Now are you sure you want a piece of me?

Grr. So, I walked out of my shift at Wal-Mart (this was like a year and a half ago, don't get confused) to accept a position at Sonic with Javi as an assistant manager. I knew it was going to suck, and it didn't disappoint. It really, really sucked. I mean, it wasn't a surprise, I can't stress that enough. I knew it was going to suck. I was just sick of Wal-Mart, and was ready to return to an environment I knew.

Of course, I did the same thing in four (?) months when Sergio called and asked me if I wanted to come be an assistant for him, now that he had the store. I did that, and haven't really looked back since.

Until now.

Things have been pretty crappy lately. I mean, this sounds like just a lot of whining. Dylan keeps saying "Any day you're above ground is a good one" and "Things could always be a lot worse". I know both of those things, and I don't get all melodramatic or lost perspective on things. However, I'm a passionate person with strong emotions, and I'm not good at controlling, restraining, or hiding those emotions. Today, I was really thinking about quitting. Things are getting bad. We've only hired ONE new insider, and he SUCKS. I should clarify, that I don't expect too much from new people. They're going to be rough. They're going to have a lot of questions. It's a lot of stuff to pick up all at once. I can understand all that. I encourage them to ask questions when I'm training them. I let them know that it's much, much worse to not ask than to ask a question you think might make you look stupid. However, we do expect you to start learning things at *some* point. You have to ask a question once or twice, no problem. When you ask it the fifth time, maybe there's starting to be an issue. I mean, we've got Katy working inside now; she's been a driver for a while now, but she's probably only got a little more experience than he does, and she's orders of magnitude better. We've already given her the ability to authorize stuff on carryouts, edit orders, the whole package. That sounds pretty dumb and insignificant, but it's a measure of her progress.

So that's fun. It's alleviated a little bit by Sandra's return next week. There's a bit of an issue, though, since her, Josh, and Lease all want to open. There's only seven opening shifts; well, nine, if we do two on Saturday and Sunday (and we'll need 'em once football starts), although I suspect Q will cover some of those by work 12-10 shifts on the weekend. So some of them are going to have to work nights, which is good, 'cause that will put some major strength back in our night crew. I mean, it's a far cry from when our inside crew consisted of myself, Joe, Ashley, Sergio, Jess, and Jen. Any one of us could open or close at the drop of a hat, and any two of us could handle a 50 pie hour (to say nothing of the time Jess and I had an 111 pie hour).

To make things even worse, Jenni and Gina were both there when I went in to work today. Seeing Gina always makes things suck; normally, having Jenni there would be more than enough to make things great. Of course, that wouldn't be the case today. She came by the store for two reasons - one, to tell Q about who he needed to talk to about the dorm stuff (which is also what Gina was there for, kinda; I suspect she was there to talk about sandwiches and pasta, but that's what they were talking about when I was there). The second reason was to let us know that she wouldn't be returning to us. It wasn't really a big surprise; she'd been gone all summer, and had only been working one shift a week before that. I'll finish this later.

Piece of Me -- Britney Spears

I can see the things I'd like to be

So I had this weird, crazy dream. It's starting to fade already - I don't know if everyone's fade like mine. As long as I don't get out of bed, I can remember them just fine. But as soon as I stand up, they start fading really, really quick. The parts that I've already gone over in my head a few times, I remember. Even then, though, they fade. I come back two days later to a blog post I've made about them, and I don't remember that at all. It's weird.

Anyway. This one starts off on Scrubs, probably because I've been watching so much of it lately. I really like the show - the more I watch, the more I like it (even episodes I've already watched). I can't really remember that part. But then it goes to me being at home. There's a flier about someone coming home from California to do a lecture about something. I eventually realize it's Chelsea (had to have her in there somehow), and decide I'm definitely not going to that. Then, somehow, it ends up me being at a big house on a hill, and she's living nearby, training some weird, giant aquatic mammal. Then one day, I'm in the pool, and it's there - swims right in front of me. I'm really scared it's going to bite me, but it swims less than a foot away from me, and it just looks at me. Kinda scary. Oh, and Chelsea's swimming nearby. I really don't get it.

To be fair, this description doesn't do this dream justice at all. It was long and epic. I'm talking plots, recurring sub-themes, the whole ball.

In other news, Christmas was pretty good. Got a new desk, a new car seat, a chess set that moves its own pieces, and the Game of Thrones series. Good stuff. It was a lot of fun on Christmas Eve's party at work, we had a small party. It was me, Sergio, Bill, and Jenni working, and we were slow. Bill left at 5-ish, so it was just the three of us for the next four hours. We made cookies and had punch and wore Christmas hats. Well, Jenni wore one. I had a pair of reindeer antlers with bells on them that Jenni had been able to get the girl at Wal-Mart to give her. We ended up going to IHOP after work - the two of us - then talked a little about how she was going to be alone all night and wake up on Christmas Eve by herself, which sucks. Long story short, I drove her to Austin so she could spend the night at her grandmother's, a sweet little Hispanic lady. (Memorable quote: "Now do you believe I'm Hispanic?") Had some rum cake and hot cocoa, got lost on the way back. Well, not really lost, just went the long way. The *long* way. Came home from Austin by way of Dripping Springs - 290 to Ranch Road 12 - and it ended up taking quite a while to get home. That was cool, though.

Anyway, really enjoyed spending that much time with her. Super neat girl. Not like we'll ever date or anything, because that would be awesome. But she's too good for me. Not like that - not in a low self-esteem way, but in a purity kind of way. She even told me I shouldn't shave my head.

Bought my books online this year, saved a *ton* of money - $100 used versus $35 new, and $100 new/non-resellable versus $50 used. Good stuff. Seventeen days left until everything starts up.

Amber G -- Passing Time