Sunday, January 28, 2007

work and play

Not much has been going on lately. I've had a chance to substitute for my old 4th grade class, which was a lot of fun, and it was really nice to see the kids again, and they were happy to see me, and sad that I wasn't coming back the next day.

I ended up working a couple days in the cage due to everyone in the casino coming down with the flu (except me, and I haven't had a flu shot in 7 years!), so that was interesting. We've started training for an updated system in the casino which will give our players more options with their points, and a whole new program for us to use that is Windows-based and not DOS-based like our current system. That will start going in Sunday night, and hopefully be up and running by the time February gets here.

Aaron and I took a quick trip to Rapid City on Thursday and bought a bunch of random things. It was nice to get out of the apartment and out of Spearfish for a little bit, and not just go to the mall or Best Buy while we were in Rapid.

I started knitting socks again, and finished up a pair that I started in October, but that had been neglected during student teaching in the fall. I started up another pair with this really pretty red-pink-mauve-white blend of Opal brand yarn, from Germany (everything on the label is German and I can't read it anymore!), so that's going to be fun. I'm working on a cable detail that will go down the front of the sock and along the top of the foot. Pictures to come when I get it done and all that jazz.

We got high definition cable set up in the living room on the big TV, and it looks amazing. I didn't think it was going to be that big of a deal, mostly because I'd never seen it before, but it's honestly like you're RIGHT THERE. We watched something on the Nature Channel about fig trees and fig wasps, and it was like you were there in the forest. Amazing quality. We don't get a ton of hi-def channels to go along with it, but they'll be coming in time. At least now I can watch people torture themselves on American Idol and pretend like I'm there at the judge's table!

Tax stuff has started coming in the mail, so I have to get that all organized. Aaron enjoys doing taxes, so I'm going to have him do mine, so I don't have to send everything home and have it done there. It'll just be faster this way.

I can't believe January is almost over! I've just gotten used to writing "1" as the month on everything, and even "07" is a bit of a stretch for me! Now I have to get used to "2." Ugh, this'll take forever, AND it's a short month.

My glasses broke tonight at work. The little thing on the end that goes behind your ears came off, and when I was trying to get it back on, the end snapped off. Grrr. I am contemplating getting new frames. I know they're ridiculously expensive, but I can afford it, and I've had these frames for two years or so now, and they're starting to wear out a little, it seems. We'll see when I go in on Monday or Tuesday to get them looked at. I have it taped together right now so I can wear the darn things, and fortunately it's behind my ear so I don't look all silly with tape on my glasses. I think it's going to start rubbing on my ear and annoying me before I even get into the optometrist to get it fixed.

Well...that's about it for me tonight. I just realized I hadn't updated since the middle of the month, and here it is almost the end of the month, so there you have it. Until next time!

Monday, January 15, 2007

feeling blue

Ever since I was little, my parents had told me that I was blue when I was born. Literally, the color blue. Not enough oxygen. And when they put the little white hat on me to keep my head warm, I looked like a tiny, prune-like Smurf. Well, it has happened again.

I was showering, and as I was washing my stomach, I noticed it looked a little weird. You know how your skin kind of turns purple when you're outside in the cold? That's what my stomach looked like. It didn't feel cold, but I ran some hot water on it, and that still didn't seem to help. Maybe my eyes were playing tricks on me. If you stare at a color long enough, and then look at something different, you see that color's opposite shade on everything you look at. Try it. Stare at something yellow and look at a blank wall; it looks purple. Except there's nothing yellow in my shower that I was staring at. And it was only on my stomach, not my arms or legs. Hmmm. Then I look around to my back. Blue, as well. Even my armpits are blue. What the heck has happened here?

Last week I'd bought some new shirts from Old Navy, and one of them was a pretty jewel-toned blue color, which I happened to wear to sleep last night. I even washed it, so it's not like it was my fault. And I have tons of other tank tops from them, none of which have bled all over me, either. Then I looked on the sheets where I'd slept...slightly blue. Crap.

Guess I won't be sleeping in that thing again until I wash it a few more times.

Saturday, January 13, 2007

Work

Tonight at work I noticed that there was a blackjack dealer in the cashier's cage, which is a rather odd sight. After she'd been in there quite a while, I went over to see what was up. Turns out Tammy, the cashier for the night, went home sick, and the floor supervisor asked Jerri, the blackjack dealer to substitute for her. She hadn't been in the cage for two years by that point, and was a little nervous to do shift change.

I told her that if the floor supervisor said it was okay, I would do shift change in the cage, since it's only been since October that I've been out of there. The supervisor agreed, and I switched out with Jerri, letting the girls at the player's club know that I'd be gone for the rest of the night. We only had a couple of drawings left, and they could easily handle it.

So I went over and rescued Jerri, and wandered around the cage for the first five minutes thinking, "Wow! It's bright in here! And big! Now...what do I do?" I'd forgotten where a lot of the paper work was, and where to begin counting, along with how to count the racks of poker chips in the back cabinet.

I regained the hang of things after a few minutes, and was back in the cage like the pro I used to be. My old supervisor came in for shift change, which wasn't awkward or anything, like I was thinking it might be. Ed, the cashier coming on for graveyard asked me, "So you're Tammy tonight, eh?" No one seemed too phased by the whole deal, just me, who'd been out of the loop for so long, I kinda forgot what it was like in there.

All in all it was a good experience. I just hope they don't start using it as an excuse to call me in to work for people. I'd get a crapload of hours, but I wouldn't want to spend an entire day in there again. Two hours was plenty for me!

Friday, January 12, 2007

Whoops!

Yesterday while finishing up laundry and taking it downstairs from the third floor, I slipped on the last flight of stairs and landed flat on my butt. Not my tail bone, thank goodness, but just my butt. Along with two loads of laundry in the basket to go with my own weight. I could feel my spine compress, and then relax back to its normal state. Ouch. The whole rest of the day was painful.

About four or five years ago, I wrecked my old car, and pinched a nerve in my back. It hasn't really acted up in the last couple of years, but I know it could very easily. Well, slipping on the stairs was just the thing that my nerves needed to get all tweaked and in pain again. Aaron borrowed a heating pad from his parents for me, rubbed my back, and got some ibuprofen for me. None of which really seemed to help. I tossed and turned all night, trying to find a comfortable spot to sleep, but it just wasn't happening.

When I woke up this morning, the pain was gone. And now, a few hours later, it hasn't reappeared. I can only imagine what seven and a half hours of work on my feet are going to do for my back...but here's hoping that it only lasted for the day...

Tuesday, January 09, 2007

Employee Appreciation Party!

Last night was our annual employee appreciation-slash-Christmas party at work. We held it atwork since we work in a casino, that way it doesn't cost the place anything. Heck, they probably make a crap load of money off of us.

I signed up for both the poker tournament and the slot tournament, which each had a $250/300 cash prize for first place. In the poker tournament, I only won TWO hands, but I almost made it to the final table. I was one hand away from it, with $400 (not much) left in tournament chips. But I had to go all in, and someone beat my pair of 5s with a pair of 10s. Go figure. I'd seen people go all in on weird card combos and win, so I figured I might try the same. Didn't happen for me.

Then the slot tournament was a bust. I only got 546 points, and I think first place had somewhere around 5,000 points. No biggie. After playing a few machines, I went and sat by Betty who was playing the new Elvis machine and watched her for a while. She loves Elvis, and apparently yesterday was his birthday, so she was celebrating! After I gave her some good luck by just hanging out, she gave me $5 to play on the other Elvis machine next to her, and I won $194 off of that five dollar bill. Pretty cool, I'd say.

Then we got bored, and karoke was starting to get bad (ie; people had been drinking for about 4 hours at this point), so Aaron and I headed up the street to the next casino, I won $40, and we went home.

All in all, not a bad night money-wise. Food wasn't bad, but the music was. The machines treated me nice, but the tournaments didn't. I think we were home by 10pm, that's how bored we got. At least this year I could play the slot machines, and now the cashiers this year can play the slots, too, so that was a vast improvement...I was bored outta my skull a LOT earlier last year.

Anyway, that's it for now. We're off to Rapid City to do some shopping and get out of this town for a while. Until next time!

Friday, January 05, 2007

Back to work

Aaron and I wandered around downtown today, which was nice, because we haven't been out and about in a while. Even though it's only downtown, we hadn't been there together in forever. Yesterday while doing laundry, I ran into my upstairs neighbor. We know each other by site, but had never officially met. She said, "I bet you hate living underneath us," because they have a 2-year old son who is constantly running and stomping all over the place, but I've grown used to it. After two years of living in this place, I'm finally used to it.

Now it's back to work for the weekend, which will be a nice change from last weekend, which was CRAZY busy. Since the holidays are over and the big cash giveaways are over, things will calm down a bit. I hear January and February and lame at work, which will give me some time to relax and catch my breath a bit.

The new queen size mattress is wonderful!! I love it, and even though I've yet to get a full night's sleep on it (I keep waking up in the middle of the night for some reason), I think it's great to have all that space to spread out and sleep with.


Isn't it beautiful? I've already ripped the new sheets for it! Not the fitted sheet, but the flat one, when I was taking it off for laundry. It got caught on the bed frame. Stupid metal bed frames. I'm not used to those things.

Anywho...Oh, I have a quick survey, 'cause I noticed this during my student teaching; when the students are learning to type on computer programs, it only has them put one space after the period. After you end a sentence, do you put one space, or two spaces? I space twice after a period. Is that weird? A thing of the past? Who knows. It feels weird to only put one space after a period. Anyway...stupid question, but I hope I get some answers out of you folks, my five die-hard readers! (You know who you are, Mom, Vegas, Shirley, Randy, and Jill!)

*EDIT*
my six die-hard readers! (You know who you are, Mom, Ashley, Vegas, Shirley, Randy, and Jill!)

Wednesday, January 03, 2007

Owwie

It's 3am. I'm up in the middle of the night with a headache because I went to bed with one. If I go to sleep with a headache, I wake up with one 10x worse. I couldn't take any ibuprofen or Advil before bed because I'd had a screwdriver earlier. Urg. Kill me now. It won't go away.

Saturday, December 30, 2006

Durrrrr.

Work is silly. We've been asking if we could dress up nice for New Year's Eve tomorrow night for our big $25K giveaway. Everyone else will be dressed up for the celebration, we'll be giving away tons of money, and it would be the ONE time that we get to dress up nice. Diner supervisors get to dress up. Floor supervisors dress up. Pit bosses dress up. Managers dress up. Why can't we, for ONE NIGHT dress up? I asked my manager about it. He said he'd talk to them upstairs about it. Why can't he, as our manager, make a decision about us? Why does he have to talk to the people upstairs? They're not our managers. They probably don't even know what our uniforms are. They probably wouldn't know who we are without our uniforms on!

So that's a no-go. And it's stupid. I have half a mind to just show up in my suit. What're they going to do? Send me home to change? Okay, I'll be back in an hour! No, I wouldn't do that. But seriously, jeez.

I got my PLT (Principles of Learning & Teaching) scores back from the test I had to take a little over a month ago. Before the scores came in, however, I got something in the mail from the organization that gives the test; a certificate of excellence, stating that I had done extremely well on the test, scoring in the top 15% of all test takers in the past years. Then after I got my scores back, I scored above average on the test, and got 40 points more than the cut-off score for South Dakota. Sooooo, that made me very happy. I do know what I'm doing!

We have baseboard heaters in our apartment that are probably the originals with the building. I think this building was built in the 70s or so, so everything in here is about 25 years old, give or take, if my estimation is right. Anyway, about three weeks ago when we turned on the heater, this really acrid, putrid, electricy burning smell was coming from the heaters. We turned it off and didn't use it again until just recently because it really hadn't been THAT cold outside. Well, we needed to use it again recently, and it still smelled horrible. We left a note for the landlord yesterday, and he happened to be in the building at the time, clearing the sidewalks of snow and other chores around the building. While he was busy, and before he got the note, we rearranged the furniture in the bedroom, 'cause the bed was up against the wall with the heater. He came and looked at it, but said that he couldn't see anything, so he called the electric company, and they're going to come in on Tuesday and look at it for us. Until then, we keep the door to the bedroom closed, and it's a chilly 20* in there at all times. Brrrrr.

Well, I've rambled on for long enough. To those of you who've made it this far, congratulations, you win a cookie!

Tuesday, December 26, 2006

*sigh*

Well, it's all over now. No more school at Black Hills State University. No more student teaching. No more taking tests. No more classes. What am I going to do with my life?!

I guess I could start by getting the apartment orderly and neat, and maybe finish some crochet/knitting projects that I started back in the summer and didn't have time to finish during the school year. Then I could play some of the games Aaron got me for Christmas (so as to keep me out of his hair while he's at work), and then, I just don't know yet. Schools are closed for the week, but I want to get my name into the schools in Spearfish so I can get some substitute teaching jobs for the rest of the school year.

Christmas was a lot of fun this year. On Sunday, Aaron and I went to his sister's house, where all of his family had gathered; we had a great roast dinner with trimmings, desserts, and snacks. I got to meet more of Aaron's family than I had in the past that day. The on Monday morning, we went to his parents' house to have Christmas breakfast and open presents. Aaron's brother was there that morning, too. After that, we drove to Gillette to visit my family and have Christmas dinner/lunch and open presents with them. We spent lots of time with our families, which is more than I can say for last year or the year before that.

I'm pretty pooped from all the family gatherings these last couple of days, and I have a few days to recover before I have to go back to work on Friday. I'll start working Monday nights at the casino, which will put me up to 30 hours a week instead of 22 hours a week. Much better for the paycheck, and that way I won't be home 4 days a week, bored out of my skull. I'm also working all night shifts, so that won't interfere with substitute teaching.

We didn't have a white Christmas, either. The big snow storm that was supposed to hit us last week went South to Denver, and completely missed us. I can't remember the last time we had a good amount of snow. Over a month, at least. But I guess we're supposed to get a big storm here in the next couple of days, but it could do the same thing that this last storm did, or go up North to North Dakota. Who knows. I'd be happy without snow because I hate having to drive from Spearfish to Deadwood when the roads are covered in snow...that hill is some scary stuff.

Saturday, December 16, 2006

At last, at last!

Well, the time has come!! As of 12pm this afternoon, I am a graduate of Black Hills State University! I walked across the stage, shook hands with the president of the college, and got my fake diploma! (The real one will be mailed to me in February, I just got the shell for it today).

Mom, Dad, Ashley, and Uncle John all came up from Gillette to see me graduate. Aaron's parents, Shirley and Randy came, along with Aaron's sister Alecia and her youngest daughter, the Abby-gator.

We had a small get together at our apartment afterwards, which was nice, and my cooperating teacher, Kathy came to visit, which was great! I'm glad that my parents got to meet her and that she got to meet my parents. Also, my parents got to meet Dr. Austin, the professor who observed three of my lessons and evaluated me on them. Both Kathy and Dr. Austin had nothing but good things to say about me to my parents, so that made me feel really great.

Dr. Austin really gave me a lot of the confidence I needed in order to help me get as far as I did. He gave me constructive criticism, asked me great questions that made me think about my lesson and how I dealt with the children, and praised my good points.

Kathy was wonderful to work with. I don't think I could have been more lucky in my placement for student teaching. She is a wonderful teacher who knows what she is doing. She's updated on teaching styles and techniques, knows the new strategies, and implements them in the classroom. She teaches very similar to the way we were taught to teach in the college. I loved working with her, and even though it was a lot of hard work, it definitely paid off!