hollybrooke (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
hollybrooke) wrote2008-12-25 06:24 pm
hollybrooke) wrote2008-12-25 06:24 pm
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Merry Christmas to one and all!
It's been a while since an update, and I'm sorely behind on "Rock of Love: Charm School" recaps/commentary, but I'll get to that in the next post. Things have been either busy or impaired by a loss of power on my part.
Today--Christmas Day--is the only day off I got from work this week, which kind of pisses me off. I will have worked ten days straight, then a day off. Yeah, it'll look good on my paycheck, but come ON. But good news on the work front! First of all, I've hit another six month mark, which means another raise, which means I'm still earning more money at Strack's than I was at Blockbuster. Second of all, we've been taking donations for the Northwest Indiana Food Bank for the last few weeks. We have another contest going on with us cashiers taking donations. Whoever was in first place as of the beginning of this week got a $25 gift card to Applebee's, but whoever comes in first place in the next week wins a $100 Visa gift card. Guess who was in first place as of this week? (About time!)
But here's even better news. Yesterday, maybe an hour before my shift ended, Randy (the store manager) came up behind me and placed some money on my counter and said, "When you get some time, ring me up for six five-dollar donations and two three-dollar donations." That comes up to $36. Randy gave me $66, then just went off to do whatever he had to do. So he had $30 in change, and I still had it with me, hoping he hadn't left before I was able to give him his change. About a half hour later, he was going through another register doing some random Christmas shopping before he left. I closed down my register briefly and ran down to the register he was at to give him his change. He then said, "Oh, just put whatever change is left towards five-dollar donations." First of all, that's very generous of him. Second of all, that's $66 towards MY final count. I think I pretty much have this won!
The weather around here has been pretty craptacular this week, but it's been pretty craptacular in the whole USA, except for maybe Arizona. We got a pretty bad ice storm Saturday night and lost power for a whole day. Sunday was probably the WORST DAY EVER at work. During my nine-to-five shift, the store lost power a total of NINE TIMES. Not terrible because we at least have backup generators in the store, but every time we lost power, the heating got messed up. The entire store was FREEZING. For a few hours, they had me on register 6, the express lane, and OH MY FREAKING GOD, that was a nightmare. Customers nonstop, and it's right next to U-Scan and the front entrance, so the doors kept opening up and the wind was blowing directly in the store. And you'd think with weather like that, people would just keep their asses at home and try to stay warm, but HELL NO! For some reason, whenever there are terrible weather conditions around here, it drives people to do mass shopping! Yeah, I understand a lot of it was Christmas shopping, but it was only December 21st. It's not like we wouldn't have been open December 22nd. Only stupid people go out to do shopping in weather like that.
The power went out and on all day at home on Sunday, as well. It was on by the time I got home, then it went off again, but the generator was going for us to watch TV. So I at least got to watch the "Charm School" finale. The next night, I finally got around to making the Christmas cookies for his parents, but not until I got home from work, which was after nine in the evening. I was up into the wee hours of the night making cookies. Then around one in the morning....the power went out AGAIN! I was in the middle of mixing a batch of cookies and was all, "SHIT!" But I fished out some candles and just did the rest of the batch by candlelight, since we still at least could use the oven. Then the power came back on about an hour later.
Tuesday, Kevin and I got together and went out to Applebee's because I had that gift card, and we exchanged presents. I got him Bender's Big Score (because he was having a hard time finding it) and the new Offspring album. Plus, I baked him a batch of cookies because he really likes when I make cookies. :D He got me some perfume from Victoria's Secret (Dream Angels Heavenly...yay!) and....this was unexpected, especially since it's not officially out on DVD yet....all of "Daria" on an 8-DVD set. (EEEEEE!!!!) Yes, it's a bootleg, but at least it's the entire series. But I guess he got it from some dealer on A&E Shop who has the rights for it from MTV. I'm waiting for Kevin to get more info about that to me, because I know there are plenty of people who are dying for "Daria" to be on DVD, especially since they already have all "Beavis and Butt-Head" on DVD officially.
Now if ONLY they would do that for the remaining episode of "Jem." URGH!!!!
His mom picked up "Shin-Chan" Volume 1 on DVD for me, too. (Party party! Join us! Join us! :D ) Kevin got my mom a new bathrobe, which she LOVES. And he got my dad a $20 gift card for Gander Mountain. Mom said she felt bad because she wasn't sure they'd get anything from him (even though she got him a $20 gas card), but he told her not to worry about it.
Christmas today at Grandma Julie's.....Mom wouldn't drop it that Hunter's gaining the weight back on, and Hunter snapped at her because she just WOULDN'T DROP IT. It's not just the weight comments, but just snide little comments that were uncalled for. She wonders why he loses his temper with her, but she needs to be called out on this shit because it's really bothering all of us. Jessica came with us this year, and Mom was getting on my shit about why Kevin wasn't doing Christmas with us, or why I wasn't doing Christmas with his family. (Main reason? He didn't ask, and it's not really my business or thing to be weaseling my way into those sort of things. Besides, his uncle just died, and I'm sure his dad's side of the family wants some time to themselves now.) Troy, TJ and Sandy came, as usual. Now as much as we try to include Sandy as a part of the family....I think Jessica hit the nail on the head when she said, "Your cousin Sandy just seemed so detached from the rest of you guys." Which she is. She's usually absorbed in her cellphone text messaging or whatever. (Last year, she actually brought some scrapbooking activity for her little sorority to work on while eating and getting whatever cash/gift card she gets from Grandma Julie.) She wasn't dressed head-to-toe in Abercrombie & Fitch this year, but she was sporting her little sorority t-shirt. And she just turned 21 a few days ago, too; she was going on and on about how she was FINALLY able to legally buy alcohol. (Because we all know how much underage drinking she's doing in college; she is a sorority chick, after all. Troy is worried she will turn into an alcoholic like her good-for-nothing biological father.) Before they all showed up, Mom encouraged all of us to pig out on the spinach dip in the Hawaiian bread bowl because Sandy always pigs out on that and never leaves any for the rest of us. (Because she is a vegetarian, after all. *rolls eyes*) And she did indeed make a beeline for the remnants of the spinach dip! We try really hard to include Sandy and make her a part of the family, but her spoiled girl act and "better than you" attitude just make it very hard.
In headline news....Caylee Anthony is indeed dead. We knew it. We've known this for months. It's sad because Casey Anthony so obviously did it. Because she's told so many lies to the police and authorities about the whole situation. Because so much could have been done about this sooner. It's sickening because Cindy and George Anthony are covering up for her regardless. I hope that baby killer gets the death penalty in Florida.
Yeah, a helluva post!
Today--Christmas Day--is the only day off I got from work this week, which kind of pisses me off. I will have worked ten days straight, then a day off. Yeah, it'll look good on my paycheck, but come ON. But good news on the work front! First of all, I've hit another six month mark, which means another raise, which means I'm still earning more money at Strack's than I was at Blockbuster. Second of all, we've been taking donations for the Northwest Indiana Food Bank for the last few weeks. We have another contest going on with us cashiers taking donations. Whoever was in first place as of the beginning of this week got a $25 gift card to Applebee's, but whoever comes in first place in the next week wins a $100 Visa gift card. Guess who was in first place as of this week? (About time!)
But here's even better news. Yesterday, maybe an hour before my shift ended, Randy (the store manager) came up behind me and placed some money on my counter and said, "When you get some time, ring me up for six five-dollar donations and two three-dollar donations." That comes up to $36. Randy gave me $66, then just went off to do whatever he had to do. So he had $30 in change, and I still had it with me, hoping he hadn't left before I was able to give him his change. About a half hour later, he was going through another register doing some random Christmas shopping before he left. I closed down my register briefly and ran down to the register he was at to give him his change. He then said, "Oh, just put whatever change is left towards five-dollar donations." First of all, that's very generous of him. Second of all, that's $66 towards MY final count. I think I pretty much have this won!
The weather around here has been pretty craptacular this week, but it's been pretty craptacular in the whole USA, except for maybe Arizona. We got a pretty bad ice storm Saturday night and lost power for a whole day. Sunday was probably the WORST DAY EVER at work. During my nine-to-five shift, the store lost power a total of NINE TIMES. Not terrible because we at least have backup generators in the store, but every time we lost power, the heating got messed up. The entire store was FREEZING. For a few hours, they had me on register 6, the express lane, and OH MY FREAKING GOD, that was a nightmare. Customers nonstop, and it's right next to U-Scan and the front entrance, so the doors kept opening up and the wind was blowing directly in the store. And you'd think with weather like that, people would just keep their asses at home and try to stay warm, but HELL NO! For some reason, whenever there are terrible weather conditions around here, it drives people to do mass shopping! Yeah, I understand a lot of it was Christmas shopping, but it was only December 21st. It's not like we wouldn't have been open December 22nd. Only stupid people go out to do shopping in weather like that.
The power went out and on all day at home on Sunday, as well. It was on by the time I got home, then it went off again, but the generator was going for us to watch TV. So I at least got to watch the "Charm School" finale. The next night, I finally got around to making the Christmas cookies for his parents, but not until I got home from work, which was after nine in the evening. I was up into the wee hours of the night making cookies. Then around one in the morning....the power went out AGAIN! I was in the middle of mixing a batch of cookies and was all, "SHIT!" But I fished out some candles and just did the rest of the batch by candlelight, since we still at least could use the oven. Then the power came back on about an hour later.
Tuesday, Kevin and I got together and went out to Applebee's because I had that gift card, and we exchanged presents. I got him Bender's Big Score (because he was having a hard time finding it) and the new Offspring album. Plus, I baked him a batch of cookies because he really likes when I make cookies. :D He got me some perfume from Victoria's Secret (Dream Angels Heavenly...yay!) and....this was unexpected, especially since it's not officially out on DVD yet....all of "Daria" on an 8-DVD set. (EEEEEE!!!!) Yes, it's a bootleg, but at least it's the entire series. But I guess he got it from some dealer on A&E Shop who has the rights for it from MTV. I'm waiting for Kevin to get more info about that to me, because I know there are plenty of people who are dying for "Daria" to be on DVD, especially since they already have all "Beavis and Butt-Head" on DVD officially.
Now if ONLY they would do that for the remaining episode of "Jem." URGH!!!!
His mom picked up "Shin-Chan" Volume 1 on DVD for me, too. (Party party! Join us! Join us! :D ) Kevin got my mom a new bathrobe, which she LOVES. And he got my dad a $20 gift card for Gander Mountain. Mom said she felt bad because she wasn't sure they'd get anything from him (even though she got him a $20 gas card), but he told her not to worry about it.
Christmas today at Grandma Julie's.....Mom wouldn't drop it that Hunter's gaining the weight back on, and Hunter snapped at her because she just WOULDN'T DROP IT. It's not just the weight comments, but just snide little comments that were uncalled for. She wonders why he loses his temper with her, but she needs to be called out on this shit because it's really bothering all of us. Jessica came with us this year, and Mom was getting on my shit about why Kevin wasn't doing Christmas with us, or why I wasn't doing Christmas with his family. (Main reason? He didn't ask, and it's not really my business or thing to be weaseling my way into those sort of things. Besides, his uncle just died, and I'm sure his dad's side of the family wants some time to themselves now.) Troy, TJ and Sandy came, as usual. Now as much as we try to include Sandy as a part of the family....I think Jessica hit the nail on the head when she said, "Your cousin Sandy just seemed so detached from the rest of you guys." Which she is. She's usually absorbed in her cellphone text messaging or whatever. (Last year, she actually brought some scrapbooking activity for her little sorority to work on while eating and getting whatever cash/gift card she gets from Grandma Julie.) She wasn't dressed head-to-toe in Abercrombie & Fitch this year, but she was sporting her little sorority t-shirt. And she just turned 21 a few days ago, too; she was going on and on about how she was FINALLY able to legally buy alcohol. (Because we all know how much underage drinking she's doing in college; she is a sorority chick, after all. Troy is worried she will turn into an alcoholic like her good-for-nothing biological father.) Before they all showed up, Mom encouraged all of us to pig out on the spinach dip in the Hawaiian bread bowl because Sandy always pigs out on that and never leaves any for the rest of us. (Because she is a vegetarian, after all. *rolls eyes*) And she did indeed make a beeline for the remnants of the spinach dip! We try really hard to include Sandy and make her a part of the family, but her spoiled girl act and "better than you" attitude just make it very hard.
In headline news....Caylee Anthony is indeed dead. We knew it. We've known this for months. It's sad because Casey Anthony so obviously did it. Because she's told so many lies to the police and authorities about the whole situation. Because so much could have been done about this sooner. It's sickening because Cindy and George Anthony are covering up for her regardless. I hope that baby killer gets the death penalty in Florida.
Yeah, a helluva post!