It’s nice to just kind of go out on the town for a bit… the local town, that is.
2 minute read
January 14, 2005, 5:25 PM
It’s nice to go out on the town a bit. That’s what I did today. I had some errands to run, and went to both Staunton and Waynesboro in the process.
Note I say “local town”. You may recall that I go to Washington DC a lot, and spend a lot of time in that town, which hopefully will be my local town before too long. So I draw that distinction.
But anyway, I went out and about, which was fun. Went to Staunton Mall. I had lunch at “Hot Wok”, a Chinese restaurant in the mall. I’d never eaten a meal at Hot Wok before. It was good.
Continue reading…Categories: Personal health, Staunton, Staunton Mall
I am an artificial morning person
< 1 minute read
January 13, 2005, 10:05 PM
I was thinking about it… I am so not a morning person. Yet when I have to come into work in the early morning, I’m perhaps one of the perkiest people in there. Yet I’m not a morning person. I recently realized how I manage to do it.
One word: CAFFEINE.
It’s a wonderful thing. Have a big soda right before work, and voila! Perky. After this realization, someone asked me how I managed to be so perky in the morning, and I answered quite honestly. Caffeine. Wonderful thing. Without caffeine, I don’t know what I’d do to get moving in the morning.
Categories: Food and drink
I don’t know what it is about this time of year that makes me want to start a project at home
2 minute read
January 13, 2005, 7:44 PM
Yeah, Sis is going back to school on Sunday, and I’m again going to use her room as swing space. This time, I’m attacking the problem spots in my room. Mainly those spots where junk accumulates.
Let me put it to you this way: I still have the tubs of junk from my Potomac Hall room in the middle of my floor, nearly two years later. I moved them out when I redecorated last year, and then moved them back in afterwards. This time, I’m officially attacking those tubs. And the closet. And whatever other corners and spots have become junk repositories.
Here’s the battle plan. Sis’s floor will be divided up into four sections. One area will be “keep”. One will be “sell”, which I intend to list on eBay. A third will be “trash”. And a fourth will be “Goodwill”. Now that we have a new Goodwill store in Waynesboro right next to Wal-Mart, I’m most likely going to donate a boatload of stuff from this adventure to Goodwill. Still, I intend to make this room more livable than it is right now. Besides, I’d have to do this anyway after I find a job in Washington and move out. So I might as well just do it now.
Categories: House, Today's Special
“…he was from New Jersey! I went to my senior prom with a YANKEE!”
2 minute read
January 13, 2005, 7:22 PM
That line of Blanche’s from The Golden Girls just cracks me up. Since, you see, I am originally from New Jersey, and still consider myself northern, even though I’ve lived in Virginia for more than half my life.
This is why I love it when people say that I sound northern, like one person told me today. Shows I haven’t lost it. And let me tell you – the word “y’all” is not in my vocabulary. And if ever you hear me say “y’all”, slap me.
Meanwhile, I’m going to the doctor’s office tomorrow for pain. Where? Wrists! Over Christmas, I managed to get a repetitive stress injury in both wrists from scanning items for customers. Now it’s painful to scan stuff. I had this happen in 2003 in my right wrist only, and then it went away after a while on the Service Desk. This time it’s both wrists, and I am so done with the Service Desk, so that’s not an escape again. I’m hoping to get some “feel-good medicine” to make me feel good (thus “feel-good medicine”) and make the pain go away. Usually I do so well, and nothing ever ails me. Then within the last month or so, I got two colds in a row in December, and then this. Yuck.
Categories: Activism, Fire drills, Personal health, Television
Let there be snow – please!
< 1 minute read
January 13, 2005, 12:11 AM
For the last two weeks, we’ve had spring-like temperatures! And I’m sick of it! The winter coat is back on the back burner as I grudgingly grab my light jacket again. If it’s winter, I want cold temperatures, and I want snow. This warm weather is driving me up the wall. I am having a craving for snow.
For those of you not familiar with Virginia weather, by mid-January, we’ve usually had at least one good snow – usually the first in December some time. I think most we had in December were some very light flurries. This past December was that lovely month where I was sick for most of the month. Seriously, I got two colds back to back in December 2004. Yuck. So I got sick, but remained snowless. Drat.
Supposedly, it’s going to get cold again this weekend, and winter shall return. No snow, though. Maybe I’ll get my snow later on. Who knows.
Categories: Weather
Today was a busy Saturday…
3 minute read
January 8, 2005, 7:28 PM
Yes, this was a busy day today. Though not nearly as bad as pre-Christmas, mind you. Still, this reinforces the point that I cannot stand the express lanes – the “20 items or less” lanes where every other customer comments about that “rule”, getting on my nerves in the process, and the fact that the customers put their items on the edge of the counter without fail. And the more delicate and breakable they are, the closer they put it to the edge. Then there are the debit reader machines. If you’ve ever paid with a card at Wal-Mart, you’ll know that when you’re finished, the machine displays “ask cashier to press debit key” or “ask cashier to press credit key”. And so I hear a hundred times a day from customers, “Press the credit key” or “You need to press the credit key”. I don’t think that they realize that I can see what method they’ve used without their interaction. I so wish Wal-Mart would change that message to something else, like “Thank you” so that I don’t have to be told by umpteen customers how to do my job like I’m an idiot.
Anyway, end of rant.
Meanwhile, I need to make an appointment with the doctor for a repetitive-stress injury that I got around Christmas that I had hoped would go away on its own. So it hurts in both wrists to scan some items. And unlike some people, I’m not out for blood. I’m just concerned about getting better. That’s all.
Feet?
2 minute read
January 5, 2005, 11:37 PM
A coworker at Wal-Mart, in looking at my Web site, noticed that I have a lot of pictures of my own feet on there. Specifically, she noticed this one on the way home from my 2000 beach trip, this one from where I was waiting for a bus at JMU, this one at Rosslyn while I was waiting for the train in 2001, and this one at my 2004 beach trip.
Now I will be the first to tell you – the first three feet shots, all of my own feet, were “bored” shots. They’re shots I ended up with because I had nothing better to do while waiting for something – in the car, at the bus shelter, and in the train station. The last one, of my sandy feet, was intended to show just how much sand I’d collected while out on the beach.
My coworker came to a different conclusion. She thought that I had a thing for feet, and thus why I have these four photos of my feet on my site. Not quite, I said. My feet, as I said, just happen to be something I always know the whereabouts of, and are also convenient to photograph when there’s nothing else to do.
Still, I ought to see if I can do something artistic with my feet. Or not. Who knows.
Categories: Myself
Pentagon City… explored!
5 minute read
January 5, 2005, 4:13 PM
Well, I went to Washington as planned on Tuesday. And I had fun! First of all, I accomplished my official goals for the trip. Those were to pay a visit to the Infoshop at 9th and P Streets NW, and explore Pentagon City. And those went well.
Now for the story.
I overslept this time! I’m just like, aw, crap! when I looked at the clock. True, I had no definite schedule, but still, parking can be tricky. But I still managed to snag a parking space in the North Garage at Vienna, on the top level like I like it. And I was somehow able to turn 90 minutes late into 60 minutes late. That takes talent.
Once I got onto the Metro, I rode in to Rosslyn, and caught my read of the Express. And then I caught Breda 4058 at Rosslyn, to head into Washington.
Darkness envelops the Wal-Mart Supercenter…
2 minute read
January 2, 2005, 12:29 AM
Well, today was interesting! Six months to the day of the “microburst” (really powerful thunderstorm that came out of nowhere) last July 1 that knocked out power to our store, we had a power outage at Wal-Mart today. And unlike with the microburst, where at least it was bad weather that knocked down power lines all over Waynesboro, this time it was a beautiful, unseasonably warm day. And at 4:30 PM, as I’m checking out a long line of customers, all of a sudden the store goes dark.
It’s weird. Everything’s going along just fine. The register is going “boop, boop, boop” as I’m scanning stuff. Then all of a sudden the lights all go out. The air handling units also stopped running, which made for an eerie, unfamiliar quiet. The lights going out also silenced the crowd for a moment. Everyone’s just like, “Eh?” Especially since it was a gorgeous day. Just gorgeous outside. No apparent reason for the power outage. Just one moment, light, and then the next, dark.
So we had to get everyone checked out before the registers died, which we did. And then after the customers, we had to make hay while the sun was shining in getting things together before we could reopen. Everyone also realized that it was starting to get dark, and that soon it would be pitch black inside, save for the emergency lighting. That was a weird feeling. But it was almost a party atmosphere in the store. It was weird. We were productive, but still, it was a certain party atmosphere. In asking where this Disney Princess dress-up dress went, I held it up to my leg and said, “Do you think this dress goes with these shoes?” When all the front-end associates gathered up front later, it was still very party-like.
Categories: Walmart
Happy New Year!
3 minute read
January 1, 2005, 1:24 AM
And so now let’s all sing a round of Auld Lang Syne.
And this is the first entry of 2005, after I rolled the Journal into the next database. If this posts when I submit my form, then I was successful.
I have to say, I noticed a few things about the new year’s arrival. On the TV, we again noticed the glasses with the year on it. I just wonder if they’ll continue it come 2010. Then, you see, there will be no number with a big open middle on one eye for at least ten years (you could pull it off in 2020, since the “2” is sufficiently open). But a “1” is kind of poor for that kind of thing. I wonder.
Otherwise, I’m still up, which is amazing in itself. I fully expected to be fast asleep before midnight, considering how long I was slightly droopy at Wal-Mart at the beginning of my shift. But I ended up hitting a second wind or something, I guess.
Categories: DC trips, New Year's