"Mommy," I asked tentatively, "can I wear thistoday to school?" What do you think?" my mother said doubtfully."Mommy, Melissa wears pants all the time..." I said referring to my bestfriend."I don't care what Melissa's mother allows her to wear, you will eitherwear a skirt with that top, or just a dress."Cowed, I trudged back to my room. Melissa wasn't the only girl whowould be in pants in my class. Virtually every girl would be wearingpants, some even wore jeans. "I'm in middle school now, I. Kyle had told me that there would only be two waiters, another guy my age and myself, but he said that he would pay us $350 each for the night because of the extra work load. I arrived at Kyle’s and walked up to the front door. Kyle’s house was impressive, a huge house that could nearly be called a mansion. After knocking on the door I heard foot steps and the door opened. With the door opened I was faced with a good looking guy of about thirty years old. The guy in front of me quickly. It was just personal. You guys were always good. I never thought anything else. You have to believe me!”“We’re good, Sergeant. He said the same thing. You two were just oil and water.”I nodded in agreement. Then I went to report to the lieutenant, a guy named Hicks, who had flown in. He was pretty human. “Sergeant, your job here is done. From what I can see, somebody handed you a shit sandwich, and you handled it anyway. Now, go sit down and get some stitches and crack open an MRE. More. At first, we only shipped small amounts of the crude oil in fifty-gallon stainless steel drums to my new petro-lab. There I experimented. Even though I already knew from the notes in my books what temperatures to use to distill different compounds, I wanted to make sure I had it right. Within a year, our first petroleum distillery opened.I knew I was nearing the end of my patience for the constant grind involved in re-inventing things I used to take for granted. Rather than re-invent the diesel.