I'm so confused!

 Yesterday, at work, I was sitting in the breakroom, enjoying my well-deserved chocolate next to a new recruit who was forced to sit through all our instruction videos, when we heard the bathroom door open and the rather large lady who had been in there since I went to buy the chocolate, slowly made her way back, leaning on her cart. She stopped outside the breakroom, staring at the new guy, (I was blocked from view by the angle.)

"Are you an employee?" she said. (I thought "crap, there must be a mess in the bathroom")

"Uhm...not yet, but I will-"

"The Titanic is on the KATU in five minutes!"

"Oh...?"

"You tell everyone!"

"OK."

And that's how he got introduced to working retail.

Today at work, a lady walked up to me, leaned on her cart and said "Can I ask you something?"
I, naturally, said yes, and she went:
"My idea. Of customer service. Is that if the customer wants something... you give it to them."
She went on to explain that she had intended to buy a piece of furniture in our store. "I do not want to assemble it myself," she said firmly. She had talked to the furniture manager, who had kind of shrugged and said that maybe, if some of the guys had time (though at the moment we were speaking, the only floor workers left in the store was me and another girl, tasked with cleaning up the entire store, so I don't know if she just came in earlier in the day or if he meant that she should come back the next day...? She didn't specify), they could maybe put it together, but it wasn't likely and it wasn't policy.
She fixed her eyes on me. "What do you think?" she said. "Do you think that's good customer service?"
I hummed and hawed, of course, said I was really not in a position to comment and so on, as politely as possible. She rolled her eyes. "OK. Fine. Whatever. You know, that's the problem. No one has an opinion." She waved at me dismissively. "And you're young." Then she left. I didn't tell her I'm thirty. 

To the cashier, she launched a tirade about how she was raised in a high-moral family and been taught that the customer should get what he wants and if SHE ran a business, she would be putting together furniture all day long.

The piece of furniture in question was a $79 dresser that she apparently wanted just for her jeans.

In less irritating news, I found an online interactive documentary about Pine Point - a small Canadian mining town that was erased completely from the map after the mine closed. One of the ex-residents - a man who used to be extremely athletic, but now sits in a wheelchair because of MS - has built a memorial website about it, using only voice commands to his computer.
I was so taken by the idea of the place you grew up in just not being there anymore. The whole thing is just really engrossing and fascinating and well-done. Check it out!

Oh yeah, I also locked Busy in the closet today before I left for work. Thankfully, the hubby noticed his little scritchings and scratchings and saved him.

Know what word I just wrote? FIN.

Know what that means? A heck of a lot of editing, but also: the story is pretty much DONE.

*screams mindlessly*

I am very happy to have managed to work both corpses and cookies into the epilogue.

It might be time for bed.

Oh yeah. Also: I applied for a second job.

I have been cranky and tired and thus stayed away, but today is my day off and we just bought a Christmas tree!<333 Lugged it home in the rain and everything!

Work has been hectic, but I haven't minded TOO much, because they have been kind enough to keep me off the register. By giving me the most nightmarish section to recover every night, naturally, but still - I'll take stressful recovery over stressful cashiering any day, thank you.
Yesterday, there was a girl walking around crying at work. It was hard to tell what age she was - she looked like early teens, but carried herself like someone younger. Had I been any shade of decent human being, I would have asked what was wrong, if she was  looking for someone, etc, but I was stressed and instead I just got annoyed and avoided her. Go Christmas spirit.

The fic...I...just...I...I don't know! It needs to be simplified, I think. It grew too many heads. This is an awful lot of effort for something that will probably be read by five people at most, but I can't help but enjoy the process, as much as I sulk and want to tear my hair out about it.

Today was Lucia Day in Sweden. It's very strange, because it's a Catholic tradition celebrating an Italian saint and IIRC, Sweden is not very Catholic, nor terribly Italian. I think it's just an excuse to light up the darkness a bit, fire hazard notwithstanding. Oh, and to humiliate boys by putting them in white dresses and silly hats. *points and laughs*
Pretty much every town, school, church (yes, even the non-Catholic ones!) and congregation of note has their own Lucia with accompanying "train". Sweden's official Lucia is voted for by the public - it's basically a beauty contest - and the winner gets the honor of walking and standing stiffly for an hour or so, with a crown of fire on her head. Why is it always girls who have to go through stuff like that?

Now: cheese sandwich and writing.

( A little review with some minor spoilers! )

And on a completely different topic:

( Bob strikes again! )

And now: fic until I zonk.

- We have a new computer monitor! Everything is so bright and spacious!! I'm totally overwhelmed and I'm sure I'll end up with a headache later on, but eeeeeeeeee!! I can actually look at dark images again! There's suddenly a crapload of previously-unplayable games that I can now play! Like Submachine! I feel RICH!

- My reading page is so overrun by feeds, that it's getting hard to track the actual journals. Surely there must be a nifty solution for this?

- The other day, a coworker told me that one of the managers had said I am "awesome". *beams*
It's kind of strange, because I really don't work with that particular manager, like, at all, but still!

I am having two-bite blueberry scones and coffee! It's my day off! I have three days off in a row! Our bank account cries, but I still feel like just enjoying it, because work is kicking my proverbial parts. I'm seriously so sick of it. I feel like the pressure's just been building up these past few months, the hours being cut down while the work load is increasing. Or maybe it's just fall depression kicking in. Oh, and Bob the Wonder Manager removed one of our registers six months ago, to get more store space, so Christmas is going to be Hell On Earth. Not happy.

I am writing Arthur fic. I'm not sure I've ever felt this mainstream, fandom-wise. I need an "I liked Arthur when he was indie" shirt.
I'm also joining the throngs of JGL fans. I can't help it, stop pushing and keep your elbows to yourself please. He's got too much going for him and he's got one of those smiles that make me happy. Plus, Hesher! I'm not sure how I feel about him playing a younger version of Bruce Willis, though. We'll see!

I guess I need Inception icons, but I'm strangely uninspired.

This is the best Arthur/Eames fanmix I've come across and people should appreciate it more. "Trouble" and "Strict Machine" are their respective theme songs and no one can tell me otherwise.

And while I'm at it, where did the trope explosion of Eames wooing Arthur come from? I'm all for creative freedom and if it floats your boat, then by all means, write it, but I just don't get it. I see nothing in the movie that indicates he would do anything of the sort. I'm having a hard time seeing any of them wooing the other, to tell the truth. They're both proud and closed off, their respective emotional walls just look different. I could MAYBE see it going the other way around, because I suspect that once you're in Arthur's circle of friends, he'll want to keep you there, while Eames came off as a much more evasive personality. I see Eames as the big stumbling block, really. He won't commit if he can help it.

OMG!<3333333

Oh yes! And I just watched Return of the King for the first time in ages. Eomeeeeerrrr!! I don't know about Karl Urban's acting, frankly. A little too much forehead wrinkle for me. But ahhh, what a visual. What EYES.

Return of the King is special to me, because it was the only movie I and my then-fiancee-now-hubby saw with my parents (they split up six months before we got married) in the theater. My mom made an everlasting impression by falling asleep during the huge battle scene. Her thing is more detective novels, really.

Today's original at work was a tall, jovial guy who called me "one of his favorite employees" (never seen him before in my life) and just as I thought he was flirting with me, he started going on about the locksmith company he works for, proudly advertising their skills and policies, going into great detail with great passion. He gave me a card, said "I'm sure we'll see each other around a lot" and then left.
Turned out he'd been doing the same with my manager, offering her a 10% discount just for coming in, and had also butted in on a conversation between two of my guy co-workers, comparing their conversation to the ones he'd have with the guys at his job ("We just walk up and slap each other on the back and fart!").
So. Next time I lock myself out of the house, I'll know who to call. Someone else.

So I really should be in bed, but I'm wound up.
( Work stuff. )

But on the bright side -  Dad sent me a camera for my birthday! I can fill this journal with movies and pictures of my cats! <3333
Oh, and Mom sent me chocolate and a dress! Swedish chocolate!<33333333333333333333333333
Oh oh oh! And my grandparents (paternal) sent me $50! I talked to Grandma on the phone and she was, as usual, keen on pointing out how old she and Grandpa are and how little they have left of life. "We have our future behind us, little Anna."  It doesn't get much more Swedish than that. :( 

We're waiting for a check. When it comes in, there will be shopping sprees.

I really need to go to bed now.