Thanksgiving was pretty good. I tried to pawn off some shifts on other people but no bites. Sigh.

I had a major headache on Thursday, so in the middle of the day I took a three-hour nap while the kids around me played. Well, the headache was probably due to not getting enough sleep the night before. But I guess my immune system was weak enough because that night my throat started to tickle, and Friday I woke up with my head splitting open and major nasal blockage. To make it worse, I switched shifts with someone to do her a favor, and so I ended up working two more hours than scheduled. And yet, no one will take my Sunday shift off my hands.


Why don't people return calls? It seems like I've left so many friggin' messages and not a one has called back. When someone leaves me a message, I usually call them back. And if part of their message is asking me to call them back, then I definitely call them back. Usually right then and there. There was this one guy at work who I asked to take my Friday shift, and he said that he would call back the next day, and he didn't! He thought he would wait until the day before (Thanksgiving Day) to call back. I mean, wouldn't that be worse? I asked people to just leave me a message yet no one did. How hard is it to just say, "sorry I can't" ??? Maybe it's because they are all young'uns, but this is one life lesson that I will definitely have to teach them. After all, if I was their boss or a potential employer, I would not put up with that crap.


Anyway, I think I just have a cold and not the flu (though they say if you've had the flu shot, then if do you get the flu, the symtoms are milder), but I'm trying to stay away from medication. Hopefully, this will mean that I won't get sick again for months, and perhaps avoid getting sick all winter. One can only hope.

My schedule this week:
Mon -- school
Tue -- 12:15 to 4:30 pm
Wed -- school, though skipping last class to go to 3D seminar
Thu -- 2:30 to 10:30 pm
Fri -- 11:45 am to 3:45 pm
Sat -- no work, though they might call me
Sun -- church, then lots of homework

Okay, okay. For those who actually commented, thanks. I shouldn't get all worked up over that.

Homework due tomorrow. Sigh. It's gonna be another long night.

I had an interesting experience last Saturday night. I went with a few friends to watch a hypnotist show followed by an improv show. When the hypnotist was asking for volunteers, one of my friends and I just high-tailed it for the stage. It's not that big of a stage or audience. Anyway, so it was my first time ever getting hypnotized. What does it feel like? Well, my heart was pounding cuz I was really nervous, but other than that, I was just really, really, really relaxed. I don't think I went under as deep as I could, though. At the very beginning, they had you imagine that your hands are filled with helium and rising through the air. Well, I was trying, but it wasn't working, so the guy just lifted my right hand, and it started to float! But that was about the last time that my body did something without my control. Alright, I'll admit it, I did fake it a bit. But I'm not sure if that's really faking it. Mainly, you can hear everything that the guy says, and you're fully conscious and aware. So whenever he implanted suggestions to me, basically, it came down to, well, y'know what, I think I'll do what he said to do. Pretty much, if I didn't want to, then I wouldn't have. I hear that to be hypnotized, you have to want to be hypnotized. And I really wanted to, too. I guess I just wasn't as under as much. Anyway, pretty much, when he told me to do something, I just decided, okay, I will. And my body just complied, like it was just itching for me to do it. So that's why I think I was half-hypnotized. My friend had barely any memory of the performance, though. That's probably why she was a lot funnier. There were a couple of guys that were really under. They were hilarious.

I'm going to try to go again, and next time, I won't have a martini before the show. I think being slightly under the influence kept me from fully going under. Well, that and they took my glasses and I couldn't see him. But then, it was dimly lit, so maybe no one was suppose to and it doesn't matter if you can see him or not. Anyway, I felt really good and relaxed afterwards (and they say that a lot of people feel the effects hours or days) but it wore off after the improv show afterwards (an hour).

The other people were asking me if I remember doing this or that. And you know what? Yes I do. Everything. Even what other people did. My other friend that went under barely remembered anything. I want to have a period of blacked out memory! Hee hee.

Happy Thanksgiving everybody.

Hey, no one's commenting!!!

I know there are lurkers on this blog. C'mon, roll call! Just a quick blurb (you don't even have to use your real name)!

Dang it.

Schedule next week:
Mon -- blah blah
Tue -- 3 to 7 pm
Wed -- blagety blah
Thu -- THANKSGIVING
Fri -- 12 to 5:15 pm (tentative)
Sat -- Gettin' jiggy with the fam (one assumes)
Sun -- 8:30 pm to 12:45 am (I guess they're closing at midnight?)

I mean it! Comment, folks!

Dang it. New item for my shopping list: a battery-operated alarm clock.

I stayed up late finishing a project last night (sigh... why do I procrastinate so? And why do I let myself get distracted by the web?) so of course my internal clock (which barely works, btw) didn't wake me up for the usual Wednesday morning schedule. That wouldn't matter so long as my alarm clock and TV (it has a timer) worked. But... around 9 am this morning, there must have been a short blackout, because it was 2 pm when I woke up. My class starts at 12:30 pm.

Sigh. I'm normally late to this class, but never this late. I just got ready as best I could and tried to beat the traffic to Santa Monica. I don't think it was worth it to make it to the last half-hour of a four-hour class.

I could try to post my project for all to see, but it's just a video of a script I didn't write and footage I didn't shoot. I'm just the editor. I will, however, post my Flash project that was done a couple of weeks ago. As soon as I get around to it. Which might be never.

Gotta go. Here's hoping for no parking tickets.

Last night I had one of those... epiphanies? I'm not sure if that's the right word.

So after being late to work (again), one of my co-workers invited us to his house afterwards to hang out. I wasn't sure if I was actually wanted or if they were asking out of politeness (mainly due to my being late that day, and it's the lead that I get a less-than-warm response from) but I went anyway. I was only there for a little over an hour, but it was good. I just listened to them talk about people I didn't know. Anyway, one thing came out. Everybody else (or at least the four other people there) didn't like the Stickler Lead. So... a part of me was happy, so I knew it wasn't just me. And it was kinda fun listening to them complain about her. But then they made fun of her for being a "church girl." (Well, it was a little more explicit than that. Basically they were laughing at her for being the v-word.) That's when I stopped laughing. Suddenly, I realized that the others were faulting her for her "good" qualities. And that's when I examined my dislike of her, and I realized that, while her methods are brusque and condescending sometimes, they were essentially "good" qualities. I mean, how can you call "following the rules" a bad personality trait?

So tonight, when I worked with her, the shift went by a lot better. Well, for one, I was making less mistakes and she seemed less "peering-over-my-shoulder." But mainly, I accepted that with her there will be no "giving of breaks," "cutting of slacks," or even good old-fashioned camaderie. But those are not bad qualities and she is not a bad person. Now, it will still frustrate me when she corrects my every little mistake or throw away those beautiful leftover pastries, but I just have to accept that as the kind of character she has. Weird.

Y'know what bugs me? I wish I had spoken up, saying that being a "church girl" isn't a bad thing. That it's a good thing. But, alas, my human's sinful desires (acceptance and belonging) kept me from doing so. It's that whole, evil persists when good men stay silent thing. Sigh.

It's not my fault. Mea culpa.
I'm not to blame. Mea culpa.
It is the gypsy girl the witch who sent this flame. Mea maxima culpa.
It's not my fault. Mea culpa.
If in God's plan, Mea culpa.
He made the devil so much stronger than a man. Mea maxima culpa.

On a side note, the official church split happened today as we held the first service of the newly reformed Pillar Bible Church. I was able to attend both Dong Shin EM as well as Pillar, but next week... no more Dong Shin. Kyrie Eleison.

My schedule this week:

Mon -- school
Tue -- 12:30 to 4:30 pm
Wed -- school
Thu -- 6:00 to 10:45 pm
Fri -- 2:30 to 8:30 pm
Sat -- NO WORK (but maybe will be called in)
Sun -- church (11:00 am service)

Batman Fights the Joker, an Alien, and a Predator If that ain't cool, I don't know what is. You need broadband to access the movies (unless you want to download overnight). The "Making of" featurette is pretty cool, too. The premise? It's comic books come to life. Those of you at ComicCon this year might have already seen it.

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I started that paragraph a coupla days ago and thought I'd get back to it a little later. Well... it's now two days later. But it still holds true.

I came into work this morning to find that Santa came and exploded in our store. Sometimes, there is such a thing as too much red. We started playing holiday music, too, and want to take bets on how long it'll be before I go completely nuts from hearing it over and over? And who are we kidding? Hannukah is over long before Christmas, Islam and Hinduism and Buddhism and many other major religions have no holiday in December, and the only other religion to have a holiday in December is the Wiccan Yule, which the Catholic church took over to keep the masses from celebrating a pagan holiday in the first place. So when we say holiday decorations and holiday music and holiday coffee blend, we mean Christmas. Though they do package 'em in different colors other than red for those "other" holidays. And what about Thanksgiving? What happened to that? Well, being thankful for what you have doesn't inspire you to shop.

We hired two more people at the store, plus a new assistant manager and a Retail-Management Trainee, mainly because several people were suppose to leave to start up the store in Pomona. Well, the opening date got pushed back several weeks, so now we all don't have any hours. Sigh. The least they could do is give me an extra hour a week devoted entirely to just deep cleaning. I got assigned two tasks instead of one, and I don't even have any time to do one during the week. In fact, I haven't been able to do any at all since I got hired. What do they want? I'm thinking they're expecting us to come in on our own time to do it. Off the clock, I mean. Hell no. Not for seven bucks an hour. Our last week's tips came to be only 92 cents per hour (of which 50 will be taxed come April), and it looks like the 6 hours I worked at the Chino Hills one won't let me get a chunk of their tip bounty. Sure, it would only be about 6-7 bucks, but that would have bought me lunch (at school) for a week.

Anybody else get more of the Six Degrees of Denise Richards?

Denise Richards to Eugene Levy:

Denise Richards was in "Wild Things" with Matt Dillon who was in "In & Out" with Joan Cusack who was in "Gross Pointe Blank" with John Cusack who was in "Serendipity" with Eugene Levy. Five. Whoo-hoo. My secret weapon? IMDB.

I got a flu shot yesterday. It's still a bit sore. Boy, I'm getting poked a lot by my school. But this morning the lead was sick with the flu, but since nobody came to cover for her, she ended up coming to work after I called her. It takes 3-4 weeks for the flu vaccine to take effect. I just hope she wasn't contagious. I made a conscious effort not to touch my mouth and nose.

BTW, peppermint white mocha -- pretty good.

Skedool fer wiek:

Mundey -- skool
Toosdey -- 4:15 tu 8:45 am
Wensdey -- skool
Dursdey-- 4:15 tu 8:45 am
Frydey -- 4:15 tu 8:45 am
Saterdey -- 8:00 pm tu 12:15 am
Sondey -- cherch, den 5:00 tu 9:30 pm

I am now officially certified to handle food in San Bernardino County. Whoo.

Actually, it was rather enlightening, the class. A lot of the prevention methods were pretty obvious (keep hot foods hot, cold foods cold, and keep meat, eggs, and dairy away from other foods), but some of the specifics of the county health code was pretty interesting. For instance, everyone is suppose to keep their hair covered. And did you know that 2/3 of all botulism cases end in death? And ordinary cooking heat can't even kill it. Oh, and there's no such thing as a "24-hr flu." It is most likely food poisoning.

Thank you to y'all that have given, or tried to give, blood. The next time I do, I'll share all the painful details here.

It was a crazy week. I had two projects due (one of which I took all night Sun night/Monday morning), as well as half a storyboard that I couldn't finish last week, and I've been really tired due to not getting enough sleep from early work schedules. Well, early enough that I don't get enough sleep but late enough that I can't nap afterwards. Last night was the first night in days that I got a full rest. But you know what's the sad part? Some of that was self-created. I gotta stop keeping up with certain shows. Well, that and I'm fascinated by David Letterman's new baby.

I'm closing again tonight. Let's see if I come home with any pastries. The last bunch was eaten with great gusto. They may be pricey, but I do have to say, they are delicious. The new eggnog latte is pretty good, but I'm not too crazy about eggnog. Not too crazy about gingerbread, either. The peppermint mocha was pretty good, but I prefer white mocha. Perhaps tonight I'll try a peppermint white mocha. Peppermint chai? Hmmm.

My schedule for this week:

Mon -- School
Tue -- 8:15 am to 1:45 pm
Wed -- School
Thu -- 7:30 to 11:30 am
Fri -- 7 pm to 12:15 am
Sat -- 12:30 to 4:30 pm
Sun -- Church picnic from 9:30 am and on

Grrr. Due to Stickler-Lead, all those lovely leftover pastries... in the trash. Blech.

Thanks Erica for your willingness. Now for the rest of you, please donate blood!

It's been a long time since I've dressed up for Halloween, but I thought everybody at work was going to dress up. Turns out, I was the only one for awhile, and then an hour after my shift started, someone else came on dressed as a cat. Well, more like she was dressed sexy with cat ears.

I know that a lot of Christians (or at least conservative or reform Christians) think that Halloween is a satanic holiday though it's roots are pagan pre-Christian and early Catholic. I suppose the only reason to not celebrate it is for 1 Corinthian 8 reasons. But it's really fun to dress up, and since I came to the US when I was six and didn't actually go trick-or-treating 'til I was eleven (and then stopped at thirteen), I've never had a chance to do costume-y things. So as a Christian, when else do I get a chance to wear costumes?

Party City was jam-packed today. I ended up spending more money than I should on stuff that I couldn't use. The only thing I really needed was a $2 make-up kit. Argh.