| | | | | | Wednesday, November 29, 2006 |
tickly
| | An excerpt from the section intitled 'Making Love' from Where Did I Come From by Peter Mayle:
It's a difficult feeling to describe, but if you can imagine a gnetle tingly sort of tickle that starts in your stomach and spreads all over, that will give you some idea.
...
And as you know, when you're feeling ickly you want to wriggle about a bit. It's just the same here except it's a special kind of wriggling. It's easier to understand when you realize that the parts that tickle most are the man's penis and the woman's vagina. So most of the wriggling happens down there.
The man pushes his penis up and down inside the woman's vagina, so that both the tickly parts are being rubbed against each other. It's like scratching an itch, but a lot nicer.
It goes on to tell you that although it feels really good that we don't do it all the time because it is very tiring, riding a bike is fun, but you can't ride a bike ALL THE TIME.
Okay I -read- this book when I was 11, and it scared the holy -smuck- out of me.
I knew what sex was, but whatever this guy was describing sounded frightening. I had this terrible mental image of a man coming up to me (grown up me) and saying "my penis feels tickly. I'm afraid I will need to rub it inside your vagina and then we'll wriggle for a bit. Shouldn't be but a moment"
There, having shared this horror with you, I feel better.
PS it's annoying, having dated a jazz musician for years, to know how a bunch of songs go (and in some instances know the -names-) but be unable to find them. Only Frank knows my favorite version of Blue Bossa (I -think- I like the Dexter Gordon one, but I know I don't as a whole like Dexter Gordon) or who plays that version of Little Sunflower that he has on his computer. It makes it impossible to find anything! Stupid jazz standards being played by everyone (four years later and I still can't pick out Stella By Starlight out of a musical lineup).
posted by Amber at 1:48 AM
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4 comments
| | | | | | Tuesday, November 28, 2006 |
oh bother
| | So, life got a bit more difficult.
Apparently Sac State wants my tuition NOW, which is... unfortunate. I told Frank he had until January to pay me back, and I also promised not to contact him, so I'll just have to wait until then. I am on the installement plan for this semester, and I can afford the first installment, and frank's bit will take care of (hopefully) the second installment and books. Which will leave me... like 1200 short. Sigh. Here's to many months of broke food.
Also, in even worse news, my best friend Katherine is going through a rough time. Her baby is due in January, and she's too far gone to work, but her husband has been arrested for theft (the guy he carpooled with stole some stuff from a house they were working on). It's just a NIGHTMARE. She's without a job, in her inlaws house with a jerk for a husband who may be going to jail and she's over seven months pregnant. I worry for her so much.
Alright that's about all I want to talk about for now, I'm going to be sad for a while and then sleep.
posted by Amber at 12:34 AM
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| | | | | | Monday, November 27, 2006 |
humdida humdida humdidada...SPACESHIP!
| | Oh man. First of all, I'm sick, and it sucks, but there it is.
Secondly, I have the last season of 3rd rock, and it made me very sad. It's not as good as the other seasons, but it is the END. I'm a sucker for 4 part harmony, really it's true (use that to your advantage, if you want to get me to do something, find three other people and sing me your proposal. It JUST MIGHT WORK). So, for posterity (sing along if you know the words... or, I guess more realistically the -tune-)
Across the void we come a'warping
Across the fields of stars we... SOAR
We pledge to land and something... something
Humdida humdida humdidada... SPACESHIP
And when at last our mission's finished
In duty homeward shall we fly
Our Glory cannot be diminished
Back to the heavens in our mighty... SPACESHIP
Doesn't that bring a tear to your eye?
What do you mean it doesn't? IT DAMN WELL SHOULD
PS Did you know that I actually know my highschool's song? I know it because I was in choir and had to sing it at games (also I know the second alto's part to it), but still, I know it!
posted by Amber at 3:16 AM
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| | | | | | Sunday, November 19, 2006 |
Sue me, sue me, shoots bullets through me, I love you
| | I saw Guys and Dolls again tonight, and, wow, I really like that musical. Of course, Marlon Brando can't sing, and he can't really dance (oh man, it must have just KILLED Frank Sinatra to have to hear Brando slaughter Luck Be A Lady Tonight), but boy oh boy can he act. I watch him on screen and think to myself: he's an -animal-. Poor Jean Simmons, she'll never see him coming! I really enjoy the musical numbers in this one, Fugue for Tinhorns always makes me happy (and Sue Me, not Sinatra's part, Blaine's!). And the costumes, oh to -die- for. I would be a happy haberdasher, I just like men's dress clothes. I mean, I'll settle, a dress shirt and slacks is really nice (and still makes me happy), but -oh- ties, suspenders, three piece suits and -hats-.
[dreamy sigh]
posted by Amber at 11:09 PM
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2 comments
weekend update (without jokes)
| | Well, I've had a very good weekend. I hung out with my favorite cousin and his girlfriend, I hung out with my best friend. I saw a musical, I drank gin, life is good.
Of course, today my stomach is a bit annoyed at me, and I did sleep like four hours. But it's alright. This morning was the annual christmas meeting. I love this meeting, yes its at an ungodly hour, but everyone is there -together-.
After it was officially over the ladies of the children's department got together and talked about stuff in the department. It was fun! I also only had to work for two hours after the meeting ended, and I DIDN'T take the extra shift offered to me today (thank god!), so I don't have to go back until Tuesday!
Yay!
posted by Amber at 12:02 PM
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| | | | | | Friday, November 17, 2006 |
doin' a little dance
| | I'm just going to assume that the internet, AS A WHOLE, knew I was going to get into CSUS, and considers it no big deal. I was quite sure I wouldn't and was thinking about ways to perform ritualized suicide that don't require a second.
Today was awesome. I'm awesome. With only 3 people and a manager coming on to the evening shift (should have six or seven had three, more came later but for 2.5 hours it was hectic), and me covering music breaks (everyone was a newbie!)I ALSO ran a kids event. The American Girls Book Club, and I did okay! I had fun, and they didn't seem to hate me (or demand Carolyn should be there, which is what I was SURE was going to happen).
In short, I feel good, and I have two days off! Two fun filled days! And it's such that finding out that my love life is currently in a state of irony barely fazes me. I'm not seeing anyone, I haven't been seeing anyone for a long time, and it looks like I won't be seeing anyone any time soon. To wit, I'm screwed. Well, whatever world! Whatever YOUR MOM! I know what I'm doing with my life and I'm one step closer to ACTUALLY DOING IT. The REST OF MY LIFE, the thing that I've been waiting years for it to start, has an actual start date! So I may be crazy, have almost no local friends, no boyfriend and work for $.12 a minute, but it's not going to be me permanently. I have a DIRECTION. So bring it on, world.
BRING IT THE FUCK ON.
WHOOO
PS forgive my self congratualtory mood. No one is going to throw me a party except me, and if I can't be selfabsorbed in my blog... where can I?
posted by Amber at 2:29 AM
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| | | | | | Thursday, November 16, 2006 |
WHOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
| | Who got into sac state's public history program?
Oh yeah, that would be ME.
posted by Amber at 12:47 AM
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1 comments
| | | | | | Wednesday, November 15, 2006 |
last time I swear!
| | So! more shifting about in kids! I didn't have help today so I had to balance my other tasks ontop of this, but I think Alura will be able to finish the rest tomorrow morning. Here's what the department looked like this morning:
I moved Nature (Carolyn moved science) over to the other side of the island. The old Discoveries bay is now Fun, Fashion and Friendship, which didn't exist before. I had to go find all of the titles in the activities bay, I didn't have a list, so I had to scan each and every book and kit to see if it went in this new bay). The top two shelves are -supposed to be two tiered (just like it sounds, it makes one shelf into two shelves one above and behind the other), but Ross couldn't find them in the back. He -did- however find the two fence fixtures I needed yesterday! So I had to scan every preschool book in an attempt to make four shelves of preschool books turn into two shelves of preschool books. Then I had to wrestle with the heavy fence fixtures to get them ON the shelves. Then, I enlisted the help of Chris (who is short but very strong) to shove the shelves onto the bookcase. He worked up quite a sweat. I filled the fence fixtures with the rest of the chicken socks (hurray!). In the space where Nature -used- to go, I set up the shelves for humor (and music art and dance on the bottom shelf). Where Humor used to be will be the second part of Juvenile Biographies and sports. That was all I had time for, because I had to keep HELPING people.
End result:
I promise tomorrow or next time I post I won't talk about work!
PS in other news, Ed and I have a running bet, whomever can work the phrase "I love so hard people DIE" into casual conversation and deliver it with a straight face will be treated to dinner by the loser. Ed has a handicap because the pool of people I talk to on a daily basis is mostly work people, and that makes it a LOT harder. I stil think I have a good chance of winning this one, and if I lose, I can live with that.
posted by Amber at 12:10 AM
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3 comments
| | | | | | Tuesday, November 14, 2006 |
another work entry (with pictures!)
| | SO! We FINALLY got in our Dr. Seuss spinner (the spinner that we were supposed to get in in July, just arrived this afternoon). This means that I spent all of tonight moving everything around! We'd been waiting for this spinner because the whole layout of kids depended on us freeing up the old bay of Dr Seuss. Here's what I did:
This is my department before the move
I put all of the dr seuss titles on the spinner, and the titles that didn't go on the spinner are now in picture books under seuss. I cleaned the 84" bookcase that used to hold dr seuss, then moved all of Preschool (previously a 60" bay) to their new home. I also found out that we needed 3 fence fixtures (see diagram below), but no one could find them, so I stole one from the Disney section (we've got sound stories out the wazoo now with no place to put them, oh well). Now all of our Chicken Socks is crammed into that one fixture (Chicken Socks is the little kids version of Klutz, you remember Klutz, all of those 'fool proof' kids kits). I took out the shelves on the old preschool bay and had Ben get me down a slat rack (see diagram below). Then I compacted our two 84" audio bays (that were -packed- mind you) into ONE 84" bay, it took some jiggling and some overstock but I got 98% of the items on display. I took another slat rack from the old audio bay and put it ontop of the one I had just put in preschool (that was really really hard, they have all these complicated hooks that fasten them to the shelf, and they are also really heavy, 4' wide and 3' tall) and then set up Toddler Activities (which were mostly the soft books from an old endcap).
In the old audio bay I set up the proper shelving for Discoveries (bargain nonfiction books really). This is what I spent eight hours of my life doing
Diagrams:
I ALSO changed over the stepladders and stickered everything.
None of this would have happened if I hadn't had Gayle working in Kids doing everything I couldn't do (namely shelving all the new product and helping customers on the floor), I kept thanking her, and now she thinks I'm a freak, but whatever.
I'm terribly proud. Or as I told Jeff, "I was really productive, which makes me very happy, which is sad, but it's okay." He thought that was very amusing.
Good night!
PS like my little renderings? As I was doing them I felt like I had become my father, he could never tell my mother anything about his various jobs without sketching for her. He has covered perhaps a small orchard's worth of napkins illustrating various aspects of houses.
posted by Amber at 12:40 AM
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| | | | | | Friday, November 10, 2006 |
why do I keep my mind, on you all the time (and I don't even know you)?
| | man, I'm so sick of work! I am glad tomorrow is my day off. I'm currently warm and relaxed, listening to the Delfonics and feeling mostly at right with the world. Am still worked up about Sterling ignoring me, but not too much I can do about it (short of going Rabias on him... which would be a BAD idea).
This makes me happy. Also, in election news, I have yet to vote for a winning candidate! Well, not a winning governor or president (or presidential candidate), I manage senate and house of representatives just fine. Ed suggested that perhaps my party (the democrats, if you know me you know that) should ask me to vote for the other side.
Oh! I'm going to the bay area, but everyone is busy (damn), so I don't know what I'll do there (maybe see what's playing at the Lesher...choir I think).
PS She will have her way by Neil Finn is -awesome-, but I think it's because they played it on Sports Night (its the love theme... sort of). So is Hindi Sad Diamonds from the Moulin Rouge Soundtrack as is the original Blue Monday by New Order. I remember thinking (when Orgy's remake came out) that the first was very tame, but I hadn't gotten into electronica at the time. I have been -rocking out- to a variety of music
posted by Amber at 3:22 AM
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2 comments
| | | | | | Tuesday, November 07, 2006 |
obscene
| | So today I got my first obscene phone call.
A guy called and asked to be connected to the children's department. I picked up the line, he asked me if my pussy had ever been licked. I asked him if this was really what he called to talk about, he repeated his previous question. I told him if he didn't have a question about books, music or dvds then we had nothing left to say to one another. And then I hung up upon him. I sounded fine on the phone, but I kept hearing his voice for the next twenty minutes or so, and that annoyed me. So I had a little sit down and erased it from my mind (honestly, I forgot all about it until I was driving home from work twenty minutes ago.
Work was pretty good, I got a lot done. Pete is coming tomorrow for certification and my manager is driving herself nuts over it. She got in at six thirty this morning and didn't leave until after ten pm at night. By the end she was very uptight and completely incomprehensible.
Tomorrow! I must get up early and vote (I have to drive to davis)
posted by Amber at 12:31 AM
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4 comments
| | | | | | Monday, November 06, 2006 |
Prestige
| | Wow, that was quite a movie.
Ed found it... peculiar that I didn't know anything about the movie before I walked in to see it. I read the first half of one review and decided it looked like fun.
It was not 'fun', it was a movie about two magicians being -terrible- to one another.
But it -was- compelling.
I reasoned out the ending, actually. The interesting part was that the rest of the audience hadn't figured it out AFTER the movie had ended. Anyway, go see it, it's worth it.
posted by Amber at 12:53 AM
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| | | | | | Saturday, November 04, 2006 |
TODAY SUCKED (details to follow)
| | I think I'm fighting with my friend. As in Sterling is not returning my calls. So I've been really sad/angry at him.
THEN I went to work
Here's the situation as of 3:30 when I started work: For the last month or so we've been getting massive numbers of books (both insane amounts of Christmas books and a gazillion copies of really popular kids books, called COUTs [Christmas cOunt Up Tos… I didn’t make the stupid title up, Want to hear something worse, guess what Halloween stock is called… HOUTs. So funny it kills you, eh?]). This would be why overstock has been an insane mess and why we have BOXES of extra books (instead of just on the shelves, and the floor beneath the shelves and the little H-cart). So, holiday promotions started this week… and Kids lost TWO tables, the tables where all the extra titles of Kids and Teens books go. In other words the tables that have been PILED HIGH with books have been cleared and non kids (Trade) books have been put on them instead. But Alura got in at four thirty am to help Carolyn change over the displays, and worked on that until 11am (meaning she had time to take all the books off our tables and put the books ON them that belong there), but didn't have time to put all those extra books into overstock. They filled up the little H-cart, and a V-cart with overstock. And because today was insanely busy Alura spent the second half of her shift helping out Customer Service. So not only did none of that overstock get put away, all of the go backs that accumulated during the day were put back. ALSO, because it was so insanely busy none of the shelving of yesterday's shipment got done, and today's shipment arrived hot on its heels.
I started off today's shift hideously behind with a poor attitude.
So, I have crazy piles of go-backs/overstock. And Ross in receiving can't fit today's shelving on the Big H-carts, so he put them on V-carts for me to shelve. AND of course it's still CRAZY busy. And the go backs pile up, and I can't shelve the books because it's the beginning of the month, and we've all been busy with changeover, so we haven’t pulled the due outs, so the shelves are PACKED. I end up having do the thing that seems to affect the department the least, which is zoning Young Readers. Then I got a swarm of people who just overran my department. Destroying it, like really badly. I had a screechy little girl take out a lot of plushies for what was, I'm sure, a very involved inactment of her own internal drama. Everytime I thought she had gone and I went to put them away, she showed up, pissed that I had moved them from the middle of the floor. By 10:15 (the time when I should on a slow day begin straightening the department) there were books and plushies everywhere and like ten people in the department. I nearly snapped. I was feeling crappy to begin with, to add this on top was nearly insupportable. I nearly broke down crying to Jeff in receiving when he asked me if I was all right.
Lastly I’ve been quivery, it's been annoying.
Goodnight!
PS I feel better now, but lately things have been pretty terrible. Here's to them picking up!
posted by Amber at 1:48 AM
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| | | | | | Friday, November 03, 2006 |
| | GAH my brain won't let me go to sleep!
I'm so damn tired (three hours last night) and yet it keeps ticking away. Haven't had a LOT to think about mind you, but been by turns angry annoyed and worried (my stomach hurts quite badly because of it).
I saw the Grifters, it was awesome. THe movies that I have been watching lately have all been noir (well not ALL, but MANY) based on crime novels. And yet I can't seem to pick UP noir novels. I keep trying and yet I opt for the easier medium.
Man, I'm shaking with exhaustion, I'm going to lie down some more.
posted by Amber at 3:37 AM
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| | | | | | Thursday, November 02, 2006 |
Wherein Time Bends of It's Own Accord
| | Freaky things are happening to the fabric of Time in Barnes and Noble. First of all, the End is no longer NEAR, it is HERE (it is actually, all over the place). Secondly, because Halloween is over we had people working overnight (and will be having another shift of overnighters tonight) last night setting up promotions. So, even though the scanners tell us that things are going on display on the 10th, they are going on now. Or as Dave (the manager) said, it is not Future promo anymore; the Future is Now. Also, I was working in customer service today, and I noticed a kids book that was on top of the go back pile. It had a sticky on it saying: Where do I go? (In Holiday or Beginning readers?). Which made sense because it was a thanksgiving beginner reader. Here's the thing, the note was written in what is indisputably MY handwriting. I have no recollection of writing this note, either today, or any other day. AND, the book, apparently, cost $0.00.
This all combines with a book I found in the children's department. It's another Series of Unfortunate Events book (this time the puzzle book). This is what the title page says:
All rights reserved, including the rights of orphans. No part of this book may be used, reproduced, or allowed to fall into the wrong hands in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles, reviews, and coded communications. Printed in the United States of America, but conceived elsewhere at great risk. For information address HarperCollins Children's Books, a division of HarperCollins Publishers, 1350 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10019, although the employee with whom you correspond will not know the truth. There are more things in Heaven and Earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy. It is not too late to send help. The world is quiet here.
I checked all the rest of the SUE books, the title pages are normal. How many people read the title page (except me)?
I think someone is trying to send me a message (maybe myself in a different time?). I wish I knew what it MEANT.
Although, on the other hand, I rather enjoy not knowing.
posted by Amber at 4:52 PM
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the lake house
| | Sigh I'm turning into a sentimental idiot.
I saw the Lake House tonight. And it made me cry...well no, it didn't make me -actually- cry, but my eyes welled up.
In case you were unaware the lakehouse has Keanu Reeves as a romantic lead.
So his character and Sandra Bullock's character are slow dancing (to make matters of the plot simpler allow me to say they don't live in the same time except for this scene) to This Never Happened Before by Paul McCartney and, I started getting weepy.
KEANU REEVES.
I need -help-.
Also, yesterday I was fixing the jazz section in Music (in costume), and it was really very scary how many of them I recognized. Frank is the jazz musician, but after three years with him, I've heard a lot of jazz, and gotten to know by name at least a lot of jazz artists. I started with Cannonball Adderly and ended up around Jaco Pastorius (had other projects to do). I went and downloaded some of the music I remembered liking (or at least I remembered the names and the artists). Right now I'm listening to Portrait of Tracy. This song makes me happy/sad (which is why the next song on the playlist is Its Too Late by Carole King, they go together, like bookends).
Anyway I have a morningshift tomorrow, so I had better get to bed, or at least get -in- bed then worry about the sleeping part.
posted by Amber at 12:05 AM
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0 comments
| | | | | | Wednesday, November 01, 2006 |
all saints day
| | I worked halloween, but we were allowed to dress up
Guess who I am
HINT: I'm NOT a Butterfly
posted by Amber at 8:47 PM
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2 comments
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