Then you haven't seen enough movies...

So I didn't win Friday's Mega Millions Lotto. Grrr. But on the bright side, nobody did, so it's up to 50 million now. I'm so gonna win that 50 million on Tuesday. I just need the PERFECT 5 numbers.
I'm going to over-analyze the bejeezus out of this.

I HATE THIS ECONOMY. Joey has only 4.5 hours next week. I'm guaranteed my 40 hours since I'm a supervisor, but since we lost 100 hours of schedule time, my time will be spent stressfully picking up the slack of having too few people. I know I'm in the better boat of most people in this store, but needless to say it's shit cake for everyone.
This company is going under. They've fucked up and they can't sugar coat it anymore, and I'm worried.


In other news, I am big into chai tea lattes now. They are delicious. That, and most other coffee drinks rip my stomach up these days. Seems my coffee guzzling glory days caught up with me. I swear, the amount I complain about my health these days (headaches, stomach aches, and back aches.... OH MY), I'm pretty sure I'm going to die by the time I'm 40.

At least I won't have to worry about a retirement plan, then.
Dammit.

S'up, LJ? It's been awhile. Here I am, a few weeks in Richmond now and I thought I'd give y'all an update. Note, I do not have internet yet. I am illegally checking my email and whatnot at work and am bored and killing time. Fight the power. Or something...

Living with Joey is fantastic. Once we adjusted to each other (it didn't take long, but there were a few snags initially), it all started running very smoothly. Our demeanors are so closely matched that we make excellent roommates. The place is nice, all we need, though it's definitely not perfect. It's 2 floors, 700 sq feet - the bottom floor is the living room and kitchen; the top floor is the bedroom and bathroom. I love the space, it's cozy but not too small, great for 2 people. The fridge doesn't get very cold and we've yet to get someone out to fix it. The bugs we were nervous about at first seem to have disappeared, which is good, and we finally figured out the trick to getting the gas stove to work (thank god, seeing as how Joey is an unbelievable cook, which I did not know to start with but I'm definitely keeping him now [he makes such good steak, I'm pretty sure that, for an atheist, this is the closest to heaven I'm ever gonna get]!) Our bed, the shitty IKEA bed that it is, likes to fall apart over nothing, but that's not the place's fault, just a general complaint. The upstairs windows are pretty thin, the noise from the road was annoying at first, but you get accustomed to something like that and we've both been sleeping like rocks the past week - I just hope, with the cold weather finally coming in, that the place is cheap to heat, cuz those thin windows could be a hassle if it's not. We're very close to the post office and a ghetto Food Lion, and Downtown isn't a long drive at all, so word and a half to that. I miss having a washer and dryer, the laundromat is a pain, but it could be far worse. All in all, I'm very happy so far with everything. Not to mention that I do love me some Joey.
His mom made a big deal about our neighborhood being sketchy, but we believe that's really only because there is a majority of black people roaming around. Her stigma (racism?) got to him at first and made him quite paranoid, but I kept my calm and he's relaxed, too. I was happy to come home the other night to find he'd been calm enough to open the living room blinds, even with the electronics in full view. There's a cat that's been camping out outside our house the past couple nights, I'm curious to get home tonight and see if he's there again. We've introduced ourselves to a couple neighbors, and Joey told me that yesterday he had an exchange with a couple guys in our parking area (FYI, I'm still driving the Caddilac because I don't have the money to pay for Cohen's repairs right now):
"Hey man! Where's your Caddi?"
"That's not mine, it's the lady's; she's at work."
"Oh, well we parked our Caddi's in a row, we wanted hers parked next to us so we'd have all 3 Caddis together!"
"Haha, well, shit, do you want me to move my car so she can park here?"
"Haha, nah, it's cool, but she should next time!"
Joey, though he claims not to be, is obviously jealous that I'm in the Caddi Club and he is not. Now when he teases me for whatever reason, I tell him to watch himself or I'll sic my Caddi homies on him.
I'm very happy with my new home.

Work, however, is another story. I'm not going to go into a lot of detail since, well, I'm located at work right now. I'm kind of annoyed with myself for going back to cafe - I know I was desperate for a job in the area, that the market's tight and I should be happy I got a job at all, but man, I do not like cafe. And my initial, hopeful mindset that being supervisor would be different was bullshit, because now I HAVE to care. At least as barista I could get away with not caring, it wasn't a big deal. But now not only do I have to care (or at least be really good at faking it), I have to somehow get the others to care. Dammit.
Everyone's very nice here, so that's something. But the store itself is very low volume. We're smack dab between 2 more popular shopping districts and get minimal traffic. The way the company is doing, and this is completely unauthorized and you didn't hear it from me, but it's been cutting so many corners to save money and stay afloat, it makes me nervous what will happen to the low end branches like this one in the near future. Besides that, I know I shouldn't care, but I got used to making the sales to make the day feel worthwhile. Manassas did pretty well. Here? We don't make much at all, cafe barely makes $300 a day. It's kind of disheartening, to be honest. I hope it just takes some adapting and that I get off my Manassas store high horse and just deal with it. Because, at this point, it's hard to give a shit. Simultaneously, I'm frustrated with myself for caring about caring about giving a shit, since it's just a stupid job. If that makes sense.

I've been doing this for quite some time now and I think I've dicked away plenty of time, probably more than my fair share. I should do some actual work now. Anyway, I'd like to hear from all of you - besides Joey, I haven't seen a familiar face in a little while now. I'm a pretty private, anti-social person, but I am starting to miss friends and family quite a bit. Catch y'all on the flipside.

My car is fixed!! HE LIVES!! I must go rescue him! I work at 4.... I have to take out a loan first.... I have time! I MUST!

TO WARRENTON!

*Spinning Liz head graphic*





P.S. 5 days until I move to Richmond!

I'm not political. Just thought I'd get that out of the way. When a National Guardsman grilled me last night for a legitimate reason I wouldn't join, I told him that I'm disaffected, and that is the truth (interestingly, he was taken aback but told me that was the most straight-forward answer he'd ever received and gave me a pen).
I am pro-choice. I support gay marriage and proper sex education in public schools (none of this abstinence-only bullshit). I am an atheist who respects differing beliefs, but is BIG on the separation of church and state. I think we have been in Iraq for far too long, and although I admit I don't know enough of the facts to take too serious an opinion on the war, from what I know I think I'm right in saying we've screwed the pooch. Relatedly, I enjoy Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert, despise Ann Coulter and Bill O'Reilly, and whole-heartedly agree that Bush is at the very least one of the worst presidents in history. And hey, I enjoy sex, booze, and swearing. For all these reasons, I consider myself a liberal for sure and a Democrat until proven otherwise.

With that out of the way, I've made some observations as of late that I would like to share.

The main part of my job is set-up and maintenance of displays in the bookstore. Obviously, many of these displays (tables, bays, fixtures, etc.) have been political lately. About a month ago, corporate instructed us lowly peons to put The Obama Nation: Leftist Politics and the Cult of Personality along with The Case Against Barack Obama on the very front table of the store, with McCain's Faith of My Fathers on the fixture right beside it. Needless to say, some people weren't happy, and since then it has been IMPLICIT that we be fair in our displays (no shit, luckily I bend the instructions corporate gives us anyway). But even now it's no better, because the Republicans are just so much more quick to smear than the Democrats. Not that this is a good thing, but in this imperfect world in which we live, smearing is unfortunately necessary, and the Democrats should jump on the bandwagon once in awhile. Sometimes you have to fight fire with fire.

I recently put up a whole politics table. The problem that I kept running into was that the Republican books grossly outweighed the Democrat books. Basically, you can walk the Politics and Government section and stumble across 20 books titled in some variation of "Republicans Rule and Democrats are Pussy Bitches" and maybe 5 books of "Hey, That's Not Very Nice: Why Democrats are Nice Guys". The only books I could find with persuasive, Leftist titles were obviously anti-Bush, but plenty of Republicans and Democrats alike can agree on that deal. Obama Nation and Case Against Barack Obama have both been firmly on display as bestsellers for weeks, while books like The Audacity of Hope and Dreams from My Father have jumped on and off the bestseller display (plus, it's worth pointing out that the anti-Obama bestsellers are both hardcovers and aesthetically seem more legit, while the Obama books are both paperbacks and are barely an afterthought for most shoppers). What finally made me snap and feel the need to say something was stumbling across a new book while unpacking boxes, titled simply The Audacity of Deceit. It infuriated me. It's obvious that the Right is comprised of more outspoken, unfair, smearing members than the Left, and while it's very quaint to say "Take the high road, Obama!", it's becoming clear that this is what the public eats up. And I mean, they eat it right out of the GOP's fucking hand, like a horse to delicious, tendentious oats.

Palin's daughter could've been a golden ticket for Obama's campaign. But he did the decent thing and said that the candidate's private lives are just that. Good for him, decent Americans will see that and give credit. I don't want to be misinterpreted - I think that is the way politics should be and part of the reason I can't get behind the mass media melodrama feeding frenzy that it actually is. I respect Obama for his civility and am likewise disgusted by the McCain campaign's quickness to smear Obama for a known phrase such as "you can put liptsick on pig, it's still a pig" by saying that he's a sexist, he's obviously talking about Sarah Palin, I tell you! I was disgusted to read about that. But the fact that McCain's campaign can say things like this and STILL have supporters just goes to show that sometimes you have to fight dirty. It seems Obama's wising up, and more importantly, speaking up. Let's hope so.


Oh, and for the record, I do in fact have a vagina, but I also think I have a brain. While Palin might have both, too, it's obvious that the former was the biggest factor in her vice-presidential nomination and I've yet to see much evidence of the latter. So no, her presence in the election has not convinced me OR my vagina to support McCain. Sorry, guys, but nice try.


Feel free to comment -- but although I welcome corrections and opinions, keep it civil. I just calls it like I sees it and even if I'm not a very politically-minded person, I do have that right.

( You are about to view content that may not be appropriate for minors. )

( You are about to view content that may not be appropriate for minors. )

I first watched this like a week ago, and now the free viewings are gone, so sorry I didn't say anything sooner --

But have the rest of you seen Dr. Horrible's Sing Along Blog?? Joss Whedon and family's response to boredom during the writer's strike?? It's BRILLIANT. Hilarious and sad and the music is top notch, and my love of Neil Patrick Harris has grown even more (I didn't think it could!!) WATCH IT!

Here's the trailer, but you're gonna have to find the 3 acts on iTunes yourself:


Teaser from Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog on Vimeo.


Like I said, the free viewings are over, but you can still download all 3 acts on iTunes. Don't pirate it. Whedon's trying to make money independently of major production companies, he's proving an excellent point, so I think pirating it would be really lame.

I played this with my sisters and Eric for the first time in a long time on the drive up to Chicago on Friday. Funny you guys should post it now.
Here's my future. Not too shabby, I reckon. Although Warrenton?....

		I will marry Joey.
		After a wild honeymoon, We will settle down in Warrenton in our fabulous Mansion.
		We will have 1 kid(s) together.
		Our family will zoom around in a Orange Mini Cooper.
		I will spend my days as a Filmmaker, and live happily ever after.

Dear Future Liz,

Today is June 4. June 4th is yours and Joey's anniversary, the day you made things official.

I know how you are with memory and all, so I thought I'd let you know.


I hope you're very happy, like how I feel right now.

Love,
Past Liz