After a Break

Okay, so I have been kind of busy at work and either tired or spending time with people rather then the computer after/in between work. So I have a little bit neglected the blog. I also have only had two days off in all of the month of March, and my next day off is April 8th. Yeah, so there is that. I was kind of horrified when I discovered that at work. Although, I brought it on myself, and I have actually been doing a lot more stuff with people and out and about then I did when I had more free time. I can't really explain that, but I have been enjoying myself. Plus, it looks like I will be making $500+ a month more at the two jobs then I was with the Pier 1 job. This is good.

I have an office at work. I share it with someone else, but I have a key. There are not a lot of real offices at my job, mostly just a big open room. The CFO has an office off that, so does the general manager and the production manager has a big office/art/screen filing room that she shares with the night production manager and her assistants. The boss has his own office off the conference room, and accounting has an office. My shared office. I felt very important when I got to use my key to open it the other day.

I have also been a little totally lazy on the running, but Sara Jo may start going with me. She is supposed to come over on Monday and run with me.

Oh the running

Well, I do think that I get some points for running in a wee bit of wetness and a much colder temp then ever before, but it was way less fun. I did it though, and I will do it again-wouldn't want to ruin 'my girlish figure' with a giant attack of the office ass.

New job started today, so I have my own phone and my own half of an office. It made me feel much more important. I also got a raise (one whole dollar more an hour) which was great and kind of crappy because Renee (my roommate who they promoted when I started working there) now gets less money then me for a job that is at least as demanding and difficult. Somehow no one ever bothered to raise her pay grade to match her effort. I did tell her that she should have talked to someone about it when we both got the same paycheck, but she isn't entirely sure who her immediate supervisor it. Fortunately for me, my immediate supervisor is very clear, and she is in charge of payroll.

The new job seems like it should be easy enough in the bare bones sort of way. I am sure that there will be complications and confusing questions, but you know there is with everything.

Plus they took my computer apart and stuck more ram in it today, and I get a big kick out of watching that happen--even when I mostly have no idea what the heck is happening.

An Addendum

Tonight, after dinner, my roommate stabbed me, with her fork. That's right. Not accidentally poked me with her fork as we loaded the dishwasher, but she deliberately stabbed me with her fork. (She claims I deserved it--whatever). That's my Renee.

Also, quote of the day goes to Renee for saying, "I would throw you a party if you and Jeff dated." That was in reference to a guy at work it seems I might have a crush on. Whatever again.

("Oooooooh, hoooo," you say, "Heather has a crush?" Well, don't get your panties in a bunch, he has a girlfriend, so mostly I just find his accent really cute and leave it at that.)

Spring, spring everywhere

I spent the day training my replacement, and if it was boring when there is only one of me, well. . . yeah. Not bad, just weird.

Also, was listening to the podcast of "This American Life" today, and I was at the restaurant they talked about/used in their experiment. I was there on Saturday night. It is pretty fabulous, and I would reccommend it, but it was strange to hear about it like that. I also think that I may be the mean friend at ACT, and that my own personal meanness to stupid teenagers made me the cool sub. I was not nice to them, and that made me awesome. Go to thisamericanlife.org and listen to the lure of the mean friend, or you can download the podcast on itunes for free. I don't think that I am the mean friend in any way other then as a teacher. The rest of the time I think I am not aloof enough to be in any way mean. This makes more sense if you have heard the podcast.

I was going to write a whole lot more today, but it is gorgeous out, so instead I am going to go check out my neighborhood and jog and whatnot.

A whole mile

I ran a whole one without stopping tonight. It wasn't the plan, but I hit the take a walk for a bit portion of my run, and I thought, "Hey, I feel good, why not run a little further and see what happens?" And I kept running until one mile, and then I did the cool off walk home. My mile was by no means impressive time wise, but I ran the whole thing.

I also worked an entire eight hour shift today at Pier 1. Which was kind of a bummer because the weather was so beautiful.

Also, my roommate is watching the third "Bring it On" movie (which I think may be called "Bring It On Some More").

Crazy Dream

So I had an insane dream last night (after a little drinking and staying up late). I dreamed that Chris Plummer and I and I think Chrissy went to see a drag show, but it was sort of the worst drag show ever. There was a skinny, goofy really-ugly drag queen who couldn't sing and didn't really look like he had put that much effort into looking like a woman, and he was actually trying to sing rather then lip synch. The other main performer was a very hairy man in a ball gown who might have been a good drag queen if he had shaved his excessive body hair, but who also had a big reddish-pink still healing bypass surgery scar across his chest which you could blatantly see.

Chrissy and Chris start to heckle the shitty drag queens, which is fine for a while. Then the drag queens start heckling back, and then there is yelling and suddenly the drag queens are pulling guns and then suddenly Chris and Chrissy are pulling guns and then we have to run out of there in the middle of a gunfight, and when we finally get out (unscathed) the dream is over.

My advice would be to make sure that Chris and Chrissy are unarmed when you go to a drag show with them.

Oh shit Gray's Anatomy!!!

I admit when I discovered that George and Izzy did it, I was kind of disappointed and confused, not sure that this was in any way a direction I wanted the show to go. Then I saw the episode, and I actually thought they handled it quite well and believably. You know, sometimes when you are best friends with someone of your romantic preference, best friend can rub right up against lover. Add alcohol, and well, shit happens. But I was mad at them.

Now I am two thirds of the way through the after episode, and I am shocked to find myself cheering for them. Excellent job TR Knight and Katie Heigel with the acting in a dialogue free scene in the linen closet. They broke my freaking heart. This is good TV. Oh shit. Good TV.

New responsibilities

Today is the day that I got an email for work. My very own email with my name--actually two emails that are routed to the same place, the highly technical hkinion and heather @ my work. This means I can send out info on behalf of the company and ask for stuff which means people will respond to me and expect me to have answers. This is where it gets tricky because although I have some answers, I am still new enough that I really, really don't have some other answers--even really obvious ones.

The good news is that I have a lot more to do each day. Today I only spent about two hours reading stuff on the internet and blogging and reading my book as compared to six and a half yesterday. Having more to do is actually nice. It seems like it would be more fun to have nothing to do all day and get paid for it, but when you can't leave your chair (well, you can but like to go to the bathroom or drop a note off and not much more), it gets less and less fun. Plus everyone else is working, and somewhere between 2 hours and six and a half hours of goofing off it goes from fun to uselessness.

Back to work, everyone have a banana on me.

Bananas

I think I heard a story today to rival some of my usuals, and--for the record--it has nothing to do with me. One of my coworkers at my new gig only recently learned how to peel a banana correctly. I assume that most of you out there peel your bananas from the top (because it has the nice easy piece that breaks away), and it may not even occur to you to peel them from the bottom. He however had spent his whole life peeling them from the bottom (don't ask me how it never occured to him to use the other side). He is 24 and he only learned the new way a few weks ago when one of his siblings saw someone peel a banana (dare I say) the right way on a cooking show. This begs the question, why would you work so hard for so little payoff?

Solvency

It is a heady feeling to have spending money for the first time in more then a year. Well, spending money that isn't specifically earmarked for a particular outing or event. I have some money in my wallet that I could just use on anything I wanted to without first thinking, "Now if I buy a big gulp and a bag of chips, I can't go to the movies with my friends this weekend. Do I really want the big gulp?" I could buy a pop in the vending machine here at work, and it really wouldn't hurt anything. I could also afford to order lunch all week, every week--not that I actually would do that becuase I am kind of cheap bastard when I could just bring my lunch as leftovers or pb&j. I can afford to go to the movies this weekend. I can afford to actually start paying off my credit card debt, and I can still have spending money when I do that.

Okay so the debt paying down will happen very incrementally, and I mean very, teensy tiny increments, but I will be paying it down instead of watching it grow, or merely holding it steady. I had been living such an austere life for so long that this is kind of a rush. I feel like I ought to be cautious not to run out and buy any and every little thing I want. It is a concious choice on my part to stay out of shoe stores and cute boutiques, until the initial rush has passed and I can shop without the overload of a sorority girl and her first vibrator.

It is a relief. I like having the freedom of choice that a little solvency can brings and just in time for the fair weather Chicago.

Tired

The Wire is so good it makes me watch it even when I should be going to bed. Although, I am through season 2 now. Season 3 should start arriving soon from netflix.

I ran three quarters of a mile today. Well, jogged, and I did it in a time that wasn' too bad since my goal was in no way to run for time. More I just wanted to see how far I could jog before I thought I would die, and it turns out that a half mile is just fine with me, and three quarters of a mile is where it gets rough. Although since I haven't run in literally years, and I really haven't run on open ground and not on an elliptical in even longer, I find this impressive. I may be able to pick up this running thing, and at the same time maybe lose a little of the squishy around my waste, and if it means I happen to go home this summer looking fabulous and getting my mom to shut the hell up already about my weight, that would be okay with me. More then okay really. We shall see.

Very confused

I feel like the past two days have taken up roughly three days of my life, which is, I guess, what happens when you put in twelve hours of work at two jobs and then go spend four or five hours at a friends going away party (which when you add in commuting time, sort of swallows your whole day). Then I woke up bright and early (okay, so just at 9:30) to go see the river dyed green, people parade, and lots and lots of people act like drunken jackasses in the middle of the morning.

The green river will always make me a little happy inside my heart, so that was cool. The parade was kind of boring, as it always is, and we did not stay long. The most exciting part of the day was trying to get back home without getting stranded on a train full of drunken tourists, so we took the bus. That was a brilliant idea because apparently tourists fear buses.

Then I napped like the dead, and then we went to the movies. We saw "Because I Said So." Which was fun because it only cost three dollars. And it is decided, if my mother were ever to do that to me I would fucking kill her. Also, I need me a Johnny. That would be fine. Could someone arrange that please (just not my mother).

Day 13

Of thirteen straight days of work at one job or another. Two of those days I had five hour shifts only, and two of those days (including tonight) included both jobs (giving me a 14 hour day with commuting). Tonight after work (part two) I have a big going away bash for my friend Kristy and her husband Mike which I wouldn't miss for anything. Then I might die.

Actually, it hasn't been too terribly bad. I mean I have had bouts of the tired, and nights of being in bed before ten, but I have also had late nights out. I have even gone places and done things not related to work (jobs 1 or 2). Plus, this isn't as exhausting as the nannying/pier 1 from the summer. There are no toddlers involved and no dirty diapers either. Plus one job involves lots of sitting, so I am not even running around all that much.

The bash tonight may be another story entirely. It will probably kick my ass, and I should probably do some celebrating on Saturday because I am freaking Irish in Chicago for pete's sake. So, maybe I will die on Sunday. Sunday night. After work part two.

Okay, part of me is tempted to leave Pier One, but the money is kind of awesome with two jobs. I could use me some making enough money to start paying things off instead of just floating in debt and fighting off interest. I could use making enough money to afford to go home a little more often, and to afford to go visit friends and have vacations and trips and feel like a vital member of society instead of urban poor. And I only have short shifts at Pier One, and short weekends shouldn't kill me. I can ask for some of them off in advance if I want. No one would hold it against me. I wouldn't be in trouble or get less hours--I hardly get hours there at all, and I help to bolster their very few all the time sales associates. I am going to give it a real test drive before I decide to up and quit. At least that is the plan this week. (I know I know I sound more like I am convincing myself then convincing you, but so what).

Building my willpower

Last night my roommate Janna and I watched a TLC show about seriously, horrifyingly overweight people--people who weigh more then five and six hundred pounds, including one man who weighed MORE then 1,000 pounds. These people cosumed upwards of 15,000 claories a day--one man eating 36,000 calories in an average day. Mostly they get this from eating crap, and then it occurred to me: I eat crap! I do. I have a raging sweet tooth and devour ice cream and jelly beans and dark chocolate M&M's (especially dark chocolate M&M's). I keep a stash of candy in my desk, and I eat it steadily all day.

Now I recognize that it is a leap from some candy in my desk with limited portions of breakfast, lunch, and dinner (not diet portions but just a normal amount to make me feel statisfied and not stuffed). I am not fluttering on the verge of weighing 180 pounds much less four hundred pounds, but I did find it disturbing that I shared with these people an inability to say no to the things that I like when they are readily available or in front of me. Since I have candy in my desk, I am going to eat it, and I am going to eat it because it is there, not because I crave it, just because I like it and it is there.

So today, instead of just not eating candy or taking it out of my desk. I am going to test and build my willpower by putting a cap on the amount of candy I allow myself. Right now I have two coconut creme filled hershey's kisses sitting on my desk. They have been there for an hour and a half, and I have not eaten them. One of them is for the eleven o'clock hour and the other is for the twele o'clock hour. From nine until ten, it was really hard to see them and not eat them. Really hard. I wanted them, and the greedy, small child in me had to have her hand smacked by the reasonable grown-up in me in order to not gobble them up by 9:15 or 9:30 or 9:35, etc.

However, as I passed the ten o'clock mark, I gained a feeling of accomplishment and staisfaction. I am in charge of my sweet tooth. I can indulge in it without being ruled by it, even if I have been ruled by it pretty fiercely this winter (with some snugger pants to show for it). I am still going to eat my candy, but I am going to be better about the concept of moderation. I will moderately enjoy my favorite sweets. I enter on this plan, here, now, today.

Today I was just this much too fast

I had plenty to do, but I got a big pile at the start of the day and worked really hard to get through it fairly quickly--in anticipation of more work later. But then I didn't get any more work. Oh well.

It has been freaking gorgeous weatherwise for the last few days. Although I can see through the glass door that it is no longer gorgeous. It might not be cold yet, but I can see the colder weather rolling in. Somehow, I don't really mind that much. I know that the worst of the winter weather is now well behind us, and this will be temporary at best. We might have even turned off the heat for good at our apartment. Yeah, take that. Actually if it gets cold enough tonight, I bet we will all wuss out and turn it back on. I don't like to be really cold.

Promotion

That's right. I got a promotion after four days at my new job. Really it is more like an adoption. The accouting department likes me, and I am smart enough to figure out the little tasks they give me, and the junior half of accounting is being promoted to purchasing leaving a hole. They decided that they would love me to fill the hole, if I was interested, and they actually asked me if it was anything that I would be interested in, which was nice. It is however hilarious to me, especially when I really thought that I was about to be busted for possibly leaving the door unlocked when I left yesterday (although I am pretty sure that I did lock it, just not 100% positive). No, not busted, promoted, and they wanted to tell me before I heard rumblings of hiring a new receptionist.

They did say that I shouldn't expect to be a receptionist for very long, and I guess five days is not very long. Although I will be a receptionist until they find a replacement. If anyone here in Chicago is looking for a new gig, it is a fun office and an easy sort of job that still keeps you busy all day.

Yeah, now I get to go to my other job which I may have to leave for good when I actually have the promotion go through.

Weird part 2 (the way less weird sequel)

So Sara called me back, and apparently she has two friends named Heather in her phone (with no last initial), so she called us both to get the other one. Apparently no one thought I was in Moscow.

I am however loving being in Chicago when the weather is nice and people are out with their dogs and their kids. The sun was shining down on me, and my ipod was adding a fabulous soundtrack, and life was grand.

For Jim's perusal: there is a right and wrong amount of flirting from a married man. Good flirting is funny silliness. The kind that maybe is angling for a good deal but really is about enjoying life and shopping. Just a little being nice to strangers in a fun way. This kind stops short of anything important. No touching or contact, no risque content, nothing past genial fairly neutral appreciation. That is fine, that makes the job more fun. It probably makes shopping more fun too. ATF guy had that down. It was way fun to help him out because he made it fun. Anyone who has anything to add to the flirting conversation should feel free to speak up in the comments.

So much to blog, so little time

Thanks for all the wishes on the new job, so far so good. I seem to be liked and appreciated already, and the people I work with aren't too shabby themselves.

Second job/old job has me all weekend which is kind of exhausting. The sweet little high schooler who works there thought something was wrong with me today because I seemed so 'mellow' which is apparently a drastic change from my usual hyperactive psychosis, or something. I found that cute. I was mellow though. I am kind of tired, and it translates to mellow. I did however have a customer that reminded me of an old crush. He sounded exactly like the crush and had a similar energy, and then he was one of those fun customers that make working retail better. He was funny and joked/flirted with me just a little bit (the exact amount that would be acceptable/appropriate for the wedding band on his finger) in a non-creepy way, and I kind of had a little mini-crush on him before I helped him check out where I saw that he had a big fancy badge in his wallet and a DC ID. At this point I got a little excited in my head and hoped he was a G-man or CIA or something, but when I helped him put his furniture in his car (which had DC plates and was very shiny and black and imposing for a sedan--totally a G-man car) I saw some of his gear (lights for flashing and making cop car like stuff) as well as a packet of ATF labeled stuff. He was ATF which was kind of exciting for me today. Him with his tough talking cop-ness. It was a fun part of the day. It left me just a little bit tickled.

Yesterday on the other hand was a whole different thing. I had what turned out to be the weirdest bus ride ever (not to be believed but Anna Schlegs was there with me, so I didn't make it up in my head). More on that later. Before that Angie, Sara and I were stuck in a mini-traffic jam on a one-way street because someone fell asleep in their car in the middle of a side street, but since it was one-way and there was parking on both sides, no one could drive past them, and there were five cars, stuck. My favorite part is that the driver of the car who started this mess was 'asleep' which is the best euphemism ever for strung out on some drugs. Sara Jo got out of the car and started to call 311 (the non-emergency number) to see if they could send us a squad car, but then the driver finally 'woke-up' and we got the hell out of there.

The bus ride was its own adventure. Guess which of the following things we saw: two transvestites, a flasher, a two-part car accident involving the jaws of life, and drunk frat type people. If you guessed all of the above, you are correct! There were two separate trannys on the bus. Actually, it is possible that one of them really was a woman, possible but unlikely. And in the flasher's defense, he did not actually flash us, but he was wearing a big long coat (in the first warm weather in months) and kept his hands way, way inside it and kept walking back and forth past our seat in the aisle of the bus. We were almost flashed. We drove through the two part accident. Literally through it. No one was rerouting traffic, so the bus just stayed on its route, and there off to the side were a bunch of firefighters and the jaws of life. Very horrifying, so horrifying that the bus passengers all talked to strangers enough to decide as a whole that we thought it was horrifying. Definitely, the weirdest bus ride ever.

On the subject of weird, I got a phone call today from Sara Menssen in Moscow because she heard I was in town and she thought I should come over. I am definitely not in Idaho, and I won't be until July 21st when I go to Sara and John's wedding. Very funny to me. I am wondering who was telling people I was around?

New Job

All right two days in, and I think I like it pretty well. I mean the people are great at work. Most of the people who call are fine. I get some bitches. I just sit there and answer the phone. I also talk to people who come in the door (often speaking only Spanish) and want to fill out applications. That is pretty much it.

Obviously that is not a ton, so I also do some filing, enter bills into the computer, fax things, stuff envelopes and other general office type stuff. If I get too far ahead, it gets boring. So far. I imagine I will be getting more stuff to do as they realize that I am not a lame-o.

I also took a test run of the bus system to get myself from new job to old job (for when I start doing that next week), and it rocked. I totally have time to pretty easily get between the jobs and maybe even grab some food. So, while I was over there I picked up my new glasses, and they look good and very, VERY different then my old ones. They are very light and open up my face a whole lot. It also throws me off to have this much visible peripheral vision. This weekend when I buy some batteries I will post some before/after glasses photos.

Chrissy and I are geniuses

We have created in our im conversation, the world's most awesome kooky lounge act. It stars us (a la Kiki & Herb--or Chrissy & Heath as you will), and there will be songs and stories and monologues and lots of hair. We will be huge in Amsterdam and Thailand. We will tour little rock clubs and county fairs. There will be 'Honky Tonk Be-Donk-eh-Donk' (forgive my spelling) done ironically as a poetry reading (with cowbell and finger snaps). My 5th Beatle song stylings will make appearances as will us singing the song from Annie 'Together At Last.' Chrissy will be the master of the violin (that she is) as well as an ipod with little speakers. Part torch songs, part comedy, all hair.

Come out and see us when she moves to Chicago.

First day at the new job. It is way different then the old job. I think it will be fun. The people there seem pretty great, especially the people at the top (well the way they set it up and are with their whole team is great). Most of them are also nice and funny and fun. I answer phones and type stuff. It is a lot more sitting in a chair then I am used to. I like it so far. Although tomorrow I am a lot more on my own.

The black ratings

. . . for "The Black Donnelley's." Their ratings were even worse then for Studio 60, which is good for the S60 fans because if they were bad enough, maybe 60 will come back. At least to finish out the episodes that had been ordered.

I can hope.

Something is about to change

I just realized today that my life is in for a relatively big change. The day after tomorrow, I start a new job, in a new place, with new people. Instead of having my nomadic hours that wander all over the schedule and can be tugged and prodded certain places if I want them to be, I will now have a set (very, very set) schedule. My waking up weekdays will be routine, will need to be routine to catch the right bus. I will be commuting again and walking much less. There will be lots of riding the bus. And I will have to meet strangers and break them in (which means the process of other people being allowed to slowly discover I am weird has to happen again). I have a bunch of all new stuff to learn--just when I was getting good at this job.

I am not really scared of this change. I think I've been ready for something like it for a while, but it just didn't occur to me until today. Here we go. I guess.

[In a completely unrelated note, the boy who is the lead in 'The Black Donnelley's has a ridiculously sick body. It doesn't even make sense, but they showed LOTS of it in the episode this week, and that was all I watched. Just had to talk about it. His body is that beautiful--if really, really pasty.]

Astonishingly Unuseful

That was me. There was just being bums all day yesterday at my apartment. Later, Anna Schelegal came over and joined us, and we drank and stayed up until 4am. That was perhaps not the best plan, but it was great fun. It is her birthday tomorrow, and we are getting together then too.

Today, I made it up and out for work. It was a bright and shining day out, so it was a wonderful walk.

Then I took a nap that went too long and I didn't get to go see my friend Sabrina's improv show. I feel bad about it. I should never have napped in the first place because I had a suspicion that I would be difficult to wake up. That suspicion was right. Well, shit.

Super Saturday

Or slow Saturday, or something. I am washing some blankets and towels right now (hoping to banish the last of the smelly boy smell from our living room). I also All Fabric Refreshed all the furniture (so now it smells like we covered our furniture in freshly laundered fabric).

Later (or soon) I am going to the post office and the grocery store. I must buy stamps to mail bills, and then I will buy taco seasoning to make tacos secretly while Janna is gone (she's taking a mini-break in Ohio to see her boyfriend). We have to make them secretly because Janna strongly disapproves of the amount that Renee and I will eat tacos. She thinks once a week is MORE then enough, and we could pretty much always eat them. I mean, I like food variety as much as the next person, but I also could eat tacos about half of the week and be totally happy.

I should also do some taxes and some adjusting of the student loan info today. To get that all out of the way. Plus I was thinking of some fixing of clothes and maybe cleaning out my closet. There is a bunch of stuff in there that needs pitched or altered since I am not too busy right this weekend. Plus, I could always use more room in the closet.

Next week, really tomorrow it all starts. It is possible that I will be working for 15 straight days between both jobs. That will be a shock to my lazy little system that is used to a break every two or three days. However, it will lead to a very healthy bank account. In fact it could lead to me having a savings account for the first time since sometime back in grad school. Maybe my debt will start to go away to (although very, very slowly). We can hope.

Tornadoes

I am hoping that the many readers of this blog who are from the tornado-y portion of this country are all safe and secure and so are all their peoples. We just got weird rain and then not rain and then rain again (and back and forth all day), but I see this business about tornadoes, and it makes me worry about my peoples. So, I hope you are all wonderful.


In non-sad related news, I got a new pair of glasses today, or I ordered them. They are similar to the glasses that the character Danny on CSI:NY wears in that they have a thin light metal top frame and are rimless on the bottom. My favorite part is that they are the same prescription, so that means I can alternate them with my current glasses as I feel like it (a thing I have always wanted but have never been able to achieve as my prescription has always changed). So starting sometime next week, who know what I will look like at any given time! I cannot wait.