Today's rambling: No more heat!
Written on Monday, Apr. 15, 2002 at 8:30 p.m.
while feeling a bit

I hate heat. I hate it. If I had to choose between living my days in some exotic locale, or freezing my rear off in an igloo up North, I would opt for the latter. My ideal temperature is anywhere from the low to mid 70's. Even mid-70's, sometimes, is too warm for me. I am just not equipped to handle heat. And today was up in the 80's. Tomorrow (and possibly Wednesday) are going to be around 90 degrees. I will be dead. I will have melted into a puddle of flesh-colored goo before tomorrow is even over, and I will stay that way until the temperature again goes down.

Today wasn't too bad at first. I walked into the bakery department and found out that I was working with Joanne for the day...at which point I whimpered, ran over to Zenon, pressed my face against his shoulder and cried, "Don't make me go, Zenon! Don't make me go!"

But then I was informed that I'd be working in the back conference room thingy, and so I wouldn't have to deal with Joanne or customers. And, I'd be able to turn the radio up as loud as I wanted and sing along. So I was mollified.

The conference room and break room are adjoined (though there's a door that separates them), and while it was fairly cool back there, it was strangely humid. The air conditioner was set to "Auto", so I switched it over to "On" (which, as you might be able to guess, keeps the air on constantly instead of only switching on when the temperature gets too high). After that, things were kind of pleasant.

But then around 2 o'clock, I had to go back up to the bakery. Bakeries have ovens. Ovens are hot. The store was already hot. I wanted to take off layers of clothing, find myself some pink lemonade and a cute native boy, and sink into a hammock under some palm trees.

I went on lunch around 3, and when I came back at 3:30 I went over to comment to Mom how cute Jen's baby had been (the first time I got to see the baby...and I hate children, so it was a lot for me to think this one was so adorable!). But she was talking to some guy who had been told that I speak French, and he was highly irritating because I could barely understand him. He wasn't speaking French, he just acted like he had mental incapacities or something because he kept asking me why I didn't remember any of the French I'd learned, and if I spoke to people in French, other stupid stuff. So when I saw Geoff walk in the door to start work (he seemed to pause and almost turn, as if he was going to join me), I looked at the guy and said hurriedly, "You'll have to excuse me, there's someone I need to chase after."

Turns out, that was the same guy who'd followed Geoff around the store last night and bugged the heck out of him...So maybe he HAD almost walked over, until he saw the company I was keeping! I don't know. At any rate, we walked back toward the food court together, and separated only when Zenon rushed up to me and held out a small list of bread that I needed to set up. Even then, Geoff sort of hesitated at the end of the dairy aisle as if he expected me to walk back with him.

4:30 arrived before I knew it, and I punched out and headed immediately for the back room to say bye to Geoff. Ben was back there as well, on his way out the door (he'd just had his hair cut, and it makes him look like an adorable, mischievous little boy), and Geoff stopped what he was doing and walked over to talk with me. Granted, he really didn't have all that much to do, so it wasn't as if he'd dropped a whole lot just to chat with me. But I'll take any opportunity I'm given. ;)

Leroy joined us a few minutes later, and as usual had us laughing. He kept inching toward me, waiting to see how I'd react, so finally just before I said I had to go I launched myself at him and flung my arms around him. Afterward, he told me that I smelled nice...actually, insisted I did, after I accused him of lying. Maybe my Cucumber Melon Body Splash works after all, ha ha! If I hadn't forced myself to abide by a "Hands-Off Policy" when it comes to Geoff, I might've flung my arms around him, too. ;) But I want to wait awhile before I go trying to hug him again..don't need to scare him off again after I feel like I've gotten so far, ha ha!

The three of us walked out of the back room, Leroy saying his usual inane stuff to me. Geoff, I think, said bye (or a farewell of some sort), but I was halfway preoccupied with what Leroy was saying. So Geoff veered off toward the dairy aisle. Just before he disappeared around the corner, I called out, "Bye, Geoff!" and he turned around, smiled, and waved to me. He looked sort of forlorn, ha ha... ;)

Of course, Mom was waiting in the car, looking irritated because I dared to make her wait. I told her that this was the only time I got to talk to them, and she came back with "I'm tired, I want to get out of here!" I wanted to be able to snap, "This is the only time I get to talk to my friends! They don't live near me, I never get to see them except at work, and then it's only during breaks or after I'm finished! You get to see yours all the time when you get home, and I'm left by myself with nothing to do. And I can't help that. So I'd like to be able to talk to my friends when I have the opportunity to!"

But of course I didn't. Because I'm a pansy and didn't feel like starting another fight. I'm still waiting for the circus to come back and collect their missing clown (aka Charlie), however. He's been loose for far too long. The neighbors are beginning to wonder.

This heat today has made me irritable and miserable and unhappy. I even snapped at Frank. When I made my bread announcement, he made another 'joke' yet again about how I go too fast. When I made it today, I could hear myself, and I know that I did not say everything too fast. Admittedly, I do sometimes when I'm feeling particularly nervous, but today's was just fine. Yet he yelled over--yes, yelled, across two departments--that I was "Speedy Gonzales" or something stupid like that. I didn't understand him at first, so I said, "What?" and when he repeated it, I just said "Oh" and walked away. I heard him say, "I was just teasing!" and when I didn't respond, he shouted, "Hey!"

"I know!" I shouted back. A beat after, he rrrowled like an angry cat (y'know, the sound you make when someone's just been particularly snap-ish), and he wouldn't talk to me at all for the rest of the day (which was only 10 minutes or so, but that's beside the point).

My head's been pounding, and I feel drained of all energy. I napped from sometime before 6:30 to a little after that, and I might've gone longer except I was suddenly very sweaty and my head was hurting. Now I have off until Thursday, which sucks...Oh yeah, and I'll be working with Joanne again. I don't think I'll be lucky enough to get sent to the back a second time, even though I think I did pretty well today. I'm working in the decorator's department by myself on Sunday from 7-3:30 (a bitch in itself, as that means I'll have to wake up at 5 am), and I have major doubts as to my ability to turn out anything remotely nice looking.

Geoff is off on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, so I won't even have him to complain to about my horrible decorating experience! On Thursday, however, I'm going to ask him if he'd like to swing by the store at all and have lunch. I'm feeling somewhat confident about him saying yes this time.

I still have to friggin' remember to write a note requesting off for May 14-21! Amy put in a request today to have off sometime in June, and John acted like it was some big thing...though I think he was just giving her a hard time for the fun of it. They do that to each other most of the time, so I'm hoping that's all it was. Still, if he tells me I can't go, I'm going to be majorly peeved. It's not like I've really taken any major time off since I started this job back in August! Or was it July...Whichever month it was, it's been entirely too long and I need a break. Away.

Even though the heat will immediately cause me to melt into that flesh-colored puddle of goo I mentioned at the beginning of this entry.

An addition:

Something which I found just too funny to not stick in here:

Dustin:Oh! Guess who we found in Williamsport!
Me: My evil twin?
Dustin: Nope. Geoff! He works in the dairy department at Giant!
Me: *falls over laughing* That's entirely too weird.

Who'd've thought there'd be another Geoff out there who just happened to work in the dairy department of a grocery store?