Feeling :  full  Listening :  Voyage of the Damned - Doctor Who (the episode, actually, hehe)  Reading :  N/A

I love busy days at work. A show was breaking down, so we had a ton of things to do. Not particularly exciting, but it makes 8 hours go by pretty fast.

Season 4 of Doctor Who is on BBC America, and I’m watching the “Voyage of the Damned” as I type this. I mean, yeah, I watched it already but I saw it on my iPhone. It’s nice to see it the way it’s supposed to be seen: on a TV.

I was also debating on purchasing a fifth generation iPod video. I have a cord that lets you watch movies that are stored on it through your TV. There’s a TON of movies I have that I’d rather watch on a TV, not on my phone or computer. But then I’d have to do some major deleting. I’ve got too many movies in my iTunes now. It’d be nice to have a backup of my music and movies and stuff too.

So anyways, I’m not quite sure if I have another story to share with you lot. I need more inspiration to keep me going for another 22 days!

?: “What MP3 player do you have?“

Feeling :  curious  Listening :  Miss You Bow Wow - Girls Aloud  Reading :  Angela's Ashes

Today I had a very nice conversation with a guest. Honestly, some days I have the shittiest guests, and you hear about them. And then someone who is very friendly and personable sorta crashes into my bubble and goes, “Hi!” We chatted about everything: her family, her daughter’s speeding tickets, LV, the local weather, losing her diamond bracelet somewhere between the Rio and her hotel room the last time she was here. I like guests like that. People who can speak so easily to complete strangers about everything under the sun. I wish I could be that free with myself. But I like being mysterious.

OK, mysterious would be a little presumptuous to assume of myself. Slightly ice queen-ish, in the very least.

I love when I plot out random stories and then find them weeks later, like a squirrel who has hidden away his goodies. I’ve got 3 different story ideas in the back of the three notebooks for my brick-and-mortar classes. A lot of them need work, of course. But I like how if the class gets too slow for me, I can focus on the stories. I always write my best stories in a school setting. Always have. I’m almost afraid to leave school ’cause then I won’t be able to write anymore! haha.

Behind the cut is the first part of a short story that I wrote a few months ago, called “It Was Like ‘Static’”. I’m gonna dole it out over the next five days. It’s exactly 25 pages long in Word, so I’ll post 5 pages a day. Yes, I am taking the loser-y way out and burning up my daily NaBloPoMo posts by doing so. But there are no rules other than to post for one whole month uninterrupted. So bite me. Besides, I’ve been meaning to share it with an audience for quite some time and there’s no time like the present, right?
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Feeling :  listless  Listening :  Kaiser Chiefs - Never Miss a Beat  Reading :  Stuff for school

Since I’m surfing the crimson wave, I decided to revamp Nothing but Song. I found this tutorial, jazzed it up a bit, and made it into a theme for WP. I’m proud of it. I love the fairy silhouettes I was able to find. The tut originally had humans, but I saw this set and knew it would work.

I had a ranty blog from a few days ago. The indignant anger has cooled off. But I still wanna share it.

I got a psycho bitch guest today.

“Hi, I need to ship this out.”

She had two liquor bottles with her. We do not have a liquor license, so we legally cannot ship it. If the guest were to come up with the shipment ready to go, and it happened to contain liquor, I would have taken it. I didn’t pack it, so I could say I didn’t know. But I cannot take liquor. I do my job to the letter. There is some leeway, which I use from time to time. But to grossly deviate invites confusion.

I offer to give her the address to the local post office, who has the ability to ship that sort of stuff out. She jumps on her phone and calls somebody. Why do people do that? When you say no, they call someone on the phone? Is that person going to magically come out of the phone and force me to change my answer?

While she’s doing calling that person, she says that she has no car. She also confesses that she’s with a recent car auction that just left the hotel. That’s just weird. How can you be with a VIP car auction group and have no car? Or access to one? If sending this package out is so important, you’ll find a way to send it.

Then she asks for gift wrap. I tell her that we don’t have anything like that. Maybe she didn’t like the way I said it, ’cause her eyes narrowed at my name tag. “The concierge told me you could do this.”

“No,” I say, “I’m not sure why they would say that.”

Never in all the years the business center has been here have we done gift wrap. We have no wrapping paper, or gift bags. And shit, we ran out of Scotch tape whilst I was at lunch. We do shipping and receiving only. I bite the retort, “Maybe the concierge didn’t want to deal with you anymore, psycho!”

She glares at me in that “I don’t believe this shit” kind of way. “Maybe they said that because they wanted to help me. What’s your name?” she says bitterly.

The tone of voice that says, “I’m reporting you to your manager!”

I pronounce it for the squinty-eyed bitch so she can get it right when - and if - she reports me. I have nothing to be afraid of. If I had gift wrap, I would have gladly helped her. If we were allowed to ship liquor, I would have done it, regardless of who she was, VIP or not. Does this bitch honestly think I enjoy turning my guests away? Does she think I get off telling people no?

I’m not like the concierge, which is outsourced to a separate company, and could give two shits about my company’s reputation. I might not enjoy all the aspects of my job, but you know what? It’s mine, and I’ll do it to the best of my ability with the resources that I have. If I don’t know the answer, I’ll find it. But when I know what the answer is going to be, I’m not going to waste anyone’s time. I’m just gonna say it.

Maybe she’s just the kind of woman who is used to having her way. Maybe she’s used to people on the other side of the counter here fall over themselves to make her happy ’cause she’s a VIP.

I felt like saying, “Would you like me to magically transport myself to Wal-Mart or Target and get you gift wrap? Because on your happy fairy world where people say yes to everything, I can do that for you, it’ll be my pleasure.”

Honestly.

People wonder why customer service has gone down the drain. It’s because we have no respect for our fellow person. We are nothing but numbers in the corporate culture. It’s all about looking out for your own ass. It’s incredibly cutthroat. Turnover is so high in the service industry.

People only want to know your name because a) it’s spelled and pronounced funny and they wanna crack a joke that you’ve heard a million times before because you’ve been alive for 25 years and have heard it all, or b) they wanna report you.

I should get cracking on some epic novel or something. Even if I sold a few copies, I would say I’m a published writer and get more jobs that way. Then again, if I were to leave the service industry, I wouldn’t have anybody to talk about in my stories, haha.

School is okay, surprisingly. Took me half a term, but I think I’ve found my footing. I got a 90/100 on my Outlaw Genres midterm. I got 97/100 on my US Foreign Relations midterm. My Comp Lit one wasn’t due until this past Sunday, so I don’t expect that one back for another week or so.

The only thing I haven’t been doing is homework. I know, that’s terrible to admit. With all the turmoil at work and then all the drama at home, it’s hard to concentrate. Plus school makes me feel like an idiot, which makes me put my defensive shield up. When I’m on the defense, things frustrate and anger me and I can’t concentrate.

Now that it’s past midterm, I’m not sure how badly the lack of homework will affect my grade. I don’t really want to know, actually. As long as I get a C-, I consider that a passing grade. If I got a D in any of my classes, I’m screwed because they don’t accept Ds for classes that count for your major. Of course, all my classes count for my major. *le sigh* But it’s kinda settling in how I hard I’m gonna have to hustle. I’m going to apply myself for the rest of the term, and see where it goes.

I can’t believe Halloween is in four days already! Me and C are seeing Cobra Starship ’cause they’re coming through on the Sassyback tour, and I’m looking forward to that. We get meet & greet passes too. It’s been awhile since I’ve been to a gig. I was debating on whether or not to go dressed up as Sydney from Alias - red wig and all - but I misplaced my black turtlenecks. I think I might’ve donated them last year. I’m too lazy to go out and buy another one, haha. I could prolly buy one, since I love turtlenecks in the fall/winter, but I dunno. I’m all blah right now.

My dad is looking forward to retiring. Like, properly retiring, where he won’t have to take care of us anymore, rofl. He said he’s gonna visit me in Washington, D.C. and I go, “What? I haven’t talked about moving to D.C. in ages.” Then I remembered telling my mom I wanted to work for the Smithsonian, which is in D.C. My plans have changed obviously, but I’m not quite sure how to broach the subject that I’m gonna go back to Cali, as fucked up of a state it is. My dad said to always move forward, not back, but I feel like my destiny is there in Cali, waiting for me. It’ll be a culture shock, but it was the same when I moved here.

But, I don’t know. Maybe I will find a job at the Smithsonian. Right now, I am debating on whether to get my degree in accounting. Not like change my major, but get an additional one. I can get an Associate of Science in Accounting at any community college. I could go back to Cali for that. So I’d have a Bachelor in English with a minor in History, and one Associate of General Studies, and then an Associate of Science. All that would be left would be my Master’s. *cringes* That is obviously the next step, but in this economy? I don’t know if I could do it or get the financing for it.

Speaking of work, I lost my full-time position because of obvious reasons. I’m back to extra board effective immediately, hours will change prolly starting next week. My supes said they were gonna work hard to try and change it. *crosses fingers* I doubt they have the influence, since the decision was handed down from the higher-ups. I’ll take the false hope though. That’s all I got now. I was really looking forward to the benefits. At least I’ll get to keep my hours. That is always a good thing.

This was a pretty long entry. I had a lot to catch you up on!

?: “Anything new in your part of the world?“