July 30, 1999
Another Unexpected Entry & The First Part of My Trip

I got paid today! My paycheck was in the amount of $462.37. Two weeks ago, when I got about $200 in pay, I more than doubled my checking account. Today it will happen again if I have chance to go to the bank before I go out of town. It sounds superficial for me to think about how much I am getting paid, but this money is really going to help me out. I don't get any large amount of scholarship money again until November, and since I will use most of that during the year the money I am making now has to last until the fall of 2000. I will be getting some money from the state for buying textbooks each semester, but I will probably have to spend it all on books and supplies.

It is lunchtime now and I am taking a break. I have to fax a piece of my drawing to someone for pricing after lunch and that means I have to figure out how to use the fax machine! I have already had trouble with the copy machine (again) this morning. I have less than a week left of work and I need to finish this job before I leave. I had better get going!

This is the rest of my Friday. It was written on Monday, August 2, so it is my reflections only. I hope I remember everything I wanted to write about. Saturday’s entry is already posted and Sunday’s will be up as soon as I am done with it.

My drive home from work was crazy. I knew that Centerville Road between Betton and Woodgate was closing at 6 PM, but I didn’t expect any delay when I was driving home at 4:30 PM. The traffic at Miccosukee was particularly bad, but I thought that maybe it was just people going home early on Friday afternoon. It turns out that the roads around Tallahassee Memorial Regional Medical Center (TMRMC) were closed and policemen were directing traffic through a detour. Just as I was getting through to detour I heard on more than one radio station that there had been a shooting inside the Emergency Room of the hospital. Apparently an FSU police officer took a man in his custody to the hospital because he complained of nausea, and somehow the man wrestled the officer’s gun away from him and shot him! Of course the DJs on the radio were telling me to avoid the area, but I was already there and not too happy about the delay. I got home 20 minutes late. On the TV news I heard that the gunman had barricaded himself somewhere in the Emergency room, but he shot himself a short time later. What a crazy incident. By the way, the police officer was OK – he was shot in the arm and treated after the crisis was over.

I left Tallahassee at 6:30 PM. I told Stu that I would be in Gainesville by 8 PM, but I was about 30 minutes late. At least I had a good story to go with my tardiness! When I arrived at the door to his apartment I was so excited I couldn’t keep my heart from racing. It was wonderful to see my boyfriend again after four weeks. Now that he knows about the surprise I had for him I can tell the rest of my readers. I got my navel pierced three weeks ago (July 10) and I have been keeping it a secret since then so I could surprise Stuart. He thinks I am such a prude and I wanted a chance to show him that I am not a complete sick in the mud. I think it worked because he loved it. Now I can actually mention my piercing here in my journal because the secret is out. (I will write the piercing story for the Rantings and Ravings section soon so you guys will know the whole story.)

Since we had to get up at 6 AM on Saturday morning we went to be around 10:30 PM. I think I mentioned in Saturday’s entry that it was a loud night in the apartment building. I’m not sure I slept at all.