Today's rambling: No more work for now!
Written on Monday, Dec. 23, 2002 at 7:34 p.m.
while feeling a bit

Kathy's got a car, Amy's got a cellphone apparently...I'm going to sound like an old woman, but I didn't have those things when I was their age! Well, I still don't have a car, lol! ;) Still, they've been so spoiled throughout their lives, and their attitudes have changed to the point where I'm afraid they're turning really materialistic. They're 16 and 15, respectively, so I know it's not like they're really young...but I feel like they're not all that OLD yet, either. Maybe it's just me feeling like a big sister or something. I've known them since they were 5 and 4...

Anyway, that was just a random thought brought on by the fact that Amy's away message not only says to call the cell phone, but also lists the number...something which just makes me cringe, since any weirdo could come along and decide to call her up... X_X I'm not even one of those "Ooo, if you give out ANY personal information, someone will come along and STALK you!!" folks! But in my mind, posting such things as addresses and telephone numbers is just asking for something icky to happen. Again, probably just "big sister" syndrome kicking in. So I'll talk about my day instead.

Today was The Day of Missing PLU's in bakery today. Several codes had just mysteriously disappeared from the system, which meant that we couldn't put out some of our breads and things. It was just wacky. I'm not sure how Jason is going to resolve that. Glad I only had to work from 8 to 1, though! :-P

There was a Christmas lunch thingy back in the break room for all us employees. Nothing appetizing (to me), so when I finally took my wee break at a little before 12:30 I didn't eat anything. I'd planned on inviting Geoff to go with me of course, but when I got to the back room I saw that he was busy helping out a few vendors. So I merely shouted "Geoffrey!" in a sing-song voice, then walked to the break room and hoped he'd get the idea. ;) Sure enough, about 5 minutes later he lumbered back! Heh. He's so well trained. *grins* 'Course, my break was pretty much over but I stayed back there for a few extra minutes. Finally, when he and Ernie started talking about some really weird stuff, I swung my legs over the bench and started to stand up.

"Don't leave yet!" Geoff said. :P Had I more than 20 minutes left to my shift, I might have listened to him...but I didn't think Jason would appreciate me staying back there (even though he's a lazy sod and takes like 50 breaks a day). So I asked Geoff where he thought he'd be in 20 minutes, then told him I was done at 1 and wouldn't be working again 'til after Christmas (both announcements issued an 'Aww' from him, hehe). Blah blah, now to leaving time...

After grabbing my coat from the back room, I teased EJ a bit and then turned back to Geoff. He gave me a hug (another one initiated by him! Wow! :P), and then I remarked "Well, you won't get your Christmas present 'til after Christmas, since it hasn't arrived yet..."

"Yeah, I couldn't get yours either," he lamented. "Nobody had one!"

Struck completely dumb, I blurted out the first thing that came to mind, which was "What was it?" Of course, he didn't tell me. ;) But all I could think was, "He actually wanted to give me a present!" Quite a step forward from last year...here, let's go take a trip back in time, eh? One of the luxuries of diaries is that you can look back and see how things have progressed from a year or two ago. *giggles* Here's my entry from the 24th of last year, if anyone's curious (this is more for my benefit anyway, hehe)...Totally uneventful. :P The amusing part for me is that when reading that entry, I could see how much he'd warmed toward me between then and now. Anyway...

So that was about it for work. When Mom and I got home, we had to go right back out again because Charlie was desperate to have me pick out fish for him. I wish I'd never gone. The man didn't listen to ANYTHING I said! I tried telling him that he couldn't fill his tanks up with fish all at once. Rather, he had to do it gradually so that the tanks could cycle and whatnot. Did he listen? No. He started talking about buying a whole bunch of fish, and kept rattling on while I repeatedly tried saying "You can't get all those fish at once! Just get a few now and come back later!" When the clerk was helping us, she said to start off small, and he listened to her! X_X I looked at the girl and said, "Well, I'm glad he listened to you; I kept trying to tell him that and he wouldn't believe me." I tried to add a teasing spin to it, since he was standing right there, but I was just so irritated. Don't ask for my help if you're not going to listen to me anyway!

When I would point out a fish, he'd be like, "Oh, I know about them, they're blah blah" which also got on my nerves. If he knew so much about them (which, I'd like to add, he didn't..hehe), why'd he have to bring me along?? I was already tired and eager to relax; I didn't need him around. In the end, I just gave up on him and let him do what he wanted while I looked for female bettas. My white betta here at home is such a cute, charismatic little thing. Every time I stop by the tank to look at them, she zooms to the top and hovers there waiting for food. Sometimes I put my finger up to the tank and talk to her, hehe...I just love her! Bettas have so much personality. Unfortunately, the females at this store (Petco) were in a woeful state. Their colors were very drab, half of them were dying, and the rest of them had tattered fins and were acting aggressively toward each other. The one betta that I'd actually had some interest in looked to be alright...until I saw that one of her eyes was milky...which meant she'd either harmed it somehow herself, or one of the other fish had pecked at it. Judging by the way all the fish were acting, I'd opt for the latter choice.

Petco is such a disappointment. It really is. Had it not been for the fact that Charlie had all these gift certificate things for their fish, I would have insisted that we go elsewhere. I wish that little petstore I always went to hadn't closed down!!! :(

In the small animals section, there was a chinchilla who was all white except for his head, which had black-tipped fur and black eyes. Gorgeous little thing. Mom had seen it the last time she and Charlie went to Petco (the day Geoff and I went shopping) and told me that there had been a solid black one in there as well. From the research I did, black ones are apparently very rare (but this one had a little bit of white on his chin or something, Mom said, so he wasn't a true black chinch). Only the white one was left today, and when Mom and I were walking up to the front of the store, he was outside of his little nesting area. Another couple was hovering right in front of the tank though, so I didn't really get a good look. I wanted to see if someone would let me hold him, because I've never held a chinchilla before. But of course, no one was around and that couple was sticking right to that spot so I couldn't even look at the little guy! They finally wandered away (after the chinchilla had gone to sleep again), and I watched them head over to a section of "Your New [Animal Here]" books. Y'know, the ones you get to learn about a new pet that you have (or are planning to) adopt. They must've been reading up on chinchillas, because I think in the end the woman decided she wanted it.

I was so irritated. I mean, I know that I wasn't going to be able to buy the chinchilla, but for some strange reason I felt like I had more of a right to buy it than they did! I read about that sort of animal ahead of time, figuring out its habits and personality and the sort of care it would require. That's the sort of thing you SHOULD do before buying a new animal, so you know what you're doing AND to eliminate the risk of giving the pet away (should you realize you can't handle taking care of it). Pet-keeping isn't just a thing to be taken lightly. Any animal other than fish (because they're pretty easy to care for) should be thought of as a child. Just like a kid needs lots of attention and care, so do pets. These people apparently decided to get this chinchilla after browsing through a book right before buying (and I'm positive that's what they were doing, because they glanced consideringly back at the chinchilla while holding the book). How much help is that going to be?

*sighs* All I can hope is that they'll actually take care of the poor thing (assuming they DID buy it) and not just hand it off to an animal shelter once they get bored of its "dainty eating". Chinchillas can live up to 10 years or more; it's not like you can just say, "Oh, I'll keep it for a couple years until it dies!"

Anyway, sorry. That sort of thing just rubs me the wrong way.

For right now, I'm going to attempt downloading the rest of the songs I need to make Mom's second CD...and I'll have to start back on my embroidery, too. Just a little bit left to go, but I'm so tired that I don't feel like working on it anymore! I hope Geoff signs on tonight. He came online last night...after I'd signed off, of course! >_<