You would think

You would think

That it wouldn't be so hard to pick up the phone and say, 'hey, I'm not coming." How much effort is that exactly? Aarrgh.

It must be Thursday. I never got the hang of Thursdays

It must be Thursday. I never got the hang of Thursdays.

Another long work day. I'm about ready to take my lunch break, but I can't leave until Nan gets back. We have money missing from our register, and until it turns up we've taken our regular employees off the till. This morning was prayer breakfast. As the first Mission function post-rumor I wore grungy jeans, a grey top and no makeup, just to send definate "Not interested" signals. Didn't work though, I got hit on by some random guy on the way in the door. I wasn't even wearing my fuzzy sweater. Maybe just owning them gives interesting luck. Not necessarily good luck. Just interesting.

We're clearing the main parts of the shop of all Christmas. Hurrah! No more chintzy christmas nic-naks. I hate them. Oh the little santas and snowmen running around underfoot. Stupid pre-lit decor. Ugh. I like Christmas, but why do we need all the crap?

I'm starting to get really hungry, but the longer I hold out, the less time I have to work after my break. And I need to deposit my Christmas checks to pay some bills. And I've got to run by St. Paul's to turn in my hours so I can get paid on the 15th. I hate that they've moved our payday. I was all set to have my credit card paid off by the 1st. Messes up my year end report to have that debt.

And speaking of which, January 1st is annual Year-End-Report day. Those of you that ledger don't forget! And if you haven't, you should invest in another credit report to check on any glitches.

Office Romance

Office Romances

So from what I hear, some guy on the program at the mission has started the rumor that we are dating. In spite of the rather obvious facts that 1) I'm never at the mission proper, and 2) I've said hi to the guy once. Nancy wasn't going to tell me about it, but her parents let it slip.

Isn't it funny how I can have whole dating lives and not even know about them.

Bar Study

Bar Study

Another day at work. Another employee calling in sick so I had to work the register. I don't like that part of retail. People are difficult. And I get worn out quickly trying to small talk with everyone. I suck at small talk.

Then, after a several hour nap and a no-cook dinner of crab and cucumber wrap with ranch dressing, it was time for our weekly Bible study at Jackson's Sports Bar. No, really. Denise and I are quite proud of ourselves. We've finished Genesis as of last evening, and will be moving on to Exodus Saturday. Jacksons has good crinkle fries. Needed fry sauce though.

Then kareoke. Another great evening. Minus Mexi-pro getting completely hammered. But Metal/Hella/Pro-pro showed up for the first time in months, which was awesome. He must take naps on tuesdays every week. Hail, hail the gang's all here!

Alright, back to the grindstone.

Post-Christmas Jubalation

Post-Christmas Jubalation

Last night I rushed home from Seattle for a semi-annual meeting of the girls' night out. Bean called and was only going to be in town until this morning. So I had Denise do the calling while I tried to make it over the pass quickly. Two years ago we met at the Barrel House, but the lateness of the evening being a factor, we opted to hang out at my place this time. Unfortunately sans multiple bottles of wine and Godiva hot chocolates. We did have a pot of Pecan Praline coffee and some leftover Christmas exchange cookies.

We talked for about 5 hours about everything under the sun. Well, ok, we didn't cover that much ground. Mainly recent flings, new boyfriends, related miscelaneous, I talked about the Calzones, Denise had stories of Oklahoma!, Bean and I exchanged teaching anecdotes, and we ended with a rather heated discussion about Harry Potter.

I'm glad I've stayed in touch with everyone. And it's great when we get to meet up again.

What it takes to make a Pro blush

Just what would it take to make a Pro blush?

I think that the Calzones need to do a cover of Bette Davis Eyes just for the sake of these lyrics:

She's precocious
And she knows just what it
Takes to make a pro blush

So this morning,

So this morning...

I awoke to knocking on my door, and thought it was Nancy. So I dragged myself up and opened the door. Standing in my hallway was the jail force work crew and their warden.

Nine men saw me in a pair of black lace boy shorts and a white tank top. This has capped off my week.

Sleep...FInally

Sleep...Finally

I got nine hours of sleep last night after four nights insomnia lasting anywhere from 2-4 hours. Not being able to breathe is a pain.

Today we skipped prayer breakfast. The mission staff is on vacation now, so we felt we could use a break, too. It was nice to sleep in.

Last night I watched "While you were Sleeping." It's a good flick.

Today is more of the half off sale. The merchandise is starting to clear out, finally. We've been needing to dejunk this place for a while. Once we get the trees down in January we're going to be able to rearrange the store. It will be nice to refresh the place. It's been just stuffed full of things since thanksgiving.

Hopefully my lunch break will be at New Thai today.

The Voiceless Wonder

The Voiceless Wonder

I have a killer cold. Exacerbated, I'm sure, by the fact that half of our building isn't heated, and band practice. The only bummer with being an "above the garage" band is trying to play in sub-freezing temperatures. Sunday Mini-pro had the heat cranked from 8:30 until noon, and it was still unbearably cold. I do alright because I pile on the layers. I'm not sure why the guys still show up in t-shirts. Amazing amounts of machismo or something. Speaking of which, today I dressed for the arctic to go to the annual gift givaway at the youth center. All hands on deck. The boiler has been out for weeks, so we were told to come prepared. They didn't send out a second memo telling us they'd brought in propane heaters. So I showed up in my two pair of long underwear, nylons, jeans, three shirts, wool sweater and two pairs of socks, and it's the warmest I've been since the freeze happened.

This half off sale is going well. I'm tired of Christmas retail, and I don't think I've told a single person "Merry Christmas." The Christmas station finally got bored of the same 15 songs and have started playing the Muppets and Barbra Streisand's Christmas album. And the Oakridge boys. We've had trees up since September, so I'm a little Christmas-ed out. I almost didn't put a tree up in my place. Last week an entire box of victorian ornaments in white, pink, and red came in, so I took them upstairs and filled a four foot. We've sold almost all of our pre-decorated trees today. Note for next year, instead of selling boxed trees, we should just decorate them all and sell them for an obscene amount of money. At least the smaller ones.

My last day of teaching was today. Two week break! Hurrah! In the absence of my voice (I'm singing notes I'm not capable of hitting) we watched the Disney 12 Days of Christmas. I saw it three times.

No symphony chorus tonight, so I have a few hours to sit and read before the Tuesday Evening Activities commence. I hear we're forgoing Jackson's in favor of the Kareoke competition at Suzie's Saloon. Sean and Angela are both in the finals. Denise and I have yet to come to a concensus about where to have Bible Study beforehand.

Mary Hunt Revisited

Mary Hunt Revisited

I had to go to the bank again. True confessions time for all of you financially confident ones out there. I had an unexpected expense, then let my accounts go for a bit while I was out of town, and realized I'd gone over too late to stop a three check landslide (ouch). So today I went to the bank to see if any of my overdraft charges could be waived. Luckily one could.

The guy I was working with was very polite. As long as I was there I wanted to get a truly free checking account (My California one was free as long as I had direct deposit, but I don't anymore), and see if there was anything that would link overdraft into my savings, instead of a credit card. He said there was, but with a minimum daily balance of $1,000. Ha. As if THAT'S ever going to happen on my paycheck. Anyway. So he kept pushing the credit card option, which I don't want to do because in college that was the beginning of my debt landslide. I continued to "Roll over" things from my checking onto my credit card, and I maxed it out three times, my limit was increased, and I continued spending. So that isn't really an option for me. I'd rathe rpay the occasional overdraft than be tempted to spend money that isn't there. Once he heard about that he kept pressuring me "Based on my financial history." But he wouldn't believe me when I said that I've had things under control for a while, and it isn't really a problem anymore. I mean, one landslide in a year isn't bad compared to my college years. But he only saw me for what I had been, not the progress I'd made, and I'm so frustrated!