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Today was freezing, and someone forgot to turn the heat on in the gym at school. Fortunately we're working pretty hard, so we didn't feel the cold so much.

I just looked out the window of the school library to see a cascade of falling leaves the color of gold. I love this time of year, because we're treated with so much visual stimulation.

Last night I woke up to find a small furry body pressed up against me on one side, and another on the other side. The cats decided that it was much warmer under the covers than out in the living room (their usual sleeping place), so they dove under while I was rolling over. I felt one whisk by me when I lifted the blankets, and I think the other just wormed under at some point. Himself and I don't mind having the cats under the blankets, but it does cause me to sleep very carefully on one side. I'm always paranoid that I'll roll over and...

Today is too cold to do much of anything. My hands hurt from the cold, and from kick boxing. We used the gloves and pads today, and I feel the work out much more than before. We used to just kick and punch the air, which doesn't require much concentration or strength. Now that we have a target, we have to focus on where to hit the pad, and we have to try to push our partner back when we punch and kick. Lots of fun, but lots of work, too.

Well, that's about it for today. Himself and I are going to celebrate our anniversary tomorrow, since I have the day off from school and I'm thinking of calling in sick tomorrow. I actually don't feel well (it's the weather change. This morning when I woke up, I had such a cough that I woke Himself up), so we may be taking it easy. Probably go and visit the in-laws for a little while (they've been complaining that they don't see enough of me), and then go out for dinner later. Good times.

M

Celebrations and Stupid People

The cleaning is almost done, but Himself and I are taking a break to celebrate our 2nd anniversary! Our anniversary is tomorrow but the bum forgot to request the day off, so now he has to work from 11am to 8pm. We're actually going to celebrate it on Wednesday since I have the day off from school and he has the day off from work. We're not sure what we're going to do, but I think a trip into Seattle may be in store. I might even call in sick if work isn't too busy!

Speaking of work, I found out I work with the blondest black girl I have ever seen! She doesn't know jack, and it seems like she doesn't even want to know. She'll ask were something is before she even looks for it. Normally this isn't such a bad thing, but when she does it several times in a day, and the answers are all the same, it gets a little tiresome.

Just last night, she decided to give me a bit of an attitude. I told her that she needs to clean the backdrop in the last room (one of the other girls and I did the other two) before vacuuming, and she was whining about how she thought the sooner she got the vacuuming done, the sooner we would get out of the store. I told her that no, we still had to take out the garbage, clean the bathroom, wipe down the tables, clean the lab, sweep the rooms, and the manager still had to to the closing paperwork.

This did not go over well at all.

She told me that it wasn't fair for her to do the backdrop because she didn't know that she was staying all the way to closing, and her ride was waiting for her. The phone rang, and she whined that the caller was probably her ride, wanting to know where she was. She piled on the 'tude when I told her to answer the phone (she refused, saying that she'll clean the backdrop. I told her that someone has to answer the stupid phone (she was closer to it than I was)). I got the garbage out, wiped down the tables, cleaned the lab (helped fix the stupid machine again. Stupid paper jams). All she did was the vacuuming and the bathroom. I was fine with that, since I knew that if I did something, it would be done much faster than if she did it.

When we were all set to venture out into the real world again, she was still standing by the doors, trying to figure out how to exit the mall. To be a little nicer to her, I must explain that the mall I work at locks all the doors at exactly closing time, but one is still open-able. You have to push on a lever that says 'push' for the door to open. Blondie was in a mild panic because 'all the doors say they're locked.'

Really.

I bet she put her ear to all of them to hear them speak.

I said 'push' while pointing to the magic door with the lever on it. She looked at me blankly, so I pushed open the door. She got all defensive and started muttering about how all the doors said they were locked.

This is the same girl who looked at me blankly when I told her to turn the vacuum off so I could talk to her. She looked for the on/off switch (it's the same switch she used to turn the vacuum on, and it was right on top of the unit. It's not even hiding or disguised as anything. The damn thing is bright orange!), and when she finally found it, she turned off the vacuum and gave me the Look. You know, the look that says 'what the hell do you want'. I get that look enough from Miss Thang at home, so Blondie flipping me the Look was not a shock. I've also built up an immunity to the Look, so it no longer affects me.

Long rant today. I have had it up to here with stupid people.

M

Quick Post

I have to start work in about a half hour, so I decided to write a quick post before. I think I'm going to sign up for the NaBloPoMo, and hopefully I'll be able to post everyday.

Scary Math Girl was at it again on Friday. She seemed to be okay on Thursday, actually asking questions and taking notes, but on Friday, she was giving lip to Boring Math Guy. Whenever he did a problem on the board, she would ask if it was a problem from the book. Most of the problems were, but he didn't know what page they were on. She constantly asked him to do a problem from the book, so he got a little irritated and told her that they were. She asked where with a very challenging look on her face, and he just looked at her and said 'I don't know, look it up.' She was NOT happy with this response, and was even less happy with the quiz he passed out halfway through the class. She makes it fun to stay awake through class, just seeing what she'll do next.

Himself starts his vacation today, and he's fully planning on enjoying every minute of it. We're going to clean the Mini Manor so we can have a Christmas tree this year (which reminds me, I need to find a steam cleaner for the carpet), and we have to renew our lease so we can live there a little longer (although we may move into the apartment right under us since they're turning it into one of the 'new' apartments).

Well, like I said, quick post.

M

Even More Math

Today we had a quiz in my math class. The quiz was easy enough, even though there were a couple of confusing questions. I just took my time going through it and I'm pretty sure I did okay. There was one girl in the class though who took offense to the quiz and tried to blame the instructor for not answering her questions. He simply told her that she has to ask her questions in order for him to answer them. Every day he starts out with 'so does anyone have any questions', and he asks the same question throughout the hour we have for class. At any of those times she could have piped up and asked him to clarify something. When most of the class left (we got to leave right after we finished the quiz), she stormed up to the front of the room and proceeded to try to drag Boring Math Guy over the coals. He didn't take the bait, and she stormed back to her seat, started slamming her things back into her bag and left in a very angry huff. All the while muttering to herself about asking questions and how he was a bad instructor. Boring Math Guy isn't bad as instructors go, but he does tend to over-complicate things a little too much. He goes at a pace that is easy to follow, but not so slow that most of the class is bored to tears (the pace is fine, the delivery needs work). I'm hoping to get Norse God instructor again for my next math class. Whenever I see him in the hallway (he uses the classroom I'm in right after my class) I ask him if he found out what math he was going to be teaching next quarter.

I had Himself look at the math problems we did in class yesterday, and I was right! There is a much easier way (not using letters or any funky numbers) to do one of the problems. I still have to learn the 'long' way, since Boring Math Guy wants us to do it that way on the tests, but at least now I know I can check my answers with the easier way.

Nothing is making sense today. I think I jostled a few too many brain cells during kick boxing (which is getting easier day by day) today. We did a lot of jumping and punching, and he taught us a new combo at the end of class: jab, cross, bob and weave, side kick, front kick. Most of the class ended up doing two side kicks, but the instructor doesn't really care, as long as we're moving and keeping our heart-rate up.

Well, I need to go and get some protein in my system before I starve.

M

More Math

Today the class was presented with this problem on the board: At an outdoor concert, 3 seats are added to each row. There are 25 rows and 1200 seats after the seats were added. How many seats were in each row before the seats were added? Most Boring (and Complicated) Math Teacher went into a whole x and y thing (y= total seats, x=seats per row), and finally came up with the answer (x=45). There was a lot of dividing and multiplying involved, but I got the answer before him. I simply divided 1200 by 25 (which is 48 for those people who are curious) and subtracted 3. What is it about math that makes people over complicate things?

Simple math seems to escape some of the customers we had last night, too. Sittings take longer to get through when we only have three camera rooms, and we're short two photographers. Let's see... About 32 sittings for the day, three camera rooms, two and a half photographers (one of the girls was also selling portraits). I bet if I threw in a couple of variables I would have a pretty nifty math problem (or I could just solve it using basic math), but it boiled down to everyone being really stressed out and one very exhausting night. I wasn't supposed to work until three in the afternoon, but they called me in early because of the first no-show. Oh well, it means more hours on my next paycheck.

I think I'll have some pictures done of me in my pirate costume on Saturday (I actually have a weekend day off this week!). I've been working on this costume for a little while, and now I only need two more things to make it perfect. I need some boots and a red scarf to put around my hair (the scarf goes on the head, not the boots, although that would be in interesting costume too...). I have a couple of shirts to go with the leather stay I have (got that treasure at the big ren faire Himself and I went to with Photo Girl and her boyfriend), and I was thinking about finding some pants to go with them too. I have a skirt, but it's more of a wench skirt than a pirate skirt (wench...pirate...what's the difference?), but throw on a pair of nifty boots and I'll be able to make it pirate-y.

Himself still doesn't know when his vacation starts. We both thought it was the second or third week in October, but now we're not so sure. He's going to call the main office and find out today so we can start planning some kind of Halloween party.

Well, that's all folks!

M

Free Bibles

Every so often my school is littered with older men in black leather jackets lurking about with boxes full of little green books. If an unsuspecting student walks by, they pounce on them offering free bibles. Usually they scatter themselves around campus and stay put, luring the students to come closer so they can make their move while still protecting their stash of bibles. I usually try to avoid these people, but today it was harder than usual. Why? Because they were standing on every corner from the math building to the library (they're across campus from each other, and there are a lot of corners between the buildings)! There was even one in the library, asking students as they walked in and out of the building. I hate it when they come to the school, because I end up getting asked if I want a free bible every time I take a step.

Being of the non-Christian persuasion, I'm slightly offended by these men (never women) because if you don't take a bible, they look down their noses at you. If you wear another religious symbol (like I do. I wear a goddess symbol with a tiny pentagram on it), they really try to push those bibles. I don't mind Christians (they really are lovely people), but the fanatics really bother me. I once had some guy knock on my door a couple of years ago and ask me if I wanted to go to a concert that was being held at his church. I politely declined, and he had the stones to ask me why. I told him I wasn't Christian, and again he asked me why. Finally I told him that I was Pagan, and I was about to start my morning ritual and would he like to join me? The poor, hapless man was a little flustered by that, but he told me that I was 'the lost sheep that God told him to find'. That got under my skin and I told him that God's a stalker and I'm not a sheep. Baaaa!

I'm still tempted to use that same line when the guys with the free bibles ask me why I don't want one. I'm also tempted to tell them that their religion is insulting to women, and what really happened between the time Jesus was told he was the son of God and the time he started tearing up merchant's stands. See them get really flustered.

On a less ranty/religion note, Himself and I have part of the day off together, and we plan on spending it at the Halloween store not far from where we live. I plan on getting him something from there for our anniversary, but I kind of want him to look at it first (to find out if he likes it or not). I'm not going to tell him that's what he's getting, just find out what he likes. I can be sneaky like that! Mom taught me well.

We started doing round-house kicks in kick-boxing, and I started getting really good. Then the instructor (I don't have a nickname for him yet) started telling us to basically do a really big circle by doing a front kick, a side kick, a back kick, and a round-house. Sounds pretty easy, but I'm not coordinated enough to pull that off yet.

Well, that's all for now. I might have more tomorrow.

M

Skirts and Flip-flops

Recently it has been feeling more and more like Fall in the mornings. Just today we had a thick layer of fog obscuring everything (making the drive to school very interesting), and I was still a little cold in my fleece jacket. I saw this girl walking to her class on my way to the computer lab wearing a short skirt and flip-flops. She must have been freezing, but she just kept walking like nothing was wrong. My guess is she had to keep moving so her legs wouldn't freeze off! Some people simply can't let go of the summer, especially since we actually had a summer this year. Usually our summers are less than a month long, and as soon as Fall hits, we have cold rain and lots of fog. I think we're in for a very odd winter this year.

Himself and I gave each other our early anniversary gifts (we usually do this. We get something early, then the 'main' gift on our anniversary). I gave him X3, and he gave me The Little Mermaid! Last night we watched X3 and talked about the probability of a fourth one being made. We both think that even though the director and producers were saying that this is the last X-Men movie, they're going to make another. They left it way too open, and there are still villains to introduce. Hell, 5 Superman movies, 4 Batman movies, and 2 Spiderman movies (a third one is being made now) have been made with no end in sight!

We had to do presentations in math class today. Actually we have to sign up for a time, and in a moment of utter stupidity, the Most Boring Math Teacher Ever passed the sign-up sheet around the class instead of tacking it up on the board for people, so most of one side of the class didn't even get the option to sign up for this round. Since we do this for a review for the tests we have in class, the problems that we present are going to get harder. Some of the students were so poor at explaining their problem they might as well have just written the problem on the board and sat back down (wait, some of them did!) One guy was under the brief impression that 13+20=23. Umm, last I checked 13+20=33. Just a little off, but not too bad. There was another student that wrote so small I had to squint to see what he wrote (to make matters harder, he used the green dry-erase marker that was dying, so it was really light, too), and I'm in the second row of the classroom! I guess Most Boring Math Teacher Ever isn't all that bad, but I really want to liven class up with a cricket noise box. Shouldn't be that hard to find!

More later, I have some film to develop before I go to work.

M

Ohhh my legs!

I had my first real day of Kickboxing, (I had to miss the first couple of days because of my truck being dead) and I have never felt such pain before! It hurts to climb stairs, which really sucks because the Mini Manor is on the second story of our building, and my math class is on the second story of the math building. My arms hurt a little (mostly my shoulders) from all the punching, but it's my legs that hurt the most. Crazy P.E Teacher kept telling the class what a great ab workout this was, but I didn't feel it anywhere near my abs! Then again, I have pretty strong ab muscles because of the bellydancing I do, I just have a little more flub covering those muscles than I would really like. My mother-in-law calls it insulation, but if that's true, then why am I so cold all the time?!

I just got Himself part of his anniversary gift the other day, and I have to wait a little longer to get the other part. I'm really hoping the store still has it by the time I get paid again, but if they don't, I have a back-up plan. I have a very strong suspicion that I'm going to be getting The Little Mermaid on DVD as my gift from him. I've left hints that Little Mermaid was one of my favorite movies growing up (in fact, I think it was the first movie I ever saw in the theater), and the hint that Himself gave me was 'water'. I can't believe it's been only two years since we got married! I'm not sure if this is a good thing or not, but it feels like we've been married a lot longer than that!

Well, it'll be a short one today, since I still have to head into work and talk about what time I'm leaving on Sunday. Silly me offered to stay until the last appointment on Sunday since one of the girls has to leave early.

M

Baby Truck (or How I Learned how to Fix my Truck)

My wonderful little tuck (named Baby Truck because she is so much smaller than the truck I used to drive) decided that she was tired of driving back and forth to and from work and school. A couple of nights ago, while I was on my way home from work, I noticed that my battery level was really low (a brand new battery because my last one finally died on me even though it was deemed 'fine' by the 'experts'). It had been doing this for a couple of days, so I stayed in the right lane of the freeway and started praying to the Powers That Be that my battery wouldn't die until I got into my parking spot at the Mini Manor (pushing my truck anywhere uphill sucks, no matter how small she is). No one listened to me, and I started feeling the hesitation and lurching of a dying car. I pulled off to the side, cried my eyes out (I sort of panicked when I thought I had left my phone at work) looking for my cell phone (so glad I had it on and charged up) and called Mom. Most Minor Minion answered the phone with bad news: neither Mom nor Dad were home. Next call was to Mom's cell phone. Not on (found out later it was sitting on the charger at home). Finally I struck gold when I called Dad's phone. They came to my rescue, called a tow-truck and hauled my poor, dead truck to their place so we could work on it.

Himself drove me to school yesterday and stuck around to help with the repairs. Mom and I decided it was the alternator (I had been really hoping it wasn't, but again the Powers That Be didn't listen), and we set off to buy a new one and some of the tools to used to put it into the truck. Next came the hard part: removing the old alternator without damaging anything else.

Long (painful) story short, after four trips to the auto parts store (once to get the parts needed, one more time to get the alternator exchanged since they gave me the wrong one, once more to exchange the belt they sold us (we were supposed to have a 956, the first guy gave us a 1000. Needless to say it was way too long), and once to take the battery there to get it charged up) we finally have a working truck! Everything works wonderfully, and I don't have to worry about how I'm going to get to work later today. Also, I get to actually start my photo shoots for my project tomorrow after school (since I have a working truck and everything). I have a lot of time to make up for with the project (I only have about one more week in the darkroom. The deadline for the contest is probably some time in April, so as long as I take a photo class next quarter, I should be fine as long as I can get at least two prints out in the next week).

I now know how to change a flat tire (I've known that for a little while), change a belt (even have the tool for it), change an alternator, and install a new battery. I'll be learning how to change my oil soon (Photo Girl changes her own oil, so she plans on teaching me), and pretty soon I'll be able to charge people $80 an hour to fix their cars! Not really, but it sounds cool. More women should know how to to some basic repairs on their cars. When I had to change my tire in a parking lot, I had women coming up to me just to watch (one of them told me she was glad I knew what I was doing because if it had been her, she would have been crying and calling her husband). Hmmm...Maybe I should figure out a way to teach women how to fix things on their cars...

Tomorrow I'm hanging out with The Smart One (a really book-smart friend from High School. Notice I did not say street smart) in Seattle while Himself is in his meat-cutting class. I'm also hanging out with The Hair for the photo shoot. I love days off!

M

Warning: Rant Leak Ahead!

In light of last night, I have the need to continue on my rant.

1. People who don't understand that the mall has closing hours (my mall closes at 7pm on Sundays, and we had people in our studio until about 8pm or so. We tried to explain that we stop taking pictures about an hour before we close so we can show the portraits to the last sitting, but our pleas fell on deaf ears)

2. District Managers who don't understand that the mall has closing hours (she insists that we show every sitting their pictures that night, regardless of when the sitting was. If you try to explain that we need to get out of the store at a decent time, she 'reminds' you about the walk-in who bought $500 worth of portraits after closing (something about employees being in the store after midnight because the sitting was so long, and it took the people forever to decide on their pictures). It makes for a very hard morning the next day, especially if you have to wake up at the butt-crack of dawn like I do.)

3. People who take your apology and shove it up your butt (you try to make nice, but they obviously don't care. By the way, apologies hurt when they're shoved up the wrong way)

4. People who know they're good, and let you know just how good they are (I have a co-worker who is like this. She takes really great portraits, but the problem is she knows it. She 'helped' me in a sitting by taking over it. I only needed help posing the people, but the second I stepped off the step-ladder, she jumped on and started taking pictures. She only offered to help pose, too! A former co-worker tried to pull this with me on another matter, but I (playfully) told him where to shove it.)

5. Boring Math Teachers (I really enjoyed my last math instructor, but this quarter I have the single most boring math teacher known to man. At least Norse God Math Instructor made math intresting. My new instructor will stand with his back to the class as he looks over his notes and writes on the board. He talks very softly, and doesn't make anything sound fun at all. Norse God could make lying on a bed of nails sound like a barrel of laughs, but this guy can't even make Robin Williams sound funny. The other day, he stood in front of the class looking at his notes for a full two minutes after I asked him a question. Flip...flip...flip...)

That's about it for now. I'm in a grumpy mood today since it was a late night and a very early morning. I was going to go to a baby shower last night for my manager, but I realized that by the time I got to the shower, I would have to give her the gift, then turn around and drive all the way home. I've been having some rather serious issues with my truck these past few days, so I didn't want to tempt fate on the way home from the party. I think it's the alternator, but I'm hoping not (I really can't afford to have my alternator fixed right now). Maybe the truck just doesn't like the cold (she starts up just fine in the afternoon time, but this morning there was a little hesitation and a very tense drive to school). Either way, this is going to be a very intresting week.

On an upside, Himself starts vacation next week (?I think), so we'll be able to spend a lot of time together. He is going to clean the Mini Manor so we can shampoo the carpet and possibly throw a halloween party (of sorts) the week after vacation. Also, on the upside, today should be pretty slow at work, and my manager liked the baby shower gift I gave her when I went in today (I went in early so I could catch her before she went home for the day). Things are looking up...

M