I don’t know what the heck is up, but for the past few days, I have been getting this sudden burst of warmness in my upper left leg, a little higher than behind the back of my knee. Just out of nowhere it feels like that part of my leg is on fire. Every time it happens, I check to see if my leg is wet or bleeding, because it’s the same warm feeling you get when your pants get wet in a warm rain or something. It’s not hurting me or anything, it just really bothers me. And when it happens, my skin is still cool to the touch (it actually just happened as I was typing this out… bah), but it feels on fire from the inside. I’ll have to google that later to see what’s up. Bizarre.
Anyway,
I had a mostly productive day today. I applied for probably 7 or 8 jobs this morning/afternoon. (Later today when I was telling my mom about this, she asked, “How’s that going for you?” to which I replied, “Not so well, obviously.” I can’t believe I am still here in MN 😦 )
After being hunched over my computer for several hours with job applications, I needed a break. So, I played outside with the dogs for a bit and then played some Wii Glee Karaoke and High School Musical Sing It!. Somehow singing really loud always helps.
(And there goes that leg thing again… geez!)
This afternoon consisted of Yahtzee, reading and ping pong. Now I’m watching the Modern Family reruns. I’m looking forward to getting some sleep, though, to be perfectly honest. I miss sleeping through the night, though I am confident I will be able to do this once more somewhere down the road.
I think my mom and I might see The Debt tomorrow… I still have to check movie times, though.
But, before I bitch about work, here’s a bit of good news…
StarKid AJ Holmes is going to be in the touring cast of Young Frankenstein as Frankenstein from September to June!! Here’s the link to the schedule and tour info… I think the group of StarKids that I roll with are going to try and see the show in January… I’m not sure if I’ll be able to go to the same show with them, though, as I’ll need to be in NYC around that time to see one of my other favorite StarKids, Darren Criss, in his Broadway debut in How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying 🙂
Yay for StarKids 🙂
Okay, so I am going to bitch about work for a little bit.
Work was going so well today. I was covering my work area and a colleague’s work area because she was running late due to a family thing. No problem – work was slow, so I was easily able to cover 1/2 of the entire floor by myself.
Unfortunately, I had a huge sales goal, which was going to be unattainable due to the fact that I was only working 4 hours today. I kept busy, but I wasn’t super busy.
Toward the very end of my shift, I was super busy, juggling three sets of customers. During this chunk of time, my manager came up to me to discuss my numbers from a couple weeks ago (which I knew weren’t good). I was up on a ladder trying to track down stuff for my customers while my manager went on about how my sales numbers for that week were really bad.
Of course the were bad!
I tend to get scheduled for short shifts on days when my workplace is not super busy. However, on those same, often slow days, my sales goals are astronomical. For example, last week, I was scheduled to work 3 hours and my sales goal was almost $2000. Whereas, on other days, if I work for 3 hours, my sales goal is a more attainable $600. When I don’t meet or come close to meeting my sales goal, my performance numbers suffer. It’s hard to meet a sales goal when there is physically no one in the work area to sell to. I’m not a friggin’ magician. I can’t make customers appear out of thin air, let a lone drop hundreds of dollars on stuff.
I tried to explain this to my manager (not using the above wording, of course). She nodded her head and agreed with me, but it still looks like I’m not doing my job well. But, I know that I am awesome at my job, even though my numbers don’t quite show it. Colleagues tell me I’m good at my job. Customers tell me that I’m good at my job.
It also doesn’t help that I was told by one colleague (in front of my manager, luckily), that a $1000 sale I was working on today was taken by another colleague.
Yeah, you read that right.
So, today was frustrating because it just feels like my current job is forever setting me up to fail.
I know this isn’t going to be my career. But I also know that I like to be good at whatever it is I do. And I am good at my job. But since my numbers suck, I’m sure all my managers think I suck.
I got home around the same time as my mom. She was getting back from having a lump thing removed from her elbow (she’s fine – it’s not malignant or anything), and she had gotten us doughnuts on the way home. We sat at the dining room table with our snack (i.e. my lunch b/c I wasn’t given my break at work today… surprise, surprise) and I vented a bit. Not gonna lie, I teared up. I haven’t been sleeping well and I was just so frustrated. I told her I really was thinking that if I don’t get hired from any of the applications I’ve applied for thus far, I’m seriously thinking about quitting after Christmas and just moving somewhere because my current job is so soul crushing.
(End rant about work)
BAH
So, there was a Glee re-run on tonight, “Prom Queen”
I wrote a big ol’ blog post about it when it first aired. You can read about it HERE.
It was nice to catch this on TV again, though. Last time it was on, there was a huge storm and we missed the last couple minutes. So, when my mom and I watched it tonight, she still didn’t know what happened after Kurt and Dave were supposed to dance. It was so cute watching my mom… when Dave walked off, my mom was like, “Is Kurt going to dance alone?!” and then on the TV, Blaine was all like, “Excuse me. May I have this dance?” and my mom was like, “Blaine! [swats me on the leg] Saving the day!”
🙂
(btw – my mom calls Darren Criss “Blaine” regardless of what we’re watching that has him in it… or when we’re talking about him. Like, last night I was at Applebees with my parents for their Anniversary and I somehow managed to weasel StarKid stuff and Glee into the conversation. My dad commented how he didn’t think Kurt [i.e. Chris Colfer] was going to make it after Glee and both my mom and I were like “NO!” and then my mom was even saying how he was going to be in a movie [Struck By Lightning… which he totally wrote and produced too]. And then I was trying to explain how Chris Colfer and Darren Criss were the only ones who were going to make it after their stints on Glee. MMy dad looked at me like “who?” and my mom was like, “Blaine” and I was like, “you know, Harry Potter from the Harry Potter musicals,” to which my dad said, “I was not aware they were the same person.” Oh, Dad!)
So, 3 weeks till new Glee.
Well… I think I should probably sleep soon. I’m just so tired.
I have 2 days off now, which will be lovely. My mom and I might go a movie on Thursday. That’ll be nice 🙂
I had a long-ish post planned, but I am beyond tired and really don’t feel like typing. So, you’re getting this… sorry.
I went to bed early last night since I had to be up early for work and I slept worse last night than in a really, really long time. So, I’m way tired. I worked all day today and it was s-l-o-w going for the most part. I was supposed to have someone working with me for half my shift, but they took her away and moved her to another work space and I was left alone. Boo
My head was throbbing by time I left work. I just wanted to get home but the drivers around here are horrible. Boo times two.
I went out to dinner with my parents tonight because it’s their anniversary – 30 years! That’s a long time, man.
My parents are awesome and adorable. I tell them this, but need to tell them that more since they are awesome and adorable and are the greatest parents ever. I know I’m lucky to have the parents I have 🙂
My mom and I are watching Bachelor Pad right now, but only to find out who is on the upcoming season of Dancing with the Stars… so far I’m most excited for Carson Kressley (sp?). I loved him on Queer Eye for the Straight Guy 🙂
Well… I’m gonna log off my computer now and finish watching the show. Then I’ll read and sleep. Sleeeeeeeeeeeeep
I had full intention of being super productive today like I was yesterday. I still was productive, but not in the way I could have.
I woke up and found that my parents had gone out to breakfast, so I threw in some laundry, made some waffles and watched Glee (“Hell-o”). I used to super love this episode because it was the first appearance of Jesse St. James, but when I rewatched it this morning, I just wasn’t feeling it… probably because I don’t care anymore about any story lines involving Mr. Schue. Call me a bad Glee fan, but unless the plot involves Kurt, Mr. Hummel, Blaine, Coach Beiste or Puck in any way shape or form, I’m kinda over it. *shrug*
I can’t wait for the rest of Season 2 to come out on DVD and I can’t wait for new episodes to start. I need new Glee because I need new Glee songs. Now 🙂
When my folks got home, my mom and I played some ping pong, but we stopped after 3 games because it was smelling like cigarette smoke outside of our garage (pretty sure it was the neighbor) and I can’t function under those circumstances. (Cigarette smoke agitates me like whoa.)
I read for a bit and then ate lunch with my parents while we watched some Arrested Development.
After lunch my parents went canoeing/fishing. I folded laundry, read some more, and then baked some cookies.
I baked the most delicious cookies 🙂
We had a half-used can of pumpkin in the fridge, so my mom encouraged me to use that up if I could… I didn’t use the whole thing, but I did use a majority of it when I ended up making pumpkin/pecan/chocolate chip cake cookies with a vanilla frosting (all made from scratch – woot woot). My nose doesn’t work so well, but my parents got home while the cookies were still in the oven and my mom said you could smell their cookie goodness outside, as it wafted out the kitchen window (my words, not hers).
The cookies taste good, that’s for sure 🙂 (I’m having one right now as I type this… nom nom nom.)
I love baking. It’s like Chemistry Class, but instead of blowing something up, you get to eat the results. Baking is relaxing… measuring a bunch of stuff, mixing a bunch of stuff, making a nice presentation. Good times. Plus, I listen to music and sing while I bake. Makes it that much more fun 🙂
After I finished with the cookies and cleaned up the mess I made in the kitchen, I helped my parents make dinner.
My mom and I played some more ping pong post-dinner… I won 2 of 3 games. To be fair, though, my mom started giving up early in the 3rd game.
We’re watching some football right now, but not really. More like the TV is on and football happens to be on it. I’ll head to bed soon, as I have to be up early for work tomorrow. I have a long-ass shift ahead of me, so that kinda sucks. I’m pretty sure I’m going to be by myself… hopefully it won’t be a super slow day tomorrow.
Well… I’m gonna get going. Maybe read for a bit before I try to sleep.
This morning, I scanned all of the entertainment articles I’ve ever had published (minus the two or three I don’t have physical copies of… boo). I needed some PDFs to send in for some job applications, but it was also about time I had PDFs of everything, just in case. Man, if I would have gotten a dollar for every article I wrote for those 3 publications, I would have, like, $20. (Plus, I wrote a bunch of articles for OU when I had my graduate associate position during school… but those articles won’t help me get an entertainment journalism job.)
So, I scanned for literally two hours this morning, then watched some Arrested Development. (One of the greatest television shows of all time.)
After lunch, I spent a couple hours typing up a cover letter, fine-tuning my resume and turning some of the jpegs from earlier in the day into PDF files to send in for a job application. I finally sent it in… I hope I hear back from them! The job I applied for would seriously be perfect for me.
After that, I played some ping pong with my mom, watched some more Arrested Development/ate pizza, then played more ping pong with my mom, then watched more Arrested Development.
Tomorrow I have off again, but I’ll need to do some laundry and apply for more jobs.
I do not envy the people in the path of Hurricane Irene. As much as I want to be an East Coast-er, I’m glad to be living in the middle of the country right now as there is no threat of hurricane anything here. I have some friends in NYC right now and other family and friends up and down the coast, so I will be keeping up with the weather there. I just hope everyone stays safe and that the hurricane isn’t as bad as it could be.
What a semi-productive day…
I had a fitful night of sleep last night (woke up around 4:30 worrying about jobs and whatnot) and then dragged myself out of bed by 8:30. I had some breakfast and then dragged myself back downstairs to apply for some jobs. I think I applied to 6 jobs today… everything from being an assistant to an open position at DC Comics. Tomorrow I will send out more applications. Something’s gotta happen!!
During lunch, I popped in my Rent DVD and watched the scenes with the songs I like the most. I saw the stage version twice – once before the movie came out and once after. I love the stage version, but cannot say the same about the movie. The movie is okay, and I like being able to see the actors faces and whatnot, but it just doesn’t quite have the same spirit as the live version. That, and the people are all way too old to be playing those parts. (Just sayin’…)
I worked this afternoon. I was by myself for the most part and was fairly busy the whole time. I dealt with a lot of nice people… it’s easier when it’s nice people. I didn’t get my break, though, so even though I was dealing with nice people, at the end of my shift I was ready to knock down anyone who was standing in the way between me and my car. I was dehydrated, my head was spinning and I just wanted to get home. There was an accident on the highway I take to get home, so that slowed things down a bit. That, and the driver in front of me was super inconsiderate. *And* when I got into my neighborhood, the sun was right in my eyes and there were a couple kids sitting on bikes in the middle of the street. Good thing I saw them as I was turning, or I would have hit them. They didn’t even move as I approached and passed them… idiot kids.
I watched an episode of Glee to calm myself down while I ate dinner – “The Power of Madonna.” I like most of the music numbers… plus this is the first episode we see Kurt in his Cheerios uniform. A-frickin’dorable.
I played some ping pong with my mom. I won one game and she won two. woot. I’m sure there will be more of that tomorrow.
It got too dark to be playing ping pong in the garage, so we went inside and put on the Packers/Colts game. I’m not a huge football fan, but I don’t mind either of those teams. I have cheered on the Packers since I was in elementary school (I like the cheesehead hat), so I will continue to root them on.
I have the weekend off, so that’s nice. I will try and sleep in tomorrow 🙂 And then apply for more jobs…
You can obviously tell what I’m watching right now…
Community is one of the best shows on television. Right now it’s the rerun of “Paradigms of Human Memory” – the faux clips show. Such a brilliant use of montage of stuff that never actually happened on any other episodes of the show. This was a ridiculously smart and well written episode, among all of Community‘s entire canon of ridiculously smart and well written episodes. How this show has not been formally acknowledged by the entertainment industry is beyond me. Where are its Emmy nominations for this amazing ensemble? Or the writers? Huh???? I can’t wait to listen to the commentaries on the DVDs for Season Two.
God, I love this show.
Today was a semi productive day. I ran a bunch of errands this morning. I returned some pants at Kohls. Got a few books from Borders. Got half of my parents Anniversary present. Got some black pants and skinny jeans at Old Navy. I was unable to find shoes, though, which was a bit disappointing. But, you can’t win them all 🙂
“Status Quo” is one of my favorite songs from Starship, but as much as I love Joey’s version, my favorite will still be Darren Criss’s version from when he did that Livestream:
The song is just great, though, regardless who sings it 🙂
I played some ping pong with my mom. I did some job hunting (which will, of course, continue tomorrow… I need to find some of the articles I wrote for a pop culture magazine I wrote for when I lived in Indiana and scan them so I can show that I am capable of writing entertainment stuff). I helped make dinner. And now I’m watching some TV with my parents.
I have to work for a few hours tomorrow afternoon, but that means I have the morning to job hunt and the evening to maybe watch a movie or something (I got Deer Hunter out from the library… I know I should have seen it by now, but I haven’t).
I’m looking forward to a nice weekend w/my family. I hope you have a nice weekend ahead of you as well
As the moment, I’m watching the Modern Family reruns and Happy Endings on ABC. Even though I’ve seen these episodes multiple times, I still laughed out loud so hard I almost spewed soda out of my mouth. I’m really tired, so everything just seems extra funny.
I had to work this afternoon. It went okay. No where near meeting the astronomical sales goal I was given… it’s like my workplace is setting me up for failure. Not just me, though. It happens to my colleagues too. *shrug*
This morning before work, I tried to figure out some of the online billing stuff I was having issue with yesterday. I found it awfully frustrating when I tried to contact the Student Loans people, but their email option wasn’t working. Boo
In addition to billing shenanigans, I also watched a bunch of videos of StarKid from LeakyCon. I watched all of their songs and then the Q&A. StarKid stuff will always make me smile. Even though it’s all a bit silly at times, I just have really fond memories of watching their shows over the past few months, getting to see them (and meeting some of them) at the Digitour, and seeing them again a few weeks ago in Chicago. I know they are just “normal” people like me, but I really respect that group of people and think they are talented and very creative. I admire that they are a group of friends who continue to work together to make these productions. I look forward to their future projects and hope one day to see one of their shows in person as opposed to on youtube or DVD 🙂 (Seriously, though, if you like comedic musical theater that also has a lot of heart, you need to check out A Very Potter Musical, Me and My Dick, A Very Potter Sequel and Starship. Also, Little White Lies… that’s more of an ABC Family-esque teen soap, but it’s still got some decent music. 🙂 )
Well… off to watch Happy Endings 🙂
Have a good one
P.S. Here’s a link to the Glee Season 3 teaser trailer… Blaine is only in it for a fraction of a second, but his outift is amazing. I can’t wait to see what kind of wardrobe that character gets this season 🙂
I didn’t read The Help, but I wanted to see the movie because I am a fan of a number of the actresses who were in it, and it’s about civil rights (an issue that I am very interested in/passionate about).
I was very impressed with the ensemble of talented women who were cast in this film, especially Viola Davis and Octavia Spencer. Viola Davis is one of the most talented and beautiful actresses working these days. Her performance as Aibileen Clark is so gut-wrenching. Her eyes are so expressive and she is able to command attention, or completely shy away from it, with the tone of her voice.
I liked the movie a lot. I thought it brought to light a really important time in American history. Though the Civil War was long over, the war for Civil Rights was still in full swing. “Separate But Equal” my ass. Had I been around during that time period and living in the South, I like to think that I would be like Skeeter. I would want to hear the perspective of the people who weren’t being heard and I would want to share that with whoever would listen.
I know this is a movie and therefore fictional, but deep down I know that there were people like the character in this movie. There were little girls (and boys, I’m sure) who were raised by “the help” only to grow up and subsequently treat their hired help like crap just because of the color of their skin. *That* makes my skin crawl.
In addition to my trip to the cinema today, I beat my mom in ping pong. (Two games to one… woot woot.) I got a couple books out from the library. I had to deal with some stupid student loans shenanigans. Something seems to be up with my gmail for some reason… I missed two important emails in the past couple weeks. Who knows what else I haven’t been receiving.
I watched the Glee rerun tonight – “Born This Way.” I like this episode a lot because I enjoy all of the music performances (as much as I love Glee, most episodes have at least one song where I’m like “meh”). I wrote a blog post about this episode when it first aired. If you want, you can read about it here.
I have to work tomorrow, but then have off on Thursday. I think I’ll need to run some errands. I decided I do not like the black pants I got at Kohl’s yesterday, so I’m gonna return them and get some pants at Old Navy. I also should stop at Target. And since I still have store credit to use up at DSW, I might stop in there to see if any cute shoes in my size have clearanced themselves to a likable price 🙂
As predicted, I had a bit of trouble falling asleep last night because of that impromptu nap I had during the movie I was watching. But, I woke up without the alarm (always nice when a machine isn’t the thing waking one up) and I didn’t nap today. I also have off from work tomorrow, so I don’t need to be up early. So, here’s hoping I have a full night’s sleep ahead of me 🙂
I had to work all morning and part of the afternoon. It was dead for about 2 hours, and then it got bonkers crazy busy. I just kept my smile plastered on my face and everything went all right.
After work, I went to Kohl’s because I had a $10 off card and I needed some black pants. I was going to get a shirt or something fun, but of my two pairs of black pants I have work work, one of them had a hole in the back pocket (which I found out about 30 seconds before I left the house this morning… luckily I had another pair!). So, I got some black pants. Hopefully they’ll work out all right. If not, I’ll just have to run to Old Navy sometime next week. *shrug*
I went to Half Priced Books after Kohl’s because I was in search of Pushing Daisies Season Two. Alas, they did not have it. But that’s okay… I don’t need it. I just want it. So I can wait 🙂
When I got home, I had an orange and then played 6 games of ping pong w/my mom. I lost all 6 games. That kinda sucked, but it’s all good.
Since my dad was out on the boat, my mom and I made pancakes for dinner (we don’t have those when my dad is home b/c they have too many carbs). They were pumpkin pancakes with chopped pecans and dark chocolate chips. Delightful 🙂 We watched Starter for 10 because of the 3 DVDs I gave my mom to chose from, she hadn’t seen that one. (Our other choices were Greenfingers and Gosford Park, in case you were wondering… which you probably weren’t.)
I like Starter for 10 because (1) it stars James McAvoy, (2) it co-stars Benedict Cumberbatch and (3) I used to be on a quiz bowl team and the fact that there is a movie about quiz bowl teams makes me chuckle. 🙂
It’s a cute little movie; I highly recommend it.
And now I’m gonna go watch the Mike & Molly rerun since I missed every episode during the season (I have been catching up via reruns this summer… I like this show, I think it’s funny and sweet. The plot seems to be pretty much the same every week, but that’s okay. It’s still enjoyable.)
I have off tomorrow, so my mom and I are planning on going to see The Help. Neither of us read the book, but the movie seems to be getting good reviews and doing well at the Box Office. Plus, I like Emma Stone and Viola Davis a lot. And it’s about women. And one of the women is a journalist/writer. So, I think I’ll dig it 🙂
Two Degrees and Separation 