A half a week in recap

[la_belle_laide]

It's Wednesday now and there's a lot of stuff I feel like keeping track of tonight. This past weekend was a really nice one. Jo-chan spent the weekend and we did exactly what we said we were going to do: at my mom's house, among the three of us we ate about a gallon of ice cream and a plate of organic chocolate chip cookies which we baked. We also took the dogs for walks, watched Family Guy episodes, played epic FFVIII, and talked for a long time. On Sunday, Chrissie came over with Boychild and a plate of her pumpkin chocolate chip cookies. I fixed a button on Boychild's tuxedo pants (they have a wedding to go to,) and I also finished up Jo-chan's Selphie dress. It fits her perfectly and she looks so cute.

I also had to work all weekend. A few neat things happened which bear documenting. One, a lady I sold to told me, "You need to call your boss and tell him or her that you're a really great salesperson." I wasn't sure how I felt about that because I've never considered myself a salesperson before and it is a strange identity to me. Then the competition guy with seriously blue eyes (let's call him Alex for now because there's something a little Alex Krycek looking about him in a weird way,) called me over and said, "I don't know if you noticed it, but you have a 75% closing rate." It took me a second or two to figure out that that meant I closed a sale 75% of the time. He's required to carry a little counter so he counts how many people come into the store. He said, "Nearly every time I see you talk to someone, a few minutes later I see them leaving with (your product.)" Hmm. Then the next day at work I made some kind of lame joke and he said, "You're just so cute." O_o "Cute" isn't a word I hear from guys all that often. I blushed a lot and went to look at the fish.

I think I'm going to get a fish, once I get Gran's apartment all set. And I still call it "Gran's apartment" instead of "my office" because I think it will always he Gran's apartment. All her stuff is still in it, and it's like she's still in it too. I don't want that to change, however.

I did start taking down the paneling in Gran's apartment so that I could paint the walls, and don't you know that they didn't finish the befrigged sheetrock? There's all holes in it across the top and around all the sockets. Grrr. I'm just going to have to learn how to do things. Dad was always so good at that. He could look at something and figure out how it had to be. Well, sometimes. Once in a while something would baffle him but in the end he would think of the solution. But he also just knew things, stuff he just learned along the way. This would be one of those things: how to fix holes in sheetrock around electrical outlets. I know it's probably super easy for someone who's done it before, but it's new to me.

Oh, but getting back to work. CHECK THIS OUT, this is a great story. So this lady came in and I was talking to her about cat food. She was all into the organic, holistic kind of thing also and we had a whole big conversation about her moving to California to be more "fringy" etc. and how that was the lifestyle she liked and whatnot. By and by I mentioned that I used to work for a really crappy veterinarian and she said, "Oh my god, so did I?" I asked her which crappy vet she worked for and who did she name? None other than Dr. Dickwhistle! She apparently worked there years ago, before I did, even. She said, "It was during the time when that psycho worked in reception." If you go back years and years in my blog you might remember me mentioning the goddamn psycho who worked there. She was constantly strung out on drugs (most of which she stole from the office) and she actually lived at the hospital (so she had easy access to them.) This woman would show up at the office in the morning in a lacy nightgown and her slippers. More, she was just, well, on the whole a goddamn frigging psycho bitch. Dr. Dickwhistle never fired her though, even though one night she fell asleep on the sofa with a lit cigarette. You know how she left that place? On a stretcher, after cutting her legs up and ODing. ANYway. So this lady got fired by Psycho Bitch because they told her she "didn't fit in with the rest of the girls."

I ended up telling her about how I lost my job there and she said, "That's not surprising; Dr. Dickwhistle is a mouse. He's a total spineless coward."

I thought it was hilarious because that's what my Dad told him in the three page letter he wrote to him after that whole debacle. I said to California Lady, "I have another word for him, but it's one that I don't say, and certainly not in professional mode." She laughed and said, "I know which one you mean, and it fits him."

I felt very gratified.

School / midterm stuff! Yesterday we got back our results for Swedish tech 2. I got a 97 on the written and 100 on the practical. I don't know what I did on the practical to get 100 but I was very pleased that I did.

Last Wednesday was the day that Sano had his little (huge) drama, and I missed the last neurology lecture and review before the midterm. Midterm was today. I studied really hard last night (with my Mom's help) and this morning, yet i was still really nervous by the time I got to school. I talked a little bit to Dr. R before the class and he said he'd gotten my message about having to miss class, and he hoped that I'd been able to contact someone to cover the review. I told him I didn't get a contact sheet so I hadn't been able to get anyone and he said, "Well, just do your best. You've done fine on your quizzes." Before he handed out the test he told us all, "Take a deep breath and try to relax. Just remind yourself, it's neurology, and the human nervous system is only the single most complicated thing we know of in the universe." He had also taught us this little dance to remember the dermatomes and before we started the test someone called out, "Do the dance for us one last time!" He said, "You mean this dance?" and he busted out a perfect hardcore pop-and-lock dance that got a round of applause from all the 30-someodd students. It was pretty great.

After the test I had lots of time before I had to leave for Kung Fu so I went up for a free massage (which was great,) and on my way out I saw Dr. R in the hall. He was carrying the scantrons which he had just run and he said, "Don't worry, you did great. You got a 96." A 96! I was so happy. Although a little bummed because I looked up the ones I wasn't sure about after the test and they were the ones from the missed lecture. I might have gotten 100 if I hadn't missed that last one. He said, "The only thing is, you broke the curve." Like a moron, I apologized.

After that I had dinner and went off to Kung Fu. It took me 90 frigging minutes to get there. :/ Kung Fu was fun, though I am a little bummed out to be missing a tournament on Sunday that everyone else is going to. I'm missing it for the best thing ever, I just wish one of the two things had been on a different day. I drove The Empress and her friend home as usual.

Then once they got out of the car I started to crash and feel really lousy. It seriously is like this. One second everything's fine, and the next it's like Dad died yesterday. I thought to myself, "I really want to hear something from Dad right now" and I shut off my iPod and turned on the radio. It's hard to get any good stations until I get onto Sunrise, and once I did I heard, "Over The Rainbow / Wonderful World" by brother Iz. This was one of my Dad's favorite songs. (And some of you might remember the video I made to go with that song. I'd been thinking of that video, and the scenes of Dad that I had in it, on and off for a few days.) Of all the songs I could have heard, this one was unexpected. How random it is to hear that one on the radio, too. Or who knows, maybe they play it every day and I just don't listen to local radio enough to realize this. Then as I was a few blocks from my house, "Sweet Caroline." This was another Dad Song. He used to sing it at all his shows. The high point of Dad's shows was always "My Way," but "Sweet Caroline" always got everyone going too. I just cranked it and bawled my eyes out. As I was driving and crying like an idiot, it got really foggy and this guy dressed all in black came around from the side of his parked car and I had to swerve to miss him; he kinda broke the mood and I halfway wanted to go back and run his stupid ass over. Who the hell goes running around the street at 9:30 PM wearing black? Moron!

That wasn't my only "music moment" today, though. As I was driving from school to Kung Fu, I had my iPod on (I usually keep it on random,) and "Beyond The Wasteland" from the Advent Children soundtrack came on. I was feeling a little half-hearted towards about everything except the hateful traffic and the huge metal ass of the truck that was in front of me as I sat there going 2 MPH, but I had left the iPod a little loud from the previous song (you have to ride the volume) and all of a sudden the best part of the song kicked in, and it was so loud it filled the whole car and for like thirty seconds it was the best song in the whole world, ever.

Funny how that happens sometimes.

If this entry feels all kinds of crazy and disjointed it's because that's what my brain is like these days. I wonder if I'll ever be able to make cohesive thoughts again and write them out like any kind of stable person.

I'm going to go to bed and read a little, a fact which gives me stupid amounts of boring joy. Tomorrow I have time to go to the store, dye my hair and maybe check out some different paint colors. Maybe I can even work on my Halloween costume. Maybe on Halloween I'll do something fun by myself, like go out dancing or something in my awesome costume. I totally should. Where's a good place to go out dancing around here? I'll have to find out.

Oh, and Sunday is going to be mad fun. MAD fun.