December 12th, 2017

I hope I didn't set Hal behind too much tonight. Then again, if I did it's kinda his own fault. He showed up at lunch today with his school books and notes. He was determined to spend time with me, but he's obviously got a lot of studying to do. I let him study, so not a lot was said. But afterward he was very apologetic and wanted to make it up to me. He suggested after work I could help him study, and maybe if he helped me to understand what he's been studying it'll help him to remember it for the test.

I don't know if we studied so much as he was instructing me. I really enjoyed it though, after all these are classes I'm sure I'll want to take when I can finally afford it. He even showed me the project he'd been working on, which it turns out The Illuminati was able to help him with. Not by doing the work for him, but by providing him contacts he might not otherwise have. A large part of his project involved interviewing people from other cultures, which he could do through email. There's resources online to be able to help with that, but Tim was able to get Hal in contact with people from all around the world. He'd been compiling data based on the answers he'd received, and he said he's met some interesting people. A few of them have even offered him a place to stay if he ever decided to travel and see the culture's he's been asking about.

Around seven we took a break and checked his kitchen for something to throw together. My first taste of cheap college food. Made me really appreciate still living with my parents. Hal tossed some roman noodles together with a bag of mixed veggies and fried up some Spam. He said old habits die hard, that this is how he'd been eating before The Illuminati started paying him. It's cheap, easy, and quick to throw together. I guess most students don't even bother adding anything to the noodles, or they get the cups that already have dried veggies in them. Makes me wonder what Max has been eating all this time. Hal had a roommate last year that was in a culinary program, and was where he'd picked up the veggies and spam.

After dinner Hal brought me home, where I arrived to a message from the dentists office reminding me of my appointment tomorrow. One more thing on my list of chores to do tomorrow. Things at work finally slowed down. It was still busy for a Tuesday, but not anywhere near as busy as it was over the weekend. It gave me a chance to actually think rather than just taking the next guests ticket request. If there's something going on with Nephmesu, it hasn't happened yet. Or at least, we haven't noticed anything yet. Granted, Max and Hal are both busy working on class projects and studying for finals, so they hadn't had a chance to really look around. That'll have to be on me. I'm hoping tomorrow I can do some snooping of my own.