Well technically...

(no, not really)

For some reason I seem to go through phases with the posting. Sometimes I just have nothing to say, and sometimes I have so much to say that I forget a lot of it until after I've already posted an entry.

First, let me just say that about a week ago I had a very inappropriate dream about somebody and I am still pretty uncomfortable about it.

Also, I bought the heating pad I've been lusting after for so long now, and I used it, and it felt nice, but...it's too warm for a heating pad! I was all hot and restless after about fifteen minutes. Hopefully this cold front will help.

Okay, that's all. I think.

So...not really quite so mad at DQ now. I've had a chance to settle down a little. Apparently S is taking the class instead of me because she works day shift all the time, and that's when the health inspector always comes. I can deal with that.

I really want some ice cream right now. Is that wrong or what? I WORK at Dairy Queen, for heaven's sake. I could probably wring out my shirt and get enough ice cream for a small blizzard. But no, I have to be all freakish and not want ice cream till 1:00 am, when all Dairy Queens are closed. Grr.

In other news...I finally felt like I had cooled off enough to respond to my mom's letter. So I did that, and paid a couple bills, and found a coupon for a tune-up. I have to get a state inspection tomorrow, so I figured I might as well get a tune-up and an oil change while I'm there, right?

Am I the only one who always cries during Oprah? I feel so pathetic, but seriously, I am all about some Oprah. I know it's gimicky and emotionally manipulative and chock-full of advertising, but I am just so damn sensitive. I swear I get teary at the drop of a hat. I really should know better by now, but Oprah was on at the laundromat yesterday (the little laundry room at my apartment complex is locked, for some reason, so I had to go to the laundromat), and they said Melissa Etheridge would be on today's show. And so of course I had to watch. I missed the first half, where Oprah and Melissa were talking, but I did see the bit at the end where she sang this new song...the song is what got me really teary-eyed. Might be my favorite Melissa song ever. I think it's called Run for Life, but that's just a guess.

Enough for now. Comments, anyone?

1. I hate bell peppers. They make me gag. Really.
2. I hate purses. I always end up leaving them somewhere. So I carry a wallet.
3. I like cheese. A lot. Except for Swiss.
4. I was homeschooled for seven years.
5. I read so much it's a little scary.
6. I sound like a dying seal when I have a cough.
7. I love to make people laugh.
8. I think Dave Barry is possibly the funniest person ever (I am NOT making this up).
9. Even if it's below freezing outside, I will still eat ice cream. I love it.
10. Sad movies make me cry. It's kind of embarrassing.
11. I love classical music, but I just can't seem to like opera.
12. Stupid people piss me off.
13. I always do really well on standardized tests. I haven't decided if that's a blessing or a curse.
14. I'm kind of an intellectual snob. But I'm working on it (I'm way better than I used to be).
15. Sometimes I correct other people's pronunciation/ word choice/ grammar/ punctuation/ spelling automatically. I try not to, though.
16. Coming out of the closet was rather painful for me. Not something I ever want to have to do again.
17. I hate washing dishes.
18. I sweat easily. It's gross.
19. I haven't shaved my legs in...almost two years. I just wear long pants whenever I go anywhere.
20. I've always wanted to have a crew cut, but the one time I had a haircut even close to that, my head looked like a fuzzy bowling ball.
21. When I was little, I wanted to be either Robin Hood or a knight (complete with white horse and shining armor).
22. I always sing along with the radio.
23. Not very well, though.
24. I have a hard time waking up without a shower. Pre-shower Hannah is not a pretty sight.
25. I would love to have a tattoo of a curling vine on my lower back, but
26. I have a morbid fear of needles. Even thinking about them makes me queasy.
27. Plus I think old people with tattoos and piercings look sad and pathetic.
28. I really miss my grandfather. He died a few years ago, and there's so many things I wish I had asked him.
29. I make really good mashed potatoes.
30. I like to stay up late. Really late. Like, 6 am.
31. I've been to Germany, but I've never been further west than West Virginia.
32. Compliments make me uncomfortable.
33. I love mayonnaise (especially with french fries), but I don't like ketchup very much and I hate mustard.
34. Most fast food fish sandwiches don't taste fishy enough for me.
35. I firmly believe that brussel sprouts and pantyhose are inventions of the devil.
36. I prefer men's clothes. They just feel right to me.
37. I love foreign languages. There are so many I want to learn...
38. I started writing a novel when I was 11 or 12. It was going to be called The Depart of Gravity. I still have the six pages that I wrote.
39. In relationships and friendships, I am always the one who cares more.
40. But I wish I wasn't.
41. I'm a perfectionist.
42. I'm afraid of getting splinters. I categorically refuse to go without shoes on a wooden floor that is not polyurethaned to within an inch of its life and cleaned thoroughly.
43. I have thrown up exactly four times that I recall. When I catch a bug that makes other people throw up, it usually just gives me a cold/cough.
44. I'm becoming a sci-fi/fantasy geek.
45. There are several books I have read so many times that I can quote entire passages with very little difficulty.
46. I remember numbers really well. Prices, phone numbers, account numbers...it always surprises people.
47. I look younger than I am. People tell me that I'll appreciate it when I'm older, but for right now, it sucks.
48. I believe in God. But sometimes it's hard.
49. I get depressed easily. I was borderline suicidal for a while in high school.
50. I'm very, very sensitive to the opinions of others, but I try not to let it show.
51. Some days I get scared that nobody actually likes me; they're all just humoring me.
52. I have trouble making friends.
53. The only time I ever hit somebody in the face was an accident, and I apologized about ten times, even though it was her fault (we were practicing stage fighting for an acting class).
54. When I was thirteen, I wanted to be an architect or an engineer.
55. Then I took algebra.
56. I'm good at SAT math, but not so much precalculus.
57. I like doing science experiments, but I hate writing the lab report afterwards.
58. I procrastinate.
59. On certain days of the month, chocolate tastes WAY better than being thin feels.
60. I suck at video games, but I like them anyway.
61. I don't understand people who listen to music for the lyrics. Good lyrics are a plus, but if the music isn't good, I'm not going to listen to it.
62. I have no desire to give birth, but I'd like to have kids someday.
63. I support gay marriage. Not civil unions. Marriage. Separate but unequal is not going to cut it.
64. Racism bothers me. A lot. Especially the little prejudices I find ingrained in my own mind.
65. I despise politicians. Anybody with an ego big enough that they think they should be president is clearly not going to be a good president. I doubt they'd be much of a good anything.
66. Yes, yes, big corporations are evil, but damn...Walmart is so cheap! I promise I'll only go to Starbucks once a month, okay? MacDonald's--blech. You can keep 'em.
67. Addiction is not a strong enough word for the attachment I have to caffeine.
68. I eat when I'm bored.
69. People who say "on tomorrow" drive me crazy.
70. Sarcasm is my standard defense mechanism.
71. I love to shop for bedding, kitchen implements, china, silverware, candles, towels--domestic stuff.
72. Even though I can't afford any of it.
73. I love Christmas. Buying presents for people makes me incredibly happy. I'm like a little kid.
74. Ads get on my nerves. That's why I hardly ever watch TV. I do like The L Word, though. And I have an inexplicable fondness for Oprah.
75. There's a big gap between my verbal intelligence (really high) and my visual/spatial intelligence (slightly below average). If I were less intelligent overall, it would be classified as a learning disability.
76. I love board games. Particularly Monopoly, Settlers of Catan, Parchesi, Boggle, UpWords...
77. I've never been drunk.
78. I like meat. Beef, pork, chicken, lamb--I can't live without it. I'd be the world's worst vegetarian.
79. I like public radio/television.
80. People who wear or display confederate flags alarm me.
81. I have probably seen Beauty and the Beast more times than is healthy.
82. I have crushes on lots of fictional characters: Lara Croft, Seven of Nine, Xena (duh!), Elizabeth Bennett, Princess Leia, Fleur Delacour, Catwoman, Buffy Summers, Faith. I also think (and no, I am not a pedophile), that I might have a crush on the woman Matilda grew up to be. Intelligence is incredibly sexy.
83. I love Legos. Still. I have boxes full of them.
84. The word inconceivable always makes me think of The Princess Bride.
85. I love to learn. I was the kid who read parts of the textbook that weren't required reading.
86. If I see one more person write that "love is a many-splendid thing," I think I might hurt somebody.
87. I get really mad when I go to a movie that's based on one of my favorite books, and they mess it up.
88. I have an unwholesome fondness for cheesy martial arts movies.
89. I used to love macaroni and cheese, but I ate it all the time while I was saving up for a new apartment, and now I don't like it that much anymore. I only like the homemade kind, made with a white sauce and baked in a casserole dish with breadcrumbs on top.
90. I don't believe in the concept of too much gravy.
91. I like fixing things.
92. I like organizing. A lot. Sometimes I organize things at Walmart, just cause I can't stand to seem them looking so chaotic.
93. People assume that I'm an employee in stores a lot, and ask me where to find stuff. I like to think it's because I walk quickly and look confident and purposeful, but it's probably just the polo shirts and khaki pants.
94. I can't decide if I'd rather be famous for writing the great American novel or for inventing a bullshit detector for presidential debates (you probably wouldn't even be able to hear the actual debate over the constant beeping).
95. I will always be grateful for my happy childhood.
96. I buckle my seat belt automatically. Even if the car is not running.
97. I hate fad diets. I'd like to lose weight, but if I do it will be by exercising and eating moderately, not by only eating raw vegetables, or replacing every other meal with cottage cheese and celery sticks, or avoiding red meats and rice on days starting with T.
98. I like my family a lot. I just wish I got to see them more often.
99. My favorite punctuation mark is the comma.
100. I love roller coasters--but I hate big drops.

I'm an apparently intelligent, liberal, not-too-generous, not-too-selfish, relatively well adjusted human being!
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Sorry for the general lack of posting, guys. It's not that I didn't have stuff to say. Cause I did. But, well...every time I got on the computer I was just not in a very blog-ish mood. Or something. It might be connected to the whole being sick thing.

ANYWAY...here are some reasons why I am pissed off:

1. S (fellow assistant manager, who has been with the company over a year less than I have) is apparently going to be the one to take the city's Certified Food Manager training class. The one that the store's first assistant (that would be me) usually takes. The one that I have NOT taken. I could see if we were BOTH taking it. Maybe. But, I mean, wtf? I have worked my butt off (not literally, more's the pity) for this company, and suddenly she gets to take the class, after less than six months with the company? I understand she has management experience at plenty of other places, and I understand that she's four years older than I am and is not a lesbian, but seniority should count for something, right? Being the only one who gives a shit about any of the paperwork should count for something, right? Doing the truck order from U.S. Foods every week should count for something, right? Making most of the cakes should count for something, right? Right? Apparently not. I may be jumping to conclusions here, but there is only one training book, and it came from the office with HER name on it. I guess I will just have to talk to my manager tomorrow. It may be out of her hands, due to the jackass district supervisor. Maybe not. Don't really know. All I know is that I am VERY angry. I probably shouldn't be, because, after all, I'm not planning on sticking around long enough to make it worth the company's money to get me certified, but they don't know that. Hell, I think it's about time they wasted some money on me. Also, S is probably leaving to go back to Michigan next spring, possibly sooner. Once again, WTF?

2. (I bet you forgot this was even a list, didn't you?) I am still not completely well, so my head feels all funny, and I get tired quickly, and I sound scary when I try to sing along with the CD player in my car.

3. My back is really bothering me. I'd like to get a heating pad, but I'm reluctant to, because...

4. I have no money. I'm trying to save for this stupid family reunion thing I need to go to, and the only paycheck I'm getting between now and then is probably going to be pretty lousy, because I only got 29.4 hours last week. I was feeling really crappy, and I just couldn't work. So I lost about 10 hours. Grr.

5. In order to make up those hours, I'm going to have to try to convince Beth to let me work over 50 hours this week. Fun times!

6. Subway no longer accepts those little coupons. So I have 14 worthless Subway coupons sitting on my dresser.

7. I need a haircut, but I can't afford one (see #4).

8. My car needs a state inspection, an oil change, and probably a couple other things, but I only have about $100 I can spend on it (see #4).

9. I have no DVD player. That's been bothering me for...over a year now.

Grr.

So...you know how I was not feeling good yesterday? Well...not good doesn't even begin to cover how I feel right now. I actually didn't work tonight. I went in, and felt like total crap, and T said I should just go home, and I did. I went right to bed.

It doesn't help that I only got three hours of sleep last night. I got up at 7:50 and showered and dressed and drove downtown and had horrendous parking nightmares, and then I finally got to the circuit court building (five minutes late, and boy was I sweating it), and they didn't need me. SO, I went back home, and called Mrs. W., and I played some computer games, and took Granddad his tissues, and met Mrs. W. for coffee and lampshade-buying (for Granddad). And I went to the thrift store (finally) and bought some work pants and three nice long-sleeve shirts. Right. Cause I don't already have about fifteen.

And I went home, and I was going to wash my clothes, and maybe take a shower before work, but that didn't happen. Why not? WELL...I, uh, managed to get the toilet so thoroughly clogged that after a good fifteen or twenty minutes of plunging (and now eight hours later) it still has only gone down about an inch. I think I will have to call the handyman in the morning, as embarrassing as I'm sure that will be, because I refuse to have the toilet overflow again. I am NOT going through that.

I just hauled my sick ass out of bed, put on some clothes, drove to work, unlocked the door, turned off the alarm, used the bathroom, turned the alarm back on, locked the door, and drove home. How sad is that?

I don't know if this happens to other people, too, but when I get a fever, I have this out-of-body feeling. Like my body and my mind are only vaguely connected, and it takes a conscious effort on my part to remain present. I've been alternately hot and cold all night (no chills, though, thank goodness), and my head feels abnormally heavy and full.

Right now I'm waiting for the Sudafed nighttime stuff to kick in, so hopefully I can sleep through the night and my body can kick this stupid thing, so I can work tomorrow.

Also, Mrs. W. and I saw this woman wearing quite possibly the ugliest thing I have ever seen. And it might have been attractive (though still completely inappropriate) on someone else, but she did NOT have the figure for it. Actually, if you want to be precise, she had about 2 1/2 times the figure for it. Yuck!

...of being sick and tired. My throat is sore, and I had to drive all the way out to freakin Oceana in rush hour traffic (35 minutes, one way) to get footlong hot dog buns before I went to work. Grr. And I made fourteen cakes. And I did lobby for closing, which always makes my shoulders and back sore.

AND...I have jury duty tomorrow. I'm a little scared. Mostly scared of not getting up in time. God knows what they do to you if you're late. At any rate...I'm kind of glad, cause I'll get paid $30, and hey, I'm not gonna say no to $30... Maybe I've just read too much John Grisham. Yeah. That's probably it.

I have this idea for a story. I'd like to write it, but I need to go to bed, because I have to be downtown at 9:00 am tomorrow, and I'm sure parking will be nightmarish. Also, I'm hungry. So I will go now.

PS I downloaded a freeware version of Street Fighter 2 (old school video game). It's awesome. I've beaten everybody twice as Dhalsim, and I do okay as Blanka, but I'm having trouble with the others... Is it incredibly pathetic that I'm considering looking up cheats?

SO...a lot has happened over the past couple days. But I haven't felt like writing about it until now, so I'm just going to dump it all on you at once. Enjoy!

1. I am so, so tired. Tomorrow is my first day off in three weeks, and I am so excited it's ridiculous.

2. I got a letter from my mom yesterday. I wrote about it on Myspace, friends-only, because I was really angry, and I didn't want to say anything I'd regret here, where anyone can read it. Let's just say that she disapproves of my "lifestyle" choices, and leave it at that.

3. Some really, really fucking annoying teenagers came into DQ last night and caused trouble and made lots of noise and swore repeatedly in front of small children for a good hour. Also, they gave the staff nicknames. Mine was Boy George. Even though I look NOTHING like him. I just look like a boy (duh. I TRY to look like a boy).

4. We have an employee who needs to GO. She needs to be gone, like, yesterday. Grr.

5. M says I act like a rabid squirrel sometimes. I think it's mostly the funny noises. He seems to find it amusing, though.

6. T (coworker) has come out to his mom and everybody at work and has a boyfriend. It's pretty cute.

7. I had some very, very strange dreams last night. I think they were influenced by a movie review I was reading shortly before I went to bed. The movie is called Eternal, and it's about a bisexual vampire, or something like that. That's the only explanation I could find for this dream sequence, and even so it only explains a small part of it.

The first thing I remember is being in some kind of renaissance-era building. It was obviously quite old because it was half-timbered and had exposed beams on the inside, and also I just knew it was old...I don't know how or why, but it was a dream. Sue me. Moving on...
This crazy lady (I think she was a vampire) had the corpse of some powerful (vampire?) ancestor of hers, and she was trying to do something to me involving this corpse that would give her more power. I remember ropes and electrical cords and a large crowd of scared-looking villagers. She was wearing black, and she looked REALLY freakin creepy. Somehow I got away from her, and then I was hiding outside the building, which somehow turned into a pub? and I was in this village where fat people (I'm assuming they were people...couldn't see any faces) were walking around in these weird outfits. They were animal costumes on top, with baby blue stirrup pants on the bottom. Strange and very unattractive.

THEN (no, it's not over yet), I had a dream about another Dairy Queen, which I have been to. And the place in my dream looked nothing like this particular Dairy Queen, yet somehow I knew where I was. It was basically just a big carpeted (!) room with an ice cream machine in the very middle. There was no discernible place for the electricity or the ice cream mix to come from. A bunch of people were milling around, and I was the only Dairy Queen worker in sight (I don't remember if I was wearing my uniform). All the cones and dishes either were missing altogether or looked completely wrong. The Brownie Earthquake dish was a little plastic pouch. I don't even know how I knew what it was. There was a little kid with a dipped cone (I don't know where the dip came from--I certainly didn't see any), and he was holding it kind of sideways, so of course the ice cream fell off the cone, and his dad picked up the ice cream and said "Now look what you've done!" and threw it at the kid. Also, I shook Laura Bush's hand (God knows what she was doing there).

Before you ask, no, I did not drink anything or partake of any illegal substances before I went to bed.

So...I got home from work, and I was just sitting, thinking my usual bathroom thoughts ("Boy, this is taking a long time. I wonder If I have any e-mail. I really need to clean the tub. I'm getting hungry. What would be a good blog title for my post today?" etc.). And then I saw it underneath the corner of the bathmat, where I have to flip it up so I don't put my shoes on it while I'm using the toilet (I have a very small bathroom), there was: (dun dun dunnnnn) ...an unpopped kernel of popcorn. I can only imagine how it got there.

ANYWAY. That really had nothing to do with anything, but I felt that some sort of explanation for the blog title was required.

That game I downloaded...with the stick soldiers? Awesome. There is nothing like mowing down a bunch of stick figures with an uzi for relieving stress.

I have way too much Mountain Dew-induced energy, so I am going to go shoot some stick soldiers.

Good night, people.

*pow pow pow pow pow* *aaaah* *grin*

Accomplished: finally did that scary pile of dishes. Also organized all my books and bought some food that requires cooking :-) Sent Sarah her birthday package.

Sleepy: 4 1/2 hours = NOT ENOUGH SLEEP. Grr. B and I stayed till 2:00 am to make the store look nice because some important DQ people were supposed to come today. Did they? NO.

Sore: Swept, scrubbed and mopped entire lobby last night (it's roughly the size of Kansas, give or take a couple square miles).

Relieved: No jury duty tomorrow.

Amused: Downloaded computer game called Stick Soldiers II. Who knew blowing up stick figures could be so much fun?

Annoyed: Still have not gotten car fixed. Too tired to go anywhere tonight, even though I'm off.

Anxious: Tropical storm coming. Car. Not enough money. Also, I got an airmail letter from Mom and Dad...apparently my mom has "comments" about my blog. I guess I'll have to wait and see what that means (I love you, Mom, but please don't say ominous stuff like that and then leave me hanging).

I don't like raw tomatoes very much. Not sure why. I think it's something about the texture. Whatever the reason...I just don't like them.

That didn't really have anything to do with my day today, but it was a great title (I thought so, anyway) and I just had to use it.

Tonight sucked. Majorly. There are a few things that could have made tonight suck more. But not many. I ended up stuck there for TWO FREAKIN HOURS closing the store. Because all the 10-o'clock people (we close at 10:00 Sun-Thurs, and it usually takes about an hour after that to get the store cleaned up) left without doing SHIT, and the closers were left with a whole lot of stuff to do. It was ridiculous. But I did manage to get an extra hour of overtime out of it, so it wasn't a complete waste.

I also managed to bang my thumb in the dumpster gate and scrape my knuckle on a sharp corner. Grr.

Tired. Going to go to be now (haha. right. in a few hours, maybe). Seriously, though, I'm pretty wiped out. I really wish I had a day off sooner than next Sunday.

I started a new blog, folks. It's called "drive thru etiquette." See link at left.

...which translates to: Hannah knows everything. Period. This astonishing (and, sadly, false) pronouncement comes to you courtesy of The Sloganizer (see link at left). If you're in the right mood (silly and/or bored) it can provide hours of entertainment. If you're not, well, why are you reading my blog?

I had a pretty good day today. I was excused from jury duty last Thursday, so I am not in trouble, and I am excused from it tomorrow as well, so I think I will probably go walk around at the Hermitage for a bit and maybe go on the swings (shh, don't tell anyone, okay?). It's been way too long since I spent any length of time outdoors, and the weather is getting cooler, so it's time to maybe not look quite so much like a vampire.

Now, the bad news: my car is making a squealing sort of noise. I think it might be the brakes? (I don't know much about cars, but I have a vague idea that brakes and squealing are connected.) So on Monday (when I get paid) I'll have to see if I can get a state inspection/general tune-up kind of thing and pray that I have enough money to get whatever it is fixed.

*Nerd warning: Star Trek Shipper discussion ahead*

So...I just finished reading Nanotech Wars (ST:V), which has a Chakotay/Seven subplot...and I like Chakotay, don't get me wrong. He's a great guy...but I just don't seem him being the right person for Seven. I might as well admit that I got hooked on Janeway/Seven, and nothing else seems quite right to me. That could just be conditioning, but...I don't think it is. Not completely, anyway. Chakotay always seems like somebody who plays by the rules. Somebody who's willing to let somebody else make the decisions. He's all sensitive and handsome and everything, but I don't know if he's strong enough to handle Seven. I don't know if he'd be willing to fight for her w/ Starfleet and the world in general, which I think is what it would take. And if you read Homecoming and The Farther Shore you can see that Christie Golden doesn't think so either.

*Warning ends*

Goodnight, everyone.

Yeah, so that whole "who can comment--registered users only" thing, yeah, completely missed that when I was going through the settings. Grr. I'm such a dork. But it should be fixed now :-)

Also, I worked dayshift today, but of course I couldn't get to sleep until around 6:00 am, so I got around three hours of sleep. Fun. I went to Barnes and Noble after work...I was really sleepy, though. *sigh*

I need to call the circuit court people tomorrow and find out if I'm in trouble for last Thursday. And if I need to go in this Thursday. At 8:00 in the damn morning. Once again, grr.

I am getting all bleary and shit, so I think I will go to bed early tonight. (Right. How many times have I used that one?)

I feel like there's more I should be saying, but at this point I can't think of anything terribly exciting. Probably will occur to me while I'm making a blizzard tomorrow night or something.

So...work is sucking these days. We had ice cream issues today...S cleaned the machines with this milkstone remover stuff (milkstone tends to build up in softserve machines)...and now the ice cream tastes sour. Most people didn't seem to notice it, but we got several complaints, so we had to clean one of the machines, and the other will have to get cleaned tomorrow.

Grr.

Also...customers suck. Not all of them. Just the ones who have NO clue how to order what they want...or sometimes not even a clue what they actually want. The people who spend a minute and a half in the drive thru, only to decide that they don't want anything we serve...yeah, they piss me off. Also the people who don't bother to ask if we accept credit cards (answer: no), and they order $20 worth of ice cream (made to order, will be unservable in less than 15 minutes...10 if it's really hot), and they don't have any cash, and they never come back. So...bam. $20 in potential sales down the drain. Prime example of a difficult customer: crazy old lady who never should have been allowed out of the nursing home taking about three minutes (with six people behind her and no other registers open) to order: one hot dog and a small drink. The ordering was interspersed with a great deal of whining and gesturing and irrelevant conversation with me and the people in line and (I'm guessing) the world in general. She got mad at me for asking if it was for here or to go, and then she got mad cause we hadn't cut the footlong hot dog in half for her (all she had to do was ask...).

I have a cream cheese craving. That is somewhat strange.

I want something to eat, but I don't have a lot of money, and I don't want to keep spending what little I have on eating out. Grr.

Gas prices? Not cool. Not cool at all.

In other Hannah news...I donated to the Red Cross's hurricane relief fund. I felt bad for not watching the news or really knowing what's going on. I also feel bad for not going to church in so long...but working yesterday and next Sunday was really out of my hands. I need the hours.

So...I had a bad day. Hugely, colossally, monstrously bad. I had to work for eleven hours, so I knew from the beginning that it would be a bad day. We had a last minute cake order I had to make and decorate. Two good employees (one of whom had been with the company for over a year and was the most senior of the entire crew) quit without notice. And one of the people who quit was supposed to close, and nobody else could close, so M and I were stuck doing everything. And then I sat outside with M to wait for his mom to pick him up. By the time I had taken the deposit to the bank and gone to Wendy's, it was almost 3:00. Not that I mind some overtime. But I'm also going in for four hours tomorrow, on what was supposed to be my day off. And I may end up working next Sunday, too. Which would mean three weeks without a day off.

Plus I need to buy some new work pants, cause one of the two pairs I have now has so many holes in it that it's pretty much useless.

Also...remember how I have jury duty in September? I was supposed to report for jury duty this past Thursday...and I completely forgot about it. It's possible that I may get away with it...after all, nobody called me, and it's possible that I wasn't needed. BUT...it's also possible that I am in big trouble and maybe will have to pay a fine or something (not sure how that works). I can't believe I forgot! I'm such an idiot. And I have to wait until Tuesday to find out...because of course no government employees would be working on a weekend or a holiday.

ALSO (bet you thought I was done, didn't you?)...apparently one of my aunts has breast cancer...beginning stages. They're hoping they can remove the lump and give her five weeks of radiation treatment and it will be okay. And she's not even my real aunt...just an aunt by marriage. But...but...she's still family. And I felt kind of petty for being all upset over my issues when she's dealing with cancer. Cancer! Just, wow.

Oh, and a drunk guy fell asleep in drive thru right after we closed. M had to bang on the car and finally pull the guy's arm out from under his head to get him to wake up long enough to pull out of the drive thru and into the front parking lot and go back to sleep (hitting every curb on his way). Cops pulled up while M and I were outside waiting for his mom, and when we left they had the guy next to his truck, talking and making vague gestures (still obviously under the influence of quite a lot of something intoxicating). It seemed oddly coincidental, because I don't remember ever seeing somebody fall asleep in a drive-thru before, but I got stuck behind a guy who fell asleep in the Taco Bell drive thru just last night. By the way...remind me never to go to Taco Bell again...I knew there was something I didn't like about them, and now I remember what it is: the food.

/whining

Where are the comments, people? Where? I see no comments. Still! WHAT IS UP WITH THAT?!

Sorry. Got carried away there for a minute...

Anyway. Went to see The Constant Gardener after work tonight. It was good--sad, but good. And now I think even less of the pharmaceutical companies (which I didn't even think was possible). Can I just say that Bill Nighy is a great, albeit weird, actor? Definitely.

Also: I finished the Earthsea Trilogy yesterday. I started it yesterday, too *grin* I think that I started reading The Tombs of Atuan when I was younger...too young to deal with it. I think I got maybe about halfway through. No idea why I started with the second book...perhaps the first one was already checked out of the library. At any rate, I enjoyed the trilogy very much, and I'm looking forward to reading the three Ursula K. LeGuin books that are left. Also looking forward to reading the four Star Trek: Voyager books I have left (from the total of sixteen books I got off Ebay...one of which I had already read). Since they arrived on Tuesday, that means I have averaged two books per day. Not bad, considering that I also went to Barnes & Noble once and did some reading online...

God, I'm such a nerd.

On an entirely different topic: I went to visit my grandfather today. He gave me five dollars to buy him some big boxes of Kleenex with (has to be Kleenex, too, no Puffs or anything). I'm not sure how many he thinks I can get with five bucks, but I'll do what I can...

He was so sad and lonely and pathetic, people. I feel like a complete jerk for not going to see him sooner. And yet...every minute that passed felt like an hour. I stayed for about thirty-five minutes, because I didn't want to be rude, and every time I said something, I would look at him to see if he could hear me, and I guess he's used to trying to fool people, because I usually couldn't tell, except that then he usually said something about something completely unrelated to what I was talking about. I had to say things three or four times to make sure he actually heard and understood. Have you ever tried to wade through half-frozen cherry-flavored Jello? That's what it felt like. I hate cherry Jello, by the way. Artificially cherry-flavored things always remind me of Robitussin.

I saw a preview for a movie I really want to see...it's called Brokeback Mountain (check it out at imdb.com: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0388795/). Gay cowboys. Who would have guessed? Some people in the theater started snickering when the preview came on. I was torn between being excited and being pissed as hell. Someone at work who I really like said something pretty homophobic the other day...I was offended, and I said something, and she didn't see why I was offended, since she didn't say anything "derogatory" about me personally. You remember that guy we fired for making an obscene gesture as a mode of insubordination in front of a lobby full of people (including children)? The one who was always trying to be tough and shadow-boxing, and trying to start fights with people? Yeah...she said he was "so gay." He may very well be gay, although it would definitely surprise me. But she didn't understand why I would be offended by that. *sigh* I thought about trying to explain my reasoning to her, but I didn't want to cause a big fuss.