Okay, I’m okay now.

Sorry about that. I’m over-emotional right now and easily frustrated.  Just tired and, well, nevermind.

Anyways, I wrote up this post about how I knew what was going on behind the scenes on the island.  I’m not going to talk about it, but I did want to say that I’m not in on any of it, though I know very well most of what’s going on.  At least, what’s going on among the young summer-employee crowd.

I love my apartment, it’s spacious and the only problem is the fact that all of the floors are bare.  Except my room’s.  I have the only rug in the entire place in my room. Not my fault, it was there when I arrived, but still.  I wish I could put it in the living room, but my bed is on it.

Mama Tienne is my roommate, Corrina’s, mom and I call her that because she takes care of us, her workers, like her own kids.  She’s great. I adore her.  Corrina has taken me under her wing and we’re really close.  We’re honest with each other, telling one another “I’m bitchy” when we’re not in a great mood or whatever.  We also work great together in the shop, whereas I have trouble with Kayla (my other roommate) because she’s always where I need to be and it’s harder to move around her. That’s not due to body size or anything, it’s just the way she positions herself in the shop.  I should know because she’s smaller than I am and I can situate myself in a spot behind the showcase where people can get around me, but I can still do what I need to do. I don’t see much of Michelle (the current ‘new girl’), so I don’t have much of an opinion of her yet.

I got a tip of $3.10 today!  I know, that’s not a lot, but for a job where you rarely get tips, getting one is exciting.  It was at the end of my shift and this guy asked if we took tips. I was startled since I hadn’t expected one and I blurted an affirmative.  He gave me two dollars out of the change I’d given him and then the couple after him gave me the other dollar and ten cents.  I was high with joy when I walked over to the main shop to punch out.  Of course me, being who I am, I didn’t stay up in the empty apartment for long. I went back down and sat out Corrina’s last hour and a half with her, chattering with her and the customers that came in.  Don’t worry, nobody minded, I work there myself and we all do it.

Anyways, this time I’m really going to bed. Sorry for the rough post before.

Two weeks in

It’s been about two weeks.  And I find that I am enjoying myself immensely, there are things I don’t like about the job, but that’s true everywhere. I absolutely…am ticked.

Just…I give up.  I tried and the internet has decided to pull crap with me.  And I’m done.  I wrote up a decent post to replace the half that was lost last time.  I hate the internet up here. It is complete and utter crap and someone needs to shoot it.

Right now I’m too irritated to even post properly. So, you know what?  Nevermind. Maybe tomorrow, when I don’t feel like killing my computer.

The decision was made.  I’m packing.

For those of you who don’t know, I got a job offer on Mackinac Island last weekend.  Specifically at May’s Fudge Shop, which indicates I need to live on the Island until mid-October.  So, I called up a couple of people to announce the news and got several pieces of advice.  In the end, it came down to a decision.  Going to Mackinac, or staying where I am and going home at the end of the summer.  And I made a choice.

Okay, so the decision was made several days ago, but still the case remains.  I took quite a poll of advice before I came to my decision.  Even so, despite all the advice, the decision was mine.  And I chose to go.  I want to go.  Very, very badly.  Not that I’m not also very scared, I mean it’s a big change to live with for several months.  To top it off, I’ve decided that I will be going to school.  It’ll be online schooling as opposed to in-classroom schooling, however if I can at least stay in the school, I’m pretty happy.  I mean, college is important to me, despite what past mistakes might make it appear.

I’ve already started getting things together, buying plastic bins to pack in and making a list of anything I need to pick up before I leave (hairdryer, some groceries, etc.).  I’ve got one bin packed and will be continuing my packing tonight and tomorrow.  I’ll be taking all of the clothes I’ve bought in the last six weeks, along with a good portion of what I brought with me.  Most likely, all I’ll be leaving behind are big, baggy t-shirts that I’ve not been wearing at all lately.  As terrifying as the move is, it is moreso exhilarating.

The biggest concern has been groceries.  I’ve already got Mom (McCormick)‘s promise that she, Granny (Rosemary) and Jessica will send me some groceries when they can.  I’ve not yet e-mailed anyone else to see if they can do the same.  Although, I can always switch out my current amazon wishlist for one filled with only groceries.  I can just imagine the looks on people’s faces when they find that instead of my usual wants.  In any case, Mom’s already found a couple of decent sites where she, and I, can order groceries to be sent up to Mackinac.  So, that’s one problem that’s been fixed.

There’s the usual worry about whether the other girls in the apartment will like me, but I’m pretty positive that it’ll be okay.  Tonight, I sent out a list of questions to my new employer concerning the apartment and will hopefully hear from him again tomorrow morning.  So now, I sign out in order to complete my packing for the night and prepare a list for some last-minute shopping tomorrow.

Jobless Again

So, Tuesday was the big return to work after the three-day weekend.  Y’know, there really wasn’t a point in my getting up when I woke to find that the power was out.  I knew then that I should just roll over and go back to sleep for three more hours.  But no, I got up, gathered all the things I’d need and went for the drive to Rosemary’s.  At around 8am, we headed back to Kim’s place showered, dressed and ready for work.  I did the litterboxes, dragging my feet as I went.  Had everything ready, helped Kim find the missing car keys.  Got in the car, picked up breakfast from Micky D’s on the way to work. Ate.

Got to work 10 minutes late, punched in for work and sat down at the day’s assigned desk after putting my stuff away.  Almost two hours passed before I finished my first survey for the day.  Feeling pretty happy, I dove back into the work.  Another hour passed and nothing happened.  Lunch came and went, an unimportant little event.  One o’clock came, I still had only one survey completed. Neither Dela nor Toni came over to tell me to leave for the day.  One thirty passed, still nothing. I was beginning to mentally stress out because I couldn’t figure out what was taking them so long to send me home for the day.

Two o’clock. Adam clocked in.  Once all of his matters were settled he stopped by my desk and asked me to come see him after my current call.  After another fruitless try and getting someone to take a survey, I got up and headed for the back of the room. Adam lead the way into an office and I obediently followed-much like a soon-to-be-punished dog.  And he fired me.  Not unkindly.  But still.  I was good, though.  I kept the tears at bay until long after I’d returned to my desk, logged out, punched out, packed up, visited the restroom and stepped outside.  It wasn’t until the fourth time I reached Kim’s voice mail that I began to lose my cool.  I ended up calling my father and talking to him because I was so wound up.

After a nice afternoon of relaxing, I’m feeling a lot better.  I’m still pretty upset that I lost my nice-paying job, but I’m kind of happy I don’t have to get up at 6:30am tomorrow morning.  Still, I wish I knew I would be getting a steady paycheck.

Weekend

Looks like I didn’t get as much writing done as I’d planned this weekend.  It’s gonna drive me up the wall if I can’t finish chapter 10.  So, I’ll probably whip up that ending tonight and then move on, just because I want to have that posted up on FF.net ASAP.  I’ve waited too long as it is.

Tomorrow begins the second week at my workplace and I’m not sure if I should be excited or not.  I did pretty well with residential homes, but I don’t know how well I’ll do with businesses again.  Hopefully I do okay, if not great.  Great would be around 7 surveys a day. Okay is around four or five.  It’s really hard to get people to stay with me through a survey.  Because the thing is so freakin’ long, everyone wants to quit halfway through.  And it sucks.

Wow. Just wow.

Sooo..Orientation was yesterday.  And it was a lot like school. There was a presentation and a lot of information fed into our heads.  Then we were led out to the main room and guided through a fake ‘interview’.  Following that, we were actually put on the phone with real people…We were on the phone from around 11AM all the way to closing at 4:30PM.  Well, except for lunch and break.  Everybody takes lunch and break at the same time, if they’re not in the middle of a survey with someone.

It’s also very frustrating work, I went through almost 100 responders before I got my first completed survey.  About three others got halfway through before deciding it wasn’t for them.  The rudest of people hung up on me while I was making my introduction.  I’m not a telemarketer and it’s very frustrating that that market has kind of messed up the phone business for survey takers.  All in all…It was interesting.  I have a job, though. I got my schedule around 4PM and it said that I’m working the 9-4:30 shift today through Friday and Monday through Friday of next week.  We have unpaid lunch, sooo…It’s approximately about seven hours a day.  For five days a week.  That’s not bad.

The only thing that sucks is that I have to get up at 6AM for the next two weeks just to catch the bus to catch another bus to catch a third bus in order to ride a bike almost three miles to work.  The things I do for money.

In any case, after that two week mark, Jessica will be working there too (I hope).  And she’ll be doing Morning shift as well, so I can move back down to getting up at 7AM. Yay!

Looks like things might just go my way.

Soooo, it’s Wednesday. And I’ve been turning in application after application since Monday. I’ve turned in near thirty of the dang things.  Well, guess what?  It looks like that might have paid off just today.  Which is ironic.  Jessica and I went to Barnes Research Center to fill out paper applications.  When we were done, we placed them on the desk and left.  On the way home, about twenty minutes later-give or take-Jessica’s phone rang.  Obviously she’d gotten her first callback.  When she hung up she told me it was Barnes.  She said I’d most likely get called next. Not entirely true since I’d put Kim’s phone number down instead of my cell.  But about two minutes later Kim called me and told me they had indeed called. So I called them back.

Orientation at 9am Monday.  All day long orientation.  I’m not sure, but I think I’ve more or less been hired at this point.  Barnes are apparently known for hiring anyone.  But…$8.00 an hour man!  That’s a lot!!!!  I’m so excited!!!!

The BIG Move! (DUNDUNDUN!)

Welcome to the…well…the…umm…the after show?  The move has already happened, buuuut…I’m still going through the ‘adjusting’ period.  Like, some part of my brain is still set in the idea of “I’ll be going home in a week”.  So, that’s a bit troublesome.  It makes sense, though, since I’ve never spent more than a week (two at most, methinks) away from home.

By the way, my apologies for taking so long to post an update.  I disassembled my computer and just got it reassembled late yesterday between driving around with Jessica and applying like mad to around 10 different places for a job.

As it is, even just sitting here, typing is kind of hard.  Cats are everywhere.  Kim is literally the crazy cat lady.  She even outdoes Aunt Cindy.  Eighteen cats!!!  EIGHTEEN!!!  Granted, only about six of them are actually hers, but still…That’s a large number of cats staying in a not-so-big house.  An old, old house, too.  It used to be a carriage house and stuff.

Gotta go finish my resume.

Happy Easter!!!

It’s Easter, we got a new car yesterday and the sun is shining.  So be happy!

I just got a serious wake-up call.

I’ve been talking to my friend Brandon today, while looking various companies and applying to them.  And he just told me something really sad.

He’s been searching for a job for months.  And his parents recently gave him an ultimatum, if he can’t find a job by summer, they’re going to kick him out of their house.  I asked him what he would do if that happened, expecting him to say he had a friend he could move in with.  Instead, he told me that he didn’t know, because he didn’t have a car. If the worst came to pass, he said, he’d sell his computer and games systems to at least buy a car.

Another friend of mine, Matt, will most certainly not be living with his parents in a year.  His family is moving down to North Carolina and he’s staying here in Michigan.  Luckily for him, he’s got a friend who’s parents had to go back to Japan and another friend whose told him he can come live with his family.

But Brandon’s situation really struck a chord and I found myself glad that my parents hadn’t kicked me out, although they probably had very good reasons to if they’d so chose.  I haven’t been doing so hot in my first year out of high school.  I wish I had the intelligence of an older person instead of the dimwitted, neat-sightedness of an 18-year-old.

First Contact

Crap!!!

Okay, so I noticed how Beanie kept licking the bottom of the cat bed I’d brought up for her and I put two and two together.  We used to put catnip in the bed to get Melvin to use it, but he ignored it.  So, realizing she might like some catnip, I went downstairs and got Melvin, who was laying in front of the bathroom upstairs, a box and a toy and then I brought the catnip up with me. I put the box on the floor next to Melvin, sprinkled some catnip in it, and he looked disinterested.  But I heard her jingling, which meant she smelled it and was trying to find a way out.

So, I got up and opened my door to bring her catnip, but she nimbly slipped past me.  Cursing, I set the catnip on one of the shelves of my ex-dollhouse and raced after her.  She was stopped on one side of the box, studying Melvin, who was glaring at her.  He hissed and I immediately picked her up and returned to my room.  I sprinkled some catnip in the bed and she’s happily eating it.  He, meanwhile, moodily went downstairs. I followed him with his box and toy and set them down, but now he’s growling and hissing at me.

I don’t think he realized, even when I set the cat carrier in front of him earlier, that we’d brought another cat home.  When he finally met her face to face, he finally put two and two together.  Now, he’s ticked.

At least Beanie’s happy and friendly.  She didn’t appear to be bothered by his hissing. I found that amusing.

Ladies and Gentleman, the cat is in the house!

That’s right, folks.  Mom and I went out earlier today and got the newest addition to our household.  While Mom was off collecting the litterbox and stuff we’d need, I hung out in the adoption center with Beanie and the other cats.  Beanie is very, very friendly.

I’m up in my room, of course, with her and she apparently doesn’t like feet.  Whenever I walk past her to get to another part of the room, she skitters out of my as though wary of the appendages attached to the bottoms of my legs.  She appears to like lying under my desk (when I’m not sitting at it), or in one of the bottom two squares on my old barbie house (it was hand built, six squares each 1foot by 1 foot) and the bed we bought Melvin that he wouldn’t use.  Right now, she’s spread out in front of my door, every once in a while watching me, but she’s pretty happy with the situation, although she’s obviously curious about the rest of the house.

While I was at Petsmart sitting in the adoption center, I gave some of my attention to the other cats. One was a very needy little 5-month-old kitten named Cora, but the one that I fell for was this light gray long-haired 3-year-old named Pansy.  It might’ve been how small she was (she was about the same size as the 5-month-old), but I think it had to do with the way she meowed.  Instead of making sound, it was more like that sound your mother makes when you’re taking too long to buy something at the store.  That little shove of air that makes a stumped “uh” sound.  That’s the best I can describe it in typing.  She was adorable.

That’s not to say I don’t love Beanie.  I adore the new cat.  She’s so very quiet and pleasant to be around, I love her!!!

Hatenko Yugi~!

I found out yesterday that my current favorite manga ever has an anime.  It’s only thirteen episodes long and all of the important plot arcs have been taken out, but still.  An anime is an anime and it’s pretty neat to see the characters I love so much come to life on my computer screen.  Of course, since it hasn’t been dubbed, I have to watch fansubs on Veoh, but I’m still happy!!!!

A piece I’m not afraid to share.

He studied the surface thoughtfully.  Should he?  No, it was far too dangerous.  So said his once-upon-a-time father, who was blissfully bonded and completely happy.  What did he have to lose?  At this point, his young and foolish mind told him, absolutely nothing.  Why not take a peek and see exactly what his people missed out on in their blind ignorance of the rest of the world?  It was forbidden…And he liked forbidden things.  So, it was time to break the rules.

Carefully the strapping young male propelled himself towards the warmer, sunlit waters.  He was cautious, although he couldn’t really see any signs of dangerous boats nearby.  In any case, he figured it would be safest to avoid the shallows this first bout of exploration.  Finally, after hesitating for a long moment, he broke the surface and took his first, pain-filled breath of pure, unadulterated oxygen.  Immediately, his lungs burst into flames in protest and he sank back to a more appropriate level.

A clear lid slipped over his eyes protectively so that they wouldn’t dry out.  He’d rarely had use for the protective lids in the past, although now he was wondering if his people had once visited the surface far more often.  Noise and color attacked his senses and he nearly retreated under the surface once more.  His mother cradled him, although he no longer felt as completely connected to her as he usually did.  Was this how those-what was the word? Ah yes-two legged people felt?  Disconnected from their mother?

Maybe that was why little cousins were dying off, why the Great Mother had been poisoned.  In fact, she was still being poisoned, constantly.  The Icy Sisters were fading away, disappearing into the Great Mother, which they had never done before.  Everything in his world had gone wrong due to the disconnection that such…barbarians had.  His father called him savages due to their disrespect to all things sacred.

There remained a problem, though.  How could he claim his far distant relatives to be savages if he had never seen them?  His outrage was replaced by curiosity and he wheeled, searching for the nearest Sister Mother mass.  Once he located it, he judged the distance to determine how fast he should move in order to reach his destination.  His best guess was several Singer lengths.  Not too bad of a distance, not at all.

Sinking back into the Great Mother’s welcoming embrace, he used one of her gentle guiding paths to push him even faster in his chosen direction.  It did not take him long at all.  In fact, the burning globe in the sky had not lowered at all.  That in itself was a great wonder to him, since his home was so deep in the depths of the Great Mother that he’d never run across anything like it.  Right now, that was not his focus.  He wanted to see the savages his father so despised.

Echoes of movement reached him and he turned in the general direction of them.  It was not long before he found many things he’d never run across before.  They were strangely colored and moved separately of one another, although two were each attached to the same form.  He daren’t move closer for fear of being discovered.  So, he carefully surfaced once more, making sure not to push himself too far out of the water, not after his fist, painful experience.

Louder noise attacked him, washing over him in a fashion he’d not encountered in a very long time.  This noise was different from the smooth, lovely Singers’ songs.  It was jaded and rather harsh to his ears.  Yet, it sounded absolutely wonderful compared to everything that he was used to.  None of the beings he observed noticed him so he stayed in place, every once in a while sinking below the surface to observe their lower halves moving so very differently than his people’s.

Finally he focused on where the Great Mother pressed against the soft Sister Mother in an erotic display of affection.  Little versions of the bigger beings playing in his home sat on the edge of Sister Mother, playing with her soft flesh.  They appeared to be making….Some things, though he could figure out exactly what it was they were making.  One of the larger beings made the transition from his natural home to her natural home and his mouth formed an ‘o’ of shock.  Those…things that had been waving uselessly under the surface.  They actually had a function!

What it was she was doing, he had absolutely no idea, but he wanted to do it.  Unfortunately, he only had one limb rather than two attached his waist.  Which, he guessed, probably meant he couldn’t make a smooth transition from one Mother to the other.  How very sad.  For, if one ignored the awful noise, the movements of the creatures were rather elegant. Well, at least when they were on Sister Mother, who cradled them lovingly, not that any of them seemed to notice.

As much as they might be savages, Mykdiarn could see the beauty of these beings.  As poisonous as they were, they deserved to exist as much as he did.  Now, he wanted to understand them better, to move on two limbs instead of being propelled by one. Oh, how very alone he would feel when he returned to his father, who would no doubt be very angry with him and his need to explore what should be left alone.

Wow…School and inspiration!

So, school started. It’s fun and not fun at the same time. I’m on…err…I’m in the middle of my third week already and I haven’t decided if I love my classes yet or not.  I like my Creative Writing II teacher, although the subject of our semester confuses me.  Apparently, we’re writing about Origins…Sooo, for my first story (due last Thursday, I did turn it in on time, thanks) I did a piece on the origins of a race I created all by myself.  Don’t want to put it up just in case my idea gets stolen. I’m coming to realize just how public my blog is and I’d be really mad if someone stole an idea from me and got it published.  I might create a few other short pieces specifically for my blog, but that piece will not be put up unless I know for certain my ideas won’t be stolen.

Anyways, so back to the topic at hand.  Our next piece has to be about water…Apparently water is also part of the whole origins scheme.  Right now, I have no idea what I’m gonna do.  I have to do yet another piece for this Thursday about…fish.  Yes, fish.  No inspiration there.

On another front, I have had inspiration for a ‘practice’ story.  Basically, a story I can’t publish but can put up on fanfiction.net.  I’ve been working diligently on it and I’m already in the middle of my third chapter.  It’s so very exciting!