Work, Evil Children, Two-Toned Hair, and HARRY POTTER!!!!

Man, I feel like I haven't talked to you in forever! (and when I say "talked" I mean written; and when I say "you" I mean me. Because even though I know people will read it, my blog is my diary.)

So much has been going on....

I took that week between jobs and got a lot of much needed housework done, as planned. I also spent a lot of time with the kids, as planned. I started at Quiznos on July 2nd, as planned. And I'm adjusting well, I think. My first week sucked for a couple of reasons. 1) I developed a sinus infection, presumably from swimming the week prior so I was sick as fuck.   2) Due to the sinus infection, which rendered me miserable, my boss sent me home early on my 4th day so that I could go to the doctor (who gave me antibiotics in the form of mongo horse pills, but they totally worked so I guess I should stop bitching). 3) I felt completely lost because I had no idea what the hell I was doing and apparently neither does anyone else at that place. 4) For some reason I had a piss poor attitude and decided that I didn't like it there.    That's more than a couple, but once I started naming off the reasons, more just kept coming to mind.

I'm feeling better about it now, though. I'm learning the morning routine. Everything is very structured. I've been opening so when I get there, I count the register and do the morning paperwork. Then I have to go through a checklist that's 4 pages long, but it's all one sentence shit.

• Turn on soup warmer
• Turn on sauce cooler
• Check breakfast stock
• Count bread
• Pull bread from freezer according to what will be needed for the day

Those 5 steps take about 2 minutes to complete and the only reason it takes that long is because i have to count 3 different sizes of 4 types of bread and compare it to how much of each was sold the day before to figure out how much we should need for the day. The rest of my morning consists of heating up the things that need to be hot and putting them in the appropriate warmers, doing temp and sanitation checks (I actually enjoy that part), and waiting on the few customers that stream in here and there. As the day progresses I take a log of how much of each back-up we have, determine how much we need, and make it. Everything is really pretty much done for me. Everything is written down on charts and logs telling me what the PAR is (how much we need). All I have to do is see how much there is and make enough to reach PAR. Explaining it in writing shows how very little it actually is. Doing it takes all day. The time-consuming part is making the back-ups. Everything has to be weighed. Everything. I slice the meats and cheeses and then do the "pre-weighs."  I have to take a little piece of deli paper and put it on the scale, then measure out 2 ounces of the meat and wrap it up, place it in a bin and repeat until the bin is full. Then it gets a nice little label stating what the product is, who prepared it, when it was prepared (date and time), and when it expires (date and time). With the cheeses, I make a few slices, weighing each and adjusting the slice thickness until each slice is half an ounce. Then I only have to weigh every other slice. If the slices begin deviating from the half ounce mark, then I go back to weighing each and adjusting the thickness again until I get it where it needs to be. It has to be adjusted a few times per block of cheese because as it's slicing and getting smaller, it also gets lighter therefore not putting as much pressure on the blade and the slices get thinner. It's a pain in the ass, but it makes the day go by. If we did things the way I'm used to doing them, I'd be done in 2 hours and bored off my ass all day. When I started there, they told me it was a busy store. I was ready to be slammed all the time. At Sub Depot, busy meant we did $1800 in sales, $1500 of which was in 2 hours. At Quiznos, from 6am until 2pm, we do about 300. That's sooooo not busy. I stay busy because I have a lot detailed shit to do, but the store itself, no. I don't know how they stay open.    But anyway, I'm liking it better now that I have a routine established and I can figure out how to make stuff. How to make the sandwiches at Sub Depot was very hard to memorize because they were all different. All the stuff went on them in a different order for each sandwich and there were so many different combinations. At Quiznos, all the meat is already weighed out and at our fingertips. There are only 3 kinds of cheese (as opposed to the 8 that I'm used to), There are only 4 types of bread (Sub Depot, 8), and we offer very few toppings. If you go to Quiznos and want anything other than tomatoes, onions, black olives, lettuce, or pickles on your shit...hate it for ya. Oh, wait, we have mushrooms too, but they're all black and soggy. They call it
"sauteed". I call it black and soggy. So work is going well, I guess. 

The kids are evil. I don't know what the deal is lately. I guess they've been at my house too much and I'm way more lax than William so they've gotten out of the habit of behaving. There's a line between being mean and being stern and I've blurred it, apparently. I've always felt like William is too hard on them, telling them they can't do something for no reason at all. I feel like unless there's a reason why they shouldn't be allowed to do it, let them do it. Here lately though, they're taking advantage of my leniency. Instead of "Hey, Mom, can I go to the playground/basketball court/my friends house?"  I get "I'm going to...." as they're running out the door.    Um, excuse me?   And normally it's "I'm hungry, when are we having dinner?"  But lately its "I'm starving to death, are you ever gonna feed us?"  Um, excuse me?    And I know it's my fault. I don't discipline them. Part of the reason for that is I thought I had them trained. You know, you teach a dog something and once it's instilled in their minds, you never have to remind them. It just becomes the way it is. Don't get on the furniture. Don't jump on people. Don't shit in the floor. Don't snatch food. Stuff like that. You don't have to keep telling the dog for years and years. Once they learn it, they know it.   For some reason, I assumed children were as smart, if not smarter, than dogs. They used to speak to me respectfully and ask permission for shit. I thought once they knew it was supposed to be done that way, they would just always do it. Nuh uh. I guess I'm gonna have to start putting the smack down again. And that really sucks because they don't like me when I put the smack down and I don't like it when they don't like me. So now, since they're evil, I have to make myself miserable. See how I blame them for my mistakes? Ya liked that, didn't ya?

School is...school. That last class I was in completely sucked. Statistics involves math. I hate math.  This class is Biological Psychology, which is basically about the chemical aspect of craziness. I guess I should say psychological illnesses, but I'm just not that sensitive. I like the material. It's interesting and all. I'm just not feeling school right now. July 4th was a Monday so we didn't have class, which meant 2 weeks went by between classes and I got a taste of Spring Fever, I guess. Unfortunately, I don't get a summer vacation from school. I really shouldn't complain. Hell, I only go once a week. But right now, I don't want to go at all. In fact, I should be doing homework this very minute. What am I doing instead? Wasting time, procrastinating, being lazy...call it whatever you like. My opinion is that writing is an outlet for me to express myself and relax, which is vital to my mental health and therefore required for my field of study. That makes sense right? So, in the big picture, I am doing homework. I just won't be graded on it. 

Heather got 2 teeth extracted the other day. She was miserable. I've never seen her like that. They gave her 7.5mg Lortab but it wasn't helping. She tossed and turned and whined all night. She got up several times to take baths. Just laying in the hot water soothed her a little, but when she came back to bed, she was pitiful again. I felt so bad becasue I couldn't do anything to help. Yesterday was a little better, but she was still sore and cranky from it. She's been at work all day and should be home soon. I hope she's not cranky tonight. I'm poopy and needy, but if she's cranky I'll leave her alone. 

My Nic came over the other night and let me dye her hair.  I've never dyed anyone's hair before, other than my baby nephew and that was blue just for shits and giggles. It actually turned out green so that should have been a red flag right there, but Nikki didn't know this before she agreed to let me do it. Surprizingly, I did a pretty good job. Pretty good, not great, or perfect or even good...just pretty good. I only missed one huge streak. Lucky for me (or for Nikki, I guess) she bought 2 bottles of dye and I only used 1 to begin with. After discovering the neglected chunk of hair, we decided to use the 'phone a friend' lifeline and I called Davian, my most awesome hair care professional and friend. I explained what I did and she told me to just do that side again with the 2nd bottle. No biggie. So I did and it looked fine from what I can tell. Nic hasn't told me how the final product looks once it's been styled, but I'm sure if it wasn't good, I'd have heard about it by now. Nikki's a Navejo Bitch and it takes a lot to upset her, but once she's pissed off, the whole world knows it and you better get out of the way!

I'm super excited because this time tomorrow I will be on my way to Hollywood 27 to stand in line for who knows how long to see the midnight showing of Harry Potter and Deathly Hallows pt. 2!  That sentence didn't express how truly excited I am. Let me see if I can somehow....

I'M SUPER EXCITED!!!!

That'll work. I've been waiting for this for 6 years. Some people have been waiting longer than that, but I didn't get into the world of HP until '05.  My bestie, John Thomas (who, seemingly, I will never see again) made me go with him in the summer of '04 to watch HP and Prizoner of Azkaban. That's the 3rd one. After that he tried to convince me to read the books. "They're so much better," he said. "The movies leave a lot out," he said. Psshhht. I don't care enough to read those silly children's books. Then in 2005 when William had to go Bulgaria for 2 weeks, I was bored enough to pick up book 1 of the HP series. Thus began my eternal geekness. I was hooked. Since I hadn't seen the first 2 movies, there was tons of shit that I didn't know about, plus all the shit that the movies leave out anyway. Up to that point there were only 5 books out. I devoured them all in 2 weeks. And if you've ever seen of the HP books, you know that means I reading constantly. It was later that same year when book 6 was released and I consumed it within days. Then I rented the first 3 movies and watched them. The 4th came out and I went to the theater to see it. Then I got crazy. When the 5th movie came out, i was working at O'Charley's and a guy there was crazy about HP too so we agreed to go see the midnight show on opening night. He brought his mom and I brought my Nic, a guy who was a dad-like person to me at the time, William, and another friend of ours, Jay. We saw it in IMAX 3D, which was overrated. Then for the 6th movie, it was just me and Nikki, who blubbered like a baby. I started crying several minutes before the tear-jerking scene just because I knew it was coming. Nic hasn't read all of the books so she's behind the times. The 7th movie, which is part 1 of the last book was me, Nic, and my Heathers. That was the first time Heather had been to a midnight HP show. She thought it was retarded to go stand in line for all that time and stay up late as fuck just to be able to say that we saw it first. But that's what I do. And we're doing it again tomorrow night!!!   It's kinda sad in a way because this is the very last one. There will be no more. All gone. The end. Bye-bye.   :-(      I'm super excited!

Well, the kids arrived a short while ago, breaking my concentration and indicating the end of my relaxation. Plus, my Heathers is home from work so I'm gonna spend time with her. She's not cranky so I get to cuddle! 

I know this was really long, but that's what happens when I go so long without writing. Maybe I should be a writer. I like writing. I'd love to get paid to just sit and write all day. Anyway, I'll try not to wait so long next time so you won't have to suffer through such a long post.  Peace, Love, & Anal beads! (if you're into that sort of thing)