electric_jake | This stuff is FRESH

Top Gear (the UK version, i.e. the truly good one) is one of those shows that I enjoy watching over and over for a variety of reasons that never seem to run out of rhyme.

1. It makes me so enthusiastic about living, about getting into the world and finding the perfect job for me just like these crazy petrolheads have done for themselves, and just having the best time ever with my daily work.

2. It is a lovely example of how you CAN find excellent friends starting purely through a mutual interest and/or work.

3. It makes me thirstier than ever to learn about cars, models and styling and bodywork and fixing them and which ones race best and which ones look like they're good but are really crap because of cheap material and which ones go like lightning and which ones go so much like lightning that they're illegal because it is really quite dangerous to drive lightning, you know, and how to drive them round a track like I've got a crazed wasp in the cab with me without actually injuring myself or destroying an extremely expensive car.

4. It drives that fantasy of mine to get myself in a European supercar and flog a track with it, or just storm across Europe like JJ&R do all the time.

Where does one go to learn car? I mean, do you have to just follow some mechanics around for a year? Is it a matter of buying some old, cheap thing, finding the manual for it, and then just... tinkering until it goes?

I need to get in with the Top Gear gurus, clearly.

Feeling cheerful
Where I'm At a waterbed in Oklahoma
Listening to background TV

The answer is no, it's 3:00. Dang.

But OH that feeling when you're working the front desk on account of the newest receptionist being fired and a client tells you that they hope you stick around because they like you. And then you have to kind of hem and haw and talk about how you have other things you want to do with your life so you wouldn't be around much longer anyway and so on because hey look, they're actually letting you go in a couple of weeks.

Our latest receptionist was very nice. A little too nice. It got on your nerves pretty easily. She also talked non-stop, was slow with her few duties (spending more time going to the bathroom and cleaning things she wasn't supposed to, which is nice but means more important work is going left undone), and kept sending things to the wrong people. Anyway, she was relieved of her duties on Monday, the same day I was also informed that I was going to be let go after my vacation the first week of March. I had been expecting this. The new file girl, Nicole, is intelligent and quick to learn. Also, I was going to be leaving this job at some point in the near future anyway. ALSO, a lot of the duties relegated to us file clerks weren't things that file clerks were supposed to do; we were honestly more like assistants to the assistants in that regard, and working way above our pay-grade. That was the only reason I begged them to hire someone else in the first place, because I was overloaded with things to do. But they've recently realized all we've been doing and are reorganizing the workloads so that the file clerk will go back to her regular heavy workload. It only weighs enough for one person, though.

So here I am, working reception until they find a new receptionist, likely training her, and then having my first paid vacation before resigning. All in all, I think this turned out pretty well. I was really starting to want a change of venue anyway, and I need to start doing my ESL teaching certification class, so this will allow much more time for that, as well as an opportunity to try a new line of work.

Anyway, Happy Valentine's Day to all. I have a sushi lady-date tonight, which is sure to be lovely, and tomorrow is Friday. EXCELLENT ON ALL FRONTS.

Feeling cheerful
Where I'm At Up front
Listening to All sorts of anime music

I'm pretty sure most people are glad when it's Friday, but I am counting down the hours until it's 5:00 and I can take a real break from the office. I really like it here and like the people I work with, but it has been a week. Everyone who still works here seriously needs a weekend because the count of people leaving this week is now up to three. Three. And like I said yesterday, this is a small firm. We've only got ten people left, including me, so it's kind of a big deal when someone leaves. The lady who got fired today (Lisa, and Ashlee too, it seems) found another job, so I'm guessing she was fired on the principle that she had gone to the extent of not just looking for a new job, not just finding one, but also talking to some people in the office about it. I mean, if you're considering another job that seriously, it's almost a matter of your boss's pride to fire you. I guess Ashlee just took the cowardly way out with her new job; I have no idea how many people knew she had found something else, but Sheila sure didn't, and I'm pretty sure Sheila was the one she principally worked under. And even if you're looking for another job, it's just a shitty thing to do to not tell anyone that you've decided to leave.

But man, I'm frazzled. I'm not particularly worried about being fired myself, but all these people leaving is just disruptive. As soon as Lisa left, someone called for her. I think it was a relative or something, but I hadn't yet had time to ask anyone what to do when anyone called for her, so there's now a voicemail on Lisa's phone that will just be lost, I suppose. And all the clients knew the receptionist and Ashlee by name, so they're all confused and asking about them, and I just have to kind of skirt the topic because as far as I know, the protocol in this situation is to gloss over sensitive inter-office topics.

Ugh. I want a drink.

Feeling weird
Where I'm At the front desk
Listening to a K-pop medley; I need me some hwaiting spirit

STILL NO SKETCHBOOK, but they said 1-2 weeks and it has actually only been 9 days since I signed up. Where did I get all this time? It used to pass so quickly I could barely catch my breath. It's amazing what changing your perspective can do.

NANOWRIMO INSPIRATION. I think making myself edit fanfiction was a good idea, because it made my brain remember why it likes writing. And as I'm up at reception again today and currently have nothing else to do (not for long, I don't think, but so it goes), I got a pretty good bit of writing out on my second idea. And I was plot-inspired for it, so now I have two highly viable ideas to work with. HURRAY.

And my life only gets more exciting. My mom is going away for the weekend to learn a new type of massage, so I will pretty much have the house to myself!

This honestly means absolutely nothing, because I pretty much do exactly what I do when there are other people in the house anyway. I might keep odder hours, since there's no mother to tell me to go to bed at any specific time (more out of habit than actual function) and no one to hear the creaking stairs and floorboards if I sneak down to the kitchen for midnight tea and snacks, but that's about it, if that. Having to get up at 6:45 every day of the business week really regulates your sleep schedule, which surprises no one else, I'm sure, but I hadn't ever really thought I would be able to wake up that consistently early in the morning. College schedules were what they were, but I sure wasn't able to wake up easily back in high school. Aging. What is up with that stuff.

EDIT:

HOLY SHIT.

I work at a small law firm that handles rather a lot of clients for its size (or so I think, but I don't really know; I got this job by a stroke of good luck and really have no experience in law besides what I've learned here), so there's a lot to be done on a day-to-day basis.

I walk in Monday and say hi to the receptionist as usual, but an hour later and she's gone because she got fired. I don't really know why, though I have my suspicions. Regardless, that put a strain on everybody because we already run around like headless chickens most of the time trying to get everything done (my job was actually supposed to be temporary, but that was in June. I have continued to be needed because they honestly just needed another person to fill in the gaps); we had to start splitting front desk duty between me and this other file clerk (Ashlee), and that meant someone's work going undone, which is always inconvenient.

Yesterday, Ashlee couldn't come in because her kid was sick, so I sat at the front. And today again she didn't show up, so again I sat at the front. But she didn't text me today like she did the day before, and she didn't text anyone else either. That was odd, but I didn't think much of it; maybe she just overslept or something. But half an hour ago, while discussing all of my work that's piling up in back with one of the legal assistants (Sheila), I heard that she's just gone. She isn't working here anymore. Without telling anyone, she just quit. I didn't ask if she'd said why because Sheila was already pretty upset, but damn. We have a new receptionist starting Monday, but Ashlee leaving means having to find someone to fill her position, which is significantly harder to fill than reception (and means so much more work for everyone else), and then someone will have to train the new girl. My work is the least immediately time-sensitive, so that will fall to me, which is kind of mind-boggling. I mean, I'm 23 and started working here just to fill in for Ashlee when she was on maternity leave back in June, but kept on working here because they kept having stuff for me to do; I know only what I've learned here about the world of law; this is my first serious job (by accident). And I'm going to be training someone on Monday.

Funny how this job was supposed to be temporary a few months ago, but now I'm kind of an integral part of the team. Life comes at you fast, man. Always surprising.

Feeling pleasant
Where I'm At the front desk, come hit me up
Listening to Epik High because they are my boyfriends and I love them

Still no Sketchbook, so of course that's what I feel like working on...

NaNoWriMo is going as I should have expected; I officially switched ideas, but less than an hour after that, was suddenly plot-inspired on my first idea. So I think I'll just write on both ideas as the inspiration comes, make myself try to write during downtime, and just see if one of them comes up 50,000 words strong by the 30th.

Russian still sucks. The language would be pretty cool if I didn't have to be in the class for it.

THE END

BUT NOT

Because I'm working the reception desk at my job today and I have already finished all the work I could do up here (scanning, always with the scanning). I don't mind having to work the front, so long as I don't have to do it every day; I much prefer the safety of the file room, away from a constantly ringing phone and clients who are just mad at everybody because life doesn't work out for them at the snap of their fingers (a bunch of them are super nice and a real pleasure to talk to, but the select few that aren't really make up for their smaller numbers). But back in the file room, there is always something to do, so it's nice to have the occasional light work day where I just answer phones and hand out checks and scan things.

Now that I have nothing to do, of course, my mind is trying to think up other things to do. And what it thinks of, instead of the numerous other things I could be doing, is fanfiction. I write fanfiction, to inform all those adoring fans out there who were just dying to know. There are just so many of you. Oh. Oh no. What to do.

Another fact: I am also kind of insane about my writing, which is a stupid thing to be when one is also the sort of writer that churns out a bunch of stuff in sporadic bursts, then leaves it in a dark corner for a few years. I mean, that works well enough with short stories, but chaptered stories turn into a major pain in the brain. I find myself re-reading them in order to, you know, add more in the hopes that maybe they'll be over someday, and wouldn't you just know that I start finding all sorts of problems that I simply can't allow to exist. I have seen them, and they can never be unseen, and obviously I can't have the Internet thinking that I would make such silly mistakes. Not in my fanfiction. So then I re-write everything, and re-post, and sometimes actually add new content. Then I leave them alone to mold again until the next time I remember them, and the process starts all over. But I have resolved that this latest re-write I'm attempting (for both of my chaptered stories, one at 7 chapters, the other at 20) will be the last, and then my insanity can just take a walk.

I mean, it's fanfiction, for God's sake. I'm all about writing to the best of my abilities, but this is ridiculous.

And all that was basically my way of saying that that's what I'm going to go do now. Because I know you were all about to wet yourselves with curiosity.

Feeling calm
Listening to Epik High

So like I said in the description, I'm going to use this place to help me figure my life out. Or that's the plan, anyway. And while I've made that same plan numerous times, I think I might now have the tools and time to actually do it.

In an effort to better myself all across the board, I decided last week to follow my usual pattern of overloading myself with things to do; most of them are things I genuinely enjoy doing, but enjoy more when I am suddenly inspired to do them rather than trying to make it happen by force of will. And while this has been my usual pattern for so many years, and while it has pretty much never worked out for me unless I have a truly relevant deadline coming up that gives me a rush of last-minute creativity, I think maybe just making a list of enjoyable tasks with no particular timeline could work out for me for once.

Mostly because I'm going to make it work. Instead of putting the force of my will against the activities themselves, I'm going to use it on myself.

THINGS I WILL PARTAKE IN

- NaNoWriMo: step right up, write a 50,000 word novel in a month! Numerous story bits scattered around my computer and one prior registered attempt have thus resulted in further story bits being scattered around my computer and a hilariously failed try for a novel. That idea is still in traction because I still like it, but at the time, I just hadn't wanted to write. Writing happens to me at odd hours and rarely when I need it to. This year, I will try my best to get a different result. We're a few days in, and I've officially decided to give up on the idea I chose ahead of time to try out an idea that came to me while I was sitting on the john. Bathrooms, ladies and gentlemen. But beyond the initial burst of inspiration... well, that remains to be seen.

- The Sketchbook Project: fill a small sketchbook with your art and send it to New York by January 15th, where it will be exhibited for all to see forever! The sketchbook hasn't actually gotten here yet, but I'm excited for when it does. Again, one prior attempt, but for naught. Barely put anything in the book, so obviously I wasn't going to send it in. BUT NOT THIS YEAR.

- Classes, schmasses: I'm currently taking some Russian at a community college, but I would have done better just buying the books and working on my own. Lesson learned. I don't mean to sound snobbish, but if you've learned a couple of languages already, an entry-level class containing people who speak only English can be a bit painful. There are certain properties of some languages, such as word gender, that I forget are new concepts for English-speakers. So their questions are completely legitimate and necessary, just not for me. And seeing as how I'm taking time out of my work-day to take this class... well, I just wish it were a better class to be not making money for. But once I'm done with this, I can get on the TEFL class I need to take so I can get on with my life plans.

Huh. I feel like I had a longer list of things I was going to be doing. I probably did. #memoryproblems

Or maybe I was just thinking about how I'm going to try writing more and reading more and doing more art and making new mix CDs for my car and not dying all the time in video games and trying to maybe remember to put things in the dishwasher... So exciting <<< That's what my life is. But so it goes. Whether it seems difficult or boring or wonderful, it will be all of those things at one time or another. Gotta enjoy all of it.