Long time no type. I went to Masshell to visit the fam on Saturday…my Christmas visit since I didn’t actually get to go on Christmas due to bad consumer guilt (no money for presents) and just a lack of money period. I know everyone says it’s not about that, but dining and chilling with success makes it not the most pleasant thing to come up empty-handed. I know it’s not all about that but I can only remember and regard those conversations about financial stability and big fat savings accounts as a good sign that I don’t fall in line with my family’s stated values. Remarkably, it was not stressful or even terrible. It was a grand ole time and I saw my little nieces and my brother and sister-in-law and my parents and little sister who still resides in their home. No words of encouragement or questioning as to when I plan on moving back came out of their mouths. Perhaps it was the veil of serenity and peace that I projected because I have decided not to declare my plans until they are actually finalized, or at the very least, close to conclusion. This way I cannot disappoint myself but just surprise everyone else. While I was home I read a few articles that seemed to make some sense to me in my mother’s magazines. One was regarding the benefits of coconut oil and it’s ability to start your metabolism like a junkie on his good fix. The other was an article about how licorice contains 8 of the 14 ingredients found in anti-depressants. When I was a kid I used to spit out the black jelly beans and gum drops because the color had no honest appeal to me. Now I will be consuming good amounts of licorice tea and coconut oil and green tea because my body needs a good metabolic clean-out.

So my trip concluded with a less than stellar visit down memory lane owed to some ridiculous idea of “Nostalgia”. Nostalgia with old friends is something that only powers so much tolerance, because as we grow older and mature, certain aspects of our teenage friendships warp and change and become less than tolerable. As my landlord G stated to me the other day “what was cute and funny at 25 becomes annoying and pathetic at 30”. Now, the thing is, when my friend comes to visit, it’s always kind of a headache because she suffers from some OCD behavior, meaning that she must have things a certain way or she “gets in a bad mood” or throws a mini-tantrum of sorts. This involves everything from hand washing protocol to using the restroom to eating exactly three times a day at the relevant hour. The main problem with all of these activities is that they take time, and when you sit down three times a day to eat and take an hour or more to do it, you are losing valuable time to actually do what you need to during the day. And living here and having life speed by you at a furious pace makes three hours a lot of time in the long run. Me being the super casual not uptight kind of girl is easily riled by these kinds of people because I don’t understand how strict uptight living makes any sense. It’s a misdirection of energy that inevitably leads to balls of stress and ulcers in the stomach. In any case, after a good screaming match in the mall (oh yes, I got that ghetto), we both let out our mutual complaints and they furiously left town.

Today is my first day of peace since last Friday. Every other day was obligations, and drama.

Oh, and on a side note, I quit my job on Tuesday. After going to work Tuesday night after being told that I worked on Tuesday and Thursdays, the same thing happened again. I walked in to surprised glances and an utterance of “oh, you’re not working tonight”. This has happened before, the overbooking, so I sat there for a while, got up, shook hands with the bartender while I was sitting next to my manager, and said, “well, Amanda, it was nice working with you”, and ignored the questions of the owner and manager as I walked away. She, surprised by my indignation, asked, “why don’t you stand up for yourself, be more forceful” to which I said this: “No, they asked me what I wanted, I told them and they continued to mess with me. The first strike was telling me I was on the schedule that Wednesday and had been on for days, guilting me into coming in. When I got there, guess who wasn’t on the schedule at all? The second time was giving me Thursdays and Fridays and taking them back because some girl wanted the good night here, and made it her only option. I worked Christmas Eve and did them lots of favors and they don’t reward loyalty. The third time was not getting the courtesy of a phone call to tell me not to come in. A phone call is an easy action, you just pick up the phone, press a button and go. I don’t have time for people who don’t respect me enough to respect my time. They don’t care about anything that’s important, so forget them.”

I left this all in a message to my main manager plus the “and you know, I know managing is hard, but these were the things I thought were most important in hiring people when I was managing: number one, are they on-time? Though I haven’t been perfect I always call to tell you I was running late. Number two, do they know what they’re doing? I obviously do. Three, do they steal? I have higher average rings because I charge people call liquor instead of well, and haven’t stolen a dollar from you people. I am sorry you guys do business like this. It was lovely working with you. Good luck”.

Today is about e-bay set-ups, and lots of auctioning for tonight and tomorrow.