crazy kitties

recent kitty adventures involve the discovery of cheap plastic easter eggs, which i had filled with kitty treats and catnip; also the discovery of real eggshells i had dyed for easter. a melange of both are now randomly scattered across the floor. i've picked them all up twice, but the kitties are SO CUTE batting those eggs around or trying to get at the treats inside... so far i think twilight is the only one who knows that one must break open the plastic eggs for treats to appear. shadow is crazy about the real eggshells - he keeps batting them all over the house. hobbes can smell the 'nip, but can't figure out where it is, so he's just crazy in general. and balloon thinks the others have all lost their minds, and ignores the eggs. he just wants to be cuddled and carried around. although he did be a "big boy" and go out on the leash for a while the other day. it's been his dream since he was a baby to be just like hobbes, and going out on the leash is a big step to being hobb-like. sweet little balloon. he was so proud he was practically strutting.
so easter was fun. i put a king kong dvd in shaggy's basket, and he didn't get a basket, but also purchased king kong...for himself. he got me the narnia dvd and the da vinci code novel - trying to be somewhat religious-themed while still interesting. i love the dvd. i'll probably watch it again today, since i'm off (with allergies) and shaggy's working all day. the book, well... the premise is incredibly cool, and the story is engaging, but the writing leaves much to be desired. for example, several of the "twists" were beyond obvious, and many of the others were impossible - when one is writing in third person-omniscient, one must remember who has thought what. it doesn't work for a character to have good-guy thoughts, and then turn out to be the villain. so my overall rating for the da vinci code is "eh".
after the gift exchange, and presenting of eggs to the cats, we had an egg-themed evening: eggplant parmesan with egg noodles, also deviled eggs. and for some reason i made a cake and wrote happy easter on it with purple frosting. neither of us is big on cake, so there's quite a bit of that left.

i got the job

WAAAHOOOOOO!!!!

on may 3rd, i will officially begin my career with the ymca of san diego! my new boss was very excited to share the news with me, also that she had been authorized to start my pay a dollar more than i was expecting (per hour). so it'll still be a pay cut from world market, but not such a big one anymore.
speaking of world market...
my current boss is reviewing the copy of my (incredibly damning) comments that i gave her, and she is none too pleased. she'll be even less pleased when i turn in my notice tomorrow, and inform her that the comments have been faxed to corporate hr.

yay, i think

i may have just NAILED my interview at the Y! from what i can tell, the decision is between me, who they like, and someone else also named linda (when will i escape this curse?!?) who has more experience, but isn't as much of a favorite with the staff. it's got to be a tough choice, what with them needing someone experienced, but with several upset people if i don't get the job - for example, shaggy's boss informed my potential boss that i would be awesome, and that she'd better hire me, regardless of skills, because i would fit in so well. then the executive director wished me luck on the way in to the interview. then the three "interview board" people asked me a bunch of questions i was prepared for, and i asked them some that they weren't, we all laughed at one point, and it was, by far, the most fun i have ever had while interviewing for a job.
i'll find out on monday.

in further news, my current boss is in deep, deep doggy doo. my nine and a half pages of "comments" which refute (with documentation) practically my entire performance review, have been approved as a "good job" by my former boss, and will be submitted to corporate hr tomorrow. which gives my boss the weekend to SQUIRM before they call her to ask questions.
BWAAAAHHAAAHAAAHAAAHAAAHAHAAHAAAHAA!

regarding the recent protests

"

Subject: American flag v. Mexican flag at CA. high school--disgusting public acts

THE AMERICAN FLAG COMES SECOND

By Michelle Malkin · March 29, 2006 01:15 AM

You will not see this heart-stopping photo on the front page of the NY Times or on the lead story of the major news networks.

You should (hat tip: Mika and F/R):

03/28 : Student protest in Whittier area students from Pioneer, California and Whittier high schools walked out of classes to protest the proposed federal immigration bill March 27, 2006. The protestors put up the Mexican flag over the American flag flying upside down at Montebello High.

(Leo Jarzomb/Staff photo)

More:

Meanwhile: Mexico Cheers Passage of Immigration Bill

Like I said: Welcome to reconquista.

I predict this stunt will be the nail in the coffin of any guest-worker/amnesty plan on the table in Washington. The image of the American flag subsumed to another and turned upside down on American soil is already spreading on Internet forums and via e-mail. Pass this along to every American citizen in your address books and to every representative in the state and federal government. If you choose to remain uninvolved do not be amazed when you no longer have a nation to call your own nor anything you have worked for left since it will be "redistributed" to the activists while you are so peacefully staying out of the "fray". Check history, it is full of nations/empires that disappeared when its citizens no longer held their core beliefs and values. One person CAN make a difference. One plus one plus one plus one plus one plus one.........

The battle for our secure borders and immigration laws that actually mean something, however, hasn't even begun."

wish me luck

for some reason, i was scheduled to come in to work at 6am today, even though there is NOTHING to do. My whole crew has been diverted to another store whose entire crew quit, so while they are gone, all my trucks have been postponed. since i lacked anything truly productive to work on, i spent the morning making photocopies of corporate policy, highlighting certain sections, and leaving the copies conspicuously around the office - some of them with helpful notes added by me, i.e. "i know it's a pain to be doing blah blah blah all the time, but since corporate tells us to do it, perhaps we should".
my second "interview" at the y is tomorrow. i've been told it will begin with a tour of the facilities, and meeting several people, some of whom may ask me questions about my abilities. then lunch.

hmmm

oh boy, look out! now i know how to post pictures!!

this is samson, the resident african lion at the fund for animals wildlife rehabilitation center.
isn't he gorgeous?

it's fun to stay at the...

i'm going to work with shaggy!
how cool is that?!? i just spoke to my (hopefully) new boss, who prefaced my "interview" with, "this is exciting! i'm so glad you want to work here!". fortunately the full-time admin job that just opened up at the y is under someone we already know. and it just so happened to be available when my boss informed me that i will (again) not be receiving a raise at my current job, due to many issues - the foremost of which, that she is full of crap. about 97.6% of my annual review was outright lies, or exaggerations, or misinformation... for example: the closing manager is responsible for taking out trash at the end of the night. the other/evil lynda expressed that employees might put merchandise out with the trash for their friends to pick up, so we agreed that whichever of us closed would leave the trash collected, in a cart, just inside the door, to be thrown out the next morning by the other (who would be the opening manager). sound reasonable? so for a while, i threw out trash every morning that had been left just inside the door. then i became a closing manager, and left trash, collected, in a cart just inside the door every night. so my review says that i don't close the store in accordance with company policy, citing that i leave the trash inside, rather than in the dumpster. i have a sneaky suspicion that the evil lynda was responsible for the complaint, since nobody else opens, so nobody else would have seen the trash there. does anyone doubt her evilness? especially seeing as it WORKED!! that bitch got a dollar raise!! and she can't do paperwork worth garbage! i started fixing her paper messes this morning, but i got so frustrated with all the spaces not filled out, that i just filed the whole thing, mistakes and blank spaces and all. and then i fixed the mess she left in our storage container. and it goes on. i probably should have never picked up after her to begin with - then it would have been obvious that she doesn't do anything productive.
so i am in the process of compiling "comments", which i am allowed to file officially with the corporate office, to go along with my review. so far i have 6 typed pages and 14 attachments documenting that the review is made up of lies. yes, i do plan to leave the company immediately after filing them, but the purpose of the comments is to hopefully "encourage" my boss to leave as well. i hope she gets canned. and the other lynda too.
in the meantime, i am very excited to go to work at the ymca, starting two weeks from whenever they get my background check done. yikes! i guess i mean next february (ha ha). seriously, i get so angry when i think about what my company is allowing to be done to me, but then i think about this new job, and i just get happy. since i turned in my ymca application, shaggy's more angry about the whole thing than i am. i'm not even binging on chocolate. okay i ate a few pieces.

lightning never strikes the same place twice

i hope. i am led to wonder if lightning could ever strike the same person twice, if that person moved to a different location. the reason i question this is that i do not want to be struck again. yes, i said again.

yesterday was an interesting day.

the story is as follows: i went to work at 5am, as usual. unlike usual, it was pouring, slashing, pounding rain - probably some of the most severe rain i have encountered (and i've been through some monsoons). luckily, shaggy didn't need the car that day, so i was able to drive to work, instead of bicycling. so i get to work, and the truck i'm supposed to unload at 6am is, unaccountably, early. so i set most of the crew to working on various tasks, and "invite" one lucky helper to assist me in dragging pallets of merchandise through the rain and into the store for the other folks to break down and put away. we had brought in maybe three pallets, and i was on the truck with a *metal* pallet jack to pick up the fourth, and suddenly the world exploded, and there was a terrific noise, and then the guy who had been helping me began to freak out. see, he was outside the truck, and saw it get smacked by a bolt of lightning. the bolt sent sparks into the store (and over it - some other employees at the front entrance saw sparks on their end).
by some freak of chance, i had timed the pallet jack's lifting of pallets (which lifts all the metal parts of the jack off the truck floor) to just before the lightning hit, and i have cheap-ass rubber soled shoes. so i didn't die. didn't even hurt. just experienced - which i am in no hurry to do. ever. again.
so after a few minutes of being very afraid, and shouting, and carrying on, and such, we finished unloading the truck, and went to make sure the truck driver survived, which he had. his limited grasp of the english language made it difficult for me to find out if he was aware of what had happened.
("hey, that lightning was CRAZY!!" "oh, yes, yes, okay". "Are you alright?" "Okay, bye bye".)

wow - readers!

hi everyone! and thanks for the publicity, jane... i think.
it looks like the protests are over. schools are open again, and officials are complaining that the protests, and resulting shut-downs wasted money. oh boo-hoo. if i were a teacher, i would have given a "final exam" on the second day of the protest. that way the kids who knew what was going on, and legitimately believed in the protest could have their day of marching and demonstrations, and all the idiots who went the next day just to get out of school, would fail my class. not "nice" maybe, but that's what i would do.
i am reminded of a day in high school when students who wished to attend a memorial service were excused from class for an afternoon, and several students used the excuse, but didn't attend the service - which deeply disturbed me. i never got over how stupid and shallow and sick and wrong that was.
i realize that protesting without a cause isn't the same thing, but there are similarities.

politics

so there are these protests happening here (and all over the country, i hear).
kids are walking out of school and marching to protest some anti-illegal-immigration legislation. and the schools are responding by closing down for a couple of days.
i would be a lot more supportive of the marches if the people involved waved american flags, and said good things about the country they (or the immigrants they're marching for) want to live in. but they are shouting "viva mexico!" and waving mexican flags. i really don't understand the logic.
while i'm not clear on exactly what the legislation says (that seems to depend on who you're talking to, and i haven't looked it up yet) personally, i would like to make it easier for people to emigrate legally (start up some work-earned citizenship program, for starters), and at the same time, practically impossible to sneak in (i'm talking massive fences on both sides of the border, with something nasty like hyenas in the middle - who's going to try to sneak through that?!?). then the hardworking, honest people would be able to come live here, as opposed to people who have already shown that they don't respect our laws.
also, i think we need to get tougher on tracking people with temporary visas (students, etc.) - and i'm not too far distant from this issue - my sister got "married" to someone whose visa was about to expire, so that he wouldn't have to leave the country. not that they had any kind of a relationship whatsoever (in fact, the man is gay). so i know that this is a problem. i don't know exactly how this would be done (a high-tech version of martha stewarts anklet, maybe?), but i am sure that several people have rational ideas.
shaggy says we can solve most of the illegal immigration problem by annexing mexico as our 51st state. it has plenty of resources, and with a truly representative state government (with term limits and fixed incomes), could monetarily support its own people quite well. i don't like the idea of us playing nanny, but it would probably be better than the people of mexico being oppressed by gangs and corrupt officials. if only they had the threat of wmd's, we could probably go help them out...
speaking of wmd's (man, i'm off on a political tangent today!!) i am constantly frustrated by being told that "bush lied". i'm not saying he was correct in stating that iraq posed a threat with regard to wmd's, i'm saying that he's not too bright, and repeated what he was told by "intelligence" folk. i admit that i am picky about words/definitions, etc., but it is fairly common knowledge that "to lie" is to knowingly convey untrue or inaccurate information. the key word being "knowingly". seriously, do the people who call him a "liar" think that bush is smart enough to have come up with a convincing enough lie to send america to war? i think not.
i agree that bush probably had personal reasons for wanting to go to war with iraq. i do not, however, agree that these reasons have anything to do with oil. have we taken a single ounce of oil from iraq? not that i've heard of. have we made agreements to purchase any of their oil? again, not that i've heard of. if we were to take any iraqui oil, how would bush benefit personally? i think that he wanted to finish off daddy's war, and jumped at any "evidence" that would let him do so. that he was misguided and misinformed is unfortunate - for all of us.
i wish there wasn't a war. if there had to be one, i wish we could have confined it to the hunting down of terrorist groups (hopefully with the help of local governments). and while i'm dreaming, i'd like a pony.

doobee

go jay 'n' silent bob!!! yeah right, like i do that kind of doobie...
this is stolen from jane, which was stolen from someone else, which blah blah blah... anyway:

these are the "i do's"
i do work at a retail store
i do work too much
i do volunteer work with animals when i have any time left after work
i do start lots of projects and not finish them (i'm in the middle of a book i'm writing, several i'm reading, a latchhook, several outfits, some pillows, organizing my stuff, creating music, a sketchbook, my taxes...)
i do love my aaron
i do talk a lot
i do try very, very hard to be a good boss and be civil to everyone, even when they piss me off (the operative word being "try")
i do love cats! and other furry things, but mostly cats
i do cook/bake often, and eat weird food

...and the "i be's"
i be crazily giddy when i can
i be very, very disappointed when i can't
i be obsessed with my kitties (all 4 of 'em!)
i be careful not to offend
i be scared to be too assertive, but
i be working on this
i be tired most of the time
i be angry when people abuse the system
i be contented with the day off at home with my cats and my honey

that was different. i usually blog about the day at work, and what i ate.