old hard drive stuff

a bunch of random shit i found on my old hard drive from the computer that i (and my dad) used from like 2007 to 2015

this era started when i moved back to live with my parents during summer break. my first semester at university was a complete failure, but my parents didn't know that yet. i was too scared to tell them. but my plan was to regroup myself during the summer and go into the fall semester with more motivation and confidence. but first, i had to get a summer job, of course! i vowed to make the month "money making may". i got a job working at a thai restaurant. it was fucking awful.

i got paid $20 a day, most of my money was from tips. the owners of the place were ridiculously cheap and stingy. they would leave the temperature at 82 degrees in the restaurant, during the horrible hot and muggy dog days in charleston. i sweat like a fucking pig trying to take people's orders and giving them their food. the owners used to literally eat half-eaten food from people's plates after they left. if any sauce was left on the plate, they reused it. THEY WASHED AND REUSED STYROFOAM CUPS. god, i'm glad i'm not a business owner.

there were many days when there were only 2 people working there: me, and the cook who couldn't speak english. so i had to run the entire front of house by myself. it was absolutely exhausting. i would be dead tired by the time i got home, and i barely had energy to do anything. but i did get free thai food, so that was cool.

i was able to take a week off from work when my gf visited me from california. we had an amazing and great time! until we suddenly didn't.

my dad figured that it would be fun for the three of us to go canoeing in a river nearby. there was a place that offered canoes and stuff. i remember feeling iffy about getting into the canoe. it felt... off. like it was gonna tip over at any time. but i got in anyway.

it was really nice! it was a lovely day outside, and it was calming to be in nature. but then, uh... a spider got in the canoe. a big one. and my gf screamed bloody murder. next thing i knew, the canoe tipped over, and i was completely submerged in the muddy river.

thank god we had life jackets on. they weren't even a requirement, but i insisted on us getting them beforehand. i can't swim, so that's the only reason i was able to stay afloat. the canoe was overturned, and we were holding onto it for dear life. my gf got her phone out and called 911. i remember us yelling "help!!" at the lady on the phone.

did i mention this river had alligators in it? yeah... i remember seeing something that looked like an alligator, just the top of its head, swim by us. i could've panicked, screamed "OH MY FUCKING GOD AN ALLIGATOR" and increased the panic, but i kept my damn mouth shut. getting more panicked wasn't going to help our situation at all. thankfully, the gator just swam on by, completely unintersted in us.

we held onto the canoe for what felt like forever. eventually, the police came in a canoe of their own, and literally dragged us out of the river and onto dry land. i remember walking in the swampy forest completely barefoot, which was gross. there was an ambulance waiting, in case one of us was injured, but thankfully we were fine. physically, anyway.

once we got home, we cried, then took the longest shower of our lives. my phone was waterlogged and fucked, so i had to buy a new one. overall, not a fun experience! definitely the scariest situation i've ever been in. for a while afterwards, i did feel some slight trauma from it. i would sometimes recollect the situation in my head whenever i was drifting off to sleep, and my heart would race again, and i had to gasp for air. those feelings are mostly gone now. but i'm NEVER canoeing again.