More Real Life Adventure
Apr. 27th, 2004 11:28 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
chrystallineStupid LJ wouldn't let me make this part left justified after the dumb quizzes made everything centered, so I made it a separate post.
Okey-dokey. Catching up...
Newsy stuff happened yesterday, and made me too tired to update. It turns out the Upstairs Neighbor With A Crush (assistant manager of the complex) is moving to another apartment in the complex. Back when my Dad was here to help with the moving stuff, he told me about seeing cops and the coroner in the walkways; I found out Sunday that it was a suicide. The management decided it would be next to impossible to rent that unit out, since suicide makes people so uneasy, so the assistant manager decided to take it. Apparently a single veterinarian (which for looks misspelled to me right now, but the LJ spell check likes it this way, and I can't find a way I like better) is moving in up there this week.
After work yesterday, I had to go to the drugstore. The grocery store is too far to walk, and I can't carry any luggage or anything on my bike, so I make do with the drugstore. It's awkward, to say the least. However, yesterday it proved interesting. I headed over toward the fridge/freezer section since I was getting low on milk (I get it in the quart size, because I don't use it fast enough to get through a larger bottle before it spoils) and I was looking at the Hot Pocketses, too, when I dropped a box on the floor. The guy standing in front of the ice cream freezer bent down to pick it up for me, and dropped his ice cream carton on the floor, too. He said something disparaging about his coordination, and I commented that if I hadn't been clutzy in the first place, it wouldn't have mattered. This sparked further discussion, which led to the nearly-universal "where are you from and what are you after" conversation. Turns out he's from Louisiana, and has an interior decorator friend trying to put together a show for the Discovery channel. To cut to the chase, he inquired as to whether I'd be interested in a barter arrangement to shoot the promo/pitch using my miniDV cameras. Well, YEAH, duh! He said something about trading decorating for it (some high-powered interior decorator wasting time on my dinky little studio apartment? no, and besides, I am perfectly capable of doing my own creative decorating, thanks...*I* like my style, and as it's my place, no one else has to like it;) but I'm more interested in screen credit rights, truth be told. Can you imagine if it gets made? So he gave me his name and number and website, and I emailed him tonight. (No, he's not my type.) We'll see what, if anything, happens. I also saw some actress, but I can't think of her name, or what I've seen her in. Big help, I know. I smiled, she smiled, big whoop. It was more a "hey, she looks familiar" reaction than a "ooh, a movie star!" reaction. Maybe it would be different if I saw Orlando, but of course, last I knew he was in London anyway. I hope I would be as calm and rational around him as I would be around anyone else. Where I am, the chances of running across celebrities on the sidewalk are high, and it served to remind me of my whimsical, not-really-serious prayer that I might meet Orlando while we're both still single. Now I am regretting that; cute as he is, I'm not sure I would want to actually meet him - I think I would die of mortification...(side note - apparently my brother and one of his roommates came home last weekend, and the roomie ended up staying in my room and being really freaked out by the big Legolas poster on the back of the door. Mom said he mostly left the door open so he couldn't see the poster;)
When I got home, I met my next-door neighbor, who happens to be the same age I am, with the same problem of being mistaken for a fresh high-school grad, who is essentially separated from her friends, as well. She's from PA, and we're going to hang out on Saturday. I need friends my age around here, too.
And wouldn't you know it, the day I express my absolute frustration with my lack of wheels, I get a notice on my door (the management puts all apartment-wide notices in people's doorjambs) that there are no more parking spaces in the complex. All have been rented, even the space near the front that was heretofore reserved for the leasing office. Irony. Ha. I still want a car.
Today I had to be fingerprinted; if you are employed by an escrow company, you have to be bonded, which means a background check with the Department of Justice. The office manager drove me over there, since I don't have a car, and we had a horrible time trying to find it. I don't know if it would have been any better if I'd been driving, but it wasted a lot of time. He finally dropped me off at the crosswalk right in front of the building and went to look for parking. I thought he as planning to come in, since he could have paid the fee for the DOJ, but no, I ended up writing a check (I'd better get reimbursed on that one, too). Anyway, there were two other ladies right in front of me to be fingerprinted; one didn't have to pay anything, and the other was getting her payment out. I wrote my check out while they got their receipts and went to the other desk to get their visitor passes. I got my receipt in time to see them head for the elevator, passes in hand, but when I got to the front desk, I couldn't get anyone's attention. I don't know if it was shift-change or what, but they seemed to be standing around talking. When I got someone's attention, he told me they were too busy and had too many things going on at that moment so I had to go sit down. This was rather irritating, since the others had gotten through so fast and since they didn't look like they were doing anything. Best I can figure, they wanted to finish their conversation first. I finally got a turn; they took my driver's license and handed me a visitor's badge. He asked if I knew where I was supposed to go, and I confirmed the floor name. What I didn't know was that the elevator would only work if I scanned the badge in front of the magnetic reader on the button panel. I was looking at the buttons on the right side of the door, and the mag reader was on the left. I was quite frustrated when the elevator went up instead of down; the man who got on there was rather surprised to see me, but he explained how it was supposed to work. Apparently there was a recording trying to tell me how to use it, but it was such a low level recording, I couldn't hear what it was saying. Anyway, I got to the right floor, had a bit of difficulty since I was looking for a door rather than a window, and finally got things started. The lady there was nice; almost made up for the rude front-desk people. They apparently were supposed to photocopy my license and send the copy with me, but they didn't, so she had to call up to them to confirm it. Then there was a number entered wrong in the computer fingerprinting form, and she had to call someone else to check it. The actual fingerprinting was fast; it was the getting there that took forever. Anyway, I have rare fingerprints;) She put one of my thumbs on the scanner and said, "Oh, see, that's the rarest type of fingerprint. I actually had one person once who had all ten...That one, too." So, both thumbs and two of my other fingers have the rarest pattern in them. Pointless, but cool, trivia;)
There's another new girl at the office; for some reason, we go through temps like water. I started in February, and there have been at least three other temps who have come and gone already in that time. Another was set to start Monday, but she backed out Monday morning. So the new girl came for her interview today, and ended up working the rest of the day. She's nice enough, but I wonder if she's up to this. The others were nice, too, but one made the mistake of surfing the net all the time, while another just couldn't handle the pressure. I've heard from some of the older employees that there have actually been some who went to lunch and never came back! I don't consider it *that* stressful, though that one really bad day was enough to make me want to run away. That awful Tuesday, I kept telling myself "you don't have anywhere else to go," and, "get on that pony and ride," the latter being a reference to the best method for dealing with the fear resulting from a fall off a horse (but of course you knew that;) We'll see; I no longer expect much out of the other temps after seeing so much turnover in such a short time. I feel like I'm finally getting the hang of a few things, and I'm trying to make friends with one of the escrow officers. I think she's lonely, and some of the others have commented that they're trying to draw her out. They haven't been succeeding, because they're a) offering things that don't interest her, and b) very false about their personalities. I will never truly comprehend the kind of person who can tell someone "I like you a lot, I'll help you out, no problem," and then turn around and complain to someone else that you think this person is an idiot who ought to be scrubbed out of the industry. They swear when I tell them a certain person is on the phone for them, then pick up the phone and call that same person "darling" or "sweetie" or some other endearing term, pretending to adore this person they were just cursing. I don't get it, and I wonder if that's part of why she seems to be responding to me and not to them. Having a cat helps, though; cat people tend to bond well with each other, anyway. I don't know why it works, but it works, and I've invited her to come meet my cat. If nothing else, it'll provide motivation for me to finish getting my apartment cleaned up and organized;)
The weather has been unpleasantly hot, in the 90s, which wouldn't be so bad except for two things I don't have: a car and an air conditioner. So, I have to open the windows and door to get decent airflow. In AL, everybody has A/C, even in the projects. It's the only thing that makes *sense* with temps and humidity like that. Here, they're wimpy about the outdoor temps because they don't invest in A/C - people find it highly amusing when I relate my amazed discovery that the heater control in my apartment had only one switch, and my apartment is in a very *nice* part of town.
Well, it's getting late again, so I need to get along. Gotta get a decent night's sleep someday;)
Okey-dokey. Catching up...
Newsy stuff happened yesterday, and made me too tired to update. It turns out the Upstairs Neighbor With A Crush (assistant manager of the complex) is moving to another apartment in the complex. Back when my Dad was here to help with the moving stuff, he told me about seeing cops and the coroner in the walkways; I found out Sunday that it was a suicide. The management decided it would be next to impossible to rent that unit out, since suicide makes people so uneasy, so the assistant manager decided to take it. Apparently a single veterinarian (which for looks misspelled to me right now, but the LJ spell check likes it this way, and I can't find a way I like better) is moving in up there this week.
After work yesterday, I had to go to the drugstore. The grocery store is too far to walk, and I can't carry any luggage or anything on my bike, so I make do with the drugstore. It's awkward, to say the least. However, yesterday it proved interesting. I headed over toward the fridge/freezer section since I was getting low on milk (I get it in the quart size, because I don't use it fast enough to get through a larger bottle before it spoils) and I was looking at the Hot Pocketses, too, when I dropped a box on the floor. The guy standing in front of the ice cream freezer bent down to pick it up for me, and dropped his ice cream carton on the floor, too. He said something disparaging about his coordination, and I commented that if I hadn't been clutzy in the first place, it wouldn't have mattered. This sparked further discussion, which led to the nearly-universal "where are you from and what are you after" conversation. Turns out he's from Louisiana, and has an interior decorator friend trying to put together a show for the Discovery channel. To cut to the chase, he inquired as to whether I'd be interested in a barter arrangement to shoot the promo/pitch using my miniDV cameras. Well, YEAH, duh! He said something about trading decorating for it (some high-powered interior decorator wasting time on my dinky little studio apartment? no, and besides, I am perfectly capable of doing my own creative decorating, thanks...*I* like my style, and as it's my place, no one else has to like it;) but I'm more interested in screen credit rights, truth be told. Can you imagine if it gets made? So he gave me his name and number and website, and I emailed him tonight. (No, he's not my type.) We'll see what, if anything, happens. I also saw some actress, but I can't think of her name, or what I've seen her in. Big help, I know. I smiled, she smiled, big whoop. It was more a "hey, she looks familiar" reaction than a "ooh, a movie star!" reaction. Maybe it would be different if I saw Orlando, but of course, last I knew he was in London anyway. I hope I would be as calm and rational around him as I would be around anyone else. Where I am, the chances of running across celebrities on the sidewalk are high, and it served to remind me of my whimsical, not-really-serious prayer that I might meet Orlando while we're both still single. Now I am regretting that; cute as he is, I'm not sure I would want to actually meet him - I think I would die of mortification...(side note - apparently my brother and one of his roommates came home last weekend, and the roomie ended up staying in my room and being really freaked out by the big Legolas poster on the back of the door. Mom said he mostly left the door open so he couldn't see the poster;)
When I got home, I met my next-door neighbor, who happens to be the same age I am, with the same problem of being mistaken for a fresh high-school grad, who is essentially separated from her friends, as well. She's from PA, and we're going to hang out on Saturday. I need friends my age around here, too.
And wouldn't you know it, the day I express my absolute frustration with my lack of wheels, I get a notice on my door (the management puts all apartment-wide notices in people's doorjambs) that there are no more parking spaces in the complex. All have been rented, even the space near the front that was heretofore reserved for the leasing office. Irony. Ha. I still want a car.
Today I had to be fingerprinted; if you are employed by an escrow company, you have to be bonded, which means a background check with the Department of Justice. The office manager drove me over there, since I don't have a car, and we had a horrible time trying to find it. I don't know if it would have been any better if I'd been driving, but it wasted a lot of time. He finally dropped me off at the crosswalk right in front of the building and went to look for parking. I thought he as planning to come in, since he could have paid the fee for the DOJ, but no, I ended up writing a check (I'd better get reimbursed on that one, too). Anyway, there were two other ladies right in front of me to be fingerprinted; one didn't have to pay anything, and the other was getting her payment out. I wrote my check out while they got their receipts and went to the other desk to get their visitor passes. I got my receipt in time to see them head for the elevator, passes in hand, but when I got to the front desk, I couldn't get anyone's attention. I don't know if it was shift-change or what, but they seemed to be standing around talking. When I got someone's attention, he told me they were too busy and had too many things going on at that moment so I had to go sit down. This was rather irritating, since the others had gotten through so fast and since they didn't look like they were doing anything. Best I can figure, they wanted to finish their conversation first. I finally got a turn; they took my driver's license and handed me a visitor's badge. He asked if I knew where I was supposed to go, and I confirmed the floor name. What I didn't know was that the elevator would only work if I scanned the badge in front of the magnetic reader on the button panel. I was looking at the buttons on the right side of the door, and the mag reader was on the left. I was quite frustrated when the elevator went up instead of down; the man who got on there was rather surprised to see me, but he explained how it was supposed to work. Apparently there was a recording trying to tell me how to use it, but it was such a low level recording, I couldn't hear what it was saying. Anyway, I got to the right floor, had a bit of difficulty since I was looking for a door rather than a window, and finally got things started. The lady there was nice; almost made up for the rude front-desk people. They apparently were supposed to photocopy my license and send the copy with me, but they didn't, so she had to call up to them to confirm it. Then there was a number entered wrong in the computer fingerprinting form, and she had to call someone else to check it. The actual fingerprinting was fast; it was the getting there that took forever. Anyway, I have rare fingerprints;) She put one of my thumbs on the scanner and said, "Oh, see, that's the rarest type of fingerprint. I actually had one person once who had all ten...That one, too." So, both thumbs and two of my other fingers have the rarest pattern in them. Pointless, but cool, trivia;)
There's another new girl at the office; for some reason, we go through temps like water. I started in February, and there have been at least three other temps who have come and gone already in that time. Another was set to start Monday, but she backed out Monday morning. So the new girl came for her interview today, and ended up working the rest of the day. She's nice enough, but I wonder if she's up to this. The others were nice, too, but one made the mistake of surfing the net all the time, while another just couldn't handle the pressure. I've heard from some of the older employees that there have actually been some who went to lunch and never came back! I don't consider it *that* stressful, though that one really bad day was enough to make me want to run away. That awful Tuesday, I kept telling myself "you don't have anywhere else to go," and, "get on that pony and ride," the latter being a reference to the best method for dealing with the fear resulting from a fall off a horse (but of course you knew that;) We'll see; I no longer expect much out of the other temps after seeing so much turnover in such a short time. I feel like I'm finally getting the hang of a few things, and I'm trying to make friends with one of the escrow officers. I think she's lonely, and some of the others have commented that they're trying to draw her out. They haven't been succeeding, because they're a) offering things that don't interest her, and b) very false about their personalities. I will never truly comprehend the kind of person who can tell someone "I like you a lot, I'll help you out, no problem," and then turn around and complain to someone else that you think this person is an idiot who ought to be scrubbed out of the industry. They swear when I tell them a certain person is on the phone for them, then pick up the phone and call that same person "darling" or "sweetie" or some other endearing term, pretending to adore this person they were just cursing. I don't get it, and I wonder if that's part of why she seems to be responding to me and not to them. Having a cat helps, though; cat people tend to bond well with each other, anyway. I don't know why it works, but it works, and I've invited her to come meet my cat. If nothing else, it'll provide motivation for me to finish getting my apartment cleaned up and organized;)
The weather has been unpleasantly hot, in the 90s, which wouldn't be so bad except for two things I don't have: a car and an air conditioner. So, I have to open the windows and door to get decent airflow. In AL, everybody has A/C, even in the projects. It's the only thing that makes *sense* with temps and humidity like that. Here, they're wimpy about the outdoor temps because they don't invest in A/C - people find it highly amusing when I relate my amazed discovery that the heater control in my apartment had only one switch, and my apartment is in a very *nice* part of town.
Well, it's getting late again, so I need to get along. Gotta get a decent night's sleep someday;)
