theerah

Something like life
2002-01-19 17:46:25 (UTC)

Has it been that long?

I got the little reminder thing in my e-mail today letting
me know it's been a week since I've written here. I think I
was almost aware of that.

Today it's been a week since I turned 123. Remember that
arbitrary digit I talked about? A friend of mine pointed
out that an "arbitrary digit" would technically be another
digit tacked onto my age, rather than a number added to the
sum of my years. So instead of being 24 now, I'm 123. And
boy do I feel like it.

I've survived my first week of a 9 to 5 job. Though the job
requires nothing physically demanding, and telemarketing is
hardly rocket science, it still leaves me quite drained by
the end of the day. But I got my first paycheck yesterday
and I feel that it's the first money I've actually earned.
Every other job I've ever had has been grunt work, stuff
anyone with two brain cells to rub together could have done
just as well as I did. Or at least gotten paid the same as
I did. Now I have a job that actually pays me more for
doing it better. The more sales I make, the more money I
get, and instead of a few pennies here and there we're
talking dollars more an hour.

Still, I never pictured myself doing high-pressure sales.
It's one of those things I said I'd never do. Oh, did I
mention my little self-inflicted curse It works like
this. I'll say something like, "I'll /never/ eat squid."
And the next day I'll be devouring a plate of tentacles. It
doesn't always happen that fast and it doesn't apply to
stupid stuff like saying "I'll never eat again" after a
particularly large meal (squid or otherwise.) Unfortunately it
doesn't work,
either, if I say something like, "I'll never wake up
tomorrow and win a million dollars out of nowhere."
It /does/ work if there is sincere conviction behind what I
say. For instance, "I'll never work a high-pressure sales
job. I find it to be ethically disgusting and I'm sure I'd
burn out within a day." Poof. Not only am I working high-
pressure sales but I'm good at it, and I'm enjoying it.
Not everyone's as lucky as I am when it comes to the nature
of their working environment. I get a lot of support from
the other people in my company, who now number 7. This
week, Don (my boss) hired on another new recruit. So now
there are 3 of us greenhorns getting our noses bloodied. 3
new people, 3 "veterans" and the boss.

But enough about work. Though it's something that
unfortunately dominates my existence now, I still consider
my "real" life to be what I do when I am not at work. Last
Saturday I celebrated my birthday with my friends. Sludig,
his girlfriend Lil, his brother AJ, and Offie (mutual
friend of all of the above) came over to the apartment to
celebrate. We played Star Wars monopoly, but everyone quit
playing once I (playing as Darth Vader of course) took over
Coruscant, Hoth, and Dagobah within the first few rounds...
well what did they expect anyhow? I /was/ playing Darth Vader.

Unfortunately, later that day after everyone left, I was
talking to Offie online and she and I had a falling-out.
Lately she's really taken offense to the fact that I don't
always want to talk to her about her problems. She says I'm
selfish because I only want to "talk about myself".. well I
am a loudmouth and I do talk about my aches and pains a
lot, but I never knew anyone took it as anything more than
a joke or idle conversation. So far as I know, she's the
only one I was inadvertently annoying. The problem is, she
won't speak up for herself if something like that is
bothering her unless she is directly confronted. She'll
just sit there and stew... passive-aggressiveness is
something that I have a very hard time tolerating. So I
lost my patience with her. I later apologized for some of
the things I said. I never like causing anyone I care about
pain. She hasn't as yet accepted my apology and we are not
talking. I feel bad, but then again Offie has slowly been
withdrawing from our entire group for awhile now. I hope
she's allright but frankly I can't stress myself out about
it. And that's all I have to say about that.

All in all, the past week has been good. I've settled into
a routine. I go to the bagel shop across the street from
the office for an hour every morning because I have to
catch a ride with Sludig and Bull, who have a lot more
travel time than me, working in downtown Cincy. I sit there
and I read and eat a bagel, finish waking up, and then walk
over to the office. After I get off work I go back to the
bagel place and wait to be picked up.

Marx Hot Bagels is a strange place. It's a large cafeteria-
like place, and beyond the front counter the kitchen can be
seen clearly. Giant steaming vats of boiling water are
churned by able-bodied bagel-mongers while a couple of
ladies in terribly unflattering hairnets serve customers up
front. No frills here. Compared to a typical coffee shop
with subdued lighting, earthy tones and comfortable chairs,
Marx is garishly industrial. I'm used to the comfy
coffeehouse atmosphere and prefer it greatly. However, the
bagels from Marx are worth the lack of aesthetics. So is
the veggie cream cheese... YUM!

The only thing at Marx I could /seriously/ do without is
their mascot... BAGEL MAN. Bagel man is scary. Painted in
outlines of red, white, and blue is a muscular old man with
a beard wearing spandex gym shorts, a tight T-shirt, tennis
shoes, a "super-man" cape and goggles made of bagels.
Underneath the bounding mascot is a small, plain sign that
says "WELCOME TO THE WONDERFUL WACKY WORLD OF BAGEL MAN".
Nightmare-inducing, really.

Now there are a few things I miss about getting to wait at
a "typical" coffee shop before and after work (I hung out
at Panera when I worked at Toys'R'Us during the holidays.)
One of them is a good mocha. I'm determined to get myself a
mocha this weekend, somehow.

Anyway, Sludig, Lil, and AJ are going to be over soon to
game. So I gotta scoot. I'll probably write more this
weekend, since I've got 3 days off in honor of MLK day.

May the Force be with you until next time.





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