I haven't done anything with this blog since December of 2009 - and it's now August 2010. I sometimes like to look back over it and re-read old entries, especially ones about work. Yes, I still work there. I'm finally a manger, as of February. A week ago, I finally got keys, and got my first Mystery Shop - 92%.
Looking back over the entries puts a definite date to certain events, such as the $15,000 car guy, my favorite story, the snowy Sunday, and troubles with other managers, etc.
Of note: in my last entry, I referenced entry 97, saying I had trained a person who had trained a person who had both become managers. Last Saturday was Chung (the second person)'s last day. He quit. Jared (the first) is still around, but there have been some problems. Over the past two weeks, now that I've finally been given "free rain" as a manger (yes, I know I spelled that wrong, lol) I've actually been told I do a better job preparing the next manager than either of them ever did. It's because they don't give a ____, and I do. Not about my job, but about the other person who comes in after me.
I have to open on Sunday. I work 5-1, supposedly. I was only scheduled 5-9. I'm gonna dieeeeeee ...

Enough about work ...

I have been editing my site, http://carenrosesims.webs.com, and on the "Stories" page was writing about my writing ... and that sort of inspired me/reminded me to work a bit on Wednesday, the first of the Day Stories, again. It was originally "finished" at the end of the school year in 2005 (May 2005) but I totally scrapped that version due to major accuracy errors. Now, over 5 years later, I sort of suddenly realized that I haven't rewritten more than a couple pages of what used to be almost 20 pages long. I've still got the original "final" copy as published in Mr. Sack's Creative Writing class' anthology. My two submitted stories are at the back of the thing. Wednesday is 15 pages with a slightly small font.
I haven't read that version in years. I tend to do that with my writing. I don't like to read old stuff, because of mistakes I'm well aware of. I suppose I'm very critical of my old self, as it takes years and years before I'm really comfortable reading stuff again. Posted here is the Prologue of a story called The Survivor that I was working on slightly before and during the time I started the Day Stories (2004-5 ish), and I read over what I had of that story (beyond the Prologue) just a couple months ago. I thought it was good, for being 14. So that's good.

I have other stuff I want to do now than ramble in my blog. So goodnight.
 

I was just reading the past few entries to this blog. Very interesting.

Since it is now winter again, and just last week (?) we got a *huge* snowstorm (10 inches) and were very dead at work for a couple days, I had plenty of chances to tell an *old* story of mine about work ... very few people that work there now were around when it happened, and we've had two management chances since then. The story? December 6, 2007's (2 years and 10 days ago) entry. (Entry 90) http://www.writing.com/main/books/entry_id/553789.

Entry 87 http://www.writing.com/main/books/entry_id/546892. The $15,000 car guy. Boy, this story has also been well remembered. I found the site The Customer Is Not Always Right (http://www.notalwaysright.com) and was (fondly) reminded of this story. It made me laugh.
I had another good story to add to that one, that wasn't quite as funny but still worthy of the NotAlwaysRight "designation." I won't tell it in full here, because I just don't feel like it.
But here's what happened.
It was just after midnight, I was taking orders *and* paying them out and *handing* them out. At midnight our icecream and shake machines go down. I know this. I know this well. I will not sell them past this time.
So. Car of girls orders. No mention of ice cream at all.
They pull to second window. I take their money, give reciept, hand out food.
They get everything. Say "wait, where's our ice cream?" There is none on their order, of course.
I say, Sorry, our ice cream machines are down for the night.
They say Well then we want our money back!
I'm thinking, HAHA you picked the WRONG person *and* time to do this with! HAHA!
But I say, I'm sorry, but there was no ice cream on your order. And I close the window. And walk away. HAHA!


Entry 97 http://www.writing.com/main/books/entry_id/576103 is also of interest. I have now trained many more people. I've lost count. I trained a guy who went on to train a guy who is now a manager. So is the guy I trained. They both still work at my store. They both still think they can tell me what to do.
What's kind of funny is I still have a video on my phone of Daniel wearing Michelle's bunny ears and hopping around like a bunny. Buuuuutttt then he saw the camera and stopped.
I have lots of pictures of people from "those days." Not that "those days" were any better than "these days," just more photogenic, I suppose.


Sooooo ... today. I don't really want to write about it, but I might enjoy reading about it later on.

So.
At 10 this morning Devon picked me up and we went to our McD's to print off the record that we completed the ServSafe course. I got breakfast.
At 10:30 this morning I went to 48th & VanDorn to take the ServSafe test. I know I passed, just don't know the score. I know I missed one question because chicken goes on the bottom not the top!
That took until about 11:40 before we left.
Devon & Damaris dropped me at our McD's. (Well, mine and Devon's, because Damaris works at Seward! ) On the way in I noticed it was icy outside the door. So I ended up walking over to ACE hardware to get icemelt. Two 20 pound bags.
I sat around doing nothing for an hour. I was on at 1:00.
I worked at my own store from 1:00 to about 4:00. I was on meats the whole time I think. (Noooo, actually the last hour I was on DriveThru-wind 1.)
Then we carpooled to cover Seward McD's. I rode with Brett and Jerrod. They're having their Christmas party like we did yesterday. Pretty boring, actually. (The party.)
So Seward McD's is really small. Like cramped.
So anyways ...
Left at 9:00 pm. Driving back to Lincoln.
Get home home (my house) about 9:40ish.
Long day.
 

Your blog, "Blog!" , was last updated 293 Days 3 Hours 57 Minutes ago.
 

Me from my last entry:

I have nothing to say, but I'll find something.

In a few minutes (if I can focus enough) I'm going to work on re-outlining and finishing outlining the first epsiode or two of my series, with the new stuff that I've figured out worked into it like it should be.

Oh, and Daniel got fired (finally, unfortunately). Yeah, I still liked working with him, but he had this wonderful habit of just not showing up to work without calling in. Overnight managers were really starting to get tired of covering his shifts at the last minute, and most times they couldn't so we were short. :P

Well going to go and try to focus (yeah right) but I've got ideas!
 

Meh. Life's just be-dunderful.

The 25th was my dad's 48th birthday, and exactly 9 months after my orientation at McD's.

I've basically been asked to become a manager, and my goal is to have all the training done by the beginning of June. :P Maybe.

Tonight I got to train my first person!!! (Well, I've sort of trained 2 other people, but they had both worked for McD's before, so it was only a quick refresher. Tonight was a NEW person!!) But, my {sarcasm}favorite{/sarcasm} manager kept basically keeping me from being able to train her. Thanks a lot!!! :P :P :P :P :P

There's more stuff looming overhead, but I don't feel like blogging about it. So there. :P

Ummmmmm .... think of something GOOD ....

Daniel! This great guy at work, doesn't speak a word of English, but is the all-around funniest guy there! His son's name is Bradlee, too ... never would've guessed he only knows Spanish if you didn't know him! His girlfriend is Kacy, who also works with us, but is on maternity leave ...
So, anyway, Michelle, the manager, brought in these bunny ears that are fuzzy and inside have pink sequins ... very girly ... so Daniel puts them on and gets down (on all fours) and hops around like a bunny!!!!!!!!!!!!!! He's so crazy! As he told us "me loco!" And the other night, when I was in a kind of bad mood, whenever I was making any kind of face he would make a silly mad face at me to make me laugh ... and that night I really needed that!
Hmm ....... but the next night (this monday or tuesday, I think) he called out sick, and we haven't heard from him since then ... he has epilepsy, pretty bad, too ... we hope he's okay ...

Ok ... anything that's JUST good? Umm ... chicken scampi from Olive Garden. That's about it.
 

It's set to remind me to update my blog. It annoys me, but that way I won't entirely forget. So this time, here are some interesting links:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bow_%28weapon%29
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/String_theory
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Particle_wave_duality
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plot_%28narrative%29
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawking_radiation
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Micro_black_hole
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prince_Of_Egypt

And more.
 

... g
 

I can't stay online very well for any significant amount of time recently.

Have an idea for a novel (!) called "Raptor's Wings," about the origins of the Romulans. :D
 

I have absolutely nothing to say except happy new year. (I am getting tired of getting emails from the system telling me to update my blog. but if I turn them off, I will never do it. So ...)
 

I am . Nuf said.
 

I worked 10 hours last night (sunday.) not fun. 7 today. it's snowy outside, i hate cold weather, snow, ice etc. i am tired of walking home in the cold. . this is ridiculous. i know nothing is capitalized right now but i'm feeling lazy and it's almost 2:30 in the morning and i am VERY tired, i need sleep but my parents (my mom especially) are having major problems right now and all this crap, so we're all kind of worried not wanting to go to bed etc.

sorry if this is so disjointed, life is a little crazy right now ...

i would really love to move out soon, out of the state, not because of any problems between me & family, but just because of all the crap that's going on, i feel like i'm being more of a detriment than i am contributing ...

so they owe money to all 3 hospitals in the city and therefore can't go to any of them, this is crazy. that's kind of another reason to move out, i'm really getting tired of living in a place where we never have enough money and are always in debt, it's annoying.

i've decided especially recently that i will never live that way, even if it means i will live in a tiny apartment for the rest of my life, and i will never have cable tv ... there's a difference between needs and wants, you can go without the wants if it means you get what you need ... i'm done with my rant now.

my mom has been having suicidal thoughts ... this is crazy ... she's got herself really afraid of what she might be capable of doing to herself, i don't blame her (for being afraid, that is) ... (WARNING, HERE COMES RANT ABOUT DOCTORS) ...

right now they've got her on a ton of medications (she's been on for a while) for depression, bipolar disorder, she's on ritalin, stuff for bladder problems, etc etc etc. they have put her on progesterone shots, now they've got her on thyroid medicine that's still somewhat new (and possibly experimental?) and the whole thing with this thyroid stuff is since your thyroid controls most of the rest of your hormones, this stuff is trying to forcefully put your hormones back in line. there are expected side effects that to me seem really extreme, you are supposed to have these effects or else it's not working, supposedly? my whole thing with this is, though i can come up with some reasons why this is a good medication, there's this nagging feeling that something's not good about it. i can even figure out all my reasons for this feeling, but someone else could easily say "yeah well look at the good it does," etc.
but (me being the left-brained person i am) when i get these few "hunches" i can always figure out all the logical reasons for the feeling, but it is always this very strong feeling that something is WRONG, and as time goes on and events unfold, i am usually proven right, all my reasons were warning signs to the problem (wether i can identify the problem or not) ...

i will stop ranting now, i'll just leave you with this: if you have any left-brained, logical type friends around, if they suddenly get a "hunch," listen to it!!!
 

Sooooo ... it SNOWED today. And I worked 9am-3pm, it snowed during the morning. So we were really DEAD today! Normally there's around maybe 10-15 people scheduled during lunch rush (11am-1 pm) but today we had about 7 or 8? Well we were SO dead, we were sending people home early starting about 2:00. By 3:15, there were only 3 people working in the store. ONLY 3!! That is unheard of any time before about 11:00 (pm)! But right smack dab in the middle of the day, 3 people! And they had plenty of time to clean & stuff, it wasn't like they were so busy they could only do one thing, no, they weren't busy at all! Crazy!

Anyways ...

I am currently (well, I was before I started this blog entry) writing part of the script for the first episode of my series. WooHoo!!! I've started on Act One, which actually is not the very beginning of the show, there's the teaser which is the first few minutes before the opening credits ... but I haven't finished that part yet, I'm a bit stuck on it.

Here comes my "rant" about writing (be warned):

I never write my stories in order. Sometimes people think you have to write a story in chronological order (the chr. order the reader will read it in, not necessarily the order of the charcter's lives, etc.) like starting with the prologue, then writing chapter 1, then 2, then the end. I NEVER do that ... ... usually because I figure out the end first, then the beginning, then the middle!
So ... I'm running into problems a bit with this script because I want to write it WAY out of order (like I usually do) but when I do that I'm going to end up restating things I have already said earlier (although I would be writing it later) or leaving important things out all together! So I have created a DETAILED outline, and am going to work off of that and that alone! If I really feel (like now) that I get stuck and have to move on, I have to stick to the outline and make sure I put in there anything I have stated already so I don't repeat myself 100 times. It's kind of hard, but it's going ok..

To this end ... (whatever) ... here's some of what I've written so far. I'm sure the format will be ROYALLY screwed up, but hey, all you have to do is read it, not try to decipher formatting ...
I'm tried putting it inside {pre} tags, but that made it like twice the width of my screen, so ...
Now for a fair WARNING: It's Star Trek. If you don't like it or don't understand it, you probably won't like/understand what follows. Read it anyway! ... And another WARNING: It is very incomplete. Very! So here it is:

EXT. san Francisco, starfleet headquarters - day

Note: credits fall over opening scenes.

It is a bright, sunny day. We see a Human and an Andorian walking together, (both in the new Starfleet uniform), talking inaudibly over the general chatter and nature sounds. Each carries a small briefcase-like bag. They come closer.

andersen
... and it has a Holographic Security Force. The majority of the ship's security personnel will be holographic.

firstofficer
Nice.

ANDERSEN
Our Chief of Security will even be a hologram.

FIRSTOFFICER
Top-of-the-line.
(beat)
Are you excited?

ANDERSEN
(chuckles)
Are you kidding?

FIRSTOFFICER
Warp 12.

ANDERSEN
Nice.

FIRSTOFFICER
I guess they finally got tired of "Warp 9.9999."

They enter the building:

INT. starfleet headquarters, air tram station

There are all kinds of aliens there, many with Starfleet uniforms but many others without. Children, adults, men and women, dressed up important people and others just traveling, tourists and ambassadors, etc. They all rush about with somewhere to go, carrying, pulling, or guiding their luggage along.

ANDERSEN
Top speed of Warp 12, maximum cruising speed of Warp 11.6.

FIRSTOFFICER
She's right up there with the Enterprise, as far as technology goes.

ANDERSEN
We've got the most sophisticated sensor palettes in Starfleet. Better than Enterprise.

FIRSTOFFICER
So I heard. Are you ready for the shakedown, Captain?

ANDERSEN
Ready as I can be.

FIRSTOFFICER
Your first mission as captain of a starship.

ANDERSEN chuckles.

And they enter:

INT. STARFLEET HEADQUARTERS, Air tram STATION, elevator

FIRSTOFFICER
Where did she say she'll be?

ANDERSEN
Level 2, Section 5A, Lane 24, West side. She said we'd recognize her.

FIRSTOFFICER
Isn't she a Changeling?

ANDERSEN
Yeah.

FIRSTOFFICER
(slight sarcasm)
Won't that make it easy for us?

ANDERSEN
I've seen her before, she'll probably look the same.

They get off the elevator.

INT. STARFLEET HEADQUARTERS, Air tram STATION

ANDERSEN
If nothing else, she knows what I look like. She'll recognize us.
(beat)
Here's Lane 20.

FIRSTOFFICER
Are the others waiting for us up in Spacedock, or onboard ship?

ANDERSEN
Lieutenant Narok will be meeting us at the shuttle. The others are waiting in Spacedock. I wanted all of us to go over together.

FIRSTOFFICER
Here's Lane 24. Do you see her?

ANDERSEN
Not yet ...

They stand there looking at a small bunch of people sitting in the chairs
 

But this is my life recently, so I'm used to it.
 

Well, she said she couldn't find it, so she couldn't put it back up. I asked her Monday when I saw her.

I haven't been able to get online for a couple days, it's amazing I'm finally on!

Grandmother went home this morning. .

http://www.freewebs.com/carenrose is the site for now. Yipeed.

Check out "On The Topic of "Discovery"" .
 

Last night was relatively cold once the sun started to set. Back in first window, it can get pretty cold even when it's not too cold outside. We have a wall-mounted space heater that pulls air in via a fan and blows the air out over hot coils. It works wonderfully. That is, until the grill covering the front broke. Now, the fan is just about the height that if you swing your hand down and back, it could hurt you pretty bad. And if you back up, well, let's just say it's not too good of a thing to do. So a few days ago, I had the heater on, and Jescee, our first assistant manager (second-in-command of the store) came into my little room. Seeing this obviously dangerous thing, she told me to turn it off, even though it was cold. And she left me and everyone else with a warning - the heater was not to be turned on again without a grill in place.

Last night, like I said, was kind of cold. So I decided I was going to make a grill for the heater so I could turn it on! With no scotch tape at my disposal, save two short pieces, I constructed the entire thing out of straws stapled together, and with the two pieces of tape I taped it on. (And yes, I did this after I clocked out.) Ashley, the girl who replaced me back in drive-thru when I was off, was just as happy about this contraption as I was, because it meant we could actually turn the heater on. We even worked on it together for a little bit. I told her before I left, I knew it wouldn't last long, because either Jescee would say it wasn't a good enough grill to be safe (although it was, I tested it) or another manager, Michelle, would take it down.

And I was right.

Tonight, just before I left, Michelle came in (to change my cash drawer, as a matter of fact) and saw this admittedly strange-looking thing. I knew right then that was the end of it. She asked why it was there. I told her, Jescee said we couldn't use the heater until it had something covering it. She said, well won't it melt? I assured her, no, I checked, cold air flows in there, the straws don't cover where the warm air blows out at all. (I didn't tell her that the air isn't hot enough to melt a straw anyway.) So what does she do then, but literally RIP it off the heater, walk out of the room, and throw it in the trash. Then she comes back. (Then I asked her if I should clock out, and her response was "Well, duh!" - as if she had never asked me to do anything real quick at the end of my shift. She does, and all the managers do, all the time!)

I walked back up to the front to leave, and saw Ashley there. I told her Michelle ripped it off and threw it away, and she was upset. As upset as I was, really, except I didn't show it. So I told her, making sure Michelle wasn't around, to go back sometime tonight and put it back up, just to see what her reaction was. She happily agreed, even though it meant she would have to pull it out of the trash.

The resistance has begun.

And we shall see, if when I come back to work on Sunday, if it is going to be anywhere around, even in a trash can. If it is, you can bet it will make another appearance. And as soon as I find out, I will tell you all what her reaction was.
 

Been a while since I've updated my blog. A week. My grandma is here from New York!! I'm happy!

~CarenRose (writes about Roni!)
 

So ... I hate health insurance. My mom's friend has names for it like "United Health we don't Care", "Blue Cross & Blue Shaft" ...

I won't be having my surgery until probably sometime in December. Yipee.

I don't have much more to say right now. Goodnight.

(PS):
Wow, this will be the only surgery I've ever had, never even had my tonsils out, probably won't ever need my wisdom teeth out ...
In fact, it will only be like the 4th time in my life I've been in the hospital (and 2 of those times I was never admitted) ... the first was when I was born (like everyone else) ...
Other than for this, the last time I even went to the doctor was like my junior year (that's not all THAT long ago, really) but the time before that was at least my freshman year if not before ... all of these are just for routine checkups, done not because I NEED them but because that's what you're "supposed" to do ... I haven't been to the doctor because I needed anything since I was a kid ...
All this to say, why do I have to deal with HEALTH INSURANCE??????? AAAAAAAAAAA! Just leave me alone and pay for the one thing I do need, since I never bother you with ANYTHING else, huh? Wow.
 

I just found out I'm going to have my entire college paid for!

Back in the beginning of October (maybe) my great-aunt "Pete" died, she was old, had mental problems (forgetting things, etc) and had diabetes ... to make a long story short the nurse hit a vein when she injected the insulin. But at least it was "time for her to go" (that sounds pretty insensitive, but you know what I mean) ...

So she had a pretty good amount of money, and one of her sons wants to pay for my college with the money he got from her. All my cousins are already older and have sort of given up on going to college, so I'm the one to get it ...

Problem is, l have to make a decision by 2 weeks, about what I want to do with the rest of my life??? Wow. This is really kind of hard!
 

"Spunky" was not amused today. In fact, I was in a pretty bad mood. It wasn't any one thing in particular that got me that way, but don't worry, I'll explain them all to you! Like I'm sure you wanted to know, so you can commiserate with me, right.

1. Babysitting the girls today, their mom didn't know to pick them up at 1. Apparently my parents never called her to let her know. Yipee. So she didn't come until I practically had to leave for work, she was AT work when I called her, so yeah.........

2. I worked from 3 pm to midnight tonight. Guess what I work tommorrow? 9 in the morning, of course! Now keep in mind, I don't know breakfasts, so I really can't do much for them that time in the morning (so why do they keep scheduling me for that) and on a NORMAL day I'm not fully awake that early, let alone on a day after I've worked til midnight. .

3. The total jerk that came in to McD's today. Yipee. Him and his wife come in my line when I was on front counter. They order something, etc. So wife takes out credit card, they say "just want to see if this works," swipe the card, and it gives me the "Transaction Not Approved" message, so husband pulls out $20 bill and pays, telling me how they just bought "a brand new, $15,000 car two days ago" on that card. Well, duh, you maxed it out! Why not pay with cash, you have it anyway!
So, they go off & eat, kids play in the play area. A while later, dad comes up to us, asks if any of us know how to get gum out of clothes. We're all like, we don't know ... ice? So apparently that's not good enough for him, he's getting all stupid about it, ends up saying (and this is nearly a direct quote) "I'm sure you guys don't want to be liable for the cleaning bill of a new $15,000 car!" . Now wait a minute. We had no way of knowing right then there was gum on the playplace. It was obviously fresh, or it wouldn't have stuck like it did. And how is it our fault your kid got gum all over her pants? She sure looked old enough to be able to avoid these things herself!! So we're suggesting ice, he's complaining that she can't sit with wet pants, god forbid!!!!! You know, she got gum on her pants, there's going to have to be SOMETHING to give up. Grow up already, dad!
So Jon, store manager, was asked his opinion, he said ice, we passed along the word. It's all we can think of. Since he seemed so vehemently opposed to that idea, we suggested something to cover the seat. Yeah? I cut open a salad bag and asked him if that might work, would he need another one? So he has to go ASK HIS WIFE. {e:WOW!}. Turns out she was the one behind all this. He comes back, and, referring to Jon, says "well maybe he should clean it off." WTF??? ... (sorry) ... So I went back and told him, so he just rolled his eyes and went, after all, the customer's always right! !!
So after a long time in the play area, apparently cleaning gum off the dumb kid's pants, he comes out and gives them a full refund of their entire order!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! What????? How does your kid getting gum on her pants when you have a new car mean we have to give you a crap-load of free food?? Excuse me?
Idiots.
Seriously, in 10 years (if that car still runs right), you wouldn't even be able to tell where that stain came from, amidst all the others that come from having kids. And really, how many times do you have to brag about your "brand new, $15,000 car"????? WHO CARES?????????????? And why should I be so admiring of you that you maxed out your credit card buying a car you're practically afraid to sit in? Wow! And if the freakin car gets gum in it, is it really the end of the world? Does mom really have to throw a little hissy fit?

GROW UP ALREADY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Try buying a $500 used car with cash. With money you actually HAVE, that is. Try learning not to brag about how much money you spent on your car! Come on, we'd be just as excited for you (if probably not more) if you told us you just got a brand new car, and left off the price tag for us. We don't care how much money you wasted!

Alright, I'll go to bed now. Sheesh.