Tiredish

I've been quite busy lately, between working 40 hours a week and doing research, among other things. I'm still not 100% sure when I'm going to the other store, but they are set to open next week, and Chris said that he put me on the schedule. I may have to stop by and talk to John tomorrow, to find out if he knows what's going on.

I must say that I'm in no hurry to leave my current store. We've been more productive during these past few weeks than I ever remember us being with Lora, despite John being a very easygoing manager. My new coworkers (that I've met) seem alright, though of course it might take me some time to warm up to everyone cuz that's how I usually am. At least I know what I'm doing though-- a lot of our workers are brand new, including the other closers and assistant managers. Plus, I know that Chris gave us several of the same shifts, so hopefully Lora won't give us a ton of stuff to do since she knows we're more knowledgable than everyone else!

Research is going well, although it's going to take me 10 years to get through the Garfield assassination. Hell, I didn't finish Lincoln yet. :/ I might need to draw up a better plan for myself some time soon, but at least I'm getting *something* done, lol.

Travis and I went to a meeting of the South County chapter of the RI Campaign to Eliminate Childhood Poverty on Thursday night. Yes, it has to do with that man our professor told us to speak to at the Labor History conference. Unlike the IWW, which we've basically given up on, this group has been and continues to be active and have actually accomplished meaningful things! Not that I've stopped caring about worker's rights, or that unionization is important or any of that, but the Boston IWW group doesn't DO anything. They're more about making appearances than organizing workers, and that's not cool. I'll admit that poverty and the issues related to it are things that I've only recently (comparatively speaking) become interested in. Growing up in an upper-middle class household, I obviously do not have the firsthand experience, but from what I have learned thus far, I don't understand how people can NOT care. Anyway, the group has some events planned within the upcoming months and hopefully work won't prevent me from taking part in some of them. For now my first task is reading through the billions of handouts we were given! :p

Other than that, I've just been stalking animal science majors on Facebook that have pictures of lambs in their profiles. Hehe.

Oh, and some possibly sad news. Although at first I thought it was an elaborate April Fool's Day joke, it does seem as though WBRU has been bought out and replaced with some god-awful pop music station. That really sucks, as there aren't currently any other alternative rock stations in the area, so what are we all supposed to listen to now? As I said, I originally thought it was a hoax, but I've been seeing more and more evidence to the contrary. Boo. Sad day in Rhode Island. :(

haha, not THAT question!

That's for you, Matt! ;)

Today was alright. Work was interesting, as always. I've been getting to meet some of the guys I'll be working with at the new store since they've been training at my current place. Yesterday one of my coworkers told me I "had" to meet this one kid because he seemed kinda punk and she thought we'd hit it off well. And we did get along okay until I got around to mentioning my interest in anarchism and he shot himself in the foot by saying (essentially) that it was a pretty ridiculous idea, etc. etc. We talked some more throughout the day and it's obvious he's one of those people that immediately equates anarchy with chaos, you know, people running around everywhere shooting others and stealing cuz they can. Grr.

Then with John, holy hell-- please do NOT start with the masturbatory pro-Bush, Republican talk every time we're in the office for more than 5 minutes! You're certainly entitled to your point of view, but you act as though you assume that I will agree with whatever you're spouting off about. Um, not so. At least I was able to counter *some* of the things he said in a decent way, but the whole situation is annoying nevertheless. It sucks even more because otherwise he's been a great manager so far. . . a lot more sensible than Lora in many ways.'

Oh, dammit, I gotta go for a bit. I'll finish later.

ETA: actually, I guess I don't have anything else to add. Tomorrow I'll be out for most of the day but I will need to be back at night since I'm working Thursday morning. That is all.

. . .

I'm feeling irrationally jealous right now.



Rich, come back please.

Sunpop Gets Around

Rob is watching some disturbing movie on TV and I can't help watching it even though it's probably going to give me nightmares. :p

Actually, my dreams have NOT been usual lately. I've had a handful in the past few weeks, but none of them were about someone wanting to kill me, or filled with the usual sense of dread. Not that they've been things I'd *want* to happen, but I take these over the other dreams any day.

Well, I need to be getting to bed, but today was overall a good day. I got a fair amount of research and reading done earlier, and then Matt and I hung out for a few hours tonight. We didn't necessarily do a whole lot, but we got to talk about some things, which is always appreciated. (And he tried the strawberry soda, hence the title-- sorry Travis, but it's probably gonna go flat anyway before you get back over here to have some more of it, haha)

No! Joey!!

Not only is Joey gone, but the entire poster that we taped his head to is missing! Chris and I are positive this is John's doing, and a copy of it probably went in our employee files in some deep, dark Brooks vault, haha.

I went to Brewed tonight, on a hot date with my Lincoln book (almost finished!). I only stayed for 30 minutes or so, as the place was quickly overrun with hoardes of high schoolers and they started dimming the lights, so I took that as a hint to leave. I stopped by Brooks just cuz, but people were busy and were just getting ready to go out drinking anyway, so I didn't stay very long there either.

I was hit on by a guy at work today. There is a (short) story behind it, but I don't feel like telling. He doesn't need to know that I won't be at that store for much longer, hehe.

(However I *was* recently asked kinda "out" by some guy I've known for awhile and um, I turned him down. I *did* feel mean about that, but. . .)

I thought I had more to write about tonight, but I guess I don't. I'm gonna grab something to eat and then read for awhile.

What's Missing?

Remember back a few months ago, when I was pondering what I would do after I graduated? I came to the conclusion that my job would be secondary, just something to pay the bills, and that as long as I'd still have time to do my research and whatever else, I would be content.

In a way, that exact scenario is already playing out. I'm still working in retail and I'm managing to do my research, in bits and pieces, but it's slowly adding up. Somehow the whole situation feels a lot less satisfying to me than I thought it would. Maybe because I'm still at Brooks, seeing no big reason to leave since I got promoted, maybe it's because I'm still relying on my parents to pay for some things. Will I be more content when I have my own apartment? When I'm attempting to pay for everything myself?

I *know* that this phase is temporary, but it's so hard to get that into my head. I can't help feeling slightly embarrassed when people ask what I'm doing now that I've graduated and I tell them I'm still working at Brooks. I'm not sure when I'm going to even start thinking about grad school. That's going to require taking the GREs, gathering letters of recommendation and all that stuff, as well as the more important matters of what exactly I want to go for and where I may have to end up moving. It's waaay too much to consider right now, or anytime in the near future, so that's why I think it may be several *years* before I'm ready.

I think I've been falling into a little bit of a rut lately, not emotion-wise, but just in general. Last year around this time was when I decided to push myself into doing more things that I was interested in, no matter how big or small. This brought about only good changes, and I was able to accomplish almost everything that I set out to do. Doing this research is all well and good, and obviously it needs to be done before I can turn my findings *into* anything, but I think I need some smaller, more immediate goals to keep myself going. I haven't given very much thought to those smaller things lately though, so that's something I ought to do. Once I have a concrete goal in mind, I rarely have a hard time accomplishing it. At the least, I'll give it my best shot. Sometimes I just need to harness my "get out there and start doing it" attitude.

Is It a City or

is it the one hour photo machine? >:)

I had to go around the store taking random photos today (yeah I know, such a stretch from what I normally do :p) cuz we had to make sure the machine was working. Well, one of the shots I took turned into one of THE strangest photos I've ever taken. If you look at it one way, it looks like a door opening up into a city street, with a bus or something going by and a building in the background. But, as you can probably guess from my title, if you turn it rightside up, it's just the one hour photo machine! I might try scanning it in on Wednesday, cuz it actually is really cool. Not one single person I worked with guessed what the picture was of until I turned it around! haha

In other news, I developed my pictures today (luckily BEFORE the machine starting eating peoples' negatives!) and yeah, the scanner is getting some exercise on Wednesday, hehe. Unfortunately, every picture of me turned out like crap (double chins? uh, no) so I'll continue being not-myself on Facebook til further notice.

In *other* news, I should probably wash part of the kitchen floor. Someone here knows why, haha.

Finally, in the "things only I am interested in" file. . .

You already know how I got all up in arms over the recent Sweeney Todd revival because of how they totally changed around the way the show's done, etc. etc. Well, apparently this same director is doing a similar reconstructed version of Company-- it's currently playing in Cincinnati and has gotten excellent reviews. I actually think having the actors play instruments *could* work in that particular show and if it ever comes to Broadway, it's something I'd *strongly* consider seeing.

And lastly, glad I wasn't at the VI Horse Show this year. According to several people from a message board I read, a girl's horse lost its footing as it was landing from a jump, flipped over, and as he was trying to get back on his feet, stepped on his rider's *neck.* Anyone that's ever had a horse step on one of their *feet* knows how painful THAT is. . .O_o Although the girl broken a bunch of bones and had a lot of internal injuries, she's actually doing okay now and even wrote a short note to everyone on the message board since so many people were concerned. I've seen some bad falls and incidents in my many years around horses (ie. the lady that got kicked in the knee. . .O_o;;;;) but anyone that rides seriously knows that it's a gamble. Hell, it's like driving a car in that if you worried about everything that could go wrong, you'd never leave your house. I got a decent chunk of $$ back from taxes and I'm considering taking some riding lessons again. I haven't decided if that's definitely what I'm going to do, but it's not secret that I miss riding.

And hopefully my neck won't ever get stepped on. Gah.

NOOOOOOOOO

Last year Rich and I considered seeing Company in Boston, but ultimately decided not to as I hadn't read many positive reviews of it. At first I thought "no big loss" but lately I've been kicking myself because that show almost NEVER gets done and it's one I've always wanted to see live.

Well last night I found out that the Boston Conservatory just finished a run of Sunday in the Park With George-- another Sondheim musical I've been dying to see live. I didn't even know this was playing! That's what I get for not reading the Sondheim board in ages. It was supposed to be a really good production too. >_< style="font-style: italic;">All Shook Up and Marx in Soho were the only shows I saw last year! Previews of JHad's new show open next week and if it sounds good, I really, really would like to see it. So far all the new shows that are opening on Bway this season don't sound very good. A Tale of Two Cities (with Cheyenne Jackson, who was the main role in ASU and James Barbour, who was Czolgosz in the Assassins revival [he was wrong for that particular role, but a good actor/singer in general]) was the only one I was looking forward to, but I don't think it's set to open in the near future.

Anyway, I'm going home tonight to do laundry and watch Top Model so I won't be online at all. I'll be around Thursday and Friday night as usual though, so talk to some of you then. Don't make General Grant unhappy, hehe.

Very Low-Key Boston Day

You already know that yesterday was our first trip back to Boston in a while (well, for Travis and I that is). Matt also met up with us, so it's too bad that things like the weather and my stomach were conspiring to make the day kinda eh.

It didn't help that yesterday's IWW meeting was the first one to slightly piss me off. Most of the usual people weren't there and granted, we haven't been to a meeting in months, but we *are* legit members! The meeting didn't last as long as others have, but also wasn't quite as organized. Plus, even more so than before, it seems as though this branch spends too much time planning superfluous appearances than actually trying to organize. If there *are* people out there "salting" or whatever, well at least they're doing *something.* At least they're trying.

And. . .I'll probably write more later, but there are some other things I need to do right now.

Ham!

It looks like he's being sucked out the window! hahaha

I Hate Rollercoasters But

my mind continues to act like one. I'm trying to keep myself from bottoming out AGAIN, but it's hard because I honestly think the changes I've made in my diet over the past few days are partly to blame. I've basically been eating veggies and protein, with 1 or 2 servings of dairy and 1 or 2 servings of a grain-type product. I haven't been restricting calories, but I could swear that I've read that a high protein-low carb diet can lead to depression. Which is just what I need, right? heh

Work went pretty well today, except for 2 incidents.

The first was when Liz left at 3. . .or, was getting ready to leave. Although 2 other cashiers had gotten there at 2 o'clock, only one of them was given a drawer. Otherwise, Liz and I were the only other cashiers. It had been a slow day, so I didn't think there would be any problems when I'd need to go into the office to cash Liz's drawer out, cuz remember, with her register shut down and me being busy and unable to ring, that only left one cashier. As long as Liz's drawer was even, it would only take me about 5 minutes total.

I'm sure you've already guessed that it did NOT go smoothly. I typed Liz's numbers into the computer and found that her *credit cards*, of all things, were off by $11.76 or some other very random amount. I figured the logical thing would be to recount all her credit card slips, just in case she missed one or typed one in wrong. Of course, just as I'm about to do this, I look out the office window and notice that the only cashier has a HUGE line. . .and I was the only other ringer! I couldn't just leave the money and everything out in the office, but the only other cashier in the store didn't have a drawer in and wouldn't know to respond if the main cashier buzzed for her. AUGH. So, I decided to page Joyce to the office so she could figure it out, or at least watch the money, while I would go to ring.

But. . .Joyce wasn't showing up, and the line was just getting longer. So I paged her again. About a minute later I could *see* her, way back in the chemical aisle, talking to another employee! God, I was pissed. So, in desperation, I paged the remaining cashier up to the office so I could give her my password and she could use my drawer.

Once she was up front, I didn't care, I left the office to go get Joyce myself. She's normally really nice, and she must have figured that if *I* was paging her it was because I didn't know how to do something. Well, I neverlearned why she didn't answer me, but she told me that there *wasn't* anything I could do for an uneven credit card amount and just to send it as it was. All that trouble for nothing. :p

The second incident was actually several incidents, but all in the same category. You see, there's this one girl that's been working at our store for a few months (transferred from another store) and when she came here, she was a supervisor like I am now. Well, I'm not exaggerating when I say that she's been absent more days than she's been there, and Lora AND Joyce have both caught her blatantly lying abut why she wasn't able to come in. Why she hasn't been fired yet, NONE of us can figure out. Anyway, due to this and a plethora of other reasons, Lora demoted her to a regular ol' cashier. . .something this girl was NOT happy about, but if she can't figure out why, then she's seriously dumb.

Because she's called out almost the entire past week, I hadn't worked with her since I got promoted. So, the first time she needed a raincheck or whatever, she seemed a little surprised when I came up to help her. At first she was like "I need Joyce," but I told her that I could do it now and she didn't say anything. Okay, fine. But the next few times she needed something, she continued to page for Joyce. Of course *I* was the one to answer her every time, but I don't think she cared. It was almost as though she didn't want to acknowledge that I now have the position that she once held, but again, she'd be daft to not realize why things turned out the way they did.

I hate not getting along with one of my coworkers, especially cuz I'm such a proponent of everyone at least *trying* to deal with one another while you're on the clock, but she better not continue to give me an attitude over the next few weeks.

Alright. I have the day off tomorrow, but I have some errands to run in the morning, so I may just go home at night and sleep over. Right now I'm just going to sit here and look at the delicious food porn accompanying a recipe for Gingerbread Cake with Buttermilk Icing in my magazine. If only I could have cake right now. >_<

ExplodingDog.com

I love that site.

And I love this picture.

I know the feeling.

Scared to Say

that things are going well.

So far I've been really lucky at work and haven't had any major problems to deal with. Apparently Joyce didn't know I had been promoted though, cuz she didn't understand why I kept doing all the manager-type things and she actually asked "what are you doing?" haha But after I told her she was very helpful and she stayed after with me to go over how to do the deposit for tomorrow and stuff like that. I still feel like there's too much I don't know to say I *enjoy* being a supervisor, but it certainly makes the shift more interesting. Ask me again after I get my first truly awful customer, haha. (And in case you're wondering, as I've had lots of awful customers in the past. . .now I can't just buzz up a manager to deal with them, cuz *I'm* going to have to be the one to deal with them. That's the difference. :p)

I think that eating has been going well. Who's going to give me a prize when I hit one month? heh

Matt and I have made plans to go see Ben Folds at Lupo's early next month. That was very unexpected! I'm not going to be as cool as I was at the last concert though cuz I'm not familiar with anything he's come out with since Rockin' the Suburbs. What can I say? I kinda miss the Five, hehe.

And before that even, I think the trip to Boston might just happen this month! Finally! As I said to Chris the other day though, watch, a sudden cold front will decend upon the Northeast Saturday night and there'll be another blizzard. It would be my luck. >_<

Otherwise, I've been working steadily on some of the random projects I have going on in my life, which is better than sitting around thinking about them. Hopefully that's a trend that will continue.

Little Bit More

Today I got the "official" okay, so I started learning some of the new tasks I'm gonna have to do. Nothing difficult so far, although I was lucky in that all the drawers were even at the end of the night, as was the deposit and change drawer and all those things.

Lora's going to be staying at our store for another week, as they still haven't decided on who the new manager will be yet! Also, I'm going to be staying at this store until Lora hires a new cashier to replace me there. So there's a good chance I won't be heading to the other store until right after it opens. She's having a hard enough time finding employees for *that* store, so she's probably not going to get around to finding someone for our currents tore until after that's taken care of. Not that I mind; I'm in no hurry to leave, and my promotion still stands regardless of where I am.

Chris also got promoted (to an assistant manager) today, so he and I and Kyle ordered a pizze to celebrate, hehe. Word's also out that Joyce and everyone are planning a get-together with everyone in a few weeks. At least I can be pretty sure that's not going to turn into a "let's get drunk/high fest" seeing as Lora will be there! haha

/Brooks news

I tried the Spank Me shower jelly today. It smelled a little bit better when I was actually using it, but I don't think I'll be buying this one again. It's very spicy scent-wise. I picked up lemon and cloves moreso than anything forest-like. If I get a shower jelly next time I order, I think I'll stick with Whoosh, the lime scented one from last time!

Tomorrow I'll be trying Snowcake, the marzipan one. A lot of people on the message board love it, so hopefully I will too. :p

I also have to say that I am VERY impressed with the tooth gel that I ordered from them. It's not a tooth *paste,* but something you use after you brush. Even though it's only been a few days, I can already see the difference in my teeth in that I *swear* they are less yellow than before. It's kind of expensive, but I don't use a lot at a time. And I've always said that if a product works well, it's worth dishing out a little more $$ for it.

/Lush talk

Well, tomorrow's Saturday and I haven't even thought about what I'm going to do. Maybe I'll just go to P Place and have some Indian food. It's been awhile. Or maybe I won't and I'll just stay in the apartment until nighttime, when I'll probably drive down to Brewed Awakenings to do some assassin work. That sounds more likely, hehe.

Good-ish News

Only took a billion years, but I'm finally getting promoted!

The only complication is that I'll have to transfer to the new store but as I also found out today, Chris is going too! Our sagas can continue! >: ) We've already decided we're bringing Joey with us, haha.

I will mention that it's not *100%* definite yet. . .she still has to run it by Jim, but chances are he'll say okay. She *needs* people for the new place. I guess the people she's interviewed so far haven't been too promising, and although she knows she'll be getting 3 assistant managers, she hasn't met any of them yet! No one else from our store is coming along, but once she does hire cashiers, we'll be training them at our current store (and some will be trained at the Wakefield store). We're all going to need to be trained on running the new, fancier one-hour photo machine and of course, I'll need to be trained to do all the manager-type things like payroll and whatever else.

The only not so great part of this is that I *really* wished I lived closer. I will be getting a raise, but even working 40 hours a week, I don't know if I'll be able to afford my own place and everything else. I'm going to have to run this by my parents cuz I'm sure they'll agree that commuting from my current apartment to the new store will be kinda ridiculous to do 5 days a week. One I know for sure that I have the position, I'll have to start looking. . .

No other news today. Eating *had* been going well, but I ate a TON today. If you read this list and still insist that I don't eat "that much" I'm going to hit you:

(not in order)
a whole wheat bagel with peanut butter
a whole package of EL Fudge cookies
1 can of vegetarian chili with veggies, salsa, and cheese mixed in
a whole pint of B&J's frozen yogurt
2 soy sausage patties
a Chicken Alfredo Lean Cuisine
a whole package of Pepperidge Farms Soft Baked Oatmeal Raisin cookies
veggies, soyrizo, salsa, and lf sour cream

I'm still hungry. I'm considering making one of those packages of au gratin potatoes for later tonight! O_o;;

I'm willing to bet that between today and the past few days of slightly-more-than-usual fooding, I'm probably back at 125 or above. You know how they say that yo-yo dieting is bad for your health? I am so screwed. I go from 117ish to 125+ just about every month. No wonder why I have three different jeans sizes.

Horses!

How did I not know about this show??

Of course it has to be on at the same time as America's Next Top Model. :p Well, seeing as that show doesn't begin until next week, I'll have to check out this one tonight to see if it's any good.

Check out Nikko's profile. . .his horse Rocket is *gorgeous.* ::dies:: I love horses that stand out from the typical brown/bay/chestnut that's so prevalent in the A-level shows.