I got up earlier than usual today and took Amanda to work. I took my laptop with me, along with my blue button-up shirt and a tie. It was Deposition Day.

After I dropped Amanda off (because the Jetta is getting an oil change) I went to Sears to drop the Oldsmobile off for an oil change too. I stood at a line for literally 15 minutes at 8:00 in the morning (with only two people in front of me) without anyone saying a single word to me. That annoyed me, but I was able to live with it. What really peeved me was that when I told the guy I needed an oil change, he said, “Oh, you need to go over there to Jiffy Lube,” and pointed around the corner.

I actually grumbled about that, and I’m not one to grumble much. If someone had just said something to me in the first place, I wouldn’t have wasted so much time. It’s not like it’s an obvious place, it’s around a couple corners and tucked back a bit, and the only way to it is to go past a large customer service-looking desk, which would make people think that’s where to go for an oil change. I did see a sign with Jiffy Lube hanging up, but I took it to mean they were affiliated with them. Anyway, once I did get to the Jiffy Lube counter it took no time at all and I headed over to Bear Rock.

Scott got there not long after me and we planned on going over tickets, but because of the four and a half hour long deposition he had yesterday, he was rather behind in e-mails and wanted a little time to catch up. Unfortunately, before we had a chance to catch up I was called in for my deposition. It was scheduled for 11:00, but I figured I’d go ahead and get it over with early.

That happens a lot when Scott and I meet for a purpose; something comes up and we can’t really accomplish what we set out to do.

The deposition wasn’t nearly as… imposing? as I thought it’d be. There were four people in the room besides me; a lawyer for the plaintiff and the defendant each, a court reporter and a representative from our client. Oddly, as much work as we do for that company, this was the first time I’d actually met someone from there face to face. And it’s not like their office is far from where I used to live. I really should go by there at some point.

Anyway, most of the deposition was the plaintiff’s attorney trying to get me to remember a date that I could not for the life of me recall. Another chunk of it was comprised of me answering questions with either “no,” “I don’t know,” or something to the effect of “I don’t handle that.”

Towards the end there was a prolonged moment of silence where the attorney was looking over her notes. My mind wandered, and I started thinking of Bruce being home by himself and about how by now I’d have let him outside once or twice already. Then I thought about him peeing on something, which made me want to laugh. The fact that I was trying not to laugh made it worse, and the fact that I was trying not to make myself laugh because I was thinking about my dog peeing on something while I was in a legal proceeding just made it all the worse. I had to look down and fight back a big grin, but I kept it under control.

In the end I was paid about $40 for my trouble. I called Scott and taunted him with the fact that I got the same amount of money he did and I was only there for about an hour.

Adam had called during that time to tell me he had a friend a school who did web design work and was interested in talking to me.

I headed home after that and accomlished some things, but I still feel like I’m mostly behind right now.

A girl from work took Amanda to pick up her car, which was very nice. The two of them went shopping to get some going away presents for Elisha. Small group was called off tonight because Ben had to work in Chapel Hill and wasn’t going to be able to get back in time and Rob was sprung with a presentation he had to give tomorrow, and he was going out of town for a week on top of that. We did have Paul over though. He lays tile, and we are going to redo the kitchen (and possibly the bathrooms) so we wanted to talk to him about all that.

After Paul left we caught up on American Idol, which was a two hour show (and we were an hour behind from our visit with Paul). I think the show was fun and entertaining overall. Taylor won, which isn’t a huge surprise. As I’ve said, he was an early favorite, partly because he started out an underdog and an unlikely winner with his silver hair and crazy moves. But those things became endearing I guess. Plus he has an obvious love and passion for music, which I think people noticed.

There were a lot of guest stars. I think one of the best moments was when they had a guy who’d had a terrible audition come out singing… I forget, but it was a song I like. In his audition he said he was the next Clay Aiken and was an obvious fan. I have nothing personal against gay people, but I will say the guy was pretty damn obvious. Anyway, while he was singing Clay Aiken (in oddly flat, black hair) came out and tool over the song. The guy went nuts. When he wasn’t too busy being shocked he was trying to sing along with Clay until they finally (thank God) turned off his mic.

I should mention that I am not a Clay Aiken fan. I don’t detest him like I used to (mainly because he appeared on an episode of Scrubs) but really the type of music he sings just isn’t what I like. However, I will say that the song he sang tonight (was it an Elton John song?) was good.

Elliott was singing U2’s One (probably my favorite U2 song) and I was expecting Bono to walk out from the back and join in. Instead, he completely gave the sing over to Mary J. Blige. Se did some… interesting things with the sing. I’m not sure that I really like it , but part of me must have because I think she’d do alright to do a rock album, or at least a collaboration.

Paris Bennett, by the way, was generally much better tonight than she had been. She had the most promise starting off the competition, but she failed to deliver. Amanda commented that she probably just did better without the stress.
We finished that right about the time it was actually going off, so we went ahead and watched Lost’s two hour season finale. Man, what can you say about that show? By the middle of it I thought everything was going to fall apart, and it did end on a mostly negative note. Locke and Mr. Eko (and Desmond, who returned) may have been blown up, Jack, Kate and Sawyer were being held captive by the Others, Michael and Walt were riding a boat off into some odd sort of way away from the island, Michael was exposed as a traitor, Kate, Sawyer and Hurley were angry at Jack for not exposing him sooner, the list goes on. On the upside, Claire finally kissed Charlie (which means she’s going to die, as all island-originated romances have thus far ended up fatal for the lady involved, and Kate doesn’t count because she’s not really with Jack or Sawyer) and some Russians or something detected the island in some way, so maybe there will be a rescue.

Some questions got answered and some revelations were revealed (you really do have to enter the numbers, Desmond caused the plane to crash by not putting them in, Henry appears to be a leader for the Others, Desmond’s whole story was told), but of course a lot of questions came up; too many to list really.

All in all, a good TV night.