This was never the way I planned, not my intention

So I've been sleeping on and off all day. It was kinda frustrating, since I wanted to write my MU 2313 essay earlier today (though I think we all know that the end result might be the same, though my room might be cleaner). Anyway, the most recent nap was from approximately 9:45 to 11:15 pm. I had a dream during that time. Parts of it are already fading, since it's like two hours later and I'm working on my essay, but I'll try to keep it coherent. Concise, well, that's not one of my strong suits.

Also, truck situation. But that's later, and will probably also be put on my MySpace blog.

Moving on.

We were in some type of warehouse store - like Sam's or something, or a really big Wal-Mart. I was with a good friend - it would have had to be Jarrod or David. I'm really leaning towards David. At some point during the dream, I ran into 'Becca Caudle, David's old girlfriend. I was walking around by myself and ran into her; we talked briefly. After that, David and I were walking around. The item we were trying to acquire was on a really high shelf, so I grabbed a nearby ladder and started to ascend. It was *really* rickety, so I was asking David to steady the ladder so I didn't fall or anything. While I was up there, I briefly ran into Chelsea and her boyfriend (I don't know why I still dream about her. That's, well, pretty weird. Really freaky. I'm glad nobody reads this). Very brief encounter. I don't know if I actually got the thing on the top shelf or not. Anyway, we were on our way out, and ran into them, and stopped and talked for a bit, then ran into Becca as well. Just the five of us.

So yeah, just a bunch of random crap.

Katy Perry -- I Kissed a Girl

Now are you sure you want a piece of me?

So I've had a couple weird dreams lately.

I want to start blogging again more regularly, especially what dreams I can remember.

I had a sex dream last night> I don't have many dreams where I'm having sex. There wasn't anything strange or terribly notable about that dream other than that, though - I think it was Faith Nelson that I was having sex with. Good stuff.

Another dream I had recently saw me as a police officer for San Marcos. We were in front of Domino's, and a monster was attacking, it was a lot like Cloverfield. We were running to our car, which was on the other side of the parking lot. We got in our car as a huge tentacle hit the parking lot behind us, and a lot of little monsters disgorged. One jumped through the car window next to me; it looked kind of like an armadillo. Very weird.

Those are the only two that I can really remember recently.

Britney Spears -- Piece of Me

Can't stop loving you

Talked to Rebecca last night. She mentioned that yes, she hearts her boyfriend (through an anecdote about something at work). However, she did give me what I feel is final, incontrovertible proof that she doesn't think I'm a creepy bastard that's stalking her. We were talking as I was about to leave, and she kind of mentioned that I was in one of her dreams. She couldn't remember what it was about or anything. However, I submit that under no circumstances would you tell someone that if you fear they are a creepy bastard that's stalking you.

Moving on.

Only two more shifts in my eleven shift marathon. Today's is going to be particularly interesting, since it's basically just me and Trey inside during a Sunday night, with all the kids coming back from Spring Break. Q said it's steady at best, trending towards slow, so that's a decent sign, though I think it'll get busier as the day goes on. Of course, we did manage to survive Saturday night doing about 25, so we'll see how it goes. Monday is going to be easy-peasy, with Sandra as my closing insider. The only negative part is that we're going to be doing the 3.99 medium 1 toppings again. Of course, we didn't really advertise it this time, so we'll see how that goes.

Vinylworxx -- Stop Loving You

You move around like you're unbreakable

Couple things to write about. Crazy dreams, talking to Rebecca - you know, nothing substantial.

This dream I had just recently, woke up a few hours ago. It's fading really, really quickly, but one part stands out. I had a crazy swordfight with some weird French dude in the house. I mean, real swordfighting with epees that could take an ear off. I ended up beating him when I grabbed a spatula and used it as an off-hand weapon and beat the crap out of it while I used my epee to counter his (thanks Jarrod!).

That dream was pretty neat.

Then I had this other dream a few days ago. I wanted to write about it as soon as I woke up so I could get all of it, but I didn't get around to it. Basically, this girl was going to make a video of her doing some cool dive or something into her big pool, but she hit her head on the water or something, so she started sinking straight down and was going to drown. Both her father and I jumped in to save her, but I got down and brought her up before she died or anything. We had already been friends or something, so we went to hang out at her (very large) place. We had to swim across a bay or osmething to get there, that was cool. Oh, and her servants and family really only spoke Italian, and I tried stumbling through some stuff. Good times.

Been on a huge Vanessa Carlton kick lately, her last album is simply amazing.

So yeah.

Oh!

Rebecca.

Rose *and* Matt both wanted to go to Wal-Mart last night; I was only too happy to oblige. She was working the door. Overnight, that's pretty boring. Anyway, I didn't really make it any further into the store than that. Not necessary. We talked for twenty minutes or so. I keep thinking 'Maybe I should excuse myself and leave her alone?', but I don't think that was ever an issue. It's such a weird line I'm trying to walk - I'm pretty sure she knows I like her (she said as much when I ASKED HER OUT), and I don't want her to think that one little rejection will destroy my interest - I'm not nearly so fickle - but I don't want to come off so strong.

Actually, that last sentence is a complete lie. I don't put nearly that much thought into it. My thought process is more like "OHGODOHGODOHGODOHGODOHGODOHGODOHGODDON'TBEACREEPYBASTARDOHGODOHGODOHGODOHGOD". I think that's where the deer-in-headlights comes from. I guess I don't do so well when my inner monologue is freaking out. Whatever.

So yeah, we talked. Notable things - she asked me both (a) if I have a girlfriend and (b) if I live alone. Now certainly, I'm not reading *too* much into things like that - she's just making conversation, being friendly, etc. However, I don't think those are things you might ask someone you think is a creepy bastard who you really don't want to deal with anymore.

I hope.

Anyway, yeah, we talked for like twenty minutes. She said I hadn't formally introduced myself, and she wouldn't have known my name if it wasn't for Suzie (not my ex, but one of the other cashiers), though I swear that one time, she had to bring my food out to me 'cause I ordered a burger at like 7 am, and I asked her her name, and she told me, and she asked me my name, and I told her), but yeah. I should have just taken the opportunity to say "Hi! My name's Billy, and it's my great pleasure to meet you." Of course, I didn't do that. I instead argued with her (!), citing that occurrence. She didn't remember it, which isn't terribly surprising - "Are you sure that it wasn't someone else at Jack in the Box?" - was one of my favorite lines from that conversation.

Of course, that does point at a huge psychological flaw I seem to have. I enjoy being right. I'll argue about it when I think I am, even if it does no good even if I win. Case in point: I could have just apologized, taken the chance to introduce myself then and there, and it would have been pretty cool. But did I? Nope. Argued (!) about it. I mean, gah. Little things like that, I think I should work on a bit.

So anyway. We talked.

Went to class today, spent a while cleaning up my truck, finally put the seat cover on the new seat. Emptied an entire bottle of Febreeze on it to get the smell out. Went ahead and washed the truck, since I was already there. Good times.

DJ HMX w Plural -- Cool Baby

My heart is on fire, I have no regrets

Had a weird dream last night (I love blog posts that start off that way). Basically, I drove to North Carolina to surprise Terri (in this dream, she's still living with her family, similar to the situation the second time I drove over there, where they were all in that apartment thing). I got there without incident, and was looking for Terri's window, but I saw Christy's and she let me in and took me to Terri's room. I don't really remember the rest, but I know it wasn't a sex dream. I think Terri led me to a guest room with a couch in it where I'd be sleeping, something like that? I remember her being really thrilled to see me, but I don't think the dream as a whole really means anything.

So in an hour or so, I leave for my last shift before school starts. I got my chemistry book in the mail, so I'm ready in a physical sense. Well, a material sense - I'd like to drop about a hundred pounds to be ready in a physical sense, but I intend to start working on that hardcore as well. I'm off tomorrow, so I have all day to freak out about each and every little thing, that should be fun. Crap! I don't know if I have a spiral ready for note-taking, but between my entire day off tomorrow and the gift Bambi gave me to Colloquim, I should be able to remedy that fairly easily.

Wendy Phillips -- Stay

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

Mrs. American Dream since I was seventeen

Just took a three hour nap. Good times. Had a weird dream about school. It's already starting to fragment, so I'll post what I remember. It was supposed to be college, this semester coming up (Spring '08) that's about to start, but it was set in my high school, for the most part. I had a problem finding anywhere to sit at lunch, since nobody had saved me a seat and everything was full. I fell and spilled all my stuff, and was trying to fit everything in my backpack, but it wouldn't fit. Mindy walked by during that part, I started to say something, she looked at me and said "Safe distance", indicating that we shouldn't be any closer than we already were. I managed to get everything into my backpack, but it was too tight and almost didn't fit, and was incredibly heavy. In English class, the crazy professor had assigned us to record one of our fantasies to share with the class for next time - Chelsea was in that class, for whatever reason. As I was trying to get everything in my backpack, someone came up and yelled something about coming to see someone who had done the assignment very well - we all followed him into the classroom building (one of the buildings on the old SMHS campus) into a courtroom-esque setup, headed by Matt Parkman from Heroes. We all get there, and he calls for them to start over.

I woke up for a few hours, then fell back asleep. I had a second set of dreams. I went into Mrs. Schiflett's english class, and she called on me first to get up and share my fantasy with everyone. I told her that I thought we had until Thursday at 10 to do them, she asked me why, and I told her 'an apparent misunderstanding, followed by a dream I had last night', which is weird - that's the first time I remember referencing one dream in another. Odd. Anyway, then she calls on someone else, who starts dancing, then on Brandon, this guy that I went to High School with that's deaf. They both started singing, and looking back, they were both singing the Britney Spears that happens to be emanating from my speakers right now. Good times.

Britney Spears -- Piece of Me

A million miles away, but always in my heart

So jury duty wasn't too bad today. We got out of there around 4-ish, having finished the entire docket, so we don't have to go back tomorrow. Just one more session, January 9th-ish. It's pretty cool, 'cause I still have all of tomorrow off to do with as I please. Might go to Domino's and work on the map book, might lounge around the house, might clean up my room.

Let's see, what else?

Oh, right.

Had an(other) sex dream about Ambra. Was a pretty sweet set-up. We were both lying on her living room floor, like when we were hanging out watching Heroes. I kiss her on the cheek like I'm kissing her goodbye, she kisses me back on the cheek, then I kiss her again. Then we start making out. She says something along the lines of 'finally', and clothes start coming off.

Good times.

Jesse -- My Star

So here it comes, the sound of drums

I just had a crazy-ass dream. We were doing some review for some college exam, and the last page had us identifying pictures of porn stars for extra credit. Really, really weird. What was funny about it was that the file names appeared above the pictures, making some of them really easy. We didn't have much faith in the teacher, so we were fairly certain that she'd use the same page for the actual exam, which gave me the humorous, if extremely dirty, image of these girls I went to school with trying to identify these pictures of porn stars so they could get extra credit.

Oh, and someone else was going to sue the teacher for this stunt.

All in all, weird dream.

Oh, and I saw Rebecca last night while shopping at Wal-Mart. I went from HBA to stationary to get a new day planner, and as I turned the corner, she was right there, dealing with returns in the area. I totally froze for a second, until she said "Hi". We talked sporadically as she worked the area and I shopped, until she was called to go man the grocery-side door. Talked to her again briefly on the way out.

Rogue Traders -- Voodoo Child

Show you what I really want to do

So I had kind of a raunchy dream last night about Terri. That's somewhat misleading, since the raunchiness wasn't her and me, it was her and this other guy, and I walked in on them like twice, and heard things (they lived in the apartment next to me) a few other times. Good stuff.

Domino's is going alright. Jackie stopped by yesterday, which was pretty neat; she saw my truck and stopped by just to say hi.



French Affair -- My Heart Goes Boom

Blow kisses at me, 'cause I'm a lil' cutie

So I forgot to mention in my dream last time one other thing that was very prominent. There was very much a sense of Carpè Diem, because something was limiting our time together. I wasn't sure if the authorities were coming for her, or we were both about to die or something, but we were taking advantage of the moment, because it was all we had.

So I went and checked out that cell phone that they sent Mom for me. It looked basically like our old new phones, but with a black color scheme with gray highlights. Definitely a better model. I played around with it for a bit, but there wasn't a place to insert my SIM card, which made me a little suspicious. I started it up and looked through the phone, it had a lot of information on it - full phonebook, previous calls, messages, that kind of thing. I was really confused at that point - it even let me dial out. So, there's clearly something weird going on, I think Mom's going to call the phone company and see if they know what the hell is going on, because I'm not entirely convinced they do.

Ashlee Simpson ft Missy Elliot -- L.O.V.E. (Remix)

Just another day to live

Had a weird dream last night.

I was Captain Malcolm Reynolds, of the Firefly-class ship Serenity.

Yeah.

Sapphron was also in it, the psycho con-artist chick. We were being close. Making out a lot. Lying down, spooning, watching the sun set. Standing there, hugging.

I don't know.

I think I was going to post something about work as well, but nothing I can remember really seems to warrant a post.

Oh! So Mom told me the other day that they (the phone people) had finally sent me a new battery for my phone, after I played phone tag with them for several days, in which they kept telling me they were about to send it out.

They never did.

So Mom opens the battery they finally sent me (six (?) months later), and it's a brand new phone. Gray and black, very pretty, possibly a camera phone - the box claims as such, but there's no instruction manual, and we're not confident that the box matches the phone. So, we'll see. Mom's got it charging right now, I'll stop by after work tomorrow to pick it up and check it out.

Three more shifts 'til the hockey game.

Vanilla Ninja -- Just Another Day

It's just easier by myself

So, two weird things involving sleeping. First, had a funny dream. We called some computer repair guy or something (to fix Janelle's optical drive?), and he shows up, and walks in and sits at the kitchen table, starts to give his little speech - "Hi, my name's (something), I'll be doing this, this, and this, and I'm a little high right now." Mom and I looked at each other in disbelief, and she shook her head, and I said "No, it's not okay." Then he gets all weird - "Don't get all bent out of shape, man! Chill out." and the like. I tell him he needs to just leave, has his company send someone else. He starts copping a major 'tude, saying that there's nothing wrong with him, that what am I going to do, call his boss?

So I do.

And he gets in serious trouble, gets yelled at over the phone, stuff like that. Good times.

Second, my alarm went off at eight, really high pitched, woke me up. I was flailing around, trying to turn it off. But I didn't know how. I turned the speakers on my computer off, shook them around, threw the mug on my desk onto the floor, nothing seemed to work. Finally, I made my way over to the alarm, started shaking it, pressing random buttons on it. (There is a button on it whose function is 'turn the alarm off'. I couldn't find it. Eventually, I just turned the thing off entirely (for future alarms, too). Took a good five minutes or so. Turned it back on, so I'll wake up tomorrow as well, but I feel sorry for anyone else that heard it.

Colette -- What's Wrong with Being Lonely?

Dancing's what makes me whole

So I have a lot of stuff I want to write about, but this is just a quick post before I head in to work. I had some issues sleeping today - finally started falling asleep about two, but I woke up a few times; once, Bam called, once, Mat called, and around 7 or so, I woke up and couldn't go back to sleep. This kind of sleeping tends to produce weird dreams that I remember, if only vaguely.

Like this one.

First, it was about Chelsea. However, it was almost two hours ago that I woke up, so I really only remember bits and isolated fragments. I remember talking on the phone with her, at Mom's house, I think. Also, we were driving around in a car - my car, but not my truck, having some sort of philosophical discussion.

Aaron Smith ft. Luvii -- Dancing

I'll take you to the candy shop

Man, I just had this crazy dream. I should preface it by saying I haven't heard the song "Candy Shop" by 50 Cent. Well, I've heard about a 15 second clip and accompanying video, but nothing beyond that short snippet.

So, in my dream, I was watching the music video for that song. Except it wasn't the *real* music video for that song, of which I've only had a short glimpse. It was some random stuff, kinda weird. In the video, 50 Cent was attempting to get into the "candy shop", which was nothing more than a dark building. What lay within fell outside the scope of the video. However, the main complication to acheving his easy-sounding goal was that (here's where it gets weird) there were a bunch of jackalopes guarding the building. Yes, jackalopes. Maybe it's weirder that I've never - well, maybe once? - dreamt about jackalopes? So yeah. There may have also been some flora taking a more active role in the building's defense as well, ala the Ents in LotR. Basically, he just circled the building the entire video; there wasn't any open conflict. It was a dark night, not very much moonlight, which really altered the mood to borderline-scary. He was never able to gain access to the building; at the end, he just kind of wussed out and walked away. One of the jackalopes turned to the other and made a comment about being sad that another person had opted not to come "play with them." I'm not sure if it was an ironic comment, like they were looking foward to forcibly guarding their charge, or an innocent, literal one, that they there misunderstood and just seeking company.

Either way, kinda weird.

50 Cent ft. Olivia -- Candy Shop

The night is young, and you're so beautiful

I haven't abandoned this yet. I just haven't done anything of note the last few weeks.

Well... quit Domino's, which I don't think I've really written about, and don't plan to. Gina's a bitch now, and I don't want to work there anymore. Chilling on my savings, between working 40 at Sonic while living at home, and working 60 hour weeks at Domino's. So yeah, getting the time back right now.

Anyway.

I had the weirdest dream last night. I stopped by Sonic, and went inside to hang out with everyone. I don't know why. It was so very, very weird. I like went in, and was working in the kitchen? I wasn't in uniform or anything, just an old-times-sake type thing. Dave was there, we were laughing and cordial. Mostly new people, which is a weird thing in a dream, a bunch of people you've never seen before. It would match current conditions at Sonic, but it still freaked me out. Am I possible of generating mental images of people I've never seen before? I doubt it. But yeah, I was just hanging out, helping cook shit, making drinks, catching up with Dave and Javier. They kept asking me if I wanted to come back, and I was like, "Nah."

The ramifications are bountiful. If you subscribe to the theory that dreams are a microchosm of your own mind, it shows that this whole job thing weighs heavily on my mind. Which it does. Kinda. Granted, I need to get a new job, and soon, but I'm not terribly worried about it.

So yeah, that's the only noteworthy thing lately. Lilie still ties my heart in knots, and Lucas is down here now. Rose is, well, Rose. Ambra's Ambra. A equals A, damn it. I don't know.

Is it making you crazy, that I'm happy?

So, I'm still working on updates. I want to talk about work, Lilie, Ambra, Rebecca, my apartment... that's about it. But I'm not going to do that right now, since I have to leave for work in a little while.

But I do want to post about the weird dream I had last night. It wasn't like "OMG WEIRD!" or anything, just a little unusual. I was walking around... somewhere. A school? Something like that - there were a lot of people around my age. But yeah, saw Mindy. Again, it wasn't Mindy like she looks now, but how she looked when we first started dating, except grown up, like she had never changed, just gotten older. I ran up and hugged her.

Yeah, that's all.

Oh, and Janice was there.

That was the weird part.

Sugababes -- Whatever Makes You Happy

It was one by one, baby, two by two

So, the internet is acting all crappy. More specifically, our connection. It's not totally crapped out, just mostly. Sporadic, even. IM'ing isn't really affected, browsing is tedious and frustrating, but tolerable. Gaming? Not gonna happen. Even with this, though, I have to say I very much prefer Time Warner over Grande. We'll test how much of the terrible service from Grande was due to our location after I move in with Ambra - she has Grande high-speed as part of their rent, so yeah. So no WoW or anything right now, but it does give me a good chance to deal with some backlogged posting I'd been planning on.

So, I'm going to tackle my to-do list, see how far I get on that.

Let's do dreams first. I've two recently. The first one involved Carrie and a space shuttle. We were on the space shuttle, a group of like maybe twelve-fifteen of us, sitting around this big table. There was a problem, and apparently, none of us could move. Something to do with not being able to take our shoes off the floor, and not having any way to remove our shoes. I wasn't affected by it, since I wasn't wearing any shoes. There really isn't anything more to that part than just that image, that explanation. The second part of the dream, I'm with Carrie. I think we were still in the space shuttle, or a train. Some sort of enclosed compartment with a window. I go to hold her hand, and she says that it's okay, but that her boyfriend might not approve, and I was just heartbroken. Very weird.

The second dream starts out with Roland and I walking down the halls of our high school. Now, something I didn't really notice when I was there, mainly because I was in all AP level courses which were predominantly white, but our high school has a strong hispanic majority. Not too startling in hindsight. So Roland and I are walking down the hallway, and there's a *ton* of hispanic guys as well - almost to the point of congestion. He starts getting elbowed a little, bodily pushed, and eventually ends up getting pushed out this door. He was killed, though there was nothing to support it; I knew it, the way you randomly know things in dreams. So a little later, they come to take me out; there's a group of them about to attack me in the middle of a hallway; everyone else is in class. I basically beat the crap out of them, I distinctly remember throwing one guy into the wall. It was pretty cool. One of them eventually pulled out a baseball bat, but he didn't use it until some sort of authority figure was confronting me about the incident. He swung it at me, but I caught it, which was pretty cool, then I went on a rampage with it. Later, they came after me at my house; I was hiding under a blanket or something. They poked me with a baseball bat, and chaos ensued again. The final part had me facing the mafia leader in my house, but he was caught with police on the way, and trying desperately to get me to free him, which I wasn't going to do. He lights a lighter and drops it, indicating that he's going to burn the house down if we don't free him. We don't, and just walk away. I'm trying to remember where Lilie made a cameo in the dream - I wrote that she did when I was making my post list, but I don't rememeber anymore. Ah, well...

Most of the rest of the stuff I plan to post has to do with work - even hanging out with Ashley, moving in with Ambra, it all ties in to work in one way or another. Except... WoW. Blech, but out of a mindless sense of duty, might as well.

So, 1.10 finally hit. I respecc'ed Ihatebrooms to Disc/Holy, as I planned to, got her to 50. Haven't been playing very much lately, just haven't been in the mood. I've considered cancelling once or twice, but I don't think I will, not just yet. That'll probably take a day off or two where I have absolutely no inclination whatsoever to play. We'll see. Only done the first step of the Dungeon 2 set with Gnometastic, probably working on the next step.

So yeah, on to work.

Let's start with all the new hiring going on. We have a *ton* of new people right now - a *ton*. It's frustrating, but there are a few nice aspects to it. Some of the new people are panning out nicely, but they're not quite enough just yet to replace everyone we've lost. I mean, in the driver section, the *only* people we've retained are Mal, Travis, Ray, and Ross. We haven't lost any of the managers, though, which has really helped pull us through the worst bits. I'm hesitant to start naming names and really going in depth on who I don't like and why, but there are a few. I won't shed any tears over the two we just lost, though - they were the top two on my list of people I really, really didn't like to work with. I'm still toying with the idea of leaving and going to work at the Wal-Mart or HEB Distribution warehouse. Interesting random fact - I *hate* working in food, and I *hate* being a manager. At least, I hate the part of being a manager that involves dealing with whining. I HATE whining. I should probably clarify that. I don't hate *all* whining - I think some whining is constructive, even necessary. People have a need to vent, to blow off steam about things, and that's close to whining, but perfectly fine. People are going to complain about things that happened, they're going to talk to their friends about it, sure, yeah. I'm talking about whining about doing your DAMN job, ESPECIALLY if you get paid more than me.

But anyway...

So yeah, people are really immature when they call after close and get all upset. I mean, I can understand not being sure of our hours, or the whole open later on Friday and Saturday thing, and I don't mind answering a question or three. But seriously, GROW THE FUCK UP people. I mean, I'll hear people in the background going "Man, fuck Domino's! I'm never buying stuff from there again!" , or asking if I can just make *them* an exception and send them out a pizza, or - my personal favorite - getting upset that I had the nerve to answer the phone, even though we're not open. That one *really* pisses me off, and as such, I've created a list of reasons why we do it.

1. First and foremost, it's company policy. They tell us to do it, we do it.
   
2. That phone is really annoying, especially since I've been listening to it ring for the past eight to ten hours. If I don't pick it up, I'm going to have to listen to it ring until you hang up.
   
3. Along those lines, if I don't pick it up, you're going to be sitting there, listening to the automated message saying "Your call is being transferred to a team member", wondering if we're open and just taking a while to answer the phone, closed, or what, until you decide to hang up. It's a courtesy to you, bitches.
   
4. It's entirely likely it could be one of the other stores in our franchise calling with a question about paperwork, procedure, or inventory.
   
5. Most of our employees know the best time to call with a question about their schedule is after close, when, while we're still busy, we're able to pause for a minute or three and let them know when they come in the next day or whatever.
   
6. Along the same line, family members and significant others often call after close, since it's the best time to catch someone who's closing, for the same reasons noted above.

Not a terribly long list, but one that I feel presents sufficient explanation for answering the phone after close.

So yeah, Ambra. She's doing okay. Well, better than she was. She just wants out. And I don't blame her - none of us wanted the job, certainly, which is why she got stuck with it. Things are still on track for me to move in with her after Jessie moves out, and I'm still looking foward to it. We've been hanging out a lot lately - Eileen and Gina have banned her from coming to the store to hang out after close, which is weird - but she's been over here a lot, I'm taking her to Mom's birthday party tomorrow. In fact, she's sleeping in my bed right now... good times. Definitely nothing there, though, which is what she said she wanted, so that's all good. I still like her, probably more after hanging out with her so much, which makes me more confident that it's for the right reasons, which I was worried about. Or maybe I'm just being stubborn... I don't know.

So it's been a real blast working with Ashley (Emily too, but she hasn't introduced me to any cute friends, which is why I bring up Ashley, but not Emily) - great personality, driven, quick learner, etc. That, and she has three really cute friends - Aliare, Beth, and Ashley. Way back when, she was talking about trying to hook me up with Aliare, since she thought our personalities would go well together, but I kind of negated that one, since Alaira does pot, smokes, and drinks, which are my three main things I look for to not exist in a girl. The second and third are negotiable to some degree, but the first is definitely not. In fact, I even asked Ashley out - I'm picking her up later today, I think we're doing dinner and a movie? Nothing terribly creative, but hey, it's the first date. Of course, that's your only chance to make a good first impression, but I've always really sucked at first impressions. It's going to be a fun day, regardless, with Mom's birthday party, a date with Ashley, and then, most likely, heading up to Austin for some DDR. That'll be fun, yeah...

Rihanna -- Pon De Replay

She must be the reason God made a girl

Just had a really, really, really cool dream about becoming a Celtic Woad Raider.

Most awesome.

Groove Coverage -- She

I want a curry and rice girl

No, I don't know what that means. But the song, and its video, are downright hilarious.

But it's time for a dream recap. I've been going through a non-posting phase, which always annoys me. Kind of, but not that much. So yeah, I've had a few weird dreams that I thought I'd post.

Lemme think... I had one last night about WoW. It's always cool to have those dreams, but it makes me feel like a total geek. Given the amount of time I spend playing and the time David and I spend talking about it, it makes sense, but still. I think Jarrod would understand what I mean here, and probably back me up. But anyway. So it was a first person dream - IE, I was the character. Yeah, kinda geeky. Alliance, but I don't remember what else. Something like 5v5, and we were in one of the first games to occur. There were five points in a really short V shape, but really long. Almost a line, but still a fulcrum. There were some weird objectives which I don't really remember, but there were multiple ways to win, and we were experimenting with different things, and had hit on something that worked really well. There were seeds at each one, and if you could control them all, you'd grow this magical tree that would start charming foes and really help you out. Everyone else had been ignoring that, but it was a tactic our group was experimenting with. It was working fairly well, but there was this Tauren Druid with the shoulders that looked like bushes that kept screwing with us. It wasn't Ganadar. I think he was immune to it or something, and was doing whatever he could to impede us in annoying little ways.

As David said, Tauren Druids even haunt my dreams.

Moving on...

I had one about Carrie the day she sent me this crazy letter. I'd post the full text, but it's kind of private. So yeah, I was lying in bed, kind of half-asleep, thinking about her, and fell asleep for a delightful afternoon nap. I've forgotten most of the detail in this dream, but I picked her up at the airport. I think that was about it.

Two nights ago, I had one where I was reading a Star Wars book. Yeah, that's an exciting dream. But I was also watching the action, while there was a voiceover reading the text of the book. Almost like a movie, but I was definitely reading a book. It had Corran Horn in it, and he was being kind of introspective. I think Wedge might have made an appearance, but that was about it.

Then, the one I had last night. David and I were in it, as well as Mat Petersen. He was still in High School, and we were a year ahead of him, having graduated the year before. We were back to visit him, and David and I had made these really cool glasses, built on the frame of old batting helmets. (It's a lot cooler without that last part). They were *really* cool, though. Voice-activated, with a bunch of different modes - edge detection, heat, motion, etc. We were testing them out, and were talking about playing "James Bond Tag" with them, where we'd have guns that shoot special non-harming bullets, and the glasses could detect the outcome of the shot, like they'd be monitoring the game and all. There was also some bizarre subplot where I kept unplugging this big plug from an external electrical outlet right outside a classroom, and it was actually unplugging their overhead projector. The teacher was about to come out and catch me the second time I did it, but that was about when I woke up and realized it was like... um.. crap. No idea. But I went back to sleep later, and woke up around midnight? Not sure. Ran RFD with Ihatebrooms.

So yeah, I've had some weird dreams lately. Nothing spectacular, but odd enough that I still remember them later. Still have another post to make about locking horns with almost every driver this week, but I'll do that one later. I'm kind of half-heartedly cleaning some of the apartment. Already got the dishes taken care of, David got the trash out, I'm going to work on my bathroom next.



MC Vikram & Ludakrishna -- Curry and Rice Girl