Ah, the joys of working at the Despot during a full moon. I almost forgot how that wonderful orb affects the general population.

This weekend's gems:

A lady that was astonished that the kitchen she SPECIAL ORDERED had not arrived a mere 48 hours after she placed the order. I was astonished that she had an installer already. Any installer worth hiring is booked well into the new year. I'm sure she just got lucky (snort!) and that her new cabinets will look great. Maybe they'll even be level. Here's hoping they are - she spent $11k on a new corian counter top to go with them.

A couple that somehow thought it was Home Depot's fault that we were not able to replace the receipt and extended warranty information they lost, for the television they purchased over a year ago. Couldn't I look it up for them? After a lengthy explanation that we are not able to look anything up after 90 days, and that really, it was their responsibility to maintain their own records, especially in regards to a warranty, they were still adamant that we were in the wrong. My question for them would have been, 'What possessed you to buy a television from the same place that sells nails and drywall and 2 x 4 studs?'

But I couldn't, so I just bit my tongue and had a manager tell them the exact same thing I told them.

I'm somewhat impressed with myself.

Tonight was my last writing class, and I had some great feedback from my instructor. He handed back our play writing assignment - we were given an article from the Journal, and had to write the first act of a play based on the article.

I am a procrastinator. I do things last minute. I don't think this will ever change. This assignment was no different; I finished it about 3 hours before I had to go to class. So, after pulling the assignment out of...thin air, my instructor thought that even as as first draft, that it could have been developed into something more. As in send it in as a Fringe submission. Yikes!

I really enjoyed this class. I got a lot out of it, but I would say the most valuable thing I learned was that I can write, and that I need to be confident in my abilities as a writer.

Our instructor wants to work with all of us again, and has approached the University about creating a whole new course. The Liberal Studies department folks have tentatively agreed, based on interest of the students, to allow us to do this! It will most likely be a class for short fiction writing, or a short fiction writing class paralleled with creative non-fiction. I can't wait!

I would love to know what part of the space/time continuum that Edmonton Transit Service exists in. Once again, I spent the better part of my evening waiting for a bus that does not appear to exist. I am beginning to believe that somewhere around Gold Bar Park is a black hole that appears only when I need to catch the bus, and it sucks said bus into the dark swirling depths of space, and regurgitates it somewhere near West Edmonton Mall.

My bus is supposed to arrive at my stop at 6:21. The bus may actually arrive at 6:15, or 6:30. One never knows. So I left the house at 6:03, and arrived at the stop at 6:05. PLENTY of time. Too much time. The @#$$%^#& thing didn't show up until 6:36. Guess when the next bus is due to arrive at the stop? According to the ETS Online Trip Planner...6:36. This means that an entire bus is missing.

Parents, wives and husbands - are you missing a loved one? Perhaps we need to send Air One out in search of this lost bus. The passengers probably haven't noticed they are nowhere near home. The teenagers are too busy text messaging the friend that is sitting next to them. The weary office workers are plugged into their ipods, listening to the books they are too busy to read. The bus driver is on autopilot, stopping and opening the door, handing out transfer after transfer, somehow missing the fact that he has skipped an entire portion of the city every time he gets sucked back into the black hole of Route 1.

Now I know why people drive everywhere.

Lily's New 'Do

I have been patiently waiting for Miss Lily's hair to grow long enough to do this. Today, I couldn't resist!

This is her 'picture' pose and smile. Cheeeeesy!

(In the background, you can see what happens when Hurricane Lily hits a room.)

She's such a ham! But a happy ham.

SNOW DAY!


Bryan has been predicting snow for three months. First he said it would snow in September. I told him it was not allowed to snow before my birthday. Mother Nature agreed, and the weather was lovely. Then he said it would snow in October. I pointed out how nice the weather has been the Thanksgiving weekend, for oh, the last 3 or 4 years. He grudgingly agreed that yes, it has been nice. Still no snow. Then he grumbled that it would be a snowy Halloween for sure. Mother Nature was nice to the kids this year, and it was a perfect night for Trick or Treating. (Or so I heard, I was stuck working at the Despot)

How can you not kiss that face?

It finally snowed last night. Lily was too little to play in the snow last year, so this was her first time out in it. Not that there was a lot, but enough to see what it was all about.

We bundled her into her new snowsuit, new boots and new hat. (Hopefully she won't outgrow them by next week.) I think she enjoyed going outside. Here was our day.

No, I didn't wash her face with the snowball...

It was all fun and games, until the toddler hit the sidewalk. A scraped lip, bumped cheek and a lot of tears meant an end to the afternoon. We can't wait to take her out to the park for toboggan rides!

Ack!

I learned today that when one is at the mercy of the ETS bus system, life can go awry in many ways.

My evening was an interesting one. I left at 6:10 for a bus that is due to arrive at my stop around 6:21. This allows me to get downtown with enough time to stop and get coffee before my class starts. By 6:40 (!) my bus still hadn't arrived. It finally arrived at 6:45, packed to the rafters. (Just as we headed downtown, our bus was passed by the really late bus, which coincidentally, was completely empty.) By the time it reached downtown, it was 6:58. My class starts at 7:00. Class usually gets going around 7:10, so I figured I had a few minutes to grab a coffee.

At the Second Cup, I got the new guy. He moved soooooo slow. Like a tortoise. (He needed to sample the goods - a caffeine kick may have helped). After helping him with the till, and showing him (twice) which pastry I wanted, he took my coffee and walked it down to the end of the counter where espresso is picked up. This would have been fine, if I had happened to be at the other end of the counter. Apparently my coffee needed a walk before I was allowed to drink it. Remember, I am now late for class. After asking him where he was going with the coffee, and sorting out that he could just hand it to me from where he originally dispensed it, I was on my way. (I noticed the 'We're Hiring' sign on the way out. If I had a Sharpie...an F would have replaced the H) I know, I know. Be nice. I was. But I was venting in my head...

I arrived at class at 7:08, just in time for my instructor to tell me that he needed my email address to pass on this week's assignment. (Usually he hands them out, but I think there was a copier malfunction somewhere...)

There were no spare chairs, so I had to retrieve one and find a spot. The last one in always gets the crappy seat, and tonight was no exception.

We had to write a short short story (max 500 words) this week. Our instructions were to bring enough copies to class for everyone, so we all had a chance to read the writing. I think that being late and wearing a red shirt made me a sitting duck. Guess who had her story read and used as the take off point for this week's lesson? Yup, your truly. Nothing like having all the attention on you when you want it the least.

I had some positive feedback on the story - my instructor said the writing was lovely and the lady sitting next to me said she really liked my style of writing. Unfortunately, my instructor also said that my story was more word portrait than short story. Well, that's what came out, and we don't always have control over the words that form on the page. Sometimes inspiration and creation have to take precedence over form.

I read the other stories when I got home, and some of the writing was better than mine, and some wasn't. I think that I did a decent job, despite the critique. It could have been worse. He could have said it was absolute crap and picked it apart. But he didn't.