Sweet Catastrophe

I got my new license in the mail today. Please don’t ask me what site I went to to apply online for an address change, I think I clicked like 50 links before I made it to the correct site. I really only did it because I had to renew my license in 2005, the year before my 21st birthday, and I really didn’t want to go another 4 years with a big read box around my head saying “Under 21.” Of course this takes away my fun of watching the gears turn in people’s heads as the do the math to figure out if I’m really 21.

I finished the first 16 episodes of Heroes yesterday. Of course now I’m in suspense like everyone else. No fun. Of course, this does mean I finally tackled getting the hang of BitTorrents. I realized that I never really had a problem with them, I was just always looking for obscure stuff that didn’t have enough resources to really ever finish downloading. I’ve learned my lesson now though.

A while back Ryan was supposed to network our computers so he could go through my music. Since he never finished doing that, today he decided he was gonna try to copy all my music to his mp3 player in the 30 minutes he had before work. Despite my trying to point out what a cruddy idea that was, and give better ideas, he decided to do it anyway and just cancel it whenever it was time to go. I tried to tell him he was really just getting a ton of music he didn’t want and maybe a few things he wanted. He wasted time that could’ve been spent getting music he wanted copying 300 Lifehouse songs….good job!

So my dad called early last night. I didn’t answer because I’m normally at work during that time anyway. I had every intention of calling him tonight but now he’s called three more times today fussing, “Well I guess I’ll just have to go to Valdosta to talk to my daughter.” Jesus…

Dear Daddy, My class and work schedule varies. I do not work a set schedule like you. I’ve told you this many times and also told you I won’t call you after 9pm because you often go to sleep early. Please stop leaving me voice mails in an attempt to make me feel guilty and call you. In fact, it really makes me want to ignore your phone calls for another week.

Why aren’t The Police touring anywhere near me? How unfair. No, really, I’m seriously unhappy about this. Of course they’ll probably play all my favorites. Ass. I’d kill to hear “I burn for you” live. That’s fine though. I’d rather see Sting live–more songs that make me swoon.

So I pretty much randomly decided today to start downloading and watching episodes of Heroes. I saw the first two episodes when they aired and really liked the show, but I think it was my work schedule that kept me from making it a regular. I’m up to episode 6 and the rest should be downloading overnight.

Ryan cooked dinner for me Sunday night. We had barbecued chicken breasts, cornbread, cheesy potatoes, and shrimp! It was delicious =) He made a chocolate layer-cake for dessert. I’m not quite sure what compelled him to do that but it was certainly yummy.

Tonight (or rather late this afternoon) we had an early dinner at Red Lobster. I haven’t been there in a little while so that was great. I missed my shrimp alfredo.

I also realized today that I’ll be fine with my time off during Spring Break because we get our bonus around then and at the very least I’ll be getting an extra $150. That’s not much, but that’s the smallest amount possible, and something in the $500 range is a little more probable right now. Either way, it should be just enough to keep me swimming above water. I still won’t be able to really do anything requiring money during Spring Break, but I can live with that.

Kids say the greatest stuff at Lowe’s. Last week there was a little boy right inside the entrance letting his parents know with a passion only 4 year olds can muster, “I HATE this plaaaaaaace.” I feel ya kid. The little girl in the bathroom today was adorable. Her mother was telling her not to walk out the door without her, “I know ’cause there’s strangers will steal me.” How cute?

So everyone (particularly Jamey) has trouble understanding why we all hate the front-end so much and so many people are so desperate to get away. Working the front end of any retail operation is like being back in high school. Everyone knows everyone else’s business…whether it’s true or not. Drama is as common as the customer who complains about a line, only to take ten minutes arranging her checkbook when it’s her turn to check out. I can handle that. I’ve been doing retail since I was 16ish. I’m totally used to that. The thing is, when you add that to working at a location where customer service is key, but the slack is so obviously taken up in the way the employees are treated, that’s when it just gets to be too much. I really can’t even express all the common practices in that store that really shouldn’t be going on at all. When I started the job, no, I didn’t like all my superiors, but there were none I had a problem working with. Now, there’s only one who doesn’t inspire feelings of…oh maybe jumping in front of a train.

Oh and let’s talk about scheduling again. Since my availability has changed (read: been changed for me), I now have the wonderful privilege of opening next Tuesday morning at 6am. Now, according to my school schedule that they have on file, that would mean that basically from 9am Monday morning to 10pm Wednesday night, I’d be in either class or work. It would go as follows:
Monday = Class 9am-3:15pm
Work 4pm-10pm
Tuesday = Work 6am-1pm
Class 2pm-4pm
Wednesday = Class 9am-3:15pm
Work 4pm-10pm

No ma’am. I’m gonna try to catch Peggy (the one who actually makes out my schedule) within the next few days to discuss it. If she really can’t do without me, I’ll take it next week, but after that, I’m done. I want my original availability back. I won’t repeat all my complaints about the availability, but the point is that I know my limits, and I know what my schedule needs to be to ensure that I’m actually going to show up to all my classes and all my scheduled shifts and actually do all my homework. That schedule ain’t gonna cut it.

Things got tight starting this weekend because 1 cashier up and quit Thursday (wish I could afford to do that), and 2 officially moved to other departments, but of course the schedule wasn’t changed around to account for those people. We also had an unusually large number of call outs this weekend too. Why didn’t anyone warn me that no one was gonna be there so I could be one of those missing folks as well? So we have those three who have shifts that aren’t gonna be covered for about 3 weeks, well, today we added 3 more bodies to that list—here’s the fun stuff, ready for it?

TWO cashiers were carried out in handcuffs today for stealing merchandise. Another was fired for aiding them. A little vague, but at the moment that’s all the info I have. The two caught stealing don’t really surprise me that much, but the one supposedly aiding them really bothers me. I’m generally a really good judge of character but I really never would’ve expected this from this person. I guess you just never really know.

So that’s 6 cashiers we’re gonna have to pick up slack for in the upcoming weeks. It’s gonna be rough, and it probably means I can’t expect to get out of work on time for a while. Hoorah….thank God I’m off the next three days.

Oh! On a good note, it appears I was approved for my time off during Spring Break after all. I won’t know for sure for a few days, but we found my request today and it had been signed off on. I’ve never actually taken a Spring Break off so it’ll be nice. Unfortunately, I had already been told I wasn’t getting it off so I haven’t been doing anything to save up money so I don’t really know what I’m gonna be able to afford to do and I don’t know how bills are gonna go for the end of March/beginning of April. Wish me luck….

so i guess i just switched over to the new blogger. we’ll see how this goes. their TOS had the same clause in it that lj claimed showed that ppp was prohibited. old blogger didn’t have that. not that i really care anymore. i’m mostly being phased out of ppp anyhow, but i knew from the start that would happen eventually. it was nice while it lasted though

ryan and i went to mori’s last night to celebrate valentine’s day. damn it was good. i wish it weren’t so expensive. we got a bottle of plum wine too. it was actually really good. our chef was flirting with me a lot, which was just odd . he tossed ryan a bunch of extra shrimp to catch in his mouth and ryan actually caught 4! i was proud

so brittany’s selling her house now. she’s dropped her classes this semester and she’s moving back home this weekend. she’s already got a job lined up, which is why she’s moving so quickly–i just hope everything else falls into place for her too.

it’s really cold. really.

i promise that sitting here with Lysistrata lying open in my lap while i surf online is just as good as actually reading it for class tomorrow. wouldn’t you agree?

i got my second hole ear piercings saturday and my left ear hurts. i think i’ve been abusing it or something.

last wednesday marked one year for me and ryan. we had to celebrate on tuesday though because i had to work wednesday. well, tuesday was a little bumpy because even though we were officially celebrating tues, ryan had planned to surprise me wed, so he didn’t really have anything set for tues. i was a tad disappointed. it was a little bumpy for a while but it all ended up wonderfully =)

then wednesday after work i had the most amazing arrangement of different roses, dinner cooked, chocolate cake, a bottle of my favorite wine and the sweetest card EVER waiting on me
he never ceases to amaze me. one year and i still get random texts– “i love you so much i can’t stand it” yeah…that’s mine. this is what it’s all about.

it astounds me when i think about how long it’s really been since i was in high school. i mean, i currently have maybe a handful of people in my classes now that i knew in high school and didn’t recognize for the first full week of classes. that’s nuts, seriously.

add to that my mother excitedly asking if i’m engaged yet, or if i’m gonna be any time soon. when did i become old enough for that to even be expected or acceptable? at christmas both my grandmother and aunt were a little surprised that i wasn’t engaged yet. oddness, really.

and it really doesn’t help that weather now affects my joints. seriously, cold weather is hell on my knees. i’m 21!!!

i’m LOVING the newest m&ms commercial? anyone else seen it? it something about there being an m&m in everyone, but anyhow, there are people doing average things like walking dogs or riding the subway or something and they turn into m&ms, but the m&ms still have their hair and stuff! you can make your own on the m&m website =) this is mine…this is what i look like when you give me a strong drink: