Car Troubles and Other Stupid Stuff

Hey everyone. (Sigh). Hope you've had a better week then I've had. Not that it's all been bad, but I think plenty of us know how one bad day can ruin all the others.

But I'll get to that later. Work was normal this week; I worked hard, and did a really good job promoting the book drive B&N's doing. If I didn't touch on it in last week's blog, B&N as a corporate group does a nation wide book drive at all its stores, and this year the charity/organization they're helping is Reach Out and Read. It's an early literacy and school prep charity that promotes reading by working with doctors and their child patients by providing books for the doctors to give to the kids every time they come in for their yearly from birth until age five, while the doctors talk to the parents about the importance of reading while suggesting that the parents make a habit out reading aloud to their kids.  These books the kids get can sometimes be the only books they have access to, so it's a good charity to help with, and I was able to both days when I was on cash register duty. There was one sour point at work this week, though. The books we're promoting come in English, Spanish, and bilingual, and one woman donator didn't realize that until I pulled the book she chose off the shelf and showed it to her. Seeing it was bilingual, she quickly changed her mind, choosing an English only book, muttering about how we 'didn't need any more Spanish speakers' out there. I, of course, was disgusted by this, but I just kept smiling until she left. But really! What's wrong with Spanish speakers? What's wrong with people who speak another language? If I wouldn't have gotten into trouble for it, I would've actually shown my disgust, but as it stands, I just have to remind myself that not everyone thinks like that and those that are racist are wrong.

And that's work for you.

Internship-wise, I got a bit of a break this week. According to one of my two writers, her laptop broke, thus losing her articles for this week and leaving me with no material to send (I say according because 'who knows what really happened', as my boss says). So I only had to look over two articles, one being about the responsibilities that come with beauty and the other on a necklace for Esty.com. These came from the writer who usually has typing problems, but she showed some improvement by actually providing pictures and fixing some formatting issues that had appeared in her earlier articles Good job (and I promise I'm not being sarcastic).

The next character we're meeting this week is one lovely lady named Ursele Cady. She's Moa's best female friend who works in a very fancy catering business, and thus her manner is quite proper; she's a clean freak and hates dirt and disorderly conduct, preferring activities like reading, tea-drinking, and other feminine activities. This, of course, leads to many clashes between her and our final member of this group of five (who I haven't introduced yet) because he's disorder personified, and is also blessed with being the one person who can really piss Ursele off. Manners aside, she has a wicked temper when provoked, and is a lot stronger than she seems; she doesn't like fighting, but will protect herself by beating the crap out of any unfortunate idiot who picks a fight with her. She's more than happy to help Shawney and Moa take down Moa's creator, using her links in the entertainment/clientele business to find out important info on the higher ups. All in all, she's truly the mother of the group; sweet and kind to her friends, but a living terror when that peace is interrupted by either outer or inner forces.

Now, my Weekly (Dis)Likes:

Like 1: Meeting my quota for donation books. I'm doing good while doing a good job. :)

Like 2: Dinner with an old friend. Out of the blue this week I got a call from a family friend who wanted to see if we could go out to dinner together. We did, going to a Mexican joint not too far from the house where we both had delicious fish tacos and caught on things. Her family is doing well, and it was just nice to see her and talk with her. Thanks, Mrs. Maginn!

Dislike 1: Racist book woman. See above for more info.

Dislike 2: MORE CAR TROUBLE. My temporary license for my car was going to expire soon, so I thought to drive out to the DMV and get a permanent one. This is how it went; I drove to the address my dad gave me, only to find out I'd driven out out of my jurisdiction and told to go to a more local location (thanks a lot, Dad). I do, but it turns out that DMV only works with driver licenses, not license plates, and give me another address. I finally get to the third spot, and after waiting three hours while doing stuff on my laptop, I'm told that I can't get my license because I'm missing a few signatures from dad and you apparently need to get your car checked over and have the report with you to get your license, NONE OF WHICH I KNEW. Which leads to me having a nervous breakdown in front of the desk lady and ends with me discovering for the second time in a week, my car battery is dead and me calling AAA for help again. The only bright side to any of this was getting an extension on my temporary license, so at least I'm not breaking the law. But I'm going to try again this week, and this time I WILL walk out with my permanent license! HEAR ME ROAR!!!!

And quote. 

"Nothing is impossible; the word itself says 'I'm possible'!" -Audrey Hepburn

With hope for better days,

Colleen

Work Method Update!

Good day, peeps!

So work was good this week in the sense that nothing horrible happened. I did my shifts, worked hard, got a few people to renew their memberships, and things like that. But this week the whole store had a meeting to discuss store proceedings during the holiday season, and it was surprisingly okay. Everyone actually met up an hour before the meeting and had a pizza party, where not only pizza was ordered, but my coworkers brought their own food and drinks in, and it was GOOD. Chocolate-covered strawberries, gingerbread, pumpkin chocolate chip cookies; I could go on about all the sweets, but I'll stop here before I give us all diabetes (I think the healthiest thing I ate that night was some tasty chicken salad). Afterwards the entire staff got split up into groups and we met with the managers to discuss how to handle things during the business season. A lot of it was stuff I'd already heard of, but there was also a lot of things, like book-selling terms, that I'd forgotten or weren't sure about, so it was a nice little party and refresher course, and now I'm better prepared to take the holiday season on!

Things with the internship are going along swimmingly. Once again I had a light workload this week, which is always nice, and I had some pretty interesting articles, like a list of ways to wear a scarf. Nothing to complain about here; I really like this internship and I'm happy to have found it.

And with no news on the writing front, other than I'm still chugging away at my sci-fi novel, so time for another character discussion. This time we have Len Graink, Shawney's younger cousin and his partner at Rohart Repairs. Despite the partnership and being almost as brilliant as Shawney when it comes to mechanical know-how, Len does barely any work and is probably the laziest guy you'll ever meet, preferring to nap on the couch (which he is very protective of). He's also an incredible pessimist who can be rather negative and rather religious; he's a follower of the Sololism faith (which basically believe God is real but abandoned the world after he made it), and one big point with Sololism is the distrust of highly advanced machinery, like cyborgs. Thus, Len doesn't like Moa very much despite her being made from the body of his old friend, and this causes some arguments between Len and Shawney. But for all his bad points, Len loves Shawney very much and is loyal to him, and he does his best to do the right thing, so when Shawney does help Moa with finding out what Dr. Bentwood is up with, Len helps out, knowing if he doesn't things could go very bad for all of Renatola.

And that's all, folks!

Weekly (Dis)Likes:

Like 1: Seeing my good friend Elle while working. We were friends in high school, and I haven't seen her since graduation. She looked good, though, and she's having a wonderful life with graduate school and being engaged to her high-school sweetheart (who's a very good guy and they both deserve each other in the best way possible). Made my day a lot better. Great seeing you, Elle!

Like 2: My new coworker Runa. She just started working at the B&N, and I met her this week when she was practicing with the cash register at the mall cash wrap where I was stationed that day. She asked all the right questions, I gave her a few tips, and we had a nice conversation about our favorite books (we both like fantasy a lot). I look forward to working with her, especially after the favor she did for me, which is explained in Dislike 1.

Dislike 1: Car problems. No, I didn't crash, but I did accidentally leave my headlights on when I went to work one night (it was actually the same night as the employee meeting). When I was done, the car wouldn't start, and despite having some jumper cables on me, I didn't completely remember the instructions Dad gave me when I first got them. But I did remember my AAA Roadside Assistance card, and I was able to call them and have one of their guys stop buy who jump-started my battery. Runa stayed with me the whole time and let me sit in her heated car while I waited, so I didn't get cold, and in the end everything worked out and I got home safely. Thank goodness!

And quote!

"Courage does not always roar. Sometimes courage is the quiet voice at the end of the day saying, 'I will try again tomorrow.'" -Mary Anne Radmacher

Bye,
Colleen

It's Beginning to Look A Lot Like Christmas (and it's not even Thanksgiving Yet!)

Hi ho diggity!!!

Things are picking up at the B&N. All the Christmas came out so fast, you wouldn't believe Halloween stuff had even been placed out in the first place. Christmas themed price signs are up, deals are out, and people were everywhere during last night's shift. Not that I was at the cash register - I was on patrol on the second floor - but I honestly think that was the most full I've ever seen the place. And there were plenty of book stacks left behind that I got to clean up, but even worse than that was that I think I found my first bit of evidence for a store theft. I was cleaning the kid's section, and in some corner I found one of those plastic and cardboard boxes for a Disney figurine. The doll itself and the clothes were missing, but some of the other parts were left behind, which I can't help but find weird because if you're going to steal something, wouldn't you take the whole thing? Anyway, I dropped the evidence off in the back room, but I don't know what can be done about it. It's hard to trust people to do the right thing these days, isn't it?

But it wasn't all bad at the store this week. I got to go off the beaten trail and do something different, and that was creating the stocking stuffer display. One of my bosses positioned the stand and gave me boxed of little goodies and a handout of where went what, and it was fun; kinda like putting a puzzle together. Not to mention some of the stuffers look really awesome. For example, there was a frog-shaped tea diffuser, and a multi-pronged charging cord for all sorts of devices, and a little light up bottle stopper that turns an empty bottle into a lamp. Very cool, and certainly things I would want to see in my own stocking (hint, hint).

Editing is going well. I'm back to two writers this week, so it's been relatively easy getting everything looked over. Not to mention my favorite writer and her short but sweet articles. But something both my writers need to work on is using contractions. You know, like 'can't' and 'would've'? Both of them don't, and it's driving me nuts a little because that's not how people talk, and it makes their writing sound weird and helps to ruin good sentence flow. I've made a note of it this week, and hopefully they'll get it and listen.

Let's look at another character from M.O.A-27. Remember last week when I mentioned the person helping out our heroine? Here's his introduction. I give you Shawney Rohart, hologram genius extraordinaire. A few years out of college, he's the boss and owner of Rohart's Repairs and can fix pretty much anything, though holograms are his specialty. The only family he has is his lazy cousin Len, and knows a lot about M.O.A-27's (we'll call her Moa from here on) past life. He considers her his friend, despite the difference between the two (Moa makes sure to point that out), and is more than willing to help her uncover the scandal that made Moa into a cyborg. He is a nerd completely, and I love him for it. Hopefully you will too when you read him in action.

Now to the Weekly (Dis)Likes!

Like 1: Making the display. See above.

Like 2: Halloween! I love this day, and even though I spent it handing out candy to the few trick-or-treaters that came buy, I still had fun with my costume:

What a wonderful ghoul am I, huh? It's cool what you can do with art supplies and clothes from your closet.

Like 3: Candy. Got plenty to eat since not a lot of kid showed up. Yum!

Like 4: Christmas fair at the local church. My grandma and I went, and it was nice. It wasn't horribly big, but there was some really interesting merchandise, like magazine papercraft crosses and some absolutely beautiful jewellery. I didn't pick up anything, but my grandma got some present for some special people who will really like them!

Dislike 1: THE ROYALS LOSING THE WORLD SERIES. All I will say is the fact we got that far to begin with will always be a bigger victory than the stupid Giants actually winning the thing!!

Dislike 2: Finding evidence for a store theft for the first time. Sad. :(

Dislike 3: The lag time when I'm trying to watch a Youtube video on my phone. When I'm driving in my car, that's what I use when I want to listen to a certain song, and the pauses and feedback loss that make me have to play it again or wait are awful. What's with the cruddy connection!?

And quote!

"Whoever is happy will make others happy too." -Anne Frank

See ya,
Colleen