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That's the random message that the Telexon at work kept giving me today. I scanned in a bunch of price changes but after it gave me this message and beeped really loudly, it erased everything I had done-- which I didn't find out until later! Gah, nothing better than essentially wasting an hour or two of my time.

Not 100% sure what I planned on writing, so I'll just ramble and we'll see what happens.

I've decided to stop going to Starbucks, at least for now. Yes, it hurts. Baristas at 3 different locations in New York have become affiliated with the IWW and have gone on strike to improve working conditions, etc. Since I've known people that have worked there, I'd always heard that it wasn't too bad of a company to work for and although they were anti-union. But having read a bunch of articles recently on what working there is really like, the company apparently does some awful things. For example, it's almost impossible for workers to gain full time status, thus being unable to receive benefits or even just earn a decent amount of money. I'm not exaggerating when I say that that's on the same level of evilness as Wal*Mart, and you know how much I love *that* place.

So, it should be interesting to see what happens, but for now Starbucks is off limits. My pumpkin spice lattes and espresso fudge brownies will be missed. If you want to know more, I recommend checking out www.starbucksunion.org.

Speaking on New York, Rich and I are headed back there in a few weeks! I was browsing through posts on one of the Broadway message boards I frequent and discovered that there's going to be an off-Broadway show about the Haymarket Square Riot. It's only playing through December, so we're aiming for Saturday, the 10th. The show hasn't opened yet, so I haven't read any reviews, but I'm excited about it. I just hope it won't be too cold or snowing on that day. You never know around here. This morning was so warm, I was able to do my barn work with just a sweatshirt-- no hat or gloves or anything. . .and I was actually *too* warm!

I'm kinda sad about ending the barn work next Friday, because I really don't mind doing it when it's not, you know, 18 degrees out. But it was a good opportunity, and now if I ever try taking lessons in exchange for barn work, I can point to my experience there and I'm sure Sharon would speak well of me. I think next year I'd like to actually ride, even if it's just taking a lesson here and there, so I'll have to put that on my tentative goals list for 2006.

My friend Jen *finally* emailed me back, weeks after I sent her an email. I was getting kinda sad about not hearing from her, figuring she'd be one of those people that would just fall away without a trace, but luckily that hasn't happened. I guess grad school has been a TON of work and she even had to drop one class because of the work load. But let's not forget that she also works 40+ hours a week at her retail job. She pulled it off during her undergrad years, but I guess that's not possible anymore. She has always been one of those people who doesn't have to study a lot or spend a lot of time on her papers, yet still gets A's, but sounds like that's not the case anymore. Anyway, she actually has a free day this Saturday, so we're going to get together and have dinner or dessert up in the northern half of the state somewhere, since she lives about ten minutes from where my parents' condo is. We'll have a ton of catching up to do, since we haven't seen each other since *July* and although we emailed each other once after our respective Big Events (my breakup, her engagement), there's tons to discuss.

I stayed at my parents' condo this past weekend, and it was a decent time. We went out for dinner at this place called Mama McGee's and the food was good, but the portions were INSANE. Honestly, it typified the reason why Americans are so obese. I ordered eggplant parm and pasta, and I got three full meals out of just the leftovers! Not to mention, they also give you soup/salad/bread bar with it. It was very reasonably priced, but seriously, it was just too much food (but at least I could put off grocery shopping for a few days!). Otherwise, my parents and I just got along alright, which is much more positive than it sounds.

On one of my message boards (not a Bway one :p) someone was talking about googling your own name and email address to see what people can find out about you that way. I've googled my name for awhile now, and I already knew that nothing of interest comes up besides *maybe* the Jonathan Hadary bio I created on Broadwayworld.com. I had honestly never thought of typing in my email addy though. All I found was a link to every single entry I made in my online diary from a few years ago, haha. I was reading through some of the entries that popped up on the first page of results and yes, saying that things between my parents and I are "alright" is an improvement.

BTW, I don't care if you go off and google my email address to find my old diary. Read it all you want, but be aware that it's pretty grim.

Well, I actually think that's enough rambling since I want to type a short entry in ICA too. So now everyone can go click on the link to my profile and up my view count even more, haha.