Well, looks like I still haven’t worked any in Olympia Fields and it’s been 3 weeks since Hazel Crest closed. I figure they basically laid me off but decided to keep me on the payroll. I received a paycheck last week expecting only 5 hours on it but found out I had 21 instead. Not sure what the extra time was for but I’m not complaining. I wouldn’t be worth trying to call HR and find out it’s for something such as unused vacation. So who’s complaining?

So I finally met with that guy who responded to my Craigslist posting about web design, his name is Jeremiah Cobb and he said he is designing a website for a client going by the name Girl360. The website http://girl360.net (no longer exists) is due to launch in Spring of 2009. He asked if I’d be interested in helping him develop the site using my PHP knowledge. The site is to be designed like yet another social site rip off for tween girls between the ages of 9 and 12. They want to add features such as a Memo Pad, Cubby Hole, Parental Companion Logins, a Girl of the Month, Posters with Quotes, GirlGab, — Basically a forum. — and a Content Rating System. — Much like Digg. — He is giving the client an extremely cheap price, which means it won’t pay very much but like I said, will be worth the mark on my portfolio. He said one member of the advisory board is the Senior VP of Yahoo, so there might be some more opportunity from this later on. Our first task was to build the backend CMS and I suggested we use a project I started last year called Sawa CMS.

So yesterday was also the day of FREE GRAND SLAM at Denny’s. I’ve never really been a fan of Denny’s food but a free slam is a free slam. So I took my brother and sister, got there at about 9 AM. I had to make the Mmetra train to Downtown Chicago by 10:13 AM and totally forgot there might a long line, which of course there was. While waiting some people told me that in areas where the weather is bit milder, they have a line wrapping around the building 2 times. Fortunately, we were only in line for about 30 minutes. We arrived with the line ending right at the door, by the time we left, the line was wrapping around the corner of the building. In the end, I only had to pay for drinks, so the bill came to about $8 and some change. I mean, what a deal.

And unfortunately for me, I would have made the train if it wasn’t for our van refusing the start. We went to the Denny’s in Mokena — just down the way from the Metra station. — and my dad had come out to get it started. The train I had to get on instead left out at 10:43 AM and arrived at 12:13 PM at Millenium Park. It took a whole 1 hour and 47 minutes to get there. My mom had to come out to pick up the van and my siblings. I was originally planning to take them home, then get a ride to the Homewood station. I never realized until now how much slower all the other Metra lines run compared to the one that leaves out of Homewood. That one is known as the Metra Electric and honestly is much faster in speed. I hear the line was upgraded to electric during the last World’s Fair in Chicago in 1933. But I have to wonder why we haven’t upgraded the remaining lines since then. The Metra electric makes the trip in just 47 minutes, of course, that’s not including the number of stops made. Jeremiah and I talked for some time, so I didn’t make it back to the train until 3:45 PM and arrived back in Homewood at 4:32 PM. We met at a Starbucks just across the road from the station.

And in other news, I finally signed up for Facebook. My sister has nagged me to join for a while now. I was for some time like, “I don’t need another MySpace.” But I did it anyway. The site is rather amazing, to be honest. It funny that I discovered that my grandmother actually joined before I did, is it weird I never expected she’d do such a thing.

On a side note, I hope the weather gets better soon, I’d like to finally visit Osaka Garden — it’s inside Jackson Park — with my Dad. I’m also hoping there are tons of Japanese related event this year.

So to end this post, I wanted to share a dream I had last night. I’m sure what to make of it but it was so vivid, so get comfortable. It started with me standing alone inside what I can only assume was a traditional Japanese house with all the furnishings. I peaked around the corner to find your typical Japanese family sitting around a traditional dinner. — I remember it would have been something you dip. — I felt as if I knew the family my entire life and that they knew me. We were all wearing Kimonos, including myself. Within the family were two daughters, one which spoke fluent English and was helping teach me the language and the culture. What was strange was I felt like I really liked this girl but honestly, I had no idea who she even was. Everything was fun and loving until suddenly, my brother and younger sister came bursting in and started running around the table like a mad bull, spilling our wonderful dinner and destroying the house. Before I knew it, they had disappeared, leaving just an absolute wreck to clean up. So the girl and I decided to go to the neighbor’s house and get something. — No memory of what it was — When everything faded away and I was once again alone with strange sounds coming out of nowhere. I honestly still have goosebumps.