"hi how are you doing? it's a nice night out. it's been really busy tonight. i went from being the 11th car to the 4th car in less than ten minutes. i'm really tired i shouldn't have eaten before i came back to work. yesterday business was really slow. so slow i went across the street and had dinner at bennigans with my girlfriend. if i can get there on time i think i'm going to pick her up before the bus gets her at 8. i've still got a monte cristo sandwich waiting for me in the fridge at home. do you want to take the short route or the long route? we'll take the short route. last week i got lucky and made five rounds from the airport to west des moines in a few hours. sometimes i get so tired i just don't feel like going to work, so i stay home and have a beer. i go over to see my girlfriend and i fall asleep on her couch. i think she thinks i don't like her, but i can't help it if i go over there tired and fall asleep on her couch. i think i'm gonna go pick her up soon. besides, business is slow this week. the only thing going on in town is the tournament, but that will be over soon. all of the hotels downtown are packed up. i hear the only place that has rooms open is the embassy suites, and they are $180 a night. that's really expensive. you wouldn't have guessed that we got 16 inches of snow here a couple days ago. i think it melted as soon as it hit the ground. we got another inch yesterday, between 5-8pm. i've got a buddy who is getting open heart surgery tomorrow. i haven't seen him in a year or so, but his wife called me to get the combination to their safe. i used to know the combination a year ago, but i don't really remember it now. i think if i played with it for awhile i could probably get it to open, but the lady opened it a couple days ago with the key. she doesn't know what she did with the key but i bet she locked it inside the safe. i'm probably the only one who could get the combination from the manufacturer because i'm the original owner. they probably have some money in the safe that they need because they both have had heart surgery and her husband is dying. i think i'm going to go pick up my girlfriend now."

okay. imagine this monologue said in one breath, with no pauses where all the periods are. THAT is what my taxi ride from the airport was like tonight. i seriously thought this guy was messing with me. it was like something out of a saturday night live skit. there were no breaks, no asking me of questions. just incessant, unprovoked rambling with a smattering of sudden subject changes. pscyho.

i made it home from anchorage today. it's too bad that i couldn't stay longer. i was really starting to enjoy it muchly. we went to this ski resort for dinner on monday night, in the middle of the mountains and water and sunset. it was one of the most breathtaking sights i have ever seen. made me wish that i knew how to ski or snowboard, so i could enjoy the scenery that much more. yesterday kind of sucked, as i spent a good part of the day incapacitated due to some weird abdominal cramp. i did, however, muster up the strength to go and get my first full-body massage, which was very excellent. later on in the day mom and i went to a clinic where the physician said i had probably just pulled a muscle and gave me some anti-inflammatory drugs to relieve the pain. we went to dinner at a very nice restaurant last night and ate wonderful food. this morning i woke up at 5 am to get to the airport on time. in the 4.5 hour flight from anchorage to denver, i sat behind a woman who decided to recline her seat into the 12 cubic inches of space that i did have, and i sat in front of a mother and baby/toddler who frequently cried and kicked the back of my chair. it was rather excruciating. but i supposed it was somewhat redeemed by the fact that united airlines paid me $200 on sunday to take my original flight and sit in business economy class instead of coach. unfortunately, no such luck today.

and so it goes. i am quite tired now and plan on sleeping very soon. goodnight friends.