Don't gimme no pop, no pop

Let me start out by saying I really miss the family dog Bailey. I think I miss the dog more than I miss my brother. Bailey is a great dog. One of the first things I will do when I get home is talk him for a sweet walk. I know I was the only one that gave him the exercise he deserved. On a side note I would find myself making conversation with Bailey on said walks, perhaps it's not so bad they ended...

Sooo I wrote a post or so ago about what I would be doing at my job and the other temp that I detest. Well from now on we'll just call her Horrible Helen. That's what she is - horrible. She is a very tall, huge woman with a long blondish ponytail down to her butt that doesn't look like it's ever met a brush. It also has about two inches of grey roots. Her outfits are also destestable: tennis shoes, jeans or black corduroys, and often a yellow shirt with gold sparkly sweater (why not, they match so well). I'm just thanking god that she is laying off the heaps of green eye shadow she choose for our first day.

A few days ago she told me lots and lots (joy!) about a novel she is writing. When she started all she had was an opening line, "We always kept Aunt Bernice in the shed". Sound good to you? Yup me neither, the story follows a big family going to the dentist and back. Many people are dead, but still hanging out and talking. There are lots of cool animals talking too! It was one of those conversations that you keep trying to get out of and Horrible Helen sucks you back in.

There is truly not enough work for us to do. The situation seems to be that they budgeted for us temps, so work or no work, we stay. The crappy thing is I feel really weird about reading a book or anything. The boss lady would be pissed. I spend a lot of time thinking of lists I can make and generally day dreaming.

I did not yet mention that this office I am in, is housed in a NY Mental Health Patient Facility. This means lots of cool things: 1) I get an ID badge to wear that differentiates me from patients (we all look the same I guess).
2) To go between the building and the parking ramp I swipe the badge to enter a tube/portal thing that opens on one side, closes and lets me out the other. Seriously the thing is about 2.5 feet wide some people don't fit.
3) We get security training and they give us an important key. The keys let us out the fire exits which are locked. You see the patients can't get out and we aren't supposed to let them out if there is a fire. I guess they don't want loonys running around free.
4) Over the loud speaker once and a while (record is three times in one day so far!) we hear a "Code Grey". This means some sort of problem is occurring with a patient and security is needed. I always pause for a moment to imagine what could be happening to warrant a "Code Gery". The possibilities are almost endless.
5) We have a deck to sit outside when the weather is nice. THE DECK HAS PRISON BARS! The bars go all the way overhead in a cage like fashion.

I've been educating people at work (and by people I mean my desk buddy Alex and the other guy Peter) on all things Michigan. They now know about:
-Pop, oh the shame of saying it here!
-Pointing to your hand for locational purposes
-the term yooper
-that Flint is no fun
-there is a Troy in Michigan too!

You love it you know-oh

Oh the sweet smooth sound of Al Green. Nothing gets older than the same three songs played on full blast over and over from somewhere close by. Who knows what apartment it comes from or who is playing that smooth sound, but I would appreciate if they kept it to themselves just a bit.

The new job is going pretty smoothly. The most unlikeable thing about it would be one of the other temps that I started with. This woman talks endlessly telling her stories. Stories which her tone would imply are the most amazing thing you ever heard, full of revelations...but in reality, suck balls. I hate her stories. They go on and on. At first I thought it was just me, but now the whole (about five people) office has been chattering about it. The only ally she has is the other temp who likes to encourage her. I try to distance myself from them as much as possible, mostly to avoid being sucked into storyt ime, but we all need to work an the same projects so I get sucked into the vortex.

On a bright side I am very close to being done with Christmas shopping. If I can avoid pulling myself across less slush covered parking lots than I did last year than I have succeeded.

Thanksgiving went well but was a little exhausting. It was wonderful to see some great Fowler friends. Congratulations to our friends Eric and Miriam :)

Info Everyone Needs

I'm leaving the Beyond and I wanted to pass on the information I learned to all of you. Read closely this is important.

YOU CAN RETURN ANY SORRY THING

Really, if you don't have the packaging, no problem.
If you're missing the receipt, no problem.
If it's used, no problem.
If it's mangled and destroyed, no problemo, hand it over we'll gladly take it.

You can get store credit!

Use it love it and return it. As they say at BBB, everything has a lifetime warranty here.

I'll pass you a buck...But you won't like it

Soooo I hate working at the Beyond. Therefore I went through a temp agency and got a contract job with the state almost immediatly. I'll tell more about the job in a minute but first...

The Things I Won't Miss about BBB:

-getting many many paper cuts and various scrapes
-climbing ladders
-lifting heavy things down from high place while standing on ladders
-being nice to really mean people
-the old technology
-telling people "yes" when the deserve a "no"
-old nasty women
-old nasty women who return used things
-used toilet bowl cleaners
-used shower curtains
-used pillows
-used sheets
-used pots
-giving people $ for their used crap
-working with people who eat fast food all day long
-watching the lines get longer and longer
-the host center going down daily
-the customers (now I can't believe I thought the museum was bad)
-brides returning gifts for $
-giving people free packaging
-explaining the registry
-directing traffic
-paging people
-answering the phone while on register
-standing for 8 hours
-the dust
-the dust balls on the floor
-the way my hands feel after working (dirty as hell and dry)
-only one break
-people wanting coupons
-never getting the next weeks schedule until Friday

Things I Might Miss:

-a couple co-workers
-the discount (only 20%, I have coupons)


Thank god I got out before the real holiday rush, I might have gone postal on someone. When someone is treating you like a piece of crap I don't want to deal with it. A customer threw shards of glass onto our counter at the customer service desk last week and we still are supposed to be nice? No thanks, I'm glad to be done with that.

My new job goes until March. I'll be at the research portion of the State of New York Mental Health offices (or something like that, I'm from Michigan, this is my excuse for everything). They do a big survey of all the institutions they fund every two years. This is the first year that they are going electronic with the survey and need help. So I am going in to reel in whoever is getting funding and not doing their survey or needs help doing their survey. Should be pretty simple work. The pros are good: more money than the beyond and less than a 10 minute drive. If I don't like it, hey it's done in March.

Got a ticket to Ride

So I have finally been interviewing for some sort of jobs. I kind of hate it. I don't like talking about myself this much. I really hate recalling scenarios that fit the "Tell me about a time you...." questions. I don't know, I'm sure it will become less painful with time.

Since I had an interview coming up (the first since 2003) I had to buy a suit to wear. Oh my god, it was a horrible. I do not fit into regular women's size on account of never growing after 8th grade. And no one (me) likes to shell out 300 dollars for something they aren't going to wear that often. But I had forgotten about H&M. I stumbled upon them at Crossgates and was immiediatly thankful they existed (they don't in Mich). This cheap Dutch girl found something that fit her and the price was oh so right.

I also purchased plane tickets to GR for the week between Christmas and New Years. I am looking forward to the visit and not driving.

Verdict for the Plantiff

We don't have cable in our apartment. As I had expected this has turned out to be just fine. I can watch the Hills and the Real World online easy enough and no Bravo is livable. I read all of our magazines (we have multiple subscriptions) and books to pass the time when I'm not looking for real employment. The unexpected result of out limited tv channels has been a new fascination with courtroom tv shows. They're on all day long and never fail to entertain. People are always watching Judge Joe Brown at work, very enjoyable, but my personal favorite is The People's Court. Things I have learned: it is very rare that a defendant wins and get everything in writing

I saw a squirrel at the park today with a broken tail. His tail just dragged behind him like a sad piece of string. But he was still living his life finding nuts and running around. Way to be.

It looks like I will not be home for Thanksgiving which is weird. But ugh, it sucks that any time I want to visit it costs at least $200 and two days of full driving time. Add on top of that cost the student loans I have to pay back, and I want to crawl into a hole until I get a real job.

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So the Beyond is my own little square of purgatory. I don't get sore like I did at first, but my feet are still mad at over this job. Most of the customers are nice, but about 8% are downright rude. I don't like rude people treating me like crap. The museum had their own brand of rudenss in the form of stick-up-their-you-know-what moms, but I had no idea the general retail public would be worse.

My parents came for a visit last weekend. Hopefully they feel better about the move now that they saw my surroundings. We went to the museum (my mom likes them more than me), and a brewery. Five years ago I would have never predicted visiting a brewery with my parents, and it was worth the wait. I was glad they came and look forward to a trip home myself.

I do miss school. Right now watching Brian busy with homework, I could use something to keep me occupied. But I also miss the learning, the reading, the discussion. I"m a dork.