Wednesday, November 13, 2013

It's Been A While....

It has definitely been a while, and far too long. Two months of not writing is not recommended by any means... My previous post had me stumped, and I didn't want to post it until I felt it finished, yet, after two months, I cannot say anything else to finish it. So posted it was, as is. There have been many distractions to writing in the past two months, between work, baby kitten, and life. Nonetheless, I have always felt the need to write, just too lazy (and possibly tired, lol) to sit and do it. So let's catch up, shall we???

LilBit
Let's start with the warm and fuzzy... Awesome had a baby. And yes, I mean one baby. Her first litter was four kittens big, and since Awesome is a permakitten, I thought it was a big litter for her. And they all died, now buried in the front garden. Before I could get her spayed, she was preggers again. This time, she only had a singleton. I refused to become attached until the singleton became at least 7 weeks old - yeah, that's a joke. I was attached and invested and overly cautious in making sure this one survived. And survived she has. A cute fuzzier version of her momma, who is the very definition of a helicopter parent, and who has thrived in spite of being a singleton. Of all the litters of kittens I have dealt with in my life, I've never had a singleton kitten - there are always multiples and they thrive in part from snuggling and playing and growing with each other. LilBit, as she has been named (by my mother; my choice was for Minnion, but she is not mine, so LilBit it is) has never had a problem by herself. She has chosen my mother as her person, and Awesome kept her in my mom's bedroom until she started being too big to be carried back to the room when she escaped (now keep in mind: I am the one who feeds, checks, takes care of all the animals at the house, yet, she decided that my mom was her person. Seriously, what the hell???). Anyhow, now that Awesome has finished nursing, I can finally get her spayed (spaying her before the end of nursing would have cut off the baby's milk supply, so I had to give her the eight weeks to nurse), as soon as I can make an appointment and financing arrangements. I will update the post with a pic of the fuzzy soon...!

Work
Work has been a trial of patience and tongue-biting. I am just about to get ready for work now, going in early because I have to go take a polygraph. All of us, barring the family I would presume, have to take one. Tom hires based on good faith - there is no background check, there is no pee in a cup; it is in good faith and the word of others that he hires on. And in 30-some odd years, he's only had to fire twice because of theft. The rule is that if money comes up missing, we submit (and give permission) to a polygraph. Thus far, it has served him well. And now he is missing money again. He employs one of the best in the field, who also does the work for the Los Angeles Sheriffs Department, so she knows what the hell she is doing. The problem is, my gut tells me (among other things) that it is not one of the employees that is taking money, which is a problem in and of itself. Because that leaves family.... specifically, the prodigal child, who is overextended and without any concern for their father's business. Donna feels the same way (who is Tom's wife and co-owner), so I know my gut is probably not far off (which is reassuring, because my gut has not always had my back). So, we will all go in and do our poly's, which I think will be the beginning to a very bad family breakdown. If it is the prodigal child, there is no way for this to end well, unless Tom completely bypasses the end result and takes it in stride. I don't see that happening.
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I need to stop getting halfway through a blogpost and then having life interrupt it. It totally throws off my mojo and I am lost trying to finish the original thoughts I had started with. Oy, life is a pain in the ass sometimes. Anyhow... a couple of weeks later....

Continuing with work... The polys all worked out as we thought they would, with only the prodigal child refusing to take one - even with their mother and sister taking it also. And they have not been allowed to work until they submit (and pass) the poly, regardless of their insistence of innocence. So, instead of just being short the two we were, we went to three short in clerks. Lately, one of the prior clerks who left to become a trucker has been working, and we've hired two others. So, hopefully, we will be back up to full steam (which has not happened since I've been there the past three months) before the holidays.

I've also been fighting the mysogeny  (sp?) that stems from certain cultures. Our manager is a Sri Lankan and he firmly believes that women are not to be trusted nor should they be anywhere but home, pregnant and barefoot. And since he cannot act untowards to the owner's wife or daughter, I get the brunt of it. Going to work can sometimes be sadomasochistic. Ok, not sometimes, A LOT of the time. Our repeat clerk is Indian, and apparently, I am too assertive a female for his liking, so he literally will not help do anything, which I have found out is only when I am working with him. Thankfully, I only have one more week to work with him. It is, however, because of him, that I have had two days off for the past two weeks (and presumably, next week as well). One of my constant co-workers is a Fijian 26 year old who is nothing like his Indian counterparts. Hell, one of the Indian men that works the graveyard shift (10-12 hour days, seven days a week... and he sends the money back to India for his boys to be able to attend private school) loves me and has no issue with my assertiveness. So the S&M aspect is limited to the times I am working with the manager or the repeat clerk, which seems like all the damn time lately. Both Tom and Donna are aware of the issues I have been dealing with, and the manager has been threatened with his job if he doesn't stop... which has made the past couple of weeks manageable. But the undercurrent is there; a lot of it also seems to stem from a fear that I will take his job. I have offered Tom & Donna to take over managing the store until they can find someone who will better manage it than it is being managed now. But, there is no sense that this will be occurring; quite the contrary - they are waiting for him to leave because he's been there eight years and they don't want to fire him, in spite of his poor management.

I will still take this over the hell of Sad Co anyday of the week, and twice on Sunday.

Life Itself....
Life has been continuing on as normal. Or rather, the new normal. The schedules between me, Purple and Ethel has been in constant conflict, which makes us getting together to enjoy, chat, cackle, whatever and cause havoc in general. This sucks on every level. I have been able to take about one Saturday a month off in order to do something important... September it was Sugar Skull's baby shower, October was Purple-little's birthday, and this month, I am going to tea with some of my PUGStyle Pals, which thrills me to no end. I have also been able to splurge a little bit on the everyday things I need: the animals are all switched to Iams foods (which was surprisingly easy to do - they love it, and I love that it is better for them!), I have been able to take a dress in for alterations for Saturday's tea and buy vintage shoes to go with it... I've expanded my work "wardrobe" (ie, red, black and green tees, camis, long-sleeves that "match" the 7/11 logo/uniform), and bought supplies to work into my room re-do. I've also been able to get my nails/hands done once a week, and don't hesitate when I need to add a pedi or eyebrow waxing to it, which has been one of the best perks. I've been trying to take myself out to lunch or breakfast at least once a week, which I usually incorporate into my running of errands. And although I have been getting out of the house, I haven't really gotten out of my town, which is not conducive to organic dating, but a little at a time, and I still haven't gotten a stable schedule to plan to go to Downtown LA, or Pas/South Pasadena. So I am not going to pressure myself.
I have become "friends" with many of our local police officers, as well as two of our canine officers (Milay, a narc only dog, and Django, a bad guy and soon-to-be narc dog). It has been fun bantering, chatting, talking with these officers, and for some weird reason, I have always been comfortable around police. Django recently received titanium (yep!! freaking awesome!) canine teeth because he left one of his canine teeth in a bad guy he chased down. Milay thinks I'm awesome because I 1. don't smell like drugs and 2. I found his sweet spot behind his ears. Both of their people officers are great guys and let me say hi and give the dogs love if they are not "working." It makes my day at work - last night was the first night I had seen Django since his oral surgery, and I got to see him do narco training and check out his titanium (did I mention awesome??!) canine teeth. And of course, it was good to catch up with his person and narc trainer. I commiserated with one of the officers who was undercover for five years, then was promoted to sergeant and was sent back out on graveyard patrol in uniform for the promotion. That so doesn't sound like a promotion to me, but hey, I'm not a cop either... I have a professor that comes in (he has some type of muscular disorder) and who loves to chat with me, especially when he found out that I was "educated" as opposed to just a 7/11 clerk. There's a paint guy who comes in about once a week to get his Haagen Daas chocolate ice cream and threaten to pinch my cheeks. Phil and Monty come in and sit and hold court in the morning on the weekends... Monty is about 70something, Phil is retired in his early 60s. They are hilarious. I have a late-20s mom who comes in as a kindred spirit - she is tatted and bartends three nights a week, modeling on the side - and we chat like we've been friends forever. There's another that works for a supermarket and is my Blueberry coffee compatriot (and Avon catalog hookup!). There's a customer that had me worried after the attack at LAX because I knew he worked at LAX in Terminal 3 and I thought was TSA (he's actually Customs and Border Patrol; luckily, he had the day off that day and it just happened to be random that I hadn't seen him since the incident). I love that my job is very social and that I develop relationships with people that I wouldn't otherwise know in real life.

I will be trying very hard to get back to writing/posting at least once a week, because it has been therapeutic (duh - something I've always known, just haven't done). And I think it has come to the point for me to start telling my story, because I need to get it all out and out of my head.

Things that I absolutely have been in love with:

The White Queen - first a BBC series that did not do quite well in England, and that Starrz network brought over as a miniseries. AMAZING. Purple and I were religious about watching it, and hope that they decide to continue the story. Shortly: it is about Elizabeth Grey, who married King Edward IV in secret and their story... It is based on the books by Phillipa Gregory: The White Queen, The Red Queen, and The White Princess. The is an additional book about Elizabeth's mother, Jacquetta, called The Lady Rivers. ALL OF THESE BOOKS ARE EQUALLY AMAZING AND HIGHLY RECOMMENDED. 

Because of that series, I have been on an English history kick, with the additional reading of a trilogy regarding Richard III's reign (books were ho-hum, and I think more prejudicially based as opposed to the Gregory's books that are as historically accurate as possible). I've also started watching Reign, which is on the CW Network here in the States. This is about Mary, Queen of Scots, and I am looking for more to read about her and Elizabeth I, so any recommendations would be appreciated!! Anywhooo... Reign is more of a soap opera with a nod to history, more geared to the young teenage base that seems to run the CW. It tis great eye candy though... Bash is a hottie, Francis isn't bad either.

Much love to everyone.... Desilu xoxo

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