I had a very interesting weekend, with the leaving of one roommate and several big events happening in the second store. It was odd after Kayla left, it still is. The apartment feels somehow…emptier. I still expect her to yell at the others for smoking in the apartment, which she never approved of. It’s weird to come home, even now, and not find her in the living room with her math book. Or to have her pop into my room at odd hours to say something or other to me. I didn’t expect it to affect me as much as it has, but…maybe I’ll get over it?
In other news. On Saturday, we had the second day (and end) of the Fudge Festival. During that, each of the fudge shops (May’s, Joanne’s, etc) got one Golden Ticket. Yes, like Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. In any case, we each got to put our ticket in a box and sell fudge to customers. At May’s, in the second shop (where I work), we packed 40 pound boxes, with one slice of Chocolate Nut and two half-slices of different flavors and in one of them went the ticket. Lee marked them all at random with various symbols (turtle, M, spiral, start, purple mark (man that was funny), etc). And then he put them up on the shelf behind the counter.
Between 3 and 5 pm, the Golden Ticket search began. It was exhilarating. Nobody got our ticket until the very, very end. And the woman who did bought the last eight boxes of fudge for it. There was a tense moment there when a man wanted one of the original last nine boxes and the woman protested. He snapped that she hadn’t bought them yet and she glared at him. Other than that, it was a lot of fun. I got a picture of her and her family. She spent exactly $111.60. And I should know, because I was the one who sold her those boxes. Oh yes. That’s right. Me.
And then on Mondayyyy, there was a little surprise in the second shop. Lee got a bunch of people to get in on the idea of doing one of those flash dance things you can find on Youtube. It was incredibly fun. At about seven pm, we had a lot of people in the fudge shop and the music we play in the background was turned up. After about a minute, a techno song came on and everybody started dancing. I had a customer, so I was hesitant to jump in (I had said I’d do so beforehand). But at one point, my customer disappeared into the dancing people (off to dance themselves) and I burst into motion.
It was all a ton of fun and I got more pictures of that event and hopefully I’ll be able to find the video on Youtube.
Ugh, I hate little kids. And I hate customers…
I have half an hour and then I go back to working and smiling and being happy. Hopefully my headache will go away by then. I took two Tylenol, but it’s fading slowly.
Whatever, I need to finish eating. I love beef. You know, I never realized how good it was to have lunch meat sandwiches when I was in high school, now I’m grateful that my mom brought me lunch meat with the last visit. I have food to eat.
The contrast of a black straw in a red coca-cola cup filled with water.
The loud music in a darkened bar.
The ache for food.
Singing along with the music.
The darkening sky, watching it from the inside.
The lights in other stores becoming more noticeable as the evening wears on.
People calling out requests to the live singer.
Watching passerby stop at stores, or walk by.
A glimpse into another life with each person that passes the tinted windows.
The chatter-noise underlying the music.
The flickering televisons.
The vibrating phones as another text is received.
The busy waitresses rushing from table to table..
The tiny bathroom.
The joy of sitting in a booth with a friend on the other side of the table.
The general happiness of the crowd.
There is no bouncer as of yet.
The reflected lights framing the mirrors behind the bar.
The old pictures lining the walls.
The shock of a plate hitting the floor.
The rumble of chairs pushing away from tables.
The applause as a song ends.
The four different channels on the TVs surrounding the bar.
The people coming in, looking for a seat.
The waitress checking on the table.
The icy water.
The impatience for food.
The pamphlet for another restaurant.
The quaintness of Main St. outside the windows.
The alcohol served to those of age.
The playful banter about colleges-namely U of M, State and OSU.
The-Oh, the ice cream has arrived.
Well, isn’t that something. I finally get time to sit down and write another post for my blog and it’s already tomorrow. How shocked I am…and giggle-y…Very giggle-y tonight. It’s kind of ridiculous.
In any case, other than the early rising, I’m quite enjoying having early shift this week. For, this is the beginning of the Yacht Races, which lasts two weeks. For the first time since I got here, it was absolutely insane at the shop (I work in the corner shop all the time) today. Literally. I mean, we ran out of /everything/ and its mother. We were flinging boxes together like nobody’s business and then tossing fudge slabs into those boxes and shoving them into customers’ waiting hands.
Corrina was quite irritable today, probably because she’s not been getting all that much sleep these past two nights. I was cheerful as could be, despite the stuff going everywhere.
Several times, the shit in the fan. Like, when the receipt roll ran out for the credit card machine and we had no more and…it was just nuts.
I had so many people interrupting me, while I was in the middle of someone else’s order, to ask me about something. It got to the point that I rudely ignored them until I was free to listen to them. I can’t take six people’s questions/orders at once, I’m just not that capable. And I don’t feel particularly bad about it, everyone got their fudge in the end, so they should be happy.
All in all, it was a fairly eventful day at work and I look forward to my bed this night.
There is a hill on this island. And it is my mortal enemy. I climb up it’s steepness at least once a day….And it has been dubbed “that damn hill”.
I have to say, it makes me feel good when I get to the top and manage to conquer it everyday.
It really just can’t keep me down.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
