people free, and grabbed about 10 more cups.
i plopped into my own house at 2 am. i was in the right senses of mind and smell to shower first, and that came at a great price, cause i was sooo tired.
pam calculated that with the cups we’d collected and the price of a ticket, we’d effectively earned about $25/hr a piece. we are so good at what we do! but we still got about 2/5 of a one way plane ticket left. we’re going to monroe tomorrow morning. it’s almost 1 am now, so i’d better get rested up!! dumpster diving ain’t no cake walk in the park, lady!