I can't wait to get our own place...

It feels like the summer is going by so fast. I can't believe that it is going to be August tomorrow. How did July go by so quickly?

I applied to about a dozen jobs last week. I only heard back from one, at a Latin American Youth Center. I got an email saying that they'd like to do a phone interview with me. I emailed them back to let them know I'd do a phone interview, but they haven't let me know what day and time they'd like to talk to me yet.

I've been looking into doing more community service type things. I found out about this group called Rotaract, which is basically like the Rotary club for people between the ages of 18 and 30. Jake and I went to one of their meetings on Wednesday, and then on Saturday, we volunteered at a local food bank with them. It was interesting, and I had fun doing it. I wouldn't mind going back to help there again. I'm probably going to look into some of the other stuff that Rotaract does, too. I know they took homeless kids to Chuck E. Cheese recently. I wish I could've been in on that...basically because I want an excuse to go hang out at Chuck E.'s. :)

Jake and I went to a housewarming party held by a few guys that work at the patent office Saturday night. I drank far too much and felt like crap on Sunday. I had a lot of fun, though. I played guitar with some people, ate a good hamburger, and met a lot of people. Angela showed up with a guy for a little while and then said that they were going to go out dancing. I tried to convince Jake to go out dancing, too, but he didn't want to. I met this girl named Jen who went to school at Penn State whose fiance also works at the patent office. She came across as fairly girly-girl. I had to talk to her about wedding stuff and dresses and all that garbage. Yuck. I could tell she's one of those believers in having the "perfect wedding". I bet she believes in soulmates and all that shit. Anyway, she was bragging about how she can beat guys at push-up contests, etc...then I beat her armwrestling. Haha. Most of the other girls at the party seemed pretty cool. I met one girl who told me that she examines patents for racks (coat racks and wine racks and all of that...). How does one end up doing that?

The situation with Justin and the apartment is weird. I don't understand him. I really think that he is looking to create situations in order to be angry and antisocial towards us. Okay, so there was the incident a few months back when he accused Jake of opening and sending back one of his Netflix DVDs (which Jake did not do). Justin never confronted Jake directly, but instead sent an angry email to him. Jake tried to talk to Justin about it, but Justin would lock himself in his room and refuse to respond. Since then, Justin will talk to Jake over the lunch hour at the patent office and in front of other people, but whenever he comes home to the apartment, he doesn't talk to us. He typically makes a beeline for his bedroom and shuts himself up in there. Weird. It's like he's stored up all this anger over some imagined slight. He doesn't communicate with us. Anyway, from what we know, Justin is planning to go back to Wisconsin for a wedding sometime soon. Last week, Jake sent him an email while at work and got an automatic "out of the office" reply saying that he would be out of the office until Aug. 14. We did not see him around the apartment or hear from him for a couple of days after that, so we naturally assumed that he had left for the wedding he'd mentioned earlier. Saturday morning, after volunteering, Jake and I came home and the house smelled different...like perfume or something. There was also a spanish newspaper and a backpack sitting in our living room. Naturally, since we thought Justin was gone, we wondered who had been in the apartment. Jake called Justin and left him a voicemail. Later, Justin called back and simply said, "The backpack is my mom's. Don't touch it," and hung up on Jake. No exchange of communication. I don't know if that boy doesn't understand phone manners or what... Anyway, Jake then called back and left a voicemail saying, "We thought you had left...did you give your family keys or something? We're wondering why they would be here when you are not here." Justin did not call back after that. We came home after the party Saturday night and the backpack was gone from the living room, the newspaper had been moved, and there was a bottle of water on the coffee table. So, it was obvious that people had come back after we had left. Then, (and I don't know what possessed him to do this, because it is the last thing I would do...considering what a freak Justin is...) Jake tried to open Justin's bedroom door and found that it was locked. He then knocked and said, "Hello? Who's here?" There was no response. So anyway, we were both weirded out that Justin was just letting someone random sleep in his room while he was gone. I wrote a note that said "Dear whoever is in our apartment: Justin did not tell us that anyone was staying here. Honestly, we're a bit creeped out right now. Could you please leave a note and/or have a conversation with us to tell us who you are? Thank you for being understanding, Candy and Jake." Turns out that it was Justin that was sleeping in there. We got a note back in the morning that said, "Introductions are not needed, as we have already met. Please don't disturb me again (especially at 1:30am). Also stop touching my stuff, and don't attempt to enter my room." Ouch. I can understand about being upset about Jake knocking on his door early in the morning, but I'm confused about what "stuff" he is pissed off about us touching. Can we not sit on his futon? Is he pissed that I'm bringing his mail upstairs? Or cleaning his damn dirty dishes? Is he touchy because we've watched one or two of his 8 billion DVDs (which he must buy so many of to fill up his empty possession-obsessed life?)? What an ass. How does he not understand that he should just let us know what's going on so that little misunderstandings don't blow up into major drama? Anyway, Jake wrote him a note apologizing for trying to go in his room and posted it on his door, but we haven't seen him for the last day and a half, so I don't know what's going on with that... I want to ask him to clearly define what "stuff" we can't touch. But, I don't think that he's going to be open to talking about that...yup, he's got to cause drama. I don't even know how to deal with him besides just write him off as a lost cause and think things will be better once Jake and I get our own place in September.