Shitbox's Days Numbered?

So i've been debating for a while now on getting my grandpas old car and getting rid of the shitbox i call my 1998 cavalier that has skin cancer all over it (paint is rubbing off). I will say that I am the ONLY one of my friends who has his original car from when he was 16 and well...my car has seen better days BUT it still runs and I was planning on running it straight into the ground. My car just surpased 150,000 miles.

My Grandpa had unfortunatly passed away this past August and my Grandma cannot drive anymore and is looking to get rid of the car. My mom would really like the keep the car in the family for sentimental reasons and out of all the relatives I'm really the only one that could really has a use of the car, seeing as my older cousins have nicer cars and my other ones are too young. The car is a 1998 Chevrolet Lumina. It has just a little over 100, 000 miles on it and is in great condition because my Grandpa always took car of his vehicles and it was a garage kept car so the body is great, ten times better outside that my shitbox.

So my mom asks me one day if I would like to take the car seeing as mine is breaking down every couple months. However she texted me the question knowing that I interned ALL summer and knows that at the time I literally had $30 to my name and then told me it would be $2,000. I texted her back saying i have no money (obviously).  She then said that she buy it and that I would just slowly pay them back, which to me is a mystery in itself because idk where they are getting the money from...but at the same time it was my mom's dad's car and it has a lot of sentimental value to her. My grandma could also use the money from selling it otherwise i would have gotten it for free.

I already still owe my parents about $1000 still from my last car (and past repairs) and money i kept borrowing over the summer. My decision is I don't know if I really want to tag on another couple grand of debt for a car im not sure if want, but at the same time its an amazing deal and i know i could potentially get  lot of life out of that car and not worry about car payments when i get out of college. But it is a stereotypically "old person's car"

This car will also be a lot of help in the spring when I am driving to Terre Haute IN for my intership at WTHI, because that drive two or three times a week would surely kill my cavalier.

I think after writing this blog I have made a decision to take the offer cuz i prettymuch just wrote the pros and cons and the pros outway the cons by a long shot and im just gonna get the lumina.

- 1998 Crapalier Owner

Ignorance is Not Bliss...It's Laughter and Frustration at the Expense of Food Court Customers.

No one really realizes how slow people really are in America unless they work on the food service business. 

No matter how much you dumb down a menu or instructions people are either too lazy or too dumb to figure it out.

For instance at the Food Court all you have to do is circle ur item you want and then simply write your name. Not hard. Many people seem to struggle with this to the point where it is accepted...and then us foodcourt workers trash talk you once you walk away haha.

 

1. Customer: How big is the personal size pizza?

    Me: **with hand gestures** i say about about 8 inches

    Customer: Oh...well how big is a 12 inch?

    Me: I ponder this question in my head and hold in the fact that they just asked me how big a 12 INCH pizza is...while my co worker laughs a little and then proceeds to give the customer a hard time about asking a dumb question, a normal customer would find this funny. Personally I think the person had some issues.

...haha in the end the customer actually doesn't think its funny and then goes to the other side of the counter and we laugh to ourselves and the weird person.

2. B.L.T...it stands for BACON LETTUCE TOMATO...in no way does that mean you get a burger patty, because if it was then it would be called a hamburger with bacon lettuce and tomato.

You would not BELIEVE the number of people that come back to us asking where their burger patty went...and then you sit there and have to explain to them that they are a dumbass.

3. On a lighter note you have those funny dumb questions like when someone asks what a "popper" is. This is a normal question and I can understand why you would ask it because i probably woul;d if i did not work there. My co worker responds stating "it a jalepeno pepper stuffed with cream or cheddar cheese, then breaded and deep fried"...the customers follows up with "are they spicey?" In your head you think wow they really asked if a jalapeno pepper was spicey... but instead you politely say "yes, a little bit but not too bad."

4. On our breakfast menus following the word eggs you can choose how you want them cooked and they are abreviated to accomodate space. SCR, OE, EM, OH. One girl starts blurting out to her friends in a rude way asking what the hell these letters meant and then i had to explain SCR = scrambled, OE=over easy, OM = over medium, and OH over hard...you could tell just by the way she talke that she paid someone off to get in to eastern.

Then there's the people that argue with you when they circle OE and then complain and say "I didn't want this yellow runny crap" on their plate. Co worker continues to tell them that that is what they ordered and that what they should have circled was OH. He then started agrueing with her saying he thought OH was scrambled because obviously SCR must mean something else...could not possibly stand for scrambled.

I'm sure there are many other stories I could tell you but this getting getting pretty long, just don't be those dumb people that slow everything up for the more intelligent.

Sincerely, 
Almost 3 Year Employee of the UFC

So FB may not be my only addiction...

Alright, lets go back a few years, back to when I was a young high school lad...

It was maybe my junior or senior year when I was introduced to what would soon become my new found joy in life. Mind you, unlike my friends disapproval for my addiction to facebook. I've actually drawn a number of people into the greatness that is Chipotle Mexican Grill.

 I have gotten a lot of my friends here at school addicted as well. The list includees Ian, Maverick, Julie, Kristen...and then there are the stragglers that for some reason dislike the greatness of chipotle. Yet for some reason I still talk to them, but they have undoubtedly dropped down on my list and this includes Maggie(jk magz ur still cool), who has given me legit reason saying that it is too spicey for her. Carolyn on the other hand just gave it a 5 out of 10...and Dustin has yet to try it and refuses...and my respect for him deminishes with every passsing day because of this.

It is said that distance only makes the heart grow stronger and well...i'm very far away from  a chipotle living here in charleston so you can imagine the love i have in my heart every time i get the chance to go to Champaign. Fortunately i am going to chipotle today and my mouth is already watering.

I can sit here and complain all I want about the distance, but even at home it is about a half hour away so I almost feel that i would have less of a love and appreciation for it if I were to have it right down the street like my napervillian friends...and they have several chipotles, those bastards.

Basically what I'm getting at is my life would be nothing without Facebook to occupy my time and Chipotle to fill the hunger both in my stomach and heart.


- Chicken Burrito-no beans

I may have a problem to Face

But to me I just call it a part of life like breathing, eating and drinking.

I do it every day and even MULTIPLE times a day. I just can't help myself. I mean everyone does it so why not.

Facebook is like a 6th finger to me. I am on it all the time, every second I can find the time. It's terrible and I should tone it down, but hey I'm an American so why would I do such a thing.

I must say that I never really got into Facebook until college, I was alllll about the myspace...then i soon learned the error of my ways and moved on up in life.

I didn't really start this life altering addiction until the spring of my freshman year. I would say that I was a pretty normal user. But then about a year later I got it on my phone...and it has been all down hill in the eyes of my friends.

One of my friends even coined the phrase that "I've always got one foot in the book"...which I use on a regular basis.

I have now gotten to the point that I have the Facebook app on my phone and I check it hundreds of times a day...walking to class, waiting in line in the dining hall, during classes, while I'm talking to someone I really don't feel like talking to...just any time of the day when I feel like it. To me it just fills those little boring times of the day.

I would have to say that the most rewarding moments is when I go to a family party and relatives tell me and remember a specific status that I posted monthes earlier and then I laugh and same with the adult workers I work with...so far the favorite has been "I don't skinny dip, I chunky dunk" lol it was pretty funny.

It is save to say that I am truly a facebook fan-addict but I will never lower myself to that twitter shit.

-facebook.com/djm605

UV Shouldn't Be...

I lived at UV last year. The actual name is University Village. They are these townhouse apartment located right behind Wal Mart here in Charleston. I am going to sit here and explain to you why UV is not the place to be.

Last year was my first year being able to live off of campus and I regretfully chose University Village. I was so excited when I signed the lease with one of my best friends. It was going to be awesome living there, everyone who worked there seemed like the nicest people and I really liked them. From the first moments moving into that place I was already experiencing problems. 

First off, in order to live in UV you MUST have a Co-Signer with your lease and all of mine and my roommate's stuff was in and set, I even reconfirmed it with UV before the summer started. About three weeks before school my roommate sends me a text saying that he UV dropped his parents as Co-Signers, mind you, this was AFTER they were already approved. He had no one else to co-sign for him, and for other reasons he was not returning to EIU, but he was still planning on living there and UV stopped answering his phone calls. UV started hounding him for money...even though he was not responsible, because it was up to the co-signers to pay rent and UV dropped his AFTER they were approved...therefore he owes them nothing, they screwed themselves with that move.

I move in pretty pissed of about not having a roommate and stuck living by myself, because they could not fill the duplex because no one lives there and all of my other friends lived on campus still so I was stranded. I tried getting out of the lease but they wouldn't budge and I couldn't blame UV for not wanting too. 

After about a week or two I come home to my back door being unlocked and stuff moved around. I lived alone so I knew I locked it...my parents call and complain and then a couple weeks later it happens AGAIN. Okay I know I live in Charleston, but its still pissed me off that they would just randomly come in and then leave and leave the door unlocked and the lights on. I finally get pissed off and vent about them coming in my house and going through my things. (I had heard from other people that they actually caught maintenance in their house doing this). Biggest thing is that I forgot I was friends with them on Facebook and then when I went to pay the rent the property questioned me about it and acting like she was "concerned" and how "we would have no reason to go through your stuff". I then apologized. 

A few months go by and now it's winter time and when you live in UV each of the three bedrooms gets a $50 electric allowance...meaning if I surpassed $150 on the electric bill then I had to pay it. For some reason it was $243 and they were saying that I only got $50 off because I was the only person living there, when all along this was not so. On average my bill was around $130 to $140. My dad called and the lady send they were "consistently telling ME I had been over the bill and they never charged me but this time it was just too much" My dad then asked "do you have any written documentation proving this?" The lady says "no, but you can ask him." My dad says "I think I will" suddenly the lady's tone of voice changes and she becomes very hesitant...so my dad knew she was lying before he asked me about it. They never once mentioned the bill to me. So my Dad  started stating exact quotes from the lease agreement saying that it was per bedroom per lease and not person person living there, and that they would pay anything above $150, but that was it. It ended with my dad saying "have a nice day Jennifer" and her just hanging up. We knew we were over the allowance and we understood that, we were not trying to get out of it, we just wanted them to pay they're legal abiding portion.

In the end we won that battle and everything was fine until I moved out and they are saying that I owed over $700 in "damages" to the place, $241 for minor scuffs on the walls, $351 for a bleach stain in the carpet that was already there when I moved in, $100 to steam clean the bed....what the fuck is that? there were no stains, we should not have to pay for routine maintenance, that is why we pay rent in the first place. There was also an additional $67 in "additional cleaning." we are still fighting them on this problem now...and I don't even live there. My parents and I tried stopping in there to talk to them about it but the front desk lady said we had to write or fax a letter and they would not handle things face to face because they are cowards.

My old roommate is now being sued because UV is saying he moved in for a month and then moved out without paying any money...I lived there the whole 12 months and he was never even given keys to the apartment...explain that.

Those are the many reasons not to be at UV... no one lives there more than one year in a row because the property manager and the assistant property manager are the most fake two faced people I have ever met and will do anything they can to get money out of you. They currently cannot even fill their buildings and you could blame it on the distance or economy, but Campus Pointe right next door has a waiting list because they know how to treat their residents. The ONLY positive thing I can say is that the buildings are really nice, but not worth the hassle.

-EX UV Resident

Beard Nets? ... Want me to shave my eyebrows off too?

I've been working at the University Food Court for almost 3 years now and when I started working there I found out that it is one of the best dining places on campus to work at (thats what people told me)...Stevenson being the other better one. Opinions may have obviously changed due to Stevenson's remodel.

Last year the food court started to buying beard nets, but did not enforce them until THIS year...in case you don't know what they are, they are the HUGE poofy nets that strap on to the front of your face and wrap around your ears. I was told that I looked like Santa and then my supervisor asked for a couple "ho ho ho''s...which was funny and I sported the net for that first day. Now I cant stand wearing the net. I know what they are getting at with trying to keep hair out of peoples food. If you looked at these nets it is obvious to see that they were made for people who had a full grown beard...not little ones like mine and the other people they force to wear these stupid things. Another thing with these nets is that it doesn't even cover my beard completely...my mustache hangs out, so does that not count? oh and I also have eyebrows and eye lashes...should we get nets for those? or even the hair on my arms? It is just getting to be to much because there is no way of being perfect and even if we serve you your food whose to say that the girl with long hair walking passed you isn't going to lose one stand of hair and land it in your food.

They also enforced a new rule where girls have to have every strand of hair under their hat including bangs so now people are made about that especially when higher up people who I'm not going to name don't follow it, but make every one else do it. 

I will honestly say that I typically forget to put one on, but then I remember and still just don't bother because they are itchy and I can't stand them. Most days I get out of wearing one but then there is that ONE supervisor that pisses EVERYONE off and then makes me put one on. I guess this is what I get for laughing at the people who work at the Wal Mart deli last year...

-Red Beard

Stevenson Tower Dining...

I don't even know what to exactly call that place now...its changed and I still have no idea.

I just figured I would give an evaluation of this new "worth while" dining center.

I now live in Stevenson for the first time. Last year I was off campus and I could write 15 different blogs about that crap hole..but I  can save that for another time. Maybe once I know there isn't a lawsuit.

Once I signed up to live in Stevenson I was like "hey that'll be cool, I'll have a dining center in the bottom." Then over the course of the summer I found out and saw that it was being remodeled and then I was like "cool, even better!" came to school only to find that it was delayed two weeks due to "rain." I'll say that the new dining center looks amazing and I really like how it looks. The newspaper and poster were all say "its worth the wait"...little did i know that they really meant the long waits in line.

I went there today TWICE....first time I was in a rush to get to work and got lunch to go and the lines were TERRIBLE. All along I was told that this problem would not exist anymore and granted they have two lines now, BUT they only have ONE person to check you out so once you waited forever for you food u then had to wait just as long to check out. Ideally two checkout people would probably be better but what can ya do...they spent all the money on the remodel and forgot about additional registers, OH and they got rid of trays at Carmen to save money and go green...I completely understand the going green thing and I support that but come on....saving money by not washing trays? Probably shouldn't have pissed away all of the budget on Stevenson Dining then.

Overall I really do like the new dining center, but they still have some kinks to get worked out and I'm glad I can eat there again. and Mary who works on the Sandwich line is the coolest lady I know.

-Der Bear

The Short-Lived Marathon...

Lets rewind a little bit, back to ole' freshman year...Back when I worked at Marathon Gas station in Charleston. 

I'll reflect on my two month career in that place where I worked a total of eight days.

Upon coming to Eastern I had no job, but had left over graduation money and that is what I lived off of for a few months until I found my way to Marathon. I had worked at a gas station for 2 and a half years back in my home town so I was a shoe-in. I went in for an interview and got the job. It was at the interview that I found out I would be working the midnight shift. I wasn't happy about it but at the same time I needed money and it was a job. I worked every Friday and Saturday night 10PM to 6AM. Every student on the EIU campus looked forward to enjoying their weekend, except me. 

Since I only worked two days a week it was hard to fully grasp how all the different machines worked like the Lotto Machine, the check machine, the phone card machine and certain things on the register. For my first two days I was was able to work with someone who trained me, after that weekend I was on my own. Since this is a 24 hour gas station at 2AM is when the entire system and computers "restart their day." This meant that I had TONS of reports that I had to print out on the little receipt paper and literally its a solid ten minutes where this machine is printing nonstop...meanwhile because it is printing reports I cannot ring anyone up and no one can get gas and I have to count out my drawer and swap it with a new drawert. Doesn't seem like a big deal...except ALL the bars close at 2AM so then I have all these people waiting and getting angry and drunk...and literally I can't do anything. 

So on my first night by myself this time comes around and everything is going well and I start printing and its going...and then someone comes up for gas (if you didn't know, every time the nozzle is picked up it makes this loud beeping sound inside for me to approve it) and I try to approve it and the register won't let me because it is doing all these reports. I tell the person on the intercom to hang the nozzle back up...beeping does not go away. Then the printer runs out of paper. Then I try and reload the printer and somehow do it backwards thus jamming it (it was that weird receipt paper that had the yellow and white pieces). Tons of people come in waiting. More people are trying to get gas and there is receipt paper ALL over the ground. About then I'm panicking on the inside because I'm all alone. I give in and call my manager waking him up and then 10 minutes later he comes in to save the day and I feel like an idiot and an  asshole for waking him up, and to top it off I am supposed to do it all over again the next night.

The next night goes great and then I went to McDonald's at 6AM for breakfast with my roommate.

Finally after I receive a call from the University Food Court and they want me to work there. (I had applied months earlier) After the interview they said they would hire me for the next semester. So after Christmas break I give Marathon my two weeks notice and I feel bad because they were all really nice, but I literally only worked there the last two weeks before break then had 3 weeks off for break and then worked my final two weeks. 

In the end there were no hard feelings and I still get my gas there and I've worked at the food court for almost 3 years now. OH and I now know almost all the songs on the Now 25 CD because that is all I could listen too when I was working 8 hours by myself...one time a customer caught me singing and that was awkward.

-Big D

Senior Year Thoughts.

Not sure really where I should begin here...


     I kind of feel like I have really overextended myself this semester, I hope I didn't overdo things and stretch myself to thin...but that might be to late. Between classes, interning, WEIU, and the food court everything in my days are just back to back and basically 10 hour days at that. Right now it is going okay but hopefully down the road it doesn't burn me out...if it does then the food court is getting the cut back. I hate working in the morning anyways...and it makes me smell like grease. I almost feel like I should have taken it a little easier my senior year just to soak up my last year of college and enjoy it. Its weird getting used to the fact that this IS my last year and there are so many people that I have become great friends with and I probably will never see again which it sucks....but I guess there's Facebook.

     Then there's the whole concept of the real world, and entering it and hopefully finding a real job if there are some still out there. To be honest it kind of terrifies me...I may make jokes about it and all, but seriously what is going to happen? Hopefully I don't turn into one of those people that just lives with his parents till he 35...because my house doesn't even have a BASEMENT! haha.

     I don't know, I just figured I would right some things that have been on my mind lately, because college has been an awesome experience and I don't want it to end, so many of my friends can't wait till I graduate and come home. Honestly I really don't want to come home, its boring half the time and I've changed a lot since the high school years. Sometimes I really wish my friends from home would have gone away to college like I did because then they would understand where I'm coming from half the time and I know them and they would have enjoyed college a lot.

     I really hope I'm doing this whole blogging thing right, I'm not sure if there is necessarily a "wrong way" but I guess I should find out soon, right AJ? lol

-Derek