Day 4: Some people just really don't like dirt I guess.

Continuing last night's TV theme, that's the reason I'm cutting it so close tonight. Worked from 2 - 930 tonight, followed by Dancing with the Stars results show from 9 - 10, and Body of Proof from 10 - 11. So. There's that.

I think one of my posts might be my take on the Dos and Don'ts of retail, for both customers and employees. By no means am I perfect at my job, but I've been in this business for 5 1/2 years and between 3 completely different companies I've seen my fair share of stupid things. Tonight was no exception to that AT ALL. We had a mom and daughter come in looking for black bottoms. Jeans, skirts, shorts, leggings, whatever. If you've ever worn a piece of black clothing, you know that it shows dirt and dust very quickly because anything light will stand out once it's on the fabric. We clean the floors every morning, usually spending about 45 minutes to an hour sweeping using not only a push broom but a swiffer type thing as well trying to get the floors as clean as possible. The store I was working at today is located in an outdoor mall, meaning the floors there tend to get a lot dirtier a lot faster than they would at a normal mall. So this mom and daughter find every single black item of clothing we sell and take them into the fitting room. I really have no complaints about their shopping manners or anything like that, because by normal customer standards they were actually very neat and did their part to make my job not suck as much by not destroying piles or leaving things balled up in the fitting room. She did, however, drop a pair of jeans on the floor as she was bringing their stuff up to the register. When she picked them up off the ground, she made the most awful sound ever and just went off on a rant about how dirty our store was and that we really needed to clean and she couldn't believe we let the floor get that gross. It was almost 830 at night. We had actually been kind of busy today. More people in the store means more dirt and dust on the floor. She dropped the jeans on the floor in front of the register. Where EVERY SINGLE PERSON that buys something stands. Naturally that area of the store is going to be dirtier than other places.

I'm just baffled that she was so offended that there was dirt on the floor and that the jeans she dropped got dirty. Like. What did she expect? That we keep the floors clean enough to eat off of? That we mop the floor multiple times a day? That dirt doesn't carry into the store from people's shoes? I don't get it. I feel like some people just aren't happy until they find something to complain about.


Days until Wrockstock: 24
Album of the day: Mayday Parade's self titled album. So. Effing. Good. Please go get it. Right now.

Day 3: I really, really love Nathan Fillion.

Well this is gonna be a short one tonight, as I may or may not have spent the last few hours lurking tumblr while sprawled on the floor in my living room watching Dancing with the Stars, meaning my laptop battery is slowly dwindling away and I'm far too lazy to get up and plug it in.

So.

Castle just started, and I can't even tell you how much I love that show. Nathan Fillion is amazing in every way possible, and the cast of Castle is just incredible. My question for you, lovely blog readers (if anyone actually would care to chime in, that would be great), is what's on your fall TV agenda? I used to despise watching TV. Lately, though, my TV watching schedule has been pretty jam packed. Dancing with the Stars and Castle on Monday, Dancing with the Stars Results and Ringer on Tuesday, Revenge on Wednesday, Project Runway on Thursday, re-watches of both Buffy and Gilmore Girls, as well as a vain attempt to catch up on Gossip Girl in a timely manner.

Sorry this is so disjointed. I'm quickly typing this up during commercial breaks, and it's hard to focus haha. Anyway. Let me know what you guys are watching! I can always add to my list of things to watch.

Day 2: I'm already at a loss for this.

I feel like I'm already taking the easy way out with today's post, and it's only day two. Oh well. Seeing as it's already almost 9pm and I still can't find anything interesting to talk about, this will have to do for today.

One. What is your middle name?
- Lee
Two. What are you passionate about?
- Music. Books. Dance.
Three. Zebra or leopard print?
- Leopard.
Four. Do you have any fears?
- Other than the usual rejection, failure, and monsters under the bed, not really.
Five. Silver or gold?
- Silver.
Six. Top three places to visit.
- Mackinac Island, always. Chicago. I want to get back to the west coast and actually see what's out there too.
Seven. How many siblings do you have?
- One older brother.
Eight. Where are you from?
- Born and raised in Michigan.
Nine. First career you wanted as a child.
- I always wanted to be a ballerina, as expected from nearly any 4 year old girl haha. First "real" career I wanted to go into was marine biology.
Ten. What’s your sign?
- Capricorn.
Eleven. Future names of your children.
- Oh man. I could give you names I have picked out, but they'll probably end up being characters in a story I'm writing before they get handed out to an actual human being.
Twelve. Do you have any pets?
- Yup! Two dogs. A black lab (Jazz), and a corgi (Oliver).
Thirteen. What are you listening to right now?
- Just finished the new Mayday Parade album, and moved onto Blink's new album. I'm totally in love with both right now.
Fourteen. Do you believe in fate/destiny?
- Ehhhh.
Fifteen. What are your career goals?
- To not hate everything I'm doing every day. Honestly I can see myself doing almost anything as far as a career goes, and I just want to at least enjoy what I do every day.
Sixteen. What is your favorite color?
- Purple, teal, and silver.
Seventeen. What is your favorite flower?
- Roses.
Eighteen. What was the first concert/show you attended?
- First 'concert' in general was probably the Detroit Hoedown in like '94 I think. First REAL concert was NSYNC in 8th grade haha.
Nineteen. Something you are working on right now.
- Finishing this blog post. I've been typing it up for nearly an hour and I keep getting distracted.
Twenty. Have you ever had a near-death experience?
- Yup. Slid into a ditch driving home from work a few years ago. Had my truck spun another quarter rotation it would have literally wrapped around a tree and crushed me.
Twenty-one. Are you a procrastinator or do you get things done early?
- As far as work is concerned, I get things done as early as possible for whatever deadline I have to meet. When it came to school, I was the biggest procrastinator ever though.
Twenty-two. Left or right handed?
- Right.
Twenty-three. TV Shows you watch regularly.
- Castle, Ringer, Project Runway, Dancing with the Stars. Speaking of, I really need to watch last week's episodes of all of those except Castle.
Twenty-four. Where do you work?
- PacSun.
Twenty-five. Halloween costume idea for this year?
- Haven't thought that far ahead yet haha. I'll be coming home from Wrockstock that day, so I don't know if I'll be home in time for anything.
Twenty-six. What is your relationship status?
- Single, as always.
Twenty-seven. Last movie you just watched.
- I honestly couldn't tell you the last time I watched a movie. It was probably DH2 when mom and I went to see it after I got home from LeakyCon.
Twenty-eight. A song that’s been stuck in your head.
- Do or Die. I haven't listened to FTSK in forever so I have no idea where that came from.
Twenty-nine. A book you want to read/have recently read.
- I'm currently reading Friday Mornings at Nine by Marilyn Brant, and once I finish that I think I'm going to start into My Name Is Will by Jess Winfield.


Days until Wrockstock: 26
Album of the day: A War Amidst Pop Songs, The Mudbloods

Day 1: Failed doctor's appointments and hair experiments.

So as with any project I decide to take on, I'm going to dive headfirst into 'blogtober' and hope I make it past the first week. Wish me luck. I don't really venture much into the blogging world anymore, as Twitter and Tumblr have pretty much taken over any need I have to get things out of my head and on to paper. Well. Kind of. Speaking of, if you'd like to keep up with me on either of those venues please feel free.

I know I've used this blog in the past for various writing adventures as well as regular blog posts, and I think I'll keep that format the same. I don't use this thing often enough to really warrant a change. I'm not entirely sure what I'll write about every day, but I'll make an effort to at least keep your attention day to day. Some days it'll be a casual blog like this, some days it'll be a chunk of something I'm writing, some days it'll be a Q&A thing, some days I might find something online worth sharing with you guys. No idea what I'm doing with it yet, but we'll see what happens. SO. On that note, I'm going to kick this thing off in the most boring way possible: telling you about my day. Riveting, right? That's gonna make you want to come back every day this month.

Today was my first Saturday off of work in... I don't even know how long. I've been working in retail for 5 1/2 years, so having a Saturday off without requesting it off is a very foreign concept to me. I started my day by waking up at the crack of dawn (okay really like 9am, which for me is insanely early) and going for a quick run before heading to an Urgent Care center that opened at 10am to get some blood work done. I expected that to take about an hour at most, and I actually ended up sitting in the waiting room for 3 hours before being told that I wasn't going to be able to be seen that day because while they are a walk-in clinic, there wasn't a slot open for me to have the testing done, so I had to make a legit appointment at another center for Thursday next week. Needless to say, I wasn't exactly thrilled with the situation. On the plus side, while I was waiting I did get a good start into a new book I've been wanting to read. It's Friday Mornings at Nine by Marilyn Brant. So far, it's pretty good. Not my usual pick, as I tend to lean towards YA novels and historical fiction, but it's definitely holding my attention. Maybe I'll write up a quick review once I finish it.

ANYWAY. After that fiasco this morning, I came home and re-dyed my hair since it was faded to almost being white in spots. (sidenote: For anyone that hasn't seen my hair in the last year, the bottom layers are purple while the top is dark brown. The brown is still well intact, as it always is. The purple I have to touch up every 3 to 4 weeks, depending) I lurked Tumblr for a bit while the dye was setting, and actually dried and straightened my hair for the first time in AGES after I got out of the shower. It's weird the phases I go through with my hair. My hair has been super long most of my life, with the exception of the summer after freshman year of high school when I chopped nearly 14 inches off of it. About a month ago I cut it kind of short again, although not as drastic as the last experiment. It looks and feels shorter than it really is because of the layers it has, but I still can't stand how short it is. I wanted it shorter so I could actually do something with it other than throw it up in a messy bun every day. Now that it's been short, I haven't touched a hair dryer, flat iron, or curling iron since I cut it. Until today. Although now that it's getting colder I'll probably dry and straighten it more often since I despise going outside with wet hair when the temperature falls below about 50 degrees. I miss my long hair.

Now I'm sitting at Panera eating dinner and typing this up, while contemplating working on a few writing projects I've started and abandoned multiple times. (If anyone is curious, I got the Sierra Turkey sandwich and a Caesar salad. So good.) It's super cold in here though, so once I'm done eating I'll probably migrate to the Starbucks across the street, because let's face it. As much as I love good food, I love coffee a LOT more. And I could really go for a Pumpkin Spice Latte right about now. Yum :)

That'll be it for today, I suppose. If anyone actually wants to participate in this thing with me, let me know! I know I'm not the only one doing it, but it'd be nice to actually know someone else doing it. If that makes sense. Anyway. Leave me some suggestions about what you'd like to see here, or questions you'd like me to answer in the comments.



Days until Wrockstock: 27 (WHAT. WHEN DID THAT HAPPEN)
Album of the day: Valdosta, Mayday Parade

Woah now. Two new entries in less than a week? The world must be ending. Or something. I don't even know haha. I promise this entry will be much more reader-friendly than the last one was. Sometimes I just need to vent and get things out in the open so I don't drive myself more insane than I already am. I have a really, REALLY bad habit of not addressing problems and things that make me mad. I just let things bottle up inside me and then some little, insignificant thing will set me off and it just doesn't end well at all. I think I'm good for a bit now, though.

Good things in life right now:

- All Time Low concert in 3 freaking days. And we have a meet & greet. And the venue holds roughly 225 people. I'M SO FUCKING EXCITED. Except for the part where I have to drive into the depths of Detroit and pray we don't get shot. Did I mention the venue is in some dirty little club on 8 mile? I'm fucking stoked. It's gonna be incredible.

- Wrockstock in 2 weeks. I'd like to say I'll be totally ready to go in exactly 2 weeks, but let's not kid ourselves. I'll probably still be doing laundry until 2am and then frantically packing so I can leave the house by 430am. I feel like a real adult with this trip. My parent are going to be gone so I have to make reservations and get the dogs to the kennel, get myself to the airport on time, and then back home again. Yikes. The only thing really freaking me out is that I'm gonna have to leave one of the cars at the airport while I'm gone. I know I still have 2 weeks left, but I can't find anyone to take me to the airport the morning I have to leave. Plenty of people can pick me up when I get home, but no one can take me there. Meh. I'll figure it out.

- I have an interview tomorrow at Bath & Body Works for a key holder/sales leader position. I hope it goes well because the location is just down the road from the mall I worked at when I was with American Eagle and is a heck of a lot closer than the mall I currently work at. I don't want to jinx anything, and I'm not getting my hopes up just in case. But it would be nice to have a job I actually like working at.

Bad things in life right now:

- I have a killer stomach ache right now. I'm gonna blame the fact that I've been eating WAY too much fast food lately. It's really hard to not eat it all the time when McDonalds is really my best option for food at work, unless I want to spend $8 on a really shitty piece of pizza. No, thanks.

- In less than 4 days, I've been in two "accidents" (if you can even call them that). Friday afternoon on my way home from work, this little old lady backed into the truck in a parking lot. There was no damage at all on my end, but she broke a tail light. Tuesday night I was coming home from meeting my friend Jessica at Starbucks, and while I was at a stoplight another little old lady ran right into the truck. Once again, no damage on my end except for a slightly dented bumper and a few paint scratches from her car. Oh and the fucking giant bruise forming on my shoulder from the seatbelt. Yeah. Neither lady wanted insurance information from me, thankfully. They're both just going to bite the bullet and admit to backing into a lamp post, or a hit-and-run in a parking lot or something. Whatever. It's just one of those things where I have to sit back and shake my head and wonder what I did to piss off whatever higher power is watching over me right now.

- THE STUPIDEST SHIT ALWAYS HAPPENS TO ME AT WORK. I don't even understand it. It's always when I'm the closing manager, and it's always something I was never trained to deal with because my training STILL isn't completed. A few weeks ago it was a register shortage, last week it was damaged shipment boxes, tonight it was a power outage. So I call my manager and what does she tell me to do? Look up the loss prevention guidelines in the LP section of our data storage. Which is on the computer. Which doesn't work because THERE'S NO POWER. So next she tells me to go into the back corner of the stock room where we have the filing cabinet that holds all of our training documents and other random info. There's no safety lighting in the stock room. My cell phone is dead. My closing associate is on the phone with another manager. We don't have a flashlight. How the fuck am I supposed to see to find anything? We got it sorted out eventually, but still. Come on now. Why does this always happen to me?

- I'm supposed to have a coaching job this season for winter guard, but the coach from our other high school who is "in charge" of getting everything together still hasn't sent me any of the info for the season, or told me whether or not we actually HAVE a winter guard to coach. We were waiting on approval from the boosters and the school, and I haven't heard anything in 2 weeks from anyone.

ANYWAY. That's my life in a nutshell right now. I'm gonna go stretch before I crawl into bed because my body hates me right now. I've been so tense and stressed the past few days that all my muscles are tensing up and I hurt a LOT.
<3

So. It's been a while. I always fall into this slump of never updating any blog I have unless I need to vent or complain about something. Things are going alright actually, but I still feel like I'm in a very low point of my life. I'm going to be 23 in 2 1/2 months, I'm still working a shitty part time job, and I'm still not back in school. And when I sit back and look at a lot of the kids I went to school with, or anyone else really that's around my age, I feel like a bit of a failure. Sure, there's a good chunk of my graduating class that got knocked up and had 2 kids before their 21st birthday, and another part that has basically fallen off the face of the earth with no trace at all. But there's also the majority of them that have gone on to other schooling, graduated, and are in the process of successfully working their way into the real world. All the while I'm still living at home with my parents, spending most of my time running around the internet and trying to convince myself that I'm actually worth the time people have wasted on me.

I don't know. I know there are a handful of people that care about me to some extent, and I really could be worse off than I am, but I'm really just not happy with where I am right now. I want out of here. I feel like I need a fresh start in some new place where no one knows who I am so I can put the past few years behind me. I've been getting discouraged really easily lately as well. I don't know why, but I'll get an idea of a project I want to start working on or a goal to reach, and then some little detail will get me convinced that I'm never going to make it to where I want it to be.

I've had my fair share of good days and fantastic new experiences this year as well, but they keep getting overshadowed by the down times. I don't know. I really just don't know. I'm not looking for pity or for people to tell me that things will get better, but some reassurance about my life would be fantastic right about now. I keep looking for a solution to the problems, but get distracted along the way with a momentary escape. And as much as I appreciate the escape sometimes, it almost feels like it's not worth it in the long run.

Sticky Notes and Situations

I'm almost out of sticky notes, and that's slightly depressing. Don't judge me, I've worked almost 65 hours already this week and still have about 10 hours left to go today before I'm done. Needless to say, I'm a little loopy and it's apparently quite amusing to other people.

Today is another one of those days where everything that can go wrong has, and it's my job to take care of it regardless of the fact that I have nothing to do with half of the things that are going on right now. Let's make a quick list, shall we?
1) The receptionist/cashier at the Hyundai store had to go home sick, so I'm answering phones and dealing with salesmen for both stores.
2) Both of the porters are currently MIA and not answering their cell phones, and are needed by 4 different people.
3) The weather sucks and it's the end of the month, so both stores are crazy busy.
4) Our new Kia store is opening today, so anyone that actually matters in this company is there. Meaning we can't get ahold of anyone we need to when something goes wrong.
5) I don't even know if I'm supposed to work at AE tonight, and no one there knows how to answer a freaking phone.
6) I'm far too emotinally invested in a situation here which is stressing me out more than all of the above problems and making me extra cranky when he comes over here for various things. I'm going to steal Hayley's naming process and call him The Situation. It's just easier that way.
7) My mother is currently Facebook stalking/chatting me while I'm at work.
8) WHY DOES NO ONE AROUND HERE KNOW HOW TO ANSWER A PHONE?! OHMYGODIMGOINGTOKILLSOMEONE.

*ahem*

Yeah, today is going to be just fan-freaking-tastic. Organizing things into lists makes me happy though, so let's continue with that, shall we? Good things going on right now:

1) Our new Kia store is opening, so anyone important is there. Meaning I don't have to deal with watching my back to make sure I don't get caught being online.
2) The Situation keeps coming over here for various things, and never fails to make me smile even when I'm annoyed with him.
3) ........there is no #3. That's it.

So today isn't TOTALLY sucktastic, but it's pretty damn close. On top of the mess that is my work life, the weather sucks today so naturally every joing and muscle in my body hurts and moving is kind of difficult. Regardless of everything going on, I'm in a relatively good mood. All of this overtime is going to be very good for my bank account even though what's left of my sanity is suffering.

OH. OH. OH!!! I CAN'T BELIEVE I ALMOST FORGOT ABOUT THIS. OHMYGOD. In exactly 2 weeks, I will be in Chicago with Julie and we will be on the way to see Something Corporate. I AM SO EXCITED. HOLY CRAP. The Situation wants to go with us, which would be fantastic, but I don't know if it's going to happen. It would be nice, but probably not a good idea. Eh. We'll see.

That's it for now, I suppose. Feel free to FB chat me or text me today. I could use a little love from friends.