32

Today was such a somber day. I dropped my mom off to work this morning, came back home, turned on my stereo to try to fall back asleep to, but all the talk was about Michael's death. I fell in and out of sleep, and I feel like I sort of woke up at the most awkward part. I remember hearing the DJ say, "Now we leave you with the song that launched Michael Jackson's solo career." The song was "Ben". I admit that I started crying when the song went on; it was that much of an emotional song. I feel like anyone would be bummed out just listening to that song.

I remember I had the news on when they started broadcasting that Michael Jackson was rushed to the hospital. My dad came home and said that he might be dead. Sure enough an hour later he was pronounced dead. My dad started crying, he was such a huge MJ fan since the beginning. Before I went to bed last night, I went to the basement and raided my dad's record collection. I know he had an original of "Thriller" and "We are the World". I left "We are the World" down with his collection, but "Thriller" is now sitting in my personal collection, hehehehe.

I woke up super late as always and realized that I should've bought a newspaper. I pulled the same move after the election, and searched all of Gaithersburg and Rockville for the latest papers declaring Obama's win. I don't know why I didn't think twice to stop at the gas station to pick up a paper. I went around 1:45 pm, and of course the gas station was fresh out. I went to work and ran in to John walking in as well. We talked about how bummed we both were about MJ, and how it's still surreal. Everyone started talking about it as soon as we walked in. Either Sandra or Amy said this; it was the very same thing I told Billy a few hours before, "A part of our childhood went with him". Now that I think about it, he was the very first musician I can honestly say I remember listening to besides my grandma's lullabies, old cultural songs, and '40s swing music. I remember freaking out with my cousins when his music video would show on TV, and we attempt to dance and sing along. We talked about the possible theories from the skin alterations to mental stability. I heard somewhere that he altered his nose many times, because every time he looked in the mirror he saw his father. The one thing we all agreed upon was that he was still a child in his head. The Peter Pan complex really took the best of him.

Work was a nightmare none the less. For a good two hours, it was busy. The line was almost out the door, some people were a royal pain in the ass. This guy I had to serve ordered two big tubs of two different signatures. Thankfully he was cool after I finished, and tipped $5. This one lady who always comes every Friday with her million kids was there; she was only with two of her daughters this time. This other group of middle school girls and someone's mom (maybe) came in, and they all had online coupons. I looked at the backs of the coupons and they looked sketchy. I told everyone else to look, and they all agreed and showed it to John. It was legit, but it was suspicious as to where and how this woman obtained all these online coupons. She had a stack in her purse left after she was done with the group.

The time was passed laughing and joking. During one song we had to sing, Jonathan screwed up and restarted the entire song. We all stopped and looked at him. I just yelled "FAIL" when he asked what happened. Another highlight was that Stephanie was there again, and I had a chance to talk to her when it was slow. Another couple of customers came in, so I couldn't chat anymore. Closing became more interesting. Jonathan had a big bottle of Malibu pineapple rum, and made himself a daiquiri before we had to ring our stuff up and bring the dishes back. I thought it was hilarious. John saw it and started making fun of Jonathan, saying stuff like, "When other companies call to ask about your work ethic, I'll just tell him that he likes to drink of on the job during the last 45 minutes. Yeah, when it was busy he was a great worker, but he likes to drink on the job!" John is seriously the coolest boss I've ever had, besides Dawn. He just continued to laugh at Malloy and his bottle of liquor. Alex is underage, but flipped when she saw the liquor. Some of the daiquiri started leaking over the side of Malloy's cup, and she kept offering to lick it off. I'm so exhausted and my feet are killing me. I have to work on Sunday, and the next two weekends after. I didn't realize what I got myself in to. I'm covering for someone on Sunday. As far as I'm concerned, I don't have anymore hours after the weekend of July 12. Maybe the possible NorCal trip won't be a problem after all. I should notify them just in case.