Absenteeism

Omg, I haven't been on here in over a week and I feel like I've fallen off the face of the planet! lol :P

First I had vacation, and now my work schedule is jam packed, so it means a little less time to be on here. This last week pretty much meant working, spending time with my kid, and attempting to have the measliest little life (going out with Joey now and then). But, I finally have a day off, which means I will be catching up on the blogs I like most (especially Bitchy Waiter), and if the mood should strike, you will find some writing in the midst.

I apologize for any missed reblogging and/or replying that may have been worth it, but time just simply wasn't my friend this last week. Now, as it is only 6am, I will be trying to find time to sleep while my baby girl gets in her morning nap (hopefully...)

Thoughts Along The Road

Today we drove down from Ohio to North Carolina. As anyone keeping up with my blog knows, my daughter is in Greensboro visiting her father and I am on a vacation that will end with picking my daughter up and heading home. I have pictures on my phone that I will be posting later with my comments attached. For now, I will leave you with my thoughts regarding things I heard and/or saw along the road.

1. We stopped at a rest stop to get some food and go to the bathroom (not necessarily in that order) and I heard something interesting in the stall next to me. There was a lady (from here on out, referred to as Rest Stop Toilet Lady) talking on her cell phone while going to the bathroom. Yes, I realize that this is kind of weird and not necessarily sanitary, but that is what she was doing. She was quite loud and the bathroom echoed, so I could not help but hear her half of the conversation. Among many things she talked about, she eluded to the fact that she did not like public restrooms, especially one that didn't have the little paper covers to put on the seat. (this one did not) During this conversation, she said something that I could not help but laugh at: "They need to make a car with its own toilet".

Hey, Rest Stop Toilet Lady, you are in luck! There is a brand spankin' new invention that just hit the market. It's called an RV. And not only did they give it a toilet of its very own to have and to hold (during drunken nights when one should not be driving), but they also included a sink and a shower in the bathroom area. Ooh! AND they took it a step further...rather than listen to requests later on for improvements, they added a bed, and a microwave, and a whole kitchen area, and even a table to eat at! OMG, I cannot believe that no one in the history of the world has EVER thought of this before or thought to advertise it when they did!!! What could they have been thinking?!

For future reference, my dear Rest Stop Toilet Lady, the RV as we know it today was established in the United States in the 1920's. Also, before that it was in Canada in 1910. And before THAT there were covered wagons that served the function of people living in them (commonly known as caravans) in Europe and England in the early 1800's. While I don't expect you to know the facts about the 1920's or the covered wagons (especially since I found the info on wikipedia), I do think you should at least be aware that the big bus-looking things that can occasionally be found on the road, are in fact, NOT BUSES! They are RV's, and they do in fact have their own toilet. And yes, they are available for your purchase if you are THAT worried about it.

2. This one is a much smaller thought. Really, more of an amusing thing my mom said. I was taking pictures and using the zoom on my phone. It makes a sound like a small engine, such as in a moped or something... She looked at me and asked me, "Does your phone know it's driving?"

This worries me though...I thought SHE was driving... If she thinks the phone is driving, and the phone thinks she is driving....then who is steering this ship?

3. This next one would be in the picture commentaries later, but a semi truck got in the way as I took the picture. Seeing as all the pictures were taken while I was in a moving vehicle, I did not have the option to retry snapping the photo.

We were in West Virginia, passing through Charlotte, and I noticed a sign that I could not just leave alone. It said: "Where's your West Virginia?"

Umm....where's YOUR West Virginia??? Because I thought I was IN my West Virginia...Did the map get it wrong? Am I supposed to be elsewhere??

I dunno about you, but I find it a big redundant to have a sign that asks me where West Virginia is...IN the state of West Virginia....roflcopter droppin' roflwaffles

4. As we passed through one of the mountain tunnels and came out in Virginia on the other end, I noticed a sign "Check Lights". Hmm...let me check...yep, still got 'em.

5. There were many a funny road and/or town, and just signs in general along the way that provided me with amusement. Several of these you will see later when I post pictures, but there were a couple that I did not manage to get pictures of. One of these was Fish Hatchery Rd.

I must know, where on this road exactly is the Fish Hatchery? Can I go there? How much does it cost to get to hatch a fish egg? Now, do I bring my own fish egg, or do I get to pick one out? Do I get to sit on it and watch it hatch?? huh, huh, do I do I do I????

6. While driving down the road, I saw a truck that said "Bowman Gin".

I don't know about you, but I don't quite feel comfortable with a guy that is operating a bow and arrow drinking gin... I simply feel that maybe if you are drinking and operating lethal equipment...that this might be an unsafe combination...

7. "Burn Headlights"
I'm sure that this means something else, but here's my reaction to this sign: "But if I burn them, they will no longer be useful."

8. And finally (for now), we passed a billboard that I would just be at serious fault for not mentioning. It was an advertisement for a convenience store. It read: Fresh Snacks, Cold Drinks, Good Neighbors.

Are neighbors now being advertised as refreshments?

More later, which will include pictures, and possibly some things from the ride back as well. I hope you enjoyed these little thoughts as much as we did, dear followers.

(And I promise that a full review of the movie Eclipse will follow eventually, but as I am on vacation, it might not be until NEXT weekend)

school and stuff

Yesterday I had a financial aid meeting at the Akron Institute. I have been planning on attending an 18 month program to get my Associate of Applied Sciences with special training in Dental Assisting. I could only get an appointment at 5pm, because my mom had to be with me. Apparently, even though I have a 4 month old daughter, she and I are considered dependents of my mother because we live with her. (regardless of the fact that I still am responsible for our food/formula, diapers, wipes, medical, etc) As it was, my mom ended up leaving work 20 minutes later than originally intended and I was going to be late for my appointment. I know, I know, reschedule right? NO. I tried to get this all done back in April, but there was no way it was going to work out that soon after having the baby, so the financial advisor had told me to wait until July and call back. (which I was doing) I received an email, as well as a phone call, that my application was going to be cancelled due to my inability to come in for a financial planning meeting. I was shocked. I got in touch with them and scheduled a meeting for Tuesday, June 29. The very next day I received an email saying that my application had officially been cancelled because I hadn't gotten back to them. I called, ranted, got it fixed, and waited for Tuesday to arrive.

I got lucky at work that day. I got there at 7am, and found out that both the store manager AND the assistant store manager had the day completely off. That meant that the shift managers (my level of management) were running the store by themselves. Yay!! No bitching, no berating, just us and our crew. Happy day! I ended up going home early, unfortunately. But that's what you get when you're the newer manager, make more than crew, and labor percentages are way too high. So off I went. I went home and changed, then was gone again. I went to the bank to withdraw some money, bought the tickets for the midnight showing of Eclipse (which was absolutely friggin amazing by the way...more blogging on that next), and waited for mom to get home.

At 4:45, I started freaking out. Mom was not home yet and I hadn't heard from her since 2:00. Luckily, she called me just then and I found out that she had gotten stuck doing something at work and it didn't allow her to be out in time. So, here I am, freaking out because I'm worried that the school is going to cancel my application and I'm going to have to wait ANOTHER 6 months to go to school. This is enough to make me cry, seeing as I had already had to wait 6 months to begin with. Anyways, I called the school and let them know I was "on my way" and I would be late. They marked me down as 15 minutes late, even though I knew it could be later. Mom got here, I headed out the door and we hauled ass. I gotta say, I love my mom :) She knew this was important and made sure I got there.

So here we are, at the school, in the financial aid office. I gave her our information, let her know about my particular situation, and waited for the numbers to be shown. Yep, I sat and waited as she told me the piddly amount that I qualify for on the pell, and oh yeah, I DON'T qualify for ANYTHING ELSE at THAT school because they only offer loans and the pell grant. And because my mom DID get approved on her credit, then they could only offer me a lot less than they normally would in loans. She would have to get parent plus loans that would have to start being repaid in 60 days. I kept telling her that there was NO WAY we could possibly do that (I had to have told her like 3 or 4 times) and each time, she would just look at my mom and say "well take some time to think about it and get back to me". As if my mom was the one who was going to have the say so about what happened anyway! phaw! (as my sister would say) I finally got fed up and blurted out that it didn't make any sense that I qualified for $35,000 out of high school to go to Albright, but only a couple thousand now. She THEN proceeded to explain to me that it was a different case for regular colleges. Apparently, tech schools have less financial aid available to them. This particular school only has the pell grant and loans. She said even Stark State (which also has the same exact program) had more to offer. THEN she said the magic words, which both eased my mind and pissed me off at the same time: "If you went to the University of Akron right now, you'd go for free". Well then, what the HELL was I doing in that office in the first place? Why couldn't you have told me this 6 FUCKING MONTHS AGO when I first started asking about school?!?!?! I wouldn't have wasted my time. Plus, I would've already been in summer classes for the general education classes! 6 months of my time absolutely completely totally WASTED by this greedy tech school that didn't inform me properly in the first place!

So, we walked out of the office, and my mom let me vent (adding in a bit of a rant about it herself) and I'm now starting the process to go to the University of Akron. I looked through the majors, and while Theatre is still a passion of mine, I picked out a major that I liked that I would also be able to turn around and make money at all the time. I picked out the Geology/Earth Science field. It includes some travel, which is fine, because I can arrange Donnie's visitations to be during the times that I have to be gone. Besides, that won't happen until after my sophomore year anyways. I submitted the application online today, went to my high school and turned in the paper to have my transcripts sent to the college, and made out the check for the application fee. Now all I have to do is mail the payment, or wait until next week when we get back from picking up Mackenzie and go down to the school to talk to the admissions department and give it to them then. I already left the message for the admissions lady at the local campus.

I can't tell you how relieved I am that this is all going to go in my favor now, but OH MY GOD! To think I could already have been in school and could've had some classes out of the way already...it's just crazy! I can't believe they were so greedy! I told them back in the spring that the ONLY way I'd be able to go to their school is if I got enough in financial aid and my OWN loans to go because my mom couldn't help AT ALL. So either they are greedy motherfuckers or just plain fucking ignorant! (yes, that's ig-nor-ant, 3 syllables, for those of you in the loop) roflmao :P

This One Time...At Band Camp...

Today’s blog was originally going to be about my day and basically how much I hate my job and why, because I feel it is necessary for people to understand that this is MCDONALD’S and nothing to do with it can be the end of the world, so please, let’s stop the madness and the drama… But instead, that is all I will say about that today. As I was beginning today’s blog, my sister came in, and I felt compelled (as short and dumb as the story is) to relay her story onto you, and maybe it will brighten your day just a little, as it did mine.

so my sister and her friend corina and some other girls were at band camp (yes, band camp. My sister is a band rat (or geek, depending on what your school calls/called them) playing kemps (whatever the hell THAT is), and they got a phone and put in area codes randomly trying to find a real one (you see, our phones tell you know what state an area code goes to when you type it in) and then pushed random numbers after it until they found one that worked. Well, they called it and left this stupid message in valley girl voices “hey there, I like your hair, who does your hair? I wanna go there, pshaw! blondes (blondesblondesblondes…) brunettes (brunettesbrunettesbrunettes…) redheads (redheadsredheadredheads…) more like dreadheads, omigod!”

Apparently this is also some sort of song off youtube, which my sister is totally and completely addicted to. Mom would kill her if she knew that she prank called someone like that. Somehow though, I am slightly disappointed. I laughed my butt when she came in and started a story, “hey brit, this one day…at band camp…” I looked at her and said “really?! this one time…at band camp…? THAT’S how you want to start this story????” Unfortunately, it was not as juicy as I had thought it would be, although the drama she told me about a couple days ago, was EXACTLY the kind of thing I would expect from a band camp story. Then again, maybe since my little sister is only 13, then it is a good thing that her band camp stories have not yet turned into the epic band camp tales of legend yet… one word: roflmao :P (du DUU dududu) ;) also from youtube. Bonus points, by the way, if you already know the video and can sing it on your own lol. I love it. It always makes me smile :)

crappy day

My daughter Mackenzie just left with her father and her Mawmaw today. We were going to let them see her when we’re in North Carolina next week, but they’d been begging for us to let them have her a few extra days.

Originally they wanted to bring her home after, but I didn’t like that idea. It scares me to death to think of sitting at home WAITING on them to bring her back. Of course, all the what if’s were in my head. I was getting seriously paranoid and every time I thought about it, I would start to have a panic attack. Then I found something from the health department that said I was supposed to get her the next set of immunizations on the 7th. Yay! I finally had an excuse to not have her spend time away without me in the same state. But they were practically BEGGING me, so I talked to mom about it, and she suggested that if I felt up to it, I could have them pick her up this weekend, because she would still have the same number of extra days, but I would be the one getting her back. This way I don’t sit around waiting. I’m a little more comfortable with that.

But just because it’s easier than the alternative, doesn’t mean I like it any better. I’ve cried a lot. And it didn’t help that I didn’t have a great day at work. My boss was being so horrible to me. If I make a decision, then it’s wrong, and I get corrected. If I make a different decision on the same issue the next time (the way she told me the first time), then I’m supposed to do it the way I tried originally. Then the NEXT time, neither way is right, but I’m supposed to know…and now she won’t even tell me WHAT she wants. “I pay you to make these decisions” she says. But how the hell am I supposed to make a decision if EVERY decision I make is WRONG no matter WHAT it is?!?!

As it was, I went to bed thinking I was supposed to be at work at 8. My mom woke me up, telling me she thought I was supposed to be at work at 6. ) This was at 5:45 (by myself, just barely do-able, but not when you have a 3 month old baby to get ready and drop off), so I had to call work and tell them I would be late. (And I started wheezing today, but couldn’t find my inhaler, so all day I’m trying to stay calm so I don’t have an attack… anyways, so I got there 15 minutes late, which meant I couldn’t get my pre-shift checklist done. And of course, this chick Kelly (that I went to school with) was on counter again, and she never listens. So of course, I always get in trouble for not managing correctly, when I can’t get the person I am in charge of to do her damn job correctly. I am going to have to start writing her up for it. And I’m not the only one that has a problem with her about this stuff. Even Connie, (my boss) the store manager, has trouble getting her to listen. And speaking about work…

Look, I get the fact that I am almost like a new employee, as it HAS been 5 years since the last time I worked there. But this does not mean you have to tell me something 10 million times. For example, I KNOW that the stupid sweet tea gets a styrofoam cup, and the UNsweet gets a regular cup. However, if a customer requests a certain type of cup, I am not going to deny that request. “I’m sorry, but that’s not the kind of cup I serve that in, so I won’t be able to assist you with your request today”. Yeah, I’d LOVE to see how THAT would go over with a customer….roflmao :P So, if you see me preparing an unsweet tea in a foam cup, and you’ve already informed me once about the type of cup it normally goes in, please assume that MAYBE I’m not totally RETARDED and that MAYBE I could be assisting a customer to make their day just a little better by not having their drink sweat all over them.

So at the end of my shift, I got a call from my friend Arland (who was babysitting Mackenzie) to let me know that his seat belts were messing up and therefore he could not come pick me up and take me and the baby home, due to being unable to safely get the carseat into the car. So I had to walk in the incredible heat to his house. Although, I did catch a bit of break there. Another manager I work with was driving home and saw me walking and picked me up.

So, there it is. A very VERY condensed recollection of my day so far. And that’s not even everything, just the stuff that has gotten to me the most.

Taking Suggestions

http://www.playlist.com/playlist/20149611787?invite=NTIzNzAwMTM6MjAxNDk2MTE3ODc=

follow this link to my “taking suggestions” playlist. Right now it’s blank, but I’m trying to get people to add stuff to the list, so it will most likely be THE most diverse of all my playlists. This way, you can add stuff you like or want me to listen to, and it’ll already be on the list for me to hear. Then I can give feedback.

Playlist...any suggestions?

My sister turned me onto this great site. It’s playlist.com, and I’ve got 3 playlists and counting now. I’ve got my main playlist, which is just whatever I feel like putting on it, except country, because I just don’t feel it fits AT ALL. So, I’ll put together a separate country list later. These two lists (the main one and the country one) will have many many songs on them, and I’ll just set them on shuffle when I listen to them. I also have a couple shorter ones, and will have more to listen to depending on the musical mood I’m in. So far, I have a Rockapella list and a Reel Big Fish list. I’m also planning on making one for the 90’s (or maybe for an “up until high school graduation” kind of list. It just depends on how they fit together. And, of course, I’ll totally have to have a Broadway list as well. I don’t know yet how much I’ll actually be able to get on that though, because I’m not sure how much they have on the site yet.

So far, in my main playlist, I’ve got a whole variety of songs. From shows like Glee and Instant Star, to artists such as Lady Gaga and Miley Cyrus (only a couple for her). From Relient K and Deep Blue Something to Breaking Benjamin and Red Jumpsuit Apparatus. I really do like music from all sorts of genres and am trying to get together a playlist I can just leave playing when I’m working on the computer. The other lists are for when I’m in a specific mood, but feel free to make suggestions if you think there is something I should hear, regardless of the genre. I’ll let you know if I already have it, and give feedback if I haven’t (after I listen to it).

If you want to access my playlists, you can go to playlist.com and my username is faeriecorpse1987 (based on a screen name a friend gave me a long time ago from a “goth name” generator)

And yes, I know that you may make fun of me for some of the selections, but with the wide range of music I like, I expect and accept that. :P Check it as often as you like, because I’ll be adding any time I have time to.