Dasianity

September 6, 2009

"Debra," says Victor, "it's absolutely not personal, and I hope you understand that." He's sitting on the desk in the back room, with Lanie behind the desk in the chair.

"Not personal? Victor, you're basically putting me out on the street, and unless I'm misunderstanding something, it's because I cost too much." I try to keep as calm as possible, remembering some of the lessons I learned about my relationship with supervisors a couple of years ago.

Lanie jumps in. "That's not exactly fair, Debra. With business down overall, we just don't feel like we need a manager on duty every weeknight. Pat has seniority, so if we're going to keep only one of you, it really has to be her."

"Well, I'd be happy to go back to being a barmaid. I'm not too proud to take that step backwards if that's what you're worried about. And I have good relationships with all the girls."

"We know you do, but the problem is, we've replaced you a couple of times over, and they're making less than you were when you moved up. So even if we got rid of one of them..."

"You'd still be spending more money on me," I finish for her, and she nods.

"Listen, we won't contest your unemployment claim," Victor says, handing me an envelope that contains two weeks' severance pay, something I'll be assured later by a lawyer friend that they weren't in the least bit obligated to give me.

Lanie adds, "And you're an incredibly capable woman, we know you'll find another job."

"With business down overall?" I ask, and Lanie winces a little. "Sorry. Okay. Can I have a letter of reference, at least?"

"Debra, of course," she says. "In fact, why don't you write it? Just say what you'd want us to say, and we'll sign it."

I laugh, pondering all the possibilities. It's not until I'm on my way home that it really starts to set in - six years of my life. Six years of dedication to a job is supposed to be a good thing, employers are supposed to value and honor that.

Oh, God, what am I going to tell Jenny? She's only just barely recovered from what happened this summer, this kind of bad news could set her back. I'm so exhausted from it all... and I can only imagine how she feels.

I have two weeks' pay in my hands, some money in the bank, and unemployment insurance on the way in a few weeks. If I get another job in the next month or two, I'll be just fine, and there's no reason she has to know I lost this one until I actually start the next one. I'll just find some place to hang out on the nights I would've been working. I'll even get some writing done for a change. This is absolutely the right thing to do.

It'll be much better this way.

I give you Cupcake Goth Vs. Frosty The Snowman.

(Hint: I win.)

	Obey the Cupcake, Frosty. Don't argue.
	Cupcake conquers Snowman The Snowpocalypse will happen according to MY wishes.

Awoke to a phone call at 06:40. Turns out there was an oversight in today's callsheet. My calltime of 11:30 should have read 06:30. So much for a sleep-in. No worries. 45 minutes later I am washed, dressed and on set. Good thing I am amazingly adaptive, right?

So, here I am, ten past eight. Still in my civvies, no make-up, awaiting the coffee to brew and the director to be ready for me. At least, I guess, after the rush to get here, there is still ample time to breakfast. Mmm. Breakfast.
The catering guy has some wicked tattoos on his arms. He is a mite scary so I won't risk photographing them though.
Anyways, roar, a breakfast for champions. A meal that drips from the jaws! Scrambled eggs and baked beans on toast.

Also realised that I left my earphones at the house so I can't even listen to an audio book or something.

I could, possibly, go watch the monitors, see if I can learn anything. Aah. Brain is not in absorption mode. Meh. Lemme go ask if I'm allowed in the monitor booth. Tralala.

Good morning from my kitchen, where I am sitting literally four feet away from not one but TWO leftover half cakes: one amazing red velvet, and one double chocolate. And don't even get me started on the cheese straws, coffee ring, and Whole Foods chocolate cake in the fridge. Give me strength. I just got off the treadmill, but I think it might take a miracle for me not to dive headfirst into them while I drink my coffee.

Our party was great, but crazy hectic as always. This is, like, the twentieth year we've done this party, in various incarnations, and it's always changing. Used to be everyone came late and stayed later. Now, the announced time is 6 but people show up, babies in tow, as early as 5:30. Then it's total mayhem, toddlers and kids running wild while my husband and I try to be good hosts and get a huge amount of food onto the table for everyone. At eight sharp, half the room has cleared. By ten, the only ones left are our friends who are in their twenties, who probably don't even go OUT until that hour in their normal lives. I tried to rally, staying up until 12:30, then was really hating it when my daughter got up at 5:30. Whoa. All I want for Christmas is sleep, sleep and more sleep. Are you listening, Santa?

One of my favorite parts of the party, though, is the night after. That's when I get to put on my pajamas and eat leftovers, and this year we did it while watching equal opportunity television: football, followed by Love, Actually. Oh, man. Nothing like eating leftover lasagna, beans and rice and chicken casserole while watching Hugh Grant dance to the Pointer Sisters. Good times.

With the party behind us, I can move onto the actual holiday. I've done most of my shopping---although there's always a few more things to pick up---and with my office done (yay!) I can spend the time I'm not checking things off my list geeking out by labeling folders and organizing boxes. It is nerd heaven, I am telling you. All I need to do is get the internet working over there, and I'll be all set to officially move over. Although really, what I SHOULD do is not hook up the DSL, because I'd probably get a done more work done without the distractions of Twitter, and Ebay, and reading the comments on this blog. But let's be realistic here. Me with no internet is about as likely as me actually managing to resist that red velvet cake. Well intentioned, yes, but not going to happen.

Just one, small piece. A sliver! Because it's Christmas....

Have a great day, everyone!

Okay, Sharing is Caring aissi style.

For one week, every day, recommend/share:

A song
A Picture
A book/ebook/fanfic
A site
A Youtube clip
A quote
Whatever tickles your fancy

( A song )

( A picture )

( A book )

( A site )

( A Youtube clip )

( A quote )

( My choice )


LJ seems to enjoy making my life (everyone's lives) difficult, so I'm having trouble with the formatting. I've been trying to fix it for a while, but I'm sick of it, so I'm sorry for any formatting problems.

Even the typical Seattle weather is not enough to keep me away from a carousel.

Posted via LiveJournal.app.

it's been a while.   i am spending my sunday doing laundry, downloading music, and watching useless television.  i am overjoyed for my family and i simply can't wait to see my extended in amarillo!  not to mention santa has been very kind and i have recieved the white iphone i wanted.  on my download list today: dead mans bones bob schnieder eartha kitt peter and the wolf also, copeland has announced the final dates for their tour.  THANKFULLY they are coming to emo's austin.   i will be there, no exceptions.

Okay, Sharing is Caring aissi style.

For one week, every day, recommend/share:

A song
A Picture
A book/ebook/fanfic
A site
A Youtube clip
A quote
Whatever tickles your fancy

( A song )

( A picture )

( A book )

( A site )

( A Youtube clip )

( A quote )

( My choice )

Day 15 → A fanfic

Nowadays, the only fanfics I read are bad ones for the sake of lulz. Here are a few of my favorites:

My Immortal ~ Search for "Worst Fanfic Ever" on Google, and this is what you get.

SongofthePast's fanfics - My personal favorite is Time Machine but the rest of his pathetic attempts at ghey seks make me laugh too.

( Read more... )

Okay, Sharing is Caring aissi style.

For one week, every day, recommend/share:

A song
A Picture
A book/ebook/fanfic
A site
A Youtube clip
A quote
Whatever tickles your fancy

( A song )

( A picture )

( A book )

( A site )

( A Youtube clip )

( A quote )

( My choice )

Dara finally comes down to the Pub on Wednesday night, for the first time since I started working here a few months ago, and parks herself at the bar for a chat. We spend a little while catching up - on her wedding plans with Dennis, my Dad and how he's been dating the doctor who treated me in the ER a few years ago, and photos of Jessica's toddler Noah (who's just turned a year old!). We studiously avoid any mention of what happened between Jenny and me, partly because we discussed it to death while it was happening. Truth be told, I'm still considering whether even to blog about it, and we've covered that meta-topic enough, too.

Jake, the tall, blonde bartender who trained me when I started here, wanders down the bar from where he's been serving a bunch of college kids on a break from studying for finals. I introduce him to Dara. "Congratulations, when's the big day?" he asks with a smile as he shakes her hand.

"It's in June. How did you -- " She looks down at her other hand, where her engagement ring is revealed only by a bump in the half-finger of a convertible glove-mitten.

Jake spreads his arms wide. "Dara, I'm a single male bartender in Manhattan. It's my job to divine the relationship status of every woman who drinks in here, if I'm able to do it."

"That's impressive," Dara says. "And if I'd been single, or you thought so, what would you have done?"

Jake shrugs and winks. "We'll never know, will we? Anyway, welcome to the Pub, I hope we see you here often." He returns to the other end of the bar, where patrons await, and Dara watches him as he goes. When she looks back at me, I'm grinning.

"What? I'm allowed to look," she laughs. "In a way I'm kind of glad men are allowed to serve drinks here. I mean, some of the girls you worked with at the Bar were fun, but how about some eye-candy equal time, huh?"

"Vince and Diego the barbacks weren't enough for you?" I pull another Sierra Nevada Pale Ale from the tap for her, and she takes off her glove-esque things.

Dara shrugs. "Vince was taken almost as soon as I knew him, and, well, Diego was a devoted father. I think I might've just known them too well to look at them that way." She pauses to take a drink. "You know, I just thought of something."

"What's that?"

"Your new job at a new place, being single in a new apartment, starting up the blog again, even your father dating - it's kind of like one of those TV shows or movies that reboots. You know, like the new 'Star Trek' movie this past summer. Or that sitcom with Christina Applegate where at first she was a waitress at her father's bar, and then suddenly you were supposed to believe she'd been working in a doctor's office the whole time? They start down a completely new path, with new characters and new situations that never would've happened the first time around, and it's like the first time around never existed."

I think about it for a minute, nodding. "There's only one problem with your analogy."

"What, you don't get to hang out with Zachary Quinto?"

"No - the stuff that happened the first time around really happened, and I don't get to pretend it didn't." I excuse myself briefly to take some orders from a group of men that's just arrived, and I see Dara looking at her hand and fingering her engagement ring.

The health care thing is really freaking me out. As an artist who is frequently sick in one way or another, I'm on tenderhooks about the public option, but the allotment of coverage is really really scaring me. Especially because while the rights and money for women's care (including abortions and birth control) are being disappeared, meanwhile this health care bill will totally cover Viagra!
Aaaaugh.

Speaking of insane ladymedicine things, yesterday I received the single most disturbing piece of mail to ever cross my hands.
What list am I on that I get this kind of thing?

Every winter, my internet service gets cranky in the cold, so I finally got my service back this morning after almost a week. To fill my need to stare at screens while I was internetless, I watched movies. I doodled my way through Harry Potter 6-- You can see my silly drawings here: Harry Potter Doodles

I have a neat interview up over on the Hideous Energy Comics Blog. We talk music, books, all kinds of stuff!

1. Okay, so it's one week until Christmas (I know!) and get this: they're calling for snow here today. Yes: snow. Can I tell you the last time I remember it snowing before Christmas around here? That would be NEVER. (Although my memory is not reliable, just as a disclaimer. I can barely remember my name or where I left my keys most days.) Anyway, I refuse to believe this until I actually see flakes falling and sticking, mostly because we are having a huge holiday party this weekend and I have already bought all the food. What will I do with three lasagnas and a vat of spinach artichoke dip if the roads are bad and nobody shows? (Remember, this is North Carolina: if there is even an inch of snow on the roads, people stay home. Yes, I hear you laughing in New England.) Don't get me wrong. I would love a light dusting, to help get into the holiday spirit. But more than that, not so much.

2. And do you want to know WHY it's going to snow? Because about a week ago, we had a thunderstorm. And according to Southern legend, if it thunders in winter, you'll see snow within nine days. Or something like that. My parents are from New York and Baltimore, respectively: I wasn't exactly schooled in the Farmer's Almanac growing up. Still, I have found that a lot of these things turn out to be true. Like you see cows laying down before it rains. Weird, right?

3. Speaking of the holiday spirit, I can't believe that with only seven days until Christmas I have not yet indulged in one of my steadfast holiday traditions: watching Love, Actually. Usually by now I would have watched it at least three times, and have it in the DVD on standby so I can revisit my favorite scenes whenever the mood hits. What is wrong with me this year? Well, there's this move to my office. And the little issue of this novel I'm writing. Oh, and the fact that I have a two year old who is not really a fan of Hugh Grant yet. Can I tell you how many times I have watched the Gabba Gabba Christmas special? No, I can't, because I don't even know. But I will say that it is on right now, as I write this. Sigh.

4. I really do want to get to the movies over the holiday. It's hard to believe, but I used to go to the movies at least once a week, if not more than that. Seriously! I loved to skip out on a writing day and hit a midday matinee with a small buttered popcorn and a bottled water I snuck in inside my purse. Ah, memories. Can I tell you the last movie I saw in an actual movie theater? I think it was Sex and the City. Yes, that was like a year and a half ago. How did this happen? Well, again, there's that issue of the novel. It's a lot harder to play hooky when I'm paying someone else so I can work. But maybe I'll do it over the holiday, as a present to myself. We'll see.

5. Finally, I just have to share this. My husband just came inside, shivering. "It's REALLY cold out there!" he said, and I turned, ready to offer sympathy. Then I saw what he was wearing:


(Yes, I documented it just for this entry. But I cut off his head at his request.)

I mean, honestly. Shorts and a t-shirt AND shoes with no socks? Of course you're cold! Then again, this is the same person who runs the thermostat at a crazy high temperature so he can wear shorts in the house all year round. I grew up in a house where if you were cold, you put on another sweater. Touch the thermostat and there were repercussions, big time. Marriage is all about compromise, I guess. If not about wearing socks and a jacket when it's below freezing.

(Oh, and before you ask, yes, those are tattoos. He's got a bunch of them. And no, I don't have a single one. I always say he's got more than enough ink for both of us.)

Have a great weekend, everyone!

My mom dragged me back to St. Cloud against my will. I'm already bored and I haven't even been here for a whole day. The fact I had to leave Josh's epic partay super-early, inconvenienced Jim by having him drive me back to my apartment to wait for my mom, and ended up missing a special midnight screening of Avatar doesn't make it any better.

However, my mom helped me with epicly epic room-cleanings from hell, and gave back my old desktop from high school. It has a decent amount of memory and a much better graphics card than my laptop, so now I have something I can watch my animuz on, and I don't have to completely depend on my accident-prone laptop for everything anymore. I would like to get a better keyboard and an optical mouse for it, though.

My final grades came in yesterday. 2 A's, 1 B, 1 C. My GPA is now 2.91 - I should be able to get it up to 3.0 during the spring with these classes:

JPN 1121+Lab - Modern Japanese 2 (weee!)
ECO 1000 - Basic Economics (ewww!)
CRW 3111 - Form and Technique of Fiction (weee!)
GLY 2030 - Hazards of the Earth's Surface (grade forgiveness - got a D the first time I took it. science why must you torture me so?)

Now onto the meme thing...

( Day 13 → A fictional book )

( Day 14 → A non-fictional book )

( rest! )

Okay, Sharing is Caring aissi style.

For one week, every day, recommend/share:

A song
A Picture
A book/ebook/fanfic
A site
A Youtube clip
A quote
Whatever tickles your fancy

( A song )

( A picture )

( A book )

( A site )

( A Youtube clip )

( A quote )

( My choice )

I went to lunch with my team today, and we stopped by the booth that was offering photos with Frosty the Snowman. The photographer, apparently smitten with me, said he needed to get photos of me with Frosty, then he'd take the team photos. So there I was, standing on a big red velvet arm chair, one pointy-booted foot up on the arm, hands on hips, looking as if I had just conquered the poor guy in the Frosty costume. It was very fun. The photographer told me to stay there, and arranged the rest of the team around me. Yay, photos!

We waited around, and picked up our CD of the photos. I cart it back to my desk, put it in the computer, and ... discover that those are not our team photos. They are photos of some guy with a small child and Frosty. Woe! We are denied our photos!

---

Tonight, we put up the Christmas tree. I sense hot cocoa in my future.

---

Thanks to everyone who suggested phrases to embroider on gloves! I think I'm going to go with Cup ♥ Cake, Goth Cake, and maybe Love Cake. (Yes, I have pairs of gloves to do all of those. I just need to dig them out, and perhaps see how well one of the pairs does in a pot of pink RIT.)

---

Another crafty/D.I.Y. project I'm contemplating is taking a piece of ruffled pink fabric (seriously, it's stretchy nylon covered in rows and rows of ruffles), cutting a large-ish heart out of it, and appliqueing that onto a skirt. I just don't know how well it would work. I'd fuse some interfacing onto it, but I don't know if that's possible with this sort of nylon knit. Time for experimenting, I guess.

I know the meme is supposed to go like this:
For one week, recommend/share:
Day one: a song
Day two: a picture
Day three: a book/ebook/fanfic
Day four: a site
Day five: a youtube clip
Day six: a quote
Day seven: whatever tickles your fancy

But I've compiled a list of things I want to share, and it is massive.
So I've decided to buck the system.
Instead of sharing one item a day for 7 days, I'm going to share one of each item a day for 7 days. I've already shared a song for today, so...

( A Picture )

( A Book )

( A site )

( A Youtube clip )

( A Quote )

( My Choice )

Hawaii has been great and there is more coming... but for now to teaser images from an amazing day:

Once again, I've taken this from shenniefish.

For one week, recommend/share:
               Day one: a song
               Day two: a picture
               Day three: a book/ebook/fanfic
               Day four: a site
               Day five: a youtube clip
               Day six: a quote
               Day seven: whatever tickles your fancy

I was going to upload some songs to Megaupload to share, but apparently MU hates me, so it's not happening.
So I made alternate arrangements.
Since it is Ludwig van Beethoven's birthday today (December 17, 1770 - March 26, 1827), I thought I would share one of his pieces.
This is The Coriolan Overture, played by the Berliner Philharmoniker, conducted by Wilhelm Furtwängler in 1943.
It's one of my favourites for a very good reason: it's an absolute fucking masterpiece!
Again, I can't upload it, so here it is on Youtube.

I ganked this from shenniefish

My user name is: Aissi. I made this up solely because I needed a username. But I really like it. Mostly for the way it is written phonetically, eye-ee-see. It is now one of my (very many) middle names.

My journal name is: eye-ee-see, which, as we just discussed, is the phonetic spelling of my username.

My journal title is: And that's when I realised I was God. This is inspired by a Peter O'Toole quote. If you don't know who Peter O'Toole is, look him up. He is an absolutely brilliant actor; one of my very favourites. And he's Irish, so yay!
Anyway, the quote is:
"When did I realise I was God? Well, I was praying and I suddenly realised I was talking to myself."

My subtitle is: Where independ thought is expendable. This was inspired by this conversation:
Random Guy in Street: You're a fucking homophobe!
Me: Yep, fucking hate the gays.
Pansy: Aren't you, like, a lesbian?
Me: Yeah, but he decided to judge me and I don't like to disappoint so I thought I'd just roll with it.

My friends page is called: Friends. Not exactly original, I'll admit. I just never got around to changing it from the default.

My default userpic is: All I want for Christmas is to be Batgirl. For a long time it's been a silhouette of a child holding an umbrella, but I thought I'd get into the Christmas spirit. After Christmas I shall probably change it to something entirely new, but I have no idea what.