A Movie, Still Photograph, Through a Martyr's Eyes Can I See

I've seen the best of love, the best of hate, the best reward is earned.
And I've paid for every single world I ever said.

'Chase This Light' - Jimmy Eat World

I hate Myspace. I had this written out last night, and it completely deleted it. Booooo poorly designed text input programs. So enjoy, as I bring to you with twice the effort of other blogs, and only half the calories.

Statistics for the week
108,000 items counted in one night.
$3.5 Million total value of said items.
160 hours worked in three weeks.
6 miles walked the night after the counting was done.

The long hours, the complete exhaustion, the sheer effort and force of will all came to a head on the 7th. As much as I managed to drive myself into the ground, it did feel like a worthwhile accomplishment. It didn't go quite as smoothly as we hoped, but perhaps about as much as we expected. Not surprisingly, I was the first one there and the last one out, a span of about 16 hours. But damn did it feel good when it was over.

Now I should probably insert a little side note here. My car has been broken for about a week and a half. I came to the conclusion that driving to and from work without functioning brakes would likely end in my demise. And by god I'm not dying until I spend the paycheck that equaled about 130 hours of time. So fortunately Aaron, in yet another act of kindness, let me carpool with him. On this particular day though, I didn't get out of the store until after he would normally leave for work. Out of pure luck, I pulled up to our street exactly as he was walking by to catch a bus. Instead I picked him up, dropped him off downtown, came back home, and went to sleep. I woke up in time to go pick him up from work. Now since he was headed back home and I was going to Northgate, I said I'd just hop on a bus.

This is where the day got interesting.

It was a nice day, so I thought I'd just walk for a while before getting to a bus stop. So after going for roughly two miles, I decided to catch a bus to just long enough to get me into the U-District. After doing so, I got back off, and proceeded to walk to Tavis and Hetty's. This was roughly four more miles. So after working 16 hours and sleeping five, I decided it was a good idea to walk this long distance. Amazingly I didn't feel tired at all, which was a pleasant surprise. After playing Halo 3 with Tavis for a while, Alex and I met up with Sabrina and Andrew at Dante's. Surprisingly low turnout, but made fun by the group of folk from Liverpool that were absolutely hilarious.

Now during the course of my walk, my mind obviously raced through many topics. Not surprisingly, one of them was the guilt that I covered in my last blog. As the night neared an end, I cleared up that last bit of truth that needed to be said, and felt much better about things after doing so. Now I don't think it hurt that I dropped what I believe was a pretty good compliment before doing so (you gotta give me credit for that), but it was the most appropriate lead-in for what I had needed to say. And by the way, bravo to you on the total poker face. I neither needed nor wanted a reaction one way or another, but expected one would come regardless. I was wrong, and that was pleasantly surprising.

The rest of the week was pretty good too. Thursday especially, as I stopped by Gabriel, Dan and Matt's (as I hadn't visited since the accident) and hung out for a couple hours. After that I headed with Alex, Danielle, and Shaun to the Jimmy Eat World concert, which was absolutely amazing. For pics, see there profiles, as they pretty much took them all. I do have to ask though, why is there always one person (or more) that has to take an agressive stance toward those around them in the crowd. Both Shaun and I had moments that could have escalated considerably, but fortunately didn't. But whatever, nothing could ruin the fun that day provided. On top of that I got to sleep in as I decided to go into work late. Making my own schedule lately has to have been one of the few perks of this job that kept me sane. And as an added bonus, the couch was quite comfortable, which is so unusual.

And finally, a weekend with sleep. I cannot express how happy this made me. I finally feel rested. I finally feel like I'm not going to fall over and slip into a coma at any moment. I was able to go back to work happy, full of life, and ready to get a raise and a vacation.