Effyou

I’m exhausted. My back has been killing me for the past week, and I’m just drained.

I do however have a bit of good news! 1 - I got a B+ in my summer course that I thought I was going to get a C in. Which of course meant having a celebratory poutine! 2- Joe and I went to look at a larger unit in our apartment and we liked it so much we put a damage deposit down. I’m not sure if we have it yet but I’m fairly confidant it will get approved as we’ve been in the building for 2 years now. It’s a lot larger (and a lot pricier), and the kitties will have a lot more space. And we’ll have a wall in our bedroom (OH.MY.GOD, don’t ask), AND a storage closet. But what’s best about the whole apartment is that it’s 5 units down the hall! So we don’t even have to use the elevator. We just need to box everything and push it down the hall. The lease starts October 1st, but the girl that lives there said we could start moving in mid September, which is awesome since I’ll be retarded busy with school and travelling for the corporate ‘realignment’ all September/October.

I’m 3/4 the way through “Remembering the Bones”. It’s as awesome as all the book reviews I’ve read about it.

Work has been alright, tomorrow and Thursday I’m delegating myself two days worth of cleaning shifts, which is awesome because stuff will get done, and crappy because I have a sore back and I’m going to basically be spending 16 hours being dirty and gross. Although, I think tomorrow I’ll finish up my next schedule and get that out of the way.

I wrote a big long thing about how I felt like the worlds shittiest friend yesterday, but I know I’m not and I’m just being hard on myself and I can’t even commit to posting about it.

I’m currently downloading an album by The Color Fred. I think the guitarist from Taking Back Sunday. I heard they were really good, anyone else? I’ll let you know what I think!

I’m going to shut up, eat some fruit, put some A535 on my back and read for a bit. I’ll update if we get the apartment

It’s 9am, and I don’t have to be at work until 1230. Last night I closed, and I would have scheduled myself an earlier shift although I didn’t want to be a zombie. It’s also overcast out and kind of cold, which means work will most likely be fairly slow, which will be a nice change of pace.

Yesterday I completed my final for my summer course. SWEET RELIEF! And the professor is posting final grades this weekend which is even more awesome! So it looks like I’ll get 2 solid weeks of no school!!

One of my former co-workers is going to work in Spain for 8 months and another co-worker and I have decided to go to Spain for a visit. I’ve never been to Europe before so that’ll be fun in itself, and then it’s Spain, so that’s awesome too! We’re thinking either February break or the end of the semester depending when exams and convocation falls.

A lady in a larger apartment in our building put an add up on kijiji (Canada’s answer to craigslist) for her apartment. We’re going to view it tomorrow, and it would be the easiest move EVER because she lives in one of the corner units at the end of our hall. We’d literally just have to box everything and push it down the hall, it’d be awesome. But the price is a little steep. We’ve been looking for a new place since last October and everything we’ve viewed has just had one awful reason not to get the place about it, so I think spending a bit more money might be the answer :/ Although, if this apartment has zero storage then the deal is off. Our landlords would be pumped though, because we’ve lived here for 2 years now and it’d be a lot easier for them to rent our apartment which is 200/month cheaper than the corner unit.

I started reading “Remembering the Bones” by Frances Itani. It is soooo good! If I didn’t have to leave for work yesterday I wouldn’t have put the book down.

Anyhow, I’m all over the board here and very unorganized in my thoughts today so I’m going to shut up, grab a shower, get dressed, read a bit and then head to work. Hope everyone is having a descent weekend! Oh, Joe and his sister went to see Mirrors. It sucked, but who couldn’t call that?

This week has been a disaster, save for today.

I won’t go in to great detail about why my week was the biggest bag of the suck, but I will tell you it involved work, and the “corporate realignment”, as well as my period hates me. Each and every month. I would cut my ovaries out with safety scissors if I could.

I got a call back from the gynocologist the other day. I’m waiting for a date for a surgery that I’m having my on my stomach to investigate why my period hates me so much. I had it once before when I was 14, and I’m absolutely dreading the recovery. Anyhow, they called the other day and apparently I have to go in for an ultrasound before the surgery. They have tentatively scheduled it for JANUARY 2ND! 2009! Go free health care. So now I get to worry about it that much longer!

Work is work. I have a 24 hour shift looming in the near future (24th/25th). I’m trying to stay super stoked about it and remind myself to be positive and that I’ll be able to listen to my ipod for at least 12 of those 24 hours, so that’s a pro. I will be done for at the end of the day though. Our stores ‘welcome meeting’ is last of the four stores, it’s from 4pm-7pm and once I get to that point, and they present me with my new contract, and new salary.. I honestly don’t think I’ll care that I got a raise. Actually, I think I stopped caring about that a few weeks ago. I mean, more money that’d be awesome, but all the work that is going in to this ‘realignment’ has been more than wearing on myself and the store.

I’m dead tired right now. I’m going to finish studying for my final that’s tomorrow and then I’ll hit bed.

I did however purchase 3 new books today, so that was exciting. Poolside and The Beach Book, which are both waterproof in the event that I want to read and bathe, which happens often but I just don’t have many waterproof books. I also purchased Remembering the Bones by Frances Itani.

Tonight one of my former employees is hosting a ’small shindig’ at her place, and I’m actually going to attend this one! 1 - I miss seeing some of my former employees who will be present, 2 - I seldom drink, 3 - I’ve been feeling rather antisocial lately.

Joe’s going to drop me off and pick me up, which is nice because I have a paper and exam tomorrow that I need to work on still, so I can’t really be out at all hours. The catch is, the party is a semi-formal theme. Now, I don’t wear many dresses. So it’s not surprising that I own maybe 5. Most of which have a purpose (I’ve maxed out the semi-formal sexy black dress at Joe’s staff parties for the past two years, it’s time for an upgrade). Anyhow, I thought “great! I finally have another use for that cute cocktail dress I wore to a friends wedding last year and thought I would never wear again!”. Apparently my boobs have decided to grow about a half a cup in the last year and Joe had to wrestle me in to the dress. THE DRESS GOES ON! That’s the main thing. It’s a little hard to breathe, but who needs that? It looks super cute and that’s all that matters. Besides I don’t think any of my employees have seen me in a dress so they’ll all be shocked. I’ll post photos if they surface which I’m sure they will.

While I enjoy being curvy, I find it hard, as a short person to deal with the ever growing hips and boobs that I have. IT IS COMPLETELY UNECESSARY. Ridiculous actually. Any suggestions of how to cope with these new growths?

In other news: This week has been a sucky week at work, I have a term paper due and two exams this week, I work a closing shift on Tuesday.

Update on Best Buy issues: they still suck, I have taken things in to my own hands and I’m hoping what I’ve done works.

I’m going to go play a little more Ratchet and Clank.

After four wonderful days off, I am back to the grind today. I start work at 10:30, but I’m debating going in at 9:30 to tie up some loose ends. I’m anxious to see if there will be any messes to clean up. I’m assuming there will be.

Things I’ve learned recently:

- I hate Best Buy. Never buy a single thing from them. Worst service ever. I wouldn’t even buy a dvd from them now.

- You CAN format your computer on your own.. (well, I already knew this but it was a theme this weekend)

- I cannot bring myself to write papers 2 weeks before they’re due. It’s always such a last minute thing with me. I swear today I’ll try to focus.

- No matter how much I try to relax, I’m still worried about having another tummy surgery. And I think what I’m worried about most is whether it will fall on a day that I need to be in another province for training :x. Or during an exam.

I’m going to grab some breakfast and get in the shower, and get back at ‘er. Wish me luck!

I’ve been in a pretty bummy mood lately. Typically, as discussed in a previous post, I participate in retail therapy when I’m feeling down in the dumps.

This is especially hard to do when you’re low on cash. So, today I broke out a spa gift certificate that my staff got me last August (I really don’t make time for myself), and I went in and got some cute eyeshadow and nail polish. Joe also purchased me a new hair dryer today because mine started smoking this morning and finally (after about 10 years) kicked the bucket. I hope this new one can measure up.
We’re going to Chapters tonight too, so I might let myself get something there.

I finished Towelhead by Alicia Erian, excellant book, although I’m not sure I really want to see the movie. I’m almost 100% positive Aaron Eckhart will play the super creepy pedophile neighbour. He totally will.

This is the first day of my four day weekend, and I’ve spent it relaxing. I had a bit of a meltdown last night, so when picking up the hair dryer this morning, I picked up a bag of salsa and chips. It was a pretty laid back day

I’ve been in love with this song all week: Melt My Heart to Stone - Adele

Anyhow, I’m going to read the instructions for my term paper and grab some homemade lasagna. I hope everyone is having a descent week.

This summer has gone by in what seems like a blur.
I cannot believe that this Friday will be the first of August.

What have I been up to lately? Nothing really. I’ve been working, and studying for the class I’m taking this summer, and really I’ve just been dealing with work a lot. I’ve also become addicted to The Sims 2. This comes in spurts, but right now I have all of the expansion packs and have been enjoying wasting my time with it. I’ve also started reading Towelhead by Alicia Erian, it’s pretty good so far, I’ll be interested in seeing the moving when I’m finished.

I’ve got a 4 day weekend coming up. Some would call it a vacation, but I’m really not going to be doing anything different so I wouldn’t call it that.

Milo has started snuggling up with me every night, burying his head in my arm and he will not leave me be. It’s the cutest thing ever, but it makes it a pain for rolling around in your sleep!

I also finally started back at the gym today

I’m sick :/

Yesterday I got a giant wave of nausea while at work, and I kept running to the (yes public, ew) washroom to puke my guts up but couldn’t get anything out.

At home, I still can’t get anything out I think I would just feel a million times better if I could throw up. Ugh.

Any suggestions for feeling better? I’ve tried sleep (I slept 12 hours last night), I’ve tried green ginger tea (blech), I’ve taken gravol, I’ve tried gingerale and crackers. I was going to do soup yesterday but I’ll tell you about my misadventures with Dio Mio on another day.

Help!

I’m up. It’s 6:50am. I know that’s not thaaat early, I don’t even have to be to work until 930am.

My first exam in my current online course was made available at 6am (until 1130pm). I don’t want to worry about it while I’m working, so I got up a little early, made myself a zen tea, and I’m doing my final cramming preparations for my open book exam.

I make myself sound like such a paranoid person ha. I’m off tomorrow, so I think what I’ll do is start my term paper and just spend the rest of the day relaxing.

We went to see The Dark Knight last night. Before the movie started some guy stopped breathing, so they evacuated the theatre and took him out doing chest compressions (I hope he’s okay), and then 3/4 the way through the movie there was a fight because some idiot was smoking in the theatre, so the cops had to come and arrest the guy that was smoking. Due to all of the delays and our ‘patience’ with everything we got free movie coupons, so Joe and I are going to go see Wall-E!

I’ll stop rambling. My tea is ready to drink and I’m almost ready for my exam.

While being somewhat irrational today, I was left thinking about the ways in which I deal with stress.

For example, today my boss came and asked me to address something happening at our store. Something that has been happening since we opened (and when I wasn’t the manager). It’s minor, but she thinks it’s very rude. I explained to her how I addressed this issue at the last staff meeting and it hasn’t changed. Granted, I honestly haven’t followed this one up much, as there are bigger fish to fry and I like to choose my battles. With the corporate takeover looming, it’s something that needs to change. Long story short, I was irrational and kind of attacked her in my responses. This isn’t new to her with all of the changes that are coming about, she knows she needs to choose her battles too.

Anyhow, a list of ways in which I manage stress:
1 - I gunnysack. I tend to stock pile small issues and then they end up all coming out at once.
2 - I shop. Retail therapy has been my demise this summer.
3 - I am irrational. As per today’s example.
4 - I suffer physically. My knees often (well every 6 months or so) lock because of mental stress. It took 2 surgeries to figure this one out, and now I just go to the local ER, get knocked out with an IV and have the nurses fix it for me. I also get migraines.
5 - I adopt the ‘I am only one person and thus can only do so much’ philosophy. It tends to work pretty well, and it’s also a nice philosophy to impose on partners in my store when they are finding themselves beyond stressed.
6 - I try not to sweat the small stuff (too much).

With the takeover, my final year of university, my grad school applications and volunteer work looming in the very near future, I will need to incorporate new/more coping mechanisms. How do you manage your stress levels?

Tonight I’m feeling ambitious. So far I’ve worked 8 hours, napped (ha), gone for a grocery order and stood in a checkout line for 30 minutes, made a stew, baked cranberry orange oatmeal muffins, and done my work laundry, and now I’m blogging and studying for my online course.

Tomorrow I will: get my hair cut and brows waxed (thank god!), work 8 hours, go pick up printer cartridges, print off grad school applications and my passport applications for the New Orleans trip in October. Well that’s this list so far, and I hope to get through it.