Look. It’s my blog! OoOoOooo…. Sometimes I forget I have it. I swear someday I am going to ditch that time-suck Twitter and come home to this here blog. I’ll do it too! Just not today.

Something about that Twitter fascinates me, tho I do hate how my particular “twitterfeed” is like 99% chat room. I remember the Old Days (yes I have been tweeting since like the first week or something so I get to say Old Days) someone would always call out the chatters and tell them to “get on AIM! This isn’t a chat-room!” I don’t really want to be that guy… Plus it is semi-interesting reading in that voyeuristic way, when I am not annoyed with it. What happened to the “What are you doing?” angle? Now it’s all “@ @ @ @” conversations and you have to scroll around all crazy to keep up. *sigh* Plus I have seen more nudie self-twitpics than I can shake a stick at! Not that that’s always a good thing. LOL. So I guess there are plusses and minuses. Still part of me wants to do away with it like I did the Plurk.

Anyhoo. So do you realize the year is nearly half over already? It is! Ask anyone you know working Retail. If that person in your life is me, let me just tell you then. Backpacks are landing people. Backpacks! That means Back to School. After that it’s all downhill till holiday. [insert cries of pain here] So get your shopping list together and plan that holiday Ham… Have I instilled panic? Heh. So where was this paragraph going? Oh yeah. Time flies when you aren’t blogging. I have been super busy with work. Plus our time off has been pleasantly filled with friends and time with my man. Last week we went to the big San Diego Zoo to check out the new Elephant Odyssey the have been building up in there. It was nice, but immature yet. Animals were still in the “acclimation” stages and weren’t as visible as normal. The big cats weren’t yet moved in. But otherwise super well done. My favorite part will always be Monkey Trails tho. Monkeys rule yo.

So yeah. Still alive and junk. Trying to figure out a balance between online life and real life and my cat. (Inside joke, the cat part. Kinda) If you get anything out of this post, it’s the part in this next sentence: If you think I am ignoring you, I am not. I am just in a weird place right now.

tagged: work blogging san diego update retail zoo

November is always a tough month for me. Really. There’s the work thing that drives me insane, for one. Something you may not know about me; I work in the retail industry. This means that the last two months of the year really suck. But I do little things to make it more fun (read: challenging) like introduce new house pets, which I am doing this year. Also the past 2 years I have participated in NaBloPoMo. It’s just like that book writing thing, except we aren’t writers. We’re bloggers. So we blog for a month. Heheh.

Last year I convinced Brian to join in with me. You know Brian, right? Super internet celeb from the Cheap Blue Guitar? Him. So that was fun. Look at this post. Don’t you just feel the fun? So anyhoo, I do have a point here. Let me remember it…

Oh yeah!

So this morning I woke up to this:

it’s november! it’s national write your ass off on your blog month.

i triple dawg dare you to do it this month… with me!

are you in?

c’mon. you can do it!

xxoo,
brian

It’s so on betch!

tagged: blog brian retail pets insane nablopomo bloggers post cheap blue guitar

Whew! What a week! What a summer!

In fact, where did summer go? I mean srsly? It’s already Back to School! (I capitalize it, because in my industry it’s more than period of time, it’s an event.) I have to say tho, I have been having a blast. Every weekend off Richard and I have had places to go, things to do, and met new folks all along the way. It has been the Summer of Twitter, as we have made a few Twitter friends into real friends. That’s always odd at first. Going from contacting someone online thru Twitter, to actually dialing them up on the phone and getting together for drinks or meals. Heh. I love Twitter. Anyhoo, I think my summer is coming to a bit of an early close, as my work schedule has me booked the next three weekends. I don’t socialize much on my working weekends because the hours are just to extreme, what with the 5 and 7 AM starts or the late closing shifts. After the 3 weeks of work my parents arrive. 7 days of tour guide. Wee! Then we are already into October. Bam. holiday. 2 months of loooong work days, few days off… Another year passes.

Do you see why I am always tense? The passing of time is so cruel for us career retail people! Gawd I am stressed out now. Heh.

tagged: work twitter holiday time retail weekend parents stressed summer early

Okay. I should be sleepy any minute now. I just finished my Sleepy Time Tea. (Okay, finding that video about the tea was a total bonus. I get that brand in the non-extra variety. Same bear label tho.)

So anyway, here it is 3:30 AM. People in other time zones are tweeting good morning on the Twitter. I hate hearing (reading) good morning when I have yet to sleep yo. It totally makes me all cringe-y. Ew. You gotta be wondering by now, “Why the hell is this idiot up so late?” Well, lemme just tell you. I was on the closing shift at work. It’s the one to ten. This time of year its pretty quiet at my retail establishment, so we typically have no problem getting out on time. Tonight tho, as I was making my final rounds I saw an odd puddle on the ground up near the receiving area. It took me a minute to realize it was coming from the fire sprinkler. Just a steady drip. Not good. Our building had a drip like that last year and half the lower level ended up under water when the sprinkler burst. So I had to call it in. This type of issue classifies as an emergency. I had to wait for someone to come out and assess/fix it. On a Saturday at ten o’clock. Yeah. So it took a long time to get someone who would come out. A real long time. Then it took a while for the repair, once we established that it was in fact the sprinkler and not just like weird or whatever. Right. So I left work at 2 AM.

tagged: richard work iphone twitter weird morning retail sleep late fire sprinkler

Many people enjoy the romance of Valentine’s Day and go to great lengths to celebrate. Others find it totally torturous that a day exists. Some just like the candy. Heh. I myself am somewhere in the middle. It depends if my work schedule allows me to celebrate (this year it doesn’t). I actually moved in with Richard on Valentine’s Day. Isn’t that cute? I do have to wonder why, as retail folk, we ended up with the 2 most relationship defining events on holidays. It is so hard to get time off!

Anyhoo, I was wondering. How are y’all celebrating V.D. this year?

how are you celebrating valentine's?

total votes: 19

chocolates and flowers, traditional and simple

 5% (1)

 

we always go to dinner

 0% (0)

 

just a card

 5% (1)

 

the first 2 actually

 5% (1)

 

home alone. booze, chocolate, and a movie.

 11% (2)

 

our love needs no special day

 32% (6)

 

a weekend trip

 0% (0)

 

@#&% valentine's

 21% (4)

 

other (in comments)

 21% (4)

 

tagged: poll retail romance holidays relationship candy valentine's day

So… yeah. What to sayabout my birthday? I wasn’t sure. So I looked back in the archives. It appears that back when I used to be able to barter for the day off I really didn’t do much. Take 2005 as an example:

I slept in until a luxurious 10 am. I leisurely had breakfast while read blogs. Next, I vacuumed the whole house, starting at the bottom. (I don’t like to vacuum stairs while walking down backwards. I feel like I’ll fall down.) After that I cleaned up the garage a bit. I wanted to make sure all the Christmas decor fits back into the shelves. There’s so much mare this year!

After that, I threw out the poinsettias. They had lost way too many leaves to be considered healthy. While I was at it I put away the fake one that the cat always chews on. The UPS guy rang the bell, but he must have been in a hurry because he was gone before I got to the door. I was instead greeted by a box from Amazon! It was a gift from 2 of my good online friends (that I almost met in person once). Thank you soo much! It’s just what I wanted… Then I got dressed. I took my time because I had nowhere to be. I didn’t shave though, and I wish I had because now I have to today.

It was a bit after 2 when Richard got home from work. He was on the 4am to 2pm. He was very tired. We went to Target. Bickered. Went to Chevy’s for cocktails and take-out. When we got home we bickered while eating, watched Elf, and Richard went to bed. He had already been sleeping in his chair. This was like 8 or 9. I watched what was probably a re-run of Joey and downloaded a Wanda Wisdom podcast and went to bed. I listened to Wanda for about an hour before falling to sleep myself.

I think that’s everything.

Um. So yeah. This year, like the last, I worked instead. At least I wasn’t home alone plotting Christmas crap storage. Good lawd. Speaking of last year, let’s continue with the ghost of birthdays past and take a look:

Here at the home front not much happened. I woke up, dressed, went to work, survived a day of retail in December, and came home to an empty house. Richard did bring home some Chevy’s take-out, which was nice. And for the special occasion I got flan. Not that I didn’t appreciate the flan. Lawd knows I love a good flan!

Sheesh. Is December over yet? Stick a fork in me people. I am done.

So it turns out, after all my feeling sorry for myself… (I know, I suck!) This year’s b’day was better than I have had since my arrival in San Diego. Before bed on the 21st I got an e-card from one of my first online friends. The next day,  I woke to a lovely e-card from a local friend reminding me that “no matter what, I own the day”. Something like that anyway, and while I love the idea behind that sentiment, my company owned the day, like so many other days. I had to work. Heh. But I loved the card! I also had not one but TWO iTunes gift certificates! I adore iTunes almost as much as I adore the fine folk that gifted me. Thanks Brian and soapbox.SUPERSTAR!! You guys rock for looking after me like you do. I appreciate it! Then, yeah. I was off to work again. When I got home there were chores undone that I had to do. I was still feeling sorry for myself. I got a bit cranky. Sad, I know, but December is a cruel little bitch that torments my mind! But I finished up and went upstairs and got all cute for my dinner date with Richard. We went to our usual mexican place, Jimmy Carter’s. It was not busy. We had a relaxed meal. On the way home Richard surprised me with a package, but would not let me open it. We never do gifts. I was a bit surprised.

Once we got home I was allowed to open it. It was Tom Ford! Well, Tom’s fragrance. Remember how I fell in love like with it, even though the ad was kinda raunchy? Well later that day as I wore it I became obsessed with the stuff. But I couldn’t find it at my mall, and am not shopping for fun this month… But now I have it. A really big bottle too. This size would have covered that model’s crotch a bit better…

Anyhoo. So yeah. With a little perspective and support from friends, I managed to have a nice birthday. I thank you.

tagged: richard work itunes retail birthday chores bitch crotch december package

So yesterday I expressed a desire to not have to deal with Christmas music at work. Well, guess what? Clearly I jinxed myself, or my gut feeling was right. The Christmas music has begun. Sure it’s not full force. It’s sprinkled in, like every other song or so. But still, when I got to my office and realized what I was hearing I had a strong desire to stab my ears with a pen…

Maybe I’ll switch the site over to the holiday theme this week. You know, just give in. Immerse myself in holiday goodness.

tagged: work christmas music retail annoyed

Yesterday morning I walked into work and experienced full-blown Christmas decorations. Let’s just check the date shall we? Yesterday was Friday the nineteenth. The nineteenth of October. No wonder I wanted to gouge my eyes out and run for the hills.

tagged: holiday retail decorations october

In my line of work the seasons blur just a bit. Soon the days will as well. This may help…

Is it Christmas? via The Presurfer.

tagged: links christmas holiday retail reminder

Today has been bad. A bad day. So naturally I decided to do a podcast. I never learn! I should call it ‘...was i bitching?’ LOL!

Anyhoo, (as I say at least 20 times on the podcast) I gab aboot everything from retail to web 2.0! Music from the Death Becomes Her Soundtrack.

(Yes, I almost broke my trunk… Don’t ask. And don’t let my sour mood fool ya. Life is good. I just like to vent online. Totally not good. I am working on it.)

EDIT: Also mentioned: Luka, Wanda, and probably someone else. Let me know.

tagged: blog blogging podcast retail me bitching web 2.0 nick humid vlog