Going to get my cat soon. What a fucking crock this is going to be.
Get up at 3:30am, go to the airport. Get on a plane to London Gatwick. Arrive at gatwick and take the bus from there to heathrow. Take a taxi to the animal reception center. Get the cat and pay $$$$$$$. Take cat on a taxi back to heathrow. Ride the tube to King's Cross. Take the cat and myself on a 5 hour journey north back to Edinburgh.
Oh fuck yes.
And then a variety of other things are going wrong. Wish me luck. Update when I get back from my adventure.
Wednesday, November 25, 2009
Monday, November 16, 2009
The Breathing Shadow
It's the 17th and Rachel is coming on December 2. A little later than I would've liked, but nothing I could do. I could only get time off from work around then. I have to pick up my cat who's flying into London on the 26th, and that I couldn't possibly look forward to less. Will probably fly down there, pick up my cat, then promptly zoom back via train to Edinburgh. This is costing way too much money and too much time. Oh well.
If you're sensing I'm feeling mopey right now, you're right. I had my 3 month review at Starbucks and it didn't go as well as I'd hoped. I feel I had put out 100% all of the time, and it turns out no one else thought that. I was told what I was doing wrong, but it's problems that have plagued me my entire life. I am generally happy-ish most of the time, but I have never been a smiley person. And apparently my mannerisms say that I am having a bad day. I very rarely have a bad day. When I talked to Rachel about it later on, I had some interesting revelations about myself. Namely, one particular difference between her and I is I have a hard time showing emotion, and emotion is generally all she shows. She lacks a poker face, and a poker face is all I have. I am so even-keeled that it takes a monumental amount of effort to swing one particular way or the other. I don't even know if I can even fake it.
Also, apparently they don't like telling me what to do all the time. I hate getting all the fucking mixed messages. "Stay here!" "Go do something!". Pick one, damn it! My psyche doesn't allow for this sort of thing
Some good things about me apparently: a desire to do good work, very accommodating to work-shift changes, and working best under pressure. The worst part is I felt I was doing terrible at all of those things, but I thought I was doing fine at the things they wanted improvement in. If nothing else, I know I have made exponential improvement in customer service, a far cry from BN days anyways.
The worst part: the raise is held off until I improve. Shit, I work my ass off and they want a shitload more before I can finally get off of minimum wage (although not far above it).
Guess I have to see it as a challenge.
If you're sensing I'm feeling mopey right now, you're right. I had my 3 month review at Starbucks and it didn't go as well as I'd hoped. I feel I had put out 100% all of the time, and it turns out no one else thought that. I was told what I was doing wrong, but it's problems that have plagued me my entire life. I am generally happy-ish most of the time, but I have never been a smiley person. And apparently my mannerisms say that I am having a bad day. I very rarely have a bad day. When I talked to Rachel about it later on, I had some interesting revelations about myself. Namely, one particular difference between her and I is I have a hard time showing emotion, and emotion is generally all she shows. She lacks a poker face, and a poker face is all I have. I am so even-keeled that it takes a monumental amount of effort to swing one particular way or the other. I don't even know if I can even fake it.
Also, apparently they don't like telling me what to do all the time. I hate getting all the fucking mixed messages. "Stay here!" "Go do something!". Pick one, damn it! My psyche doesn't allow for this sort of thing
Some good things about me apparently: a desire to do good work, very accommodating to work-shift changes, and working best under pressure. The worst part is I felt I was doing terrible at all of those things, but I thought I was doing fine at the things they wanted improvement in. If nothing else, I know I have made exponential improvement in customer service, a far cry from BN days anyways.
The worst part: the raise is held off until I improve. Shit, I work my ass off and they want a shitload more before I can finally get off of minimum wage (although not far above it).
Guess I have to see it as a challenge.
Thursday, October 22, 2009
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
Monday Morning Apocalypse
I have been couch-ridden for a little bit because of a bout with the flu from hell. It probably wasn't swine flu though, but man did I wish I was dead at points.
Rachel has sent all her documentation to the correct people, so we should know within a week hopefully if she's approved. Keep your fingers crossed.
My birthday has come and gone (October 13), and no one was here to celebrate it with me. That really sucked. Although I did get myself some mediocre Indian food, some fine cheeses, and some nice bread. I also got a burger. All of that is sounding really damn good right now, as I haven't eaten in almost 48 hours. I think I will make myself the frozen pizza, and maybe get some take-out for dinner. Maybe.
Rachel has sent all her documentation to the correct people, so we should know within a week hopefully if she's approved. Keep your fingers crossed.
My birthday has come and gone (October 13), and no one was here to celebrate it with me. That really sucked. Although I did get myself some mediocre Indian food, some fine cheeses, and some nice bread. I also got a burger. All of that is sounding really damn good right now, as I haven't eaten in almost 48 hours. I think I will make myself the frozen pizza, and maybe get some take-out for dinner. Maybe.
Monday, September 28, 2009
Marching Out
Still not a whole lot to update, but at least now I have all the correct documents together to send to Rachel. Will be sending them hopefully sometime this week, and then the application can start. Then we should know a couple weeks after that.
I've officially lived here for four months. I have made some more observations about British people and culture.
People, while friendly, will not go totally out of their way to help you. If you do so for them, they are perplexed by it.
The shops here are awfully attached to their products and don't like to see them leave.
I still can't wrap my head around the fact that I have to pay a pound to use a shopping cart.
"Fag" is not offensive. "Retard" is.
The hours of 3am - 7am on weekdays and 3am - 9am on weekends will have you believe that Edinburgh has become a ghost town. I was told it's like that on weekends because everyone is hungover.
People who return your call are something of an anomaly here.
There are still no good pretzels (save for the 1 pound soft ones available at the german bakery).
Italian tourists are some of the most annoying people I have ever met. Flailing arms does not count as communication, you failures.
I do miss the USA quite a bit, but I am determined to live here for a while.
Now I'm off to buy some groceries. I will post new pictures later on tonight.
I've officially lived here for four months. I have made some more observations about British people and culture.
People, while friendly, will not go totally out of their way to help you. If you do so for them, they are perplexed by it.
The shops here are awfully attached to their products and don't like to see them leave.
I still can't wrap my head around the fact that I have to pay a pound to use a shopping cart.
"Fag" is not offensive. "Retard" is.
The hours of 3am - 7am on weekdays and 3am - 9am on weekends will have you believe that Edinburgh has become a ghost town. I was told it's like that on weekends because everyone is hungover.
People who return your call are something of an anomaly here.
There are still no good pretzels (save for the 1 pound soft ones available at the german bakery).
Italian tourists are some of the most annoying people I have ever met. Flailing arms does not count as communication, you failures.
I do miss the USA quite a bit, but I am determined to live here for a while.
Now I'm off to buy some groceries. I will post new pictures later on tonight.
Friday, September 4, 2009
The Dark Saga
So, still not a whole lot to update , just a lot of waiting and wondering. We are inching closer to getting Rachel's application set up, but time will tell when and if that pans out. It better. I've gone through enough to have it fail.
I am learning that you simply can't force someone to like you, or want to hang out with you. It seems most people I am meeting aren't all that interested in forging a friendship, and I am accepting that now. It's true in the past, and I think I've simply tried too hard. I'm not like most people either. I'm much too introverted to do anything that involves more than three people. I think the only person who actually did want to hang out with me was David, and I am going to be seeing even less of him in the coming months.
Oh, and if you're going to add me to your facebook as a friend, respond to the fucking private messages, wench.
I am learning that you simply can't force someone to like you, or want to hang out with you. It seems most people I am meeting aren't all that interested in forging a friendship, and I am accepting that now. It's true in the past, and I think I've simply tried too hard. I'm not like most people either. I'm much too introverted to do anything that involves more than three people. I think the only person who actually did want to hang out with me was David, and I am going to be seeing even less of him in the coming months.
Oh, and if you're going to add me to your facebook as a friend, respond to the fucking private messages, wench.
Monday, August 24, 2009
Well shit. It's been a while. I've been mainly too busy and tired to do anything except...work and nap.
There really isn't a whole lot to update on anyways. I work at Starbucks and it's okay. I did go to North Berwick (in Scotland, not Maine) and have pictures to prove it. I dragged along my friend David.
The Edinburgh festival is in full swing with no shortage of Italian tourists to irritate the living shit out of me. I had some flail their arms at me the other day, and I still didn't understand what they meant.
Still trying and failing to get proper paperwork from the Starfucks. Apparently their payroll people are tools. I probably won't get Rachel here until October sometime. *sigh*
There really isn't a whole lot to update on anyways. I work at Starbucks and it's okay. I did go to North Berwick (in Scotland, not Maine) and have pictures to prove it. I dragged along my friend David.
The Edinburgh festival is in full swing with no shortage of Italian tourists to irritate the living shit out of me. I had some flail their arms at me the other day, and I still didn't understand what they meant.
Still trying and failing to get proper paperwork from the Starfucks. Apparently their payroll people are tools. I probably won't get Rachel here until October sometime. *sigh*
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