New Clothes

I was looking foward to this Saturday, mainly looking foward to sleeping in. For some reason this entire past week, I have naturally been waking up at 5:30 am even though my alarm doesn't go off until 6:30. I have noticed over the past few years I have an internal alarm clock. If I think to myself about 3-4 times before bed "I have to get up at X time" I will generally wake up way before that time, on my own. Now, I would never trust it and not set an alarm, but it's funny that it happens.

Today I woke up at 5:30, as usual and then fell back asleep until 9:30. I got up after watching 30 minutes of some murder mystery on TV, and called the gas company because I thought I had a small gas leak in the water heater. While I waited for them to come I got ready. It was pretty embarassing when the gas guy came, because he must have thought I was stupid. I told him several times "I'm from the south, and I've never dealt with gas before, only electric". He looked up at me confused and said "oh...ok". He said the slight gas smell was normal, especially since the vent goes to the roof. I feel better now atleast. Gas is scary. I like electric things better.

I drove out to Howell today to the Tanger Outlets. It took me around 30 minutes to get there, but it was worth it. I got some great work clothes. Banana Republic has these odd sizes, but they work for me well. A 36/30 has gotten a little too big for me, a little baggy. The 34/30 is still too tight. Well, Banana Rebublic makes a 35/30 which feels like it was tailored just for me. Not only that, but all things in the store were 50% off. So, I ended up getting 3 pairs of pants, 2 shirts, a belt, and 4 pairs of socks for $150 which I thought was really good. It's really nice stuff too, all dress clothes. At work, the human resources generalist after telling us the dress policy said "You're working at the Headquarters for North America, how do you want to represent that?". I get the idea, and I like it. I used to hate wearing dress clothes, but when I bought a suit and started interviewing for jobs I liked it. I think it helps my self confidence.

After I got done with that I went to Wal Mart to buy milk and a fire security box for my important documents, all 4 of them. Passport, car title(s), birth certificate, and social security card. I don't have all the bonds, stocks, and jewels, and gold that adults do yet, but I'll try. I put my apartment lease and renter's insurance policy in the box though to feel special.

Apparantly I do have family in Michigan, near Flint that I've never met. It's my grandmother's sister's daugher. I emailed her to introduce myself and mentioned possibly meeting. Her response: "David, we go camping a lot so I don't know if we can meet". I guess they must do a lot of camping. How strange.

I also got a $2 car wash today in Novi. There are two car washes within 2 miles of me, a $2 car wash and a $3 car wash. I saved a dollar, but used it to vacuum out my car. Those places are so great, it's a really long automated wash and they have attendants that wash the front and back of the car off. I know I'll love that place in the winter time, I'll probably go there everyday to wash the salt off. There are still cars here with salt all over them...and it's June! Wash your car! It drives me crazy. Especially when I see a salty Saturn.

I went to a church tonight. I'm going to another church tomorrow that Jeff, my supervisor, goes to and recommended. The church I went to tonight was called Northridge and was pretty much a mirror image of New Spring that I went to in Clemson. Actually, it was a little smaller. The worship style was very similar and it was pretty nice overall. I'll probably go back. It's really close to me also, only 5 miles away. I'll see how the church is tomorrow too, so I can compare them. The service tonight was on communion and baptism. I don't know what it is, but New Spring and this church, Northridge have soapboxes about "full immersion" baptism. You HAVE to be fully immersed. New Spring says so because it's the closest you'll come to death, symbolizing your old life before Christ "dying". Northridge says immersion is the way to go because that's how everyone in the bible was baptised, by immersion. I personally think it's a baptist thing, but who can tell. New Spring in Clemson and Northridge are non-denominational churches, but I think they are baptist inspired.

After that, I went to IKEA to look around and get a few small things I wanted. And dinner. $2.50 for 2 hot dogs, chips, and a drink is amazing. I ended up buying $130 worth of "small" things. I bought an end table, 2 pillows, 2 lamps, bamboo, and some other small things. One of the lamps was broken though in the box, so I need to take it back and exchange it. IKEA still doesn't have my bedside table in stock yet! I want to get it because I'm tired of sitting my alarm clock on the floor.

I'll post tomorrow about the other church. It feels so nice outside now. It's around 70F and clear skies. I think I'll like the summers here.