KirstenL4W

I really must learn to get up without hitting the snooze button. I swear, when I fall back asleep like that it’s a much deeper sleep than anything from earlier in the night. That I can’t even hear the alarm and it gives up on me after an hour is disturbing. I really must have more self-discipline to just get my lazy ass out of bed. Then I might be on time for work once in awhile.

Speaking of work, I had a rather funny experience the other day. Our copier broke, and the operations manager called for someone to come fix it. When the copier fixer came in, they took one look at me and the shock was quite easy to see on their face. See, I am part of a, um, let’s call it a secret society, as is the copier fixer. However, one of the unwritten rules of this secret society is that when we come across each other in regular society, we don’t reveal that we know each other so as to avoid potential embarrassment of either one of us (unless of course the people are friends in regular society, then it’s ok). This person was surprised to see me, probably because they had been into the office to fix the copier before and I did not work there at that time. I do not even know the real name of this person, only their secret society name, so as much as it would have been a habit to greet them as I would at one of our secret society meetings, I held back and acted like I did not know them. I still think the look of shock on their face was priceless - I wish I could have captured that on camera. Ah well. I won’t even be able to attend our next secret society meeting since I have to work at the store, but the one after that I should be able to make, and I can’t wait to discuss the surprise with this person next time I see them.

Hopefully I won’t have a super late night tonite. A friend is coming over (a secret society friend) and the visits tend to go until the week hours. But I must be on time for work tomorrow. I must, I tell you - MUST!

• Current temperature at my house in Las Vegas, NV: 35°F
• Current temperature at my mom’s house in the middle of New Hampshire: 49°F

That’s just not right, people! It’s nearly December. New Hampshire should be covered in snow by now, and Las Vegas still should be getting warm enough in the sun during the day to use the air conditioner in the car. But noooooooooo. I’m digging out my hat and mittens so that I can go outside in my woefully inadequate clothing and trying to figure out how to work the heater so that I can be warm. My mother, on the other hand, still isn’t sure about putting away her summer clothes. This is just wrong.

I stopped at the gas station tonight to fuel up my car, and I decided to wash my windshield because of all the dust and bug guts on it. The so-called cleaning solution froze. I was squeegeeing ice off my windshield. Then I got home and it was 64°F in my apartment. Inside! Please, warm weather, come back soon! I don’t like being cold! I moved to Las Vegas in part to get away from the cold. Boo hoo!

Enough complaining. In other news, my busy social life continues, but last night I had a night off from everything. My plans fell through so it was really nice to just sit at home and catch up with some tv. My DVR is getting full and I never have time to watch anything anymore. I’ve even had to stop reading threads on my tv shows on the message boards I frequent because I’m so far behind. But don’t breathe a sigh of relief for me yet. Tonite I worked at the store, and since it’s the holiday season, my hours are extended and now I’m there past 10pm, whereas the rest of the year I’m home by 9:30pm. So that’s going to wear me out. Also, I’ve got plans tomorrow night and Saturday night, along with work at the store on Friday, Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday. Phew. That’s a lot, but then I don’t work at the store again for nearly a week, which will be nice. Perhaps I will be able to catch up on some things, such as finding my desk under all the papers. Only time will tell.

I’m sure I have more to say, but in my fatigue I can’t remember what it is, so I’ll just go now. Hopefully I’ll get up on time tomorrow; that damn snooze thing is still getting the best of me!

Sis got the gift I sent her. I was a bit worried that she might not get it, because the town she lives in has no imagination in naming the streets. They’re all numbers. SW 1 St, SW 1 Place, etc. But she received it ok, on time, and she loves it. What was the gift, you ask? I got her (drum roll, please) a digital camera. Yes, it was a bit self serving, since I’d like more pictures of Mia and I can’t very well take them myself. So I sent her a digital camera with a 256Mb card to go with it. As soon as I get a new picture of Mia, I’ll post it on here.

And an update on Mia - she’s 1 pound over her birth weight, so 4.5lbs now. She’s in a crib and out of the incubator. She’s also starting to feed with a bottle, but eating my sister’s breast milk, of course, since Sis has pumped gallons of it in the past few weeks. Mia’s dad said the freezer looks like some sort of cryolab experiment. Sis says Mia is a bit weirded out by the bottle but is starting to get used to it. As soon as she’s got that down and is feeding like a pro, she can go home! I can’t wait, and I don’t even know the next time I’ll be in Florida to see her. But it’s definitely looking like she’ll be home before Christmas. Good news, for sure.

Now, I must be getting to bed since I stayed up way too late again playing on the computer. The alarm clock assault works so far, as long as I don’t cheat and try to set a snooze alarm anywhere. That’s my downfall is the snooze. No snooze for you! We’ll see if I can get up ok in just a few short hours, and if I can resist the snooze.

As I was on my way to work this morning, not really looking forward to working this weekend in a retail setting, I got a call from my boss/friend asking what my plans were for the day. I told her I was working until 4:30, to which she replied, “Perfect!” See, she was going to do Thanksgiving on Thanksgiving, then it got moved to Sunday the 26th, but I thought she meant the 19th, so I took the 19th off from the store and ended up with a day off to myself, which was also the case on Thanksgiving. Due to the travel plans of a friend who came to town (which is half the reason she changed the plans around in the first place) she moved the turkey dinner to Saturday - today. So, after all that I finally got a real Thanksgiving dinner with my family away from home. I love spending time at her house. There’s always interesting people there to talk to and the kids give the place such a great energy that really makes it feel like a holiday. I’m thankful that this year I can spend my holidays with such a great family.

Now the turkey is finally getting to me, so I’m going to bed.

Off from work, that is. I need the money, but believe me, no one wants to go into work at 5:30pm on a Friday night of a holiday weekend. So, I lived it up. After getting all my errands done, I came home for a bit to relax and get ready for work if I needed to (which we now now was unnecessary). F got online and said he was leaving the office, and would I like to have dinner? Sure! So he came over, I cooked, and then he fell asleep in my chair. Um, ok. At least he didn’t snore. After an hour he woke up and I managed to kick him out convince him to go home and go to bed.

As soon as he left, I was outta there. I went to a regular Friday night gathering that some of my friends attend, and after that we moved the party to a club on the strip. Mind you, I’m not the clubbing type. Usually it takes me a few drinks to enjoy something like that, but I don’t really drink anymore, and I had to drive myself home. However, I did enjoy myself. VampireMan showed up, and was very generous with the bites. Oh, he gives great bites. Who would’ve thought that a simple bite - on my arm of all places - could bring me to my knees in a totally good way? It was fun. But, mindful of my schedule today, I left around 1:30 so I could come home and sleep. And now, since I have to be at work before noon, I must get my butt in the shower so I can be on time. I tell ya, sometimes this work thing really gets in the way of having a life.

Since my Dead Turkey Day plans fell through, I was so afraid it would be a dismal day. In a way, it was sort of depressing. These are the times when I really miss being around my family. There’s nothing like family at the holidays. But, I did get the much needed rest that I was craving. I slept until noon or some ridiculous hour, spent some time on the computer, vegged out in front of the tv, then took a shower. I knew F was working since he never ever gets a day off, so I headed over to his office to hang out for a bit. One of his co-workers brought him a huge plate of food, so he shared that with me. I got turkey after all. At least I had someone to eat turkey with, so it was nice. After that we went out for a drink, then I came home. I simple, ordinary day.

Today I have some errands to do. Somehow I don’t think I’ll get them all done, but I would like to get over to my storage unit today and clean a few things up around my apartment. I also have a couple errands to run, and as much as I say I’m going to avoid the stores, I will most likely end up in the mayhem. I can’t help myself - I’m a glutton for punishment. I might have to work at the store tonite, but I won’t know for a few more hours. I’m on call, which means that I call in to see if they need me. I’m hoping that mid-afternoon will be the busiest time, and by the time darkness falls everyone will be all shopped out and heading home to eat turkey leftovers, or in the case of the tourists, heading back to their hotels to get ready for a night of shows or clubbing. Assuming everyone shows up, I’m pretty confident that there will be enough coverage and I won’t have to work tonite, which would be really nice. Keep your fingers crossed.

So, now is the time to head out and run those errands before call-in time occurs. Here’s hoping for a Friday night off!

I need to sleep. I’ve spent the last week and a half nearly falling asleep at work, being late for work, and keeping my usual wild hours. Yesterday I went home and went to bed fairly early, but still overslept this morning. I need a new tactic when it comes to my alarm clock. Normally, I use my cell phone as an alarm clock, with a small travel alarm clock in the bathroom as a backup. Neither one of these has a snooze feature, so I need to be able to get up when they go off. But I like the snooze, so I have the travel clock set for about 20 minutes after the cell phone. This obviously isn’t working. This morning, when I realized that I had overslept again, I looked at my travel clock and the alarm was turned off. I know I set it before I went to bed, because I made a point of doing it. So the only thing I can figure is that I went to sleep after my cell phone went off (which I do remember) and slept so deeply that I got up, walked across the room, turned the alarm off, and went back to bed without any memory of this event. So, seeing as how mornings are totally not my strong suit, here’s my plan:

• Set cell phone for 5:30am
• Set travel clock for 5:30am
• Set computer alarm clock program for 5:30am

This total alarm clock assault should get me on my feet and bring me to consciousness. We’ll find out on Monday.

In the meantime, I’m gonna get to sleep. I have tomorrow off with no plans, which I’m actually looking forward to, and then I need to ready myself for the next month in the retail world. AJ turned in her notice at the store and Assistant Shoe Boss has been recruited away and will most likely be leaving us, so I offered to be a keyholder in AJ’s place so that Shoe Boss will live to see Christmas. But of course that means that instead of getting out at 9:30 or 10pm, I’ll be working until 10:30 or later, and possibly more than my usual 2 weeknights and Sundays. But I could use the money, especially since I’ve been putting a lot of things on the credit card lately and since I’ll have to borrow money to pay my rent this month. Yuk. I hate having to do that, but I suppose swallowing my pride is better than the alternative.

That’s all for now. Good night, and have a great Thanksgiving.

You’ve made your blog private and open to certain readers only. I would be very much obliged if I could make it onto this elite list, however I do not know your email address to ask you directly. I find it very cathartic to read your blog, and even though we live half a world apart, I enjoy the closeness we share through our experiences. You can leave me a comment, and don’t worry about whether or not it contains personal information - I won’t publish it.

Thanks,
Kirsten

Well, well, well. What can I possibly say right now? My hours and schedule are getting regularly irregular. I have the office job, which is going well, so I need to be able to keep my messed up hours to accomodate the debauchery I’ve been participating in lately. For example, I had to work on Saturday at the office, so I worked 8-3, went home and napped for about 4 hours, then got up, did laundry and took a shower before F came over to pick me up for a party. We stayed at the party from 10 to about 2, then went out to breakfast with a couple we met up with there. After that F and I drove around for awhile, then he dropped me off sometime around sunrise. I slept for an hour, then got up and got ready for church.

I ended up having Sunday off from the store, because I was supposed to have Thanksgiving dinner at my boss’s house, but I got the day wrong. I thought she meant the Sunday before T-day, but she mean the Sunday after. I won’t be able to do that since my second job is retail, and everyone knows you don’t call in sick on that weekend. No way you can get out of a retail shift Thanskgiving weekend unless you call in dead, and I have no plans on ending my life to avoid work. So no turkey for me, but things are still open and an invite might materialize.

Anyway, with this unexpected day off I did some grocery shopping and went home to catch up on a bit of tv watching. I thought for sure I’d nap since Sunday afternoon naps are the best, but I didn’t even blink for a second. I did, however, get all excited when I got a major blast from the past in the form of a MySpace message. Courtney, sit down. You’re never gonna belive this. Seriously.

Wait for it…

It was from…

Get ready…

Glenn.

Holy Shit was my reaction too. And, believe it or not, he lives in SoCal now, just a few hours from me, so we might get together sometime after the holidays. Of course, now he’s the grown-up and I’m the one involved in certain extracarricular activities, but I know he still craves the fun. He told me so himself. We had a great IM conversation and it was so awesome to hear from him again. I was wondering whatever happened to the gayest thing to ever hit New Hampshire. Hearing from him again seriously made my week.

So, as I was chatting online with Glenn I also started talking online to F, and he ended up coming over. We went out for some eats then went back to my place to watch a movie, and I must have fallen asleep because I woke up running late for work as usual. My door was locked and I only have 1 key, which I still had this morning, so he must have told me he was leaving so I could lock up behind him. That’s the only thing that makes sense, but I don’t remember. I guess that’s what happens with fatigue, eh?

Work is getting better. I’m really starting to get into the swing of things there. Tomorrow I get to go out with the sales manager so we can estimate a job. For this particular account we have set prices for certain sizes, but this falls way outside the parameter of what’s normal, so in these cases it’s always best to get a first-hand look to see exactly what we’re dealing with so we can schedule the job properly. I’m looking forward to it.

And of course, with Black Friday looming ominously on my calendar, I have to start thinking about Christmas shopping even though I have no idea how I’m gonna pay my rent this month. I did use one of my store credit cards to purchase my sister’s Christmas gift, which she shall get early. As soon as she receives it I’ll tell you what it is. Knowing her, even though she doesn’t really read my blog, she’ll take these 5 minutes away from visiting Mia to look at my blog and find out about it, and dammit, after all those years as a kid when she’d put extraordinary effort into finding out what she was gettinf for Christmas, I’m not going to make it easy for her.

I’m finally catching up with VegasRic for the first time in like a month. I seriously haven’t seen him since before I left for my trip. We’ve both been really busy, but way more for him than me. I’m over his house blogging and he’s sitting next to me on the computer for work, and of course on the phone. But that’s ok, that’s how it usually is here. Work work work is all he ever does, so if one is to be friends with the great VegasRic, then that is to be accepted - along with the fact that since he is a photographer, you are always subject to being photographed in the most mundane situations.

I think that’s about all for now. I should probably be getting going now, I’m actually starting to get tired so I might sleep a normal schedule tonite. Interesting thought.

But I’m not complaining, really I’m not. I worked a full day today, and after work I went to hang with one of my friends at his office, since it’s like 2 blocks from my office. He’s always busy at work, and the shit is constantly hitting the fan there, so I helped out with some filing and such and then around 10pm we finally left to get some dinner. Now, I did tell myself I was going to do laundry tonite, and - OH POOPY!!! - the church powerpoint, which I will do in a few minutes, but no, instead I was feeling like not going home to do boring household stuff. Yeah.

Tomorrow (today?) I have to work at the office since we’re off on Friday, but rumor has it that it won’t be a full day, which is nice since it will allow me to get some laundry done in the afternoon, assuming I can come home and actually get it done. I have plans to go to a party tomorrow night, so it’s looking like my only chance to get myself some clean clothes. Sunday is church and for a change of pace, I’ll be having an early Thanksgiving dinner at my new boss’s house instead of going to work. So it’s looking like Thanksgiving day will be a real day off, and if I can get home and get my butt to bed on Wednesday night sometime, then I might actually have a day off to myself, which would be really nice since it will be the first real day off to myself I’ll have had since I got back from my trip.

I talked to my sister today and got an update on Mia. She’s stepped down (in hospital terms, step down is a good thing) and she is no longer in the NICU. She’s now in the Progressive Care Nursery and is doing really awesome. And, she finally had her poop. My sister warned the nurses to just leave well enough alone and not give Mia the suppositories to help her poop, but they didn’t listen. My niece’s butt totally exploded all over the incubator. Gross, I know, but this proves that she really is related to me. Blowouts aside, Mia is doing terrific and Sis is really hopeful that she will be home by Christmas.

So, since I was out too late being social and then stayed up too late to read blogs and write in my own blog, finally remembering that I absolutely must get the powerpoint done for church, I’m going to do that before I hit the hay and risk oversleeping yet again.