temperature: 57°F (14°C)
feels like: 56°F (13°C)
humidity: 77%
sky conditions: partly cloudy
conditions: haze
wind: from the ENE at 7 mph
visibility: 6 mi ( 9.7 km)
updated: 12/04/2008 7:51 am
November is always a tough month for me. Really. There’s the work thing that drives me insane, for one. Something you may not know about me; I work in the retail industry. This means that the last two months of the year really suck. But I do little things to make it more fun (read: challenging) like introduce new house pets, which I am doing this year. Also the past 2 years I have participated in NaBloPoMo. It’s just like that book writing thing, except we aren’t writers. We’re bloggers. So we blog for a month. Heheh.
Last year I convinced Brian to join in with me. You know Brian, right? Super internet celeb from the Cheap Blue Guitar? Him. So that was fun. Look at this post. Don’t you just feel the fun? So anyhoo, I do have a point here. Let me remember it…
Oh yeah!
So this morning I woke up to this:
it’s november! it’s national write your ass off on your blog month.
i triple dawg dare you to do it this month… with me!
In fact, where did summer go? I mean srsly? It’s already Back to School! (I capitalize it, because in my industry it’s more than period of time, it’s an event.) I have to say tho, I have been having a blast. Every weekend off Richard and I have had places to go, things to do, and met new folks all along the way. It has been the Summer of Twitter, as we have made a few Twitter friends into real friends. That’s always odd at first. Going from contacting someone online thru Twitter, to actually dialing them up on the phone and getting together for drinks or meals. Heh. I love Twitter. Anyhoo, I think my summer is coming to a bit of an early close, as my work schedule has me booked the next three weekends. I don’t socialize much on my working weekends because the hours are just to extreme, what with the 5 and 7 AM starts or the late closing shifts. After the 3 weeks of work my parents arrive. 7 days of tour guide. Wee! Then we are already into October. Bam. holiday. 2 months of loooong work days, few days off… Another year passes.
Do you see why I am always tense? The passing of time is so cruel for us career retail people! Gawd I am stressed out now. Heh.
Okay. I should be sleepy any minute now. I just finished my Sleepy Time Tea. (Okay, finding that video about the tea was a total bonus. I get that brand in the non-extra variety. Same bear label tho.)
So anyway, here it is 3:30 AM. People in other time zones are tweeting good morning on the Twitter. I hate hearing (reading) good morning when I have yet to sleep yo. It totally makes me all cringe-y. Ew. You gotta be wondering by now, “Why the hell is this idiot up so late?” Well, lemme just tell you. I was on the closing shift at work. It’s the one to ten. This time of year its pretty quiet at my retail establishment, so we typically have no problem getting out on time. Tonight tho, as I was making my final rounds I saw an odd puddle on the ground up near the receiving area. It took me a minute to realize it was coming from the fire sprinkler. Just a steady drip. Not good. Our building had a drip like that last year and half the lower level ended up under water when the sprinkler burst. So I had to call it in. This type of issue classifies as an emergency. I had to wait for someone to come out and assess/fix it. On a Saturday at ten o’clock. Yeah. So it took a long time to get someone who would come out. A real long time. Then it took a while for the repair, once we established that it was in fact the sprinkler and not just like weird or whatever. Right. So I left work at 2 AM.
Needless to say, I am nowhere near that relaxed-ready-for-bed place that I need to be in to get to sleep. I would surf some blogs to kill time, but I did that while I was waiting for a response on my sprinkler issue at work. (iPhone!) TV will suck this time of day… I can’t do any cleaning as that would wake up Richard. *sigh* I should take up video games again. That would totally be something I could do in cases like this! But I get soo addicted. I really don’t have the time to invest in a game addiction. That doesn’t help me now regardless.
*yawn* Wait. I just yawned. Awesome! Go tea go! I will sleep soon.. Maybe I’ll just go lie down…
Many people enjoy the romance of Valentine’s Day and go to great lengths to celebrate. Others find it totally torturous that a day exists. Some just like the candy. Heh. I myself am somewhere in the middle. It depends if my work schedule allows me to celebrate (this year it doesn’t). I actually moved in with Richard on Valentine’s Day. Isn’t that cute? I do have to wonder why, as retail folk, we ended up with the 2 most relationship defining events on holidays. It is so hard to get time off!
Anyhoo, I was wondering. How are y’all celebrating V.D. this year?
So… yeah. What to sayabout my birthday? I wasn’t sure. So I looked back in the archives. It appears that back when I used to be able to barter for the day off I really didn’t do much. Take 2005 as an example:
I slept in until a luxurious 10 am. I leisurely had breakfast while read blogs. Next, I vacuumed the whole house, starting at the bottom. (I don’t like to vacuum stairs while walking down backwards. I feel like I’ll fall down.) After that I cleaned up the garage a bit. I wanted to make sure all the Christmas decor fits back into the shelves. There’s so much mare this year!
After that, I threw out the poinsettias. They had lost way too many leaves to be considered healthy. While I was at it I put away the fake one that the cat always chews on. The UPS guy rang the bell, but he must have been in a hurry because he was gone before I got to the door. I was instead greeted by a box from Amazon! It was a gift from 2 of my good online friends (that I almost met in person once). Thank you soo much! It’s just what I wanted… Then I got dressed. I took my time because I had nowhere to be. I didn’t shave though, and I wish I had because now I have to today.
It was a bit after 2 when Richard got home from work. He was on the 4am to 2pm. He was very tired. We went to Target. Bickered. Went to Chevy’s for cocktails and take-out. When we got home we bickered while eating, watched Elf, and Richard went to bed. He had already been sleeping in his chair. This was like 8 or 9. I watched what was probably a re-run of Joey and downloaded a Wanda Wisdom podcast and went to bed. I listened to Wanda for about an hour before falling to sleep myself.
I think that’s everything.
Um. So yeah. This year, like the last, I worked instead. At least I wasn’t home alone plotting Christmas crap storage. Good lawd. Speaking of last year, let’s continue with the ghost of birthdays past and take a look:
Here at the home front not much happened. I woke up, dressed, went to work, survived a day of retail in December, and came home to an empty house. Richard did bring home some Chevy’s take-out, which was nice. And for the special occasion I got flan. Not that I didn’t appreciate the flan. Lawd knows I love a good flan!
Sheesh. Is December over yet? Stick a fork in me people. I am done.
So it turns out, after all my feeling sorry for myself… (I know, I suck!) This year’s b’day was better than I have had since my arrival in San Diego. Before bed on the 21st I got an e-card from one of my first online friends. The next day, I woke to a lovely e-card from a local friend reminding me that “no matter what, I own the day”. Something like that anyway, and while I love the idea behind that sentiment, my company owned the day, like so many other days. I had to work. Heh. But I loved the card! I also had not one but TWO iTunes gift certificates! I adore iTunes almost as much as I adore the fine folk that gifted me. Thanks Brian and soapbox.SUPERSTAR!! You guys rock for looking after me like you do. I appreciate it! Then, yeah. I was off to work again. When I got home there were chores undone that I had to do. I was still feeling sorry for myself. I got a bit cranky. Sad, I know, but December is a cruel little bitch that torments my mind! But I finished up and went upstairs and got all cute for my dinner date with Richard. We went to our usual mexican place, Jimmy Carter’s. It was not busy. We had a relaxed meal. On the way home Richard surprised me with a package, but would not let me open it. We never do gifts. I was a bit surprised.
Once we got home I was allowed to open it. It was Tom Ford! Well, Tom’s fragrance. Remember how I fell in love like with it, even though the ad was kinda raunchy? Well later that day as I wore it I became obsessed with the stuff. But I couldn’t find it at my mall, and am not shopping for fun this month… But now I have it. A really big bottle too. This size would have covered that model’s crotch a bit better…
Anyhoo. So yeah. With a little perspective and support from friends, I managed to have a nice birthday. I thank you.
So yesterday I expressed a desire to not have to deal with Christmas music at work. Well, guess what? Clearly I jinxed myself, or my gut feeling was right. The Christmas music has begun. Sure it’s not full force. It’s sprinkled in, like every other song or so. But still, when I got to my office and realized what I was hearing I had a strong desire to stab my ears with a pen…
Maybe I’ll switch the site over to the holiday theme this week. You know, just give in. Immerse myself in holiday goodness.
Yesterday morning I walked into work and experienced full-blown Christmas decorations. Let’s just check the date shall we? Yesterday was Friday the nineteenth. The nineteenth of October. No wonder I wanted to gouge my eyes out and run for the hills.
Today has been bad. A bad day. So naturally I decided to do a podcast. I never learn! I should call it ‘...was i bitching?’ LOL!
Anyhoo, (as I say at least 20 times on the podcast) I gab aboot everything from retail to web 2.0! Music from the Death Becomes Her Soundtrack.
(Yes, I almost broke my trunk… Don’t ask. And don’t let my sour mood fool ya. Life is good. I just like to vent online. Totally not good. I am working on it.)
EDIT: Also mentioned: Luka, Wanda, and probably someone else. Let me know.
I have been invited to join an exclusive research panel. All I have to do is shop as usual, scan all my purchases with my easy to use ScanKey, and transmit my data once a week. In return I get debit cards to use at my favorite restaurants, retailers and more! Not to mention I will be influencing the kinds of products that companies will develop in the future. Plus, I get a newsletter!!! It will have exciting articles and recipes!
So what do you think? Should I join? Is this some kind of gimmick?
EDIT: Also mentioned: