Guess I'm in a posting mood today. I have an hour, maybe two, before I have to spring into action and start getting some errands taken care of - deposit my paycheck, drop off rent, purchase a bird bath for Bam and Greg, go do some clothes shopping at the Outlet Mall, courtesy of the gift card Mom got me, and I think that's all? Oh! I also have to drop by Mom's, grab my cell phone and get some food out of the fridge that expires today. My phone's been missing for a few days now, it was in Janelle's car. Turns out it fell out as I was getting in. Or out. Whatever. It's funny, 'cause there's going to be about five missed calls from the apartment, a few from the house, a few from Rose, and probably a bunch from Mom.
The thing that complicates all of this, and prevented me from doing any of it yesterday is that my truck's in the shop again, for the same old issue. It's starting to get really, really annoying. I don't know how this guy managed to get Bill Mann to give him the SMAC contract, but he really, really doesn't deserve it. I definitely won't be going to him for any of my mechanical needs, once this thing is done, which are coming up - I need a new fanbelt, probably could use an oil change... good stuff.
So yeah. The thing that complicates this... wait, did that. The other thing that complicates this is that I have to pick Mom up at 2:30 to take her from one of her jobs to the other. I think she might be dropping me of at the apartment instead? Something like that. Either way, I'll be leaving at noon, or when Femaledwarf hits 52 (41k xp to go!), but not whichever comes first. I'm not sure.
So, New Year's is coming up. To be frank, Christmas wasn't that great this year. I've already done my disclaimer on bitching about it, and I'd like to just reference it and say it holds here as well. Hell, let's just have it as my standard disclaimer to every post I've ever made in which I bitched about things are, in the grand scheme of things, relatively minor (Note: everything I've ever really bitched about). I don't think New Year's is going to be any better. Well, it won't be worse, but it won't be good at all, because it's going to be a normal work day. We go on break at midnight, which means I'll probably have to deal with a bunch of co-workers being all "Happy New Year's!" I hate that. Well, I don't hate that. I hate random people wishing me a happy New Year's. I guess it's just one of those little idiosyncratic things about me, like how I hate salespeople coming up to me and asking me if I need any assistance in a store. It's polite, it's a nice way of showing compassion for your fellow human beings, and it drives me nuts. Now, I love being wished a happy New Year's by important people.
But I'm going to reminisce about past Christmas/New Year's, and why they sucked. I mean, I don't automatically assume it's going to suck, but I don't shy away from the reality of the situation.
jakalope -- Feel It
Showing posts with label Christmas. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Christmas. Show all posts
2006-12-29
2006-12-26
You're wasting my time; could've, should've been living my deams
I should preface this post by saying I've been fairly fortunate in the grand scheme of things. Other than a weight problem, I'm very healthy, and other than an incredible knack for making incredibly bad decisions, I'm very intelligent. I never had to go to bed hungry, except as a punishment, nor did I ever have to entertain myself with only a twig and a bit of twine. My present circumstances are entirely the result of my bad decisions, and have nothing to do with any problems in my upbringing (Well, maybe one or two things. But not really).
So, when I whine and bitch and rant, I know that in the grand scheme of things, the things I'm complaining about are relatively minor, and that there are millions of people worldwide that would gladly exchange their troubles for mine.
That being said...
SHIT.
COCK.
BALLS.
This Christmas wasn't that great. It was dominated by a truck issue, one I'm happy to report I seem to have finally cleared up within the last hour. A week (?) ago, when Ambra needed a ride home from work, my truck wouldn't start. I checked the dial, and it looked light I might have left the inside light on all night and all day (even though my internal light doesn't come on through that switch, but I was thinking maybe the circuit was open and could have drained it? Or something?), so Janelle came, gave me a jump, and it started just fine. Didn't think anything else of it, until the next day, after Ambra left, when it wouldn't start again. Not like the recurring fuel pump issue I've had, just nothing - no noise, no motion, nothing. It took a jump, leading me to believe it wasn't the starter. So, I figured the battery was probably dead. Janelle gave me a ride to work, then in the morning (Christmas Eve), I bought a new battery and went to work trying to replace it. I should mention that it was very cold and raining. Not that they bother me *that* much, but it does make the story that much better, and I was sick, and frustrated, so they didn't help. The terminals were SUPER corroded, so I couldn't get them off, and eventually gave up in frustration. Christmas... I'll talk about that in a bit.
Last night, bought a terminal replacement set - two terminals, screws, and nuts - and set to work replacing it this morning after work. Got the old battery out (eventually; the screw that holds down the rubber plug was mega-rusted). Started working on replacing the battery terminals... and I lost a nut. They hold the screws in that are holding down the plate that keeps the wires in contact with the terminals and posts, so yeah, they're pretty important, and they don't pack a spare or anything. I gave up on it for the moment, came inside, and took a nap. Woke up an hour ago, Janelle came and got me (again), brought me to Mom's house, found a new nut that worked almost as well, and replaced it.
Got everything hooked up, and yes! my truck works. I fucking rock.
Mon A Q -- It's My Turn
So, when I whine and bitch and rant, I know that in the grand scheme of things, the things I'm complaining about are relatively minor, and that there are millions of people worldwide that would gladly exchange their troubles for mine.
That being said...
SHIT.
COCK.
BALLS.
This Christmas wasn't that great. It was dominated by a truck issue, one I'm happy to report I seem to have finally cleared up within the last hour. A week (?) ago, when Ambra needed a ride home from work, my truck wouldn't start. I checked the dial, and it looked light I might have left the inside light on all night and all day (even though my internal light doesn't come on through that switch, but I was thinking maybe the circuit was open and could have drained it? Or something?), so Janelle came, gave me a jump, and it started just fine. Didn't think anything else of it, until the next day, after Ambra left, when it wouldn't start again. Not like the recurring fuel pump issue I've had, just nothing - no noise, no motion, nothing. It took a jump, leading me to believe it wasn't the starter. So, I figured the battery was probably dead. Janelle gave me a ride to work, then in the morning (Christmas Eve), I bought a new battery and went to work trying to replace it. I should mention that it was very cold and raining. Not that they bother me *that* much, but it does make the story that much better, and I was sick, and frustrated, so they didn't help. The terminals were SUPER corroded, so I couldn't get them off, and eventually gave up in frustration. Christmas... I'll talk about that in a bit.
Last night, bought a terminal replacement set - two terminals, screws, and nuts - and set to work replacing it this morning after work. Got the old battery out (eventually; the screw that holds down the rubber plug was mega-rusted). Started working on replacing the battery terminals... and I lost a nut. They hold the screws in that are holding down the plate that keeps the wires in contact with the terminals and posts, so yeah, they're pretty important, and they don't pack a spare or anything. I gave up on it for the moment, came inside, and took a nap. Woke up an hour ago, Janelle came and got me (again), brought me to Mom's house, found a new nut that worked almost as well, and replaced it.
Got everything hooked up, and yes! my truck works. I fucking rock.
Mon A Q -- It's My Turn
2006-12-23
I know when the heartache is over, I won't be missing you
This will be my 777th post. Yay me. So, tomorrow is Christmas Eve. Good stuff. It really snuck up on me this year - I hadn't done any shopping, but I remedied that today after work. Got a lamp and some perfume for Mom - both things she specifically told me she wanted, and a bath basket for Janelle. I'm getting her an external CD/DVD drive for her laptop, since a replacement internal drive will be something like 150+ dollars. She's worth it, but the part isn't. Needlessly expensive replacement components - another reason I don't like laptops. But yeah, we'll get her taken care of. Gonna get Bam and Greg a birdbath, but neither Walmart nor Lowe's had one. Mom's going to check the Home Depot in Kyle for me when she drives by. I figure I'll put two rubber ducks in it, 'cause that's cute, and those will be for Saxton. He might be a little young for them at the moment, but a kid is never too young to start collecting rubber ducks, right? Anyway, those are the big three on my list. After that, there's Rose, Lilie, Ambra, and David. I'm going to get them... well, I shouldn't write that here, since they all four, at one time or another, read this. Occasionally, at least. But I know what they're getting, and I hope they like it. I think they will.
Ambra's gone for Christmas, she won't be back 'til... Tuesday? It's all quiet and lonely here. David's going to be gone 'til January, Rose and Lilie are in Austin, and neither one's much for talking at the moment.
So, relationships. In the aftermath of the Lilie situation, as I continue to adjust to our new situation, I've done a lot of thinking at work about myself, about love, about life, the universe, and
everything (hint: 42).
Stop. Stop it right here. As I've done before, I'm going to stop myself and just replace what I was going to say, rant about, whine, bitch, and moan with a pretty picture:
Ah, I feel better. I still want to talk about relationships at some opint, but not what I was going to say.
Freemasons ft Amanda Wilson -- Love On My Mind
Ambra's gone for Christmas, she won't be back 'til... Tuesday? It's all quiet and lonely here. David's going to be gone 'til January, Rose and Lilie are in Austin, and neither one's much for talking at the moment.
So, relationships. In the aftermath of the Lilie situation, as I continue to adjust to our new situation, I've done a lot of thinking at work about myself, about love, about life, the universe, and
everything (hint: 42).
Stop. Stop it right here. As I've done before, I'm going to stop myself and just replace what I was going to say, rant about, whine, bitch, and moan with a pretty picture:
Ah, I feel better. I still want to talk about relationships at some opint, but not what I was going to say.
Freemasons ft Amanda Wilson -- Love On My Mind
2004-12-27
She's like a rainbow (again)
The post after this one is not my post. When I went to publish my post, some sort of error occurred. However, I'm used to this happening, so I always copy my post before publishing, just in case. I'm not going to delete the post after this one, because it's so wonderfully random - I can only assume my post got crossed with two other posts to create the work of beauty you see below. Now, here is my actual post:
Anyway, Christmas Eve.
Mom, Bam, Janelle and Greg went to church, then back to Bam's for dinner. Mom's finally accepted that I'm an atheist, so she didn't bother inviting me to church with them, but she did ask me to come to dinner. I initially wasn't going to - my mood had reached a valley, and I really didn't feel up to an evening around family; Janelle called later and convinced me to come, though. Tried calling Lilie twice (once before, once after) to see if I could drop off her present, but to no avail.
Bam made homemade ziti; it was really, really good. I didn't hang around much later, though. Came home, and started playing some Diablo 2 (more on this later). I ended up staying awake until... oh, 3 or 4 am. Finally just passed out, but not for very long. I had this bizarre dream that I was supposed to open that morning (I'm really starting to hate having dreams about work. They're really, really annoying.) Anyway, I woke up at like 6:00, when I usually leave to open, and started quickly getting dressed. I had my pants on and was buttoning my shirt when I realized it was Christmas morning and not only did I not have to open, I wouldn't have to go in at all. Of course, I couldn't go back to sleep (despite getting only two hours of sleep), so I played some more Diablo 2 until I heard Janelle and Mom wake up and start moving around. We eventually all moved into the living room for presents and stuff. Went back to my room and napped after that, until Bam and Greg got there. More presents and stuff, followed by more napping. Eventually, we broke through that harsh regimine and moved onto Christmas dinner.
Oddly enough, it's only recently that we've started having a Christmas dinner. In past years, especially when I was in high school, we used to just all lounge around in our pajamas all day. There'd be various snack trays set out, and we'd have people stopping in throughout the day. I miss that, and in rememberance, I wore my new pajama pants all day. In fact, I'm wearing them right now as well. But no one stopped by this year; we just had an intimate family gathering. Don't get me wrong, though - it was very nice, and thoroughly enjoyed by all. Christmas dinner was fantastic - smoked turkey, honey-glazed ham, roast, garlic mashed potatoes, asparagus (mentioned only for completeness), stuffing, brocili and cheese, corn, rolls, and some smoked salmon, but that was mainly for Mom. Everyone liked dinner. We also had homemade cheesecake and tort, but I didn't hang around for that. As we were sitting around after dinner, I heard my message alert on my phone go off. I had missed a call from Lilie and had a subsequent voicemail.
I called her back, and headed over. Gave her her present, which she seemed to like, and came home. More Diablo 2, and then I crashed. Had to open Sunday morning, at 9:30 or so. Nothing terribly exciting there; Adam came in at 10, and I gave him my 5 - C shift, so when I got off at 1-ish, having worked a grand total of 3 1/2 hours, I was off for the rest of the day. Janelle and I, after showers, dishes, and cleaning rooms, went shopping. I had gift certificates to Best Buy and Dragon's Lair; she had ones to Blockbuster and Best Buy. Went to Dragon's Lair first. They had transformer decals, one of which now adorns my car; also picked up a new set of dice and Empire by AEG. I would have preferred Toolbox, but they didn't have that one. Darn. Anyway, on the drive there, Janelle started talking about wanting to get a job for this semester; that evolved into her wanting to be a carhop at Sonic. She *can* skate, which is a plus, and she's really, really smart. I let her know that I didn't think it was a good idea - Sonic is a terrible work environment, but she persisted. So we picked up an application for her. I now face a terrible, terrible decision - help my sister get a job at Sonic or not. More on that later.
Afterwards, we went to Blockbuster. I bought her gift card from her, because even though I don't rent movies or anything, I'm slightly more likely to find a use for it than her. Except I couldn't. Their used games were a joke (even more so than most used games), and NOTHING there was worth looking at. I eventually went with The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King extended super-duper platinum 32 DVD edition, just to use it. Went to Best Buy after that, to see if Janelle was going to use her gift certificate, or I would buy that one from her too - after all, there's no limit to the amount of Best Buy gift certificates I can use. That's when I saw it. The same Lord of the Rings thing, for almost fifteen dollars less. Now, I normally don't care about different prices - if I see something a few dollars less than what I spent for it, I chalk it up to experience and move on. But as frustrating as it was in the first place to find something at Blockbuster worth buying, I wasn't going to if they had it RIGHT DOWN THE STREET for SIGNIFICANTELY LESS. So I marched back to Blockbuster to get a refund. Of course, they gave it to me... on a gift card. I'm not kidding. So I still have this completely worthless piece of plastic that entitles me to twenty-five dollars worth of goods and services from Blockbuster (assuming they offer services), none of which are even half-way decent.
So that was fun.
Went back to Best Buy and wondered around for another hour or so, after which, Janelle and I decided to go get some Subway, then go see Blade: Trinity (I will keep inserting the colon in there, despite the fact that there isn't actually one in the movie's title. I just like it.) using the two movie passes she had left. Came home, crashed, and that's where we are now. Fun times. More to follow.
Anyway, Christmas Eve.
Mom, Bam, Janelle and Greg went to church, then back to Bam's for dinner. Mom's finally accepted that I'm an atheist, so she didn't bother inviting me to church with them, but she did ask me to come to dinner. I initially wasn't going to - my mood had reached a valley, and I really didn't feel up to an evening around family; Janelle called later and convinced me to come, though. Tried calling Lilie twice (once before, once after) to see if I could drop off her present, but to no avail.
Bam made homemade ziti; it was really, really good. I didn't hang around much later, though. Came home, and started playing some Diablo 2 (more on this later). I ended up staying awake until... oh, 3 or 4 am. Finally just passed out, but not for very long. I had this bizarre dream that I was supposed to open that morning (I'm really starting to hate having dreams about work. They're really, really annoying.) Anyway, I woke up at like 6:00, when I usually leave to open, and started quickly getting dressed. I had my pants on and was buttoning my shirt when I realized it was Christmas morning and not only did I not have to open, I wouldn't have to go in at all. Of course, I couldn't go back to sleep (despite getting only two hours of sleep), so I played some more Diablo 2 until I heard Janelle and Mom wake up and start moving around. We eventually all moved into the living room for presents and stuff. Went back to my room and napped after that, until Bam and Greg got there. More presents and stuff, followed by more napping. Eventually, we broke through that harsh regimine and moved onto Christmas dinner.
Oddly enough, it's only recently that we've started having a Christmas dinner. In past years, especially when I was in high school, we used to just all lounge around in our pajamas all day. There'd be various snack trays set out, and we'd have people stopping in throughout the day. I miss that, and in rememberance, I wore my new pajama pants all day. In fact, I'm wearing them right now as well. But no one stopped by this year; we just had an intimate family gathering. Don't get me wrong, though - it was very nice, and thoroughly enjoyed by all. Christmas dinner was fantastic - smoked turkey, honey-glazed ham, roast, garlic mashed potatoes, asparagus (mentioned only for completeness), stuffing, brocili and cheese, corn, rolls, and some smoked salmon, but that was mainly for Mom. Everyone liked dinner. We also had homemade cheesecake and tort, but I didn't hang around for that. As we were sitting around after dinner, I heard my message alert on my phone go off. I had missed a call from Lilie and had a subsequent voicemail.
I called her back, and headed over. Gave her her present, which she seemed to like, and came home. More Diablo 2, and then I crashed. Had to open Sunday morning, at 9:30 or so. Nothing terribly exciting there; Adam came in at 10, and I gave him my 5 - C shift, so when I got off at 1-ish, having worked a grand total of 3 1/2 hours, I was off for the rest of the day. Janelle and I, after showers, dishes, and cleaning rooms, went shopping. I had gift certificates to Best Buy and Dragon's Lair; she had ones to Blockbuster and Best Buy. Went to Dragon's Lair first. They had transformer decals, one of which now adorns my car; also picked up a new set of dice and Empire by AEG. I would have preferred Toolbox, but they didn't have that one. Darn. Anyway, on the drive there, Janelle started talking about wanting to get a job for this semester; that evolved into her wanting to be a carhop at Sonic. She *can* skate, which is a plus, and she's really, really smart. I let her know that I didn't think it was a good idea - Sonic is a terrible work environment, but she persisted. So we picked up an application for her. I now face a terrible, terrible decision - help my sister get a job at Sonic or not. More on that later.
Afterwards, we went to Blockbuster. I bought her gift card from her, because even though I don't rent movies or anything, I'm slightly more likely to find a use for it than her. Except I couldn't. Their used games were a joke (even more so than most used games), and NOTHING there was worth looking at. I eventually went with The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King extended super-duper platinum 32 DVD edition, just to use it. Went to Best Buy after that, to see if Janelle was going to use her gift certificate, or I would buy that one from her too - after all, there's no limit to the amount of Best Buy gift certificates I can use. That's when I saw it. The same Lord of the Rings thing, for almost fifteen dollars less. Now, I normally don't care about different prices - if I see something a few dollars less than what I spent for it, I chalk it up to experience and move on. But as frustrating as it was in the first place to find something at Blockbuster worth buying, I wasn't going to if they had it RIGHT DOWN THE STREET for SIGNIFICANTELY LESS. So I marched back to Blockbuster to get a refund. Of course, they gave it to me... on a gift card. I'm not kidding. So I still have this completely worthless piece of plastic that entitles me to twenty-five dollars worth of goods and services from Blockbuster (assuming they offer services), none of which are even half-way decent.
So that was fun.
Went back to Best Buy and wondered around for another hour or so, after which, Janelle and I decided to go get some Subway, then go see Blade: Trinity (I will keep inserting the colon in there, despite the fact that there isn't actually one in the movie's title. I just like it.) using the two movie passes she had left. Came home, crashed, and that's where we are now. Fun times. More to follow.
She's like a rainbow
Anyway, Christmas Eve.
Mom, Bam, Janelle and Greg went to church, then back to Bam's for dinner. Mom's finally accepted that I'm an atheist, so she didn't bother inviting me to church with them, but she did ask me to come to dinner. I initially wasn't going to - my mood had reached a valley, and I really didn't feel up to an evening around family; Janelle called later and convinced me to come, though. Tried calling Lilie twice (once before, once after) to see if I could drop off her present, but to no avail. with a lot more people and here it's just JaB, the cats and me. Plus, she's never been to Rotterdam. I know about the "having to kick her out-maybe" thing. That's why I always went to the fuckbuddy's house. There's a get away there. And if I really wanted to return to that house or see him again, I'd leave something there. Something I'd have to go back for, or he'd have to call me about. You might be thinking panties here, but panties don't work. For some odd reason they keep those.
Mom, Bam, Janelle and Greg went to church, then back to Bam's for dinner. Mom's finally accepted that I'm an atheist, so she didn't bother inviting me to church with them, but she did ask me to come to dinner. I initially wasn't going to - my mood had reached a valley, and I really didn't feel up to an evening around family; Janelle called later and convinced me to come, though. Tried calling Lilie twice (once before, once after) to see if I could drop off her present, but to no avail. with a lot more people and here it's just JaB, the cats and me. Plus, she's never been to Rotterdam. I know about the "having to kick her out-maybe" thing. That's why I always went to the fuckbuddy's house. There's a get away there. And if I really wanted to return to that house or see him again, I'd leave something there. Something I'd have to go back for, or he'd have to call me about. You might be thinking panties here, but panties don't work. For some odd reason they keep those.
Am I nervous? Yeah! For that reason; should I be blogging about this any more? NO!! I keep tricking myself into blogging about it. Or you trick me into it. There's a Dutch saying that goes; "Waar het hart van vol is, loopt de mond van over." Translation; "What the heart is full of, the mouth overflows with." cking myself into blogging about it. Or you trick me into it. There's a Dutch saying that goes; "Waar het hart van vol is, loopt de mond van over." Translation; "What the heart is full of, the mouth overflows with." delivering show-stopping renditions of songs, and he possesses a stage presence that radiates
warmth; his followers eagerly look forward to his upcoming and
undoubtedly successful J Records debut; now, therefore, be it
2004-12-25
The love of your life is dancing here before you
Christmas morning. Fun.
Did my Christmas shopping Thursday afternoon before going in to work. I ended up doing almost all of it at Hastings. Ran into Mike and Anna, which was cool. Had to make a quick stop by McCoy's for Mom's gift; after that, the only shopping I had left was Lilie's. She called as I was getting home, had a computer problem. Turns out her CPU fan crapped out. She asked me to come over and take a look at it.
She has a Hewlett Packard, and they told her that she'd have to use their proprietary fan to replace it. Best Buy wanted something like 50 dollars to install it. So I get over there, and her computer's on. Seriously. Finally got her to turn it off, opened it up, and started digging around. Turns out they use this weird system where the CPU fan isn't actually on the CPU fan. Rather, There's a second power supply-class fan mounted on the back of the case, with a little plastic tunnel from it to the CPU. Managed to get all the plastic casing removed and the fan out. She had the bizarre idea of just leaving her case open and running a big (normal) fan right next to it, but I didn't (and still don't) think it was a good idea, nor did Michael. I was willing to see if we could get the fan out of her other computer that's inoperable at the moment and see if it would work, but I had to leave for work. She asked me to come back afterwards.
Picked up Freddie, and we got there 'bout 5 after. I was managing that night, and things were slated to go okay. Frank was due in at 6:30. At 6:20, he called up there asking if someone could go get him, 'cause it was cold. I really wanted to smack him. It's not our responsibility to get him here - he knows he doesn't have a car, and it's not like the recent temperatures have caught anyone by surprise. On top of that, there were only two people there with cars, and I couldn't spare either of them - we were running a bare minimum crew as it was. A little later, Dave comes in to get the schedule requests. It got to be almost 7 o'clock, when the phone rings, and Katie hands it to Dave. Turns out it's Frank, asking for a ride *again*. Dave sent me out to get Frank. I ended up having to go twice, because he didn't tell me that they had moved to another trailer. It really, really pissed me off. Why the HELL did he just sit around and call again later? It might be a different matter if he wasn't so worthless in the kitchen. He whines all the time about having to do onion rings or floors, when he's (a) the newest and (b) the crappiest (well, he'd have to fight Pedro for that title) cook. Tomorrow night, he's closing kitchen by himself, with Pedro 5 - 9. I took Javi's 5 - C manager shift that night, which means I'm running the show. Joy. I didn't even really look at the schedule, other than for shifts to pick up. The upside is that I get to ensure that Frank is NOT leaving until EVERYTHING is done.
Anyway. Closed Thursday night; nothing spectacular. Called Lilie as I was finishing up - she went with the "large fan in front of the open case" idea - "I've been running it like this for five hours, and it hasn't broken yet." Um... okay. The main fan is responsible for keeping the case and power supply cool, the CPU fan delivers cool air to the heat sink and/or the processor to stop them from overheating. That's why the fan is *right* on the CPU, or has a direct air channel to it. I'm not sure if it's going to work; even if it doesn't immediately die, it can significantly decrease the life expectancy of your electronic components. Heat is really the only danger they face. Anyway, she told me not to come over - she was getting tired as well, and was on the phone.
Fair enough.
Called Jarrod, he finally grabbed my MOO3 CDs from his parents house, so I went over there to get them. He also wanted to show me the trailer for some new game with Conker on it that's modeled on T3: Rise of the Machines. I brought my RvB DVD, and we watched that - the first 19 episodes. Turns out it's the next episode or two that contains my favorite scene - where the Blues surrender to the Reds, and Griff has to get up and admit he sucks, and that he's a girl, and that he likes ribbons, and he wants to kiss all the boys. Then Sarge says something along the lines of "This is the greatest surrender of all time." Came home and crashed, then went in to work again the next day at 10. It was an okay shift, closed at 5. I actually got to run out real quick and go to Best Buy and grab Lilie's present. I hope she likes it.
If we're still dating, that is.
(Okay, that's not entirely true. I mean, I hope she likes it irregardless. It was just a good segue.)
'Cause frankly, I don't know. I've been accused (rightfully so) of over-analyzing things in the past, which is why I haven't really said anyhting about this of yet. However, I figure this is as good of a time as any. Crap, lunch time. I'll do this later.
Oh, I got a cowboy hat and a certificate for an hour of flight instruction, among other things. Coolness.
Did my Christmas shopping Thursday afternoon before going in to work. I ended up doing almost all of it at Hastings. Ran into Mike and Anna, which was cool. Had to make a quick stop by McCoy's for Mom's gift; after that, the only shopping I had left was Lilie's. She called as I was getting home, had a computer problem. Turns out her CPU fan crapped out. She asked me to come over and take a look at it.
She has a Hewlett Packard, and they told her that she'd have to use their proprietary fan to replace it. Best Buy wanted something like 50 dollars to install it. So I get over there, and her computer's on. Seriously. Finally got her to turn it off, opened it up, and started digging around. Turns out they use this weird system where the CPU fan isn't actually on the CPU fan. Rather, There's a second power supply-class fan mounted on the back of the case, with a little plastic tunnel from it to the CPU. Managed to get all the plastic casing removed and the fan out. She had the bizarre idea of just leaving her case open and running a big (normal) fan right next to it, but I didn't (and still don't) think it was a good idea, nor did Michael. I was willing to see if we could get the fan out of her other computer that's inoperable at the moment and see if it would work, but I had to leave for work. She asked me to come back afterwards.
Picked up Freddie, and we got there 'bout 5 after. I was managing that night, and things were slated to go okay. Frank was due in at 6:30. At 6:20, he called up there asking if someone could go get him, 'cause it was cold. I really wanted to smack him. It's not our responsibility to get him here - he knows he doesn't have a car, and it's not like the recent temperatures have caught anyone by surprise. On top of that, there were only two people there with cars, and I couldn't spare either of them - we were running a bare minimum crew as it was. A little later, Dave comes in to get the schedule requests. It got to be almost 7 o'clock, when the phone rings, and Katie hands it to Dave. Turns out it's Frank, asking for a ride *again*. Dave sent me out to get Frank. I ended up having to go twice, because he didn't tell me that they had moved to another trailer. It really, really pissed me off. Why the HELL did he just sit around and call again later? It might be a different matter if he wasn't so worthless in the kitchen. He whines all the time about having to do onion rings or floors, when he's (a) the newest and (b) the crappiest (well, he'd have to fight Pedro for that title) cook. Tomorrow night, he's closing kitchen by himself, with Pedro 5 - 9. I took Javi's 5 - C manager shift that night, which means I'm running the show. Joy. I didn't even really look at the schedule, other than for shifts to pick up. The upside is that I get to ensure that Frank is NOT leaving until EVERYTHING is done.
Anyway. Closed Thursday night; nothing spectacular. Called Lilie as I was finishing up - she went with the "large fan in front of the open case" idea - "I've been running it like this for five hours, and it hasn't broken yet." Um... okay. The main fan is responsible for keeping the case and power supply cool, the CPU fan delivers cool air to the heat sink and/or the processor to stop them from overheating. That's why the fan is *right* on the CPU, or has a direct air channel to it. I'm not sure if it's going to work; even if it doesn't immediately die, it can significantly decrease the life expectancy of your electronic components. Heat is really the only danger they face. Anyway, she told me not to come over - she was getting tired as well, and was on the phone.
Fair enough.
Called Jarrod, he finally grabbed my MOO3 CDs from his parents house, so I went over there to get them. He also wanted to show me the trailer for some new game with Conker on it that's modeled on T3: Rise of the Machines. I brought my RvB DVD, and we watched that - the first 19 episodes. Turns out it's the next episode or two that contains my favorite scene - where the Blues surrender to the Reds, and Griff has to get up and admit he sucks, and that he's a girl, and that he likes ribbons, and he wants to kiss all the boys. Then Sarge says something along the lines of "This is the greatest surrender of all time." Came home and crashed, then went in to work again the next day at 10. It was an okay shift, closed at 5. I actually got to run out real quick and go to Best Buy and grab Lilie's present. I hope she likes it.
If we're still dating, that is.
(Okay, that's not entirely true. I mean, I hope she likes it irregardless. It was just a good segue.)
'Cause frankly, I don't know. I've been accused (rightfully so) of over-analyzing things in the past, which is why I haven't really said anyhting about this of yet. However, I figure this is as good of a time as any. Crap, lunch time. I'll do this later.
Oh, I got a cowboy hat and a certificate for an hour of flight instruction, among other things. Coolness.
2004-12-23
You gave me strength when I was weak
Had a couple really weird dreams last night. They're already starting to fade, so I'd like to get them down as soon as possible.
The first one, Usher (yes, the rapper guy) and I, along with two other guys, broke into this office building. I had a sledgehammer. I was destroying security cameras with it, and smashed a few glass doors as well. I think our objective was to make these two trains smash into each other. However, in the distance, we started to hear sirens, so we left. We snuck out through a back entrance, one of those doors that has a button that makes it open, but the cops saw my sledgehammer and stopped us, and arrested us. I think we ended up at the CSI crime lab, for whatever reason.
Crap. I've only been up for about 10 minutes, but the other ones have already started to fade.
But this really annoying thing happened at work last night. Some lady called back after we took her order (well, Rudy took it), and complained that Rudy didn't say anything back after she said "Merry Christmas." I really, really wanted to walk out there and smack her, or tell her to get a life, or something like that. Actually, I take that back. I can be more subtle. I wanted to tell her that his parents were killed in a car wreck by a drunk driver on Christmas, or he was molested as a child by a department-store Santa, or something along those lines, and is now crying in the back, thanks to the unpleasant memories she just flung in his face. But I didn't. I said, "I'm sorry, ma'am, he didn't hear you. Merry Christmas."
I'm not going to go into the myriad reasons this sort of person bothers me. I'm not trying to deny them their holiday cheer; I do, however, take major offense at their expectation that everybody is required to reciprocate it. What if the person taking her order had been Muslim? Jewish? Atheist? Again, I don't begrudge them their celebration, just don't expect everyone else to do so, and certainly don't complain about it. It's similar to a situation when these two girls were ordering, and prefaced it with "How are you?" I've taken a lot of orders over the years, and well over ninety-five percent of the time when someone starts with that, they don't listen for a response and just start ordering with two seconds. Which is good, because I really don't want to carry on conversations with people through the boards - chances are, there's other people waiting to order, or for me to make drinks or bag, and wasting time like that is only delaying other peoples' orders. However, they called back after their order was taken and demanded to know how I was doing. I wanted to go break their headlights with a baseball bat and say "Better now." Seriously, did they think they were being cute, or making the world a better place, or what? Truly, the service industry is the last refuge of the damned.
The first one, Usher (yes, the rapper guy) and I, along with two other guys, broke into this office building. I had a sledgehammer. I was destroying security cameras with it, and smashed a few glass doors as well. I think our objective was to make these two trains smash into each other. However, in the distance, we started to hear sirens, so we left. We snuck out through a back entrance, one of those doors that has a button that makes it open, but the cops saw my sledgehammer and stopped us, and arrested us. I think we ended up at the CSI crime lab, for whatever reason.
Crap. I've only been up for about 10 minutes, but the other ones have already started to fade.
But this really annoying thing happened at work last night. Some lady called back after we took her order (well, Rudy took it), and complained that Rudy didn't say anything back after she said "Merry Christmas." I really, really wanted to walk out there and smack her, or tell her to get a life, or something like that. Actually, I take that back. I can be more subtle. I wanted to tell her that his parents were killed in a car wreck by a drunk driver on Christmas, or he was molested as a child by a department-store Santa, or something along those lines, and is now crying in the back, thanks to the unpleasant memories she just flung in his face. But I didn't. I said, "I'm sorry, ma'am, he didn't hear you. Merry Christmas."
I'm not going to go into the myriad reasons this sort of person bothers me. I'm not trying to deny them their holiday cheer; I do, however, take major offense at their expectation that everybody is required to reciprocate it. What if the person taking her order had been Muslim? Jewish? Atheist? Again, I don't begrudge them their celebration, just don't expect everyone else to do so, and certainly don't complain about it. It's similar to a situation when these two girls were ordering, and prefaced it with "How are you?" I've taken a lot of orders over the years, and well over ninety-five percent of the time when someone starts with that, they don't listen for a response and just start ordering with two seconds. Which is good, because I really don't want to carry on conversations with people through the boards - chances are, there's other people waiting to order, or for me to make drinks or bag, and wasting time like that is only delaying other peoples' orders. However, they called back after their order was taken and demanded to know how I was doing. I wanted to go break their headlights with a baseball bat and say "Better now." Seriously, did they think they were being cute, or making the world a better place, or what? Truly, the service industry is the last refuge of the damned.
2004-12-21
Never ever have I ever felt so low; when you gonna take me out of this black hole?
Wow. I'm approaching my old record - well, not really. I just haven't really posted in over a week.
It's just, well, a couple things. First, with school out, I've gone back to working at least 40 hours a week, so I'm more tired at night when I would normally be posting. I've also been spending a lot (both too much and not enough) time with Lilie and over there. And finally, in the last week or so, I really haven't felt up to it. I mean, I've been in this major funk. I've spent a lot of time lying in bed, not really doing anything. I hate it when I get like this - I know it's not really tied to any time of year, nor any event. It just happens. So we'll see how long it takes to get over that. But anyway...
Sunday evening, I went over to Lilie's. Details are fuzzy, but I do recall one very odd occurrence. We were standing outside - I don't know if she came out to meet me, or we were headed back in or something (actually, now that I think about it, it might have been Tuesday night, but anyway...) she started asking me about why I feel so insecure about us, and how I shouldn't. It's kind of odd, having her being able to know what I'm thinking, especially about her. Well, to be fair, it's my fault - I'm the one posting it here, where she can read it. I could always post it on some secret, third blog. Or something like that. It's the same thing with Shelley. I'm just not used to having people read this regularly, much less someone I interact with.
So we both had to work Monday morning at 10 am. Well, at least, that's what I thought. I had only taken a cursory glance at my schedule, then listened to her mentioning that she had to be in at 10. We left, and I got there, only to discover that I wasn't supposed to be in there until 11:30. Had it been 11, it wouldn't have been worth it to drive home, but since I had an hour and a half, I went for it. Came home, started Moulin Rouge burning, set up X-2 with some new dresspheres to power up, then went back to work. It was okay, although things have been getting on my nerves a lot more.
I don't really remember Monday evening. Heh.
I opened Tuesday morning, as usual, and that evening, Lilie and I had an actual date. We went to Italian Garden for dinner. It was pretty nice - I had, um, something, I'm sure. She had the manacotti. It's always weird when you go out to eat with someone who waits, or has waited, tables. I ran into this a lot with Rose - they usually end up striking a conversation with the server. I always feel really awkward when that happens. It's really just an instance of my general discomfort with service people. Like when you go into Best Buy, and that guy greets you - they've started doing that at Hastings as well. It really bothers me. I understand why they're doing it - making sure the customer feels welcome, and giving them an immediate chance to ask any questions or seek some assistance. But I'm never quite sure how to respond. Do I greet them back? I feel really stupid doing that; on the other hand, ignoring them seems kind of rude. I really wish they'd just ignore me as I walked in. For that matter, I feel the same way about employees (or sales associates, whatever) asking me if I need help when I'm browsing. If I needed help, I'd go ask for it. Or when the server, waitress, or carhop, tries to strike up a conversation. It's not that I'm being rude or I think I'm better or something, I just feel uncomfortable talking to random people like that.
So yeah. After Italian Garden, we drove around for a bit, then went to Showplace to watch Team America: World Police. She still hadn't seen it, though I think it would have been my... third, or fourth time. Something like that. So we watched it. We had to move once or twice, 'cause she doesn't like having (other) people sitting near us. Eventually, though, we got settled in and started watching it.
And we both fell asleep at one point or another. We enjoyed it, but managed to fall asleep. We were both just really tired. Oh!! I forgot. I even dressed up a little bit - I was wearing my green pants, as can be expected, and put on my black over-shirt with the really bright flowers on it. Shelley made some disparaging remarks about it, but that's to be expected.
So yeah, a good time was had by all. I'm fairly certain I crashed there that night. Yes, I remember it now. She had to leave before me, 'cause she had to go to work, whereas I didn't have to work until that evening. I think. Either that, or I was off. Yeah, I think I was off, since I opened Thursday. No, wait, that's not right. She did have to go to work later (I think), but I was up early, and couldn't lie still, so I went into the living room and played a little Twisted Metal: Black, and was going to take Shelley to work at 10. After that, I didn't feel like going home just yet, so I went over to Best Buy and looked at their RAM and video cards. I've been thinking about doing it for a while, and it seemed like a good time (don't ask my why). Anyway, while I was browsing, Lilie called. She was curious as to why I didn't say bye before I left. (I didn't want to wake her up.) It just made me feel really good, knowing that she cared.
So I bought a video card and some RAM. Of course, it was the wrong kind of RAM. My comp wouldn't boot with it at all. The video card, however, went right in and worked perfectly. I took the RAM back and had the guy find the right kind - it was in the back. I put it in by itself to make sure it worked, and the motherboard, as soon as power hit it, went "Beep. Beep beep beep. Beep beep beep." And the computer wouldn't boot. Turns out that that's the "Hey, your RAM is in backwards" alert. Silly me. Put it in right, it booted. Recognized it and everything. Turned it back off and put my original one in as well, and everything was good to go. The improvement in performance has been immense. I could even contemplate playing either CoH or WoW (not both).
Didn't do much else on Wednesday, though I did go up to Austin and play some DDR later. Stopped by Rose's to pick her up, since she wanted a ride home. Played a little, but not too much - I slammed my ankle on the bar at one point, and it's been hurting sporadically ever since. We stopped by IHOP on the way home, which was unpleasently reminiscent of the old days. If she does move back down here (which is now in question, apparently), I won't always be able to just jump up at 3 in the morning and give her a ride home whenever. Things have changed a bit. And even if I do, I won't just sit there for half an hour. It was really weird when she called me the other day at 2 in the morning - something perfectly resonable in the old days, but I was crashing over at Lilie's, and she had long since fallen asleep. I felt really bad having to disturb her, however slightly, to go get my phone (it rings really, really loudly, so ignoring it wasn't really an option).
So anyway. Opened Thursday. Somehow, Rose thought I had agreed to take her back to Austin. I swear I don't remember doing that, but I did. Take her back, I mean. Came back and took Shelley Christmas-shopping for Lilie. Since she doesn't have her own car, her options for doing so are limited, and I was happy to help. We went to Hastings, then stopped at Sonic for some dinner (the current joke is that I'm dating both Lilie and Shelley; it started the Sunday she waited in my truck for a good 10 - 20 minutes for a ride home).
Oh, haha. Just re-read my earlier posts, and I'm getting all these days mixed up. I did my video card and RAM on Friday, which means that I crashed at Lilie's on Thursday (probably Tuesday night too. This is one of the reasons I hate going so long between updates). I don't really rememeber Friday or Saturday either, which is kind of scary.
I do remember Sunday, though. Shelley and I opened. It was *really* slow. I mean, our first customer was... 8:30? We had like 10 orders from then 'til 9:30. We had a bit of a rush 'til 10:05 or so, when Adam got in and helped. At one point, labor was at over 700%, which was really, really cool. I was sent home about 11:30, since it was just unbelievably slow. Shelley insisted I head over to their place, so I did. I ended up crashing in Lilie's bed and taking a four hour nap. Lilie woke me up when she came in to hug and kiss me good-bye as she left for work. I left fairly soon after that.
As I got home, I realized I had forgotten my blue button-up shirt. I called their place and told Shelley that when she answered the phone... except it was Lilie. Apparently, there was a sign at Katy Station that said "Closed @ 2 - Kitchen Repairs" or something along those lines. I headed over about 9 to get my shirt, since I had to work Monday night. Lilie was still dressed up, and she looked very nice. We hugged like we hadn't since before we started going out, which felt really good. We kissed a little too, and I left. I talked to Shelley later (online?) and she asked me why I left.
Worked Monday 5 - C, fountain. Dennis was there 5 - 9, and he was really getting on my nerves. It ended up taking me over an hour to close fountain, since Dennis didn't do *anything*, and Rick didn't help me in the fountain at all either. I don't mind, though - with the mood I was in, I was in no hurry to leave. It's the mood I've been in pretty much all week. Just a major funk. I alternate between upset for no reason and sad for no reason. I've been lying in my room all day today, sometimes playing games, but often just lying there. Felt like crying a few times, but of course, that won't happen - I can't seem to cry except at seemingly random times, and the most bizarre catalysts (Hearing Lemon Tree by Peter, Paul and Mary is the best example I have at the moment). Just been lounging around today, though I did manage to get about three quarters of my chores for this week done, and can finish my room tonight and the rest tomorrow. I still haven't done any Christmas shopping, though, so I'll have to squeeze that in tomorrow and Thursday before work at 5.
So. That's my week. Time for humorous anecdotes and other things I left out.
Janelle and three of her friends went to a movie, then came back here to build a gingerbread house. Things went well, until the end. It stood for... four seconds? They dragged me out to take their picture, which I did. But even then, the chimney, constructed of Hershey's chocolate bars, was falling. Not long after that, they realized the door was caving in. Immediately after that, the back wall started collapsing as well. Within a minute, the whole thing was in a heap. We ate some, but it is *incredibly* sweet. Michael and Kushal are still here, but they'll be leaving soon.
I was thinking about going to Austin tonight to play some DDR, but I just didn't have the energy. I don't mean physically, but mentally. Just an extension of the lethargic, depressed mood I've been in lately.
Bug did a major patch on gEngine, changing the look again. It was bad enough to (coupled with the complete lack of B5 players lately) to uninstall gEngine, delete the cache completely, clear my registry of it, and remove the forums from my favorites.
Picked Final Fantasy: Origins back up. Final Fantasy I is *hard*. Started playing Diablo II: Lord of Destruction as well, for some reason (although it is really sweet with the upgrades.) Been playing a Druid with a lot of pets.
The office sent back a list of errors in paperwork this week - there were a lot. And none of them were mine. Every other manager had at least one, and everyone except Dora had a few.
I think the Christmas party was this Sunday. I mean, the Sunday evening of the post before this one. It was... okay. Shelley did end up going, but didn't bowl. It's always nice to hang out with the crew outside of work. It wasn't as fun as last year, and the prizes sucked. Overall, though, it was okay.
That's it for now. I hope to resume normal updates now. Writing these long ones takes a while - this one took four hours, though that certainly wasn't contiguous.
It's just, well, a couple things. First, with school out, I've gone back to working at least 40 hours a week, so I'm more tired at night when I would normally be posting. I've also been spending a lot (both too much and not enough) time with Lilie and over there. And finally, in the last week or so, I really haven't felt up to it. I mean, I've been in this major funk. I've spent a lot of time lying in bed, not really doing anything. I hate it when I get like this - I know it's not really tied to any time of year, nor any event. It just happens. So we'll see how long it takes to get over that. But anyway...
Sunday evening, I went over to Lilie's. Details are fuzzy, but I do recall one very odd occurrence. We were standing outside - I don't know if she came out to meet me, or we were headed back in or something (actually, now that I think about it, it might have been Tuesday night, but anyway...) she started asking me about why I feel so insecure about us, and how I shouldn't. It's kind of odd, having her being able to know what I'm thinking, especially about her. Well, to be fair, it's my fault - I'm the one posting it here, where she can read it. I could always post it on some secret, third blog. Or something like that. It's the same thing with Shelley. I'm just not used to having people read this regularly, much less someone I interact with.
So we both had to work Monday morning at 10 am. Well, at least, that's what I thought. I had only taken a cursory glance at my schedule, then listened to her mentioning that she had to be in at 10. We left, and I got there, only to discover that I wasn't supposed to be in there until 11:30. Had it been 11, it wouldn't have been worth it to drive home, but since I had an hour and a half, I went for it. Came home, started Moulin Rouge burning, set up X-2 with some new dresspheres to power up, then went back to work. It was okay, although things have been getting on my nerves a lot more.
I don't really remember Monday evening. Heh.
I opened Tuesday morning, as usual, and that evening, Lilie and I had an actual date. We went to Italian Garden for dinner. It was pretty nice - I had, um, something, I'm sure. She had the manacotti. It's always weird when you go out to eat with someone who waits, or has waited, tables. I ran into this a lot with Rose - they usually end up striking a conversation with the server. I always feel really awkward when that happens. It's really just an instance of my general discomfort with service people. Like when you go into Best Buy, and that guy greets you - they've started doing that at Hastings as well. It really bothers me. I understand why they're doing it - making sure the customer feels welcome, and giving them an immediate chance to ask any questions or seek some assistance. But I'm never quite sure how to respond. Do I greet them back? I feel really stupid doing that; on the other hand, ignoring them seems kind of rude. I really wish they'd just ignore me as I walked in. For that matter, I feel the same way about employees (or sales associates, whatever) asking me if I need help when I'm browsing. If I needed help, I'd go ask for it. Or when the server, waitress, or carhop, tries to strike up a conversation. It's not that I'm being rude or I think I'm better or something, I just feel uncomfortable talking to random people like that.
So yeah. After Italian Garden, we drove around for a bit, then went to Showplace to watch Team America: World Police. She still hadn't seen it, though I think it would have been my... third, or fourth time. Something like that. So we watched it. We had to move once or twice, 'cause she doesn't like having (other) people sitting near us. Eventually, though, we got settled in and started watching it.
And we both fell asleep at one point or another. We enjoyed it, but managed to fall asleep. We were both just really tired. Oh!! I forgot. I even dressed up a little bit - I was wearing my green pants, as can be expected, and put on my black over-shirt with the really bright flowers on it. Shelley made some disparaging remarks about it, but that's to be expected.
So yeah, a good time was had by all. I'm fairly certain I crashed there that night. Yes, I remember it now. She had to leave before me, 'cause she had to go to work, whereas I didn't have to work until that evening. I think. Either that, or I was off. Yeah, I think I was off, since I opened Thursday. No, wait, that's not right. She did have to go to work later (I think), but I was up early, and couldn't lie still, so I went into the living room and played a little Twisted Metal: Black, and was going to take Shelley to work at 10. After that, I didn't feel like going home just yet, so I went over to Best Buy and looked at their RAM and video cards. I've been thinking about doing it for a while, and it seemed like a good time (don't ask my why). Anyway, while I was browsing, Lilie called. She was curious as to why I didn't say bye before I left. (I didn't want to wake her up.) It just made me feel really good, knowing that she cared.
So I bought a video card and some RAM. Of course, it was the wrong kind of RAM. My comp wouldn't boot with it at all. The video card, however, went right in and worked perfectly. I took the RAM back and had the guy find the right kind - it was in the back. I put it in by itself to make sure it worked, and the motherboard, as soon as power hit it, went "Beep. Beep beep beep. Beep beep beep." And the computer wouldn't boot. Turns out that that's the "Hey, your RAM is in backwards" alert. Silly me. Put it in right, it booted. Recognized it and everything. Turned it back off and put my original one in as well, and everything was good to go. The improvement in performance has been immense. I could even contemplate playing either CoH or WoW (not both).
Didn't do much else on Wednesday, though I did go up to Austin and play some DDR later. Stopped by Rose's to pick her up, since she wanted a ride home. Played a little, but not too much - I slammed my ankle on the bar at one point, and it's been hurting sporadically ever since. We stopped by IHOP on the way home, which was unpleasently reminiscent of the old days. If she does move back down here (which is now in question, apparently), I won't always be able to just jump up at 3 in the morning and give her a ride home whenever. Things have changed a bit. And even if I do, I won't just sit there for half an hour. It was really weird when she called me the other day at 2 in the morning - something perfectly resonable in the old days, but I was crashing over at Lilie's, and she had long since fallen asleep. I felt really bad having to disturb her, however slightly, to go get my phone (it rings really, really loudly, so ignoring it wasn't really an option).
So anyway. Opened Thursday. Somehow, Rose thought I had agreed to take her back to Austin. I swear I don't remember doing that, but I did. Take her back, I mean. Came back and took Shelley Christmas-shopping for Lilie. Since she doesn't have her own car, her options for doing so are limited, and I was happy to help. We went to Hastings, then stopped at Sonic for some dinner (the current joke is that I'm dating both Lilie and Shelley; it started the Sunday she waited in my truck for a good 10 - 20 minutes for a ride home).
Oh, haha. Just re-read my earlier posts, and I'm getting all these days mixed up. I did my video card and RAM on Friday, which means that I crashed at Lilie's on Thursday (probably Tuesday night too. This is one of the reasons I hate going so long between updates). I don't really rememeber Friday or Saturday either, which is kind of scary.
I do remember Sunday, though. Shelley and I opened. It was *really* slow. I mean, our first customer was... 8:30? We had like 10 orders from then 'til 9:30. We had a bit of a rush 'til 10:05 or so, when Adam got in and helped. At one point, labor was at over 700%, which was really, really cool. I was sent home about 11:30, since it was just unbelievably slow. Shelley insisted I head over to their place, so I did. I ended up crashing in Lilie's bed and taking a four hour nap. Lilie woke me up when she came in to hug and kiss me good-bye as she left for work. I left fairly soon after that.
As I got home, I realized I had forgotten my blue button-up shirt. I called their place and told Shelley that when she answered the phone... except it was Lilie. Apparently, there was a sign at Katy Station that said "Closed @ 2 - Kitchen Repairs" or something along those lines. I headed over about 9 to get my shirt, since I had to work Monday night. Lilie was still dressed up, and she looked very nice. We hugged like we hadn't since before we started going out, which felt really good. We kissed a little too, and I left. I talked to Shelley later (online?) and she asked me why I left.
Worked Monday 5 - C, fountain. Dennis was there 5 - 9, and he was really getting on my nerves. It ended up taking me over an hour to close fountain, since Dennis didn't do *anything*, and Rick didn't help me in the fountain at all either. I don't mind, though - with the mood I was in, I was in no hurry to leave. It's the mood I've been in pretty much all week. Just a major funk. I alternate between upset for no reason and sad for no reason. I've been lying in my room all day today, sometimes playing games, but often just lying there. Felt like crying a few times, but of course, that won't happen - I can't seem to cry except at seemingly random times, and the most bizarre catalysts (Hearing Lemon Tree by Peter, Paul and Mary is the best example I have at the moment). Just been lounging around today, though I did manage to get about three quarters of my chores for this week done, and can finish my room tonight and the rest tomorrow. I still haven't done any Christmas shopping, though, so I'll have to squeeze that in tomorrow and Thursday before work at 5.
So. That's my week. Time for humorous anecdotes and other things I left out.
Janelle and three of her friends went to a movie, then came back here to build a gingerbread house. Things went well, until the end. It stood for... four seconds? They dragged me out to take their picture, which I did. But even then, the chimney, constructed of Hershey's chocolate bars, was falling. Not long after that, they realized the door was caving in. Immediately after that, the back wall started collapsing as well. Within a minute, the whole thing was in a heap. We ate some, but it is *incredibly* sweet. Michael and Kushal are still here, but they'll be leaving soon.
I was thinking about going to Austin tonight to play some DDR, but I just didn't have the energy. I don't mean physically, but mentally. Just an extension of the lethargic, depressed mood I've been in lately.
Bug did a major patch on gEngine, changing the look again. It was bad enough to (coupled with the complete lack of B5 players lately) to uninstall gEngine, delete the cache completely, clear my registry of it, and remove the forums from my favorites.
Picked Final Fantasy: Origins back up. Final Fantasy I is *hard*. Started playing Diablo II: Lord of Destruction as well, for some reason (although it is really sweet with the upgrades.) Been playing a Druid with a lot of pets.
The office sent back a list of errors in paperwork this week - there were a lot. And none of them were mine. Every other manager had at least one, and everyone except Dora had a few.
I think the Christmas party was this Sunday. I mean, the Sunday evening of the post before this one. It was... okay. Shelley did end up going, but didn't bowl. It's always nice to hang out with the crew outside of work. It wasn't as fun as last year, and the prizes sucked. Overall, though, it was okay.
That's it for now. I hope to resume normal updates now. Writing these long ones takes a while - this one took four hours, though that certainly wasn't contiguous.
2004-12-08
Parking lot, why not? It's so cool when you're on top
Worked 5 - C Saturday night in the fountain. Adam was the manager. Him and I are starting to clash fairly regularly; I'm not that worried, though - nobody else likes him either.
But enough about him. Shelley came in to fountain with me 'bout 8 or so, and we closed fountain together. Went back over to the girls' place after work, and hung out there until about 3 am or so.
Sunday morning, Rudy called me (he opened; I was supposed to come in at 11) and told me that Pedro didn't have a ride, but that he might have one. He said that if he didn't call me again, it meant he had a ride. I showed up about 11, and he said, "Hey, aren't you missing something?" "What?" "A 4 ft tall Mexican?" (To put things in context, Rudy is himself Mexican, and Pedro is, in fact, 4 feet tall.) Apparently, I had it backwards - Rudy was going to call if Pedro found a ride; I was supposed to pick him up otherwise. In retrospect, that makes much more sense. So I went and grabbed Pedro.
Things went okay at first. Things were incredibly slow... I cut Rudy and Erica fairly early, and was preparing to cut a fountain and a cook, when all hell broke loose. It was insane... and then, Adam showed up. Apparently, Dave had asked him to come in early for me - 3 hours or so. I stayed through the rush, then left about 3 or 4. Ended up going back over to Lilie's. That was fun.
School Monday was alright. Last day of class and all that. I ended up playing a crapload of DDR; at one point, this girl comes up to me and asks me how much I've spent on it. I wasn't really sure, and told her as much. Then she asked me why I play.
I don't really have a good answer to that one.
Went to the jazz Christmas concert that evening. I actually fell asleep when I got home, and woke up about ten minutes before it started. Drove to what I thought was Evans Auditorium; turns it, I was looking at the wrong building. Had to drive back across town, and got there a little late. However, turns out they were out of programs, so it wouldn't have counted anyway. Stayed for the concert anyway, though. It was pretty good. I haven't been to something like that in a while. It makes me miss band.
So anyway, started driving home, gave Allison a call to confirm she was opening Tuesday morning - she's one of my favorite people to open with. She asked me if I wanted to go to Whataburger with her. We had fun. Sat, ate, had a nice chat. We haven't hung out outside of work before, so it was nice. She's having some guy trouble right now... well, to be more precise, her guy trouble has now resolved. I think they're hooking up. I'm really happy for her, though I'm not entirely sure of the guy. Whatever makes her happy, though. So we parted ways, I went home, eventually fell asleep.
I didn't wake up until after 7. Kinda scary. I called Allison, and she said "Yeah, I'm here, I fell asleep in my car." I got there as soon as I could, and we opened in record time. Only had to turn one person away - and not entirely; we just couldn't do anything fried yet, since the fryers take like forty-five minutes to warm up. As we were opening, she let me know that she was actually sleep-talking when I called her - she was actually asleep at her apartment when I called, which is kinda funny.
Things went okay for the most part - we were *really* slow. Well, things went okay for a while, then things starting getting really stressful. Bruce closed fountain last night, and didn't leave any ice cream in the shake machine - it was completely empty. Like seven different fountain drinks had to be changed out. We ran out of bacon. The hot fudge heating element wasn't working, and the pump wasn't either. I disassembled it and found the problem, but something got stuck, and I had to use some pliers to unhook it, and I pinched my hand really hard, and it left a small blood blister. Javi was an hour late; apparently, he thought I said "11" when I told him when he had to come in, but I swear I said "10". Chris was being an ass, as usual, and Pedro was my 8 o'clock cook, which meant onions took approximately forever to be done. It was just so many small things piling up at once. I was fairly tired as well, and my patience was wearing thin. I'm starting to lose patience with this job. I think my pending road trip will be a very good thing. (More on that later)
I went over to Lilie's after work - I was just having a terrible day, and wanted to see her. I actually ended up taking a three hour nap in her bed, which I didn't plan on doing. Hung out there for a while.
Went to school this morning for my CS final; I asked the professor about a million questions, but I just wanted to make sure I was clear on things. Played some DDR afterwards, had a fair number of spectators. These two guys were watching, quite impressed, while I was doing some Nonstop Random All - but it was a bunch of slow songs - "Sky High", "Lovin' You", "Let the Beat Hit Them". They were like, "Wow, you just put it on Heavy and hit random? Damn, DDR guru or something." Just to show off, I then did Healing Vision (Angelic Mix), which is becoming a show-off song, along with Exotic Ethnic. That makes me happy, even if I still can't pass any of the Max's on Heavy. Came home, took a nap. Watching Eurotrip right now.
But enough about him. Shelley came in to fountain with me 'bout 8 or so, and we closed fountain together. Went back over to the girls' place after work, and hung out there until about 3 am or so.
Sunday morning, Rudy called me (he opened; I was supposed to come in at 11) and told me that Pedro didn't have a ride, but that he might have one. He said that if he didn't call me again, it meant he had a ride. I showed up about 11, and he said, "Hey, aren't you missing something?" "What?" "A 4 ft tall Mexican?" (To put things in context, Rudy is himself Mexican, and Pedro is, in fact, 4 feet tall.) Apparently, I had it backwards - Rudy was going to call if Pedro found a ride; I was supposed to pick him up otherwise. In retrospect, that makes much more sense. So I went and grabbed Pedro.
Things went okay at first. Things were incredibly slow... I cut Rudy and Erica fairly early, and was preparing to cut a fountain and a cook, when all hell broke loose. It was insane... and then, Adam showed up. Apparently, Dave had asked him to come in early for me - 3 hours or so. I stayed through the rush, then left about 3 or 4. Ended up going back over to Lilie's. That was fun.
School Monday was alright. Last day of class and all that. I ended up playing a crapload of DDR; at one point, this girl comes up to me and asks me how much I've spent on it. I wasn't really sure, and told her as much. Then she asked me why I play.
I don't really have a good answer to that one.
Went to the jazz Christmas concert that evening. I actually fell asleep when I got home, and woke up about ten minutes before it started. Drove to what I thought was Evans Auditorium; turns it, I was looking at the wrong building. Had to drive back across town, and got there a little late. However, turns out they were out of programs, so it wouldn't have counted anyway. Stayed for the concert anyway, though. It was pretty good. I haven't been to something like that in a while. It makes me miss band.
So anyway, started driving home, gave Allison a call to confirm she was opening Tuesday morning - she's one of my favorite people to open with. She asked me if I wanted to go to Whataburger with her. We had fun. Sat, ate, had a nice chat. We haven't hung out outside of work before, so it was nice. She's having some guy trouble right now... well, to be more precise, her guy trouble has now resolved. I think they're hooking up. I'm really happy for her, though I'm not entirely sure of the guy. Whatever makes her happy, though. So we parted ways, I went home, eventually fell asleep.
I didn't wake up until after 7. Kinda scary. I called Allison, and she said "Yeah, I'm here, I fell asleep in my car." I got there as soon as I could, and we opened in record time. Only had to turn one person away - and not entirely; we just couldn't do anything fried yet, since the fryers take like forty-five minutes to warm up. As we were opening, she let me know that she was actually sleep-talking when I called her - she was actually asleep at her apartment when I called, which is kinda funny.
Things went okay for the most part - we were *really* slow. Well, things went okay for a while, then things starting getting really stressful. Bruce closed fountain last night, and didn't leave any ice cream in the shake machine - it was completely empty. Like seven different fountain drinks had to be changed out. We ran out of bacon. The hot fudge heating element wasn't working, and the pump wasn't either. I disassembled it and found the problem, but something got stuck, and I had to use some pliers to unhook it, and I pinched my hand really hard, and it left a small blood blister. Javi was an hour late; apparently, he thought I said "11" when I told him when he had to come in, but I swear I said "10". Chris was being an ass, as usual, and Pedro was my 8 o'clock cook, which meant onions took approximately forever to be done. It was just so many small things piling up at once. I was fairly tired as well, and my patience was wearing thin. I'm starting to lose patience with this job. I think my pending road trip will be a very good thing. (More on that later)
I went over to Lilie's after work - I was just having a terrible day, and wanted to see her. I actually ended up taking a three hour nap in her bed, which I didn't plan on doing. Hung out there for a while.
Went to school this morning for my CS final; I asked the professor about a million questions, but I just wanted to make sure I was clear on things. Played some DDR afterwards, had a fair number of spectators. These two guys were watching, quite impressed, while I was doing some Nonstop Random All - but it was a bunch of slow songs - "Sky High", "Lovin' You", "Let the Beat Hit Them". They were like, "Wow, you just put it on Heavy and hit random? Damn, DDR guru or something." Just to show off, I then did Healing Vision (Angelic Mix), which is becoming a show-off song, along with Exotic Ethnic. That makes me happy, even if I still can't pass any of the Max's on Heavy. Came home, took a nap. Watching Eurotrip right now.
2004-12-05
...And it brings me to my knees
This is my third posting location. I'm actually hanging out at Shelley and Lilie's apartment. Lilie's making some Tuna Helper for Chris and Shelley (both of us aren't that hungry); Shelley is playing FF X-2 (we'll make a gamer geek out of her yet), and Chris is trying to help her. I'm just sitting here, typing; Lilie is, at this moment, leaning over my shoulder, and kissing my ear. So, yeah. Fun times.
It's been an interesting weekend. Lilie and I had a date Friday night. Well, sort of. I went to class first off; had our first Chem Lab. I have pictures from it, but I haven't uploaded them yet (I actually have about 120 pictures to upload so far, but I'm about to have a ton of free time, so prepare for some massive picture posts). Afterwards, went home and talked to Lilie; we were gonna meet up around 5 or 6 to go to Will's thing, then go to Sights & Sounds. I was feeling really ansy or anxious or something, so I ended up back to the LBJ Student Center and played about an hour or so of DDR. Went fairly well; two girls were watching me play, and one of them asked me if I practiced on the same songs repeatedly. That's always an interesting reaction; the vast majority of the time, I'm sightreading - Nonstop Random All rocks!!
So anyway, Lilie showed up around 6:30 or so. I was watching Red v Blue (which I've started burning onto DVD), and almost asleep. We went over to the Baptist Academy where Will's school was doing a little Christmas performance. It was... cute. I'm not terribly fond of small children, but as far as these things go, it was okay. There was one part where a large number of kids came out in various costumes; Will was a shepherd, and five little girls were sheep. They were SO CUTE. We left a little early so that we could catch Janelle performing at Sights & Sounds at 9. I ended up giving Lilie a piggy-back ride across the Baptist Academy to my truck. It took forever to find a parking spot near it, so we parked off the Square and walked the rest of the way. Turns out Janelle wasn't performing until 9:45, so we had some time to kill. We sampled some of the food available - chicken on a stick, caramel apples, hot cider, etc. They had one booth that had a bunch of interesting stuff available - alligator on a stick, goat, boudin sausage, squirrel, and rattlesnake. I wanted to get some squirrel (not in the sexual way (at least in this instance)), but they didn't have any, which very nearly crushed my soul. However, they did have rattlesnake, so I tried that. And, as much as it pains me to say this, it tastes... well, like chicken.
I never felt like a townie before, despite being very nearly the perfect picture of one. Maybe it's because all of my friends are townies? Well, not really - Josh and Jarrod are, but Luke, Matt, etc., aren't. It was just hanging out with Lilie at Sights & Sounds... it was best summed up as we were standing there, watching the Jazz Band perform. I heard a college girl behind me say "I've never really done any small-town stuff before." It was at that moment when I realized that I'm a townie.
Anyway.
Ran into Barbara and... Mike. I hadn't met him before, and I wasn't particularly glad to do so. It's not really any of my business, but I don't agree with what she did to David. It was fairly shady. The weird part was when Lilie and Barbara were talking about my head and keeping me from shaving it. Really weird. Next, we saw David and Nikki. Haven't seen either one of them since AvP. It looks like David's not going to get the job at Best Buy, so he's looking elsewhere. Nikki's going through her back surgery, so she's not terribly happy. While talking to them, I saw Mr. Mann wondering around, so that was fun.
Briefly saw Beth Matthis and Maggie Hernandez as well. We walked by Elinor, and exchanged waves. I told Lilie the Elinor tale, which is always fun. We had a few interesting discussions while we were there (which I'm not going to go into here). The performance was pretty good - we had a blast screaming for Janelle. I finally introduced Lilie and Jarrod, so they are both now convinced of the other's existence. Danielle was there as well, which is good as well. Jarrod asked me what we were (relationship-wise); we weren't really sure - it wasn't something we had really talked about yet, so Danielle says "Now's the perfect time to decide." I wanted to punch both of them.
Not really.
So we wondered around a little more, and finally left. Sights & Sounds seems a lot... smaller. Or maybe I'm just bigger. Or older. Or something.
***
So I finally got to sleep about 3 or 4 or so. Had to work 5 - C Saturday, which meant I didn't have anything pressing on my time. Saturday was... uneventful, partly. Oh, wait. I asked Lilie out Friday night, and she said yes. So we're official. Er... officially a couple. Or something like that. Anyway.
I was awoken around 11 am Saturday by a phone call from Shelley. She called... to apologize. Seriously. I mean, I'm typing it, and I don't believe it either. Turns out she wasn't aware that Lilie reciprocated my feelings for her. Which kind of scares me. She thought I was just chasing her and putting her through all this just for a piece of ass or something. We had already had that conversation WAAAAY back when Shelley first started working at Sonic, but apparently she didn't believe me. She read my journal where I wrote about Tuesday afternoon, and all became clear to her. I mean, I can't really fault her for acting like she did - it made sense to her, from her point of view. She may have been a little... vehement in being a bitch, but it was at least mostly justified. And she apologized. I still don't believe it either. She explained that that was why she was acting towards me the way she was. So... yeah. Her and I have been getting along much better now. Didn't do much else Saturday, until I came over to hang out with the girls before going to work. More later.
It's been an interesting weekend. Lilie and I had a date Friday night. Well, sort of. I went to class first off; had our first Chem Lab. I have pictures from it, but I haven't uploaded them yet (I actually have about 120 pictures to upload so far, but I'm about to have a ton of free time, so prepare for some massive picture posts). Afterwards, went home and talked to Lilie; we were gonna meet up around 5 or 6 to go to Will's thing, then go to Sights & Sounds. I was feeling really ansy or anxious or something, so I ended up back to the LBJ Student Center and played about an hour or so of DDR. Went fairly well; two girls were watching me play, and one of them asked me if I practiced on the same songs repeatedly. That's always an interesting reaction; the vast majority of the time, I'm sightreading - Nonstop Random All rocks!!
So anyway, Lilie showed up around 6:30 or so. I was watching Red v Blue (which I've started burning onto DVD), and almost asleep. We went over to the Baptist Academy where Will's school was doing a little Christmas performance. It was... cute. I'm not terribly fond of small children, but as far as these things go, it was okay. There was one part where a large number of kids came out in various costumes; Will was a shepherd, and five little girls were sheep. They were SO CUTE. We left a little early so that we could catch Janelle performing at Sights & Sounds at 9. I ended up giving Lilie a piggy-back ride across the Baptist Academy to my truck. It took forever to find a parking spot near it, so we parked off the Square and walked the rest of the way. Turns out Janelle wasn't performing until 9:45, so we had some time to kill. We sampled some of the food available - chicken on a stick, caramel apples, hot cider, etc. They had one booth that had a bunch of interesting stuff available - alligator on a stick, goat, boudin sausage, squirrel, and rattlesnake. I wanted to get some squirrel (not in the sexual way (at least in this instance)), but they didn't have any, which very nearly crushed my soul. However, they did have rattlesnake, so I tried that. And, as much as it pains me to say this, it tastes... well, like chicken.
I never felt like a townie before, despite being very nearly the perfect picture of one. Maybe it's because all of my friends are townies? Well, not really - Josh and Jarrod are, but Luke, Matt, etc., aren't. It was just hanging out with Lilie at Sights & Sounds... it was best summed up as we were standing there, watching the Jazz Band perform. I heard a college girl behind me say "I've never really done any small-town stuff before." It was at that moment when I realized that I'm a townie.
Anyway.
Ran into Barbara and... Mike. I hadn't met him before, and I wasn't particularly glad to do so. It's not really any of my business, but I don't agree with what she did to David. It was fairly shady. The weird part was when Lilie and Barbara were talking about my head and keeping me from shaving it. Really weird. Next, we saw David and Nikki. Haven't seen either one of them since AvP. It looks like David's not going to get the job at Best Buy, so he's looking elsewhere. Nikki's going through her back surgery, so she's not terribly happy. While talking to them, I saw Mr. Mann wondering around, so that was fun.
Briefly saw Beth Matthis and Maggie Hernandez as well. We walked by Elinor, and exchanged waves. I told Lilie the Elinor tale, which is always fun. We had a few interesting discussions while we were there (which I'm not going to go into here). The performance was pretty good - we had a blast screaming for Janelle. I finally introduced Lilie and Jarrod, so they are both now convinced of the other's existence. Danielle was there as well, which is good as well. Jarrod asked me what we were (relationship-wise); we weren't really sure - it wasn't something we had really talked about yet, so Danielle says "Now's the perfect time to decide." I wanted to punch both of them.
Not really.
So we wondered around a little more, and finally left. Sights & Sounds seems a lot... smaller. Or maybe I'm just bigger. Or older. Or something.
***
So I finally got to sleep about 3 or 4 or so. Had to work 5 - C Saturday, which meant I didn't have anything pressing on my time. Saturday was... uneventful, partly. Oh, wait. I asked Lilie out Friday night, and she said yes. So we're official. Er... officially a couple. Or something like that. Anyway.
I was awoken around 11 am Saturday by a phone call from Shelley. She called... to apologize. Seriously. I mean, I'm typing it, and I don't believe it either. Turns out she wasn't aware that Lilie reciprocated my feelings for her. Which kind of scares me. She thought I was just chasing her and putting her through all this just for a piece of ass or something. We had already had that conversation WAAAAY back when Shelley first started working at Sonic, but apparently she didn't believe me. She read my journal where I wrote about Tuesday afternoon, and all became clear to her. I mean, I can't really fault her for acting like she did - it made sense to her, from her point of view. She may have been a little... vehement in being a bitch, but it was at least mostly justified. And she apologized. I still don't believe it either. She explained that that was why she was acting towards me the way she was. So... yeah. Her and I have been getting along much better now. Didn't do much else Saturday, until I came over to hang out with the girls before going to work. More later.
