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I'm the smartest, prettiest, funniest girl you ever saw, you just don't know it yet.
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20Q
A Twisted Day In The Life Of...
Anenigma
Danielle
Geek In Black
Glibbertysmidgeon
Go Fug Yourself
The Invincible Revenge Of Mr. Brick
The Marj Memoirs
Mark Pickerel
Waiter Rant
Warren Ellis
Weetabix
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My job is a soul-sucking vortex. The locals here have created colorful names for many of the businesses. The Cottage Cafe is "The Rottage"; The Sunset Cafe is "The Scumset". You get the picture. Tonight someone told me that Safeway's nickname is "Slaveway". That sounds about right.
Usually my manager is really good about making sure to not overwork us, and she always, always gives us two days off in a row, but she had surgery a couple weeks ago and someone else is in charge of our schedule for the time being. Well, kind of. The fuel station manager made the schedules up ahead of time, but the woman who compiles all the different departmental schedules into one big conglomeration of scheduling goodness has been really taking her own liberties and shuffling things around. Next week will be the second in a row that I have had Monday and Thursday off, and this week I got called in to close on my Thursday off. Just to spite her for asking for the day off she gave half of my usual 8-hour Sunday shift to a co-worker whose last day is Monday. Would it have killed her to at least give her my whole shift?
Anyway. The scheduling was inconvenient to begin with, but some unexpected problems have changed the last couple days from six hours in uniform to fifteen hours in uniform. When I got called in yesterday I was a little less upset about it than I would have been had I not been told that our union contract dictated time and a half on more than five days in a pay period (we get paid weekly), or more than eight hours in a shift. Today I found out that the union contract was recently changed and now we only make overtime on anything over 40 hours a week. My job is also classified as "Helper Clerk" so I don't qualify for any of the health benefits. I'm glad that my $33-a-month dues are working so hard for me.
Today was supposed to be an easy shift. I was supposed to start at 2:00 P.M. and clock out at 8:00 P.M. All was going according to plan until about 3:00 when the computer system went down and the gas pumps started being finicky about whose cards they would accept. Around 4:30 they stopped accepting credit and debit payments altogether. About a quarter of our customers normally pay at the window, but today, for seven hours, every single customer had to actually interact with a human being. Since the computers were excruciatingly slow in processing sales, our turnover time was between 90 and 120 seconds per customer. Usually it takes 10 seconds or less from "Hello" to "Thank you, have a good day". We went from 100+ customers through the station in an hour to around 50, with a constant line-up of 8 or 10 at a time. About a quarter of them were patient. I got to stay until we closed.
After I clocked off at 11:06 I purchased ingredients for a salad, and two pints of Ben & Jerry's (My rule is that I only buy Ben & Jerry's if it's on sale. It went on sale last week. It's on sale through August 2. I'm certainly not getting any skinnier before Tuesday.) I just ate as much imitation crab, $3 avacado, and hearts of romaine as my happy little tummy could handle, and I'm on my way to bed soon. I have to be up in less than 6 hours to go back to work.
Boy, will I be glad when my boss's 10-12 weeks of recovery time are through. Just 8-10 weeks to go...
Don't forget to see what's new on my photo blog!
I had to make a trip to Pl@nned P@renthood today. I switched birth control last month and my body has been out of whack ever since. I've been spotting since I started taking the new pills, and I completely missed my period last week. Having had sex not too long ago, the absence of menstruation was a little bit troubling. Knowing now that I'm not pregnant, I'm wishing that I had had the peace of mind to enjoy not having my period.
The nurse at Pl@nned P@renthood told me that she and her husband are trying to have a baby. Perhaps it was too personal a question, but I asked her if it wasn't hard trying to conceive a child while advising teenagers and grown women who decide to terminate their own pregnancies. She told me that she had had to do two abortion counseling sessions on the due date of a miscarried baby.
The pregnancy test was mostly a formality, but I'm glad for several reasons that it turned out negative. Both Kevin and I make less than $1,000 a month, and we live in two different countries. Also, I am not sure that I would want to readily discard something that this amazing, strong woman who I respect so much so greatly wants to have.
At the risk of offending my readers I will admit that I had an abortion when I was 19. I went into my appointment today feeling pretty certain that the test results would be negative (When I was pregnant before I was always sick, moody, etc. I am experiencing none of that now.), but how would I have reacted if she had come out of the back room and said, "Well, you're pregnant. What now?" I definitely did not want to be the type of girl who sought the man (Well, with Pl@nned P@arenthood it's technically a woman. They only employ female doctors and nurses.) with the vacuum cleaner to take care of my problems not once, but twice. The first time was hard enough.
Don't forget to see what's new on my photo blog!
At 5:55 this morning, after a very short labor, my pregnant sister gave birth to a 7ish pound baby boy. He's having a little trouble breathing, and was transferred from the small hospital where he was born to a larger hospital where they can give him more attention and care. He'll have to stay in the hospital for the next week on an antibiotic IV, but he should be fine. If you've got some spare well-wishes, please send them our way.
Don't forget to see what's new on my photo blog!
A father asked his 10 year old son if he knew about the birds and the bees.
"I don't want to know!" the child said, bursting into tears. "Promise me you won't tell me."
Confused, the father asked what was wrong.
"Oh dad," the boy sobbed, "when I was 6 I got the 'there's no Santa' speech. At 7, I got the 'there's no Easter Bunny' speech. When I Was 8, you hit me with the 'there's no Tooth Fairy' speech.
"If you tell me that grown-ups don't really have sex, I'll have nothing left to live for."
I posted a bunch of new pictures on my photo blog. Go check them out and let me know what you think!
Since I got my digital camera I've been trying to take serious, creative photos, and I've been learning to do different things with Photoshop.
I think that a nice border on even an average photo can push it that extra step toward looking professional, so I've been obsessed with trying to figure out how to put borders on my pictures. Today, Theatrbee showed me how to do it, and she has created a monster.
Don't forget to see what's new on my photo blog!
For the last several years I have been under the impression that I have bad credit. I never had money growing up, so when I got my first job out of high school and actually had a bank account holding a 3-digit balance I went nuts. I was one of those people that spent money just because they had it. I still am to a certain extent, but at least now I pay my bills.
I digress.
Nobody ever taught me the importance of money managment and I wrote checks for funds that weren't there. I neglected whatever bills I had (I don't think I ever paid the phone or power bills at the last apartment I lived in, and I was there for 7 months), and lived generally way outside of my means. My dad and step-mom kept telling me that I was going to ruin my credit, but I didn't care; why would I ever need good credit? After the first couple times I tried to apply for credit cards and was turned down, I started to realize where not paying my debts was going to turn around and bite me in the ass.
Over the last couple years I've been trying (emphasis on "trying") to gradually eschew my old habits and get back on track. I had no idea how to go about trying to pay off old accounts, so I figured I'd just keep my mind on the present. I have been paying my phone bill mostly on time, I paid off all my medical bills from last summer, and I stay on top of my internet bill. I'm still not a model financier, but I'm head and shoulders above where I used to be.
A few weeks ago someone mentioned that US citizens are now entitled to one free online credit report per year, and I was curious. This morning I logged in, punched in some pertinent personal information, and held my breath, prepared to see page after page of delinquent accounts. Nothing. No negative reports. No positive reports. A few misspellings, but that's about it. So, what was I so worried about for the last five years?
I'm not sure why there are no accounts on my report, or why they even bother with credit reporting agencies if nobody's going to keep an accurate account of your habits. Are there things that I'm missing, or am I somehow being given a fresh start? Is the whole thing just a farce to try and scare teenagers into responsibility?
**EDIT**
Kevin's site is down for unknown reasons, so my banner image is broken until AtomichHolocaust.com is restored.
Don't forget to see what's new on my photo blog!
Oh, and today I saw a puppy that looked like this:
Only the puppy I saw is all orange (even her nose and her eyes). She is an AKC pedigreed Nova Scotia Duck-Tolling Retriever, just like this puppy. Her name is Blaze, she's ten weeks old and about the same size as the puppy pictured, and the cutest fucking puppy ever. She was all mellow, but still puppy-like and curious and loving. If puppies didn't grow up into dogs (and these Nova Scotia Duck-Tolling Retrievers are very loyal dogs, but nowhere near as cute when they're all grown up as when they're little bumbling fluff-balls), I would have maybe tried to steal Blaze. Seriously, is that not the cutest fucking puppy you've ever seen?
Don't forget to see what's new on my photo blog!
I'm not sure what changed, but Kevin has been very cute and attentive lately. While I was visiting, I never had to bother him to get off the computer and spend time with me, and he surprised me with a birthday cake that he (adorably and failingly) attempted to decorate with pink icing. This morning he called me and said that when he was brushing his teeth he was wishing that I could have stayed longer. Kevin is not the type of guy that gets visibly excited about things. When I cook for him, I'll ask how it is and his response is almost always, "Yeah, it's pretty good." I will never know just how much he liked it until he starts asking me all the time to cook it again. It is the same with our affection. He is good about telling me that he loves me, but he rarely gets mushy and tells me that he misses me (it's a guy thing, I'm sure), so I felt pretty damned special when he admitted that he had wanted to spend more time with me. Or perhaps to have a vagina/cook in the house for a few days more.
Right now I am listening to "Pieces of You" by Jewel. It's amazing that an album I loved when I was 14 still rocks my world ten years later, and not just because I'm addicted to nostalgia. It's too bad that her debut album was pretty much the peak of her career.
Tomorrow I am going to babysit two small children for about 16 hours. And I'm not sure how much I will be paid. Yes, I am insane. The parents are going to a huge annual party, known around here as KlumFest. KlumFest is a huge kegger in someone's back yard, and after everyone gets tanked they crawl into the sleeping bags and tents that they have brought for just this reason. KlumFest even has its own t-shirts. Tie-dyed, I believe. I'm sure that my mother will be in attendance.
It's about the time of year that open mic nights start sprouting up everywhere, so I think I'm going to one on Thursday after work. Hopefully I'm not too rusty.
Finally, my latest technological obsession is the Acer TravelMate C110. I will probably be in the market for a new computer within the next year or so, and while I love my Mac and my OS X, I am afraid that being unable to find compatible hardware/software drives me nuts. I have been coveting tablet PCs for quite awhile, but until now have not been sure that I would be able to justify owning one. A convertible notebook/tablet PC would be the perfect solution, and right now on eBay there are several used machines in good condition for less than $1,000. Maybe around tax time...
Don't forget to see what's new on my photo blog!
Men: You will be severely creeped out by this, so please do not click it.
Women: You may be grossed out by it, but will probably also find it very amusing and informative. And if you ever put a clove of garlic in your vagina, please email me and tell me how it works.
The trip was not nearly long enough, but I enjoyed the time I got to spend with Kevin. By my standard there was not enough sex, but by his standard we might as well have been doing it all day and all night. Silly boy.
Right now I am tired and don't want to write much, but I figured you all (all six of you) probably wanted an update. I'll try to write more tomorrow. And by 'tomorrow' I mean 'sometime in the next week'.
Don't forget to see what's new on my photo blog!
Hello all! I have arrived in Vancouver quite safely, if a bit late. The bus driver decided to let people off the bus to smoke at every stop, delaying the arrival a total of 2 hours.
Kevin and I had a lovely dinner at Moxxy's and then headed back here, where I got scalding coffee in my eye. As soon as I changed so my new coffee-splattered yellow shirt could be washed, Kevin shoved my dildo in his roommate's face. His roommate responded by throwing water on Kevin, and because I was standing right behind him, also on me. Then he took a shower. Not a very long one, so he must not have felt too dirty.
Don't forget to see what's new on my photo blog!
I changed Kevin's MSN screenname again. Shrinkynuts McAngrypants didn't go over too well with him, so I logged in while he was at the movies last night and changed it to "Oerwinde: I'm Getting Laid In Less Than 48 Hours. Are You Jealous?" To me, this was funny. Apparently it was acceptable to Kevin too, because he kept it for quite awhile.
It was not, however, acceptable to Kevin's mother.Oerwinde says:
She was also upset that I know the password to Kevin's MSN account (and to many of his other internet accounts). Is this such a big deal? That I know the password to his Yahoo! email? Or to his Obsidian forums account? I don't think so. I don't know any of his bank information, and even if I did, I certainly wouldn't take advantage of it. Hell, I don't even snoop in his email. He knows all of my passwords too, and I have faith that he will not misuse them. I have nothing to hide, and telling him my passwords was a gesture of trust. Plus, it's convenient to be able to have him do things for me on his mega-fast internet connection that would take me a million times longer to do on my ice-age dialup. It's also nice to have him watch my eBay auctions if they're ending when I can't be at the computer. To me, this is comfortable and not at all inappropriate.My mom was like, "I was appalled!" And in the background my dad was like, "Get over it dear!"
How do you guys feel about this issue? Is swapping internet passwords with a loved one the first step toward identity theft?
Don't forget to see what's new on my photo blog!
I'm leaving for Vancouver at 11:00 Thursday morning. I have very odd packing habits, so everything that can possibly be packed at this point has already been wedged into my backpack, and I will wait until the very last moment to pack everything else.
I managed to fit 5 days worth of clothing (this is where not wearing panties comes in handy), 2 3/4 boxes of multi-grain pasta, two cups of whole wheat flour, half a cup of granulated garlic, a bottle of Mrs. Dash "It's A Dilly" seasoning, my fancy-schmancy cheese grater (what can I say? I cook a lot while I'm there and they have a boy kitchen. I need these things.), two bottles of hair product, two bottles of sunscreen, a pillow speaker with stereo-to-mono jack converter, a Darth Vader M&M Minis dispenser, and an R2D2 Pez dispenser into my standard-sized backpack. And I still have room for the SPAM I promised to bring and all of the toiletry stuff I can't pack until after I shower on Thursday.
In addition to my well-packed backpack, I will be taking my camera bag (which I finally got and still have not blogged about) filled with camera accessories such as my memory card reader and three extra sets of fully-charged batteries, my tripod, and the roomy bag Jessica got me for my birthday, which will double as a purse for the six days I'm in Canuckistan. I'm a girl, so I pack everything I might need while I'm there, and I'm very proud of myself for keeping everything I might need so well contained. Usually I have a suitcase, my backpack, my purse, and an extra duffle bag. I also usually visit for a couple weeks.
I'm getting my hair cut Thursday morning at 9:00, which is pushing it kind of close I think, but when I called last Friday to make an appointment I was informed that my hairdresser was on vacation for the holiday weekend and would not be returning until Wednesday, with 1:00 being her earliest appointment. I have to work at 11:00 tomorrow morning, so it had to be before I leave on Thursday.
I'm looking forward to spending time with Kevin. Although he has to work almost every day that I will be there, I look forward to doing sappy things like having dinner ready for him when he gets home. We're also going to see Batman Begins and Fantastic 4, so that should be awesome. Plus, you know, there's the sex. I'm sure we'll be having lots of that. I hope.
Don't forget to see what's new on my photo blog!
In April Kevin and I saw some television show where one character called another, "Shrinkynuts McAngrypants". Ever since then I've been threatening to change his MSN screenname when he's not around. Ladies and gentlemen, that time is now.
Now it's time to change my password.
Don't forget to see what's new on my photo blog!
As promised, I have put up a bunch of pictures on my photo blog (most especially for Bee, who is a recovering yafroite). Go check them out and leave lots of comments!
Don't forget to see what's new on my photo blog!
A quick post before I go finish getting ready for work.
I got all prettied up yesterday and took a bunch of photos, so the next chance I get I'll post them in my photo blog. I already chose to use one of them as my "profile" photo over on the left.
I get to close the fuel station tonight and tomorrow, on 4th of July weekend. I've closed the fuel station four times. I hope I can handle it. Tomorrow I get to work with a new girl, so that should be interesting too.
I'm going to Vancouver in just six days and I'm very excited. It will be great to see Kevin and spend some time away from my crazy family and boring job.
Okay, I need to go get dressed and brush my teeth before my ride gets here, so I'll post more later!
Don't forget to see what's new on my photo blog!
