Long Lost Liz
S'up, LJ? It's been awhile. Here I am, a few weeks in Richmond now and I thought I'd give y'all an update. Note, I do not have internet yet. I am illegally checking my email and whatnot at work and am bored and killing time. Fight the power. Or something...
Living with Joey is fantastic. Once we adjusted to each other (it didn't take long, but there were a few snags initially), it all started running very smoothly. Our demeanors are so closely matched that we make excellent roommates. The place is nice, all we need, though it's definitely not perfect. It's 2 floors, 700 sq feet - the bottom floor is the living room and kitchen; the top floor is the bedroom and bathroom. I love the space, it's cozy but not too small, great for 2 people. The fridge doesn't get very cold and we've yet to get someone out to fix it. The bugs we were nervous about at first seem to have disappeared, which is good, and we finally figured out the trick to getting the gas stove to work (thank god, seeing as how Joey is an unbelievable cook, which I did not know to start with but I'm definitely keeping him now [he makes such good steak, I'm pretty sure that, for an atheist, this is the closest to heaven I'm ever gonna get]!) Our bed, the shitty IKEA bed that it is, likes to fall apart over nothing, but that's not the place's fault, just a general complaint. The upstairs windows are pretty thin, the noise from the road was annoying at first, but you get accustomed to something like that and we've both been sleeping like rocks the past week - I just hope, with the cold weather finally coming in, that the place is cheap to heat, cuz those thin windows could be a hassle if it's not. We're very close to the post office and a ghetto Food Lion, and Downtown isn't a long drive at all, so word and a half to that. I miss having a washer and dryer, the laundromat is a pain, but it could be far worse. All in all, I'm very happy so far with everything. Not to mention that I do love me some Joey.
His mom made a big deal about our neighborhood being sketchy, but we believe that's really only because there is a majority of black people roaming around. Her stigma (racism?) got to him at first and made him quite paranoid, but I kept my calm and he's relaxed, too. I was happy to come home the other night to find he'd been calm enough to open the living room blinds, even with the electronics in full view. There's a cat that's been camping out outside our house the past couple nights, I'm curious to get home tonight and see if he's there again. We've introduced ourselves to a couple neighbors, and Joey told me that yesterday he had an exchange with a couple guys in our parking area (FYI, I'm still driving the Caddilac because I don't have the money to pay for Cohen's repairs right now):
"Hey man! Where's your Caddi?"
"That's not mine, it's the lady's; she's at work."
"Oh, well we parked our Caddi's in a row, we wanted hers parked next to us so we'd have all 3 Caddis together!"
"Haha, well, shit, do you want me to move my car so she can park here?"
"Haha, nah, it's cool, but she should next time!"
Joey, though he claims not to be, is obviously jealous that I'm in the Caddi Club and he is not. Now when he teases me for whatever reason, I tell him to watch himself or I'll sic my Caddi homies on him.
I'm very happy with my new home.
Work, however, is another story. I'm not going to go into a lot of detail since, well, I'm located at work right now. I'm kind of annoyed with myself for going back to cafe - I know I was desperate for a job in the area, that the market's tight and I should be happy I got a job at all, but man, I do not like cafe. And my initial, hopeful mindset that being supervisor would be different was bullshit, because now I HAVE to care. At least as barista I could get away with not caring, it wasn't a big deal. But now not only do I have to care (or at least be really good at faking it), I have to somehow get the others to care. Dammit.
Everyone's very nice here, so that's something. But the store itself is very low volume. We're smack dab between 2 more popular shopping districts and get minimal traffic. The way the company is doing, and this is completely unauthorized and you didn't hear it from me, but it's been cutting so many corners to save money and stay afloat, it makes me nervous what will happen to the low end branches like this one in the near future. Besides that, I know I shouldn't care, but I got used to making the sales to make the day feel worthwhile. Manassas did pretty well. Here? We don't make much at all, cafe barely makes $300 a day. It's kind of disheartening, to be honest. I hope it just takes some adapting and that I get off my Manassas store high horse and just deal with it. Because, at this point, it's hard to give a shit. Simultaneously, I'm frustrated with myself for caring about caring about giving a shit, since it's just a stupid job. If that makes sense.
I've been doing this for quite some time now and I think I've dicked away plenty of time, probably more than my fair share. I should do some actual work now. Anyway, I'd like to hear from all of you - besides Joey, I haven't seen a familiar face in a little while now. I'm a pretty private, anti-social person, but I am starting to miss friends and family quite a bit. Catch y'all on the flipside.
Living with Joey is fantastic. Once we adjusted to each other (it didn't take long, but there were a few snags initially), it all started running very smoothly. Our demeanors are so closely matched that we make excellent roommates. The place is nice, all we need, though it's definitely not perfect. It's 2 floors, 700 sq feet - the bottom floor is the living room and kitchen; the top floor is the bedroom and bathroom. I love the space, it's cozy but not too small, great for 2 people. The fridge doesn't get very cold and we've yet to get someone out to fix it. The bugs we were nervous about at first seem to have disappeared, which is good, and we finally figured out the trick to getting the gas stove to work (thank god, seeing as how Joey is an unbelievable cook, which I did not know to start with but I'm definitely keeping him now [he makes such good steak, I'm pretty sure that, for an atheist, this is the closest to heaven I'm ever gonna get]!) Our bed, the shitty IKEA bed that it is, likes to fall apart over nothing, but that's not the place's fault, just a general complaint. The upstairs windows are pretty thin, the noise from the road was annoying at first, but you get accustomed to something like that and we've both been sleeping like rocks the past week - I just hope, with the cold weather finally coming in, that the place is cheap to heat, cuz those thin windows could be a hassle if it's not. We're very close to the post office and a ghetto Food Lion, and Downtown isn't a long drive at all, so word and a half to that. I miss having a washer and dryer, the laundromat is a pain, but it could be far worse. All in all, I'm very happy so far with everything. Not to mention that I do love me some Joey.
His mom made a big deal about our neighborhood being sketchy, but we believe that's really only because there is a majority of black people roaming around. Her stigma (racism?) got to him at first and made him quite paranoid, but I kept my calm and he's relaxed, too. I was happy to come home the other night to find he'd been calm enough to open the living room blinds, even with the electronics in full view. There's a cat that's been camping out outside our house the past couple nights, I'm curious to get home tonight and see if he's there again. We've introduced ourselves to a couple neighbors, and Joey told me that yesterday he had an exchange with a couple guys in our parking area (FYI, I'm still driving the Caddilac because I don't have the money to pay for Cohen's repairs right now):
"Hey man! Where's your Caddi?"
"That's not mine, it's the lady's; she's at work."
"Oh, well we parked our Caddi's in a row, we wanted hers parked next to us so we'd have all 3 Caddis together!"
"Haha, well, shit, do you want me to move my car so she can park here?"
"Haha, nah, it's cool, but she should next time!"
Joey, though he claims not to be, is obviously jealous that I'm in the Caddi Club and he is not. Now when he teases me for whatever reason, I tell him to watch himself or I'll sic my Caddi homies on him.
I'm very happy with my new home.
Work, however, is another story. I'm not going to go into a lot of detail since, well, I'm located at work right now. I'm kind of annoyed with myself for going back to cafe - I know I was desperate for a job in the area, that the market's tight and I should be happy I got a job at all, but man, I do not like cafe. And my initial, hopeful mindset that being supervisor would be different was bullshit, because now I HAVE to care. At least as barista I could get away with not caring, it wasn't a big deal. But now not only do I have to care (or at least be really good at faking it), I have to somehow get the others to care. Dammit.
Everyone's very nice here, so that's something. But the store itself is very low volume. We're smack dab between 2 more popular shopping districts and get minimal traffic. The way the company is doing, and this is completely unauthorized and you didn't hear it from me, but it's been cutting so many corners to save money and stay afloat, it makes me nervous what will happen to the low end branches like this one in the near future. Besides that, I know I shouldn't care, but I got used to making the sales to make the day feel worthwhile. Manassas did pretty well. Here? We don't make much at all, cafe barely makes $300 a day. It's kind of disheartening, to be honest. I hope it just takes some adapting and that I get off my Manassas store high horse and just deal with it. Because, at this point, it's hard to give a shit. Simultaneously, I'm frustrated with myself for caring about caring about giving a shit, since it's just a stupid job. If that makes sense.
I've been doing this for quite some time now and I think I've dicked away plenty of time, probably more than my fair share. I should do some actual work now. Anyway, I'd like to hear from all of you - besides Joey, I haven't seen a familiar face in a little while now. I'm a pretty private, anti-social person, but I am starting to miss friends and family quite a bit. Catch y'all on the flipside.