well, except for that whole having-health-insurance part. having waited two days too long to switch jobs, i get to do the waiting period all! over! again!

i hate america.

so i've decided to leave my (only recently acquired) receptionist gig. back to the salt mines of retail for me. i'm risking another bout of costochondritis, but at least i'll have health insurance. and i won't have to get up at six in the morning every goddamned day, after being promised afternoon shifts. and i'll have lunch breaks again. did i mention that the new job didn't allow lunch breaks for eight-hour shifts? or that they had compulsory hour-and-a-half lunch breaks built into the requisite twelve-hour shifts?

strange how the levels of respect given both to entry-level office workers and retail workers are precisely the same, and how both fall short of the basic respect one would ordinarily accord a fellow human being.

i have done a bad thing to my hair. sigh.

oh, no, i don't want to play with the beta children!

the transcript of the commencement address is up. curiously, it managed to irk me in a wholly unexpected way. kass did manage to vent his spleen at the evil innovation that is The Pill, of course, and he apparently finds most of modern medicine thoroughly disagreeable -- indeed, most of science -- but he managed, in the main, to avoid being hideously sexist, which was thoughtful of him. in fact, he even balanced the litany of Woman's reproductive sins (ohnoes, babies in bottles!1!) with a sharp word about dudes using the viagra. i will attempt to cobble together a coherent post on the matter when not simultaneously sick, preparing for a math exam, frantically cleaning the house pending a surprise landlady visit, and expected at work in seven hours.

campari and soda all round, then?

also, maybe a little less exposure to pathogens

ALL I WANT IS A NICE QUIET JOB IN A NICE QUIET PLACE WHERE I CAN TYPE THINGS AND FILE THINGS AND NOT HAVE TO GET UP TOO EARLY OR LIFT HEAVY THINGS TOO FREQUENTLY AND I HATE GOSSIPING WITH THE OTHER OFFICE STAFF I WOULD MUCH PREFER TO SPEND ALL OF MY TIME AT WORK QUIETLY ABSORBED IN MY WORK TASKS RATHER THAN ON THE PHONE WITH FRIENDS OR CHATTING WITH THE OTHER WORKERS AND WHY IS IT SO HARD TO FIND SUCH A JOB PLEASE

i don't want to sell things. i don't want to schmooze. i'm more than happy to take phone messages. i can deliver them with surprising accuracy. i know how phones work, even multi-line ones. i can type faster than most people can read. i can use any freaking sort of office equipment any office could possibly have, except maybe those electric staplers, because they're scary. after less than a week, i generally know how to use the office software better than my trainers. mac, PC, i don't care. if it at least has a graphical interface i'm fine. why won't anyone hire me to do these things? i am very good at these things. i LIKE doing these things. why have i been condemned to spend my life in retail? when i escape the hell of Technical Retail, i wind up in Reception, which has just as much selling as retail, these days, what with sucking up to the damn clients all the damn time. i pretend that i have people skills because i can't get a job where i don't have to have people skills, but i have so! many! more! skills!

what do i do? where can i look? i am disheartened.

a typical day at my new job involves:

- a frantic series of phone calls regarding an angry swarm of bees
- giant bunnies on the loose. giant itchy bunnies.
- surprise visits by small children bearing neon-pink-frosted cupcakes (with sprinkles!)
- dogs in silly hats
- the odd case of the plague

so far, i like this job.

because i'm a total sucker for philip pullman

Aradion

i think seven years without posting a single webquiz on my blog is a pretty good record. but now it is broken.

(and, like any decent webquiz, the result code provided is borked. so you'll have to use the link. go lookit my daemon, damnit. i always wanted one.)

in the middle of our street

We Have A House! with a yard that has lilac bushes and flowering trees and a big lovely cactus and grass to lie on during picnics and space enough for an herb garden, and a garage in which to play musical instruments, and a kitchen with enough room and enough light to cook. it doesn't have a phone that functions, which might make internets tricky, but that can be fixed. it doesn't have bookshelves, but that can be fixed too, and because it is bigger than the house we have now, we will have room for bookshelves sufficient to actually house all of the books. it doesn't have a washer or a dryer right now, but soon it will, and we won't have to drive to campus any more and illicitly use the laundry room and risk losing socks and running out of quarters. there is a shed in the back, even, where the bikes can live, so they won't be in the middle of everything all the damn time. the cat will have the frolicking-space she craves so desperately, and so will we.

we move on the 20th. we have a house!

note to self: try staying at a job for at least a week before deciding that you want to quit.

HAHAHAHAHAHA ONLY EIGHT MORE HOURS AND I AM FREE FREE FREE FREEEEEEEEEEE

...ahem.

well, not exactly 'free', since i start my new job tomorrow morning. but free enough, for the moment.

too. fucking. perfect.

see what had happened was...

so the two-week window given to me by SJC for a decision on my application two weeks ago has now been extended to sometime in two months.

ish.

give or take.


...maybe.

and think, they've only had my application since last september!

sigh.

i wrote a letter to the publicity flak at the annapolis campus. i was decidedly shrill. you can be shrill too!

patricia.dempsey@sjca.edu

there is a reasonably good chance that my decision from admissions is waiting for me in the mailbox at home. this does quite honestly make me question the wisdom of attending. at the very least, it puts a damper on things. in my letter, i said as much. not that they'll care, i suppose, but it's the best i can do, unable as i am to fly out there and dish up some fudge ripple.

i mean i'm pretty sure i get it at this point

am i still missing something crucial, or is the theory of forms just fundamentally retarded?