Hey Erica... did I not tell you about SpaceShipOne? :-P

Anyway, yeah, it was a fun day, though technically there wasn't much to see. The flight itself took place against the sun, so we were all squinting and trying not to fry out our eyes. But it was still exciting cuz we were seeing it live (when I say "we", I mean the 20,000 people there) and it was a lot of "do you see where it is?" and "oh there it is!" and me thinking, "how the heck can these people actually see this?" Anyway, it was exciting cuz we were witnesses to history, but afterwards, I was dead tired. It took me a week to recover. 'course, my wacked sleeping pattern didn't help.

Last night I went out with work people as a night out to say good-bye to people that left. Well, mainly two of 'em, though more people are leaving or have left. My manager's leaving at the end of the week to go on maternity leave. By the time she comes back, I hope to not be there anymore. Boy can people drink. Funny how I got carded yet the 18-yr-old with the scraggly goatee-beginnings didn't.

I don't know how many of my readers are Christian, but if you believe in prayer of any sort, I could use some of it. My car is now parked in our garage, and I'm not sure what will happen to it. It's almost too good to junk, yet too junky to fix. I'm driving my brother's old car which has been on its last legs for a long time. My mom and dad are stressed from life in general, and this car issue ain't helping. I suppose if anything, my biggest prayer request is that God grant us a peace of mind and the will to do what He requires of us and trust that He's got everything under control. Most of us like to whine about "why me?" but I'm hoping to take Job's lead and thank God for His steadfastness nonetheless. Besides, I've learned that the only thing "why me?" gets you is looking pathetic.

Long one. I'll post more at school, no doubt. After all, it's hard to go through 8 am to 5 pm without some mental breaks.

My schedule:
Wed -- 3:45 to 10 pm
Thu -- hanging out with Robert, then heading off to Santa Monica
Fri -- class ALL day
Sat -- 6:15 to 11:15 am
Sun -- church, Happy Independence Day!

Crazy week. It started off Sunday night when after getting out of work late after a closing shift, I drove to Santa Monica to meet up with Dave, and then we drove an hour-and-a-half to the Mojave Airport and arrived there around 3 am.

Yep, we went to see the historic flight of SpaceShipOne, the first privately-funded spaceship to reach sub-orbital height.

It was crazy cuz we barely got any sleep, there were thousands of people there, and the winds were harsh and cold at 3 am. It was hard to keep an eye on the ship as it flew into the air, and when it made it's rocket-propelled flight, all we could see is a straight contrail into the sun. But if was awfully exciting. Perhaps I'll go into details later.

The other part of my crazy week involved making a mistake on my schedule and requesting the wrong day off and having to find someone to cover my shift tomorrow so I can go to class. More on that later.

Gotta go.

Just squeaked by with enough hours to continue my health benefits for the next three months. Well, technically four. I think I should go see my dermatologist again, even though he sees me for all of five minutes per visit, and I have to pay the office $25. $5 per minute? Dang.

It sucks to be so close to "making it" yet so far away. A part of me wants to stop living so hard and get myself a real 9-to-5 job and be able to buy a new car and such. But then where would I be? The hope that all this is leading somewhere is my only reason for continuing to work at a place I'm not too crazy about with wages I'm definitely not crazy about (speaking of which... when's my raise gonna kick in???).

Sucky day today. Shoulda done my research last night instead of this morning. But then, I'm not one for planning much. Especially during veg-cation.

Doh! Common HTML posting mistake: failing to close a tag.

My schedule for this week:
Tue -- school
Wed -- 1:30 to 6:30 pm
Thu -- free day, hanging out w/ Robert
Fri -- 12 to 5:45 pm
Sat -- 7:45 pm to 12:45 am
Sun -- church, then 4:15 to 11 pm

Can't get myself to be productive....

I feel a little guilty about my job. Basically, I am enticing people to spend a lot of money on stuff they shouldn't consume. I mean, yeah, I'm not exerting sales pressure or anything like a used car, but (in my friendly way) when people lament about the calories and fat and sugar and such, I just say, "Y'know, you can't think about that stuff when you come in here." But there are rather obese people that come everyday and order huge frappuccinos, and there are so many kids that ask for extra caramel, and when they look at the tall size (i.e. the "small") they say, "Hey, could I get something bigger?" and adults come in with their kids and they're more concerned about the caffeine content of their kids' drinks than their nutritional value. And today (or was it yesterday?) I saw an overweight woman (who was probably obese but I didn't get a chance to see the lower half of her body) who ordered a venti frappuccino of some type and then gave her daughter, who seemed about three years of age, a grande (medium) strawberry-and-creme frapp, and this little girl was sucking down that drink. Now, she was too young to be overweight (she did have a tummy, but a kiddie-tummy and not a gut), but I can see why obesity tends to run in families (genetics-besides). I mean, a lot of kids whine for larger sizes but most of the parents I've noticed orders the tall for their kids (unless they're teens), so I was rather surprised that this woman ordered a grande for a girl that probably wasn't old enough to whine for larger sizes. People are rather surprised that our "kids" sizes are so small (they're the "short" cups, yeah, there is a counterpart to the "tall" size), but they are 8 oz cups. More than enough for most small kids.

My church has decided to apply for membership in the Southern Baptist Convention. I'm just hoping it's not the same one as the one with Jerry Falwell. So far I hear no. (shudder)

It's okay. You don't have to comment.

My schedule's not up cuz I got too busy, and I can't post it now cuz I'm at school and I don't remember what my hours were. Um, but I do know that I have Saturday afternoon/evening off. Anybody wanna hang?

Actually, I should be working on my final projects. Two outta four done! Everyone liked my animation today. My teacher said that the timing was pretty good and I put enough secondary action to make it interesting. I'm not sure what he saw since I didn't have time to put deliberate secondary action, but hey, I ain't complaining. I just made sure my poses were really good, and I guess that's the key. (That's the key... get it??? Har har har.)

Anyway, I gotta be more diligent. I stayed up 'til 6 am this morning to work on it (and let it render while I slept) but I probably coulda started earlier. I also have this bad habit of taking a nap cuz I know I'll be staying up late. Ech. Something due Thursday and something due next Tuesday. Well, that ain't too bad.

On the work front, we had one barista leave, one lead is transferring, one lead got promoted, and I'm guessing that as soon as my co-worker starts his teaching position, he's going to leave, too. Which means that by the time my manager leaves for her maternity leave she has to hire four more people. It's making me antsy about what to do about my own exit strategy. Should I wait until after summer, or ASAP? It's courteous to give a two-week's notice, though I think in our store's case, it'd be better to give 'em a month. Hmmm... what to do....

Achhh. Forgot to bring my phone to school today. Sorry if you can't get ahold of me.

I'm getting a lot more hours at work it seems. My paranoid (yet perhaps correct) mind thinks it's because my review went well and there wasn't an issue I had to raise a stink about. However, it's also because one of our recent hires (I say a little more than 3 months) is quitting. She recently got her bar certification, which means that she would have gotten a mini-review, and maybe there was some "suggestions" made to her. Well, it's all speculative at this point. There seems to be another issue with another person regarding state-mandated breaks vs actual breaks.

More final projects await! Here's what I got:

• New soundtrack to a clip from the old X-men cartoon (with Wolverine in his underwear!)
  
• 2D animation of a french toast talking to a bagel bartender
  
• 3D animation of a guy executing a flying roll, followed by a roundhouse, sidekick, and then a flying spin heel kick breaking a board
  

So now that I've got you all excited about it, you'll never see them! Why? Cuz video is too big to host on my website! (muahahahahahah)

...must sleeeeeeeeep...

The holiday weekend was fun. My brother drove the entire way to and back, so it wasn't that hard for me. So for the life of me, I can't figure out why I'm so tired.

School's winding down. I realize that my very first Illustrator drawing of Yakko is completely lost since I never saved it on my home computer and I deleted it off my Yahoo briefcase. I can only hope that it was saved on my student folder at school. I mean, it wasn't that hard to do (it took about an hour and half) but I don't want to do it over again. Anyway, my Illustrator class is ending this week (well, we're taking the final this week, at least) and she wanted us to take our projects and make it into a website.

Shrek 2 is a great movie. I liked the first one better, but mainly cuz it's hard to tell a story after the happily ever after. But it is sooo funny, chock-full of jokes. Antonio Banderas's Puss-in-Boots was there mainly for comic relief more than a plot device, but he was funny. I don't want to spoil it for anyone, but the kingdom of Far Far Away ws hy-larious. Especially Farbucks. Heh heh.

I had an interesting discussion with my bro-in-law over the weekend about tips. Do I think I deserve my tips? The answer is yes. But not because I'm providing any better service than to those who do not tip. But because they don't pay me enough so that the tips make up for the wages they should be paying me.

I think I need a better job. But what other job out there is as flexibly scheduled with an equal or higher pay (plus benefits)?

My schedule for this week:
Tue -- school
Wed -- 11:45 am to 4 pm
Thu -- school
Fri -- 2:45 to 9 pm
Sat -- 8 pm to 12:15 am
Sun -- 4:30 to 11:15 pm