Confessions of a One-Track Mind

Work was DEAD today. I was there for 40 minutes before I got my first call, and I swear I didn't have 20 calls all night. Which would've been boring, except I had my steno pad with me and scribbed 18+ pages of the Jericho WIP (only progress I've made on it this week). That's a lot to transcribe, but it'll give me something to do tomorrow after church.

I'm tired, but that may be because the Excedrin is wearing off. I've finally figured out how to compensate for the sleepiness caused by the muscle relaxers: Take it with a couple Excedrin (contains caffeine) and follow it up if needed by a couple more 4 hours later. Except I'm ready to crash, so the booster caffeine isn't needed.

After the lovely night I had last night, I was very mellow today. At work, HulaGal (Guess what state she hails from ?!) had a new camera phone, and sweetly snapped a picture of me. The blue-green blur in the background is a poster I edited out for discretion's sake. You may want to click on the image to enlarge it for the details.



My hairstyle isn't too distinct under the headphones, but you can see the color pretty well and get an idea of the length. The top I'm wearing actually has sparkly gold thread knit through it, and the speckled skirt is really a leopard print. But hey, for a cell phone cam, it's not bad!

Good thing I wore a bra today, huh?

I am gleeful, squeeful and doing Snoopy dances. One of my co-workers, a very sweet lady heretofore known as The Angel In the Next Row has commiserated with me about my situation, lack of a/c, back pain, etc., and today she told me she has a window a/c unit for me. She had gotten it as a back-up for a spare room at her house and never got around to installing it. She said she remembered it while thinking about my problems and she's going to GIVE it to me. I've been smiling ear-to-ear all day---what an angel!

I've taken a small step toward paying it forward---when White Trash Queen was here for training, there's a game they play at the end, where several people have to get up and make outfits from the stuff they brought, and everyone votes on them---the winners get $25 or pick of an item. One of the new girls who won a code called it because it wasn't working---I looked up the details and found out why: the order had to be over $25. We found an item to bring it up to $25.41, but---she didn't have a debit or credit card to put it on. She was starting to make "I'll call back" noises, and I couldn't have that---so I whipped out MY debit card and put the 41 cents on that. She was embarrassingly grateful, but that's less than the cost of a soda in the break room. I may be chronically broke, but I can spare that!

I'm making plans. Tomorrow, Angel's SO is going to bring the a/c and get it into my trunk during my lunch break (meaning I have to clean it out before I leave for work). Sunday, I'm going to see if I can bribe missybrat with lunch at Cracker Barrel to come back to my place for an hour and help me plow enough of a path to make the window accessible. I'm also going to call BC on Sunday (once I actually have possession of the a/c) and see if, for suitable compensation, I can get him to install it for me after the Great Bed Shuffle.

Merciful goddess, a supportive bed and a/c?! Bliss! Heaven! Nirvana! And unless the Universe is a spoilsport, within 72 hours, such pleasures will be mine!

Okey-dokie. FPL is paid. First thing I did this morning after reaching for the caffeine and Excedrin. BIG sigh of relief!

Making plans with missybrat for Sunday afternoon---shopping after church, yay!

Found out at work yesterday that we're all facing mandatory overtime next week. Mine is a week from tomorrow. I'm not overly thrilled, but wtf, it's money.

Also going on there: I'm being reassigned. Same department, I hasten to add, but answering fashion calls instead of casual. The way it works is, apparel is divided into three categories, casual, fashion and footwear. Everyone has a primary category of calls they get---mine has been casual ever since this system went into effect---and a backup, mine being fashion---and the third category we only get calls for when there are no primaries or backups available. So in fashion, I'm going to be backing up footwear, and I'm fucking pissed.

Yes, I can imagine your shock. Fluffy, unhappy about shoes? Not shoes, FOOTWEAR. We have FitNazi---athletic shoes, the callers are insane sports fanatics and I could not fucking care less. There's Bunions R Us; I have never had a call from anyone under 60 for these people. They're stubborn and/or senile and make the Geezer Britches callers look downright reasonable. Butch Boots...them I don't mind so much, because most of the time, they love the product. Major problem here is people whose their kids swiped their credit cards and ordered custom boots. And then there's another company that just launched last month, I don't even have a name for them yet! But NONE of them have cute shoes, shoes *I* can wear, and I am really dreading the whole damn thing.

I'm GOOD at casual, damn it! I don't mind fashion, I back up for them now, and the ONLY good thing about this mess is that it means I'll be included in the LeSnobbi training later this month. (They stopped including the backups in training in spring, and it really hurt. They give such juicy loot!) Other than that? Ugh! I hate footwear! *scowl*

Oh, and that also means I have a new supervisor. I'll really miss Sweetie Boss! The gal I'll be under...I know her from when she was a rep, and I like her as a person, but I'm concerned as to what kind of supervisor she'll be. I'm worried that this is a machination of Uber-Boss to get rid of me.

Meanwhile, yesterday was White Trash Queen training, very disappointing: No gifts, no snacks, and the broad sitting next to me just plain didn't give a fuck.

Damn, I'm ready for another long weekend!

Avoided the muscle relaxers last night and slept and slept...went to bed quite early---I was asleep by 1:30---and slept til nearly 11. I feel much better!

Work Friday was nothing outstanding: not a lot of orders, quite a few attempts that had credit card failure, some medium-dumb callers, and it all got very slow after 8PM. I started to noodle around on msn.com (figuring if called on it I can point out that it comes up automatically when the computers boot up, so it MUST be 'legal') and found out that a) ( insert spoiler here ) on SPN next season, and that b) the season premiere is SEPTEMBER 10th!!! Which is the day after my birthday, which I had already reserved as OFF. (Friends, I'm good---just ask me!)

Feeling celebratory, I stopped at Steak'n'Shake on the way back to the C's. Had the fish plate with cheese fries and got refills on chocolate Cokes from a very sweet young waitress who actually blended the chocolate with the Coke instead of glooping it at the bottom of the glass and adding the Coke and serving it that way. I gave her a $5 tip---which was something like 60%---because she was very attentive, and gave me free cheese for the fries. Sat there with a book and noshed happily. Looked at my reflection in the windows, and with my fluffy new 'do, if I'd been wearing a cloche hat, I'd've looked like a woman in an Edward Hopper painting. (I'm thinking of a specific painting, but of course, it's on my hard drive at home, not here. It's a woman sitting in an cafe at night. No one else around. <3 Hopper!)

(Edited for Hopper pic)

S&T supposedly leave for Key West today---I plan to call over there when I get to work to see if that's actually happened, because I KNOW S's track record for timeliness---NOT! Thus begins several days of backing-and-forthing---the C's get back on Thursday, S&T on the 4th. Meanwhile, I'm off Sunday, Monday and Wednesday, so I'll have time to pay attention to both sets of critters.

Work Tuesday was crap. Sales were piss-poor---the one big-ticket sale I made was to some yuppie with more money than good sense---the crazy fucker paid $200 (plus expedited shipping) for an ice bucket. Can you believe that shit?!

It's pretty bad when driving home in the rain is the best part of the day.

I'm hoping today will be reasonable. Lots of good sales, a minimum of dumbasses, help desk the whole time---one of the Saturday night stressors was no help desk after 4 PM and one insanely bitchy broad who wanted to dispute an auth hold on her prepaid Visa card. Prepaid credit cards are a massive pain in the ass when they don't go through, because they may go up to a whole month before releasing the charges. They have the money on hold, they're collecting interest on it, why should they care if it's tied up for weeks? They tell the caller that "all" we have to do it fax the info to them and they'll release it---what they don't say is, by the rules of the Payment Card Industry Secure Standards Council we CAN'T fax the whole card number. So the consumer thinks we're the ones being uncooperative, when we're abiding my the law and NOT potentially incurring penalties of $5000 to $25,000. That's real money, and most of the time, the charges are little nickel-and-dime amounts under $100. But try telling THEM that.

Yes, I'm up awfully early for me, but I had to deal with what work dealt me Saturday. I just happened to check my schedule around 10 PM---I was actually looking up vacation time I have scheduled, because unless we have training, my schedule doesn't change except for things like break times, and that's on a day-by-day basis---and some genius had me scheduled for 5-day weeks starting TODAY.

I *did* recently discuss the possibility of going up to 40 hours (from my current 32), but I specifically said 4 10-hour days, NOT a 5-day week with a like number of commutes. And I certainly didn't expect them to change my schedule with no warning! I freaked, fired off an email to Sweetie Boss, who is my direct supervisor, left a message on her desk to reinforce it, and then this morning I called bright and early and hyperventilated in her ear.

She called it a "miscommunication" with someone who does the scheduling, and says it will be fixed today. (She is made of awesome---she was a rep when I first started, and she and I have always gotten along well---she appreciates my sense of humor.)

I've had that hanging over me for the last 36 hours---thank heavens that's taken care of!

Now all I have to do is summon the energy to go over to Kat's with a bagzilla or two and clean out my car. She has a nice, flat driveway with a shaded carport, whereas I have a steeply sloping driveway with very little shade. She wins....

Saturday: Agita at work. Uber-boss is on the rampage, cancelling time off that people have already reserved---my happy little block from 8:45-10 PM Thursday has gone away, which only increses my desire to see her hit by a train. NOT a good day; I was sleep deprived---Asbury Arms spring sale, one especially worthwhile thing: I've been looking for a pot big enough to boil enough macaroni to take in for hospitality. Total of six hours sleep, broken into two three-hour blocks. Could not brain, very frustrating.

Got home, Harper's Island. Not to reveal any major plot points without a cut, but this week's death is really going to muddy the waters, and as I've mentioned elsewhere, *won't* it be ironic if this is the body that actually kicks off a hardcore investigation? (No Sheriff Daddy this week, bummer! And no one has missed the bridesmaid with the yappy little dog yet, which really amuses me out of all proportion.)

Sunday: Stress, hormones, Mercury retrograde, whatever---I got weepy at church and sat for a while after service talking with CapeGypsy and Wolfy, both of whom had comforting and constructive things to say. I calmed down, got some food, went and sat down and got tag-teamed by two more gals who decided to stir the pot. I didn't need that, really I didn't, and since saying "Leave me the fuck alone, okay?" is not the proper attitude to take with people who think they're helping you, I ended up bolting for the door.

The rest of the afternoon didn't go much better. I have Friday, the 8th off, reserved well in advance for Star Trek---a bunch of us from church were going to see it in a group. Got an email saying "Oh joy, we're going to go on Saturday!" which set me off, since I DON'T have that kind of flexability. FINE. I'll go see it by myself. Did, however, get a later email saying StormValkyrie and hubby are having a housewarming party on the evening of the 8th, which mollified me somewhat. I don't mind seeing movies by myself so much, but missing parties sucks even worse.

Pain killer I took for my tooth helped, as did watching one of my favorite Mission: Impossible eps, the one where they're trying to get the old gangster to think it's 1937. I think I last saw that ep back in 1970-ish, but I remembered the plot quite vividly. What I didn't remember was that the gangster is played by William Shatner---too bad it wasn't from a season with Paris, that would've been perfect!

Today, I couldn't get through to Kat---her phone kept going immediately to voice mail---then she showed up on my doorstep a couple minutes after 12. We went out for lunch---I had my usual beef tips over noodles, but someone didn't drain the noodles very well---they were rather watery. Surprising, since that place has good food, overall.

Then we browsed the Sharing Center (thrift store), and for $1 I got a nice little trumpet-shaped lamp shade for my desk lamp. This is the little tan lamp that I got last fall at Asbury...it's had an old barrel-style shade on it, but this one is better in proportion to the size and shape of the lamp.

I'm off to Supper Club momentarily; hopefully no one is going to be too helpful---I'm feeling friskier today, but more likely to be bitchy than weepy, I think.

No Heroes for a while, but CSI: Miami looks intense, and I think I'll have to make a cougar icon if I'm going to comment....

I zoomed over to my tire guy on my way to work; he tested the tire, said it was leaking where it was previously plugged and that he'd try to plug it again, but if that didn't work, that it was definitely time for another tire. So I ponyed up $7 for the plug, which seems to be working. I'm going to stash a few dollars for another tire just in case.

Saw a really pretty blue Year One Camaro this afternoon. And a late model something---I don't remember what---but it was emerald green, just gorgeous. Not a loud green, just a very classy jewel-tone.

Tonight, when all the supervisors were gone, I went back to my previous position and swapped that keyboard for the piece of shit at my current desk...I'm tired of having the space bar stick! It's a pain in the ass when I'm trying to type up a request and itallrunstogether.

That's the kind of thing where supervisors get all "We'll get them to open a work ticket" --- NO. If swapping peripheral componants on computers was rocket science, I'd be working at NASA and making a helluva lot more money. If I get really ambitious, I'll completely reorient the tower, which was what I did when our department was over on the other side of the call center. I stayed over about 45 minutes one evening and repositioned the tower from the floor under the desk to horizontal on the desk with the monitor on top of it. At the moment, it's vertical on the desk, which I don't like---it takes up a lot of real estate. We'll see....

Got a few good sales today...from my position in the trenches of online retail, the economy seems to be springing back. I'm not getting a lot of zillion-dollar luxury item sales, but people are buying blue jeans and prom dresses and sneakers---life goes on!

Tomorrow is my Friday, O frabjuous day, calloo callay....

Today's agenda calls for calling out from work. Adventures with GK, Red and CF take priority. (And I have time off to cover it. The three most dangerous words in the English language: I don't care.) I'm up early to wash my hair, which is icky.

News from work: C-Boss is gone! After all of what, five months? Quite abrupt, although she *was* acting snappish the previous week. No distress here, especially since her successor is (Oh gee, now I have to come up with a suitable cover name!) the gal I sold the big LeSnobbi bag to. She's a sweetie, and she likes me---she used to coach me back when she was a rep---so I'm pretty mellow about the news.

Also, we have FINALLY been assigned to desks---this was another of C-Boss's "innovations". We started shifting around in October, for crying out loud, and I've spent the last few months lugging a piece of wheeled luggage in with me every day. Now I can park a box on my desk and a tote bag under it and just schlep my purse. Thank goodness!

Got off work last night and crawled under my desk to organize the wires down there--one of them kept shorting out my monitor every time I brushed against it. Then I went out to the parking lot and found I had a semi-flat tire. Nursed it to the station up the street, pumped air into it and it held all the way home. (I stopped twice to check.) Something else to worry about. I need to find another car, PDQ.

I still haven't exercized the massive squee which was this week's SPN, but I'll get to that sometime this weekend....

I have to decide what to wear, I need to leave early enough to gas up on the way in, and I need to remember that this is Thursday, not Friday, alas. And there's nothing like having to do something you don't in the least want to to give you a killer headache.

However, my clothes are all neatly hanged, my hair is freshly washed, and I have dinner ready to go. I remembered to put my rolling backpack back into the trunk---I took it out so I could transport cans and reorganize the trunk---which is much emptier since I turned GK's bale of clothes over to CapeGypsy.

It was nice while it lasted.

On Thursday, they announced on the updates that there was going to be contest on Friday the 13th in honor of Valentine's Day. Three $20 gift cards are up for grabs (I say "are" because the results aren't being announced until next week). "For" Valentine's Day, "Against" and "Participated". "For" was supposed to wear red and pink, "Against" was black, and all participants in both categories went to HR to have pix taken for judging---the third card will be drawn for from among all the non-winners.

You know I participated. And it sure as hell wasn't going to be in black---there are enough emo types there that I knew I wouldn't stand out. So...red and pink it was. Quelle surprise, right? Now, maybe somebody took it farther than I did, but all I saw when I was there was a couple of gals in red tops. Big whoop.

My ensemble: a full skirt with pink flowers on a red background, a pleated pink satin top, a faux silk scarf in red and pink knotted at the right of my throat, a bow barrette with red and white in my hair---positioned to the left, and the piece de resistance, my ruby slippers. Think of Dorothy in ballet flats studded with red sequins on the toes and glitter on the sides. They're divine, they're from WalMart and they were $8. Size 11. Awesome. Oh, and I was carrying a wee pink faux croc wristlet courtesy of Tasteful Lady.

I don't know whether I made the cut or not, but I certainly gave it my best shot.

I'll let you know how it goes!

Tomorrow, there will be Executroids. I have to be there two hours early...I will be getting out early, though---as soon as I got a look at my schedule, I tweaked it with PTO so I'll be off at 9PM, can romp into the break room for SPN and head home afterward. Heh heh.

Today I coughed up $10 and got a digital conversion box---I'd gotten the coupon, but just one, because I'm not THAT acquisitive---just in case of digital outage. I'm curious to see how many channels I'll get with it, given that I get something like a half-dozen now with rabbit ears.

Yesterday, I was really miffed to get home and realize that for some reason, my freakin' Tivo did NOT record Nip/Tuck for me. I checked IMDb, it's supposed to be on again Friday and Saturday. Thank goodness, because I caught enough of it at work to want to see it again. In extreme slow-mo. While having evil thoughts about flexible men with great big

EARS.

I'm sorry, where was I?!

It's a good thing I'm not doing fanfic these days---I had an absolutely cracktastic idea for a crossover about Sylar's cousin Jake, who has visions...instead of all that hoo-ha with The Pathway, Jake's being set up by The Company. Something like that. If you want to write it, you're welcome to, just give me credit for the idea and give me a heads-up so I can read it.

Criminal Minds was okay tonight, but my god, Michael Biehn is looking past his prime, and if I hadn't read the credits, I would never have recognized Randy Mantooth! It's nice to see he and Kevin Tighe are still getting work though---the latter shows up in My Bloody Valentine 3D. Next week, CM looks like heavy-duty Rossi---I'm eager to see that!

I'm glad that this year I gave myself "permission" not to post every day. For the last two years, I was determined to post, regardless, which was really stressful during cable outages and the like. It also led to an awful lot of bitching on my part---sorry, y'all!---because I needed a topic and The Latest Shit at Work was the only thing I could think of. Or I'd cough up a joke or a picture or a meme---not that there's anything wrong with that, but it always seemed forced to me.

There's not a great deal to catch up on as far as the last couple of days go. Thursday and Friday, there was a website snafu for one of our partners---they had a sale on shirts, announced on the site as, "ALL SHIRTS, $12.99". The price wasn't appearing correctly in the shopping cart. There were no conditions on the website, so I made a lot of high dollar sales and sent a lot of emails to the credit department saying, "Credit this customer the difference, promo not working." Y'know, that's one of the things I lovelovelove about my schedule---Sundays are when most sales end and Mondays are when all the fallout hits, so I avoid all that! I'm mildly curious as to know whether they're going to honor it on all brands---they usually have conditions---or whether I will walk in to chaos on Tuesday, but sufficient unto the day, etcetera.... My numbers for this week should be fairly awesome.

We had a fun presentation today at church in honor of President's Day (which technically is next week, but whatever). A presidential trivia quiz! There were some great trick questions and fab facts---I got 18 out of 25 questions---although we weren't being graded!---and even came up with a bit of arcane knowledge of my own: Grant's given name was Hiram Ulysses Grant. It was unofficially changed when he entered West Point, because the registrar thought it might be embarrassing for him to have to use the initials H.U.G.; he combined Ulysses with Simpson, Grant's mother's maiden name.

My lawn is mowed! This is a great relief, since all I need is for Those Neighbors to get snarky and turn me in to Code Enforcement again. I definitely cannot afford that shit!

Did not get with J today for the simple reason that I haven't had time to get anything together for eBay sale since our talk, plus I need to write a description for the listing. I'll be sure to give y'all the details in case I'm selling something you can't live without!

What with this and that, I haven't commented on how training went, which was short and sweet. We were out of there about an hour earlier than projected, and since I didn't have to get on the phones, I avoided the worst of the afternoon rush hour.

These guys are going to be easy. They must've taken our recommendation about what works for similar sellers, because there aren't any weird bells or whistles as far as procedure goes. Found out that the current website is soon to be the former website; they're under new corporate ownership and are in the process of rebranding. The website-to-be looks suspiciously like the White Trash Queen site in format---I think the same techno-twink designed them both---not that there's anything wrong with that.

The clothes are junior and junior-plus up to size 24 (which lets me out) but the shoes alledgedly go up to an 11 and some of the accessories are adorable. Some of the clothes really were cute, some I wouldn't wear to a dogfight, but there were a few party dresses that, if they were scaled up to my size, I would've snagged in a heartbeat.

In particular, there was the sweetest little polka dot dress---pink and white dots on a dark chocolate brown background...with a built-in brown tulle crinoline. Add six eight inches to the hem and offer it in a size 30, and I could rock it something wicked. To church. With my little pink peeptoes and pink and white beads. *le sigh*

There were a number of sparkly, blinged out dresses that I would never have occasion to wear. (My senior prom was in 1979, thanks, and it might be a little over the top for our 30-year reunion even if they had it in my size.) But, proving my attraction to bright, shiny objects, I lusted after the twinkling full-skirted impractical things....

They didn't feed us, but there was decent loot. I got a string of beads that went well with the blue pullover I was wearing (Yup, turquoise!) and put those on at once, thanking the corporate gals with a big smile. Also a notebook with pen in a loop, a tee shirt that's labelled "medium"---but it doesn't take a psychic to see it won't fit me---and an insulated spill-proof mug, all housed in an inexpensive vinyl tote.

Henceforth, they will be known as Prom Queen. I may have to take pwcorgigirl's suggestion and rename White Trash Queen with her monniker: The Po' Ho' Sto'....

Oh God, is it the weekend yet?! I have stuff I want to write, things I want to do around the house, and it's going to be 36 more hours before I can do any of it. Arrgh!

In the morning, I need to run to bank/WalMart to deposit my check. (Yes. I know. Direct deposit is a wonderful thing. Thank you....)

In other shiny, happy news, we have a new partner launching next week. My training for them is on Wednesday, my day off. Given the fact that my choices are that or at 8 AM Tuesday, I'm gonna suck it up and go in at 1 PM on my day off. After all, the following week, I've got a four-day weekend scheduled.

Yeah, and I've got March 6th off, too, because I'm thinking positively. *smirk* : )

from the world of work: There was a posting today for a management-level position in our department...the word on the floor is that He-Boss is departing. C-Boss will be filling his slot, meaning they'll be looking for a replacement for her. She-Boss remains where she is. HA! He barely lasted through one holiday (I can't remember the last time I saw him on the floor, now that I think of it. Certainly not since the new year!), after all his shit about his previous experience and how freakin' fabulous he was. This probably won't have any impact on me, but I'm still smirking. He lasted LESS than a year, what a putz.

Several major fools crossed my path today; I'm happy enough about the Red Hot Rumor that I'm not even going to vent about them. (Although the fool who was trying to return a pair of "barely worn!" Butch Boots that he'd had since 2005 was at least entertaining!)

Oh, and lest I forget, the Executroids have cancelled for this Friday. I'm sure they'll reschedule, but I'll worry about that when it happens.