"I don't remember how I felt
I never thought I'd live
To read about myself in my hometown paper
How my brave young life was forever changed
In a misty cloud of pink vapor
Darling, give me your kiss
Only understand
I am the nothing man
Around here, everybody acts the same
Around here, we all act like nothing's changed
Friday night the club meets at Al's Barbecue
The sky is still the same unbelievable blue
You can call me Joe
Buy me a drink and shake my hand
You want courage?
I'll show you courage you can understand"

I am not the same person I was two years ago. Would you be?

The Clothes in the Shivering Isles Expansion?

SO MUCH prettier than the clothes in plain Oblivion. (P.S. Don't mess with the blonde. She has a mean fireball.)

Crap! No money!

OK, so I am pissed. One of the items in my Cafepress store has apparently been selling like crazy the last two months, and I never even knew, nor did I make any money off it because I forgot to mark it up. So it hasn't been showing up on my sales, and I never bothered to run the other report that has orders on it until just now.

Damn. I missed out on maybe 20 bucks there. Oops. I just fixed the oversight and marked it up. Not super high, but enough that I make a buck or two when I sell one. I've read that the amount of the markup doesn't seem to affect popularity, statistically speaking. I want to get on that train!

Coincidentally, the title of this post is now deliciously inaccurate, since I just deposited $1,400 into my checking account. It feels good to rejoin the working world.

Almost... Friday... And Fun Times in the Kickball Beer League

Tomorrow is Friday. Not only do I get paid, I have a weekend. Having been a restaurant employee with a weird schedule for so long, I am struck with a rediscovered appreciation of the sweet sweet goodness that is Friday.

So tonight our kickball team dropped to 0-2-1. I have only been there for the two losses... but it could not be said that they were my fault, owing to the fact that I am not allowed to play in the field due to my having the world's most horrific lack of depth perception. Seriously. I can't parallel park. It comes as no surprise that when I think I'm running up to catch a pop-up ball, it's really 3 feet away. Luckily my boyfriend is the coach and he knows this. Therefore I am a permanent designated hitter.

This adult kickball thing is new. It's pretty fun so far. It's "adult" because the teams have dirty names and people run the bases with beers. Kickball takes place Thursday nights in Audubon Park, followed by free kegs and flip cup at Madigan's. If you're in da NOLA, you should think about getting a team together. It's good times. Even if you suck. I play for the Mo Bart team (we are the ones in the lime T-shirts).

But I'm missing the flip cup because of work I have to finish for tomorrow. Wahhh. Despite giving the other team an unfortunate double play because I didn't know what out it was, I could have regulated at flip cup. Oh well, next week.

Questioning My Career Choice, Spazzing Out, Wanting Time to Just Read a Book, Waiting for Friday

I am in the Depths of Despair, as you can see from my post title. No, just kidding, but I am definitely buried under so much work I have to bring it home with me and therefore have no relaxation time. And it is sucking the life out of me. I already marked all my vacations on the calendar with smilies.

I really want to just have time to write my own stuff, but I am so busy doing planning and paperwork, I can't. I KNOW this will get easier. But this week? Not a terribly uplifting week in the life of Sarah. Even my cats were mad at me-- I apparently bought them the WRONG KIND OF FOOD, and they went on a ritual fast, which caused me to refuse to buy them new food because they are spoiled brats, but then three days went by and I got nervous about their food boycott, and finally gave in and just bought them Purina. Because god forbid I give them food in different colors and shapes; it is apparently just wrong and they will boycott it until I bring them plain, brown kibble. Brats.

And despite all that, I'm not really having a terrible week, per se, it's just very hard for me to adapt to the new workload. Now I'm gonna go cry myself a river. Of beer. And go swimming in it.

BLAH.

But Scalzi's blog was entirely right, however. This did make me feel better.

Whoa, I Have Been MIA

Where have I been? Busy... working... stressed... definitely not sleeping. I am taking this entire day for myself, and not doing ANYTHING ELSE. I really need to relax.

Just saw the Bourne movie. Some reasons I like Bourne better than Bond:

1. Matt Damon is hotter than all the Bonds.

2. The portrayal of women in the movies is better.

3. Bourne doesn't need silly gadgets-- he just punches you in the face.

And now I think we're going out to grab some Mexican, and then maybe I'll game, which I've been wanting to do all day. Because it is MY DAY of relaxation... before I have to spend hours tomorrow doing homework. Blecchhhhh...

I Will Never Understand

... the tendency of my LONG-HAIRED cat to pick the hottest room in the house, sneak in, and sleep there. It's about 100 degrees outside this week, and we haven't been out in the living room for several days, and have been keeping the door firmly closed. Which means it is about 100 degrees out there too. Yet he persists in zipping through the door when I'm not looking. Then hours later, I can't find him, and I go hunting... only to find him flopped out in front of the fireplace looking totally happy, when really he ought to be dead of heat exhaustion and perhaps lack of oxygen. Does he not understand that he is a long-haired cat? Does he not understand that he can sleep in the bedroom, in his spot on top of the leather couch DIRECTLY in front of the air conditioner? He either has a temperature disorder or a death wish.

For that matter, I will never understand the tendency of my other cat to sleep in the bathtub, either.

There is no point to this post, except that it is really, really, really, really hot out this week, and just cooking Caribbean rice from the Zatarain's box is enough physical activity to make me have to take a shower. I am on my new laptop in the bedroom, since we can no longer afford to A/C more than one room in the house. It's like a little fort.

Love

Aaahhh! A Mac! Macphobia!

One of the advantages, I suppose, to having a new job in a disadvantaged, hurricane-destroyed area of the country: Chevron bought us laptops! Or rather, Chevron donated $2 million, some of which was used to buy me a brand new white (dun dun DUH) Mac laptop.

Yes, it's a Mac. Horrors.

But the training today was quite useful, and I learned how not to freak out (I have Macphobia) when I click things and all my windows fly into the corners and I can't get them back. Because now I know what key to press to make my windows come back! I picked it up fast enough to be one of the "cool kids," aka the ones the trainer yelled at for being way ahead of everyone else, especially those 10-15 years older than us who need to be instructed how to click and drag. We were already playing in iTunes and downloading inappropriate widgets. Tonight I am exploring it like I would explore any other fun little toy. I can already think of about 3 billion things I am going to do with it. Which I will not elaborate on here, because while a couple of people know what and where The Job is, I do not want to make a habit of talking about it on this blog. For obvious reasons, the main one being that I swear too much and say whatever I want and... yeah, this blog? Not a work blog.

It also came with a 1GB flashdrive, a nice backpack, and some other gadgets. (No, despite what many of us thought when we opened the box, they did not buy us iPods. It's an Apple remote.) I think I'm going to spend the evening playing.

In Detox

Seriously.

No lie.

And I got home at 1:30 last night and had to be at my first day of work at 7:45. Yeah. I need someone to take my away to a happy place where I can sleep for three days. But the wedding was fun. I'll upload some of the pictures when I wake up. If ever.

See You and Me Have a Better Time Than Most Can Dream...

North Country... redux.

OK, so my flight leaves at 6:10 PM and lands in Syracuse at 11:37. On Friday we're doing a hike in the Adirondacks, maybe some spontaneous swimming, maybe some beers. The hotel we're staying in backs up to the SLU campus. Saturday afternoon is the wedding. I am going to see some of my FAVORITE! PEOPLE! EVER! In case you haven't picked up on it, I'm really excited. I'm really excited because it's Melanie's wedding, and I haven't seen her in forever. (And I'm thinking, looking at that picture, that I very highly doubt that me being the only one in the group who is not white white white is something that time will not have changed. Haha.)

Therefore, I shall not be here this weekend! Till Sunday.

I know going back to town you went to college in for your friend's wedding is not the same as going back to college. I know you can't go home again. I know this. I guess I'm one of those people with a very strong sense of place. And this place is absolutely sacred to me. So I don't care that we're not in college anymore. I don't care about who's not there. You just cannot tell me that my flip flops on Park Street is not going to mean something. Because I won't believe you.

The Class of 2003* is going to have their party anyway. And you can't stop us.


* Oh fine, Todd. We'll let '04 play too.