YYYYAAAAAWWWWP!

"I sound my barbaric yawp over the roofs of the world." - Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass

You probably remember that inspiring scene from Dead Poets Society.

I kind of want to yawp like Todd Anderson was finally able to, but I guess that would scare my family, not to mention the rest of my neighborhood, half to death.  So I'm settling for a virtual 'YAWP' today.  Though it won't be nearly as gratifying as an actual one would.

I just got home a little while ago after a 9+ hour day at work.  The truck comes in on Monday morning at 6am, so we have to stock till we drop.  On the fourth of July, no one was allowed to go home until the entire store had been stocked up.

Anyway, today is the most stock I've ever done, at least by myself.  I did almost the whole Unspeakable Aisle by my lonesome, with a bit of help from a male coworker, who was a good sport about it, and probably did a lot more than me today, so I have no place complaining.

I started out the day feeling a bit unwell (though somehow I kept up my 4-weeks-old tradition of Taco Bell Mondays for lunch), and before I got off I was stocking the strong-smelling shampoos and conditioners, so now I have a headache.  It was hard to keep myself awake driving home, especially also since the sky is actually overcast in Austin right now.  WHY WON'T IT RAIN?  We've been in a constant drought all summer long.

There are quite a few reasons to YAWP today.  And just in general.

1. Stocking
2. Headache
3. The drought
4. The e-mail I just got when I got home
5. Yesterday at JCPenney's
6. The false alarm
7. Awkward encounters of the other kind (not the third; I mean a gent, if you could call him that)
8. The ongoing search of the student for purpose
9. People on the road in cars who shouldn't be driving
10. The horrid state of the order of my room (or, the chaos that is my room) which I just can't seem to clear up

1, 2, and 3 have been explained already. YAWP.

9 and 10 are self-explanatory, I think.  YAWP.

4. I can't say much about my e-mail for fear of offending anyone involved, though I am only really mad at myself for lack of creativity and for waiting so long to figure things out.  I'm mad at myself and the situation, not anyone else but me.  Basically I had what I thought was a great idea for an event, but it won't be possible for a few reasons.  So now I need a new one.  And my head hurts so much, and I'm working at 7am tomorrow.  I do NOT have the capacity to troubleshoot this problem right now.  YAWP.

5. Oh my God, so yesterday I drove to the mall to get a few important things for my roommate's and my off-campus apartment (which we'll move into in about a month).  Went to JCP because they're having a Home Dept sale the 17-19th.  (I recommend going!  Though hopefully you won't have an experience similar to mine.)  Picked up a 16-pc non-stick pots/pans set, went over to the checkout, and was the second person in line.

One of the two cashiers was just bagging stuff for someone who had already paid, but had Disappeared, and I was quite confused.  This other lady who Hadn't Been in Line, but apparently felt she had been waiting as long as or longer than me, went to that cashier when she was done.  The woman took ten minutes to checkout.  The other cashier was dealing with a Problem customer who was insisting that she owned a JCP charge card when it was quite obvious she didn't (I know these people, and loathe them)--the whole time I was waiting, mind you.

Eventually, about ten minutes into my wait-time, I had to put down the box of pots (my arms are still sore from that today).  Then I instantly (of course, because that's how the universe works) had to pick them up again, because Hadn't Been in Line just finished checking out.  I was making my move to the cash register when another lady, whom I later realized was the customer who had Disappeared, just walks up to the free cashier and the cashier asks if she's ready.  My jaw drops, and I set down my pot-set rather harshly.  The other cashier is still dealing with the Problem customer, and I feared there was no hope I'd ever get home on time to the communal birthday party we were having for four family members that afternoon.  Disappeared took just as long to check out as Hadn't Been in Line.  Finally I got to check out, and the cashier didn't apologize for Disappeared taking my spot in line, as I would have, had it been me cashiering (it happens all the time where I work, but I guess the world isn't full of apologetic people like me...).  But whatever.  Then, at the end of my transaction, Disappeared reappears!  From behind a pillow display tower!  With a third round of things to buy!  I high-tailed it out of there, dismissing the cashier's weak offer of sending the pots upstairs, because, honestly, then I would have had to wait for THAT, too.  YAWP, indeed!

6. So I thought my alarm went off this morning, and I'm not quite sure why I thought so.  Anyway, go to my bathroom to get ready for work, and get as far as washing my face, when I glance at the bathroom clock.  2:25am.  I curse under my breath.  I check all the other clocks in my room.  Yep.  2:25am and I thought it had been 6:30am.  No wonder I felt as if I hadn't gotten enough sleep.  Of course, I ended up not getting enough sleep, still.  I never get enough sleep.  YAWP.

7. About two weeks into my summer job, the first time I was working until 11pm (you get a little loopy working that late, in my experience), around 10:15pm this Scruffy-looking guy comes into the store, reeking of cigarette smoke, and wants to buy a pack of Camel Blues, or Camel Lights, as they used to call them until recently.  He looks older than he actually is (from the smoking I guess), so instead of asking him for his I.D. I just asked for his birthday, though I usually just make them up (because we have to put them in the system and I get tired of making them up...I end up making most people's birthdays in 1970...that's nice to some, mean to others...but they don't have to know).  He was actually an 89er like me, and I told him that I was.  I'm nice to all my customers, so I must have smiled at him before sending him on his way.

Scruffy comes back in about ten minutes later, when I don't have any customers.  He says, "Well, so, I just knew I'd be kicking myself if I didn't at least ask, do you have a boyfriend?  Because, you're just really nice and you have a beautiful speaking voice."

So Scruffy wanted to go out with me.  Meep.  Not that I would know from experience, but I'm pretty sure I wouldn't like dating a cigarette smoker.  Especially one so dependent on them.  I told him I was flattered.

But I lied and said, "Why, yes, I do have a boyfriend, actually.  Sorry."  Hey, he gave me the opportunity to say if I did, by asking.  Otherwise, had he just asked me out, point-blank, I don't know what I would have said.  Let's just say it probably wouldn't have been so kind and gentle a way of letting someone down.

Anyway, he came in again the other day, and I realized by his outfit that he waited tables at the nearby pizzeria.  Awkward.  He came to me and asked for Camel Blues again.  Awkward.  I pretended like I didn't remember him.  Cowardly, but saved myself from more awkwardness.  Anyway. YAWP.

8. More of the same, if you've read my first post, 'Grand Realization.'  But even more-so than the same.  Thought seriously about law school, for a day (as in, must not have been that seriously...guess I'll just leave that field to my friend James, who's way better at it than I'd ever hope to be).  Thought about being an assistant librarian, this weekend.  Nixed it when I found out you actually need a background in library sciences to be one.  So I'd have to go to school some more for that, too.  Thinking now about being an administrative assistant.  Or a receptionist.  Are those the same thing nowadays?  I feel as if I keep hearing about them interchangeably.  Anyway.  Still want to be an author.  That's not going to change.  Of course, now I heard that "A writer is someone who finishes."  More on that another time...but very disheartening.  YAWP.

And here we are.  Since I won't be expounding on 9 and 10.  But I already said that.

I kind of want to quit my job, but that wouldn't be very economical of me.  I'm pretty stressed out lately.  I'd list the things that are getting me down, but I've YAWP'd enough about all that other stuff.

Note: I am a generally happy person.  I promise.  I just have my limits, and one of the purposes of this blog is to let it out when those limits have been reached.

Anyway.

Christine out.

PS: How great was that Harry Potter movie??  Right?!  (That was a rhetorical statement.)