Week luck, part dux

To continue the fun events of the week:

Friday
Payday! I've been working my behind off in an attempt to afford rent and move next to campus instead of overpaying rent and gas to live in Elsewhere. After a 53 hour work week [holy-overtime, batman!], I get a nice paycheck.... where taxes down here are steeper than up north. My overtime pays exactly for the taxes taken out. Huzzah.

Saturday
Because of missing work on Thursday, I take a shift for a higher up so he can move into his new place. Closing isn't too horrible, although we get slammed and get out later than usual. Not a big deal until I get home and start looking for my keys to get in to my apartment... and can't find them at all. I work in a key-entry lab and guess where I had left my keys before leaving school to go to work.

No big deal, although slightly annoying. It just means that I'll have to pick my lock at close to one in the morning so I can get some sleep because I have to open the store on Sunday morning. I grab my earring set and a knife and get to work; I realize rather quickly that I'm really out of practice and these tools are NOT going to work. Fourty five minutes later, I got the deadbolt, but the lower lock was stubborn and I believe my neighbor called the bluecoats on me thinking I was looking to rob my place. Barboursville's finest drove by for the second time and I said screw it - I picked the lock to the garage in three minutes. Slept on the floor in a sleeping bag in the garage for five hours before going to work.


Sunday
Sucked because of the lack of sleep. I owe my lab-mate for being in town and grabbing my keys from the lab before bringing them to me before I got off. I gave her lunch (my mom had given me a load of Subway gift cards that I don't forsee using at any point soon), got off, and passed out quickly. Doc called about my thesis project, though, and it was very good to hear an old friend's voice. The moment I get two days off in a row, I need to work my way back up to work in the lab. I also have a lab-lacky/minion! =)

Monday
Huzzah for sleep! I was able to take a 9-5 shift easily. I did learn that most people working food are squeemish and people are... interesting. I was using the restroom at work when this lady begins tugging on the door. I wash my hands, get out, and get back to work. 45 minutes later, the lady walks out and I think nothing of it, while making a sammich. I turn around for the bread and get a whiff of foul.... Perhaps from the bathrooms. Again, it'll air out.

Nope. Two hours later that hallway still smells horrible and there's no way that it was just a passing thing. No one else was willing to go look, even though Libby has the restroom chore later that day. I get curious with 15 min left in shift and wander in... to crap everywhere. Looks like that lady crapped herself, spent 45 min cleaning herself up, and left smeared crap on the floor, toilet, sink, some spots in the hallway, and in the garbage. I'm the only one with the gonads and prior training to handle it without retching. It was quite entertaining to tell my co-workers some of the Veterinary skills that were common occurrence and our normal conversation starters. Meh. I got off a half an hour late due to the cleaning and Libby offered to pay me $50 for cleaning up the crap. I left amused.

I went back to the lab to work and get paperwork in for that silly house I'm trying to get (and the land-lord didn't receive the first time I sent it). I get a call from work because the new girl called off on close. So, because I need monah, I went back in to close.

I also had a chainmaille order to send that, upon searching my car, I had left my wallet at home. Eugh, overpriced rush order in the morning. I'm also not happy with the business we started for artisans - Michelle's got orders for chainmaille and she's getting into it. Not a big deal, but it's going to get interesting as orders come in as to who does the maille work. She's also whacking me (rightly so, but it still burns) to a customer that I've been having issues with her order and she's taking the commission from me. I'm re-picking up more maille patterns that Michelle won't be able to do for a while yet to be ahead, but it's going to be.... interesting. I'm thinking the adage of 'never do business with friends or family' might be GOOD advice. I can see this falling apart if I can't keep my mind away from the 'she's just learning this for money 'cause she sees the interest people show for my crap.' I know it's unfair. I know she's unemployed for no fault of her own and spends a LOT of time on the fledgling business - more than I can afford or will ever be able to properly thank her for. I know she's working her ass off. I'm just.... I always was proud of being able to do something that someone else couldn't and picking it up quickly.

Tuesday
Found out that the house we were all excited for was already rented out. Sonofa. Whelp, time to look more! Again, the new girl called off, and I got to work with a ticked off coworker who doesn't know the blessing of being willing to work. I got looked over for the overtime because I had worked over yesterday and the manager wanted to be fair. I can't blame him, although I CAN say he pulled a herp-a-derp move..... by not looking at the schedule. I offered, Libby didn't want it, and she had to work again this morning. I worked less hours that day than she did (she got in at 9, I got in at 11:15), and had today off. Not complaining about it, I just didn't like working with her after she finally relented and bitched the rest of the time.

Today
A break in the luck! I have today off and my paycheck finally cleared. I'm doing laundry, cleaning the house, and going out to (cheap) dinner. =)

I also finished some new maille despite carpal tunnel acting up again. It sucks when pain and numbness takes you off of orders. Plech.

I did find out that I'll be working through the premier of the new season of my second favorite show. My favorite show just got canceled. I'm going to be boycotting Fox and watching So You Think You Can Dance on Facebook with a guy that uploads it instead of on the channel. Fox doesn't care about established fan-bases for anything but House or Glee... or their reality shows. Grrrr. RIP Lie to Me, except for re-runs. Perhaps they'll do one more episode where Lightman FINALLY gets Gillian? Just for our sakes?

Ok, enough whining. I swear I'll be better next post, with more up-beat-ness! O.o

Reliable Transportation?

I swear by my luck sometimes. I swear that, with some of the luck I have occasionally, I could sink third-world countries. Here was my last week.

Monday night:
I drive my dream car, plus a few years. Baby Girl is a 2000 VW Bug (the newer type: my dream car is a 1960's model I want to re-build) in opalescent blue. She has quite a few miles on her, but she's really not that bad - if we ignore that modern engineering isn't what it used to be and she was made in Mexico instead of Germany. I still love her to death, despite cramming her with crap that's now mobile..... anywho. She gets me to work and back in one piece. Usually. Except this evening, when I go to start her up, she's acting really funny - as in the engine's rattling and bucking, she's not transitioning gears well, and I'm scared to really drive her far/fast. The problem? I work about 25 minutes from the apartment. Damn. At least I have to go in later the next day and can get her to the mechanic, if I can afford it. If she's not completely tanked. IF I can get home in one piece and can drive her just that much further to the mechanic the next morning.

I take off REALLY slowly. As in 10-15 mph slowly. I made it to the other side of town before I get waved down by a concerned driver who noticed the sparks coming from under my vehicle. I stop immediately, take a look under, and she's almost melted through some pipework on the underside. I love AAA.

I owe one of the fellow grad students here a LOT for hauling my sorry butt all over the place for the next few days. I also paid for a new catalytic converter, resonator, and a bunch of other pipe work. Huzzah.



Wednesday:
Left my phone charger in the car being fixed. Missed a call in to work for Thursday, which I was supposed to have off. Oops.

More in part two, back to work for me.

Friday the 13th

After a famous day in history, Friday the 13th is traditionally unlucky. This was the day, following a long run of power sanctioned by the church, the Knights Templar were massacred on papal order. Legend has it the military arm of the See were given sealed orders to be opened at a specific time and carried out immediately (supposedly to keep the Templars from being warned of any such plot against them). The crime? Blasphemy and heresy.

Yesterday was Friday the 13th, and boy did it manifest. I finally got enough sleep for a change (huzzah ADD-drug induced insomnia) and made my way into work - for what I thought was a ten hour shift. That was not a big deal because I need the paycheck. Two girls quit recently and one was injured, causing all of us to take up many more hours to pick up the slack. It was disappointing I'd have to miss a picnic with friends on a beautiful day due to work, but..... I'd deal.

So, I get to work for the lunch rush and watch a head on collision right in front of the store. One girl ran a red and went full-on into a guy turning. We get emergency crews there, and lunch rush was pretty slow due to the mass chaos in front. At least lunch rush wasn't the hell it usually is. Heh.

The loss of lunch rush was not how the rest of the day went along. Not only were we slammed through the rest of the evening like what our usual lunch rush is, but one of our working managers skipped out an hour early leaving us really behind on everything. My ten hour shift turned into a twelve hour shift just to catch up on everything and to let the guys finish in some semblance of time, considering we close at 11 and the alarm locks down at midnight.

Today's agenda: work on positivity in the workplace (which I meant this blog to NOT turn into a bitch-fest. Whoops.) and get laundry done for the uniform. Work 6-close. At least it's with an awesome guy that likes dub-step. =)

Other notes - Prayers go out to Angel for her step-dad's brother who is currently in the ER. Much love, and God(ess)-speed.

Explanation?

Hi there! I know I'm not really one to open up to people easily, but I'm looking to change that. At any rate, I'm taking on this type of writing as a chance to do one of a few things:

• Begin writing again. During undergrad I was free to write many items including documentary papers and poetry that helped me categorize how I see the world. I warn all of you, it's an odd place in here.
• Organize my thought processes. I am attention deficit. Writing is one of the very few things that I can do in an organized fashion; it's a pet peeve if papers/essays/what-not are NOT organized.
• Introduce myself to more people in a thoughtful, yet blank, way. Internet blogging lets us open up while not giving us a face. I'm capitalizing on this idea to [attempt to] speak my mind. Go me.
• Attempt to figure out some parts of [my] life that may not be mainstream
• Work on positivity instead of Dysthemia

So, on to the actual explanatory portion of the blog to get it out of the way.

Why did you chose the name you did/site name you did? What does that MEAN?
Sublimation - the state change of a solid directly to a gas with no liquid phase in between. It either takes a large amount of energy or a low pressure system [below the triple point of the molecule]. There are many symbolic meanings on that one. Think on it as you will.

Certari - My pet name for myself, and my internet ego. Brought upon in chat rooms and Role Play, it was the second internet naming of myself, behind Lyra (a furry/young/my ADHD personality). Certari is the consort/serving angel of the winter, underneath the governing angel Altrib (AKA: Attaris). Now, I'm thinking that it was SCREAMING that I am kinky (even back in high school when I chose it)... then I thought it was just cool.


What's with the butterfly if all that crap is about ice/melting?
It's a really long, convoluted story. I'm sure I'll get into it at one point. Let's just say, for now, that I love butterflies and the whole thing is really pretty. So naaaaaaaaah! At any rate, I always found butterflies/moths much like the scientific sublimation. They phase change in a matter of a short time, from one state to the next, with little thought involved. They go from arboreal/terrestrial and chained to the earth before metamorphosing to free beings on the wing. Hopelessly poetic, I know.