Frustration

I hate my new boss so much that I'm seriously considering quitting my job so that I don't have to hear his voice. He is such an ungrateful, inconsiderate, moron that every time we interact I have to resist the urge to punch him in the face.

He's always going on about how the store has good teamwork. Almost everyone in the store is register trained and he expects everyone to jump on the register, whether they're busy or not. When I'm helping customers with their pet needs or in the back room disassembling the pump system so I can perform maintenance tasks it's not my job to jump on register. If I wasn't busy and I was in the vicinity, I would. But never am, so I don't know why he expects me to.

I can't call a cashier to aquatics when I get overwhelmed with customers. A good portion of the time I'm the only person in the store who can work my department anyway because very few people are trained for my department. Even some of the people who are trained for my department avoid it by all means possible. Great fucking team work there. If you want there to be enough cashiers to cover two or three lanes at a time, schedule more fucking cashiers. It's really that simple.

The new manager also complains that we don't get things done in a timely fashion. New fish need to go from an open box to being poured into tanks in no more than twenty minutes. Any longer than that and ammonia will build up in the bags and quickly kill the fish. He gets pissy when I don't get done in that timeframe, but won't hesitate to pull me up front to help a customer with dog treats. On the other side of the store. When there are four fucking people working customer service. On that side of the store.

So fuck him, and PetSmart, and fuck corporations, and fuck capitalism.

Anything

My life bores me to tears. It really does. I clean up after animals all day at work just to come home and play ten year old computer games because that's all that will run on my six year old computer. I rarely go out and when I do it's to do something I don't enjoy in the first place. I don't really do anything for myself and most of my money goes into paying off old debt.

I wish I could just get out of here and do something - anything.

New Years Resolutions

A quick post before I'm off to Connie's house. My New Year's Resolutions are as follows:

To become a Weekday Vegetarian.

To pay my debt in it's entirety. (Currently: $3585)

To spend time with the friends I've neglected over the last year.

To purchase fewer items and make use of the ones I do.

Good Year

It's been a good enough year. I have significantly less debt than I did last year, but I've made and spent more money. I've grown farther from my family but closer to my friends. I've found out who my real friends are. I found a way to organize the things I need to do, but realized how little I actually accomplish. I've come to a number of realizations that affect my everyday life. I've eaten a lot of new places, tried lots of foods I really enjoy, and found a number of good meat alternatives.

Christmas was nice this year. I got my dad a new computer (Asus referb, really good deal), my mom a new monitor, and the animals a variety of animal related stuff. Jason got me a much needed pair of work shoes, a few nice books and a shirt (a very interesting set of shirts). I got Jason a few shirts, Kirby's Epic Yarn (very fun game), and a book about video games. Not quite what I wanted to get him, but he liked them. My parents got me a Braun 550cc electric shaver (so now I can shave daily again), a nice pair of cuff links to match my tie tack (that I wore to Rose's wedding), and a case of Jone's Soda (always good).

That's all I have for now. I just didn't want to go a month without blogging.

Call Me Crazy

But I usually try to avoid spending time with people who wouldn't like me for who I am. Weird, how that works. My mom is apparently not the same way. She invited my aunt over to spend the night four days ago and she still hasn't left. During this time I can't have Jason over or do any of the things I enjoy or need to do. I also can't really go anywhere because I can't get my car towed and looked at until my dad gets paid on Wednesday, if he has enough to cover it, otherwise I have to wait until Friday and I don't even know when the mechanic would have time to look at it.

The only thing I can really rely on are my friends, all of whom I am grateful for.

Fighting Sleep

I'm kind of disappointed with life right now. I've learned not to sweat the small stuff, which becomes apparent when you look at the frequency of my posts over the past years. I usually don't blog when I'm in a good mood because I'm busy being happy. Funny how that works.

My car broke down last week and has been sitting at Phelp's because he couldn't fix a car if his life depended on it so I have to get it towed across town on Monday to a place that can look at my head gasket. Even though the head gasket is a cheap part, they'll have to disassemble the top part of my block, so I'm looking at a total of up to $1500. It could also be a plastic plume which would cost me more along the lines of $450, but I don't know. It's unclear to me what is wrong with the car because it's showing a few symptoms from multiple problems and then it wouldn't start, which is uncommon for a blown head gasket.

Jason and I have been running this forum for a while (mostly Jason because I don't know what I'm going), but it's been really slow and I hate to see it stagnate. There are a million things I'd like to do with it, if it only had a larger user base. All I can do for now is make Jason make a favicon and I'm going to make some sig bars because that's the only think I really know how to do. Right now I'm taking suggestions and hoping for the best.

I'm still satisfied with my holiday shopping. During the evening on Thanksgiving I bought my mom a Canon SD 1400 at $80 off. Target and Sears were running the same deal, but I try to avoid going out on Black Friday unless I work. I do have to finish buying Jason's gift though. Time is running out and I need to juggle my money this month, but I don't have an insurance payment due, so I think everything will be okay.

Q4

The whole minimalism thing is working well for me so far. I've been weeding out the things I don't really need, it's just going to take a while. That's mostly because I have a number of people trying to convince me to hold on to all these material possessions. It would probably help if I could explain what I'm trying to accmplish a little better, but all I can do is link to the Minimalist Blog.

The weddings went fairly well for me. Both of my friends' weddings were very nice. I'm glad Steph chose me to be in her wedding, as it was a very positive experience. I already talked some about Rose's wedding. The family weddings weren't entirely horrible and none of them lasted long, which was a plus.

Christmas is coming up and I've already done the bulk of my shopping. It's never too early to start, especially when you have to wait for the merchandise to be shipped to you. I got my mom the same ViewSonic monitor that my dad and I have because her current monitor produces a very poor picture. I got my dad a refurbished Asus computer, which is in perfect condition with the exception of a small scratch on one of the metal plates. I bought various other things for various other people, but this isn't the place.

Science Fiction Double Feature

Jason, Connie, and I saw the Rocky Horror Show in Port Huron this evening. We all had a pretty good time. The performance went well and everyone did a very good job. The audience participation was fun and we all did the time warp...again.



I have an eventful weekend coming up. Steph is getting married Saturday and I'm going to help her decorate the hall tomorrow before the rehearsal dinner. I picked up the tux today. It's very pink, not in a bad way, just pink. It looks nice, though. My plans for Halloween are still up in the air. That's all.

The Good Wedding

I've seen a lot of people get married for the wrong reasons. Peer pressure, money, tax benefits. They popped kids out, they had kids on the way, they thought they had kids on the way. I've seen people get divorced less than a year later. I've seen the bride cheat with the groom's brother at the reception. I've seen all the fighting and hatred. Only twice have I seen two people get married for the right reason.

Rose and Sean's wedding was really nice. Picturesque. The chapel was beautiful and everyone was dressed so nice. I enjoyed hanging out with all the people from work at the reception. Even Anne, out token old lady got dressed up and made an appearance. The groomers were their usual selves and everyone had a good time. All in all, it was a really positive experience for me.

Also, I'm going to blog about my budget occasionally.

Roots

Now I remember why I blog. Whenever I'm under a lot of stress I always feel better after writing about it, even when no one comments or people react negatively. And I've been under a lot of stress lately.

I got a ticket for going 84 on the expressway the other day, which greatly annoyed me for a number of reasons. I had worked late that night and stupidly agreed to come in early the next day to work the truck, so I was trying to get home in time to get five hours of sleep before I had to get up again. Normally I would have taken Gratiot to 26 and avoided I-94 altogether, but there was a lot of traffic that night and I couldn't make a left turn. Also, two people passed me in the three miles I was on the expressway.

Not thinking much of it, I updated my Facebook status and went to sleep. A number of people recommended that I fight the ticket, which I know I should. Recently I've been having minor panic attacks in normal social situations (seeing friends, helping customers, talking to the cashier at the gas station). Even more recently, since I decided to fight the ticket I've been having a major panic attack every morning and night. I can't sleep and I don't have good days at work. I think I have social anxiety disorder and should go to the clinic or something, but I can't go on being completely miserable every day for a month, so I'll just going to pay the fine, take the points, and be angry at myself for a few months.

I've already gone to one of the 4 weddings I'm invited to this month. It was a family wedding and it didn't go particularly well, but my parents and I didn't stay long. Sean and Rose's wedding is Sunday, and I'm looking forward to it. I helped Jason pick out a sportcoat and I still need to pick up a pair of black slacks. I do wish I had gotten them a little more as a gift though. Steph's wedding is coming up at the end of the month, which I'm also looking forward to, but I'm nervous about being in the wedding party because that's something I've definitely never done before and I don't know Mike's family or friends at all. I'm really excited about their Halloween themed reception and I already have costumes in mind for Jason and myself. I'm making them both myself, which will be cheap but shouldn't look it.

My mom made cards for both of the weddings, which was really nice of her. They're very nice and I really appreciated it. I'm only worried that she's going to say something about me going to these weddings with Jason. I know how she is and I know I shouldn't let her ruin my day, but sometimes she still does. I feel awkward having Jason come here to pick me up in his suit, but feel horrible about asking him to meet me somewhere else.

After that comes Christmas, which I don't even want to think about yet.

Labor Day 2010

I wasn't even supposed to be there today, at least not the entire day. The new girl called in sick this afternoon. Under normal conditions it wouldn't be a problem to find someone to cover for her, but it's labor day and everyone who wasn't at work was out enjoying themselves. Of course I stayed to cover her shift. It was only a few extra hours and I do make $15 an hour on holidays. The rude cunts who gave me attitude all day weren't worth it.

It all started when I went to Arby's this morning and found them seriously understaffed. I didn't complain because it didn't really bother me. I just wanted to get some food. Roughly an hour later a guy was complaining because we were understaffed (It was just me, the cashier, and the store manager) and told me that he called in at work because he "didn't feel like dealing with that shit." Where did he work? Arby's.

The middle parts are a blur. I remember not finishing my tanks and not selling particularly much.

It ended with the two cheap-asses who came the minute the store closed and couldn't decide what fish to buy. Not only did they ignore two closing announcements, but they argued for 5 minutes about which fish would be better to restart their tank. After I handpicked all 16 of their fish I realized they were all on our stupid dollar special. We wasted 15 minutes after the store closed for their measly $16. They could have just come in tomorrow after the sale ends, but before we take down the tags like all the other people do.

Any of these stories could be in my head and any resemblance to real people is purely coincidental.

School Can Suck It.

Today is the first day of the fall 2010 semester at Macomb Community College. I won't be going. Not because I couldn't get government aid, because I did. Not because I couldn't get into the classes I needed, because I did. Not because I didn't jump through all of the pointless hoops the college requires, because I did. But apparently, I turned in my financial aid papers 8 days too late.

I had originally filled out my FAFSA during the second week of January so I would be ahead of the game. Unfortunately, I put in the wrong school code and Rochester College received my paperwork. I didn't realize it until April but I fixed it immediately at that time. Not having been to school for six years, I didn't realize the deadline was four months before classes start. I also didn't realize the people in the financial aid office were so useless.

During the second week of July I made a few trips to the college. Both of them were after work, so I didn't have time to finish everything at once. The first day I talked to an academic adviser and did an online orientation. The second day I lined up some classes with an academic counselor and waited in a hallway for three hours to talk to someone in the financial aid office. I asked the woman if there was anything else I needed to do and she told me to go ahead and register for classes and my aid would cover it.

The following day I registered for classes (after making another trip to the college to update my address so I could do so) and everything worked out fine. I watched my statement online and waited for my grants to be applied. There was a note toward the bottom of the statement that states that the Financial Aid Paid entry reflects aid paid on classes that start within ten days of the statement. I was a little worried that the payment was due 3 days before that time, but the lady in the financial aid office assured me it would be fine.

On the thirteenth (10 days before class started) my tuition still hadn't been paid and I still had a balance so I called the financial aid office but couldn't get through. I made another trip to the college the next day and waited in the hall for another three hours. The lady then told me that my FAFSA was late and hadn't been processed despite having been sent three months prior. Her solution: "pay cash and we'll reimburse you IF your aid goes through before the next semester." Okay, just let me hop in my Mercedes and draw $2200 from my bank.

Needless to say I'm very annoyed with Macomb Community College.

For Anyone Who Has Declined to Bowl With Me:

You guys are missing out. Just saying.

This Post is Poorly Written

I ended up finding the contacts I needed for my wipers through the local GM dealership, even though they had told me that they couldn't find any. They charged me three times the market value ($10, up from $3), but I picked them up the next day and was ready to go. The last time I fixed my own wipers I thought broke them because they worked a little worse than they had been, but worked. This time was a completely different story.

I called the local mechanic who is always too busy working on cop cars to do anything else. He blew me off and told me to call another mechanic to do it. It was getting kind of late and I needed to have wipers the next day, so I decided to fix it myself. Once I gathered the right tools and disassembled the wiper assembly, I learned a few things:

After installing the contacts and motor cover, I tried my wipers and the motor was doing the same thing. It turns out that the Autozone wiper motor I had installed last year already broken. One of the metal arms broke free and got lodged into a small piece of plastic. This is what caused the motor cover (including the motor controller circuits) to crack, which is what I thought caused the wipers to stop working last month.

I proceeded to reinstall the old wiper motor, which I lazily left in my trunk for the last year. Despite being a little rusty, it works beautifully. I reassembled the wiper assembly, reapplied the cover strip, and reattached the wiper arms. My wipers now work on all of the speeds, including the intermittent ones. The washer pump also works so I don't have to put up with my dirty windshield any longer. Now I just have to change my oil and rotate my tires and I'll be set for a while.

This Isn't the Best Time

I don't know how to say all the things I'd like to say. Give me a few days to regroup and I'll try again.

The Art of Stress

I'm trying to go back to school next month. Last week I went through enrollment and placement testing process and registered for classes. Even though most of the classes I planned on taking were full, I ended up finding some that would fulfill some requirements. All my classes are on Monday and Wednesday (with an additional one online) so I can still work as much as I have been. I even sat in a hallway for two hours to talk to the lady in the financial aid office to make sure there was nothing else I needed to do in order for it to go through. Still, I don't trust it.

I don't trust financial institutions to get my money where it needs to be when it needs to be there. My bank fucks me. Hard. So do my credit card companies. Even Baker College of Port Huron mishandled my money. Why would now be any different? I have too much credit card debt right not to be screwing around.

I'm also having a Hell of a time finding a set of windshield wiper motor park switch contacts of my car. My wiper motor cover somehow cracked in half (WTF?) and I bought a replacement, but I'm missing a few of the contacts that are used to connect it to the motor itself. The contacts were discontinued by AC Delco and none of the local stores or online shops have them. Even the reseller on eBay was out of stock, after getting my hopes up with multiple confirmation emails. So now I have no wipers. Again.

A lot of my friends are getting married and having kids right now, which is great. I'm really happy for all of them. I'm not so happy that every time someone in my life has good news she takes her anger out on me. I'd really like to tell her to fuck off, but I don't have anywhere to go. After 6 years, I'm still stuck here.

And Don't Get Me Started on Their Retarded Fucking Children

I'm sick of selling animals to people who just kill them. And they don't even care. They don't give a fuck that their goldfish produce a substance that is toxic to the fish they're buying. They don't give a fuck that birds have sensitive respiratory systems and a lot of the chemicals we inhale will kill them. They don't give a fuck that guinea pigs don't have the ability to produce vitamin C, so without a constant supply they'll die. And they especially don't give a fuck that they have to pay attention to their fucking animals and keep buying more that they fucking neglect.

Then they don't want to interact with me. Like dealing with a physical person is a burden and their animals should just appear in their hands. On the other hand, they don't have any problem wasting all my time with their common sense questions and stupid ideas. Yes, those big fish with the teeth will eat those tiny fish. Yes, you can mix blue and yellow guppies. No you can't mix salt water fish with fresh water fish. Yes, I do work in the fish department, that's why I'm standing in front of the enormous fucking wall of fish.

Now I'm off to build my moon base.

Priorities

Despite all the things in my life that are going well, I'd like to take the opportunity to remind everyone how much I hate the fucking bitch I live with. Today I rented a tuxedo for Stephanie and Mike's wedding. I also got promoted. But that's not nearly as important as Stepahnie being unavailable to be the miracle that makes me normal again. She can go fuck herself because I'm done playing her bullshit games. That is all.

On Work

The position I had originally applied for at PetSmart three years ago was cashier. I was applying online and didn't know what to put in the box, so that was my default. It turned out that they didn't need a cashier at the time but Emma called to inform me of an opening available as a dog trainer. Even though I didn't (and still don't) know anything about training dogs I went to the interview. I think Emma and Amy mutually concluded that I was too shy to be a trainer so they stuck me in pet care, cleaning fish tanks and bird cages.

It's good that things worked out like that because I register trained over the last few weeks and I hate it a lot more than I though. I can handle rude people. I can handle people who act like I'm mentally challenged because I work part time at a pet store. I can handle people who take their bad days out on me and throw tantrums when they don't get their way. I can even handle people who launch personal attacks on me for no particular reason. What I can't handle are stupid people.

"Why is my total $95?" Did you see all the shit in your cart? Apparently not.

"Why did my total go from $40 to $185?" The $40 was your that bag of dog food I scanned. That's why it said PURNIA DOG FOOD. Now it says TOTAL. That's your total. Learn math.

"Why does the shelf say $4 if this is really $8?" It's on sale with your store card. You declined a card application and refused to give me your phone number. Learn to read.

"Why does the shelf say $20 if this is really $75?" Someone put it in the wrong spot. Did you honestly expect to get that price?

"Why does everything here cost so much?" Because the corporation takes advantage of stupid people.

Antisocial

I'm feeling kind of antisocial this evening. Exactly why this results in a desire to blog is unclear, especially considering I don't really have much to blog about.

I've been pushing to update the electronics in our house not only to have better equipment available when I need it, but also to be a little more eco friendly. In February I replaced my aging CRT monitor with a new LED backlit LCD and my old hard drive with a Western Digital Caviar Green drive. For Mother's day my dad and I are going to pick up a 65 watt MSI Wind Nettop to replace my mom's ancient 250 watt 233. For Father's day the following month, my mom and I are going to get my dad a new monitor similar or identical to mine. On a side note, I was going to plant a tree today for Earth Day/Hank Green's birthday, but don't get paid until tomorrow.

A lot has been going on at work, much of which isn't really my business to talk about. A few people are leaving for better jobs, which is good because they're getting away from situations that don't work for them and will likely get better pay. On the other hand, it sucks because they were both genuinely nice and knowledgeable people. We've had some people come to my department from other areas of the store, which is good because I really enjoy teaching people things and it's nice to see people on a more regular basis.

I'm looking for a new hobby. Something cheap and preferably something I can use to make a little money on the side. I've considered picking up a small tank (I'd love a Fluval Edge, but it's $99 on sale where I work and up to $150 online) and doing some aquascaping. No fish. Just rocks, dirt, and plants. It's not the cheapest hobby, of course, but with a little effort I could make something really nice. Any thoughts on productive hobbies would be nice.