leases

I guess it turns out that I do have a lease on this apartment, that goes until October of this year. Which means I can't move out without losing my security deposit or getting charged 2 more months' rent until then. Which also means that getting a 4- or 5-bedroom house right now is out of the question. I told Aaron last night when he got off work, and it sounds like he's just going to have to move in with me, like we'd originally planned. Which is good in a way, because that's what I really wanted to happen, anyway, but also it kinda sucks because I know his roommates will be sad and call me "evil Arn stealer" and such things.

Work today wasn't so terrible, even though I ended up being 41 minutes late. No one said anything, just thanked me for calling ahead of time to let them know I'd be late, but that I was coming. Man oh man. Only 7 working days left. Well, at the most seven, at the least four, but I'm betting on seven, because Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday (which I don't have a schedule for yet) are the start of Rally Week, and I doubt I'll have them off.

I bought my mom "The Jerk" with Steve Martin today at work because I saw they had it out on DVD now, and I thought she'd like that. We'll see this evening when she and my sister stop by. I thought about cleaning the apartment before they got here, but I'm too tired. So it's nap time.

oh crap

Ever set your alarm clock for 4:30pm instead of 4:30am, only to wake up at 5:58am, un able to doze off because you know you're supposed to be somewhere in exactly 2 minutes?

Yeah...me too.

update

I thought I was going to start my training at the casino during my days off from Kmart, but my manager wants me to get all my training started and done in a consecutive time frame, not just once every few days, so I won't start until August 10th, which is right in the middle of Rally Week. Great. I guess if I can make it through that during my training, I can make it through anything.

I'm excited to work four days on, and have three days off in a row! That never happens at Kmart. I'm lucky if I get two off in a row, and that's when I ask for it. One thing I'm not excited about is getting used to new people, figuring out how everyone likes things done, training, learning new routines. It'll be a little confusing, that's for sure, but I know how to cashier and balance things out, so that's definintely a plus.

Aaron found this cool checkbook spreadsheet online where you can enter everything in on an Excel-like spreadsheet, and it does the calculations automatically. It's pretty nifty. I Googled "checkbook spreadsheet" today to see if I could find something similar, and I found the exact same one he'd downloaded, as I later discovered when I went to pick him up for lunch this afternoon. I tried it out tonight when I got home from work, and it's pretty damn nifty. I'll have to keep it up, 'cause I've been a freak lately about making sure everything balances out, so this will definitely help me, even though not having a 10-key on a laptop keyboard kinda sucks. I could always buy one from Best Buy if it's that big of a deal...

The 4 bedroom house might not work out, as the guy who rents it out isn't keen on 5 people living in the 4 bedroom; says there's too many cars on the street that way. There WAS a 5 bedroom for rent, and Aaron checked on it yesterday, but there were some people coming in this afternoon to sign the papers to take it...so I guess that won't work out, either. We've been looking in the classifieds, and those are the only 4 and 5 bedroom places available for decent rent, everything else is really small or a lot more expensive. *sigh*

Well, I did it

I got the job at the casino! I'll start off making $2.25 more per hour there than I currently do at Kmart, plus tips, plus and incentive program that they're just starting up. Due to a confidentiality statement that I signed yesterday, I probably won't be talking too much about work, or what goes on there, since I don't want to get in trouble. I got my shirt and vest yesterday, and now all I need to do is get some all-black shoes. I guess I could paint over the pink and white "N" on my new sneakers I just bought, to save me from having to spend another $40 on a pair of shoes...but I don't really want to disfigure them, since I only bought them less than a month ago.

I'll be putting in my two weeks notice today when I go into work, which kinda sucks, but I can't really just up and leave and not show up anymore, like others have done. I'll be leaving right before the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally Week starts, which is a bummer for them, but I need to get trained at the casino before the rally so I know what I'm doing when we're busy. I'm really excited to start training, although I'm not sure exactly when that will be, since I currently work 5 days a week.

Anyway, that's about all there is to say for this post. Wish me luck!

the time has come!

Well folks, this is it; tomorrow morning I go in for my interview at the casino. I'm really excited, and actually got a little nervous tonight thinking about it. I'm sure everything will go well, because I've been persuing this for so long, trying to get ahold of the manager and getting an interview set up, and I put in my application three weeks ago or more, and they're still interested, which means they haven't found anyone else, apparently, so that's a really good sign, I think.

My manager from when I worked in Electronics regularly asked me today if I'd heard about my license yet, and I told him that I got the approval in the mail on Friday and that I had an interview set up in the morning. He wished me luck and was genuinely happy for me, and made sure to tell me (again) to put him down as a reference and he'd give me an excellent review. He's also given me tips on the exit review at Kmart as to some things I should say based on my concerns about the company, something that would be sure to catch the company's eye, instead of just "I didn't like working here because people are stupid and don't listen to my good ideas and blah blah blah." I thought that was very nice of him. He always was one of my favorite people in that store.

I'm going to miss the people there, that's for sure, if I get this new job. That's one thing I liked about Kmart, was most of the people there. Even though sometimes they were hardasses or jerks as managers, as people, they are genuinely great people as people, if you know what I'm trying to say. I'll be sad to go in that sense, that's for sure.

Clouds and sunset

The sunset tonight; not as pretty as I thought it was going to be, but I'll put up a picture of it, anyway. The clouds were truly strange tonight, and I have not tampered with the photos at all, not even the coloring.

days of haze

Remember the post with the mention of an awesome thunder and lightning show on Friday night? Well, that turned into some not so awesome forest fires, and today, the entire town was covered in a thick, yellowish brown haze. It was kinda like living in a city, only it smelled better (like campfires!). Everything had this yellow glow to it, like when the Sun starts sinking in the sky, but it was only three o'clock in the afternoon, so it was definitely kinda weird and Twilight Zone-ish. Tonight should prove to have an awesome sunset, as the fires are out West, and that is obviously where the Sun sets. I am going to set my alarm clock so I can remember to head back up to work (for a great view of the hills and sunset), and take some pictures. Hopefully I'll have something new and fun to put up soon!

But, I've been up since 5am and am in need of a nap or maybe just laying around and watching some television. I bought an awesome new fan for my bedroom because it gets sweltering hot in there at night, so hopefully that will help.

wahoo!

My approval for a gaming license came in today! I just need to go into Deadwood and pick it up, I guess, or claim it...something. Plus, the manager called me in for an interview on Monday, but I work during the time he'd like me to come in, so I left a message to say I could come in later or the next day. I hope that works. I'd really like to be able to put in my 2 week notice soon.

Also, we had a really great thunder and lightning storm tonight. It was really beautiful, bright, and loud, and an awesome sunset because of a fire that's burning West of us.

yet again...

Yes, another new template. This is a Blogger template who's colors I tweaked quite a bit, and of course added my sidebar stuffs. Mom and Little Bunny Foo Foo didn't really like the old one. I don't know who Little Bunny Foo Foo is, however, but oh well. Maybe this one will be a little better. I just can't seem to find anything I like for any length of time. There's still my Unkymoods to add to the sidebar, but otherwise, I think I'm done messing with things for a while.

Had a dream last night that I'd done something mildly wrong, and in turn, I was to be electrocuted as punishment. But not in the electric chair, no...It was a small blow-up kiddie pool, and I had to drop and electrical appliance in it while I was in the water. I remember crying a lot at the end of the dream. It was really weird.

I called Commission on Gaming yesterday to check about my gaming license, and they'd just sent my approval off in the mail yesterday, so I'll get it in the mail tomorrow or Monday, and then I just have to pay the $50 to get the actual license, and ta da! I have to call today to set up an interview at the casino today before I go to work. I'm really excited to finally have a chance to work somewhere else and make some more money.

Work Woes

One of my co-workers, He Who Thinks He's Better Than Thou, was being a royal pain in the ass yesterday for no apparent reason, except for the fact that he is just lazy and believes he's higher than the rest of us because we work at Kmart. News flash! You work at Kmart, too! Also, he's only 19 years old!

Also, my closing cashier didn't show up last night, so we had to call in someone at the last minute to cover the 2 hours where I wouldn't have had a cashier at all. Thank God for him.

I accidentally let slip the other day at lunch with Aaron's parents that he might be moving in with me when Jill moves out. Whoops. I guess I wasn't supposed to say anything, but his mom sure has a knack for getting information out of you! And I guess one of his roommates wasn't too happy, either. Yeesh.

Still no word from the sheriff's office about my support license yet. I'm pretty sure I've waited quite a long time for this thing, but unfortunately, I don't date anything in my check register, so I don't remember the day I applied.

And BMG Music keeps sending me CDs and wanting me to pay for them. I don't even remember signing up for their services! I didn't get 7 free CDs, that's for sure! This is the 2nd CD I've gotten in the mail, and the 2nd time I've put Return To Sender on the outside, along with a note saying, "Please take me off your mailing list" on the bill inside the package. Get the hint! And I don't think they have a phone number, because I couldn't find a damn thing on either the billing statement or the website.

Crisis Averted

After my wild goose chase on Monday, I finally got some answers! I called the school health services today to talk to the secretary, and she just had me come up there after explaining the whole thing to her, since I actually hadn't been to the nurse's office since September of '04, when these 2 dates I was being charged for were from this year. So when I got there, she called the laboratory for me, and they told her that they'd fixed the mistake and they'd refund my money in the mail that I had already paid them. Well that's all fine and dandy, but I'm oh so glad they decided to call me and let me know of this, instead of making me have the school nurse's secretary do it for me. Obvioiusly calling them twice with my problems wasn't enough to warrent that.

*Sigh*

At least that's over with.

Next crisis, please!

weird start to the work day

Yesterday during my day off, a little brown bird managed to fly its way into our store, and was there until about 4pm today. When I was making my way back up to the registers after clocking in, I noticed it hovering around up front by the windows and doors, probably trying to get out. Then up comes this older woman with a fishing net, trying to catch it. The net was WAY too short to do any kind of good, so we got a pole that we use to hang signs from the ceiling, taped the fishing net handle to it, and set chase.

The little old lady followed me around, keeping an eye out for the bird, being sure to point and tell me where it was every five seconds. I came close to getting it a few times, but mostly just scared it away and ended up wandering over to some other side of the store. I was in toys, automotive, luggage, sporting goods, men's clothing, children's clothing, and pharmacy, not to mention up front, chasing that poor, tired bird all over the store. Trevour and Amy both tried as valiantly as I to nab the little bugger, but apparently, none of us were to be deemed "the great white hunter." I almost caught him mid-flight across the store, and once almost with my hands as he was resting above the door frames to leave the store, but he escaped me both times.

Forrest ended up catching him and releasing him from the Garden Shop, which is where we think he originated from. I was sad to see him go, as this was going to be our entertainment for the evening.

Pepsi blunders

Yesterday while at Aaron's house for lunch, I did about the dumbest thing ever. I had a bottle of Pepsi that wasn't quite cold, so I was using a glass with ice in it. I wanted to finish off the bottle, so I held my half full glass above my lap, and started pouring. And then it started fizzing. Up and out of the glass, into my lap and the couch.

Damnit, I had just washed those jeans, too! So I had to change into a pair of his shorts, which happened to be swim trunks, 'til I could get home and wash my now soggy jeans.

Oh, turns out I can't call the health services at the school 'til tomorrow. I was thinking that today was going to be Wednesday for some reason...

bills, bills, bills

I don't remember if I said anything about this when it happened, but here's the backstory: Back in May, I recieved a very large bill from a clinical laboratory out of Rapid City for some work that had been done. It was something more than what I could have payed off in only a few installments, and I wasn't even sure what I was being charged for, as the bill wasn't very descriptive in the services rendered.

Well, I got after it today, going to several different offices, including the school twice, once to the nurse's office, who wasn't there, and once to the school's offices, trying to find a record, which they didn't have, only the school nurse had. I also went by the medical center where the laboratory got the samples from, and they didn't even have me in their records, indicating I'd never actually been there.

Curious.

So I call the insurance company, and they don't even have anything filed or claimed at all. My dad hadn't recieved anything from the insurance company either, so it was all very confusing as to why I was being charged this very large amount of money for something that the insurance should have picked up instead. Next, I call the laboratory, one last time, to see exactly what I had been charged for. It turns out they had charged me for a "needle aspirate," which has something to do with your respiratory system and poking a needle into your lung. No wonder the bill was so high. However, you'd think I would remember having a needle shoved in my chest and through my lung. They charged me for someone else's lab work!

Now I have to wait until tomorrow, before I go to work, to call the school health services and see exactly what went on that day, back in February, that's when the lab samples were sent out, apparently, and get that taken off my record, along with claiming the correct service rendered, and getting the money back that I've already started paying on the bill.

How frustrating, but I'm glad that my dad kept pushing at me to get this figured out, or I would have been out a lot of money that someone else owes. I can't believe someone messed up that bad. And that it took them 3 months to send me anything in the mail!

howdy howdy

Tomorrow is Aaron's birthday, and I have no idea what to get him! Any ideas?

We're going over to his parents for dinner tonight, grilling, it sounds like, so that should be fun. The last few days since the wedding I've been at work, so I haven't really been updating a lot, as usual...

Last night at work, Aaron showed up around 7pm, which was really weird, because he was supposed to be working until 11pm. He had a huge bandage around his pointer finger on his left hand...he'd cut himself really bad at work and had to go to the hospital to have it taken care of. He'd sliced into the tip of his finger, even got the fingernail, but didn't cut the whole tip off. It was kinda scary to listen to him tell what happened, and made me a little squirmy, but he thinks he'll regain all feeling in his finger, and he'll lose the nail, but it'll grow back eventually. He said it didn't even hurt that much. Yuck. Ick. Ouch.

I've been finding lots of tiny spiders in the apartment lately, and I think it's because we leave the windows open so the air can flow through, and they crawl through the tiny little holes in the screens. I don't think we have any tears in the screens, but there's a good chance we do, 'cause I've even seen small beetles and stuff in here, as well. Yuck.

Also, I still haven't heard about my support license yet, despite checking the mail every day. By Saturday if it's not here yet, I'll call the Lawrence County Sheriff's Department to see what's up.

Anyhow, I have to go check on my laundry, and go to Aaron's, so everyone have a good weekend if I don't update for a while.

Wedding

This weekend was the wedding of Aaron's friends Sam and Rachel in Fort Collins, Colorado. A six hour drive there, with a slight detour late in the trip as we forgot to turn at Lusk and ended up taking a dirt road full of washboards for about 20 miles to end up on the highway we needed. We got into Fort Collins pretty early, got to the campground and set up the tent, and then headed back into town to find something to eat. We ended up at Old Chicagos, where Aaron ordered the Thai Pie pizza, which has chicken, onions, peppers, mushrooms, broccoli, and Thai sauce. It was delicious! I never thought it would have been all that Aaron had raved about, but it really was.

The next day we were up very early, as Aaron had forgotten the directions to the wedding and everyone's phone numbers back in Spearfish. He had a pretty good idea of where the wedding was, but just wanted to make sure, so we got breakfast at Vern's, the local eatery, gas station, taxidermist, and smoke shop, and then went into town to find the public library so we could MapQuest the location. After finding it online, we decided to try it out ourselves in the car. After about 10 miles on a winding road into the mountains, we turned around, figuring we didn't have enough gas for the rest of the trip and that we'd find it eventually. After all, we had two hours to kill.

Back to the campground, quick shower, change into clothes for the wedding, and we're off. Quite a few miles further than our original drive, we were still on the windy mountain road, with a caravan of vehicles following close in our wake. We missed the turn to the wedding because we just didn't think we would be there yet, and all of the sudden, there it was. We noticed all the cars behind us turning around, so we had to flip around and follow the rest onto a dirt road, which was also very windy and bumpy. Aaron had been told the road was clearly marked towards the wedding, but it sure wasn't.

Once we finally did make it to the wedding, we were led to a place to park and I was introduced to and met most of the wedding party, then we made our way down to the location of the wedding, which was on a dock in front of a pretty little pond, complete with a trickling stream into the pond.

It was a very short, but very pretty wedding. Unfortunately, the pastor didn't have a microphone, so we couldn't hear most of what he was saying, but you know what goes on at weddings, so it wasn't that important. And then it was over. The reception wasn't until two hours later in a hotel about 40 miles from the location of the wedding. The reception was kinda fun, but mostly hot and boring. The air conditioning just wasn't working well on the 2nd floor, but we stuck it out as long as we could, seeing as we'd been up since 6:30am and were dying of heat.

Despite the fact that we were at a wedding and there were millions of pictures being taken of tons of different people, Aaron and I did not manage to get any pictures taken of the two of us with his camera, and I forgot mine, so still, no pictures of him and I, sorry!

Then we left bright and early this morning for another six hours in the car, and managed to survive each other the entire time while sitting in a small box for so long with only eachother to keep us company. And our iPods.

say cheese!

After work today, Aaron met me for some lunch, then we went to his parent's house to meet his sister, brother-in-law, and their three kids, since they're in town, and Aaron and I are leaving for Ft. Collins tomorrow. Everyone was very nice, especially his sister, who I talked to the most.

Then his parents decided that they needed some pictures! Well, of course, I was included with the whole family for pictures, as both his mom and dad snapped away with their cameras. I'd just gotten off a 5 hour shift in the garden shop, hot and sweaty, still in my work clothes, hair still in pigtails.

It was very nice of them to include me in with the family, however, and it felt really nice to be in there with everyone. I get to see his parents more than my own now, and it's nice to have some adult figures who seem to think of me as their own, and take care of me that way.

Ahhh, warm fuzzies.

early bird

It is 10 after 6 in the morning, and I am awake. Not because I stayed up all night and I still haven't crashed yet, and not because I've been scheduled a string of opening shifts; on the contrary, I closed the store last night and got 5 hours of sleep (too little for me). I am up to open the Garden Shop at 7 in the morning. Urg.

I told Aaron not to come over last night if it was too late because I would be sleeping. Which is what I told him 2 nights ago when I had to be to work at 9am, but I changed my mind after being lonely and unable to sleep. Last night was different, however, because I knew I needed the sleep or I was truly going to be the living dead in the morning, which really, I'm not too far from being right now.

The good news? I only work 5 hours, and I will be getting off the clock at Noon, which will still give me time to have lunch with Aaron before he even goes to work. Weird.

I'm also eating a small portion of the 50 pound watermelon that my roommate bought and filled our fridge with, but only because I'm out of milk and can't make scrambled eggs. I can't make fried eggs, either, because I always break the yolks when I flip them over. I only get those when I go home and am up at a "decent" hour so Dad can make them for me.

Punk-ass kids

Two kids walk in the store, looking slightly like they were up to no good. I was going to do a security call, but never got around to it because I got bogged down with customers right away, and soon forgot about them . . . until I saw them being rung up for some sodas and then setting the security alarm off when they exited the building.

I was already walking in their direction because I figured there was a really good chance this would happen. The kid stops dead in his tracks and says, "Was that the alarm?" with a slight look of panic on his face. I matter-of-factly tell him that yes, it was the alarm, and ask if he'd step back into the store. I know he's got something on him, but I don't know what, and I can't just tell him to empty his pockets. Store policy or something.

The manager for the evening, our loss prevention associate, and one other associate were there with me, trying to figure out what the kid had stolen. There were two of them, so we weren't sure which one had what. The tall skinny one turns to me, because I'm behind him, blocking any exit he might have made that way, and mouths to me, "Don't tell anyone, don't tell anyone." and puts a hula girl in the shopping cart next to him.

They let them go. Even though they set the alarms off again upon their second try to exit the store. How the hell are we supposed to stop people from stealing shit from our store when even our loss prevention manager can't do anything about it once they've exited the store? It makes me so mad. I know they stole crap out of the automotive section, 'cause that's where they were being followed from; our loss prevention manager plus two floor associates were following the kids through the store, and they still managed to get out of there with most of their stollen shit. WTF.

i know it's been a while

I know it's been a long time since I've posted...a few comments from readers, Little Bunny FooFoo and my dad, made me realize that. I don't update as frequently as I used to, but that's because I'm not putting off doing homework, like I said about a month ago or so. Also, Aaron and I have been spending a lot of time together, and I don't really blog when he's here, either that, or I'm at work.

Today, Aaron and I went to Deadwood, where I got fingerprinted for my background check so I can get my support license in order to work in casinos. I then dropped off my application at Cadillac Jack's to work at the cashier's cage there, and talked to one of the managers, who set up a time for me to talk to the cage manager some time next week after we get back from the wedding in Ft. Collins next weekend.

Then we drove around the Hills, stopped in Hill City and looked at the touristy stuff, then took the back way to Rapid City, where we stopped at the mall, got me some shoes, and Aaron picked up a CD at Borders, while I read some book on the secrets of Harry Potter.

But, I'm off to watch some Mystery Science Theatre 3000, it shall be fun. Adios!