Alicat

It is no longer clear who's manipulating who. I can't tell if the tears are for her, or for the innocent little teenager inside me I just killed.

I ran the shifts all this week. Went well at first. Would have continued to go well except I got food poisoning so three of those shifts were cut short by my being sent home sick. Yeah, that sucked. But I got better, so now I can go back to work... just in time for me not to have any more shifts to officially run for a while. Shit. I will get another chance, I'm sure.


I need to have another chance at work, because I am out of chances, and out of patience where Shari is concerned. I have had nothing but mixed signals from her ever since Keisha came into the picture, so you can guess where that went. She finally told me they were official last week. That's when she told me. It totally slipped out of her mouth in a way that made me wonder if she even planned on telling me at all. She was probably afraid that if she told me she couldn't charm me into her bed anymore.


Yeah. That's kind of all I have to say about that. I wish I could say that things are over between us. Officially, they are, but unofficially, I'm still trying to cut through that chain. Wish me luck.

All of my hard work has finally paid off! And it all happened so quickly, at that! I've been wanting a promotion and yet had been putting off the work required of it. I don't know why. But two weeks ago on a Monday, Aaron was in my store for a training class on the new Frappe machines, and that was just the wake-up call I needed to get my butt in gear. That day on my break I finished checking off all my Follow-up SOCs, and the next day I sat down and completed the online assessment. I spoke to the assistant Kate a few times about what came next (which technically should be an interview with the supervisor Darryl), and then a week ago today I told my store manager Polly that I had completed the assessment and asked when we could expect to see Darryl. Thursday morning, Darryl was in the store, and although I did not get to speak to him personally as I was busy doing my job, Polly spoke to him on my behalf and he gave the go-ahead to getting me into management! My shirts were ordered the same day and they arrived today. You'd better believe that I will be in that store at 5:50 tomorrow morning in that pretty new gray shirt, ready to do my manager thing!


This all comes at a time that things are really uncertain between Shari and me. That seems counterintuitive at first, but it actually makes perfect sense in the grand scheme of things. Basically when I was still worried I might not get the promotion (before I saw Aaron), I got all stressed out. Not at work; at work I was fine. Once I was off work, however, I actually had time to think about things and all the worry stressed me out. Except in the evolution of my emotions, my stress began to manifest itself into anger, which I would then take out on Shari. Shari, needless to say, did not appreciate this. We had to sit down and have a really serious talk, and what we ultimately decided was to take a step back (though not totally out) of the relationship so that we can each focus on ourselves and our personal goals for the moment. For me, that's my career. Also, controlling my anger. Which, I think, I have made great strides in. Make that leaps and bounds. Church helps. No, I mean, it REALLY helps. Once I get settled into my new role enough to start making regular schedule requests, I've been thinking I might like to join the choir (for lack of a better word; for me choir raises images of folks in matching church robes singing hymnals along with an organ, which is most definitely not what is happening at my church). Anyway, back to the point: things are slowly but surely getting better all the time. Shari and I have gotten along without major incident for over two weeks. Wow, when I say it like that it seems like a whole lot shorter time than how it actually feels. Well, only time will tell, anyway.

I'll try to keep you all posted, but with me, you know there are no guarantees.

Everyone has to watch The Daily Show from tonight(Nov. 10). Jon Stewart busted Sean Hannity reuing stock footage to boost his own story. And Fox News wonders why everyone is picking on them...

P.S. The car is finally all taken care of!! It is nice to have my baby back in tact, clean, and pretty much brand new.

... or He hates my Neon.

I don't get it. We ran around all day with it today. Even took it to my mom's shop in Washingtome and back. Then when it was time to take Shari to work... nothing. Turn the key, nothing happens. All the electrical comes on, but after that, the engine does not engage at all.

I'm not sure how this happened since the car has a BRAND NEW FREAKING MOTOR, but rest assured it will be going back to the shop ASAP. Thank God for my motor club. I should be able to have it towed at no expense, and I definitely should be able to get a rental if needed. Also luckily for me, Shari's name is on that motor club, and she should be able to take care of all of this while I am at work dealing with the homecoming insanity tomorrow morning.

I could just cry. But instead, I'm finishing my carton of Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough ice cream.

Got my car back! Yay! The folks that fixed it are awesome and I plan to take my car to them in the future. They even recommended me a body shop where I might be able to get new carpets. I'm gonna need them. Soon. Cause they're all mildew-y and stinky and they're gonna make me sick eventually. I can already feel crap in my throat just from running errands today.

I finally decided to see what all the big fuss was about a while back and started watching Lost on Hulu. I finished up the first season the other night. And of course it raised more questions than it answered, which I suppose is the point. Meanwhile, I've gotten myself hooked on two new shows: Dollhouse (of course, another Joss Whedon creation) and FlashForward.

At work, I'm a crew trainer. Tomorrow I get to train two people at once. Yeah, on a Saturday. Oh, even better, it's homecoming for ECU. The game is at noon. The trainees are there from 7 to 11. Whee!

Today's news: The motor is shot. I need a new one.

Here's the fun part: The shop I took the car to doesn't actually do that kind of work. So it had to be towed again, to a different shop, which CAN do the work.

The good news is, now that that's taken care of, my car can actually get fixed. Which means that I can start actually waiting to get her back.

I tried like hell to revive my baby, but I finally had to give up day before yesterday and just file an insurance claim. Yesterday an adjuster called me at about 8:30 in the morning, and I called a shop and had it towed. They said, "We'll be right there." I guess that's mechanic speak for "whenever the hell we get to it," cause they didn't show up to tow it till about noon, an hour after I went in to work. So I didn't even get to see Debbie off.

At 2:00 PM, they still had nothing to offer me. They hadn't looked at it, and it would be today before they would know anything.

So then I called them today at around 4:00, and they said they had looked at it but not diagnosed it (Shari thinks that means they tried to crank it and it didn't crank, big surprise, it has WATER IN THE ENGINE). They also said it would probably be late Monday or early Tuesday before they would be able to diagnose it. I raised my voice, and they shaved off the "early Tuesday" part, but still put it at a "probably" which still is not definite. Assholes.

So I called the adjuster back and asked for my rental. I got that taken care of, and for the time being Shari and I are driving a 2009 Pontiac G-6, which I have named "Gina".

On Monday, I'm going to start swearing at the mechanics.
On Tuesday (or possibly Monday depending on how assholish they are being), I'm going to sick my father on them.
On Wednesday, if nothing has happened, I will be calling my adjuster to ask if I can still have it towed to another shop.

They're obviously too busy to handle my business. And this is exactly why I am learning to fix shit myself.

Not only did I forget about this thing for four months, I forgot about it for over a year!!

So here's the last year in a nutshell:

I passed those physics classes with B's. I then did the same thing with Organic Chemistry, which I was surprised to find gave me trouble. Then I walked in graduation this May, and finished up my degree over the summer with Marine Biology and Physiology and Anatomy. I got my degree in the mail about a week ago. It's so pretty!

Speaking of graduation, I found myself in an unenviable position of having a deadline by which to come out to my extended family. It went well. Grandma said, "Okay" like she was waiting fot the BIG announcement, Aunt Jami already knew, and Uncle Mick didn't even hesitate to say, "We're looking forward to meeting her." (Mick didn't end up being able to come :( but the reaction was still awesome) Shari's even been invited to Christmas, which was definitely not something that either of us expected, at least so soon.

I got stressed out about a lot of stuff, and I made the mistake of taking my baggage to work with me. In October, I walked out on a shift, which cost me my job, and then stayed unemployed until... April? May? I got a job at Bojangle's which was pretty cool until I heard that there was a change in management and the guy who had hired me in the first place (who is actually cool) is now the supervisor at the store I used to work at. Then I went and begged for my job back, and they reluctantly gave it to me, on a trial basis. I've been doing so well that the store manager can't stop complimenting my improved attitude and I've even been promoted to Crew Trainer, complete with a shiny new nametag. Next stop: management!

Meanwhile, Shari got a new job at Wal-Mart. Woohoo! Can't wait for that discount to kick in. On a similar note, my dad also got a job at Wal-Mart in a different town.

Since I'm not in school, I spend a lot of my free time writing my fanfiction. I had a lot of unfinished stories from back with Buffy was still on the air, and I've gotten quite a few of them done. I think I should actually be through with all of the unfinished fics in a few months. It'll be awesome to actually fulfill a New Year's Resolution for once.

Anyway that's all for now. I gotta eat lunch and then get ready to be taken to work, because I drowned my car in the big storm last night. Go me!

Hi! Alive again. Remember how I said I had a 15-hour semester? Yeah, well, that's been fun. Hectic, but fun. Physics still sucks, but once I pass this one I don't have to take anymore. I can't wait!! The semester ends in just a couple of weeks, so then I'll actually have a little time to relax... two weeks to be exact. Then I have to take Chemistry during the summer. And for the rest of my school, there is good news and there is... "meh" news. The good news is that I can graduate at the end of next summer. Unfortunately, that means two more 15-hour semesters during the regular school year. I think at this point I've finally gotten used to it, so I think I can manage it for one more year.

I also think I can manage this particular McDonald's for one more year. At least, I hope. Once I graduate, Shari and I are packing up & moving to the beach, where there are better McJobs for us. They'll treat us better there, and they will also pay us better. The awesome supervisor left for a new franchise, so my thought is we'll probably try to go work for him, for two reasons. One, my old owner is basically a racist, and dammit, Shari deserves way better than basic crew. And two, I know Aaron could pay us better than Keith anyday anyhow.

In other news, I have a hater. My ex-girlfriend keeps doing this psycho Jeckyll-and-Hyde thing where she pretends she's my BFF one day, and then the next time I see her, she's acting all bitchy. Actually, she sometimes does that within one day.. I finally realized that hating is just her job at this point, and I'm not even bothering trying to save the friendship anymore. Cause she obviously doesn't want it, and neither do I if she's going to act like a spoiled child.

Also, I have finally taken advantage of the free counselling at the university.

Well, that's about it for this edition. Hopefully next time I won't forget about this thing for four months.