Don't follow the shadows

Sorry I’ve been even more aloof than usual as of late. I’ve been working 36 hours each week, which is the maximum for my position. I pretty much get up, go to work, get home late in the evening or at night, eat, read, and go to bed. There are also a couple more issues regarding work, which you can be sure I’ll get around to ranting about later. ;)

I just want to apologize to those of you I said I would be on AIM and Skype this summer when I obviously haven’t been. My hours jump around from day to day and there are no consistent times when I’m on the computer. After dealing with the public for eight hours, which consists of a lot of seedy folks due to the nature and location of the store, I just want to escape from social interaction before I get up the next day and have to do it all over again. Thankfully, they’re hiring more people, so I’m hoping my hours will eventually be cut back. In the meantime, feel free to chat with me on Twitter if you haven't added me already. I love how this site gives me the opportunity to still keep in touch, even if we're not in cyberspace at the same time.

superfin, I have something in the works for you that I will try my hardest to get to you sometime this summer in return for the Blue Mondays manga you sent. Bleu Finnegan is pretty much the embodiment of myself, obsessing over musicians, only attracting men she’s not interested in, academic nerdiness, and all, so I can’t help but absolutely adore the comic. I definitely plan on reading the rest of them in the near future, and I want to thank you again for your kindness.

Now that I’ve posted this, I am hoping I will be inspired to update more often.

Three weeks until I get my life back and start making art again. I’m never going to complain about projects I have to do for my studio classes, since all these non-art ones have been wasting all my free time with having to read and write papers.


In the meantime, Peaches will still be taking over LiveJournal, accidentally clicking on links, and starting up songs in iTunes when she rolls over. She also enjoys watching the nom nom nom video while plotting how to kill each of those little critters.

( Much complaining and making things into a bigger deal than need be under the cut because I simply needed to vent. Move along, nothing to see here. )

Next week should be better, since I’ll be seeing Franz Ferdinand and Flight of the Conchords and getting more tattoo work done with the $225 I got back from my taxes (there was a second check my dad didn't tell me about, so I got more than the expected $168). :D I also applied at the T.J. Maxx in Germantown, which is only ten minutes away from where I live as opposed to the 40 minutes I drove to the one in Brookfield last summer, so I’m crossing my fingers they’ll call me for an interview. If not, there are other retailers that are hiring and I could see if anyone needs a babysitter. I will do anything besides work in the food industry and am determined to find a job this summer.

For the first time since I started working, I’ve been given three days off in a row. I go back on Thursday, work Friday, and then I’m done. Today I went to the T.J. Maxx in Germantown (where I will hopefully be working next summer) and ended up buying Bandolino silver gladiator sandals for $20. I swear, I never leave that store without buying something, so you can only imagine how much shit I’ve bought from working there. Soon, the summer shopping spree will end when I’m back in college, but there’s always Thanksgiving and winter breaks.

I’ve promised myself before I go back; I am going to get some art done. I just need to get back into the routine of physically creating, and now I have some divine inspiration for some pieces, so there’s no excuse of not having any motivation. On that note, I decided I am going to discreetly set up an altar in my dorm, as my parents will rarely be there. Naturally, I want to create some things for it, so that’s what I should be doing before I’m thrust into countless hours of uninspired homework. At least I don’t have math to deal with and I’m looking forward to my astronomy and yoga classes.

Speaking of which, the Perseid Meteor Shower will peak tomorrow night and the following. Hopefully I’ll be able to see it if we’re blessed with clear skies. I checked tonight, but I didn’t see anything other than the moon.

The two other things I need to focus on in the next couple weeks are getting supplies together and packing them, and getting a new set of strings for my electric guitar and replacing the two that insufferable imbecile put in the wrong places. I am still trying to formulate a plan for when I will inevitably see him in less than two months, but I haven’t been able to come up with anything that might be successful yet other than just telling him to fuck off.

First of all, Lughnasadh is here! Today is the halfway point between Midsummer and Samhain, and with the heat we’ve been having, the prospect of fall is looking promising about now. There will also be a full solar eclipse, which I will unfortunately not be able to see due to my location. Those of you who can, enjoy it!

Secondly, it isn’t often that I become perturbed at something in pop culture or the media because I can usually ignore it. Right now, there are two things that won’t stop popping up and are driving me insane: Heath Ledger as the Joker in the new Batman movie the Dark Knight and Brett Favre. I don’t know if it’s the fact I live in Wisconsin or what, but everyone getting all upset over the separation of their OTP (Brett Favre/Packers) and the possibility of them getting back together is getting really annoying. American football isn’t serious fandom business, guys. It’s just a game. Think about the meaning of the word here. He should do what he wants, as well as the Packers, and all the fans need to stop being butthurt about it. You can’t blame the Packers for not taking him back if it’s going to be a big inconvenience to the team. As for the Heath Ledger Joker, I am sick to death of seeing pictures, macros, icons, etc. of the actual character and otherwise with their MS Paint-scribbled out eyes and mouth with “why so serious?” hastily scratched somewhere on the image. Obviously, he wouldn’t be getting this kind of attention if he were alive. Yes, he was one of the few actors I actually liked and was unhappy to learn of his death, but there have been dead celebrities featured in films that were being filmed or already filmed at the time of their death, and there will continue to be. It’s just getting really old. I don’t really care if I’m the only one who hasn’t seen the movie. I’m not going to pay $10 for a three-hour movie about Batman.

In other news, I decided I’m going to wait on handing my two weeks’ notice in for another week because I will need the extra money and will feel very guilty for sitting around the house for two weeks. One week is plenty, especially since I will be packing during that time. I need the money because the 20% off associate sale at work starts tomorrow, and know I’m already buying around $200 worth of merchandise. More on that later…

I know I’m going into controversial territory here, but I feel like I should mention something on the subject. My cousin Kyle has Aspberger’s Syndrome (a kind of autism), and he is now in driver’s ed and behind the wheel of a potential killing-machine. I say this because he doesn’t have good control over his anger, and my aunt and uncle do not know about it because it’s Catherine’s brother who tells me what he’s doing while he’s in school. Well, he had only been out driving with my aunt once and she had him simply park the car in the garage. He got flustered, didn’t break, and smashed into the back wall. He annihilated his sister’s scooter and all of the shelving, where the contents fell onto the hood of the car and all over the floor. The car is damaged, as well as the house. I honestly don’t think he should be driving. You can’t freak out in more serious situations on the road, let alone parking at your own house. I’ve spent a lot of time with Kyle, so I know what he’s like. Whenever he is angered by something, his reaction is very violent, and Catherine’s brother also agrees that he could very easily use the car to purposely hit someone in a car or a pedestrian. He knows this first-hand as the two of them actually got in a fistfight a few years ago. I hope this parking incident opens my aunt and uncle’s eyes and they evaluate the situation. They already have the poor kid going down the path of juvenile diabetes and heart disease because they go against his doctor’s orders and let him have all the sweets he wants, and now he’s morbidly obese. Although I’m no longer close with my cousins, I do drive around town and simply don’t feel comfortable with him on the road, which is what motivated me to mention this in the first place.

ETA: I found out that Kyle's driver's ed instructor does not think he should be driving either, so I guess I really wasn't out of line by saying what I did.

Even though I’ve been working five days a week and still haven’t drawn anything this summer, I still think I’ve been rather productive. I’m currently working on burning all of my (legally) downloaded music onto CDs. It’s been about a week, I’m still on the single tracks, and I haven’t even started on the 91 albums I have. This is going to be the project that takes me the rest of summer to finish if I’m lucky. I’ve also been working on going through my things, finding stuff I can sell at the annual family rummage sale that is in a little over a week. Gods know I need the money for college, especially books and art supplies.

As much as I loathe my peers who have no focus out of what’s going on in their present lives and like to bore me with details about their crappy summer jobs, I still want to give a quick update on how things are going at work. Kelli, an old friend of mine from high school is now working with me. I remember her second day there I walked into the back, and I was just like, “You’re kidding me!” I haven’t seen anyone from the Falls there shopping, so I was quite surprised to see someone I had lunch with for three years punching in on the time clock. At least I have another person there to talk to now, although, surprisingly, that has never really been an issue. Despite my social awkwardness, I actually have quite a few friends at work and will really miss being there once I have to leave before I go back to school. The only person I and everyone else doesn’t like is one of the store managers, so things are going very well for once. Other than my first job working at the antique store with my grandmother, this has been the only other retail job I’ve been happy at. I’m hoping that since I’m a good employee and one of the few that can work the jewelry counter, do returns, and help with customer service, they’ll possibly take me back over winter break and next summer. Even if they don’t, they seem to always be hiring due to employees flaking out and getting fired, so I will at least hopefully be able to reapply.

I’ve also been finding time to hang out with Catherine on my off-days. Today was her sister’s birthday, and she had a pool party at her grandparents’ house. I stopped by for a few hours, and despite the suffocating heat and humidity, it was nice to be outside for a while. The cold pool water was also nice.

One thing that isn’t so nice is sunblock that’s more harmful to your skin than a blistering burn. Last night I had to make a quick run to Walgreens after seeing this article someone posted in tattoo_ink. Unfortunately, I had been using Banana Boat Sport, which had a rating of 7 on a scale of 10 for harmfulness, so I picked up some Aveeno SPF 55 with a rating of 3 instead. It was more expensive, but definitely worth every penny. I didn’t burned at all, except for my eyes, which are pretty sore. I blame the cheap sunglasses from Charlotte Russe for that and will be picking up a decent designer pair at T.J. Maxx soon. I actually headed to the one in the Falls after finding nothing at Goodwill this evening. I picked up a nice black straw hat for only $8, which will also help me retain my deathly pallor and keep my tattoos looking bright and bold. Needless to say, I think it’s my opinion of tanning has been explicitly stated in this post. I feel comfortable with the way I was born and my ancestral heritage, and I don’t want to age prematurely or increase my already high risk for skin cancer, so I have absolutely no desire to darken my skin, unless it’s safely injecting pigment in the form of beautiful artwork.