I Am Stupid Enough To...

• Stupid Enough to read Stephen King novels way into the wee hours (recently finished "The Stand"... of course i spent every spare minute reading, and why should i stop at night? I'm stupid, after all. It got to the point that after it turned dark i was afraid that around every corner i turned would be either The Walkin' Dude or Harold Lauder, grinning at me). End up flicking on every lightswitch i come across.

• Stupid Enough to listen to Alice Cooper's "Steven" after sundown (first time i listened to it was late late at night... had to turn it off. Couldn't listen to it). End up flicking on every lightswitch i come across.

• Stupid Enough to stay up late watching Unsolved Mysteries about ghosts, mysterious disappearances, and killers still on the loose. End up flicking on every lightswitch i come across.

• Stupid Enough to read horror stories while completely alone in the house except for the dog... and end up hanging out with the dog. Also end up flicking on every lightswitch i come across.

• Stupid Enough to watch scary-ass movies like The Grudge and Darkness Falls enough times to remember all the scariest details, but not enough times where they're no longer scary. End up flicking on every lightswitch i come across.

• Stupid Enough to listen to scary scary music (75 f all Alice Cooper's stuff, "Song of Joy" by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, themes from horror movies, songs about ghosts and murder and evil, etc) in total darkness. End up flicking on every lightswitch i come across.

• Stupid Enough to watch every show on the Discovery channel about how and when the world will end. Worry about each of these apocolypses periodically. The comet, the supervolcano, the Bomb, the superdisease, the megatsunami, the next ice age, the sun exploding, et cetera. Don't bother with the lightswitch, it won't save me.

   

so what's up with me? well... work's good. which is good. and...

oh yeah! Lala's birthday. i planned the whole dinner and it didn't fall through!!! wow!!! i made reservations at the Irish Coffee Pub. it was really nice there. the food was great, so was the service, the place was beautiful, and most important of all, it was fun. it was really great to see Laura again, i haven't seen her in ages. ditto Lala and Cappy. the conversation was great. and the bill wasn't so bad either. i thought it'd be way more than that. hahaha. the five of us should get together more. i'm looking forward to doing something again. maybe this friday? i'll have to call around.

what else? ah yes. me and Brian went thrifting yesterday. i found a shirt with this great retro pattern on it... the kind you see on old upholstery. i said to Brian, "Hey! if i wear this shirt with my brown skirt, i could sit on any couch from the 1970s and disappear!"

Piper's birthday is the seventh of March. she's going to be two years old. can you fucking believe it?? and speaking of Piper... She said my name!!!! yesterday, just before we all (me & the Savages) went out to dinner for Mrs. Savage's birthday, she points to me and says, "Kat-tea!"

::dies::

ahhhh i love that kid. the name she said sounds kind of like a babyish cross between "Kathleen" and "Auntie", which makes sense, because i'm referred to as "Auntie Kat" around the baby. and she says "Unky", too, for Uncle Brian. ^.^ she's getting so big!

so i figured i'd update you guys on the whole Dunkin Donuts situation. i got the job. friday, saturday, and sunday i was there watching training videos and doing Q&As on the computers downstairs. sunday i got to follow people around and watch them do stuff. i've been officially working there since Monday.

i was way too worried. it isn't bad at all and i've only messed up greivously like two or three times in four days. i have messed up more than that but little things. the cash register was a bitch to learn, but i've finally got it. i still fuck up once in a while but not often. like today i swear to god this woman DID NOT order a latte... she ordered a regular coffee. and then when i'm done getting the two coffees, the muffin, and the breakfast sandwich she's like, "where's my latte?" i mean she wasn't snotty or anything but it was like "lady, wtf are you talking about?" so i just made her a latte and charged her for the coffee (which was less, as you can probably guess) because it was my bad. and then i ALMOST ruined the muffins i had to bake today. but it was my first time making the muffins by myself (i've made bagels and croissants and stuff before) and they cut me a break b/c it was my first time (and they weren't ruined... some of them were just a little flatter than usual).

Margarita (the girl who's been training me) says that i'm catching on okay though, she says i'm learning faster than some past people learned in a month.

anyway... the weirdest thing happened today. i was in the sandwich station making a bagel, right? and i'm not really paying attention to who's coming in the door. a guy in a DD uniform walks in and comes behind the counter to the employee area (the sandwich station is right by the little employees-only door to the area behind the counter, so i'm right there). i turn around, and who's standing there but...

Dr. Bob!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

we stood staring at eachother for like forty five seconds. i'm trying to think of something to say and all i can do is yell out "what the fuck????" with an astonished smile on my face. Bob laughs. turns out he's been working at DD for 2 yrs. he's a "shift leader". not sure what rank that is but yay for him anyway. he works at the East Islip DD but apparently the stores trade ppl sometimes.

we bullshitted all day long, of course. and then, the nice guy that he is, he gave me a lift home. i protested, but he was like "i gotta pass it anyway!"

jeez, Dr. Bob. weird, huh?

so, that's about it. i'm working 5am to 1pm, and i might be getting sun & mon off from now on. i like it there, actually. everyone's nice and there's nothing sucky about the job, other than standing all day long. but i'll get used to that in a few more days. i did at the Laundromat. and the tips are way better. this week i've made like 20-something bucks in tips (so far!). there's a big ol' tipping jar and we split it and the end of the shift between all of us. and you're allowed to eat pretty much anything, within reason. ditto with coffee and tea and stuff. i haven't really been taking advantage of that... but it's still nice.

is there anything i don't like? hmm... well, the visor is annoying. and i hate when people pronounce latte "late", i never know what the hell they're talking aboutm (and speaking of lattes, the smell of steamed milk is NASTY). oh, and when people order like six or seven (or more!) coffees at once and they're all different and they just rattle them off like you've got a mental notepad or something. and then they get pissy when you ask them again.

but mostly the customers are nice. most of them have noticed i'm new and have been patient with me, which i'm grateful for.

hmmm, what else is there to say?

ummm... Valentine's day! ... Lala's Birthday on the 23rd (21! yay for you)!... Dave Visiting!... Piper talking!... Free Donuts! ... Little Brother an Asshole!

... that's all!

peace & peaseblossoms...

-Kathleen!

so today at 2pm i've got an interview at the Dunkin' Donuts on Brentwood Road in Bay Shore. i'm not really nervous, i used up all my nervous energy getting to this point. which is, i would like to add, thanks to Dave. Thank you Dave!

his uncle works at the Dunkin' Donuts in East Islip (located, funnily enough, right next to Aid Auto). Dave told me to go there and ask for his uncle... which i did, yesterday. i put down my info on a peice of paper, and Dave's uncle said that i'd get a call back from one of the Dunkin' Donuts locations nearby. and so literally when i walk in the door i get a call from the Dunkin' Donuts in Bay Shore.

i mean jeez, i didn't expect it go be that quick. it's like- nothingnothingnothingnothingnothingnothingnothingnothingBAM!!

and i don't just mean the whole "job" thing, it's like all of a sudden there's stuff going on in my previously flatline life. you know? like rain after a dry spell. and all through that dry spell i was feeling... i dunno, apprehensive. as if i were on the edge of something big. as if for some inexplicable reason i was waiting for something. and i guess i was. except the "big" thing was really a bunch of things.

well, hopefully this will pan out. if not, you know, keep on truckin'. and i can't let myself get so discouraged, it doesn't do anything for me except slow me down.

oh yes, on another note... kudos to the spider in my room for killing annoying flies and insects and whatever, i really appreciate what you're doing, and i respect your position and all, but... do you think maybe you could quit biting me? please? as a personal favor in return for not squishing you? 'cause if you keep it up... well, i'll be forced to hunt you down and tissue you to death. but please, let's not allow it to escalate to that point. i thank you in advance for your cooperation.

is there anything else noteworthy? ::thinks:: hmm... well, nothing other than Piper is as cute as ever! her vocabulary is growing every day. she'll be stringing it all together in sentences, pretty soon... it's so cute how she says "thank you!" ::sigh::

well, that's about it for now.

see ya's all later.

-Kat

okay so Saturday night i got all but fired from the Laundromat. my boss listed all sorts of odd, mostly inconsequential things that i've been doing wrong that he never told me i was doing. first of all, if he had a problem with what i was doing why didn't he TELL me? second, why didn't any of the ppl i was working with tell me i was doing something wrong when i ASKED them if i was messing up? third, he hires a new girl out of the blue and all of a sudden he's mister genial-talkative-well-groomed-man instead of mopey-quiet-depressed-never-combs-his-hair-or-showers-guy like BEFORE he hires her? i mean it was like he was scrooge on christmas morning. and he TALKS to her, and he SMILES at her, and all of a sudden he's Mr. Nice Guy helping Allison out instead of being an asshole to her (overnight, mind you)... when he first hired her me and Allison both thought it looked like he had a crush on her. and with every passing second it seemed more likely.

i mean, the reason i was let go really sounds like a combination of my boss being a dick and my boss being a dick. let me elucidate. he didn't tell me what i was supposed to do or not do, doesn't tell me when or IF i'm messing up, etc, and then hires a new girl the second she walks in and acts all flirty with her. i mean, one of the things he said i was doing wrong was not counting the cash drawer every time i came in. he only told me to do that like once or twice, so i assumed it was just for those two times. what it boils down to is that he likes her better and can't be bothered with trying to help me be a better worker. i mean, i only worked there a little while, i was just starting to get the hang of everything. everyone else who's been there has like a billion years of experience.

god, everyone wants experience and no one wants to help you GET it. fuck you all, do you hear me??

i even asked Linda (who's been working at the laundromat since the dawn of time) if i was messing up and she said i wasn't.

::sigh::

so he gave me my last pay and said that i could come in on monday "if i wanted to" but that he doesn't really need me anymore. so i'm not going in today. fuck him. i'm going out jobhunting. this job served it's purpose- to get me enough $$ for x-mas.

and oh my god what a cheap bastard. the place is a dirty little shithole, there's NO hot water (not in the washers, not in the bathroom sink), there's a disgusting little fridge that has had the same potato salad in it since Kennedy was shot, there are dust bunnies everywhere, there's crusted soap all around the washing machines, and Marc himself is a dirtbag, which rounds the whole thing out.

i hated working there, and i wanted to get out... so now i'm out. i mean, i wanted to have another job lined up before i quit... but whatever. as much as it sucks to be fired, i also feel liberated. good god i hated it there. i didnt' mind the work, and i liked Linda and Allison, but not enough to keep me there. the funny thing is i was thinking of quitting that very day, in spite of my lack of another job.

ah, well. che sara sara.

-Kat

ps- miss you Lala. miss you Dave. talk to you two soon??