vanillafluffy: (Phone ringing)
[personal profile] vanillafluffy
Meanwhile, back at the medical billing office, they'd taken me out of my happy little cubical and put me back on the phones. (Insert rant here.) I was stressed, but I was still writing. And I tried for every other job in the office that came up, and believe me, I was NOT pleased when I got passed over in favor of someone who'd barely been there six months.

And then---! One afternoon, during lunch---did I mention the daily lunch run? There was a rotation, where we took turns going out to pick up lunch---"I'm going to Woody's barbecue, get your orders to me in fifteen minutes."---and that day, as I well recall, the lunch run was to Tropical Smoothies, where I'd ordered my usual, an Asian chicken wrap and a chocolate smoothie.

While I was awaiting lunch, I got called into the manager's office and told I was being let go (for various spurious reasons), pack up my stuff and hit the road. Fortunately, my lunch arrived before I was through, although by the time I got home, the smoothie was kinda soupy.

Well...piss on 'em. The problem being, they'd pissed on me on the way out---their spurious reasons were enough to deny my unemployment benefits. I'd had a retirement account that I cashed in, which gave me enough money to live on for a while, but I still feel stabbed in the back and hope they get what's coming to them, kharmically speaking.

I was out of work for exactly six months to the day. That was the summer I discovered House MD, and got really active on LJ. I got a couple really close friends out of fandom---[livejournal.com profile] karaokegal and [livejournal.com profile] pwcorgigirl, and another---[livejournal.com profile] foreverhermit---by way of...? [livejournal.com profile] grammar_whores? [livejournal.com profile] little_details? Something like that.

Because I kept seeing references to it on my f'list, I tuned in the season opener of Supernatural, and boom! I had a new fandom. I'd lusted after Jeffrey Dean Morgan back in his Burning Zone days, and he'd only improved with age. The younger two weren't exactly gargoyles, either. I did one ficlet, then let it all hang out with a 10K word, three-way crossover for [livejournal.com profile] karaokegal's first annual "Come As You're Not" fiction party. (That would be "Bad Fairy", which was preseries for SPN, House MD and The Burning Zone.) I've spent the last four seasons writing SPN, and I'm finally getting to the point where I'm over it. (Let me tell you about Justified!)

In September, the money was running out, and I went to a job fair in Melbourne, which was traumatic---I was still freaked out in traffic---where I gave my resume to everyone with a pulse. (Anyway, that's how it felt.) I got ONE callback, from the call center that ended up being my next job.

I didn't want to drive to Melbourne every day, it scared me stiff---literally. I had a white-knuckled deathgrip on the steering wheel both ways for a very long time. One thing that made it a little nicer, though, was the presence of a Goodwill store in the same plaza. My first trip down, when I was turning in an application and doing the obligatory "at least 20 WPM" typing test, I wandered in there and got a great denim jumper, a patchwork shirt and a Wild Woman jacket. Score-o-rama!

I was hired as "seasonal", and I desperately wanted to be permenant, despite the daily trauma of the commute. There was an incentive running during the holiday season that year, where they had a pot, I think it was something like $2500, and if you missed any time between Thanksgiving and New Year's, you were knocked out of the running. I don't remember exactly how much I got, it was something like $150, but after New Year's, I noticed fewer and fewer people sitting in our section. I kept my head down and worked hard while they thinned the herd, and got hired.

And once I got over my asphalt anxiety, I liked it a lot. For one thing, very seldom was I called "you people".


.

(no subject)

Date: 2010-09-06 02:23 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] foreverhermit.livejournal.com
*ponders*

I'm trying to remember exactly how we hooked up, but I'm drawing a blank! I wanna say I either read a fic of yours, commented, friended and that's how it went down - OR - you were commenting in a community we're both a member of and I started a conversation with you that way. Honestly, I don't recall.... Is that weird?

Either way, I'm very pleased to call you a good friend, as my life is better for having made your acquaintance. *hugs*

(no subject)

Date: 2010-09-06 04:01 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] vanillafluffy.livejournal.com
I *do* recall our first lengthy conversation---I'd posted something about books I read as a kid, and we got off onto a tanget about the Three Investigators, Life, the Universe and Everything.

(no subject)

Date: 2010-09-06 06:55 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] foreverhermit.livejournal.com
*nods*

You're right. And speaking of the Three Investigators, did you know they made not one but TWO movies about Jupiter, Pete and Bob? Caelie and I stumbled across "The Three Investigators and The Secret Of Terror Castle" (based on the first book) on TV a few weeks ago while she was flipping channels and I was all "Whoa! Back up, BACK UP!" I only caught the last hour of it and then immediately headed to IMDB to find out more. It was ... okay. The actor playing Jupe was fine, but Pete and Bob were horribly miscast, especially Bob (brown hair, no glasses - wtf?) and they also threw in a girl character who helped them solve the mystery. Uh, no. I wasn't traumatised by (what I saw of) the movie but it definitely made me shake my head and wonder why the studio even bothered!

(no subject)

Date: 2010-09-06 07:39 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] vanillafluffy.livejournal.com
IMDb says it was filmed in South Africa (WTF?!); and when I was trying to confirm Hans and Konrad (before I checked with you), I discovered that apparently, 3I are even bigger in Germany than they are here. And just to make it interesting, the three kids are apparently all Americans. go figure. Bringing in a girl...I suppose that was to widen the appeal. I seem to recall a girl showed up for at least one adventure, but it certainly wasn't Terror Castle.

Your icon is adorable. I have a little blue seahorse hanging in my bathroom window, and I swear, my next tattoo is going to be a seahorse.

(no subject)

Date: 2010-09-06 08:10 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] foreverhermit.livejournal.com
Yeah, it was a German production with a (mostly) American cast, filmed in South Africa. Erm...okaaaay. It wasn't bad but it certainly wasn't MY (our) beloved Three Investigators. And you're right, there was a girl who 'helped' the boys in a couple of stories, but only as a peripheral character and never in Terror Castle.

As for the icon, I think it's supposed to be a dragon. I recently upgraded to the Firefox 3.6 browser and stumbled upon it while searching for add-ons and extensions. It's the logo for the Fire FTP program. I tweaked it with Corel PhotoPaint (adding the flames), but if you wanna snag it and call it a seahorse that's fine by me! *grin*
Edited Date: 2010-09-06 08:12 pm (UTC)

(no subject)

Date: 2010-09-06 09:08 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] vanillafluffy.livejournal.com
I have my own private "Where are they now?" for the boys, wherein Pete is an aspiring stunt man (athletic fellow that he was), Bob is interning for a scandal-sheet or maybe a website that's very Hollywood. Jupiter hasn't gone anywhere; he's still at the salvage yard because his aunt and uncle aren't getting any younger. He's taken tons of college courses online, though, and has made a mint by selling Jones Junk on eBay.

(no subject)

Date: 2010-09-06 09:43 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] foreverhermit.livejournal.com
Heh! I could totally see that for each of them. *grin* And I could see Jupiter embracing the whole computer thing and, I dunno.... writing eBooks or offering his investigative services thru his own website, etc. The possibilities are endless!

(no subject)

Date: 2010-09-06 10:02 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] vanillafluffy.livejournal.com
*nod-nod-nod* And of course, these days, E Skinner Norris has graduated to greater heights of obnoxiousness. Haven't quite decided along what lines: High-profile lawyer is just so obvious. Or maybe a newscaster: Good-looking, still not that bright, but always threatening to poke his Skinny nose in amd disrupt the current investigation. All in the guise of investigative jounalism, of course.
Edited Date: 2010-09-06 10:04 pm (UTC)

(no subject)

Date: 2010-09-06 10:21 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] foreverhermit.livejournal.com
Skinny Norris! LOL Hadn't even thought about him!

(no subject)

Date: 2010-09-06 10:30 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] vanillafluffy.livejournal.com
You know how it is, all good heroes have to have a hated rival---Sherlock Homes and Moriarty, James Bond and Goldfinger, Harry Potter and Draco Malfoy---the list goes on. As since Skinny was such a sleaze-weasel as a teen, by now he's got to be in the running for rival, if not criminal mastermind.

(no subject)

Date: 2010-09-06 10:33 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] foreverhermit.livejournal.com
*still laughing*

I could even see him having his own talk show (ala Jerry Springer) - hee!

(no subject)

Date: 2010-09-06 11:29 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] vanillafluffy.livejournal.com
*mind boggles* There's an idea...for a while there everybody was getting their own talk show (now they're mostly has-beens hawking insurance and tempur-pedic beds on late night TV); I can see him having a local show, and wanting more than anything to get that Big Story that would lead to a network gig. And since he's not quite smart enough to pull that off, he's following the boys around, trying to snake one of their cases.

(no subject)

Date: 2010-09-07 12:05 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] foreverhermit.livejournal.com
Yes, THIS! *laughing* Definitely this!

(no subject)

Date: 2010-09-07 12:23 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] vanillafluffy.livejournal.com
Just to complicate matters, it was hinted at that his dad had money. What if Norris Sr. had some political pull? He could certainly monkeywrench things from time to time. After all, you don't get to be so sleazy at such a tender age unless you've had one heck of a bad example to follow.

(This is fun. Not having to write the darn thing, just play with ideas for an appreciative audience. ;))

(no subject)

Date: 2010-09-07 12:26 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] foreverhermit.livejournal.com
I'm having a blast! I have to admit, though, I'm astonished how much detail you remember - not owning or having read the books in quite awhile. I have the books but I'd forgotten some of this stuff. *feels pathetic* Obviously I'm gonna have to re-read (at least some of) the stories, pronto!

(no subject)

Date: 2010-09-07 12:36 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] vanillafluffy.livejournal.com
I had, like, the first 18 or so, before Hitchcock died and they started with Hector Sebastian (which I thought was lame). I got Terror Castle as part of the Scholastic book club when I was in, 5th grade or thereabouts, and they and Trixie Belden were my fav serieses (plural?!). I read them well beyond the age they were suggested for; honestly, I still kick myself for giving them away. Virtue really is its own punishment!

(no subject)

Date: 2010-09-07 12:52 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] foreverhermit.livejournal.com
I had, I think, the first 6 (paperback) books from Scholastic, when I was also in 5th and 6th grade. I have absolutely NO idea what happened to those. My mom probably did a purge at some point and put them in a Goodwill bag, but that's weird if she did because she loves books like I do and would never give them away unless they truly weren't being read or enjoyed any more.

(no subject)

Date: 2010-09-06 05:54 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] adventurat.livejournal.com
Did we meet through a grammar comm? I honestly don't remember, though I know it wasn't fandom.

Was watching the first season of Weeds today. JDM is the late husband of the main character!

Also, I was behind a car in traffic recently that made me think of you. Corvette, Florida plates, with a plate surround from a dealership in Melbourne, FL. I took its picture, but have never got round to posting it. :D

(no subject)

Date: 2010-09-06 06:04 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] vanillafluffy.livejournal.com
Yeah, I think so, probably Grammar Whores. You were one of the first people I connected with, even before my fandom activities took off.

Melbourne is pretty close (comparatively speaking). And there's a local company called Ecklers that manufactures after-market 'Vette parts---I think we have more of them locally than most places.

(no subject)

Date: 2010-09-06 02:31 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] pwcorgigirl.livejournal.com
Good heavens, how time flies! And "Bad Fairy" is still one of the most awesome fics I've ever read.

(no subject)

Date: 2010-09-06 05:43 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] vanillafluffy.livejournal.com
*blushes* Thanks! It remains the most complicated thing I've ever done, and not just because it was a 3-way. Talk about research!

My sleep schedule is all kinds of messed up...got to sleep around five, got up at six-thirty to go to the food pantry, came home and went back to bed, finally got to sleep around nine, and just woke up 15-20 minutes ago, mostly because it's raining pitchforks. I'm going to turn my computer off now...all I need is to get zapped!
Edited Date: 2010-09-06 07:48 pm (UTC)

(no subject)

Date: 2010-09-08 02:31 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] gwylliondream.livejournal.com
Glad you found a home at LJ! It makes me angry to see someone as funny and kind as you, who struggles to stay hired. It's so unfair!

(no subject)

Date: 2010-09-08 02:36 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] vanillafluffy.livejournal.com
Yeah, I gotta wonder what kind of cockroach kharma I accumulated in a past life to be on the receiving end of so much CRAP. But hey, keep on keeping on....

I have got a call FROM you

Date: 2010-09-08 09:45 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] kukkurkurat.livejournal.com
... instead of calling you. That was the year when we actually TALKED to each other over the phone.... Yes. And the 1st time I have ever flown...

Re: I have got a call FROM you

Date: 2010-09-08 09:51 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] vanillafluffy.livejournal.com
Now, see, I wouldn't have remembered that, time-wise. Although thinking about it, it was my second holiday season at the call center and I was working from home (didn't want to get into that whole mess in successive posts, tho')---but there was no way I could get away to Virginia to say 'hi' in person. Wanted to, though!

Re: I have got a call FROM you

Date: 2010-09-08 10:07 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] kukkurkurat.livejournal.com
I know! I wanted to meet you SO much. But I got to talk to you AND received your gorgeous Yuletide gifts! Thank you so much!

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