Sunday, November 27, 2005

Well, Thanksgiving went better than expected. Mom didn't cook: we went to a buffet and there was enough dark meat for everyone. My family's weird that way: we all like dark meak on our turkeys, and they've been bred for a while to have more breast meat. So much for the wonders of the modern age. I've been very careful the rest of the week about what I put in my mouth, so hopefully I won't gain much wieght. I have Christmas stuff to fit into.

I spent most of the weekend that I was conscious at Kohl's. The holidays really amplify everything: customers are nicer, customers are meaner, the hours are both better and worse, and management is even more brain-dead than usual. The day after Thanksgiving is known in retail circles as "Black Friday"; by management as perhaps the first time the store makes a profit, and among the peons for the general morale-busting ethos involved in opening at 5:00 a.m. Old-timers will tell you you haven't lived until you've clocked in at 4:30 in the morning to watch suburbanites get into fistfights over a toaster. I have to get out of retail.

Sunday, November 20, 2005

Well, It looks like the days I spend at the library are going to have to count as days off. By the end of this weekend, I will have worked over 24 hours, as compared to my usual 12-15. I'm still negotiating days off around Christmas, which can be tricky. I trained a temporary cashier on Friday, and I felt flattered that Management thought I was good enough to do that. That, or they were desperate. She's a high school senior named Nina, and she got a little advice from me: don't go to DePaul, get a well-rounded eduaction if you want to be a lawyer (she wants to go to law school), and don't let anyone hurry you when you cashier. Did I get everything? My back aches, my knees complain, and I'm getting ever closer to that holy grail, the car. What do I want for Christmas? A massage. At the rate I'm going, I'm going to to be all hunched over like some kind of gnome by December 24th. But enough whining. I've got to go to work.

Wednesday, November 16, 2005

So here it is folks: The blog that may just be better than e-mail. Feel free to post comments, I'll respond as I can. I have now lost 10% of my starting body weight at Weight Watchers. As some of you know, this is kind of a big deal there. I was planning to hit this particular milestone by Labor Day, but now will have to do. I'm gearing up for Thanksgiving, which really shouldn't be too big of a deal, especially if Mom decides to feature her squash with brown sugar. I forgot that Julie's not coming to Turkey Day, so her birthday present is going to be late, I fear. Anybody who's going to be in Indy over Christmas should probably try to pencil me in somewhere, since I have no idea when I will be in town after that. Retail sucks. Especially when I saw that Victoria's Secret is hiring for the holidays and they offer twice the employee discount that Kohl's does. That, and I actually want to buy stuff from V.S.

The job search continues, and while it doesn't look likely that DePaul is going to give me an interview, let alone a job, I have other irons in the fire. I'm hoping my transcript from Dominican arrives soon so I can send it off to City Colleges of Chicago. They also want three references. I guess they want to make sure of who they're getting, since you have to be indicted before they'll even suspend you. Ah, yes, Chicago politics. How else would we embarrass the Democratic Party for actually trying to govern? Ah, well, I prefer the crooks on my side to the ones on the other. Besides, Daley may not die in office, as some of my friends have predicted. He's been supoeneaed and is generally in deep doo-doo with the feds. It's kind of fun watching him implode. For more details, check http://www.suntimes.com daily.

Wow. That's a little more than I intended to write. Tell you what: I'll try to post at least weekly and check the site daily or thereabouts.