Work has been pretty cool lately 'cause I'm only working 17-20 hours a week. Good for my mental health and homework, bad for money. Now that I'm moving out, I kinda need that money... so I was actually pleased that I got about 30 hours to work this week! Although it left me little time to pack (still haven't started yet D: ) or work on Sociology stuff (2 hours Sociology work = about 4 Staples work, and I can do it in my PJs, AND everyone is super sweet to me -- I heart my Sociology job), about $100 extra this week will be nice and help me out paying all those new bills I will suddenly find myself with!

  I've usually been working 4-9:30 on those days I do work, so things are chill, and people are chill, and we are all just chill. However, I worked 8-4 on Tuesday and 1-9:30 yesterday and it blew. So that's where all the mean people have been hiding! And last night everyone and their mom decided they needed stuff done ASAP TOMORROW MORNING HOMG and I forgot that tomorrow (today) was SATURDAY which means we open at 9 and not 8, so I was like "lol sure 9:30 we can do that lol." I left 5 jobs for Maria. Gah. Then proceeded to have bad dreams about customers continuing to submit jobs, so I woke up, looked at the clock, wondered "I wonder how Maria is doing with those," and then realized "OH FUH STORE DOESN'T OPEN TILL 9 AND OMG LEFT TWO JOBS DUE BETWEEN 9-9:30 OMG." *head desk*

  The worst thing about closing and leaving tons for someone else is the epic amounts of guilt for making that person start their day all crazy. I called her ahead of time and told her there was a lot, but at the time I didn't realize I had scheduled stuff to be due AT OPENING. Thankfully one only need to be comb bound (I had already done the printing), but another needed to be completely reproduced. Gah.

  Besides yesterday's crazy times, I also got yelled at on the phone (twice, same person), which is always nice... oh and then accidentally caused Maria to get an annoying/mean customer this morning, apparently (she told me when I called her)... so now I feel extra bad...

  I am like, so done with customer service. I actually like my copy center job; I love doing projects for people, I just dislike dealing with the meanies. Especially when I try my hardest to be all nice and smiley to everyone, no matter how craptacular I am feeling. OMG BE NICE EVERYBODY.

Current Mood: blah Current Music: Samurai Champloo Current Tags: slave labor

  Not much has been going on in Amandiana lately. Work has been kinda crazy, but I guess that's good because it means we're making money! We had a period where customers were pretty chill, but the jerkishness is definitely on the increase. I may have to post about it later; I've got a new collection of stories over the last month or so.

  My break from school really didn't happen... as soon as I was feeling relaxed and chill, in class they were like "so let's talk about the upcoming papers." Aaaah, give us a week at least! But no, I've got three papers coming up that I need to worry about now. Sigh. :/

  I'm not as stressed out as I was, though. And less scared of these next papers. Hooray.

Current Mood: blank Current Tags: school: grad, slave labor

  Trying not to let myself get too stressed out once again. Everything is just happening all at the same time, it seems. I have two HUGE and majorly scary assignments (one of which I don't even know how I'm going to make happen, the second of which seems way over my head and I'm terrified of) due on the 21st/22nd of March. I'm already freaking out about that enough as it is and now my work hours have jumped back up again, for what looks like what will be three weeks in a row as stuff keeps happening on Saturdays and no one really seems to want to give me ANY OTHER day off as my third day. I wish the managers would just hire someone else so I wouldn't feel so bad about making it hard on all the other girls. :/

  Working 30-something hours a week again for three weeks in a row will suck, but I'll get over it -- it's just the assignments looming over my head that are getting to me. I'm going to attempt to start the more feasible one tomorrow, and hopefully it will turn out to be not as scary as I thought it was going to be (although I doubt it -- I have to encode a book in MARC format, both the "pretty" version you see when you search a library card catalog and the technical "it's all numbers lol" version which makes me want to give up hope and quit school forever right now).

  In much better news, I think my new computer will finally be here tomorrow. X3

Current Mood: cold Current Tags: school: grad, slave labor

  Oh wow. Oh wow, okay. So for about... gosh, I dunno, it seemed like a awhile. Definitely more than an hour. I'm gonna say from about 4:30 to a little bit after close (6ish), as he was the last person to leave the store, we had Ron Burgundy in our store.



  Not shitting you guys. There was some guy playing jazz flute in our store for more than an hour. Just some old dude (apparently, according to the peeps up front). He just fluted his way through Staples until past close. WTF. We were mildly amused at first, but then it got kinda freaky, but then super fucking annoying. GO AWAY JAZZ FLUTE GUY.

Current Mood: working Current Music: Living with the Machigenga Current Tags: slave labor

  I had the BEST dumb customer yesterday. THE BEST. This one goes in the epic halls of epicness. This is way more epic than the lady who asked me if I could make a black and white picture color. It's so good that I'm not even locking it. The awesomeness of this must be shared.

  So we have a lot of cute little holiday knick-knacks strewn around the store, one of which is a "Bob" clock. It is called so because it is kind of egg-shaped, and so it... bobs. And on the packaging, the Bob clock is currently displaying the time as 8:08, you know, 'cause it looks like "BOB." Get it, it's a big hat; it's funny, ha ha.

  So we have this swarm of typical highschool girls pass through, picking up calendars, and they go on their way, giggling and talking about Hanson or whatever the damn kids are into these days. But one of them comes back to me, clutching the Bob clock.

Girl: Hey. Does this clock always say 8:08?
Me: ... I'm sorry?
Girl: Does this clock always say 8:08?
Me: Er... no. It... it's a joke. 'Cause... you know... Bob.
Maria: (hearing only the tail end of this conversation) It bobs.
Girl: Oh, okay.
Me: ...

  A CLOCK WHICH ONLY DISPLAYS ONE TIME FOREVER IS NOT REALLY A CLOCK, ALSO IT WOULD BE TOTALLY SHITTY GIFT IDEA. IF IT SAYS "CLOCK," I CAN ASSURE YOU THAT THE TIME ACTUALLY CHANGES.

*flailflailflail*

Current Mood: silly Current Music: Lagaan - Ghanan Ghanan Current Tags: slave labor

  Yesterday at work was nuts. I was actually pretty okay and calm despite all the craziness going on until like, the last hour, when some guy really hit my PMS button and I was pissed for the rest of the night.

(Note to Mr Very Important -- if your court documents are so Very Important, maybe you should consider NOT PROCRASTINATING TO BRING THEM IN TO GET COPIED UNTIL TWO HOURS BEFORE YOU NEED THEM ARHGHGHGHGHGHGHGHG -- also saying that your stuff was More Important than the other jobs I had in line was Very Annoying and I should have just told you NO but I am a TOOL. :/ At least we got $50 of your cashie monies so there.)

  Got up early today and went to the gym with Maria. Did I mention I joined a gym? Crazy right? But it's only $10 a month so it's worth it I think. It takes a lot for me to drag myself out of the bed at 6 AM but it really gives me a lot of energy for the rest of the day.

  Did some more Xmas shopping. I'm still not done. I'm glad I have so many friends but wow, it is hard thinking up different ideas for everyone every year!

  Also we've finally got the dates pounded out that Krysti is gonna be here and I am SO FREAKING EXCITED. It is going to be AWESOME.

  I have a lot to get done this weekend (well, my weekend anyway) but I am totally motivated to do it. It's Amanda vs. Computer: ANNUAL ORGANIZATION AND BACKUP TIME.

EDIT: I swear, every time I am excited about gettin' stuff done, a wild headache approaches. And I lose every time.

Current Mood: chipper Current Music: white dude gettin' a verbal smackdown in Namastey London Current Tags: daily, homies, random, slave labor

  Today was a very special day at work -- the power went out for two hours during a thunderstorm and we were on backup power. Of course, this happened at the very end of the storm, so as soon as the rain stopped, everyone who had been waiting until the rain let up decided it was time to come in! And only one register was really working. Oh, and even better, the door alarms were making this high-pitched shriek. Continuously. For two hours. Customers were complaining, and it's like, you've been in here for five minutes! I've been listening to it for an hour! Deal!

  Anyway, tomorrow is paper-finishing time. And haircut time. And the things I need to do when I get my papers done abound. D:

Current Mood: tired Current Music: Phir Bhi Dil Hai Hindustani - Phir Bhi Dil Hai Hindustani Current Tags: slave labor

  You know what totally rocks? Getting up for work this morning at 8:30, dead tired, and mom coming in while I'm in the shower and telling me "Hey, the clocks changed. It's 7:30. Go back to sleep."

  Rock on, daylight savings.

Current Mood: tired Current Tags: slave labor

1. I successfully avoided the Invitations People (see last post) today! Kim came in and gave me a break right as the girl (who I hadn't seen before, and she hadn't seen me) came up to the counter. HAHAHA!!! I felt triumphant when I came back from my delicious pasta to see the counter devoid of evil invitations.



2. I just finished my midterm! Going to look it over tomorrow and edit but it is sooo done!!!



3. My weekend is here! I have so much stuff to do tomorrow, and lots of errands to run on Tuesday! AND A HAIRCUT. I love getting haircuts... I start to feel frumpy when my hair starts growing and getting poofy. And I'm going to force myself to get a quote for my car as it's been making Bad Noises whenever there are people in the backseat.

Current Mood: accomplished Current Music: Saathiya - Mera Yaar Mila De Current Tags: school: grad, slave labor

  It's funny how certain things make a bad day and certain things don't at all. Yesterday was a good day at work, despite the fact that Loni said she was proud of me because "a few months ago this sort of thing would have made you *good impression of me freaking out and crying*" XD

  I guess it was a good day because I was busy up until the end. I didn't get any school reading done but oh well... I'll have to figure out some other time to do it. Would have stayed up late tonight doing it except I had to get up early this morning.

  I'm glad I'm opening... normally I'd be kind of stressed about closing and opening, buttt I left sooooo much shit for myself, it was nice to leave it strewn around and not have to worry about writing tons of notes for the next girl!

  The only thing I'm worried about is the fact that the color copier might have died. I'm hoping maybe it was overheated, so I'm crossing my fingers as I go in this morning. Otherwise I'll have to call it in, which will totally fuck me up as all the jobs waiting for me on the counter are computer --> color jobs and they need that copier to liiiive! (We only have one color copier hooked up to the computer, and the thing that died is the connection -- the copier is working just fine so long as you're not trying to use it as a printer.)

Current Mood: anxious Current Tags: slave labor

• I had this dream last night that Amanda N. and Krysti and I all went to Austria to go skiing. We lived in a motorhome. It was pretty sweet, except that apparently IN THE AUSTRIA IN MY MIND there are horrible demon wasps. So the skiing is great but the bugs will KILL YOU.



• Maria called me in to work today but she called me early enough that I've been able to get most of the cleaning I had planned for today done. Rock on! I'm feeling pretty accomplished. 5 hours at work won't be so bad (hoping I'll be able to extricate myself properly at 5) and then I can just go to Target and get that over with, and then still have enough time to do the rest of the cleaning when I get home.



• Buster threw up all over my comforter this morning. Right after he ate, too, so it was all tuna-y. I was petting him and he was like purr purr purr and then I went out to the kitchen to make breakfast and come back and he's gone but has left this long path of tuna goo all down the side of my comforter and pooling on the carpet. THANK YOU BUSTER, THAT WAS TRULY A JOY TO CLEAN UP. And now when I get home from work I have to add "wash comforter" to my list. DAMMIT.



• CAFE IS OPEN! The owners came into Staples last night to ask about printing prices, and they were like "yeah we're totally open." They are now located at the abandoned Burger King at the Miracle City Mall.



• I get to hang out with Sara B tomorrow! I haven't seen her in eons! We're going to play with dolls. X3

Current Mood: content Current Music: No Reservations Current Tags: dreams, i did things!, slave labor, the fam: pets

  I had a really bad dream last night about work. That's what I get for doing my school reading before bed, because the copy center was in a public library. Instead of my copy center I was basically in a computer lab. When I got there, they had already pulled Sierra off to office supplies and so I had to work alone. I wasn't able to do any jobs because as soon as I'd turn around, people would get on my computers and I'd have to shoo them away, and then as soon as I'd got them out, more people had settled down at the computers and using them to look at porn / download music / everything else you're not supposed to do on public computers. My line was getting bigger and bigger and people were yelling and screaming at me. I called the managers to ask if Sierra could come back over and they were really disappointed that I couldn't handle it myself, and Sierra was really pissed off at me.

  It was a stupid dream but it made me wake up grumpy and not looking forward to work. 2 days down, 4 to go.

Current Mood: grumpy Current Tags: dreams, slave labor

• Whoohoo! I'm in the eye of a tropical storm right now! How sweet is that. It's not as cool as I'd imagined -- it's just kind of bleh and overcast still, but how cool is it still to be like YES I AM IN THE EYE.
  
  My parents got today off again so I'm going over to Sarah's to play Guild Wars all day. Thank god. Listening to dad obsessively rip paper out in the front room is already driving me insane. I just closed my door and I can still hear the paper-ripping. T____T
  
  Apparently the storm is predicted to get out over the ocean and then turn back around and rain on us some more, so I am really hoping that Thursday and Friday are hella shitty outside and rainy and will prevent the great masses of back-to-school shoppers from pouring into Staples in a great deluge. Yesterday was more like a Saturday than a Tuesday; it was nice. :)



• Someone dropped one of the classes I wanted to take so I dropped the crappy class I had randomly selected and snapped up the good one!! It changed my schedule to Monday-Tuesday instead of Monday-Wednesday buuut who cares; I'm just happy I don't have to take Database Management Systems. I can buy my books now! Woohoo!

Current Mood: okay Current Tags: floriduh, school: grad, slave labor, weather

  Aww man, my parents both get the day off because of tropical storm-ness but I still have to go to work. :/

  See Amanda whine. Whine, Amanda, whine.

Current Mood: gloomy Current Tags: floriduh, slave labor

  One more day of work until my weekend. Yaaay! And then one more day of work after that and Krysti will be here!

  It seems like at least once every day this week I've pissed someone off due to copyright. I mentally cringe every time I see that stupid copyright symbol, or every time I see someone unroll a caricature (I've had like three of those recently, and every time the person pretty much wanted to beat me in the head when I told them that since it was signed, it was technically protected by copyright).

  "Oh no, I know the artist/the photographer, he/she told me I could copy this!" He/she could have easily written us a letter and you can just as easily ask him to. I'm not going to take your word for it, dammit. YOU COULD BE A STING OPERATION. DX

  No, it's not because I don't want to copy it. Believe me, I'd love to have been able to copy it in the first place so you wouldn't be standing here glaring at me with eyes filled with hate. It's not because I'm being lazy or because I'm just a big jerk. IT IS AGAINT THE LAW. WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU PEOPLE THAT YOU CAN'T UNDERSTAND THAT.

Current Mood: relaxed Current Music: Deep Space 9 Current Tags: slave labor

  What a way to come back to work after being all depressio the day before about said workplace. We had a really... nearly violent and extremely verbally abusive man come in today. We didn't even do anything to piss him off the begin with, he just took issue with Maria asking him to stay on the other side of the counter, and kept ranting and raving at her... eventually this turned into him telling her "Fuck you!" while flipping her the bird and then calling her a "fat ass bitch." The was a bunch of other crap that happened but I'm not going to get into it, but he was banned from the store. :)

  I am so glad I was only scheduled until 6:30. Phew. D:

  Still trying to figure out what to do as far as Staples + school is concerned. I don't know how many classes I can handle, whether I should start out with two or three. Four was my minimum before, but I wasn't working and also it wasn't grad school. I'm really worried about the dreaded "back to school" rush of August... but it's nice to know that I'll be cutting my hours down after that. I don't know how much is appropriate... I'll probably drop down to three days off a week and see how that goes.

Current Mood: tired Current Tags: slave labor

  Okay, I'm over it (kinda), thanks for the nice comments everyone. :) At this point I'm not all depressio anymore, I'm mostly just kind of cranky that the first school didn't hire me in the guise of it being good for me or something (because the job would be a waste of my degrees -- like Staples isn't, lol).

  Not a good attitude to have heading in to a five-day week (my next day off is Tuesday... it's going to be a very long week), but at least Krysti is going to be here next weekend, and I managed to get an early Friday shift and Saturday off so we could do lots of hanging out.

  Only have to work 12:30-6:30 today and tomorrow, which will be pretty nice (I hate closing), but am not looking forward to full days Saturday through Monday, especially that 10:00-6:30 Sunday. :/

Current Mood: blah Current Music: Deep Space 9 Current Tags: slave labor

  So you know what I love? Working at Staples and living with my parents forever and ever and ever.

  I hate it when there's hope, because having hope and then having it taken away is way, way worse than not having any hope it all. It's going to take me like a month to get back into being content with Staples and this house again.

  I can put in 80 more applications and it won't make any difference in how I feel, but as soon as I get an interview everyone's all nice and I walk away thinking "they liked me! maybe I won't have to work at Staples anymore!" but no, no one ever really likes you and no one ever really wants to hire you.

  I'm going to go cry for a little bit and try to avoid dad. :/

Current Mood: disappointed Current Tags: cheer up emo kid, slave labor

  I had another interview today at another school. This one's also quite a commute, but it's really close to the school board where mom works so we'd be able to carpool. I don't know how I did on this one either. On the drive home I always think of the hundred things I should have sad and all the stupid stuff I said because my mind blanked out. However, the principal said that out of 99 applicants only 8 were chosen for interviews, which makes me feel pretty awesome about myself even if I don't get it.

  You know I think those six months at Staples have really done a lot for me. Obviously people are more willing to interview me now. I think before I got the job at Staples I put in about 80 applications and only had about... 4 interviews total. I've put in four with the school board recently and two called me back.

  Staples has actually done a lot for me. I used to be terrified of calling strangers on the phone, and now I have to do it every day. And I noticed that the last two interviews I went to, I was actually pretty chill and not freaking out. I guess I'm just more chill in general, which makes me happy. Everything is easy when you're not being yelled at.

  It's kinda sad that I finally started to settle down and accept the Staples-ness, and now I've had some interviews and I'm being all hopeful again, which makes me feel much less awesome about Staples.

  I feel all grumbly inside. Post-interview grumbliness. :/

Current Mood: anxious Current Music: Robot Chicken Current Tags: slave labor

  Work today was nuts and I totally wished it on myself without meaning to. Sunday is usually standing there for eight hours doing nothing... so I was like "I wish something would happen that I could work on." And then everything happened. And of course everyone came in at the same times during the day too. I even had to leave something for tomorrow, which is like whaaaaat.

  It was weird. Crazy weird. But the day did go by pretty quickly.

  And the past two nights have been pretty much lacking in sleep for me and I'm exhausted. So happy I have tomorrow off. Got a lot to do and gotta get up early... meh...

Current Mood: exhausted Current Music: Robot Chicken Current Tags: slave labor