Burning for the ancient heavenly connection

alibaba3 @ 2009-10-05T11:00:00

2009-10-05T18:06:26Z

Yesterday morning I had a lady ask me for toast on and off for two hours.

alibaba3 @ 2009-10-01T22:30:00

2009-10-02T05:37:54Z

This is awesome. My computer is telling me I last posted 59 weeks ago. Sweet.

And yeah, this is the tail-end of a two-hour long binge of internet productivity. I'm on facebook now, my e-mail is completely cleared out as well as a bunch of other adult bullshit that was necessary. Maybe this will be the start of me using the internet for more than bus schedules and movie times again.

I do/did miss the posting. Well mainly the fact that this was basically an external hard drive for my brain. And of course keeping up with everyone elses lives. I miss that the most, going to the gatherings and basically hearing things I shoulda known about two weeks previous was aggravating. As well as Mom telling me things my own boyfriend said on his facebook. That was actually very funny and a story that got retold a few times.

It's hard to start posting again. I remember it being easy, but now I don't really know what to say. It's all still essentially the same as it was a year ago. I live in the same place, but now it's with the boyfriend Salem instead of a roommate and the dreadful Starbucks I was at finally closed down and I'm back at the old one with a bunch of new people.

I think that's maybe why I stopped....not much seemed to be happening except me talking about work stuff. We'll see how it goes.

alibaba3 @ 2008-06-26T22:02:00

2008-06-27T05:10:08Z

So I lost my ATM card...again. Lost it about a year and a half ago and it was the most ridiculous endeavor ever, took more than a few months to get my card as well as my PIN. And this time I'm really not willing to spend three months only using cash and making crusades out to bank locations, so I'm taking this crap all in hand....because stupid bank STILL doesn't have my correct address (read: they have what is my real address, but about 50% of my bank mail gets returned to sender. Turns out my complex switched from letters to numbers some time ago and didn't notify the post office.). I got in an argument with three different bank people about what my address is and NO taking off the apartment number is not a satisfactory solution! Dumbasses.

alibaba3 @ 2008-06-12T18:56:00

2008-06-13T02:13:25Z

Based on what I can find on gub'mint websites and law forums I don't get any sort of compensation for having only six hours in between my shifts. Poo. I'll make sure to check my paycheck anyway, here's hoping.

alibaba3 @ 2008-06-12T17:59:00

2008-06-13T01:34:17Z

Warning more complain-y work stuff ahead. Skip if necessary.

Also: Had an hour long meeting with Matthew yesterday, one was scheduled for every shift supervisor, except since I was rocking the boat I got a super-special "state of the union" type one.

Apparently I sounded "angry and accusatory" when I left him the voicemail about the six hour gaps between my shifts which was ok with him on a personal level but he kept bringing up how he didn't want me taking out my anger on the other baristas or customers. Which is something I have never done so was a little lost there but I am making the worst assumption that someone complained. Bite me.

But basically I got to bring up my laundry list of every single reason why I hated the store and how the other shifts were definitely making my life way more hellish than it needs to be and who really cares if people actually shows up to their shifts on time and I am not Jason's damn keeper (Since I've known him the longest, read: not there when he flipped out, I officially got designated as the person who "should talk to him about his anger issues". How about no. I wasn't there.) and maybe two years is long enough to work for the company blah blah blah.

So yeah, was definitely less than fun. At least I got paid, and I got to blindside him with an actual list of things to answer the "Well is there anything else I can do for you?" question. He was packing up all his stuff and I think just saying it as some sort of closing final thing expecting me to say no. So he sits back down and tell him all of the things I was used to having as a support system at the old store and how those other spoiled shift bastards need to have some goddamn accountability as well because I'm tired of the one who gets a talking to every time I get upset because someone else is flagrantly not doing the job they're getting paid to do. And how about some sort of followup to the voicemails I leave you everyday yeah? Maybe letting me know that the douchebag who went to LA leaving me to two-man close two days in a row got some sort of verbal fucking reprimand at the least. Or that chick who got tried to get in a shouting match with me about how she wasn't going to scrub a toilet? Yeah, if you want me to sit down and play nice with people this game is going to be a bloody two-way street and I'm gonna hold you accountable too, you bastard.

alibaba3 @ 2008-06-12T17:31:00

2008-06-13T01:14:54Z

All I wanted to do today was play Legend of Zelda on my NES emulator when I got home from work. And of course, for some reason, it has completely shit its pants and refuses to open. I blame Salem since he was the last one who touched the computer.

Anyway, I've had to seriously limit or cut out completely my computer time since the desktop system is set up for a person with freakishly long arms and (I am convinced) a pain threshold of infinity. I do not have freakishly long arms or a huge pain threshold which has resulted in large amounts of hand hurty no matter how I tried to swing things. Finally just sucked it up and asked for an account on a freaking bloody damn linux laptop where I am unable to play my little Windows games...no more Diablo II but my hands don't hurt when I work, so I guess it's a good tradeoff.

But since I have/had no computer things to while away my time I'm averaging about a book a day, and since I've super limited my spending the past three months I'm gonna make a trip whenever I have time to some sort of bookstore and buy continuations in a couple of my series-es-es. Problem is I don't really have the time/inclination to head out on a book expedition this week and I'm already super tired of re-reading the books I already have. (Lack of time and inclination due to other people's lack of freaking timekeeping at my store, will be going into overtime by the end of this week.)

alibaba3 @ 2008-06-10T15:10:00

2008-06-10T22:18:33Z

I want to make a story called "The Grumpiest Panda Ever". Today, two people were late directly leading to me not getting my last ten minute break and getting out fifteen minutes late. And then I had a coworker tell me something along the lines of "Yeah, you do things that really annoy me, but then you were gone for two weeks so now it's too late to tell you."

And the second dude who was late spent all the rest of the time I was there bickering over the counter with his girlfriend.

I'm finding myself getting more annoyed more easily at this store. The customers, my coworkers, everyone. No one likes the manager, so for some reason I am the one who everyone approaches to try to solve their problems. I. Am not. Management. There is nothing I can do about this shift you don't like or that so-and-so said something to you that made you upset. Call Matthew, and I'm sorry in advance if he refuses to deal with your problems. There's a reason I want to transfer.

And apparently, the district manager whom I'm so excited about having my back is either going to be transferred or fired. Whoo. If she does I'm tempted just to say fuck it and give my two weeks notice. These last couple of months has made me increasingly stressed out and irritable, and now my schedule is even more all over the place which will probably not make things any better.

Who wants to find me a new job.

alibaba3 @ 2008-06-08T20:45:00

2008-06-09T03:58:04Z

Ok so over the last two days I had my "straw that broke the camel's back" moment with my manager.

There has been existing drama between me and Matthew over me wanting to transfer back to my old store which is much better for me and sanity for so many reasons, and he's refused to let me. I eventually went over his head and had an informal chat with the district manager and was just willing to let things lie for a few weeks until new people got hired/promoted or whatever.

Then I get scheduled for three days this week at me home store, including one shift (today's) where I was working as a barista and opening with another shift. This is just after I closed last night. He left me six hours between my shifts. Six. Hello breaking California labor laws!

As soon as I realized I called Mr. Manager and left a professional and cold voicemail about how inappropriate such actions are, especially when any other person in the store could work the same shift that I was given. Then I stewed for a bit and decided to officially call the district manager and included phrases like "disrespecting me as a human being" "taking advantage of my availability" as well as the wonderful "questioning my willingness to be a part of the Starbucks corporation [after this incident]". He scheduled one-on-ones with every shift at the store this week, so I'm planning to take advantage of my day off on Monday to make fucking bulleted lists for why I want to transfer etc. etc. etc. The shit might possibly hit the fan then, if it hasn't already.

Time for me to find the flash drive with my resume on it and update the crap out of that and then I'm going to start trolling Craigslist again. Blah. I am so against interviews of any kind and now after wearing a uniform for almost two years I don't even want a workplace that does business casual. I wanna wear jeans again.

P.S. After going home and getting a whole three hours of sleep before biking down San Pablo at 4am to open the store I just closed my other opener, a shift supervisor, supposedly my peer, was thirty-five minutes late. That equals ten minutes before we open the store for business. I got all of the opening tasks done by myself, without rushing, which definitely makes me the shit.

alibaba3 @ 2008-05-22T11:28:00

2008-05-22T18:36:38Z

When I opened my store yesterday I walked into the back to see a gigantic MOUNTAIN of garbage where our large trash can is supposed to be. Oh, the trash can was still there it was just obscured by three garbage bags piled in front and on top of it.

During the whole day of operation the day before no one took out the garbage. No one. I know this because at the very bottom of the trash heap was the bag full of the pastry boxes that you have to open to set up the pastry case. And out of all the trash cans in our store I think only two didn't need to be emptied.

Three shifts, three of my fellow shifts were working yesterday and deemed it not necessary to take out the freaking garbage. And when my manager came in to work his shift I was the one who got a talking to because I was angry about it happening. Really not liking my store right now.

P.S. The dumpster was about a third full before my three trash runs so the "dumpster is full" excuse doesn't hold water you bastards.

alibaba3 @ 2008-05-15T16:36:00

2008-05-15T23:39:03Z

Who got to clean up human poop for the second time in three days today? I did! Some douchebag asshole decided to take a shit directly in front of one of our doors the past two super early mornings in a row (I get there at 4am, that's how early). Talking to the people at Arizmendi's it a semi-regular occurrence in the summer from these two dudes...next time I'm fucking calling hazmat because I don't get paid enough to clean up piles of human crap.

Other than that my last two work days have been pretty damn good, but that's two pretty big "other than thats". But I may be tranferring back to my old store. No more poop or kids vomiting in or around my store! Yay!

alibaba3 @ 2008-05-04T20:17:00

2008-05-05T03:22:02Z

Thrashed, thrashed, thrashed. So tired. Picking up a shift as a favor to the old store yesterday means opening five days in a row. Today is day three. And yeah I know, my fault, didn't realize it at the time.

And Salem and I were supposed to go and do stuff today, he made me coffee at home especially for the occasion, and then the stuff never happened. So no nap for me today, I read an entire book instead. I was briefly interrupted by a coworker trying to get me to take an open for him on Wednesday, which would make six days in a row, and he couldn't understand why I was unwilling to do such a thing. (Biking about two miles or so down San Pablo at 3am definitely plays a big factor in this.)

And a split shift tomorrow. Work my opening shift and then come back less than two hours later so I can be trained on how to push one of the two buttons on my blender in the Starbucks approved fashion. Whee. I am so excited.

alibaba3 @ 2008-05-03T11:49:00

2008-05-03T18:48:33Z

Argh. Through one thing and another had to deal with my bank's phone tree today and that wonderful experience left me wanting to punch small children in the face. And then steal their candy.

I hate banks, from now on I'm going to keep my money in a sock under the mattress.

alibaba3 @ 2008-04-28T17:36:00

2008-04-29T00:46:11Z

Just found a hole in the butt of my favorite pair of jeans. Dammit.

But my b-day celebration was super awesome. Ten people chowing down on like six baskets of various fried vegetables and then big freaking burgers and then ice cream cake. I think my stomach died about half way through. Delicious.

Got some money for awesome shoes that won't hurt my poor widdle work abused feet (Danskos! Yay!) as well as spiffy hair products (shut up) and one very beautiful sock (it's hand-knitted friend is coming soon). Heather was a genius and found me hilarious movies that managed to sit a home for about an hour before Salem and I watched them and were laughing obnoxiously loud.

I love presents, and big meals with lots of people. And I also have a half of a chocolate peanut butter ice cream cake that is mine and no one elses. Mine! Although I didn't have any for breakfast like I had hoped, I shall save some for breakfast tomorrow though.

alibaba3 @ 2008-04-24T15:23:00

2008-04-24T22:22:40Z

Got sick just in time for the birthday. Was feeling a little bit under the weather yesterday morning and by the afternoon it had expanded into full blown crappiness. I don't want to be sick, I hate being sick, and I hate drinking orange juice.

alibaba3 @ 2008-04-20T10:19:00

2008-04-20T17:30:18Z

I have two days off! So happy. The Man tried to get me to take an opening shift today but I said no, and he got somewhat upset. But no, I had a mini tantrum at home when I realized that the last three weeks of hell I had done to myself. So basically a mini tantrum at myself for being so freaking dumb, but Salem was nice and listened to me for like twenty minutes. I need to buy him a cookie.

So due to this I made a new rule; for the next month no more taking shifts. I'm already not liking the new store and working six days/40+ hours a week isn't helping. Also not helping: covering a shift as a favor at another store and having their inside trashcan being set on fire on my watch. Yep, there was a fire inside the store.

And I'm not even going to talk about yesterday. Yesterday was not a fun day, but it took three weekends for me to realize that other partners at my store have a very cavalier attitude to showing up on time, if at all, to their shifts on days starting with S. This does not make me a happy panda, especially when those no show-ers account for a third of the people scheduled to come in. Fuck you no show-ers, I got to work another nine hour shift on a weekend because of you assholes.

But things are looking up, my paychecks have been bigger, and Salem is settling in to his new job of awesomeness. Plus every Wednesday is now "Go hear Salem play at Bacheeso's and eat good food" day, which has been tons of fun the last two weeks. And there's that birthday thing in a few days....I've been thinking of peanut butter Coldstone's cake since Salem's B-day in March. And something else but I- the wedding! I forgot about Tiny's wedding, all that stuff has been fun too. Plus when I call her and am all whiny we can instead talk about wedding stuff. Which is better.

alibaba3 @ 2008-04-14T19:56:00

2008-04-15T02:59:13Z

Did my taxes, yeah I'm a procrastinator but it actually wasn't my fault this time. The mail god's pooped in my mail box, once again, and I didn't get my first W2 and my replacement didn't come until last Friday.

I owe the gub'mint 28 bucks. Although I am getting money back, it still seems silly to pay them and then have them pay me. But whatever, me getting money is all that matters.

alibaba3 @ 2008-04-12T18:36:00

2008-04-13T01:39:18Z

I come home after working a long shitty day to find out that Salem threw out the remains of a thirty dollar dinner that I was planning to have for lunch/dinner today.

He didn't even eat it. It was still packed full of deliciousness. My sadness knows no bounds. I was looking forward to that green curry and mango with sticky rice all day.

alibaba3 @ 2008-04-08T20:29:00

2008-04-09T03:37:15Z

So Moose just got his first toy from his new job; a shiny new Macbook Pro and has been squee-ing over it like a little girl for the past two evenings. It's pretty entertaining.

But the reason for posting is that I'm becoming a very large coffee geek. One of my forums tipped me off to Starbucks selling brown shirts with the old school logo (boobs and belly button! the scandal! ~~I'll try and find a picture somewhere~~) and I promplty spent the twenty bucks to buy one and ship it to me pronto. Plus now I can bust it out whenever Salem wears the Peets hats. If only they made a cap with the old school logo....a girl can dream.

Also: Two of the last three days have been spent in the city doing crazy wedding shopping with Heather. Super fun. I said the word "cute" a billion times.

alibaba3 @ 2008-03-27T19:46:00

2008-03-28T02:52:12Z

So today I worked an eight hour split shift at two different stores. If I didn't have the Across the Universe soundtrack on my iPod and Harry Potter 6 in my backpack I might've died today. The only conclusion I can come to is that I hate myself to do this. Open a store, while covering shifts at my old one all adding up to 45 hours plus this week? Work eight days in a row? I'm so down! I also really need the crap ton of money this will net me because I don't have very much.

Also because the policies at the new store means that I won't be getting as much, if any, free food anymore. Boo, that means expenses go up. But other than that my new store is awesome and pretty, come see the pretty newness.

alibaba3 @ 2008-03-23T10:12:00

2008-03-23T17:13:28Z

It being Easter I remembered a funny customer from last Easter.

I always work most of the holidays, I don't really mind, and I like to see all out the cute (well behaved) children all dressed up. But otherwise Easter is just a normal Sunday.

We had a woman come in dressed in a bunny costume who gave little chocolate bunnies to all of the partners working and asked for a carrot latte. It was a good day.

Good Karma

2008-03-22T23:41:19Z

People leave things in our store, personal things, expensive things, most often a cell phone or wallet. I always go through it (with the best intentions) to find a way to contact them and let them know where their valuables are and then drop it in the safe. Sometimes more than most people would do at my store, but it takes at most fifteen minutes of my time to save a humongous stress on their part.

Today a woman left her wallet in our store, and I ended up calling Bloomingdales (guy canceled her account, which I tried to stop him from doing, but he had to follow procedure) for them to contact her.

She ended up coming back to my store just as I was leaving on my bike. She came running out and gave me this big story about how she had a money order in there to pay rent and was almost in tears when she realized that she had lost it. Long story slightly less long she shoved a wad of money in my hand and refused to let me give it back to her. She gave me thirty bucks!

I would have done the same thing without getting a reward, have done before, but it makes me value our nice customers even more.

Happy day!

2008-03-18T22:01:47Z

He plead out! HE PLEAD OUT! It took him three years but he did, I'm only hoping he did this because he actually did it because I am still firm in my belief that no one, no matter how scummy, should go to jail for something they didn't do.

This means I don't have to wear my business clothes, I don't have to drag my ass up to Sac, and I don't have to sit in a courtroom for god knows how long to testify. Woot!

I just need to remember to call Yolo County in a month or so to see what he got sentenced with. It is over and done with, so so so happy.

alibaba3 @ 2008-03-17T11:34:00

2008-03-17T18:40:07Z

Turns out the people who could tell me not to go to Sac today won't get into the office until after my court time. And the lady called me to inform me of this, and that I needed to come in, at around 10. That gave me about three and a half hours to go home, change and then get my ass up to Sacramento. That is after Heather drove in from Walnut Creek (For those of you who don't live in California: Forty five minutes from where she is to where I live and roughly an hour and a half to where the court is. That is hoping that traffic is good.) to give me a ride there out of the goodness of her very large ten Grinches plus two heart.

So I got to call Heather then frantically run out of work and bike home like I had never biked before. I was just throwing some clothes into a duffel while changing into business clothes at the same time. Then my phone rang, and it turns out that being nice to the subpoena lady (Robin) totally pays off because she called all the people who would know when I needed to be in and didn't stop until she had gotten a hold of one of them. She's my new best friend.

Called Heather and luckily she was just getting on the freeway at her house, and she wasn't even put out at all that it was, unsurprisingly, a total false alarm. There's a reason she's totally my hetero-lifemate. Forever and ever. Salem waxed eloquent on how awesome she was, and we're planning to take her out for gigantic waffles at Homemade when she actually does come to pick me up.

alibaba3 @ 2008-03-16T21:48:00

2008-03-17T04:53:45Z

So yes, tonight I called in to see if my subpoena was canceled and it wasn't, which is something I'm not surprised about. But. The deputy DA I talked to said that I would be notified the day before I'm supposed to drag my ass up there to testify.

So cue me hopping on the web to find their phone number (which was so unhelpfully NOT on my subpoena, which had every other 530 number known to man on it) and leaving a message at nine at night asking them to call me in the morning with when I'm supposed to be bloody testifying.

Really, I was told by deputy dudeface that I definitely wouldn't be needed tomorrow and I kinda really need the money my job is paying me to open tomorrow. So yeah, here's hoping they get back to me in a timely manner because I don't want to be accidentally giving a big "fuck you" to the court of Sacramento.

Once again, I would like to point out that I get to go through all the stress and bullshit about this while the guy who's being arraigned or whatever is probably shitfaced drunk somewhere in the greater Sacramento area and couldn't care less. So not fair. Life's not fair, but it still sucks.

alibaba3 @ 2008-03-15T22:02:00

2008-03-16T05:13:44Z

So it's like ten at night (duh timestamp) and I got up a little before four in the morning to go do my open. I haven't had a nap, not that I didn't try, I lay in bed and read Harry Potter for like two hours and didn't even get sleepy. Boo.

But yeah, currently re-reading all the HP's I have due to a person at work who's completely obsessed. So we both are and having excited HP discussions all over the place, and we managed to suck in another coworker today. I'm so excited, I love reading books at the same time as other people and having big ol' talks about them. A friend and I read World War Z at the same time through sheer happenstance and it was awesome.

The same friend, a dude named Jamil, and I have been playing Diablo 2 like semi-mad people over the internets together for the past few weeks. Salem's been getting in on the gaming too (If you ask him he says he hates it, but that doesn't stop him from playing it during breaks from studying) and we've been having crazy nerd fun.

So no sleeping for me, not tired right now, and Salem and I just finished watching scary movies with the lights off. I only agree to such a thing because he gets all moody otherwise and lets me hold Moose and whimper quietly to myself if I get scared like a big pansy. I'm not allowed to hold his hand anymore after 1408 and El Orfanato in the theaters, I guess he got all hurt by my big buff arm muscles fueled by pure pansy-like terror.

Tomorrow I hopefully have plans to go to a used store to see if I can track down HP 1 and 7 in hardcover form. I like the big hardback ones, makes me feel like I'm reading something all brain expandy instead of things that are pure enjoyment in book form. Also tomorrow is the day I (hopefully) find out when I have to go to court. I get to call in my subpoena everybody! Yeah you all wish you were me right now.

Edit: P.S. Think good thoughts for Salem, he's taking his Linux+ certification this week.