Easy Day

Today was the school's annual planning meeting. I'd forgotten it was today until right before I left work yesterday. 9-2, free food, small group discussions, presentations, etc. An easy, fun day. Even let us take to-go boxes of food. Yum! Now for the weekend...Hallelujah!!

A Song By The The

Friday I did two mystery shops after work and crashed. I was exhausted. Saturday I did six shops and then went to work from 5-close. Sunday I did four shops, played a game of Scrabble with Chaunda, and bought a scanner from a coworker for $25. Now to finish getting it hooked up and such so I can scan in shop receipts.
I sucked at Scrabble; I kept playing little words so I could hold onto good tiles when I had Bingo racks but no place to play them. The only bingo I played was errantly with the y already on the board.
Finished reading Word Freak, the nonfiction book about a guy who spends two years becoming an expert at Scrabble. He does meet quite a few word FREAKS. There's some really strange words in the book of course. How the experts remember them is beyond me.
Talked to a guy last night and discovered I'd already met him. He didn't remember meeting since it was a LONG time ago, but I did. He was grouchy then and was, surprise, surprise, grouchy last night. Another one bites the dust, AGAIN in this case.
Doing and submitting twelve mystery shops this weekend was insane. Never again. Yet, I say that now,....but if I calculated how much I made, I might sing a different tune. It's cool to discover that I can easily make more money doing mystery shopping stuff for a few hours than I can working more hours at the bookstore.
I'm asking for a weekend off from the bookstore in May. I'm there too many hours the next two. The weekend of May 15-16 is going to be for me and only me. No work other than four hours at job #1. Can't wait!

Most Beautiful Girl in the World

This is so cheesy but true. Every time I hear Prince's song, Most Beautiful Girl in the World, I'm reminded of when I test drove my good old Geo Prizm. How can you not buy a car when that's the first song you hear while driving it? That car won my heart right away. :)

Arrgh

I even did it really slow because one of these damn things has burned me before, but I really don't know what I did wrong on a simple yes/no questionnaire. Now I have to wait a month or more before I can do it again. I would have been able to sign up for a mystery shop in which I could get reimbursed for a Sam's membership. It'll be cool to get it eventually, but arrgh for now...

I Wish...

I wish Prince had done these songs last night.

1999
Delirious
Get Off
Sexy M.F.

I doubt he ever does the last two in concert, but it would have been so cool to hear them live.

Musical Performers I've Seen Live

Acappella
Carmen
Garth Brooks (we wanted to KILL him because he didn't care what the audience said; all he did was play Rodeo OVER AND OVER for a TV special at Disney World's Pleasure Island)
Chumbawamba and Sister Hazel (Free in Olympic Park in Atlanta)
Faith No More and Billy Idol (a present to my then boyfriend; Michael Patton is AMAZING)
Filter and others at an alternative festival
Foreigner and Little Richard and Buster Poindexter (New Year's Eve at DW's Pleasure Island)
Amy Grant (Baby, Baby over and over for a TV special and a few other songs in a show with only DW employees in the audience)
Olivia Newton John with the Knoxville Symphony
Night Ranger (My Dad took me to this, my first concert)
Poison and Warrant (only as a birthday present for a friend)
Prince
Francine Reed
Third Eye Blind and two others at World Fair's Park
The Toadies (before they had their radio hit)
Troutfishing in America
The Village People (I was naive in college; I didn't know they were gay until I saw them live at a small bar - it was probably a gay bar; I bet I was too naive to notice that as well)
Violent Femmes (the lead singer liked the hats my friend and I had with metal Texases on the brims)
Weird Al Yankovic
White Zombie

It was really cool (haha) when I met Kook and The Gang backstage one New Year's Eve when I was working at EPCOT. I shook their hands, telling them how much I loved them. I could hear but not see their show from my beverage cart.

T.D.O.T. - They Definitely Own Tractors

TDOT stands for "They Definitely Own Tractors." Afterall, they behave like farmers, right? Every few hours, they decide to change which lanes we can actually use. This is like farmers cycling their land usage, dividing up the land into fallow areas and areas that will be farmed. TDOT has just taken this concept and twisted it into an OCD-like obsession. Yep, they're farmers all right. Sadistic, transportation-minded ones.

The Freaks Come Out To Read

This really geeky guy with huge REFLECTIVE GLASSES came up to the customer service desk the other day. The glasses were straight out of C*H*I*P*S. He had a voice that sounded like he had a trach. Sudden bursts of laughter sounded like delicate cackles. He had a sunken face and a slender build. However, a vast beer belly pooched out in defiant contrast to the rest of his frame. He was very jittery. He was trying to check on the status of a book he had ordered. The book? As I See It, a book of photographs of naked young men who, according to our database, are not quite boys but not quite men; they haven't quite reached maturity. Great, he's probably a pedophile!
Another guy called to see if we had a book, saying he doubted that we would have it. He verified with me that censorship is illegal in this country. What a wacko. The computer showed we should have it, but I couldn't find it. He said he wasn't surprised, but he was shocked when I said I could order it. He didn't want to provide his real name, the paranoid freak. The book? The Federal Mafia: How It Illegally Imposes and Unlawfully Collects Income Taxes. Think he paid his taxes?????

Chicago Friend

Kara from Chicago popped in for a few minutes at work with her friend Dave to say hello. She ended up spending the night a couple of hours north of here in Kentucky. Too bad she had to be in South Carolina by five for her friend to pick up his new kayak or else we could have gone to lunch or something. She's rafting and he's kayaking on the Ocoee tomorrow. Sunday he's going kayaking somewhere else. We were talking about the class 4's on the Ocoee. Double Trouble and Hell Hole scared the heck out of me. Hope they have a blast. I'm so jealous!
Kara now has light brown hair - big shock. I'm so used to it being blond. It was so good to see her. It'd been nearly five years. The last time I saw her was when I went to Chicago for Memorial Day weekend in 1999. She hasn't changed a bit. Her friend Dave seemed nice. From what I picked up on on the situation, it appears that he likes her as more than a friend but she doesn't think of him that way. It came up that back when I visited her in Chicago, she was dating a guy name Dave. She said, "That's another reason why I can't date you. Because your name is Dave too." Poor guy...
She said she is having a 30th birthday bash during a weekend in May and invited me. It'd be great to go and see her and Chicago again. It'd be nice to have someone to go with though. Any takers?

No Notice...

My friend emailed me yesterday afternoon asking if she and a guy friend can crash at my place TOMORROW NIGHT as she passes through town. Taking into consideration how far they have to drive and when they are leaving, they will probably get here around 1-3 Friday morning. I want to see her, but there's just no way I can have my house ready for them to crash in much less visit before then. I worked until 11 last night. I'm tied up with mystery shops and other stuff tonight, and tomorrow I've got other shops and stuff to do. I'll try to see them for breakfast or have them stop by work for a quick hi.
A faculty member gave me a cute little pot with fake flowers as a gesture of thanks for all of the small little things I've done for him. How sweet!
I let students out of an orientation WAY early today because I forgot that for the first time ever I was allotted two hours to cover the material. I called my boss and reported the blunder. Now I just have to apologize to the faculty member. I've been mentally slapping myself for being an idiot for hours now. Doh!

Scrabble and More Shops

Did a mystery shop, took Devore to a playground with Chaunda, and then played a game of Scrabble with Chaunda at Border's last night. I had every single premium tile - both blanks, all four s's, q, z, j, x, 2 f's, 2 y's. The only four-point-or-higher letter I think she got was 1 h. The letters were the only reason I won, but I still had a crappy score considering what all I had. I didn't create any really interesting plays.
Watched most of the finale of Average Joe: Adam Returns. I didn't like the girl he chose, Samantha, one bit. A Barney's girl - yeck!
New mystery shops I've signed up for in the next week or so will pay $50 plus a maximum of $9 for food. Too bad all of this money won't roll in until May or June. I have to stop signing up for so many at a time, but I really thought I wouldn't end up with them all because of the way the system works most of the time. As in everything in life, there are exceptions to the norm. Because of the way one company operates, I'm buried in shops. Oh well. At least they're easy to do.

Bookstore Resident

Tuesday night the bookstore wanted me to work. I said no. Went to comedy with Chaunda. Adele came in late with a friend, Mark, and sat in the back. I hung out with Adele, Mark, Ginger, and two people Ginger knew - Ike and George - after the show. The show was nothing special. The Scottish drinking song on boobs and "Read My Lips. No More Bush" were the funniest parts.
Last night the bookstore wanted me to work again so I did.
I'd forgotten I had to work tonight until I saw it on the schedule last night. My phone scheduler would have reminded me though.
I'm now working tomorrow night as well so that a guy will work for me next Friday night so that I can go to younger Matt's birthday party at his parents' house in Marietta.
Saturday I close at the bookstore.
They need to set up an apartment there for me the next few days.