Takin' Care of Business

I wrap several slices of what is likely turkey (but honestly, I haven't a clue) as my co-worker, Jon, a Francophone who is intimidatingly bilingual, sings "She Will Be Loved" by Maroon 5 off-key and off-tempo. I roll my eyes but am nevertheless amused. He drops his stack of meat into a tray and notices it makes a funny sound. He proceeds to do this repeatedly, beckoning over our co-worker, Justin (another Francophone), and seems disappointed when neither of us seem to find the noise nearly as amusing as he does. We finish wrapping the meat and I serve potato salad to a particularly impatient customer.

Welcome to my second day at my new job. I have a name tag now, and my two co-workers who have shared my shift for both today and yesterday are becoming quite comfortable around me. As he rescues me from yet another stupid error, Jon teases me about my inability to wash the display windows without knocking stuff over. Justin makes a joke that I barely understand in French at my expense and then, laughing, says that he's not going to attack me with a box because he doesn't "know if it's dangerous." It's gentle, friendly teasing and since it's how all the deli workers treat each other, it makes me feel comfortable and as if I'm fitting in.

I'm just realizing now, much to my own amusement and probably to the amusement of my co-workers at the time, that the last thing I said to them contained a bizarre mistake. I called our boss the name of her boss, which must've appeared very odd indeed. My boss and her assistant are both quite nice and I've learned enough from both of them to run the cold food side of the deli pretty much unattended... I just need to learn how to do so efficiently.

Quite nice or not quite nice, I find the prospect of talking to her about my play commitments quite daunting. I have to ask for 3 days off in the beginning of December, and that's after asking for 2 full Saturdays off in November. All for the play.

The play's worth it, though. We were planning the set and how we're going to work Poe into the show so that he can knit everything together, and we all got so excited. This show is going to be the BOMB and will make Ms-High-and-Mighty-Director-Girl feel like not giving us the show for high school review feel pretty damn stupid about it.

Somehow with all this work, though, I'm already watching season 7 of Red Dwarf. Let me note that last time I blogged, I was on season 3... and that was pretty much Sunday. I think I may be addicted and I'm probably just going to watch the whole series all over again once I'm done. I can't even get over how much of a nerd I am.

Anyway, since, for some reason, I decided to blog at 11:40 at night, I'm going to head straight off to bed right after posting it. Ta-ra!

Major assignments completed: 7
Days 'til my second SAT: 14
Weight lost: 21 pounds

Wax Paper Cuts

After over a month of job hunting, I have finally landed myself work. I've been taken on by the local grocery store -- I'll be working as a deli clerk: making sandwiches, arranging displays, slicing meat, wrapping meat, selling food... It's a good first job. The uniform is horrendous but that's to be expected. My first shift is on Wednesday... and I've gotta say this new workin' girl is terrified. Here goes the beginning of my employment experience! Help!

In a less positive aspect of life, the director of the other drama production this year has refused to give us the opportunity to be reviewed... even though their cast and crew is entirely made of undergrads... while we're all seniors. Don't get it. Gah.

Speaking of drama, I adore my teacher:
"hi ladies.

Glad to hear you went out after our chat. I was there far too late and got pretty much nothing done. BUT the good news is that the play is cast and that I will be relying on you two heavily for many things. RE [high school critic program], I will talk to you tomorrow about this. I will be there for improv at lunch if you wanna drop by OR plan to hang around after school FOR THE NEXT TWO MONTHS!!!

MWA-HA-HA-HA (evil, malevolent voice)
K"

Do you have a drama teacher that sends messages to her students that are that awesome? I think not. =)

I have to start getting down to work on my college applications. With 10 planned, it's definitely going to take awhile. But until then, I'll sink into my Kaley Cuoco Monday Two-Show Marathon: 8 Simple Rules at 9 on YTV, and The Big Bang Theory at 9:30 on CBS. It's party time, kids! =)

Major assignments completed: 6
Days 'til my second SAT: 17
Weight lost: 19 pounds

Straight as an Arrow

I remember when I was 13, I'd sit up at night and wonder what would happen with my family if I turned out to be gay. Not that I had or have or ever will have anything against gay people, but I sure wondered if it would make things complicated.

Turns out I wasted a bunch of time... I am definitely not gay. Since then, I've had crushes on a whole variety of guys. The jock, the nerd, the brooding bad boy, the nice guy, the gay guy (don't ya hate it when it turns out that way?)...

Anyway, I'd always known I was straight but once puberty fully kicked in and I was into guys because it was chemical and not because it was socially expected, I confirmed it for myself.

The reason I bring this up today is because there's this guy at a local restaurant who works the bar and I'm totally in love with him. He's there every time I go to the restaurant and he's adorable and cheerful and just all-around nice. Obviously he has to be nice (and flirty) 'cause he's a waiter, but I've seen him talking to his coworkers and he's the same way. Now obviously I'm not thinking about him in terms of a prospective romance, he's in his early twenties and I've got limits age-difference wise. Plus the likelihood that a guy like him is single is zero to none. But I was talking to my dad (let's clarify that I'm a totally Daddy's girl), and mentioned it in passing because he's never gonna talk to this guy. When I'm explaining why I would never go for him, my dad says "Well, he can't be that much older than you." This will stand true as one of the biggest "dot dot dot" moments in my teenage life. It takes my dad a few minutes to realize he's just encouraged his 17-year-old daughter to go after a college boy in his early-to-mid twenties.

So apparently hot bartender boy just sent my hormones for a ride because I was watching Red Dwarf tonight (hello, I'm your friend Ubergeek.), and the last guy who I would ever find attractive on the the show (well, second to last, maybe... I'm not about to fall for an android), Rimmer (played by Chris Barrie), just looked so sexy to me. There's something about him being all in black and taking on a looser personality...

He's just so sexy in this episode, I can't even explain.

In other aspects of my life, my drama teacher has finally decided that our class could do a production, thank God. I was starting to get a wee bit scared. We're doing a medley of Edgar Allan Poe short stories and I'm so excited. I'm stage manager which means I run everything which is TERRIFYING but just so amazing at the same time.

I have the second job interview of my life tomorrow. I'm up for a cashier job at my local grocery store. It's a good a first job as any and I really hope I get it. I just need to not get nervous and not get freaked out from my potential boss's seemingly upright personality. Wish me luck.

Major assignments completed: 6
Days 'til my second SAT: 19
Weight lost: 19 pounds

Those Damn Marks

Tip to life: don't let me know how important mid-term marks are for getting into universities the same day you let me know that my mark in English (the one class whose average you HAVE to include in what you send to the unis) is absolutely appalling. Don't get me wrong, I know some people would KILL for a 76. But I cannot deal with a 76. The schools am I applying to will not accept a 76. I have a little over a month to drag this pathetic mark up to something passable. Meaning basically the pressure's on to get perfect on absolutely everything until then.

I wish I knew that I was screwing up because I'm slacking off. But I'm NOT slacking off. The fact that I am working my butt off and pulling these kinds of results TERRIFIES me. You have no idea how badly I want to get my average adequate and fly off to Halifax next year, but I'm starting to get really scared that that's never going to happen.

I wish that was the only notsome in my life right now. But then there's the fact that I definitely applied to six places and didn't get hired at any of them. Let me emphasize that I applied at a MOVIE THEATRE. I'm trying to work out how I could be doing so poorly right now and I... just can't. I need a job... and I resent the 'rents a bit for discouraging me from getting job experience when I was a bit younger... because now I can't get ANYTHING.

So basically it's time to focus. I'm going to put my all into my English presentation tomorrow. Then I'm going to spend the next two and a half days studying like mad for my SATs (I'm going to do a practice test on Friday, I'll let ya know how that one goes.) I'm going to dive into every character that is required of me in my drama class. And I am going to figure out whatever my goddamn French teacher wants from us if it kills me. And that's all before this weekend.

Am I looking forward to creating a PowerPoint presentation, filming a movie, celebrating Thanksgiving, and doing my SAT Reasoning Test all in one weekend? Not exactly. Will I do it with all the joy I can muster? Of course.

As stressful as it will make my life, I really need that job. Shit.

(Oh, another lovely note: I just discovered that my fears on the me-sister-mum front are confirmed. That is all.)

Let's end this positively. When I go to Prague in March. I will know my roommate. It'll be my friend of nearly 9 years. <3

Major assignments completed: 3
Days 'til my first SAT: 3
Weight lost: 15 pounds

Sicky McSicky-Sick

Since I was 15, I've been calling the state of being sick "Sicky McSicky Sick." I wrote that in my agenda today (because for some odd reason I feel compelled to remind myself that the reason why a date is blank is because I was sick), and my friend read it out with the most incredulous look on her face. It was then I realized how absolutely ridiculous the phrase is. Sicky McSicky Sick? Really? I don't even know where that came from, I just know that whenever I'm sick, that's what I call myself when I'm notifying people. Why are you notifying people, you may ask. Well, it's the information age and what else are you really going to write in your Facebook status or on Twitter.

So comes the logical next topic. If you read my last blog, you'll know I recently went to NYC (I'll talk about that in a minute). What I didn't know when I got on that bus is that I would be sentencing myself to two days of bed rest because EVERYONE WHO GOES TO NEW YORK CITY GETS SICK. Legit. Everyone in our group came home sick or working on getting sick. My sickness came to be partway through period one at school... and it sucked majorly. I hate French as it is. So I ended up lying on my parents bed watching mindless TV for two days straight... and teaching myself how to play Beatles Monopoly. OK, I guess that part was awesome.

So. NYC. I had an awesome time. Sure, I got rushed around like nobody's business and I really learned who I can only deal with for a day and a half max, but I saw all the sights (hellooo, M&M World in Times Square?!) and got shown around by a hilarious, repetitive tour guide who was terrified of bees.... Oh yeah, AND I saw two awesome shows. Wicked and Billy Elliot. Both fantastic. Wicked was just as amazing as I was expecting and I had absolutely no complaints. <3 Billy Elliot... the lead boy blew my mind with his dancing (not so much with his singing) and his best friend had me dying with laughter. Yay, cross-dressing comedy!

Anyway, I'm pretty much better now... and am still amusing myself with television. I realized earlier today that even though I'm in love with music and theatre and musical theatre... I haven't been watching Glee. What?! So right now, I'm watching a boy in a wheelchair lead "Sit Down You're Rocking the Boat" from Guys and Dolls. Love. Quality television. This is after watching an absolutely terrifying episode of Ghost Whisperer. To think, world, I could've gone my whole life without seeing Jennifer Love Hewitt's eyes and mouth stitched together... and then seeing another much more creepy woman with the same ailment. I swear to God.

Theatre. Gah. This won't be my last rant about the disaster that my drama class is becoming. We have the best teacher. We have the best class since 2006 (they were amazing -- their production was entirely unforgettable, I still remember every second). We have two great scripts. We have some pretty damn good resources. So could you tell me why we seem to be not doing a production?! I admit that I'm not the class's strongest actor. I mean, there's a reason my film group put me on camera op and editing. But I am a theatre lover and I can see that my class has the talent to do it, even if we don't have the usual amount of time to pull it off. And I know that I can measure up to that talent if I work at it.

How the fuck did our year end up being the academically fortunate one that gets ripped off for everything else?

Wow. I ended this kind of cynical.

Major assignments completed: 3
Days 'til my first SAT: 7
Weight lost: 15 pounds