Back From the Dead

This Christmas, when you take your kid to go see Santa Claus, be prepared for a shocking sight. Skinny Santa. No longer will the classical image of a Santa with a stomach like a bowl full of jelly meet your children when they reveal all they wish to have under the tree. How many times have you thought to yourself, "Hmm, Santa's gotta loose some weight. That can't be healthy." I mean really.

The next big thing you may not be greeted with is the 'Ho Ho Ho', because it is now deemed derogatory.

In a world where children are being made to look 'adult-ish' at the ripe young age of three or so, we are now going to disillusion there preconceived notions about Santa? Next we'll be telling them he doesn't exist when they're too young to know what Santa is.

I'm getting quite sick of people ruining things that have been a tradition for longer than their family tree has been around. Instead of striping away things that may actually harm a child's early development (like sex and violence in cartoons, parents who can't say 'no', parents who dress there kids like white/black trash, over medicating children so their immune system cannot fight off disease and infection, etc.) we are striping away the few things left to a child. Santa Claus, Christmas (with the whole X-mas craze from last year) ... next they'll tell the Easter Bunny not to lay eggs because that is not possible in nature.

Hey society, focus on the real problems for once, eh? Leave the Claus alone.

So, I was looking at my header and was thinking about writing a fiction that begins at the end of the Queen of the Damned movie. However, I wanted to see just how much fanfiction in this genre there was.

I found two stories.

Two.

And, yeah ... basically the author was rewriting the movie (with added thoughts) with the vampire Yumi. No, no Lestat ... but Yumi.

Gag me with a spoon and tell me what I had for dinner. Eesh.

So, just to, ya know, maybe raise some awareness, or hell, get it out of my system, I might write some QoTD fanfic post movie for the hell of it. Maybe not (considering I have no real plot in my head ... though a crossover with AB universe is starting to form). Ah hell, there goes my thought of not starting something new...

On another note, I'm eagerly awaiting a day off. I'm tired, sore, and generally not in the mood to be working.

Finally managed to get a layout I'm somewhat happy with, but having a hard time matching the colors to the header ... oh well. It'll do for now.

Credit to : nox_gfx for the coding.

So, I've found my old notes on putting in a personal mood theme! Yay! Thank goodness they still work! (Though I don't know who to credit now as I've lost that information. If anyone knows who made the Interview/Queen of the Damned/Underworld theme, please let me know so I can credit them appropriately.)

My only other problem ... I want a header for this theme (Folio by Dave Shea or David Shea ... something like that). If anyone has a link, or a place where I could find code for something similar I'd appreciate it.

One thing you learn when working in such a laid back environment, such as a convenient store with little corporate influence ... is men are pigs, women talk too much, and kids are punks.

I don't know about most people, but unless I know the clerk really well, I don't randomly have 30 minute conversations with them while they are trying to help other people. And I definately don't stick around to 'chat' if they are giving clear signs that it's time to hit the road.

I had a guy today come in, buy a 12 pack of beer and talk to me for a half hour. I did everything short of saying 'get out of my store'. I put on the posture of someone not wishing to talk, crossed arms, stood back from the counter, looked for things to stock, helped other people while he rambled... you get the point. Apparently, he didn't.

What's worse, is these are older (by older I mean 20yrs my senior) men. I play with my wedding bands pretty much constantly (mostly because they are half a size too big and the engagement diamond turns to my palm and annoys me). Mentioning my husband doesn't dissuade them either. Saying things like 'yeah, my dad drinks that beer too' does nothing to make them realize they are in the wrong territory.

I don't get it.

Well, I do. To quote one customer. "Men are dogs, woof woof!"

Then, there's the women who all lament that my co-worker 'S' isn't working. He's like barely 21, charasmatic, cute, and funny (for the most part when he's not, ya know, acting like a dog). I can see the attraction. But to come in the store and ask every time he's not working when he works next, then say you'll be back then ... not lookin too good ... for either of you.

'S' has some ... friends in the customers. I know he helps some people out, and that's all fine an dandy, but I had one guy come in and ask if 'S' left and I.O.U. laying around and got really nervous when I couldn't find one or didn't know where to look.

We also have a guy that always comes in and buys and 6 pack and 3 5$ scratch offs. He always pays with the same check ... or rather tries to. It always gets declined (because he's had a check bounce at our store). He told me how to override it, and when I told him I didn't think I was allowed, he say's "Well 'S' does it all the time." Yeah ... sooo not gonna do that for ya, sorry.

I also like the kids that come in and try to buy smokes or cigarello's, then get pissy when I card them because 'S' never does.

It makes it hard to work some nights, because we do have a lot of regular's. Though most of them I know by now, and a lot of them still bring their I.D's just in case, which I greatly appreciate.

I don't know, just makes me wonder what 'S' is doing, ya know?

Ah well. Probably gonna head to bed now. Long night.

I honestly, for the utter life of me, cannot remember what my fic journal name was! It was something along the lines of obession_is_ or _obession_is_ or something like that, I don't remember!

Anyone able to help me? I'm pretty sure I used the same p/w, so once I figure out the name, I can get back to it, but ... *sigh*

Hey, cafedemonde ... where'd ya go? You okay?

5436 mail.  That's what I'm wading through right now in my e-mail.  Egads!  How did it get so bad?  What's worse, that's not even including the nearly 6k that was in my bulk mail folder.  All of it (save for a few from my mom) was spam. 

I've got it down to about 1k, and am slowly deleting, page by page ... soon, I can see the light at the end of this tunnel!

13 bulk mail received since starting this post.  *sigh*

I'm not up to much today, just relaxing, getting some laundry done, waiting for cafedemonde to come on YIM so we can write a bit more.

Yes, write.  I'm trying to at least finish what I started.  At the very least. 

Never thought getting back into it would be this hard.  I've re-read so many things my head is spinning.

Though, honestly, the best part isn't the writing again, it's talkin' to Gabrielle, Emmy, Femail, and dragonydreams again.  That's the best part.  I missed ya'll.

... the dead shall rise from the grave.

Okay, so technically I was never dead.  And really, there was no grave rising.  Though, depending on your definition of hell, I might have been there.

First, I hear there's been tons of drama on LJ as of late, and may I just add to it by saying ... WHY THE HELL DO I HAVE TO PAY 15$ TO GET MY NAME BACK?????!!!!???

I mean, really, come on ... that's just, that's just WRONG!

So, here I am, with a fansy-schmansy _ between the letters and numbers.

Ya know ... it just doesn't feel the same.  But, I suppose it was my fault, deleting like I did.

Ah well, on to the juicy bits.

I live.  I breathe. I am.

And that's about it.  I'm back in Toledo with my husband.  We've patched everything, worked some things out, and thus are now facing a whole new set of 'omg'.

In short, he's jobless, not even the Army will have him.  I'm working min. wage at a convenient store.  We are car-less as of last Tuesday, and are awaiting the Forclosure announcement from NOIC about our house.  I am now riding a bicycle to and from work, so I'm a mass of sore muscles and buttocks.  No one ever told me that the bike seats were THAT uncomfortable.  I don't remember them being that bad when I was younger.  The convenient store job is ... okay.  I like one of the stores I work at, hate the other.

I must share this tid-bit of human stupidity that I ran into today at work at the 'bad' store.  This woman called and asked me if I would exchange out a pack of Newport's for her ... because when she opened it ... the back was empty.  Now, go with me on this.  I couldn't do anything but ask her to repeat herself (which actually made her mad, but excuse me for finding that odd).  She said that she bought 3 packs at about 1pm today (my shift didn't begin until 3pm) and she wanted me to either replace it or refund her money.  I calmly explained to the woman that I could not do that because I had not sold them to her on my shift and that I had no way to ensure that she had purchased the cigarettes at our store.  She then told me that we were running a scam and that we should treat our customers better yada yada.  I told her I'd call my manager, see what he wanted to do about it and would call her back as soon as I could.

Now, honestly, I don't believe for a second that this woman bought a pack of un-opened empty cigarettes ... seeing as I stocked ALL the Newports the night before.  (No one else in the store stocks anything ... ever, hence why I hate it.)  But, I obliged, called my manager, he laughed, said he'd call her.

She ended up calling me back almost immediately after I got off the phone with my manager and demanded something be done tonight or else she was sending her boyfriend up.  I told her to expect a call from my manager.  He called back a little while later and said she was coming to the store tomorrow to talk to him, but if she came up to the store, to tell her to leave and call 911.

Yeah, that was really putting me at ease.  Nevermind that I have to ride my bike home, at 11:30pm, about a mile or so.

Thankfully, she didn't show up, nor her boyfriend.  But that's like ... commonplace at that store. =(

Fun times keep on a rollin eh?

In other news, I've posted at NHA a part of a fic that I've had forever and a day.  Femail is helping to ease me back into writing by working on RE for a bit tonight (hopefully more tomorrow, depends on if I have to walk to the grocery store or not). And I'm moving a day at a time.

So, how've ya'll been?