Merry Christmas everyone!

Good cheer to you all! We are getting our holiday spirit going this week, as I try to wrap everything up with work and finals. We got a lovely Christmas tree for not too much money, and got it decorated and whatnot on one of my cramped Thursday afternoons, which always seem to be good days anyway. The cat is being pretty chill about the tree thing this year, though I did catch her imitating a present this morning:


(yes, that is totally the real reason for this update). Helped the folks decorate too, over the weekend, and we are starting to think about holiday plans. I for sure have the few days off, so I'm definitely looking forward to seeing everyone. The Bay Area is turning to a gorgeous late Fall, and the Treehouse always smells like pine and woodsmoke when I go out. The store and library are unspeakably busy and Kita is restless as always, but seemingly pleased (as am I!) that I will get to spend more time at home for a little while. Took (and aced) a final this morning, now only have one more assignment to finish this quarter.

Well, and my PhD application....

Good fortune everyone!

A paycheck!

Haven't gotten one of those in a while! And bigger than the ones from the museum too.
Now we can buy groceries and other such luxuries. "I realize, of course, that it's no shame to be poor. But it's no great honor either!"

It makes me think of all the people who are still months or years away from the same thing. Please say a prayer today for the many, many unemployed. I find the argument that people would choose unemployment voluntarily for the questionable privilege of a miniscule TANF check about as credible as the argument that gay people choose to be gay for the "popularity".

Birthday present

Sooo...a present came for me in the mail recently. Well, maybe I should say a present for Nikita:

A kitty buggy! We were anxious to see how she'd respond to it, to which we got a cold stare from her new hiding place:

I don't know what she must have thought at first. But she came down eventually and sniffed at it. She was even willing to look inside and seemed receptive enough to try it out for a minute. Despite her initial protests she let me take a photo of her in it.

We did manage to test it out and took her for a ride around the apartment (no pictures for that sadly). There was much yowling and a few odd glances from maintenance as we passed, but other than that she seemed...almost amenable to the idea of maybe being taken out this way. Figured it might be good on long car trips where she needs to come along, too.

Anyway, somewhere along the ride she evacuated her bladder and I spent more time cleaning out the buggy then we did actually using it! I guess that'll show us!

I have a new job!

Selling periodic popcorn, not periodic cupcakes, at the local mall. Do I at least get extra credit for the fact that the store occupies a lot formerly owned by a cupcake store? Like seriously. When I worked at Purgatory Petsmart, the most common customer question was "Where are your restrooms?". On my new job, it's "What happened to the cupcake store?" If they are male, they then attempt to explain small business economics to me, whihttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifch I guess is fine.! I think the new place has a pretty okay chance, though, if anything does. Everyone likes popcorn, yeah? People constantly mention as well, so I figure if they can make a cool fortune off gourmet popcorn, so can my employers. I hope so, anyway, since I only have a job if they do!

They're pretty nice, the owners. It's a family business, so the owner and a lot of the employees are related. They are all white guys with wildly unruly Scottish hair and a comfortable amount put away for the winter, so I could easily pass for one of them. I like my new job. I've been meeting lots of people, standing out on the sidewalk handing out free samples. Customers of course, but also the other shopkeepers and employees, and the support staff for the mall. It's kind of fun to feel more a part of my community. As I wrote in my journal today, I think everyone in town is going to know about my new job pretty soon, since it isn't a huge city and a new store at the mall is big news by local standards, shopping being a favorite pastime of most.

But seriously, I'm really glad to be pulling in something again. Even if it is minimum wage for minimum hours, the few months without a salary were wearing on me, more than I liked to admit. I have no love for money, but I don't like being poor either, and I really do not like being a mooch or a drain on my family's finances. So to not only be employed but to be employed at doing something I find actually tolerable? Somewhere I don't have to check my soul in at the door, and my dignity at the cloakroom? Somewhere where I don't have to lie and lie and LIE to customers just to keep my job, and hurt dogs in the process?

I'm really happy, and really relieved. The fact that I got hired to this job on labor day is worth it for the humor/irony value alone. Not gonna post the particulars on this blog, but if you know who I am anyway, drop by if you are ever at the mall. Zeo stopped by today and got the whole spiel; she got to try all the popcorn, and I got a good mood out of the deal. I'll admit though that after five hours of sample handing out today, I was a little hot and tired. Where's that rainstorm they keep promising us?

Birthday

I am now 25. Yay! (Insert quarter life crisis here.)

We started off looking for one of the many, many gourmet cupcake places around town I've been wanting to try. The cupcake I ended up getting was one I hadn't heard of before, fleur de sel, and it sounded good. It was, however, salted (I can't read french apparently) and was pretty weird, haha. Salted caramel filling with chocolate frosting topped with rock salt. Ummm...not what I would have gone for had I known better.

After that we walked around town some more before going out to one of my favorite crystal stores. I got a piece of selenite and a garnet. It was fun, and we went for a nice drive through the hills to another local town we like to hang out at sometimes. Coming back into our town we ate at a very nice place that we've been wanting to try for awhile, and it was really awesome. Followed by gelato and then more walking around town.


It was a great birthday. I am very excited to try out the lovely things I got as well. :)

Notes on our trip

We had such a fun time! Many thanks to Grandma and Grandpa for letting us stay at their house, as well as to everyone who helped keep us fed and fueled along the way. It was great to see everyone, including some faces we didn't know ahead of time we'd be seeing. We had a great time in Westwood and Santa Monica with my sister and a friend of Zeo's, but decided we're happier living where we are than in a Beverly Hills mansion- there's such a thing as too posh. Arizona was just wonderful. Our poor air conditioner might disagree, but for the most part the weather was actually pretty decent. There were dozens of dust devils to watch as we drove, and we were treated to a small monsoon upon arriving in Tucson. I think we had both been missing the sight of a desert storm something awful, and we definitely got what we were looking for. Our visits with the Tucson contingent were also a lot of fun. I have a pretty cool father-in-law. If you're ever in town and looking for a good biker bar, I can do no better than to recommend the Bashful Bandit on Speedway and Alvernon. Sunday is karaoke night, and if you bring an extra bra to donate to the ceiling, they might even give you a free can of Coors. Another, perhaps more relevant recommendation for you rockhounds out there, is Dah Rock Shop on Dodge Blvd near River Road. They have a huge collection of rocks and beads, worthy of the town that hosts the biggest rock & mineral show in the country. I got a handsome angular piece of calcite for the car, and Zeo picked up a huge tektite tendril for a very decent price. We met up with my folks on the way back into the Bay, and I have a new computer now, which is also fantastic, I'm having a great deal of fun with it.

Our thoughts and prayers are with various people, as applies: Grandpa Jim, who got stuck in the hospital; my cousin, who'll be starting college pretty soon; everyone else who is still out on the road. Cheers, and enjoy what remains of the summer!

Trip to the Southwest

Originally we were just going to go down to southern California for a day or so to visit a friend of mine who was in town, but when we got down there, we decided to take a side trip to Tucson for a day or so.

Spent a lot of time there with my dad and it was awesome. We got some beautiful crystals (prehnite, tektite, peridot, and clear calcite) and I got a few new skirts, a backpack, and a CD/bookcase. It was hard to leave the area and we hope it won't be so long before we're back out there!

Anyway, we're home now and Politesse is setting up his new computer he received from a class action lawsuit to replace his old crappy laptops. Yay! Nikita is very happy we are home and is crawling all over us.