The Death Parade

Today was our most chaotic day yet at work. On my till alone, there were over $2000 in sales. And for a tiny store like mine… that’s a pretty big amount. Of course, the till came up short again. I don’t understand how this keeps happening, so I’m going to have to place a call to Prince George tomorrow to Christin, which I really don’t want to do, to ask what I should do. Hopefully it works out.

I can’t wait until Saturday. My first day off in two weeks and I am so looking forward to it. I’ve got tons of music downloaded to groove too, and just… relax. Something I haven’t done since the beginning of September. I might even have a little tea party with myself, EA-style. Biscuits, cakes, the whole works. It’s been a while since I did something fun like that. Amber and I are going to see High School Musical 3 tomorrow. I haven’t seen either of the preceding movies, but Amber asked me to come and since I don’t get to spend a lot of time with her because of work, I agreed. I’ll just rent the other two when I get paid. I have that membership at Movie Gallery, I might as well start using it. It’s so nice to be hanging out with Amber again. I’ve missed her so much.

My sister was really nice tonight and bought me some dinner @ Tim Horton’s. I don’t usually eat their food (so much MSG) but I’m not one to turn down a free meal. I don’t get why my sister’s being so nice to me, though. She told me that she’s going to pay for me to get gel nails @ the Eloquence salon. Which… is completely out of her character, so it’s got me wondering. Ah well.

Ah… shower, and then bed. I can’t wait until the week is done.

Wow… it’s been awhile, hasn’t it? :blank: I didn’t intend to be away for so long, I promise.

As it turns out, getting my hands on a computer was harder than I thought. The wonderful lovelies @ EasyHome were nice enough to give one to me, but it was a long time before they actually got one in for me. The first one that I received from them was a Dell Inspiron, but the hard drive was so small I couldn’t even download two-thirds of the programs I’d need to keep this site going. Which was a bummer, but then this beautiful Acer Aspire M1201 caught my eye and I was in love. 320 GB hard drive… 3 GB RAM… I drool just thinking about the sheer awesome-ness. And it was a reasonable deal too. People (especially my friends) have been telling me that I’m an idiot because I’m going to end up paying more for this beautiful machine, but I say “nay” to them. My other option was to buy from Staples. Which would have meant I’d be buying all components separately, and endure not only shitty customer service, but shitty tech service as well. The gentleman from EasyHome, Cole, is not only a genius, he knows what he’s talking about. And he doesn’t treat me like a blooming idiot.

Anyway… my struggle is over, and this beautiful machine is now in my possession. And now that I’ve got my computer, I will be re-doing this site completely. I might even be buying a domain soon as well, depending on my cash flow. Work has been… interesting. Lots of problems with staff, and since Hallowe’en is our busiest time of the year, it’s been chaotic. Sales have been down, though, since the Soda Creek saw mill closed down a couple of weeks ago. I’m hoping they’ll pick up, but I’m not hopeful. I’m confident with the staff I have at the moment, and hopefully things will go smoother.

Work has been my life. Managing isn’t as easy as I thought it would be. The cash is nice, but at the same time… headaches, headaches, and more headaches. Some backache too, but hopefully I will be getting better shoes when I can afford it (my insoles are burnt right out). The only really nice thing about working so much is that I’ve lost some weight, have more energy during the day (I wish in the morning but I can’t complain) and I haven’t has a cigarette since I quit. I did buy a package of cigarillos, but I gave them all away and didn’t touch one. Which made me really proud of myself.

Tomorrow I have to go into work a few hours early to re-do the wig racks. I’m going to bring my Sweeny Todd soundtrack to lighten the mood. Hopefully it’ll turn out to be a good day and lots of work gets done. Sean and I are going to set up the new cash register, so hopefully the problems we’ve been having with that will end.

I’m also going to start working on the new site tomorrow. Hopefully I’ll have some new stuff up.

Long time no blog. Not my fault, though. I have had a rather traumatic last couple of weeks, and I am so worn down… you have no idea.

It started about two weeks ago, when I can home from SafeWay to find the British Columbia Coroner’s vehicle outside my gate. The ambulance and the police cars had blocked off one side of the street, and a massive fire truck had blocked off the other side. There were people gathered all over the place, and I felt so claustrophobic. As it turns out, someone had passed away in the shelter and had been dead almost a week before he was found. The body was removed in a big steel and glass sarcophagus by the fire department in their HAZMAT suits, and even though they tried to cover it up… I saw the body. I didn’t mean to look (I was afraid to- I didn’t want to disrespect) but I did and I saw it all.

And it has made me question a lot of things. My faith, what I’m doing with my Life… and I’ve been doing a lot of soul searching and reflection about my ideas on death. I’ve been in this… state of contemplation since that day.

The team of individuals who were in charge of cleaning up the decomposition left behind just left a couple days ago. The light has remained on in the dead man’s room, and today they put some kind of plastic over the windows. Everything at the shelter has been chaotic. There have been groups of outraged residents that just… stay outside and hang around all day, yelling and threatening people, saying that they know nothing of the Native struggle. One of these individuals threatened me the other night, saying that she was going to bear mace me in the face and pop me in the forehead with her gun because I was apparently “staring.” Which was bull, because I was just sitting on the porch with David and Martha, while they had a cigarette (I am still smoke free), having a few laughs. The police were called about this same woman, because I guess after she threatened me, she attacked some poor woman coming out of the movie theater. Of course… the police being the useless pricks that they are, just talked to her and made her go back to the shelter.

The entire ordeal just makes me not want to come home. :X

The other thing that has kept me from blogging is that I somehow managed to download some pretty heavy duty spyware onto my computer. Somehow I accidentally downloaded this program called AntiVirus XP 2008, and it turned out to be this malicious program that has corrupted my laptop completely. I don’t know what to do about it… I can’t even go onto the internet without my computer having a seizure and dying on me. I’m trying all of these removal programs and everyone of them so far is expecting me to pay all this money to use them. I’m broke, and I don’t know what to do. I downloaded Norton, and it’s all updated, but it’s not picking up the program at all.

I’m going to have to take my laptop in, and I really can’t afford it because I’ve got this trip to Edmonton coming up soon for work. I can’t even load Verity on this piece of shit computer I’m on now, and it makes me cry. I hate my rotten luck sometimes.

It’s been raining non-stop for the last three days now. The sky has been clouded over and it’s been no higher than 15 degrees. I love it. After the insufferable heat, I’ve been actually able to function. I have the window cracked open right now, and I’m listening to the rain. It’s peaceful. I wish this weather would last.

Because of the rain, my Shakespeare umbrella (I got it for free @ Coles last year in Prince Rupert with my mum because I spent $100 on books) has been my best friend. I actually had a homeless man try to fight me for it yesterday, but luckily for me he was too drunk to actually do anything more than shout at me. Nyah, nyah, my umbrella.

I was promoted to manager at work. Carolyn stepped down, and Christin gave me the job. My first day on the job was pretty harsh. Fifteen boxes of stock came in through FedEx, and we had no room to put it all. Three days later and we still have like… four boxes left to do. I had one of my girls, Katherine, throw a fit because she didn’t get the hours she wanted. She then proceeded to quit on me, so I’m down one weekend girl. If I don’t find someone by Friday to fill in, I’ll be working seven days a week until I do. I’m already going onto thirteen days without a day off. I’m so tired that I’m twitching a lot. Pretty harsh. I’ve also had a few things go wrong cash wise, so I have to call Christin up tomorrow morning and have her help me work it out. Other than that, it’s smooth sailing. Logan is full time with me, and Carolyn seems to be working well, so now all I need to do is find another weekend person. I need a day off, though. I might convince Logan to work Saturday or Sunday so I can sleep.

On my way to get my morning coffee tomorrow, I must remember to deposit the rest of my money into my bank account. I have oodles and oodles of paperwork to do when I get to work. I also have to remember to call Logan and have him pick up the deposit slips before he comes in. I figure that tomorrow we can get the rest of the stock done and start moving the displays over. Hallowe’en inventory is coming and I’m so excited.

This is what was looking at me from the window when I got home and sat down on the couch. I love my Lizzy so much, she knows just how to cheer me up.

I’m so tired lately. I seem to have contracted the flu or something and it’s worn me down so much. With my new septum ring, it’s even more pleasant. Hopefully it passes, though. Today I bought a big bag of pink grapefruit and NeoCitran, so I’m going to dope myself up on Vitamin C and cough syrup before I go to bed tonight. I also bought some tangerine tea to put in my water bottles. I says it’s all natural, and a good source of Vitamin C, so hopefully that helps too. A good night’s rest would help too, but with my schedule the way it is… that’s a little too much to ask apparently.

Cindy got fired at work. When the district manager came, she was unhappy with the store. And with Monday’s little paperwork fiasco, that didn’t help much either. Head Office made the call and Cindy was gone as soon as she walked in. The new manager that Christin hired… is a moron. She drives me up the wall, and I hope she doesn’t last. I really hope she doesn’t. Christin is having me run through procedures and policies with her, and it’s like talking to a wall. She’s stunned. Everything I suggest or tell her it’s time to do (like sweeping at close) she says: “Nah… you do it.” I ended up doing all of the closing duties myself (facing the store, tidying the displays, the evening sweeps and so on), and pulled in most of the merchandise. She brought in some of the bins, and the bikes, but I did everything else. Today I was just so frustrated I almost started crying. We have a huge fax inventory to do (which is priority), a million boxes of stock to price and put out, and we’re preparing to swap the marijuana paraphernalia with the air soft guns. Which is a lot of fucking work. Out of nine pages of fax inventory, I’ve done almost four already. With it due on Sunday, I could just cry. I doubt I’ll be able to finish it tomorrow. With another new girl or me to train… I could just cry. I miss Cindy. Cindy would be on top of this shit like nobody’s business. Christin’s not back until Tuesday. I’m going to freak out. If Logan calls in sick tomorrow… Pan help me, I’ll go nuts.

With the looks of things, I’m going to be working four days a week. I’m going to be the weekend girl, and the Monday paperwork girl. Apparently they loved my handwriting @ Head Office. And I was right about the raise. Christin said that because I’ve been doing such a good job and I’m patient with everything that’s going on, she’s going to put in for a $0.50 for me. Which is a big deal for me, because every where else I’ve ever worked, raises work in increments of $0.10. So I’m happy.

My money prayers came through. Not even the day after, two checks showed up for me in the mail from the government for tax credits. So my fridge/freezer is absolutely stocked, and I can for sure pay some bills this check and have my loan covered. Cat food was on sale at Safeway so I stocked up and my babies won’t be starving (that’s never ever happened - I’d die before it did). Things are looking up. And Bob seems to be coming around a bit. He sent me a message on my Facebook account this morning apologizing for taking my sweater and he said he’ll give it back. Which is uber fucking wicked.

I went bra shopping the other day, and ended up spending $150 for one bra. :O I’ve never spent that much a garment in my life. I was super surprised though, because I was sure I was a D, and then after fighting with all these D cup bras, the lady handed me one that just… fit amazing. I asked her what kind of bra it was, and she told me that she moved up to an E cup. I was just kind of deer-in-headlights when she told me that. I didn’t even know there was such a thing as an E cup. I asked her about it, and she told me they had bras as big as a J cup. Crazy. But $150… I couldn’t believe it. LOL. Curse expensive bras and my boobs that won’t stop growing. *shakes fist*

I can’t wait until my days off. I’m going to pump myself full of so much Vitamin C and sleep so much that I’ll be wired off of it. Two more days… ai.

Life has been hectic lately. Work, eat, shower, sleep… work, eat, shower sleep… all day everyday. Luckily for me, my boss is back now and I’ve got a little bit more time off. Hell knows both me, and my house need it. I seem to be living in a nut house.

My friend Courtney and her boyfriend Robert got themselves kicked out of the place that they were staying, so they’ve been crashing on my couch for over a week now. It’s wonderful to have Courtney here, she’s sweet, she helps out… but Robert is driving both David and I up the wall. Courtney gave us money from her paycheck to help cover her expenses (and she’s giving us more next payday), but Robert has no job. He did the dishes without being asked, which was cool… but other than that he doesn’t really do anything. He pushes carts at the grocery stores for quarters, but he only gets a couple dollars at a time. I’ve been trying to instill some inspiration in him to go out looking for a job, but he keeps telling me that it work is “not fun.” Like… what the fuck, buddy. Of course work isn’t fun. That’s why it’s called work. I’m going to pick up some applications for him tomorrow, but that’s about all I can do. If he doesn’t start looking for work, I’m going to tell him that he can’t stay here anymore.

Along with Courtney and Robert staying here… my new room mate Martha moved in, and David’s brother is living here again. So in total… there are six of us living in this tiny space. Luckily for me, though… Martha is never here, Steven and David are always working and when Courtney’s at work, Robert usually goes down and sits there while she works (she works at the local newspaper, folding and sorting papers for distribution). Usually I get the house to myself in the evenings, which is so nice. Love it.

The debt bug is biting me in the ass again. I had to take out a payday loan today to buy groceries. I’m going to have next to no extra money next pay day because of it, but at least my fridge is full. I’m going to ask David to help me out with the cable and such this check or just use the money that Courtney gives me to put on bills. I have two really annoying bills that are crawling up my ass. The good side of having a full house is that there’s a lot of money coming to David and I. I’m going to whip a money spell later on tonight. I’ve been watching my karma lately, so hopefully the Goddess smiles on me a bit.

Ah… I’m tired. Tonight I’ve got to do some laundry, sweep up in the bathroom and the kitchen… and just tidy up. Courtney did the dishes this morning because she’s an angel, so that’s out of the way and frees up space in the kitchen for doing what needs to be done. I’ve got to organize my cupboards and find a spot for the stupid toaster oven that Amanda left here. The thing is probably broken, knowing her. I have to remember to go to Rona and talk to one of the people there and see if they can help me find the proper adapter the get my dishwasher going. I don’t want to feel that I wasted my money on a dishwasher I can’t even use.

Back to work tomorrow… the district manager is in, so it’s going to be a crazy day.

So, I saw it. After a year and some of waiting… I saw The Dark Knight. On opening night, no less… with perfect seats. Imagine the luck. I was going to dress up and go on my payday, but my sister called me during work and just.. sprang it on me. After having a rotten day at work, I was pretty stoked. So after work, I headed home, headed to the theater for 6:30.

I don’t think that there is a single word in the English language that could some up how incredible this film is. I was to the edge of my seat almost the entire movie. I laughed, I cried, I was shocked and surprised… it’s honestly one of the best emotional roller coasters I’ve ever been on. This movie follows suit in the dark styling of Batman Begins, but takes it to a whole different level. Director Christopher Nolan has a very dark and beautiful vision of the Batman story, and I greedily anticipate more.

Of course, one can’t discuss this film without discussing the inevitable. Heath Ledger. From the moment Heath Ledger enters the movie, he owns it. His performance is everything I thought it would be and more. I was just completely floored. He’s so gripping and enthralling, you forget that it’s him. He brought it to life. He captures the sadistic and purely evil aspects of the Joker’s character and makes it believable. When he laughed, I couldn’t help but feel chills in my bones. And as evil as he is in this movie, he’s comedic. His lines are riddled with morbid humor and wit that kept me in stitches when I wasn’t all wide-eyed.

This movie is just chock full of superb acting. Aaron Eckhart as Two Face was a wonderful surprise. I thought that he was just going to be a lead in to the next film, like the joker card was in the first, but the fact that he had a major role was a lovely surprise. And his face… so grotesque, and it definitely kicked Tommy Lee Jones’ ass.

If you’re skeptical, or have no plans to see this movie, I am telling you… SEE IT. Trust me. You’ll love it.

In other news… I haven’t been on the computer the last couple of days. My Phil is in town for a couple of weeks and we’ve been spending crazy time together. Tuesday he’s coming with me to get my septum pierced (I’m so excited!), then we’re going to the bar for sushi and drinks. Should be uber amounts of fun. Yup yup.

I’ve also been promoted to temp. assistant manager while my boss is on holidays. Heather quit today, which put Cindy in a horrible mood. She ran through all the books with me, the mailbag, and so on. I’m crossing my fingers that I don’t fuck this up, because if this two weeks goes off without a hitch, rest assured I’m going to get a good evaluation and maybe a raise. There’s only four of us now… Cindy, Logan, Keenan and me.

I promise I’m going to give this a meaningful update when I have the time. I have a new layout made, just have to make the background and code it up. I also have some content ready to go… just need to find the time.

So, Amanda and Bob are gone. Things ended rather messily, but I’m glad to say it’s over with.

As far as I knew, things were going well. They found an apartment, they were packing, everything as far as I knew was fine. But the day before yesterday, when they were moving the last of their things out, I found a pile of photos of me and her that she’d ripped up. I asked her what it was about, and both she and her mother started full out yelling at me.

Here’s a little bit of back story: The reason we were finally able to evict Amanda and Bob, was because our landlords told us we had to. As it turns out, since they were living here illegally, we weren’t required to serve them with any paperwork. My landlord said that because they were living here illegally, we could possibly be evicted. And I was just not having any of that, because if I lost my home, I’d have to move back into my parents’ place and my life would be turned completely upside down. So of course, it was bye bye to them. And this was told to us by my landlord’s grandson, Will, who also happens to be Carmen’s boyfriend.

So, anyways… Linda started yelling about how she was a “friend” of the family, and my landlord never said any of that. Amanda was yelling about what a big liar I am, and so on. They both stormed out, I locked the door behind them and that was that. Since neither her or Bob surrendered their keys to us, David and I changed the doorknobs and set up little things around the house that would tell us if someone had been here without us knowing. So far, no troubles. I think it’s safe to say, though, we’ll never be able to see Bob again. Amanda’s probably keeping him under lock and key, forbidding him to see us. Which is fine. If he’s going to be a retard and not realize that he shares his bed with Medusa, that’s his problem. Hopefully he wakes up.

So I went to work, and Carmen and Will just so happened to pop in when I got there. I told them what happened, and we all had a good laugh. Will was surprised to hear about Linda being a “friend” of his family, that was the first time he’d heard anything of the like. We just laughed and laughed. My co-workers and I had a good laugh, too.

I’m so glad though that it’s all over with. If she’s going to be such a cunt, good riddance to her. Rest assured she’s going to start trouble for me, start rumors and try to turn people against me. She is extremely petty that way. Ah well. She fails to realize that I have a couple friends she can’t touch, because they hate her too.

But anyway… it’s back to work tomorrow. Then the Tombstone concert and then home. I’ve been debating just skipping the concert and coming home to pass out. But… I promised Hope I’d be there. My little brother is expecting me, too. Since he’s one of Tombstone’s roadies, he managed to hook me up… so I might as well take advantage. I need to go pass out now, though. It’s way too hot in here.

Ah… a day off. I slept in, watched TV… now I’m chilling on my computer. After I update this, though… I’m going to start cleaning the kitchen. Now that Amanda has all of her shit out of my kitchen, I have more room in my cupboards to organize everything and empty the last of the boxes I have in the basement. Hopefully tonight I can get the floor swept and mopped, and the cupboards washed and organized. Dishes, too.

Tomorrow I’m going to see if I can get the bathroom done. Most of it’s already done, I just have to get all the towels washed and put away, and scrub out the bathtub. Since pay day was a bust, I have to wait until next check to get a new bathmat and shower curtain. I was thinking of sticking with the underwater theme I started going with. I’m going to paint the walls blue, maybe add some fish. I also have to get a new towel bar, because the one that Amanda bought was a piece of shit. I was talking to Cindy and she said that for about $5, I can repair the larger holes in the wall using this sticky wire and putty. I had no idea, and I was going to fork out all of that money for re-dry walling. :O

Apparently all of the room mate drama is going to be over on Saturday, because apparently, that is the day that Amanda and Bob are leaving. I fucking hope so. I can just… feel the stress melting off my shoulder when they leave. Just… melting away.

So… on to my kitchen cleaning. Or… watch South Park. Hmmm. Tough call. :p

So, things have gone back to pretty much as they were at this time last year. Work is back to being my life, and though that means more money, it means little downtime and killer blisters on my feet. Of all of the new people that my boss Cindy hired, I’m the only one left. There haven’t been any new employees added to our roster, so Cindy just split up the hours between Logan and I. Looking at my schedule for the next couple of months… I’ll be having average one to two days off.

The last couple of days have been so slow at work. I was so surprised that I was able to actually find something to do today. Cindy told me that I’m doing really well, and that my closing was “beautiful.” I’m starting to get the hang of doing the closing paperwork, it’s just a matter of doing it quicker. I’m sure I can get it down pat in no time, as I am now the main closer. Which is prety cool.

Life is moving pretty well. Amanda and Bob should be out of the house in a week’s time, and then I get my house back. I have so many ideas for the living room. I’m going to pick up some wall filler, fill in all the cracks and get ready to make this house look beautiful and loved. I’m going to take the kitchen and the bathroom apart form top to bottom and give it a good deep cleaning. I have all this energy I need to expel out, and I think this is a good way. Both to get the house clean, and to burn calories. Hmhmhm.

I’m seriously thinking of going back to black. I thought I could do the blonde thing again (considering it is my natural colour and all), but it’s just not working. I’m going to try to go lighter and see what happens, how I feel, but if not… I’ll put some pink and black in and make it funky. Because… I can do that with my job.