Long Time No Blog
I didn't do my usual Sunday wrap up post because I had jury duty Monday and thought I was going to have a bunch of free time to sit and blog, but I didn't and then I was busy, and anyway, here's what's up:
Last Wednesday I worked my 3rd and final park shift of the season, at Shrek. My job was to keep the strollers parked in the right place, and every now and then (mostly to go inside and cool off for a bit) I was to help the lady that was putting 3D glasses in bins. Not terribly exciting, and most of the staff acted like I didn't exist, but at least the lead was nice, and there was a really cool guy there that usually works at Jaws and was just helping out for the day that I talked to a bit. During my lunch break I went back to my desk to get my book, and I discovered that everyone else that had gone out to work park shifts that day had been immediately sent back because it wasn't that busy. Lucky me to be the only one that wasn't. So when I went back I told this to the lead and asked if he really needed me and he was like "Give me one more hour and then you can go." So my 4 hour shift ended up being 3 hours. Woop-dee-doo. Marlene had the NERVE to say I was lucky because she had to do all 3 full shifts. Remember, she was one of the lucky ones that got the easy shift where you sit on your ass and sort money in the vault, so she really needed to STFU. Yes, working 12 hours on your ass is much harder than working 11 on your feet in the hot sun, dealing with hordes of guests.
Friday they went Royal Wedding crazy at work. A couple of days before that, we'd gotten invitations to celebrate the nuptials by wearing a fancy hat or tiara, and there would be food. I didn't have a hat to wear, plus I had almost zero interest in that wedding, so I just showed up for work as usual. It was nice to be fed all day though. They had some really good food. And I did let Sharon loan me one of her hats so I could be in the group photo.
Carmen had invited me to go to O'Charleys that evening for happy hour with her and her co-worker. I got off work at 4:22 (to be precise, ha ha. When you reach 40 hours, you reach 40 hours. No OT allowed) and she was still at work, so she told me where she was and I found her and some others in a conference room, making cards for hospitalized children. So I sat and colored and applied stickers with them for 1/2 hour and then we headed over to happy hour. I spent 3 or 4 hours there, drinking strawberry margaritas (and 2 shots this one guy bought us) and eating chicken tenders, and then I headed downtown to Bonkerz comedy club, to meet up with April, Jeff, and 3 others couples (yes, I was the 9th wheel, ha ha) for a stand up show April had won tickets for. It was fun, although after going to The Improv several times recently (another place April and I sometimes win free tickets to), my standards were a bit high. The Improv is a really nice comedy club, whereas Bonkerz is basically a bar where people sometimes get up and tell some jokes. Also, the acoustics are bad so when people are talking it's really magnified, so the whole time the comedian is talking you're hearing all these other conversations going on. He even said "Shut the fuck up" a few times, which amused me because, seriously. STFU. But yeah, I had a good time. He was pretty funny, and I enjoyed my fries and Mudslide.
Saturday Casey woke me up around 9:00 to tell me she wanted to go to her friend's birthday party at the beach, and that they were already leaving so she needed me to take her. It's over an hour away. Of course, she'd already been talking about going to the beach, but nothing had been set in stone. The drama went something like this - Taylor did not invite Melanie to her beach birthday party, and even went so far as to mock her for not being invited, so Casey decided to protest by not going either, and instead going to the beach with Melanie on their own. And then Melanie got her period, so Casey was like ok, let's just hang out then, and then she couldn't because her mom was sick or something, so she finally gave in and decided to go to Taylor's party after all. The morning of the party. So I, being too nice, was almost considering driving her all the way there (but did insist she have a ride home, I refused to drive a total of 6 hours to drop off and pick up, especially with gas prices where they are now), but as luck would have it, they had not left yet by the time she was finished getting ready, and all I had to do was drop her off at Taylor's house, 5 miles away. Whew.
While she was gone and I was doing random household chores, I got a text from her step-mom, asking if she'd used the certificate she'd given her for Christmas for a nearby putt putt place, because she could see from her account that it was expiring the next day. Crap, I hadn't noticed it was expiring so soon. So I texted Casey, and as soon as she was done with the birthday party, I picked up (a very sunburned) her, Alejo, Andy and Melanie and dropped them all off at the mall to use the certificate and hang out a bit. Alejo's mom was going to take them all home later since I had plans. Amy was visiting from Georgia and a bunch of us had made plans to meet up at Hamburger Marys for a drag show and some dinner and drinks. Aside from me and Amy, she'd brought her friend Greg, and then there was Carmen, Sharon, her brother, Sonya, Laura, and Debbie. Debbie just had a birthday, so they called her on stage and made her do a shot and dance, and it was freaking hilarious. Even better was the moment the (very large) drag queen tried to kiss Greg (he's straight) and he could not sink down far enough in his seat. We had a blast. Afterwards Carmen and I wanted to go to Antigua for ladies night and some dancing, but the others were trying to steer us toward the new piano bar across the street. Turned out Antigua wasn't open yet anyway, so piano bar it was. We had fun there though, singing at the top of our lungs, doing the Cha Cha Slide, etc. I left around 12:30.
While I was there, my mom called to tell me she was in the hospital yet again for Pancreatitis. So annoying... they were supposed to do a test to see why she keeps getting it last month, but it was moved to June. She's doing okay and will probably go home tomorrow. I haven't had a chance to visit, but have called every day to check in.
Sunday afternoon/evening we spent entirely too much time at the church. There was the Divine Mercy thing at 2:30 that we had to attend since Casey is being confirmed. It turned out to be a rosary prayer thing. We went home after that and had 1/2 hour to scarf down some salads for dinner and watch Community, and then back for 5:00 mass. After that was a meeting about the mission trip she's going on in June. Whew. Finally got out of there at 7:30, dropped her off at Alejo's, and went home for some me time.
Monday I had jury duty. I had done it a few times before (never been picked though), so I thought I was an expert now and barely read the brochure. So I didn't realize this was FEDERAL jury duty, which is totally different than county. For one thing, no cell phones allowed, which I learned after trudging the long way from the parking garage to the courthouse and having to go back and put my phone in my car and trudge back again. But also, you're on call for 2 weeks, so you have to call in every day and you might have to go in multiple times. Lucky for me, I was picked the first day, and once you serve, you're done. Plus most federal cases last several days. They said ours would last 2-3 days, but we somehow managed to wrap it up that same day by around 6 PM. So I really did get lucky, and it was a pretty interesting case, involving crack and guns. Here's an article about it. There was even an undercover special agent that testified, and they showed hidden videos of the crack and guns being sold. Very cool, like living in an episode of Law & Order. Even the deliberation was kind of fun. It was such a cut and dry case, with pretty much everything right there on video and he admitted to most of it anyway, but there were a few things we did need to talk out, and it was a good, smart group of people (in fact, I introduced 2 of them to Hamburger Marys during our lunch break. They were pleased). And the bonus, my work is paying me for being there, plus I get my mileage reimbursed and $40 on top of that from the government.
I'm glad I got to go back to work on Tuesday because it was month end close and I really needed to get as many invoices done as possible. I'd left some for Marlene to help me out with while I was out Monday, and of course I found them sitting there untouched when I got in Tuesday (after the supervisors had said "I'm pretty sure Marlene did all the stuff you gave her". I made sure to point out later that they were mistaken). I guess it might have been good if I were out Tuesday too, nothing would have been done and she might have actually been held accountable for once. Matter of fact, as far as she knew I wouldn't be in that day (I'd emailed that the case was going to last at least through Tuesday when I thought that was going to happen), which meant she was really going to have to be on the ball in order to get her work and mine done by the deadline, and yet she didn't waltz in until like 9:30. Anyway, I worked 10 hours (max before OT kicks in) yesterday and the same today and will probably do 10 more tomorrow because I have so much work to do. Even though I'm getting paid for Monday, it's kind of like vacation pay so it doesn't count towards OT, which gives me more flexibility to work more the rest of the week.
I had tickets for a free screening of Karate Kid for tomorrow, and Inception for Casey, and then we also had tickets for Tangled for next week, but all of it got canceled. Got the emails today. Boo. Oh well.
Last Wednesday I worked my 3rd and final park shift of the season, at Shrek. My job was to keep the strollers parked in the right place, and every now and then (mostly to go inside and cool off for a bit) I was to help the lady that was putting 3D glasses in bins. Not terribly exciting, and most of the staff acted like I didn't exist, but at least the lead was nice, and there was a really cool guy there that usually works at Jaws and was just helping out for the day that I talked to a bit. During my lunch break I went back to my desk to get my book, and I discovered that everyone else that had gone out to work park shifts that day had been immediately sent back because it wasn't that busy. Lucky me to be the only one that wasn't. So when I went back I told this to the lead and asked if he really needed me and he was like "Give me one more hour and then you can go." So my 4 hour shift ended up being 3 hours. Woop-dee-doo. Marlene had the NERVE to say I was lucky because she had to do all 3 full shifts. Remember, she was one of the lucky ones that got the easy shift where you sit on your ass and sort money in the vault, so she really needed to STFU. Yes, working 12 hours on your ass is much harder than working 11 on your feet in the hot sun, dealing with hordes of guests.
Friday they went Royal Wedding crazy at work. A couple of days before that, we'd gotten invitations to celebrate the nuptials by wearing a fancy hat or tiara, and there would be food. I didn't have a hat to wear, plus I had almost zero interest in that wedding, so I just showed up for work as usual. It was nice to be fed all day though. They had some really good food. And I did let Sharon loan me one of her hats so I could be in the group photo.
Carmen had invited me to go to O'Charleys that evening for happy hour with her and her co-worker. I got off work at 4:22 (to be precise, ha ha. When you reach 40 hours, you reach 40 hours. No OT allowed) and she was still at work, so she told me where she was and I found her and some others in a conference room, making cards for hospitalized children. So I sat and colored and applied stickers with them for 1/2 hour and then we headed over to happy hour. I spent 3 or 4 hours there, drinking strawberry margaritas (and 2 shots this one guy bought us) and eating chicken tenders, and then I headed downtown to Bonkerz comedy club, to meet up with April, Jeff, and 3 others couples (yes, I was the 9th wheel, ha ha) for a stand up show April had won tickets for. It was fun, although after going to The Improv several times recently (another place April and I sometimes win free tickets to), my standards were a bit high. The Improv is a really nice comedy club, whereas Bonkerz is basically a bar where people sometimes get up and tell some jokes. Also, the acoustics are bad so when people are talking it's really magnified, so the whole time the comedian is talking you're hearing all these other conversations going on. He even said "Shut the fuck up" a few times, which amused me because, seriously. STFU. But yeah, I had a good time. He was pretty funny, and I enjoyed my fries and Mudslide.
Saturday Casey woke me up around 9:00 to tell me she wanted to go to her friend's birthday party at the beach, and that they were already leaving so she needed me to take her. It's over an hour away. Of course, she'd already been talking about going to the beach, but nothing had been set in stone. The drama went something like this - Taylor did not invite Melanie to her beach birthday party, and even went so far as to mock her for not being invited, so Casey decided to protest by not going either, and instead going to the beach with Melanie on their own. And then Melanie got her period, so Casey was like ok, let's just hang out then, and then she couldn't because her mom was sick or something, so she finally gave in and decided to go to Taylor's party after all. The morning of the party. So I, being too nice, was almost considering driving her all the way there (but did insist she have a ride home, I refused to drive a total of 6 hours to drop off and pick up, especially with gas prices where they are now), but as luck would have it, they had not left yet by the time she was finished getting ready, and all I had to do was drop her off at Taylor's house, 5 miles away. Whew.
While she was gone and I was doing random household chores, I got a text from her step-mom, asking if she'd used the certificate she'd given her for Christmas for a nearby putt putt place, because she could see from her account that it was expiring the next day. Crap, I hadn't noticed it was expiring so soon. So I texted Casey, and as soon as she was done with the birthday party, I picked up (a very sunburned) her, Alejo, Andy and Melanie and dropped them all off at the mall to use the certificate and hang out a bit. Alejo's mom was going to take them all home later since I had plans. Amy was visiting from Georgia and a bunch of us had made plans to meet up at Hamburger Marys for a drag show and some dinner and drinks. Aside from me and Amy, she'd brought her friend Greg, and then there was Carmen, Sharon, her brother, Sonya, Laura, and Debbie. Debbie just had a birthday, so they called her on stage and made her do a shot and dance, and it was freaking hilarious. Even better was the moment the (very large) drag queen tried to kiss Greg (he's straight) and he could not sink down far enough in his seat. We had a blast. Afterwards Carmen and I wanted to go to Antigua for ladies night and some dancing, but the others were trying to steer us toward the new piano bar across the street. Turned out Antigua wasn't open yet anyway, so piano bar it was. We had fun there though, singing at the top of our lungs, doing the Cha Cha Slide, etc. I left around 12:30.
While I was there, my mom called to tell me she was in the hospital yet again for Pancreatitis. So annoying... they were supposed to do a test to see why she keeps getting it last month, but it was moved to June. She's doing okay and will probably go home tomorrow. I haven't had a chance to visit, but have called every day to check in.
Sunday afternoon/evening we spent entirely too much time at the church. There was the Divine Mercy thing at 2:30 that we had to attend since Casey is being confirmed. It turned out to be a rosary prayer thing. We went home after that and had 1/2 hour to scarf down some salads for dinner and watch Community, and then back for 5:00 mass. After that was a meeting about the mission trip she's going on in June. Whew. Finally got out of there at 7:30, dropped her off at Alejo's, and went home for some me time.
Monday I had jury duty. I had done it a few times before (never been picked though), so I thought I was an expert now and barely read the brochure. So I didn't realize this was FEDERAL jury duty, which is totally different than county. For one thing, no cell phones allowed, which I learned after trudging the long way from the parking garage to the courthouse and having to go back and put my phone in my car and trudge back again. But also, you're on call for 2 weeks, so you have to call in every day and you might have to go in multiple times. Lucky for me, I was picked the first day, and once you serve, you're done. Plus most federal cases last several days. They said ours would last 2-3 days, but we somehow managed to wrap it up that same day by around 6 PM. So I really did get lucky, and it was a pretty interesting case, involving crack and guns. Here's an article about it. There was even an undercover special agent that testified, and they showed hidden videos of the crack and guns being sold. Very cool, like living in an episode of Law & Order. Even the deliberation was kind of fun. It was such a cut and dry case, with pretty much everything right there on video and he admitted to most of it anyway, but there were a few things we did need to talk out, and it was a good, smart group of people (in fact, I introduced 2 of them to Hamburger Marys during our lunch break. They were pleased). And the bonus, my work is paying me for being there, plus I get my mileage reimbursed and $40 on top of that from the government.
I'm glad I got to go back to work on Tuesday because it was month end close and I really needed to get as many invoices done as possible. I'd left some for Marlene to help me out with while I was out Monday, and of course I found them sitting there untouched when I got in Tuesday (after the supervisors had said "I'm pretty sure Marlene did all the stuff you gave her". I made sure to point out later that they were mistaken). I guess it might have been good if I were out Tuesday too, nothing would have been done and she might have actually been held accountable for once. Matter of fact, as far as she knew I wouldn't be in that day (I'd emailed that the case was going to last at least through Tuesday when I thought that was going to happen), which meant she was really going to have to be on the ball in order to get her work and mine done by the deadline, and yet she didn't waltz in until like 9:30. Anyway, I worked 10 hours (max before OT kicks in) yesterday and the same today and will probably do 10 more tomorrow because I have so much work to do. Even though I'm getting paid for Monday, it's kind of like vacation pay so it doesn't count towards OT, which gives me more flexibility to work more the rest of the week.
I had tickets for a free screening of Karate Kid for tomorrow, and Inception for Casey, and then we also had tickets for Tangled for next week, but all of it got canceled. Got the emails today. Boo. Oh well.