randomly chaotic and frequently mundane

So, my digital camera wasn’t working.  Something was wrong with it and I was searching ebay for a replacement.  Placed a few bids, lost a few auctions.  Mom picked up my camera yesterday, to see if she could do anything with it.  Afterall, what would it hurt?  It was broken anyway…

she fixed it.  Of course, she fixed it about 30 seconds after I bid on a replacement, LOL.  I lost the auction, so that’s good.  And the even better news is that the camera that I love is in good working order again.  Apparently, the lense (which shifts out when it’s on) was jammed.  Mom gave it a nudge and jiggle and poof.  Fixed.  I tried exactly what she did, but I guess I wasn’t doing it hard enough, what can I say… I didn’t want to break it.  I’m very glad the camera is fixed, I’d like to get some good pictures of Gage at the birthday party this weekend.  It’ll be his first real birthday party since his first birthday.  It’s a dual affair, Gage and Kalina.  Their birthdays are only 3 days apart, so it didn’t make much sense to have 2 birthday parties (2 weekends in a row, no doubt).

Haven’t posted much of late, my apologies to anyone who actually attempts to read this regularly.  I don’t spend much time online of late, mostly too tired to do much online lately. 

Gage is doing really good, so many words.  He asks for things he wants now.  He asks for different foods, drinks, activities, etc.  He writes words on the magnadoodle all the time.  I’ve written new words out for him and he sounded them out.  It’s incredibly encouraging, even if he needed a little help putting all the sounds together.  He hasn’t had any meltdowns or serious tantrums lately, and he’s gotten so much more affectionate.

Work continues… it’s good, though I like the stuff I do besides cashiering better, I must admit. 

The digital camera is dead.  I don’t know what happened, but it won’t turn on or close up.  I’m working on getting a refurbished one of the same variety.  I like that camera.  I’ll “upgrade” when I can afford the most recent model with all the groovy features I want.  For now I’ll just see about getting something that I’m good and familiar with that I know is really good for my needs.

so I had my first bad customer at work yesterday.  I’d definitely classify this person as a bitch.  Seriously.  She was going on and on (to other customers) about me being slow, and bringing up people who were originally behind her in line being done already — the people she was referring to had just a few items and were redirected to the express lane.  Not that I could say that, of course.  It also didn’t help the speed of the line that she happened to get behind customers who were doing multiple transactions and/or had special bagging needs.  The person directly in front of her requested that things be packed lightly and that they be in paper bags inside of plastic bags.  It’s a common request, particularly from elderly customers or people who want their bags packed as full as humanly possible.  This woman bitched loudly about the way I was bagging the person in front of her’s stuff.  Bear in mind that the person I was taking care of was using one of the little mobile carts and had an oxygen tank with her.  There was a “what is this girls problem?” when I had to write a price on a coupon — sorry honey, that’s standard operating proceedure, and any other cashier would have done the same damned thing.  The customer in the mobile cart is a regular, she goes to my line because I take the time to pack things well, but lightly for her.  I have many customers who seek me out, for just that reason.  What can I say, I’m good at my job.  The customer heard what the other woman was saying, and when I went to go around and put her bags in the basket on her cart she shook her head and told me she had it.

When the customer from hell was up she had nothin but attitude.  She gave me a 12-pack of soda and said “I have 3 of these.”  I asked if they were all the same variety, because we have to ring up each variety… it’s a matter of inventory.  She said no, and I told her I needed one of each variety and I needed to know how many of each she had.  I scanned the one she gave me, she gave me the second and I scanned that.  Then I asked what the 3rd one was, and she said “It’s the same as the first,” then got pissed because I said I needed it, because she didn’t tell me she had 2 of that one.  So she threw it up on the counter and I’ll be honest, a little part of me was hoping that the seal on a couple of those cans cracked a little and that it leaked all over her car.

Then she starts on about “how long have you worked here?” and “I can’t believe you still have a job.” and my personal favorite “You are the worst, slowest cashier I’ve ever seen.”  Meanwhile, she’s throwing stuff into a bag almost as fast as I scan it.  The first thing she put into the bag was a carton of eggs, among things she slammed into the bag on top of those were canned goods.  Again, I was hoping in the back of my mind that she was in the process of breaking all of her eggs.

When she left, I was sure to give her a “thank you, have a nice day” with a nice cheery smile.  And on her way out, I’m sure she heard the elderly man I rang up next, who said nice and loud “What the fuck was her problem?”

Writing has always been a passion of mine, everything from short stories to poetry to recipes. It’s just something I’ve always enjoyed, and I’ve always dreamed of having something printed. It doesn’t deem so to most people, but the writing industry is so competitive, and of the millions of manuscripts submitted every year, very few actually get picked up. Which is why there’s a certain beauty to Self Publishing. If you can promote your own work, and don’t have a problem with the idea, a site like WordClay.com is a great resource. You fill in the details about your book, upload the manuscript, design the cover, set the cost, compose marketing info and then you’re good to go. The only thing left is to approve and publish. All done, and you don’t have to pay an agent to do all that work for you.

So, Autumn got a bear and a karate outfit from my NAAW site for Easter and she loves it.  I still have a bunch of discount codes for $5 off for anyone who’s interested.  The bear is really cute (he’s a panda) and the karate outfit is really nice.  Having not seen those two specific items in person before, I was pleased to have the chance.  They’re as nice and well-made as the ones that I’d already seen.

I got mystery shopped at work last week, got 100% which means I’m getting some free movie tickets from the store.  That’ll be nice, I haven’t been to a movie since X3 (in June of 2006).  Needless to say, I’m very excited.  Maybe I can catch a movie next week or something.  That’d be good.  Just gotta figure out what’s playing that I’m interested in seeing.  Maybe something scary.  That’d be good.

I’m currently saving money for a car.  Once car is attained, I can work on more NAAW stuff and check on a few other job options.  As much as I love my job, I’m thinking of applying for a position shopping for home delivery and pick up orders.  Why not?  I love grocery shopping (I’m bizarre, I know).  Um… I think that’s about it.

I remember very vividly, going through my mothers albums as a child and pulling out this album. This was many moons ago, I must confess. I was fascinated with the image on the cover, the intensity of the eyes and the blackness of the hair. Maybe it was because at the time my mother’s black hair was very long and very straight, to say nothing of the fact that apart from height, my mom had a very similar body type to Cher. But I’ve always loved her. She’s not just an intriguing person, she’s and amazing performer. I love her voice, the power and the richness of it just makes me tingle.

She’s going to be doing 200 shows over 3 years at Caesars Palace, and I’m hoping that I can see it just once. Cher and Las Vegas just fit like a glove. Vegas is perfectly over the top, and so is Cher. It’s a perfect match — you could call it a marriage made in heaven. I would kill for Cher tickets at Caesar’s Palace Las Vegas. The closest to seeing Cher live that I have ever been was watching whatever televised performances I could. Let me just say that even if you’re not a fan of the woman, the showmanship would be worth the price of admission. She’s a spectacular showman, knows how to work the crowd and make you want to sing along.  It would be even better if I could take my mom.  After all, if it weren’t for her I might not have ever become a Cher fan.  I’d also love to take my little sister, who is as big a Cher fan as I am.

Gage has been creative lately.  We got some wooden cut outs from Rob’s mom and I got him some water colors.  He’s painted some truly BEAUTIFUL patterns on the shapes.  Mostly fish, what can I say… he loves fish.  There have been a few other animals.  Birds, bears, a birdhouse, etc.  I wanna get him a little wooden birdhouse (the 3-d kind, rather than a flat piece of wood) and see what he does with it.  When it gets a little warmer I’m going to get some canvas and some paints and let him paint outside.  He does some really creative stuff.

I’ve had some creative bursts myself lately.  As a matter of fact, I had a very interesting idea for a new board game, which I’m going to work on with Rob.  I’m not telling anyone anything about it though, because I think it’s a winner… and I’d rather no one steal our idea.  Right now we’re in the figuring out pieces and game play phase.  ‘Twill be quite interesting to see how that goes.  I’m getting a big more creative again on the cooking front, too.  There’re a couple of recipe ideas I had that I’d really like to work on and submit to a few contests that I read about.  There’s still a little time for that yet, though.

It’s no secret, I love coupons. No, that’s an understatement, I love coupons with a passion. I know, I’m weird, but I get so excited when I can save some money on something that I need (or want) to buy. Which is why I really dig getting free coupons online whenever I can. BuyWithCoupons.com is a great new site for getting free online coupons, including several sites that are perfect for buying those Mother’s Day and Father’s Day gifts that you keep putting off.

I haven’t had the chance to do a picture of the week in awhile… so I thought I’d post one and try my damndest to get back into the swing of things.  I took this today, it was Gage’s first time ever to the ocean.  My god he loved it, didn’t want to turn from the view.  I knew he would, to be honest.  He loves water and he loves to play in the sand.  If I let him, he would have made a beeline for the water and splashed his way to hypothermia.  Well, maybe not hypothermia… I don’t think the water was quite THAT cold, but cold nonetheless.  I could have stayed down there on the sand all day myself, to be perfectly honest.  The day included going to a little aquarium and Gage winning a stuffed fish at a fishing boardwalk game.  Maybe I’ll be able to take him to the shore when it’s a little warmer, when he can actually go in the water for a bit.

My back is killing me.  One draw back of working at the grocery store, I guess.  I’ll just have to get plenty of those back patches.  Good thing I get a discount, lol. 

Gage has gotten really REALLY good on the computer.  Not only is he good at navigating the pages he loves (starfall.com and pogo.com).  He’s learned how to plug in the mini-mouse that mom lets him use when he uses my laptop, so he doesn’t have to use the touch pad.  I didn’t show him that, he just started doing it.  Next he’ll be adding extra memory to Grammy’s computer or something, lol.

There’s an artists with Autism auction at the end of the month, some of Gage’s artwork from school (along with his classmates) will be included.  I’m gonna try and go to that, see what all Gage did and maybe bid on something.  Gage also has a field trip next week.  Alas I have to work, but I’m gonna see if Grammy or aunt Mandy can sneak in and take some pictures of him, after clearing it with his teachers, of course.  It would probably be better for them to go than me, anyway.  If he saw me, he probably wouldn’t let me leave.

It’s coming up on us, mothers day is about 2 months away. Sounds like a long time, but in a blink of an eye it’ll be here. Maybe you’ll be prepared with a special something for mom, maybe not. You can, of course, be prepared and pre-order something for mother’s day delivery now. That’s always a good thing, isn’t it? 1800flowers.com has some coupon codes you can use to get $10, $15 or $25 off your purchase. These are limited time offers, so definitely check them out and place your order as soon as possible. Then you can surprise mom with something beautiful and thoughtful, and be a smart consumer on top of it.

Mar26 - Save $10 no minimum
Mar15 - Save $15 w/min $74.99 purchase
Mar25 - Save $25 w/min $99.99 purchase

I plan on having a look at what they’ve got and collaborating with Sisser tomorrow night so we can have something pretty delivered to Mom for mother’s day. Perhaps some orchids, those are her favorite — though I don’t know if anyone besides me actually remembers that, she’s never actually received any orchids as far as I know of.

So, I haven’t been able to watch much Avalanche hockey… that sucks very much badly.  I’m very thankful that I can listen to them online though.  I at least have that.  Missed yesterday’s game cause I was working, but I can listen to tonights game and that will be good.  Can I say that I was SO disappointed that the Avs traded my favorite player?  So sad.  Special K (Karlis Skrastins) is a damn fine defenseman in my opinion.  Not that I have a problem with Ruslan Salei, as a matter of fact I’ve had him on my fantasy hockey team since the beginning.  I’m just a big fan of the at home defenseman, the guys who don’t really do a lot of scoring, but do a lot of shot blocking and hard working in their own end. 

And then there’s the return… oh, was that an interesting pair of acquisitions on the Avs’s part.  Foote and Forsberg coming home.  Who knew?  Oh, there were dreams, but who really thought it’d happen?  Let us hope that this means good things in the Avs future.  There are 2 regular season games that are supposed to be nationally televised left.  I intend to watch both of them.  Here’s hoping they spend a lot of time in the playoffs.

A few days ago, I got a sample of Naked Naturals’ awapuhi and lavender natural shampoo and conditioner for color treated hair. I thought it appropriate since I just re-dyed my hair last weekend. I have to say, naked naturals makes a mighty fine product. First off, this sample was no bigger than the normal shampoo/conditioner samples, but I used it twice. My hair’s not that short, I did have it cut a couple of months ago, but it’s a few inches past my shoulders. So a little bit goes a long way, that’s always a good thing in my opinion. 

I love the way this stuff makes my hair smell.  The first time I used the conditioner, while I massaged it through my hair I kept thinking “god this smells great!”  The natural aspect is something that also appeals to me.  No chemicals, so it’s not drying out my scalp — which means that kids can probably use it without it drying out their skin as well.  Another appealing aspect to this particular product is that it’s not tested on animals and doesn’t use animal by-product.  My hair feels thicker, and I like that.  While my hair’s never been what you’d call fine, it’s never had a lot of thickness or body to it.  It feels like the strands are actually thicker.  I pull my hair into a tight pony tail 5 days a week when I go to work, which results in a lot of breakage.  The Naked Naturals is supposed to make your hair 7x stronger.  I don’t know if only 2 applications will do that, but I’m willing to buy a bottle and give it a shot.  It’d be nice not to have anymore new breakage when I get home from work.

One more thing, and maybe it’s low on other people’s list of “good things,” but it’s rather high on mine, my sample came with a coupon for $1 off a Naked Naturals product.  I think that’s incredibly awesome and thank the company for that.  The coupon tells me “here, if you like this, we want you to save some money on your first purchase.”

So Rob and I were talking about M*A*S*H while we were doing ceramics… I’m not sure how we got onto the subject, but I’m sure I’ve made no secret of the fact that it’s one of my all-time favorite shows.  I can watch the series over and over again, and not get tired of it.  Then we got onto talking about “what if they made a M*A*S*H version of Monopoly?”  There are lots of locations for properties…

The Swamp (that would HAVE to be boardwalk, I think), Margaret’s tent, Potter/Blake’s tent, Potter/Blake’s office, Radar/Clinger’s office, OR, post-op, the nurse’s tent, the nurse’s shower, the supply tent, the mess tent, the officer’s club, Rosie’s the motor pool the latrine… There’s also Seoul and Tokyo among other places frequently visited or referenced in the show (and/or movie, which I also love).  For the railroads, you could use different vehicles… chopper, ambulance, jeep, tank (hey, there were tanks in a few episodes).

The pieces could go two ways… they could be characters or things from around camp; a jeep or the signpost for example.

I amused myself thinking about what might go on a M*A*S*H Monopoly board.  I even got my mom thinking about it a little earlier today.

Gage was playing with a magnadoodle last night and started writing words.  I saw jet, met, pop, pig, fat, hat… it was AWESOME.  He draws faces in the letters, but it’s a start.  I’ve heard stories of Autistic children who’ve never communicated verbally or with sign or PECS starting to write or type messages to people.  Maybe writing will be Gage’s medium.  I can certainly live with that.  He HAS communicated verbally though, just not a whole lot.  Since he’s been in this school though, he’s done more repeating.  Not just a single word from a sentence, entire sentences.  I find it encouraging.  I’m thinking I might try taking Gage to Friendly’s this weekend, just the two of us.  I think it’d be cool, and I want to see how he does.  I can always get the food to go if it doesn’t go well.

I’m going to the Red Cross auto sales place tomorrow to look at cars.  Here’s hoping I’ll find something that I can afford that is in good enough condition.  My requirements are small.  It must run, have all of the necessary parts, seatbelts are required.  Heat is also required.  It also must be able to pass inspection.