Stupid gas and cars and booze and other such things

Well, I guess I haven't been doing such a good job of keeping this up, now have I. These things tend to happen, I guess. Only a brief update for right now, at least as far as the events in my life are concerned. I got the girl, the muse, the fantastic, and everything is, well, fantastic. She is amazing in every way, and better than I remember. I guess part of that has to do with growing as a person, and two years will tend to do that. I'm trying to go back to school, and as such I need to find a consistent job both in hours and location. I have a good lead going as an assistant to a printing press operator, and pending the results of a drug test I have the job. Not a bad job, but not great. I'll make about $1,200 a month after taxes, and at 36 hours a week. Could be worse, I guess. But this will at least allow me to get some school going, and save up some money. I've been really bad about that, and I definitely now realize that any money I have ever loaned out will probably never come back to me. That fact, unfortunately, is quite sad. Between my two roommates, I am owed almost $2,000 and the majority of that debt has been owed to me for over a year. And it's not like they just took the money and ran. I see them on a daily basis. I know how much money they make, and I know what they spend their money on. Luxuries. Straight up. Oh, sure, they pay their bills, but they can't afford to throw me $20 here and there? A bit ridiculous if you ask me. But oh well. I've just learned that I can't count on them for anything financially related. I suspect that one of my roommates, wait, I know one of my roommates has a drinking problem. And that's something I don't say often. He's gone far beyond the acceptable levels of alcohol intake amongst our friends, and we're already far beyond acceptable levels for normal society. That's some scary shit right there. Hopefully it'll get better once he starts working again, but there's the chance it won't. I don't want to have to deal with that, but he's a friend. Though, sadly, I have been questioning that. I call him a friend, but one thing I've always believed about friends is that they will help you out when you need help. This fucker doesn't do shit. He's a mooch. He'll do whatever he can to avoid doing anything, which might make sense to some people, but not to me. He seems to not be able to really do anything to help himself, and constantly relies on others to support him. I can't do it anymore. I've stopped buying things for him, stopped loaning things to him, and tried to stop helping him in almost any way. But he always finds others to "assist" him. And some of them are starting to get sick of it, too. Hopefully he'll realize this and become more responsible for himself, but I fear he may just move on to another group who will take care of him. He never really grew up it seems. But I can't talk about him anymore, it just angers and depresses me. As of now, I'm in the Windy City. That's Chicago, IL for all you idiots. It's been a fairly interesting time, but God do I hate driving in this city. It's not as bad as New York City, but it's still pretty fucking bad. Yet I keep getting roped into it because it seems I'm the only one of my friends with a goddamn car. Talk about a bitch. And being the nice guy I am, I can't say no. Hell, I have a hard time asking for gas money. But oh well. I guess I'm going out to eat now, and probably driving across Chi-town. Wish me luck!

Adieu

Josh