Scheduling issues.

I forgot to mention in my last post that I chose the 7:00am-5:30pm Sunday-through-Wednesday shift. Once you've picked a shift, you're stuck with it. I was in kind of a hurry when it came time to pick shifts, and I wish I had had more time to think about it. I was trying to avoid the night shift, but I kind of wish now that I had taken a later shift because I had to reschedule my psychiatrist appointment, and I'll have to go to the county clerk's office during my lunch break to pay property taxes/renew my car's registration since I work the entire time that the office is open. We only get thirty minutes for lunch, so I'll be lucky if I can get back before lunch is over. I'll totally be glad when I've got that taken care of. As for the psychiatrist appointment, it fell on a "Blackout Day", a day where we absolutely need to be there, or else we'll be terminated. I told someone from the temp agency about my appointment, and asked if it was going to be okay to take a half-day or if I should just reschedule, and she said I should probably reschedule just to be safe. Actually getting a hold of the Intake Coordinator at U of L's psychiatric office was a major hassle because they're also only open during the time that I'm working, and I can only use my phone during my breaks or lunch, so my opportunities to talk were very limited. I finally got a hold of her during my last break on Wednesday. The appointment is now on January 26th. So, I had already waited one month, now I'm going to have to wait another two months? Fuck me running.

Between worrying about getting my registration renewed, having to work 11 hours on Black Friday, and not knowing if I'll have to work on Saturday, I'm having a really hard time enjoying my Thanksgiving. As I said in Seasons, the Thanksgiving/Christmas season is my least favorite part of the year. I hope this next month goes by really fast.

I did it again.

Written Thursday:
With the Christmas season coming up, work has gone from obnoxiously bad to intolerable. On top of the usual crap, we now have to separate the "Blitz" items (stuff that they expect to sell a lot of that won't be on sale until at least Black Friday) from the stuff that does go out to the floor immediately. With as tiny as the room is, it gets really lovely in there. I'm glad that I have today off, because working those two days in a row totally drained me, physically, mentally, and emotionally. Working an hour and a half over on Wednesday certainly didn't help. One of my assistant managers mentioned to us on Wednesday to get in contact with our manager who does our scheduling if we want some extra hours since we're understaffed. Two thoughts:

1. My employer is so cheap that they're one of the only major employers that's not hiring for the season, either for permanent or seasonal help.
2. While I need the money, I don't think working an extra day a week there would be good for my sanity. The last time I worked five consecutive days there, I felt like slapping everybody. Besides, I've got a feeling that I'll be working over every night that I do work anyway.

Besides feeling drained, my head feels a little stopped up. I felt like doing virtually nothing today.

Written Saturday:

My head has been feeling a little congested for the past few days. Not so stuffed that I have trouble smelling anything, but still congested. It probably comes from the fact that the weather has been changing every few days. It will be mild one day, then cold the next, then mild for a couple of days, then cold for a couple of days, and so on. There is something about head congestion that seems to amplify depression, like it adds physical misery on top of mental misery. I have the weekend off, but I'll probably not go anywhere so I can try to rest this crap off. And besides, last weekend was pretty busy.

I got an interesting call on Thursday. It was from the temp agency that is hiring seasonal help for Main ex-Employer. It said that although I was previously ineligible to work for Main ex-Employer, that they were inviting me to the Job Fair they've been having anyway. My dad was the one who told me about the message, I got the impression that he was hinting that I should check it out, though he has discouraged me from leaving a job until I got a permanent job elsewhere. I went ahead and went to the job fair, and I have orientation on Monday. I decided to make Friday night my last night at Mega Lo Mart. I figured there was no point in staying there since the schedules for both places overlap, but I also couldn't stand it there any longer. (Let the boycott begin!) I'd rather work 50+ hours at Main ex-Employer than work 32 hours at Mega Lo Mart. I doubt that Main ex-Employer will keep me after Christmas, but I'm hoping that the temp agency will have work for me elsewhere. I can't help but think that I'm making a mistake, but it's not the biggest mistake I've ever made, nor will it be the last. My parents aren't too thrilled about it, but they weren't too thrilled about me not putting in many applications while I was working at Mega Lo Mart either. Damned if I do, damned if I don't. Unless I can get a position like the one I had when I got laid off, I think I've gone about as far as I can with the general labor thing. Must work on getting into school next year.

Generic Dayquil/Nyquil has really helped with the symptoms.

An early birthday present to myself.

I don't know where The Pixies rank on my All Time Favorite Bands list, but they're pretty high up there. When I semi-retired from concert-going, I said that it would have to be somebody really special like The Pixies to get me to go to a concert. I was seriously shocked last Summer when I saw that they would be playing in Louisville, and two days before my birthday no less! Since I'm on their e-mail list, I could have gotten a ticket during the first pre-sale, but the price was so outrageous that I thought, "Regular sale price MUST be cheaper!" It should be noted that the special pre-sale price also included a special t-shirt. The actual price when they went on sale wasn't much lower. I was really hoping to get two tickets so I wouldn't have to sit next to a stranger, but could only afford one. I almost got a cheaper ticket, but figured, "Fuck it, it's an early birthday present to myself, might as well go for the gusto!", and got the more expensive one.

So how was the show? I knew that they were going to play the entire Doolittle album along with a lot of B-sides, which I didn't even know that they had. One of the B-sides was the "UK Surf" version of "Wave Of Mutilation", which meant that they played "Wave Of Mutilation" in some form twice. They did some some songs from Come On Pilgrim and Surfer Rosa, and that was it. I was a little disappointed that they didn't do anything off of Bossanova or Trompe Le Monde, but other than that it was a great show! I did come across one guy after the show who was absolutely pissed that they didn't do more songs. I wanted to smack him, and tell him, "Dude, you sound like a little bitch!" Seriously, this guy was even more pissed than I was when I saw Queens Of The Stone Age in 2007 and they didn't do anything off of "Rated R". But then again, "Rated R" was (IMO) the best album of the 2000s, and I was having some serious anxiety issues that night. I don't know what this other guy's excuse was.

Oh, and the sound was really good. Opening band Surfer Blood were pretty enjoyable, but with as good as the sound mix was, I couldn't help but think as I always do when I see a recent band, that "There's no way that their CD sounds as good as this does."

Update: Thinking back on it, I think my favorite thing about the show were the little things, like hearing Black Francis whistle during "La La Love You", or hearing Kim Deal do her vocal bit during "Where Is My Mind?". They could have just as easily sampled those things, but hearing them actually do it was a hoot.

Remember, remember...

Saturday night was a shitty two-truck night at work. I didn't clock out until 1:50. I was hoping to take advantage of the extra hour from the "falling back", but instead I pretty much broke even. Sunday was a much better night, and I got to leave an hour early since I stayed over the night before.

I've found somebody to swap days with so I could have the 12th off, but getting a hold of a manager when they're in their offices has been a challenge.

I just found out that I have next Saturday (the 19th) off, and I didn't even ask for it. :/

On November 5th 2008, I had the night off so I could go see Henry Rollins do a spoken word show. Earlier in the day, I watched "V For Vendetta". Then I went out for coffee, and then went to Headliners Music Hall to see Henry. I wish I had a recording of that show, because he had some great stories about going to see Bad Brains the night before, and about some guy he met in Asia who called him "Mr. Curve". I got to meet him after the show, and I was speechless. The experience wasn't totally unlike the story of when Henry met Iggy Pop, except that I didn't even have the band experience to draw back from. :)

The next day, I got laid off. It's been a really shitty three years. It's kind of hard to forget the date when it comes after the day that we're urged to "Remember, remember, the fifth of November, the gunpowder treason and plot. I see no reason why the gunpowder treason should ever be forgot."

I was really hoping that this post would be more epic, but I don't really have it in me, and the shittyness of my recent life is too well documented as it is. Plus, I'm itching to get off here to watch "The Walking Dead."