New Security System

My folks/landlords have returned to town and are currently working out how to make my house more burglar-proof.

I woke up early this morning, and so stopped by my parents' house on my way to campus and chatted with my mom for a bit. When we got to talking about my new security system, she told me how they were shopping around to see what would work. They went to a shop (or wherever it is that you get burglar alarms) and were talking to the guy about different systems. At one point, the guy said to my dad, "Why don't you just do it the easy way and get a dog?"

Thus, my evil plan of canine acquisition has taken one more step forward. Mom and I have already agreed on a two-pronged attack plan for exploiting the above comment with the intention of swaying my dad in favor of a four-legged security system.

*Does the Montgomery Burns hand thing* Excellent.

Cashey Money

Before I head off to the airport to collect my parents, I thought I'd share this article. What does the organization of your wallet say about your finances overall? It's funny to think about.

Since servers handle cash constantly, and constantly make change, it pays to have your moolah organized. So, is it an organized finances thing, or a server thing? They should add a note about that in the article :)

In the Middle

Lots of various people: What're you doing for spring break?
Me: I dunno, stuff. I've got nothing particular planned, but I'm pretty sure I'll be bored by Wednesday.

In the past, when I've been faced with breaks from school (which basically means a break from everything I do except the bar) I last a few days, or a week, before I start getting stir crazy from the lack of structure to my days. I start craving homework. It's weird.

So, here we are. It's Wednesday. I am not bored. Not in the least. I've been playing catch up on various things, doing some writing, getting my hair cut, etc. etc. I've also been indulging in my TV addiction and eating out a lot (of course, the fridge-death-debacle gets at least partial credit for that).

This morning I met Jenny and baby at the coffee shop, hit the thrift store for glassware to cover in polymer and use as candle holders, did some grocery shopping, cleaned some things, had a late lunch, and caught up on my blog reading. Now I'm filling you all in on my super-exciting day while I wait for my mom to get home before I head over to my folks' to pick up the food I deposited in their freezer when mine kicked the bucket. I'll visit with them a while, then head home to get started on my polymer candle holders project, or watch some TV - the mailman brought me two Netflix envelopes today and Men in Trees is on later tonight.

All-in-all, not a particularly exciting Wednesday. However, it's certainly a good middle-of-break day with the right balance of having enough in it to keep me from getting stir crazy while also being laid back enough to feel like a vacation.

Here's hoping your day is also proving to be a nice one.

Fridge-e-ator

On Friday, my refrigerator decided to die. I didn't realize that this is what had happened until yesterday (Oh, so that's why the fridge light isn't coming on). Currently, my front door is standing in my living room and there are odd noises and various grunts coming from the vicinity of my kitchen as the dead fridge is hauled off and replaced with a working one.

I have decided the best course of action is to hide in my office and stay out of the way.

Mom just had me come in the kitchen. She pointed to a burnt spot on the linoleum under where the fridge was. "You're lucky the house didn't burn down." So, that explains the burning smell.

Need... More... Coffee...

Daylight savings time sucks in the spring.

This morning I had an early appointment with a student, so between being aware of the meeting and of the time change, my body did that thing it does in these situations and woke me up supremely early.

5:30 a.m.: Ugh. Why am I awake?
6:00 a.m.: Why am I still awake?
6:30 a.m.: For the love of all that's holy, just let me fall back asleep.
shortly thereafter - 8:00: Zzzz
8:00 a.m.: (wake up time) I don't wanna.

And now I've got two and a half more hours to go until I'm done on campus for the day, and I just finished the last of my cappuccino mix. It's not fair. Not fair in the least.

I hate spring.

Losing My Mind

I've had busy semesters before. In fact, I've had busier semesters. Somehow, though, the specifics of this semester add up to result in a product where I am as absent minded as an Alzheimer's patient with ADD. It's quite terrible, I've gotta say. Today, I get a call from my dad.

Dad: We went to the video store today and they said they hadn't gotten back the one we lent you yet.
Me: The which one?
Dad: The one you picked up when you stopped by the house a couple days ago.
Me: Oh, crap. That one. It's still in my car.

I had, in fact, completely forgotten that the DVD even existed. I'm also having a remarkable inability to remember which day of the week it is. I wake up in the morning and, at least once a week, have to consciously remind myself of whether it's a day when my alarm is about to go off and when it's a day I can sleep in. This morning, for instance. I woke up and the first thought I had was something about what I was going to do in Comp. class today. Yes, today.

The frustrating part is that, for the most part, I'm someone who can hold things in their mind fairly well. I get lots of practice with that while I'm at the bar, and it's a skill that's leaked over a bit. Except for now. Now it's completely gone and I've become quite the scatter-brain. Ugh. Time to stop by the store and pick up a pack of post-it notes to stick on things like my front door, with notes like: Need wallet, and Car keys. 'Cause funny enough, Friday morning I walked out the house, and only realized I didn't have keys yet when I tried to lock the door behind me.

For the love of Steve, where is my mind and has anybody seen it?

Coffee Shop Adventure

Today I was trying to make headway on writing a story and decided the only way I was going to was if I got out of the house. I ended up at a coffee shop downtown a little ways from the bar. As I was ordering my mocha latte, I heard my name being hollered from the back. Moments later, out comes Donny from the kitchen. He's worked at the coffee shop on and off and now he's back. We chatted a bit, then my coffee was ready and I went over to a table to work.

Meanwhile, it was pretty slow and every now and again I could hear the keys on Donny's belt loop rattle as he walked around in the other section of the shop. Then another staff member came in to start his shift and I heard, "I danced on the bar to Madonna."
M: They let you do that?
Donny: It was pretty late.

I lost the rest, until the loud, "It was all Ali's fault."
Me: Hey, Julia gets some of the credit on that one.
Donny: Whatever.

After a bit, I had written what I wanted to so I said my goodbyes. "Don't get too bored."
Donny: Now that M's here, we can cuddle.
Me: Have fun with that.

On the way out, I briefly contemplated stopping by the bar to double check my schedule for tomorrow. Theoretically, I'm due to come in at six, but the schedule tends to be fairly fluid and people don't always remember to call. I stepped out the coffee shop door, looked in the bar's direction, then turned the other way and headed for my car.

I May Come Down With The Plague, But At Least I'll Have Snacks

My folks stopped by last night on their way from a food show. Since my mom's a purchasing agent, she goes to these things every now again - basically a bunch of food vendors handing out samples and doing sales pitches for people who buy stuff for hospitals, prisons, etc.

Anyhow, my folks walked in the door, and bringing with them a double dose of cold germs and a bag full of weird food samples. I sorted through, taking out some things, like the teeny bottle of tobasco and latex gloves, and making a nice little pile of individually wrapped stuff which gets to go to campus with me now. At the moment, I've got enough snacks to where if I get stranded on campus during a blizzard, I can hold out for days.

They say feed a cold, right? I'm set.

Playlist

Last night I had dinner with a couple of friends, and during the visit I was introduced to a fantastico website called Playlist. Now, I'm sure I'm way behind on the rest of the population on finding it, but I'm saying something about it anyway - just 'cause I'm so tickled that I can listen to lots more music from some of my favorite people. See, when it comes to my spending money priorities, CDs rate plenty low and even though I adore Flogging Molly, I don't actually have much of their music. Ditto that for folk like The Mad Caddies, Bowling for Soup, Joe Nichols, Blake Shelton, George Strait, Billy Joel, etc. Now, I still get to listen to their music beyond my DC collection. It's beautiful.

As an added bonus, I can now bring home the pile of CDs I've kept on campus to listen to whilst working in the SCWP office. Since they represent about half of all the music I own, it'll be good to have them home again.

It's 2008 Now

Here we are, in first days of 2008. Ribeye's worn out, Tony's feeling melancholy and I can relate, 'cause it sounds like he is where I was a while back. Strange how the end of the year, a totally arbitrary time with little inherent significance, can have such an impact on us. Everybody's getting ready to overhaul their bad habits, and all I've got on that count is stuff I already figured on a month or two ago. Oops.

Flash back to New Year's Eve: I just got home from Mexico earlier that morning (2 a.m.) and I'm still tired. I had planned to stay up to ring in '08 by watching The Departed, but at 10:30 I say, "Screw that, I'm tired," and go to bed. I know, I know, anything but exciting.

Yesterday I thought about making lists, decided not to, watched The Departed, was impressed (I'm starting to develop quite the fondness for Leo and his latest work), ventured to the movie theater to see Sweeney Todd, was not so impressed, stopped by mom & dad's, then spent the rest of the day cooking and wire wrapping beach glass from the trip. I also fit in writing some course documents for comp. 101 so I could send them off to Katherine for her approval/revision suggestions. All-in-all, a full day, but nothing thrilling.

Now I'm listening to some old school Elton John (Honky Chateau and Don't Shoot Me, I'm Only the Piano Player - Xmas presents from the sibling, which he forgot to wrap, saying "Oh yeah, today's Christmas" mid-way through opening presents) trying to decide what to do with today. So many options, and a few near-impending housework chores (I cooked yesterday, remember, ergo many dirty dishes). Come about two o'clock it'll be time to call the bar and see if I'm supposed to be there tonight - almost always a 'yes' on Wednesdays, but given my recent conversation with Marianne about cutting back my hours, worth double checking before I just show up. Last night I realized that, if I don't work until Friday that'll make it two full weeks since my last shift. Funny how I didn't miss it at all.

I guess the point I'm working up to here is that this year's numerical switch-over has been almost totally irrelevant to me. Life goes on, etc. I think I pretty much already marked the change a couple of weeks ago when I finished the semester. Now I just have to remember to write '08 on my checks and such (ha!).

However you did, or didn't, celebrate the annual roll-over, here's hoping that the next twelve months prove themselves to be good to you. May all your customers be good tippers, and may those who aren't reap the rewards of karmic pay-backs. May the movies you watch thrill and delight you, and may you have many pleasant surprises.

Faith

Working as a server teaches you about faith. People come in, sit down, and then you serve them based on the faith that they'll leave a tip. There are no guarantees, especially at my bar as we have no auto-gratuity policy on groups and such. So, every night I work, I rely on faith to get me through the night.

Anyone who's been a server longer than a week can tell you how that works out.

Last night, though, it felt like Christmas came early. I called the bar at eight thirty, said, "You guys need me to come in?"
Then, can you believe it? Brandi said, "Nope."

I ended up with my Saturday night off after all, and I'm pleased to report that I did nothing at all productive with it. Then, Camii replied to my last e-mail and said I should just go ahead and open her present early. Two seconds later I had a new jewelry caddy and some glass beads in my mits.

So, to everybody who's fed up with the holiday season, at the end of their rope, or *this* close to being homicidal... Have a little faith. Christmas is almost here and you never know, you might be getting a nifty bead caddy too.

One Good Thing About Bar Wenching

This Friday I'll be in a prime set up for catching a show as the Geminids meteor show peaks at around 2 a.m.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22149504/?GT1=10645

Here's a heads-up for all my waitstaff bretheren and sisteren, don't forget to look up when you're hauling out trash at closing time over the next few nights.

Fun Times: A Word From the Sibling

On Monday, whilst I was drying laundry on the line, I came back in through the back door and noticed it was scraping the floor. That was because the top hinge had come loose from the door and the middle was in the process of claiming freedom as well.

Long story short, I called my dad/landlord and Casey drove the two of them over in the now-drivable (sorta) DeSoto. While dad worked on the door, Casey drove me around the block. The funniest thing to happen to me all day, let me tell ya. There was the part where half the wiring is still hanging out of the dash, the part where we stalled, and the part where the gears didn't shift quite right and we heard a lound bang like someone had just body-slammed the car. The paint job is fantastico, though.

http://boogymanblog.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!3AEAE64D0CEFF605!488.entry

My Tree's Up

In my family, the tradition is to do Christmas decorating the day after Thanksgiving. This year I got going early. My Christmas decorations are pretty minimal. Mostly I've just got a little artificial tree, but hey, it's festive. Now I've just got to figure out what to do with the two other strings of lights I bought after Christmas last year.

People I Know: Lost Voices

Since graduating high school I have lost touch with the vast majority of everybody I knew in high school. This has been a largely purposeful loss as most of the people I knew then I wasn't overly impressed with. Yeah, I'm sure they're all brilliant, delightful, mature folk now that high school is over. Yet, I'm still okay with not talking to most of them.

Thus, I have stayed in touch with approximately three people I used to go to school with. One of them is my brother. Oddly enough, I've received phone calls from both of the other two within the week. Especially odd is that the first gal, who I speak to roughly twice a year, should call within days of the second gal. Go figure.

So, first gal: I've literally known her most of my life. We met in daycare when we were three. She called the other day (I hardly ever call her as she's fairly nomadic and her phone number changes often) to catch me up on the past six months - Her second child, a son, is born and healthy, she just started the culinary arts program at a local college, and her younger sister is doing well. This friend has had a rough life, and I credit the majority of that to her not-so-functional home life as a kid. I'm pretty sure there were times when she was growing up that my parents were more invested in her than her parents were. Now that she's out on her own, she's still working through those issues. No small feat, but she's making progress. It's always good to hear from her, even if my end of the conversation is mostly a string of, "Yeah? Really? No kidding? Uh huh."

Second gal: She and I are very different in most every way. We became friends because we were both in orchestra, but that's pretty much where the similarity stops. She comes from a big family, has a super outgoing personality, and is very athletic. Then you have me: small family, not so outgoing, and far more of a nerd than a jock. But, it works. She goes to school up north and usually staying in touch means shooting each other an e-mail every so often. However, she's back in town to visit her family over Thanksgiving and it looks like we'll meet up together sometime tomorrow.

The best part of hearing from both of these friends I talk to so infrequently is that both called during my fun cold. Today, when my second friend called, is the best part of a bad cold, the part where I essentially lose my voice. It's great. I'm just hoping it clears up a little by tomorrow so I can have better success in actually talking to this friend I rarely get to see.

The Ameoba-Like Cat

So, where there originally was one cat, now there are two. It's like Sam has divided and produced a duplicate. A few nights ago I pulled up in my driveway and saw kitty twins. No pic. of the both of them, but here's another solitary feline photo:

When the Internet Has Teeth

All right, let me warn you, I'm going to keep things vague here. You'll see why.

Between school and both of my jobs, I come into contact with a ton of teachers and professors. I mean oodles. This contact has been an eye-opener and has impressed upon me that, in the teaching sector there are some stunning, innovative, brilliant folk, and some that are... less so. Katherine knows many of these same folk since she knows just about everyone in the education sector through SCWP. This morning, Katherine calls me to say she's running a bit late and sending me a file to make copies of, and oh, by the way, did I read the paper yesterday?

I don't get the paper, much less read it (I know, bad me for not keeping up on current events). She says, "X was in it. Check it out."

I go to the paper's website and there it is, an article about how X is currently on administrative leave while people who do these things investigate. Why?

MySpace strikes again. Public sphere, people, public sphere. Granted, not quite so public in this case as X's profile is private, however X gave some students a password to access the account, which contains some suggestive/not-so-appropriate material for sharing with one's students.

Katherine's comment: I talk about this in class. When I talk about Blackboard (our campus's online forum platform) I talk about this. Any time we talk about using this kind of technology, I talk about this. You've heard me talk about this.

Me: Yeah. Some people listen louder than others, though.

So, at the moment, I have no idea what X's fate will be. However, I just don't see how getting one's name in the newspaper where the story is about how you've been inappropriate with students is any kind of good sign.

Now, getting a bit reflective: I write SCWP posts from time to time. This means this blog pops up if you search for SCWP. See where this is going? Notice how my SCWP posts are especially carefully worded? Next semester I'll be teaching, with a number of students I could talk about. I won't. Anything you hear about class will be, like the SCWP posts, carefully worded.

I'm all for having free expression and not having to hide who you are. I'm also all for having audience awareness and appreciation for what it really means to put who you are online. Let's face it, sometimes too much personal expression comes back to bite you.

Okay, I'm stepping off my soap box now.

My New Pet Stray Cat

The neighborhood where I live has a number of stray cats who wander around and occasionally invade my house if I leave the door open to catch a breeze. The past week or so, I've been seeing one particular cat a lot. A couple nights ago, he was even sitting in front of the door on my porch when I got home. I think I may have to adopt him - not as a housepet (verboten by my lease) but I'm going to get some cat food on my next trip to the store and put it out back for him.

I think I'll call him Sam.

Cue the Maniacal Laughter

It's Jenny's fault. She re-did the template of her blog and I got to thinking I ought to as well. Muah ha ha ha! Now my jewelry blog's got a whole chocolate theme and this one has more of a blue/gray thing going on. Now I need to redo the writing blog in neon pink and I'm set.

Nifty Art Link

I found a new website that has neat pictures.
http://slightlywarped.com/crapfactory/amazingimages/index.htm

Here are a couple, in particular.
http://slightlywarped.com/crapfactory/curiosities/onemanstrash.htm
http://slightlywarped.com/crapfactory/curiosities/weirdsculptures.htm