Black Friday

Oh Lordy! So here I am, rockin' you like a hurricane. Last night I went to work at 11:15 and left this morning at 8. When I got home I stumbled into the shower and went to bed until 12:20. By that time E. was already at work at Old Salem. I dragged myself into the kitchen and ate some leftovers that E. had brought home from her family. I got two family's leftovers this Thanksgiving. Ray Ray came over last night around 8 and brought a beautiful plate of food for me. She's is such a sweetheart, and Emily and I really miss seeing her and being her neighbor. After gorging for a bit I went BACK to the mall to get my check. I'm normally pretty happy about payday but I didn't really want to be back in the mall. Poor Andrew, one of the shift supervisors, was still there. He's working from 11:15 PM Thanksgiving night until 4:30 PM today. Frankly I think he's crazy. Last night went pretty well. There's a big difference in having 6 people working and having 3 people working. I debated bringing the new vid camera and recording the stampede (I'm not shittin' you, people run in), but decided that it wouldn't be worth it if the camera got messed up. I made a lot of fraps in the morning, handlin' the frap station all on my lonesome. It was weird because it seemed less busy than last year, but we were making more drinks and more money. Maybe it was just so psychotic last year because we were unprepared and understaffed. At one point my left arm went totally numb from doing the same repetitive motion for so long. Luckily just at that moment Andrew accidentally frogged me and the arm woke up. At around 5 AM it seemed to really die off on the cold bar (where I was) and I stood there dazedly for the next couple of hours. I don't mean to say that I wasn't still making drinks, but they just were not coming as frequently. It was a relief to know that no matter how I have to work it I have decided NOT to work on Black Friday next year.

I just picked up "The Umbrella Academy" last Wed. at Acme. I really didn't want to try it because the writer is the lead singer for My Chemical Romance. It's not that I don't like them (in fact I don't think I could name even one of their songs) it is just that I see certain types of little urchins walking around the mall with the band's t-shirt on. But my most reliable comic shop guy comic pimp told me that it was a great book, and compared it to "Royal Tannenbaums (sp) meets Hellboy around movies. Maybe one of my faithful readers (ha) could inform me. ." Just a side note, I'm never sure if I should italicise or put parenthesis. Anyhoo, the book is pretty great. I will definitely finish off the miniseries and see how it goes.

If anyone out there knows where I can get some Apple, Spearmint, Ginger, or Licorice Altoids tins please comment with the info! I don't know why but I've been obsessed lately with collecting all of the tins. Also, if anyone has any old portable flash drives (no matter how small) that you just don't use anymore because you bought a bigger newer one or you just plain don't need it, hook a brother up! I'll be willing to pay you something, just name a fair price and we'll have a deal.

I just started reading this book I got out of the Ed Mckay's free bin about a month or so ago. It's The Mother Earth News Almanac: A Guide Through the Seasons. The book was published in 1973. I know that I have TONS of other stuff to do for school, but I wanted to read something I didn't have to that was longer than a comic book. Today as I sipped my soup and ate my sandwich I read the first part of the winter section which gave me some really cool ideas. But the part that made me all warm and glowy was the introduction to winter (the time of rest). It says:

"...a small boy in North Dakota will be taken for his first ice-fishing trip; a young girl from Greenville, South Carolina will be kissed under the mistletoe; at least 6,000,010 snowball fights will be fought on the North American COntinent; the cat and dog will spend a lot of time sleeping under the kitchen stove, and grandma will read the seed catalogues and dream of the coming spring."

For some reason that just makes me happy!


Here are some cool links for people that have wondered what the heck I'm talkin' about. The XO-1 is from the OLPC program (here is a link that might provide more info) and has just extended their buy one give one program until Dec. 31st. Hurray! I have passionate dreams about this computer. Actually I've had dreams about it for almost two years. I really really really really want one. Hopefully I'll get enough moola together to get it. The Asus EEE is a microcomputer that was hyped as being similar to the XO-1, but the price point just kept jumping higher and higher. The EEE has had some issues in delivering what they said they would deliver, but it is still pretty awesome. If I don't get the XO-1 than the EEE is what I'll end up with. The Amazon Kindle is a sweet ereader that with enough improvement could be the wave of literary future.


Here's Ray Ray telling a story about a roach.