March 10, 2002 - 11:15 a.m.

friday was my last day of work at the engineering lab. the atmosphere was a little more chatty than usual because irene, the woman for whom i was making copies, was hiding from all the work in her office and decided to talk to me and the other temp instead. she told us that she never learned to drive, her husband passed away and that watching television is her life.

the engineers she types for had been bombarding her with work that day, so i told her to make them be nicer to her. she said, "oh, they're nice to me on secretaries day."

i wondered aloud if the name hadn't been changed to administrative assistants day or something similar and equally as non-catchy.

irene: "i prefer the term 'secretary.' it has more meaning."

me: "why?"

irene: "the first part of secretary is secret, you know, like keeper of secrets. we don't give out confidential information. that really says something."

inside i busted up laughing, but my face was saying, "sure. i understand." BWAH HA HA HA HA!

i was supposed to hang out with sam and nicole on friday. there was some show playing in fresno with halfway-decent bands. because this is such a rare occurrence, we thought we'd make the trek out. i actually got dressed and ready to go out before deciding not to go out. i'd never made it that far before and then changed my mind. i had a headache, though, and hadn't felt good all week. i wanted to sleep so i could wake up early and pack boxes to take to the post office.

the next morning, i packed up a bunch of books and some photo equipment and made my dad help me carry stuff. i cracked the whip on him to make sure we got there before 11:30, which is when they used to close on saturday. then i found out they're no longer open on saturday at all. we ventured to the main downtown fresno post office, and they weren't open, either. i wish i would've known because i felt like quite the chump. i came out of the downtown p.o. jumping up and down with fists in the air, looking somewhat like donald duck. how can they just cancel saturday service and expect everyone to be fine with it?

dad took me to piemonte's deli in the tower district for their out-of-this-world vegetarian sandwich, which made up for the earlier trauma. we ate our sandwiches in roeding park and then drove to an old cemetery on the outskirts of town to see his grandparents' graves. they died before i was even born. then we came home, and i fell asleep, having accomplished nothing that i had set out to do that day. maybe today will be more productive.