Today's rambling: Lukewarm reception
Written on Thursday, May. 23, 2002 at 9:07 p.m.
while feeling a bit

Out of all the welcomes that I received today, I have to hand it to Zenon...His was the most enthusiastic. I'd just walked out of the clock room, and I happened to glance across the store toward the food court. Who should be walking my way but Zenon, and he'd already spotted me! He shot both arms up into the air and waved at me, and then he started skipping and frolicing toward me. A customer passed him and looked at him oddly, so he turned and, with a smile, said hello. Then he finally reached me and gave me a great big hug.

Of course, after welcoming me back and asking how my vacation went, he said, "I need you to get started on the Sunset Mills!" >_<

I meandered into the back room first, though, for two purposes: the main one was to tuck my shirt in, get my apron on, etc. (I like to be near a mirror when I do this, hehe); and the second was to see Geoff. :oP I figured he'd be out on the floor stocking, but I was lucky enough to meet up with him in the back room! My first impulse was to run up and hug him, but I chickened out at the last second...as seems to be the case with many things I want to do.

I don't even remember exactly how everything went...He saw me and smiled, and then I think he asked how vacation was (I don't recall there being an actual "welcome back" in there). He jokingly asked me if I wanted to hang myself, now that I was back (yes, we employees are so happy with our jobs), and then Leroy came over. He didn't stay for long, but by the time he left, I knew I had to get moving (or else Zenon would get irritated at me for taking so long).

So the reaction from Geoff wasn't quite as nice as I'd fantasized. ;)

Ryan is becoming infatuated with me, and I was in a good mood today so I didn't really care so much. But I just KNOW that one of these days, when I'm in a bad mood, he's going to try to flirt with me. And I'm going to be rude, which isn't something I really like to be. But what can I say, I'm not very good at dealing with emotions, heh...

Joanne told me something today, and I'm still trying to figure out how accurate it is. I don't think she's LYING, necessarily, I just wonder if she didn't tell me this in a tone that makes me think what I WANT to think, as opposed to getting the objective view. Don't even remember the exact story, but she was telling me that she went on break a couple of times at the same time as Geoff, and apparently my name came up several times. Here's how she told it:

She and Linda (from salad bar) were talking, and I think they mentioned me. But then, without any prompting, Geoff asked about me and college (I guess asking if I was going, or whatever). Later on, Joanne said that he mentioned in a nonchalant sort of way, "I wonder how Amber's doing in Arizona..." (or something to that effect.)

*shrugs* Like I said, he could've just been jumping into their conversation, though I don't know why they would've been talking about me in the first place (and frankly, I'm a little nervous about their possible reasons). But it was nice to hear, hehehe!

Urgh, I can't even remember everything that happened today! Went on break with Geoff (ah, like old times!), badgered him some more about my CD...*giggles* This time, by some twist of Fate, I was actually in the back room while he was getting ready to leave! I was putting cardboard into the baler, and I turned around just as Geoff and Don were walking past the dairy cooler. "Is the baler key gone again?" I asked, and Geoff responded by throwing me his personal set of keys (he has his own baler key).

"Now, the key that leads to his apartment," Don began teasingly. I grinned and shot back,

"I've got my own key."

Don apparently didn't hear me, but Geoff grinned, his eyes sparkling amusedly. He even asked Don if he'd heard my comment, then repeated it! Maybe it was just to get Don to shut up, ha ha...At any rate, I gave Geoff his keys back and then we started walking toward the doors that lead out of the back room.

We stopped and stood there talking for a couple of minutes, and then I heard Frank page for me. Before I could even react, Geoff mumbled something about him calling Frank and pretending to be me...so he did.

When Frank picked up, Geoff said "Hello" in this soft, guy-trying-to-sound-like-a-girl voice. Frank presumably asked what "I" was doing, because then Geoff replied, "Playing with my boobies.."

X_X

Guy humor (or perhaps it's more like 'grocery/frozen dept. humor') rears it's ugly head. But I still chuckled, because his voice was funny. Frank did not think the same thing, because after asking Geoff to repeat himself, he hung up. Geoff laughed incredulously, eyes wide, and exclaimed, "He hung up on me!" He rested back against the desk-type thing nailed into the wall, and looking at me with that same expression of disbelief, continued, "Is he retarded or something? Seriously! Is he? Or does he just not have a sense of humor?"

"I don't know," I replied distractedly, my expression flickering between a smile and a thoughtful frown. The last thing I wanted was for Frankie D to be ticked off. Because then I get ticked off. And then I get frustrated, and finally I just get sort of despondent. At any rate, I called Frank and found out what he wanted, then said I'd be right up. Another minute or so was spent conversing with Geoff, and then he stood up, saying that he'd go get my CD.

Frank didn't say anything to me (other than to answer a question), and after I turned away, I rolled my eyes. Not again!!

I didn't see Geoff at all, and so I was silently fuming about that, too; would I have to physically follow him out to his car in order to get that friggin' CD back??

Half an hour or so later, Nicole paged me to pick up line 2. I figured it would be Mom (who was up at Johnny's while waiting for me to finish), but instead it was Geoff. "I gave your CD to your mom," he explained, "since she was sitting outside on the corner."

I thanked him, then informed him that he'd gotten Frank angry, hehe...Explained that I didn't know exactly why Frank was irritated, just that he was, and Geoff said something like, "Well, he's a dickhead. Sorry..."

:oP

When Mom came back later, she held my CD out to me and said, "He was going to come in and give this to you himself, but I told him I'd do it." Her eyes widened in that "OooOOOooo" sort of way when I informed her that he'd already called me and told me. I was happy to have my CD back, but rather disappointed to find out that I only have half of it! Oh, the CD itself is whole, but I only have the bottom part of the case...what happened to the top?? Did he like the accompanying booklet so much that he wanted to keep it--and the top half of the plastic case, too?

I can't even really get angry, because it was I who offered to loan the darned thing to him. Yet another lesson to me that I can never loan things out, no matter if I'm offering or being asked. I either never get the stuff back, or it comes back damaged! And honestly, I really AM just happy to have the CD back, but having the case--the entire case--would've been nice, too! *sighs*

Men.