I must admit defeat

I have spent the last hour or so looking for a round piece of blue plastic about an inch and a half long. It's really important! It's the valve for the water bladder for my hydration pack. Without it there's no way it will hold water. It's so important that I must have put it in a PLACE WHERE I WON'T FORGET. Dammit, I never remember where these places are. I've looked everywhere. I've tried every remembering trick. I've opened boxes, found all kinds of other stuff, and completely destroyed any neatness that was present in my room, and I still can't find it!

It's so important. I can't believe I lost it. I hate being defeated. I (almost) always find whatever I'm looking for. I have clutter, but it's my clutter. I know it and its ways. I kept thinking the piece would turn up in one of the caches of small important things stashed about. You know it's bad when you keep wandering around asking yourself, "If I was me, where would I have put this?" With the back pack or back on the water bladder are, of course, the smartest answers. I can think of a dozen safe places for it, but it's not there. And, of course, I need it in a couple hours.

The damn piece isn't expensive, and I could easily order it on the internet for the next time. That doesn't help me now, and I don't know if any of the local stores might happen to have a replacement in their camping gear sections.

Dammit, dammit, dammit.

...

Maybe I'll just take beer instead of water.

Blah and a half

I have now completed day six of my seven straight days of work.

I wish I could tell you that meant I was working 70 hours in those 7 days, but it's not true. Today, for instance, was 12 hours. And I might have been able to tolerate it all, but with the exception of yesterday these have been some of the most stressful shifts I've worked in a while, all strung together. Our sales have been up because it was move-in weekend for the college. My boss told me we would not need any extra staff, and I listened...because I'm an IDIOT. This is the same woman I spent 13 minutes explaining keyboard shortcuts to yesterday (and our keyboard has what the shortcuts are on the front of the keys). Actually, I did put a few extra people on, but the whole thing is a moot point because most of my crew are already working their maximum availability.

I am getting a little twitchy.

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Since all I have done for the last week is work and sleep I have yet to finish unpacking. The kitchen and living room are okay, even if there's still a pile of discarded boxes and none of my pictures are on the wall. My room on the other hand is a complete abomination. I'm hoping if I don't spend all of Thursday in a First Day Off in a Week Coma to actually tackle it. I'm getting tired of weaving in and out of piles and tripping over stacks of books every morning. There is going to be a Reckoning!

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It's been a busy week (or so)

Since I'm pretty much debilitated by a food coma this evening (grad party: the grad's grandma made delicious german desserts) I am just going to throw out events from the last week or so, in no particular order.

::::I got pulled over twice in less than eight hours this week, for the same thing. In all the moving chaos I had forgotten to renew my license plate tags. Thankfully BG's finest were very kind about the whole thing. Although, I'm curious as to when exactly they started giving actual written warnings. It's been, like, seven years since I've been pulled over, so I was unaware of this new developement. Anyway, no ticket, so that was good, and I paid my fifty plus bucks to get a new sticker so the BGPD will stop pulling me over.

::::I love my new apartment. It is the nicest, best maintained apartment I have ever had. New paint, new carpet, new dishwaster, new countertops, everything works proper. The only con is it is on the small side, but that is forcing me to get rid of some stuff that I should probably get rid of anyway. I will have pictures in a couple days after I run some boxes to the recycling center.

::::It's tractor pull weekend here in the beege once again, and you know what that means: intoxicated rednecks stumbling around town in search of the bare necessities, the local store has giant piles of beer for sale in the aisles with signs directing the pullers towards more piles of booze, and sitting here (a couple of miles from the venue) you can occasionally hear the roar of crazy, souped-up tractors, and if you listen close you may hear the roar of the crowds. *Sigh*

::::One of my friends is getting married in September, and I got the invite. I'm totally stoked about getting to see her since it's been a while. I was amused to see "Formal Reception" on the invitation given how laid back my friend and her fiance are. The wedding is in Pittsburg, which is about a four hour drive from here, so I'm taking the day before off as well, getting a hotel, a bit of a mini-vacation. I'm also renting a car since mine is, well, unreliable as to whether or not it's unreliable. Since I'll have some time in town Friday I'm going to check out the Andy Warhol museum which I have been told is sweet.

And done.

After the Move

So, my roommate forgot to transfer our cable service to the new apartment until the last minute. As a result we will not have internet access either until sometime Wednesday. I am sneeking some use of the internet at work to check my email and drop a quick post. The move went smoothly, and I'd say the unpacking is about half done. My new apartment is fabulous and I'm very happy all around. I'll be back when I get me some interwebs at home later this week.