Wtf, it's almost July.
Ha, amusing. Oh, I want to go back home!!!! Well, I should be there in 1.5 weeks (another blasted trip to the train station at too-fucking-early in the AM, but minus Megan and Donna and Chrystina - and of course the scary little girl who ended up being the daughter of my psycho roommate's manager....), at least, for a few days (hooray).
Life is going by at an amazingly fast pace (aka, much better than last June). Not fast enough, in my opinion, as I still have a fair amount of time left here, but I'm not sure if I really am going to finish out what I'm contracted to finish out....but I'm getting ahead of myself slightly.
(p.s. Megan - sorry. haven't called you!! i suck at this. but i'm getting a new cell phone by the end of this week i hope. i'll have to fill you in on snoopy....)
So, I'm going crazy, slightly, the heat is insannnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnne. I don't remember it being this hot last year - well, because it wasn't. I've got tomorrow off and stupid me, left my swim suits in WISCONSIN, so hence, no Soak City. After I go home, I'm bringing them back and I bet the temperatures will drop by about 40 degrees for the rest of the summer.
Anyway, I might be home in August. I'm not sure yet. I've been weighing the pros and cons of quitting early, and the pros seem to be winning. Stay tuned for details.
In the meantime, however, I'm going to be periodically looking for jobs, etc and writing a resume. Oh thrilling. ;)
Well, tomorrow's my day off, and I'm going to Famous Dave's tonight! Yay! And I might go on some rides tomorrow, provided the average temperature isn't a million degrees. ;) Yay for a day off!
Sorry, I'm boring, but not much to report on...can't wait to go home!!!
P.S. I'm going home because July 11 is my birthday. Start sending cards. :) :)
- posted by L. @ 3:53 PM

 
Shoot me. Now.
Arguh. So, it's June. It's mid-June, to be precise. I am going insannnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnne! I have much more of a social life this year (yea Commons), but omg, if I work one more 60 hour week....
Yeah, things are interesting. I'm getting way underpaid for all the babysitting I'm doing. Can someone please explain to me the logic behind hiring 14-15-year olds?? I mean, kids these days! I have been working (on average), 2 morning shifts (of babysitting) a week, but it's killing me! I'm not very good at making people listen to me, really, and these kids take the cake. Then, so when they're all fighting and throwing things at each other and chasing after each other and I get really pissed at them and send some of them home, our manager tells our supervisor that I shouldn't send people home because our area is about 1000 hours under and that if I send people home, then we lose the hours permanently, but surprise! We don't need to have 6-7 people plus a lead on in the morning, nobody comes into our store! Let the kids work 5 days a week, not 6! Arguh. But, as our manager hasn't bothered to actually tell me not to send people home, I'm going to keep doing it.
So, it's been a rough week.
And my cell phone continues to hate me. So, sorry, I haven't called anyone. If you call me, PLEASE leave a message, otherwise I might not know you called since my caller id is also faulty, and often reads no number instead of the person that called. But I'm getting a new phone - soon, ish, but it is being mailed to Wisconsin, and then here.
Anyway, I think my time is up...sorry this is kind of down, but rargh! Hopefully things will start to look up....but only like, 19 days till I turn 22! (then maybe people will think I'm 19...heehee)
- posted by L. @ 2:39 PM

 
Funny haha, well, in a way, not really...
So, two quasi-amusing things have happened. One is less funny (but will be funnier later, it's one of thsoe not funny now but will be funny later things), so I'll start with that. Today was my day off, which was very nice, even though I got home at 6:30 this morning after sleeping on half of a couch (my roommate Liz was sleeping on the other half) and then proceeded to sleep till 1 or so. Later, I decided to forage for food at the Commons store, so I head over in that general direction, am walking across the Commons area when *wham* all of the sudden, I'm lying on theg round. Somehow, I tripped or turned my ankle or something, and I have no idea how. This is going to be really funny later, when the pain stops, anyway. Later, I go for ice, and they give me an entire shopping bag full. I managed to break the bag in the bathroom, and the rest more or less melted, so I'm going to get more after this. Definitely is going to be funnier later...
Yesterday, there was a supervisor/team lead "slumber party" at our friend Ryan's apartment, and we decided to pick up some food and adult beverages on our way over to Ryan's. So, I bought some stawberry daquiri wine coolers, and the (stereotypical) Indian guy who was working at the convenience store asked for my ID, and when I handed him my driver's license, he started going on about how "I would get him into trouble" and "is this [birthday] real???" So apparently I don't look 21, and my license looks totally fake in Ohio. He eventually let me buy the wine coolers, but not after declaring that I would get him into trouble again. No matter that my work ID has 21 on the back too, but, whatever. It's kind of depressing to think I don't look even remotely 21....
Well, I'm going to go eat my chef boyardee (ah, gourmet...) and get some more ice, hopefully less than a shopping bag worth. And sorry again if I haven't returned your phone calls and/or emails!!! But do keep emailing me and calling me! :)
- posted by L. @ 8:54 PM

 
La de daaaaaaaaaaa....
Well, things are going much better. Nobody's broken any bones, haven't found any used condoms in the forest play area (yet...sigh), and Phil's not driving me *too* crazy....well, except for the day that I got really bored and put a security tag on his uniform. It was sheer entertainment for a good half hour! Oh, I'm so evil....
Anyway, so I really should have just gotten a job babysitting, because that's what I have to do when I work in the morning!!! I workd with four 14-15 year olds this morning and I had to watch them constantly! And as soon as I went on break, Ashley said they stated throwing things at each other and chasing each other around the store! Yikes...
As for the living situation, it's the life!! I moved to the air-conditioned dorms with some of my friends (Liz and Heather, who are identical twins!), and we're having a blast. We have a fourth roommate, but none of us see her very often, if at all (as of yesterday, Heather hadn't even met her!). I've been waking up and being very comfortable instead of being melted to the bed. It's great.
And I'm really sorry if I haven't returned any phone calls! I also just checked my snail mail today for the first time since I got here - thanks Dana! :) Yes, I think PA Matt needs a brick. I actually haven't seen him much, and when I have to walk past his game if he's there at night after we're closed, I pretend to be very absorbed in my paperwork and/or hide behind someone taller. It's great! Oh, but the reason I haven't returned phone calls is because *drumroll* Cingular SUCKS! I have a digital signal to let me know that my phone is OK and isn't roaming, and thre bars of service (out of four) and it takes me seriously fifteen minutes to make a phone call! And half of the phone calls don't register as people, just a "no number"....so if you call me, make sure to leave a message!!! I'm thinking of getting a new cell phone, even though my contract isn't up until August, that or having my dad (who sounds much more threatening on the phone than I do) call them for me (haha! take that Cingular fools!)....but, if I get a new phone and number, I'll put it in my old phone's voice mail message. ;)
Anywho, I have a million phone calls to *attempt* to make, as well as unpacking (finally!) since it's almost 6pm and I'm actually done with work for the evening.
To those on my email list, I might send out an email some time. Maybe next time I go over to the rec center (which could be in the next two days, but we'll see).
Until then, later kiddies!
- posted by L. @ 4:31 PM

 
I keep trying, but keep failing. :)
So, I keep trying an audio post like, every other friggin day, just because I'm good at talking, but between having shitty phone service (don't get me started....) and/or no voice, it's been kinda hard. :)
So, here I am, situated in Commons at the terminals in the Commons store (the rec center is closed, as usual). I have been completely moved in since Monday night, but I actually slept in Gold on Monday night, which was kind of a mistake, oops. Liz and I moved our stuff into 1500, then hopped on a bus back to Gold to meet up with Heather and my roommate Kathleen, spent the night in Gold, and then managed to finish moving Liz in on Tuesday night with some other people. Omg, I woke up this morning and I was FREEZING! It was WONDERFUL!! I'm going to have to get another blanket though, I only brought along my sweatshirt material Ripon blanket that my mom bought me for graduation.
So, I've survived another few days. Rarghhhhhhhhhh. I hate retail. :) And I really don't like our crew. Last year we all pretty much were able to relate to each other right away. This year, I could probably do away with most of them and not even blink an eye. Ah, well, I'm hoping some of the minors that are still in school end up being fun. But we get all of the retard boys, so all of the testosterone in Snoopy is more or less missing again this year (except for John!!!). I guess I can't blame them though. Our uniforms are pretty stupid looking!! Heehee....
It torrential downpoured tonight, I had to unclog a stinky drain in the back of our store with rubber gloves, but I really shouldn't complain since two of the other stores flooded!! Like, we're talking inches of water in the store! I am so glad that wasn't me!! And it was hailing for a little bit too. The park was pretty dead tonight, which was good, but time passed realllllllllllllllllly slowly, so that wasn't good.
Okay, so I hope to start doing audio blogs soon, because I'm already paying a cell phone bill, and I don't like this paying for internet by the minute thing. :)
- posted by L. @ 1:33 AM

 
Lauren and the terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day...
So, everyone remember that book from when we were kids? You know the one....Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day??? Yeah. That about sums up my day. Really, not a bad day (mood-wise, anyway), for me, but UGH! I don't think it could have been worse save Pennysylvania Matt sitting with me on break again (which didn't happen because I might have cried. Or thrown heavy objects at him)...
So, my day in a nutshell:
*Wake up at like, 8am (after going to bed around 3am, mind you) because the humidity is about a thousand percent, my nose is completely stuffed up, and I have no voice. But I can't fall back asleep because of a-my nose, b- the humidity....but I don't have to work until 12. Sigh.
*Go to work at 12. It's about a thousand degrees out too, to combine with the thousand percent humidity. The shower I took at 11 was pretty pointless as I was sweaty and gross by noon. Ewww. Luckily, Snoopy Boutique is air-conditioned, so a few minutes in the stockroom cooled me off.
*Work is DEAD. I seriously didn't do anything except talk to people (and send some of the minors home so they didn't go into work violation that would get me into trouble) for about three hours.
*Two of my night crew called off, and one of the other remaining night crew told me she thought she was going to puke. This is bad, because I can't afford to send her home, since I had a supervisor meeting at 4pm that I had to go to, and could't really leave four people unsupervised in the store, and unfortunately the girl who was going to puke was the substitute me. Damn.
*Supervisor meeting lasted for an hour and a half! I wasn't back till 5:30. Luckily the store hadn't set on fire or anything, but I had the shit-tastic schedule for next week that leaves like, 2 or 3 people closing every night (we need like, at LEAST 4...), but about 4 people (including the supervisor) opening...
*The Snoopy drawing of doom rolls around, everything is running smoothly. I let Ashley give the 5-minute warning (because my voice wasn't very loud), and about 2 minutes to 7pm (the drawing time), I hear this horrible, awful blood-curdling scream from the back of the store. More blood-curdling scream followed by frantic shouting. A girl has tripped over a rock and broken her wrist. So she's screaming at the top of her lungs, her mother is yelling about where first aid is, so I manage to get them off to first aid successfully, do the drawing, have to console Ashley and Courtney who are totally freaked by the whole situation (it was seriously the worst scream I have ever heard in my entire life...). Then I have to call the area supervisor, she has to go to first aid to see exactly what happened (I was on the opposite side of the store, and only heard from another guest exactly what happened), she calls one of the area managers (ours was, of course, gone), they call safety, safety comes in later to find out if there is anything that needs to be moved.
*I finally go on break aruond 8:15, only to find out that there are severe thunderstorm watches (or warnings? whichever one is more serious). After my break was over, I go back to the store to find that the power has flickered out and two of the registers are now down, so that messed up the paperwork for the rest of the night.
*Luckily, a brief torrential downpour clears out the park, and we manage to get out of the store by about 10:30 (usually we get out at like, 11:30).
*The humidity, however, hasn't broken from the storm, and thunderstorms are predicted for the rest of the week.
Thank the lord I have off tomorrow, or I might possibly go crazy. I think there's a few other things in there that went wrong, but I can't remember.
I still have some of the stupidest people on my crew EVER...like creepy stalker Phil who is not only creepy (he has conversations with COFFEE MUGS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!), but he's dumber than a rock, and has a bad habit of like, leaving the store randomly to go wander aruond outside. Sigh...
If this keeps up, it's gonna be a long summer. :)
Otherwise, things are going well. Oh, and I got invited to go to the water park with some friends tomorrow, but I left my swim suits in Milwaukee.....
Oh, and if I was supposed to call you recently and didn't - SORRY! Between my shit-tastic cell phone service (it's worse in Ohio than Riponnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn) and this sickness that I've been battling (combined with allergies to humidity, mold, dust, Gold dorms in general....) that's taken my voice, it's been kinda hard to return phone calls....
And if you're going to be in Ohio anytime, please please please please call me!!! :) But give me enough time to get back to you (like, 5 days or so....lol). ;)
And leave comments! I like comments! Comments make me happy. ;)
(Audio blogs may be coming soon, it takes too long to type this stuff out at 10 cents a minute!)
- posted by L. @ 12:47 AM

 
So, I tried...
Okay, I totally promised that there would be audio blogs, but this brief blog should have to do (deal with it...heehee). I've been trying to listen to my audio blogs before I post them because I can't just check it the way I did whenever I posted them at school, and my phone always seems to turn off in the middle of posting/listening/speaking/etc...which has been a pain (how much longer till my at&t contract is up?).
So, I spent a little bit of time checking email and such (and apologies, I haven't responded to any!!). I started work on Saturday, which was a real pain, not because the job sucks, but I wasn't in charge last year and didn't have to pay attention to details with paperwork, irate guests, etc (at least not for more than an hour or so at a time!). My co-supervisor, Kelly, was done for the weekend at 4pm on Saturday - and I got there at 3! So it was a lot of asking stupid questions of area supervisors who didn't know much more than I did...but I rounded out the night at Steak N Shake with Donna, Chrystina, and Betsy. It was really awesome to see Donna and Chrystina again - after the fiasco of them driving through Wisconsin at something like 3 in the morning and not wanting to stop in Ripon (who would, really? though they probably could have crashed with me), but then ending up in Ripon only to try calling my cell and my room phone, which were either not ringing, turned off, dead batteries, or I was elsewhere in J-hall at the time. Boo. So, yeah, it was really good to see them, but I was up far too late for my own good, and had to get up at the butt crack of dawn on Sunday (okay, 7:15, but for me that IS the buttcrack of dawn...). Oh, and Megan, if you're reading this, Donna says that if you don't come visit us and hang out with us, she'll come to Indiana and, uh, well, I'm not sure if there was a threat attached...but you get the drift. ;)
I'm living in Gold again (voluntarily!), but I think that might have to change! I'm very lazy in the AM, I admit, and I'm probably going to have to work AMs, but my sinuses are going crazy - I think it's the mold, humidity, and dust in this shithole. :) So...off to Commons I'll hopefully go (yes, the other dorms are called Commons, not the Ripon Commons, lol), especially since I'll be here till Sept 10 and will have to probably move anyway. Maybe the sooner the better, but I actually have a decent roommate this year, go figure. I'm thinking of talking to my friends Liz and Heather who are also stuck in Gold and see if we can get a room in Commons together, which would be good (no crazy roommates, even though Liz and Heather are identical twins - but Liz has black hair now, so I'm all good, until the dye runs out....). :)
Anyway, I'm almost out of time here, so I'm going to make sure that this gets posted, and I'm sick sick sick sick siiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiick and want to go to bed bed bed bed bed. We get paid tomorrow - for all of my two days of work. Woohoo! But I have to work noon to close tomorrow (so, sometime after 11:30), which is really kinda pointless, since there probably won't be anything to do.
Ohh, but two funny notes: Matt from PA is back and I had to RUIN MY BREAK TODAY because he HAD TO SIT WITH ME!! ARGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! What a pain in the ass!! *bangs head on table*...yeah, and I couldn't even think up a good excuse to leave. So, I spent about 40 minutes of my life wanting to poke my eyes out with sharp sticks...
And, for those of you who may remember the very very beginning of last season...Creepy Stalker Phil is not only back, but he's WORKING IN SNOOPY! AND I'm his TEAM LEAD! And he's still creepy! And weird. And we'll add smelly. BLAHHHHHHHHHHH! I'm kind of amused by this nevertheless...
Me: Phil, your break is from 5-6.
Phil: Okay. *pause* Wait, do I go for an hour???
*smacks forehead*
Anyway, I leave you with that. I'll be trying the audio blog thing soon, 'cause it just took my 15 minutes to type this out, which is ridiculous 'cause it usually wouldn't take that long...but this keyboard sucks. So, if you're in the area, stop by and say hey (but let me know as soon as possible, so I can maybe request off/get a morning shift or something...), or give the cell a buzz and leave a message.
And hopefully audio blog soon! :)
- posted by L. @ 1:04 AM