Domestic Geek

Have you ever noticed that during the morning hours on television (between 9 and noon) that there is an overabundance of trade school commercials? In the last hour, while watching Regis and Kelly, I have seen commercials for the Denver School of Massage Therapy(three times), CollegeAmerica, Platt College (twice), Bel-rea Insitute for Veterinary Training, Westwood College(twice), Denver Career College(twice). I'm sure I missed a couple of them. It's the same with lawyer commercials, too. They really go after those that can't or aren't working for some reason, don't they?

Thankfully, come Monday morning, I won't be around to see them.
I start my new job on Monday!
Yay me!!!!! *happy dance*

While viewing my counter stats, I found a site linking to me called East Colfax. I'm not quite sure what the point of that site is (except the photolog) but there was a link there to Streets of Pizza by Pizzaman. I love reading sites of pizza drivers. It's comforting to know that I wasn't the only one that put up with all sorts of shit doing that job. He linked to one of my favorite sites ever, Tip the Pizza Guy.com. I'm tempted to get one of those stickers to put on my new car, when I get it that is. That led me on a path of following other driver blogs. I'll have to compile a list someday. Interesting reads.

Well, I'm over $300 short of paying my bills this month. Between the higher cost of gas and making $280 less this March than I made last March for making dough (not to mention that I was also making cash delivering pizzas--I don't think buttmunch had cut my hours yet), I'm slightly screwed. We've got several theories at work as to why sales are sucking so bad. First, our advertising sucks (what little there is of it). Second, our owner raised the prices to be in line with all the major chains. Since our product (and service) isn't as good, people would rather order from them. Third, our carry-out business increased because why pay more and have to wait more when you can get it waaaay cheaper by coming in. Fourth, our area is becoming increasing non-English speaking and our manager refuses to hire anybody that speaks Spanish. Fifth, there is no hockey.

Good news is the screen printers finally called me back and I should be starting there full time in the next couple of weeks. Since I'll be more or less doubling my income (I can't quit pizza just yet), I'll be able to get my bills caught up and get the things I need to start my own business. And a newer car...I really need one of those.

I know I said I wasn't going to talk about work anymore, but I just had to get this out:

I slept a good portion of yesterday afternoon in preparation of pulling an all-nighter at work so I could have the rest of Tuesday and all day Wednesday off. I had plans to get there just after the closing staff left and, even though I'd have to put away the food orders when they got there, I was going to do two days' worth of dough.

Marcus bought a new vehicle yesterday because his poor truck is ready to throw a rod and the transmission loses 2nd and 3rd gears when it gets warm. He got home about 10:30 pm. He needed a ride back to the car dealer to pick his truck up so it wouldn't sit there all night. The dealer is pretty close to the places where we work. Timing was almost perfect. By the time he showed me the new vehicle and we drove over there, it would be just a little later than I had planned on being at work.

After I left Marcus and drove to work, I pull up in front of the building and nobody is left. SCORE! This is going to work. I should've suspected something was going to go wrong at that very moment. I went inside, got my supplies ready, turned on the tap to fill the water bucket and . . . nothing. No water. Nada. Not even a dribble. Maybe the faucet is bad again and they turned the water off. I tried every faucet in the store. No water at all. Damn it! I went ahead and prepped onions and peppers. Still no water. I gathered all the half-full water bottles that staff had left everywhere to rinse the peppers. I rearranged the walk-in to make room for dough and the food orders. Still no water. I figured out how much dough I'd have to make for the next three days. I weighed out sugar/salt cups for the next three days. Still no water. I sat for 15 minutes brainstorming web design business names and making today's to-do list. Still no water.

By now, it's 1:30 am. I'm pissed and frustrated beyond belief. The first food delivery hasn't even shown up yet so that I could put that away to kill some time. I gave up and went home.

So much for the best-laid plans, eh? Now I'm torn as to what to do. I don't want to waste the gas to drive back over there again today. There won't be time to get two days' worth done before rush, either, since I can't show up until after noon. This totally sucks. I'm going back to bed. Maybe I'll have better clarity about the situation later. Yeah, right.

Sorry if things go a little wonky around in the next couple of days. I'm trying new things on the old blog. I'm absolutely determined to get part of my web business going (blog design) and I need to learn as much about Expression Engine and Wordpress as possible. If you see the site offline message, it means I screwed something up and I'm trying to fix it. That happened today when I was trying to make a second weblog in a new directory and suddenly both URLs went to the same page. I'm noticing Expession Engine documentation is not the best when explaining how to do things. I don't know if it is because most of the people using it are more programming savvy than I or what. If it wasn't for Marcus, I'd have dumped this long ago.

Things at work are getting absolutely stupid. I don't even want to talk about it anymore. It'll just make me more angry. I'm on the verge of snapping, so I need to get away before I get my butt fired.

So, I need a name for my web design business. Any ideas? (serious ones, Marcus!)

Well, today was the last day of my Oral Presentation class. My presentation went relatively well. At least it is over. I'm really wiped out. I got about 4 hours sleep last night and was working on the project all day today. As soon as The Apprentice is over, I'm off to bed.

It was really weird realizing that I am probably never going to sit in a classroom there again. I've been going there since June 2002 and it had become my second home. Many of the staff there are like family. I got a little verklempt. I mean, I'd like to take some multimedia classes and such, but the chances of me having the money to go are slim (unless I win the lottery or suddenly land some really high-paying gigs). I'll probably be paying off student loans forever. Who knows? I might be able to teach myself or have my interests go in a different direction once I get out in the field. We'll see. I need to spend the weekend finishing up my final web project and than I'm totally done with my degree.

I tried pressing my teacher for info on the status of my previous job interview. She said she can't say whether I'm hired or not since it is not her decisison. Apparantly, the company is waiting for the city to approve something before they can be in the position to hire. Stupid city of Denver is dragging their feet. They definitely liked me, though. So, keep your fingers crossed and say prayers if you're into that. I need all the help I can get because I want this job! Thanks!

Now that I'm almost done with school, I'm going to push myself to do some web design on the side for extra income. I had planned on staying at the pizza place for up to a year as a 2nd job to get some of my bills paid off, but I just can't do it. There are so many things going on there that blow my mind. There is so much drama and crap. If only those people would spend one tenth of the energy providing good customer service and building sales as they did with all their little melodramas, I'd be rich. I need a question answered though: Why do women who seem to hate men with every fiber of their being have boyfriends and/or get married? I am so sick of male-bashing at work. Most of these women are no picnics, either. They keep trying to get me to say disparaging things about men, too, but I won't. Even if I had terrible feelings and thoughts about Marcus, I sure wouldn't air them at work. I know some people really hate Dr. Laura, but she's right about one thing. If you want love and respect from your man, show him the same. Seems relatively simple, doesn't it?

OK, show's over. Off to bed.