It makes me feel like such a sap, but, I really do like both Coldplay and The Killers way more now that they're both trying to sound like U2. Like it's insanely obvious to me, the guitar parts are SO Edge, and even *I* do double-takes when Killers or Coldplay come on the radio and I get all excited and my brain says "YAY U2--- oh wait no it's not is it??? no wait this is--- oh yeah."

But I still freaking love what they've been doing lately, it's so big and vast and gorgeous and passionate and wonderful all over.




...hi welcome to November, where Melissa posts more here than the rest of the year combined, because she is distracting herself from her NaNo novel.

 
Happy Halloween!!! I've survived another one at The Paper Factory, wooooo! Yesterday was pretty much insanity there, it was SWAMPED the entire day. Amazingly, everything pretty much felt under control, there were a few little quirks that came up (not knowing where to find a mask someone had set aside for a customer, a bit of mis-placed paperwork), and as always, some stuff stolen (though for the number of people that were in the store, it was MUCH lower than I'd expected), and ooone customer who just *had* to try something on at 9pm and kept us standing around doing nothing for 15 minutes while we waited to close, but.. really it worked pretty darn well. I manned the dressing rooms for a little while, did the registers a few hours, but for the most part, just ran around and was everywhere at once helping anyone who needed it, which is what I pretty much did this whole season. The day went by quickly, but it was this weird time-haze, just on the go and doing something every single second. Ann and Bruce (the owners) were there the entire day, which actually made things a lot less stressful - Bruce stayed late a lot in the few days leading up to Halloween, and it's amazing how much calmer I felt. Like I was still a bit jittery, a bit on edge, trying to keep track of everything going on in the store every second, but, the responsibility wasn't ALL on my head, which was an incredible relief. (Apparently I'd been mentally taking on more than I was conscious of...)

It was only quarter after nine or so when we got out, which was MUCH earlier than I'd expected, and Ann and Bruce were awesome enough to treat anyone who was free to dinner at Wing City afterwards. They really are absolutely incredible people, like really, who has bosses that'll spend..oh lord, they must've been there 14 hours yesterday, and they never did go on a dinner break, they were on the floor downstairs every minute. Only three of us kids wound up going, though Ashley's boyfriend joined us there, but it was *really*, really nice. I was just so glad for the chance to wind down after the day, talk it over with everyone and just let it all seep out of my system.

Also, Bruce told us a ghost story about the Barcelona lighthouse (which they own), which was absolutely fantastic - especially with NaNo starting--OHGOD--in a few hours!!! (I am not starting tonight, I have to work 10am-6pm tomorrow, and I'm used to sleeping from like 2am-11am thanks to Tom's 4pm-1am shifts.)

I wore my costume to work yesterday, since I had today off - though I wore it with a white t-shirt underneath, and jeans, and skipped the stockings and shoes. Check Facebook for pics I took today though, this sailor costume is the CUTEST freaking thing ever. <3 (No my costume choice had nothing to do with all the Sailor Moon I've been watching obsessively. REALLY! I picked this sucker out like a month and a half ago, as soon as it turned up at the store I fell in love, and knew it'd look cute on me. ...so did half the chicks in town though, so it's just as well I didn't go out tonight or anything. ^^; )

So today I've just been kicking back and being ridiculously lazy. Picked up a few groceries, watched a ton of Sailor Moon, listened to Diamond Age, worked on my scarf, and made up a big giant batch of Curried Apple Couscous (sans pine nuts and mint, plus raisins, and with a bit of Syrian spice thrown in). There was some maple smoked cheddar cheese on sale at Quality, and I made myself some hot spiked apple cider, and think I might actually really fall asleep early tonight. <3

 
...it's not that I'd forgotten how scary things get at the Paper Factory at Halloween, but, I never took this much responsibility on with it before. I'm literally down there every day, I'll spend maybe 2-3 hours on banners if there's any to do, but the rest of the time, I'm downstairs and usually in charge. Every time I walk through an area, there's something else lying on the floor, or something out of place, or an empty package for something... And then tonight, good lord, I'm so annoyed still. We make an announcement 10-15 minutes before closing, to give customers a heads-up. We make another announcement at 9 or shortly after, to let them know we're technically closed.

9:02, this girl - who'd been in the store for over an hour already, probably about 2 hours, and who we'd helped look for things several times - asked if she could just try this one thing on. She was all put-out, "Nothing fits me right!" (She...was pretty big.) I pointed out that the packaged costumes DO run really small, that's just how the companies design them, she might have better luck with the rental costumes, since they tend to run large. "Do you have a prisoner costume with pants?" "Not in the women's, no, all we got in this year were the dresses." "Well I saw this one at Party City that was like this, with the pants." I DON'T CARE WHAT PARTY CITY HAS THIS IS THE PAPER FACTORY HI. We are in a college town so 85% of our sales are brainless college chicks with their parents credit cards buying skanky outfits to wear downtown. If you don't want to be a skank, we have 1500 rental costumes and 743829468392939 wigs accessories masks AND cute shoes. "We have some in the men's costumes, that has a shirt and pants, both to buy or to rent." "Well do you think that would fit me okay?" "Definitely. It won't be as clingy as a girl's costume, but it would fit fine, just a little looser." Good god. Just...one of those people that you TRY to help, but you know the person's not actually registering anything, because it's clear they're incapable of (or just don't care to) drawing a simple logical conclusion about ANYTHING.

We were polite, we tried to be helpful, we gave her all the silly feedback this mindless girl needed ("I like the black hat better, yeah. No those shoes look fine.."). ---by girl, I mean late high-school/early college. Her parents were there too, and they soooort of pushed her to hurry, but not really.

9:20, Amanda makes another announcement. "Attention Paper Factory customers. [Which is to say, this dumb chick and her parents.] The time is now 9:20, and the store has been closed for twenty minutes..."

FINALLY, this girl comes over to the register. "Pirate sword?" I run and get her one. I ring her up, tell them the total. They're browsing all the stuff around the register. The girl thinks she's funny and wants to know why these giiiiant plastic rings are $3.99. "For plastic?" [Dude they are HUGE and faceted. We REALLY don't mark things up much, hardly anything is at full retail.] Finally the mother hands me the money... I get them all set, "have a good night", Amanda starts hitting the lights.

THE GIRL IS STILL LOOKING AT FREAKING RINGS.

I was ready to strangle her! Finally, her parents pushed her to hurry up, and Amanda just gave up and shut off all but one of the basement lights, so it was *dark* over the register. AND SHE WAS STILL PLAYING WITH RINGS!

Oh I was so mad. I got upstairs, we got everything else dealt with, lights out - then I realised the girls had forgotten the parking lot lights. I ran out back to turn them off - AND THE GIRL COMES BACK IN, "I think I forgot my keys..."

Fully aware it's awful of me, but I REALLY wish we'd locked up and left before she realised that, I REALLY, really do.



...*deep breath*

Alright, well, besides that, eh, things are normal. No news on the move. Chad didn't use the picture I made for Paper Factory t-shirts and I'm sad because I LOVE MY MOOSE!!!, but, the t-shirts are actually really sharp looking, I really like what he did. But I still freaking love my moose pumpkin.

Isn't he great?? First moose I ever drew. The Paper Factory moose is actually basically Bullwinkle, which is so not even legal, so I tweaked him a smidge anyway.

I'm watching Sailor Moon obsessively, I found a site that has direct downloads YAY! and streaming, too. Despite all the cosplay, it really is a fantastic series. (I'm watching the English dub out of laziness and so I can crochet while watching, and I can tell where things have been changed - even without having seen much of the Japanese, but as English dubs go it's actually not bad.) It made me get all teary a good couple of times in the first season alone. It's so girly in all the best ways. I found a torrent of the manga, which is what I really want to get my hands on, because the artwork is gooooorgeeeeeeeous. <333

Meanwhile, I am FINALLY getting almost done with this really gorgeous scarf I'm crocheting. I fell in love with this pattern...wow actually like a year ago. The description on it, mentioning a "mermaid party", actually gave me a whole giant scene in last year's NaNo. But while nosing around the yarn shop in Brocton (which I cannot even tell you how wonderful of a place it is), I found the peeeeerrrrfect yarn for the scarf. It's a gorgeous teal-ish blue, half silk and half alpaca. <333 Gorgeous, gorgeous stuff, and soooo soft.

...I fear I am turning into a fiber-fiend. Shannon and Katie, I blame you both. <3