Worst day ever.

I suppose it wasn’t that bad. But.

-First time in several years that I’ve felt crappy enough to need to sit down on the train. Felt horrible. Fortunately, sitting helped.

-Was 33 minutes early to work. Better than being late, but.

– Crappy, dusty, boring, soul sucking work. But, still work. Paying.

– Working with coworker who likes to/has the terrible habit of saying the end of your  (and sometimes the whole) sentences with you. It’s infuriating. The morning was fine but then she did that all through lunch and I tried to avoid her the rest of the day.

– Pinched my hand, giant blood blister.

– Horrible NJ transit bus ride

– On said bus I realized I left my essay at home and had to call John and have him drive and meet me at school.

– Algebra was boring and reviewing things I knew.

– Lab part of algebra the teacher did something in a screwy way, and I was so frustrated by the rest of the day that I almost cried because the board looked different from my paper and I couldn’t figure out why.

– My composition class is terrible and I kind of hate the teacher now. I tried so hard to have hope for it and give her chances. But then today she slapped my hand for trying to ask a more advanced question. Over it. I’ll get through it, and get an A in the class, but I spent the class teaching myself how to write backwards in cursive. I kept up with everything going on and answered questions while I did that. That’s the kind of class it is.

– I went to the train and waited 20 minutes before they let us know that it stopped running 25 minutes before.

But, then I listened to a bunch of angry music and ate leftover indian food and now life is a little but better even though I have to do most of that again tomorrow. But with intro to vet tech. So that should be better.

Well, that was fun while it lasted

Remember how I was all happy to just be in school and not have to work? Yeah. Whoops.

The main company that I work for just bought some real lights. Before this they just had some LED things, and a ton of these crappy little can lights that you can actually do a good bit with. So, they heard a theater was closing and selling all of it’s stock, and they swooped in with the rest of the vultures, and now we have 150 lekos, and about 50 pars.

I say ‘we’ because not only am I going to spend monday-wednesday cleaning and checking them, but there is a strong possibility that 20 hours a week, I will be maintaining them and getting them ready to go out on shows. This isn’t a given yet, the head of the company still needs to be talked into it (he bought these 200 fixtures without thinking about what that would mean in terms of keeping them), but I had just been thinking to myself that I love that my work pays so much, but it’s so sporadic that IF ONLY it were a consistent 20 hours a week, I would totally be able to support myself and save for paying for next semester and all that. And then this potential opportunity has presented itself. The power of wishful thinking.

Also, A sort of work friend of mine posted a thing about how next thursday-sunday, he’s the head of some big thing and needs people and the pay will be good. I should have known better, but I replied with “Technically I’m free those days, but I have a lot of studying and schoolwork, so I could only give you 2-3 of those days. What’s the project?” and he replied about how he wanted me to be designer/swing (?) and so that would totally work. And then I talked to him on the phone and oh holy hell this cannot go well. It’s super disorganized, last minute, total chaos. And as much as this guy is a good guy, and a good technician, he is really best at making things more complicated than they need to be and general making things go badly.

The project is (I think. It was hard to tell) a block party art fair thing. Or something. Lots of booths, they’re using the alleyways, and then there’s the pier, and people need to know to go check out the pier, so I’m researching smoke machines or something (again, ?) and also talking to a few artists about their exhibit and what they’ll need. Apparently, no one thought about how this was going to be lit. The event is in one week. I’m not so available to prep work since I have work and school the first three days. This cannot go well. I’m thinking about backing out. We’ll see.

For now, I still have my weekend of sleeping in now, with lots of flashcards and suffixes.

The saga continues

In my algebra class, there was this girl. Is? Was? Not sure. Stay tuned.

From the first she got on the professor’s (and my) nerves. I guess her life has been such that the only way to get attention was to whine and interrupt and be aggressive, argumentative, and obnoxious. Which is how she deals with everything, and she CANNOT SHUT HER DAMN MOUTH. She can’t just say “oh, sorry” and let something drop. She has to get the last word in, often while talking over him, constantly excusing and explaining herself when no one gives a rats ass, and everyone just wants to move on. Or maybe it’s just me.

During the first week of class the professor threatened to kick her out, but didn’t. Reasonable peace was maintained for a couple classes after that. But then yesterday when he came in, he was clearly already not in the best mood. And then she talked over him. And interrupted. And explained something about the schedule (unnecessarily) to the rest of the class. So by the time her phone rang and he told her to shut it off, and she talked over him about how she was turning it off and didn’t realize it was on in the first place, and then talked over and back at him while he was trying to tell her that the next time she talked over him he would kick her out, he was pretty much done.

I don’t think he handled it in the best way, but at the same time I really don’t blame him. He went over to the computer (there’s one for the teacher in every class) and fiddled around, I’m pretty sure deleting her from the class, and then checked the phone directory for security. She took the hint and left, but only for about 5 minutes, and only to check with the registrar or something. So he left to fetch security himself. The lecture part of class is an hour long. I think we wasted 40 minutes dealing with her. And then she showed up in the lab part!

I don’t get it. I don’t understand wanting to stay in a class where the teacher hated me that much, and where half the time was spent arguing. I would switch sections. But she seems determined to stick it out. We’ll see if she’s back tomorrow.

If it weren’t interrupting my happy math time, it would be an interesting serial. But I’m really enjoying reviewing this stuff, and feeling smart and picking it all back up again. So this is all just frustrating and I want to kick her out myself.

My composition class…. eh. We’ll see. I thought I was getting the first essay back with comments yesterday, but it’s not till tomorrow. But I don’t have high hopes for this class being interesting or challenging (let alone both, like Intro to Vet Tech). Yesterday we were talking about sensory language, and so she handed out cookies, and has us wrote a paragraph describing the cookie experience using our 5 senses. For serious. I had a really hard time taking it seriously, so I went in the opposite direction and went with completely hackneyed, overwrought and flowery. I’m ashamed of it, but it was also kind of fantastic. It was awful.

But then. We have an essay due next week, and to get us ‘inspired’ about the ‘theme’, she played the music video for Empire State of Mind. Seriously. The essay questions kind of suck, too. I think I can work with one of them. But by shifting the topic a little. Whatever. I’ll write some stuff and be done with it. Hopefully she grades generously. Since most of my class is ESL I should be fine. From what I heard of their cookie statements, there are some interesting, creative people, but in terms of grammar and vocabulary I have a distinct advantage. Hopefully this means the class will be easier for me.

Moments of calm

Today is a day that I’m really enjoying. It is so nice, so enjoyable, so productive-feeling to be in school and not have to work. At least, at the moment.

I woke up when John came home from work and we curled up and talked for a bit before he went to bed. I lay around for a little while before getting up and dressed. I stopped by the vet to pick up more medication, and then picked up my laundry and a sandwich. I worked on the suggested math homework until I realized I was a week ahead. I organized my school notebooks. I read the homework for Composition.

I feel organized and prepared and settled. We’ll see how long it lasts. I still have the afternoon free, so I’ll start to get ahead in my vet tech class. I’ll probably go to school early to pick up an academic day planner (ps, what’s up, Staples? I know school started a couple weeks ago, but it looks like you never really had any. I found one, and it was useless). I like the calendar on my phone, but it’s not so useful for keeping track of what’s due when.

Maybe it’s because this is still the beginning, but school feels different this time around. I’m not sure quite what it is or why. But maybe it’s because I’m really picking it? I mean, I chose to go to college, and I picked where. But I also felt like that was what you did. I had no idea what else to do, and I was interested in what I was studying. This time, I feel like there are more options, and I’m still picking this one. So it feels good, and for the moment, I’m ahead of the ball and enjoying it.

The Last Two Weeks- The School Edition

So, while I was working 78 hours the first week and 34 the second, I also went to three hours of school the first week, and 14 hours the second. Wheeee!

I like it a lot. I like being back in school. My freshman seminar class always seems really stupid to go to, but by the end of the class (so far, two classes in) I really enjoy it. It’s useful for learning all the little tricks of navigating the school system (like for example, every time you change classes, even just which section you’re in, you pay a percentage). And while that doesn’t really take up 12 hours, it is nice to have one class where there’s no homework and nothing beyond showing up and talking once in a while is expected. The teacher is also very nice and animated.

Algebra is pretty great. I’ve always liked it, and the part we’re doing now I have a very solid grasp on so it’s all super easy. The teacher is this nice tall African man with a very thick accent, who occasionally is frustrated by people not getting it after 4 times through, but mostly he’s good. There’s one girl who’s absolutely terrible and I hope she either has an abrupt attitude change, or drops the class. I’m not sure either will happen. But other than her, I’m having fun, and sort of starting to get to know a couple people in that class.

Composition is looking like it might be good. The assigned reading seems very good, and it will be good to remember how to write formal essays, especially if I want to do anything research related. The teacher is nice, but I have a feeling we aren’t going to see eye to eye on things, which is fine. I don’t quite have a handle on her yet. Last class we wrote an essay, ungraded, so she could see where we are with our writing skills. I’m excited to get mine back tomorrow. I think I did pretty well. The question was what to do with all the space junk that NASA has reported. I suggested teaming NASA with Dyson and making a roomba for space. Creativity points, if nothing else.

And then Intro to Vet Tech! I only have this once a week which bums me out. I love it, so far, and my teacher is great. Lots of good side stories, a ton of experience in a wide variety of jobs with animals. I’m looking forward to more of this class.

The only drawback is that it looks like it will take me three years to complete this rather than two. Because I had these prerequisites to take care of, I’m not enrolled in/haven’t already taken what I need to to declare as a vet tech major, and you can only declare for that in the fall. I’m a little relieved, I can spread things out better now. But also I wanted to get going as fast as possible. And there’s also the issue that 6 semesters costs more than 4. But maybe I’ll get more financial aid down the line. Fingers crossed.

All in all, good classes. Things I’m excited about. And also new school supplies, which always make me drool.

The Last Two Weeks- The Work Edition

Phew. It’s over. Ack.

It was good. Mostly. Sort of. I had four days of prep, which are always nice. Easy, lots of sitting waiting for equipment, lots of labeling. Then I had some nice days, easy work, good people, overall satisfying. I really like the people that I work with, with a few exceptions, and so if the work goes well, it’s guaranteed as a good day.

So lets talk about the not good days. Two stand out. One was in the middle, the other was the last day.

First bad day was on the Highline. That was the only good part about it. The Highline is gorgeous, I haven’t seen it this time of year yet, the plants are great, I was partially working outside. So far, so good. We started at 6am and the truck was already unloaded, so that started well. Up until first break, we were doing well, despite two people being sort of dead weight. Then we started falling behind. I have no idea what happened. Equipment was wrong, things kept changing, we were waiting for scenery, the tho dead weight people started affecting the progress. By the show time we were about 3 hours behind. I mean, the show went up and went fine, but we were STILL hanging lights half an hour before the show. We cut 4 of the lights. This never happens. It was super stressful, and we were working so hard, and nothing was helping catch up. We had a short break after the show and then started the strike. Strikes always go faster and better than load ins, but we weren’t able to start using the elevator until 11pm (we were ready to use it at 10:30) and everyone was trying to use it at the same time. Lights, scenic, audio, video, catering. It took until almost 2am. Remember the part about starting at 6am? I had two half hour breaks in the whole day. Oog.

On top of all that, one of the scenic guys had a seizure. And then came back to work for the strike. And had another seizure. The same EMT’s came to get him. It didn’t help the stress.

The other bad day was yesterday. We were at the shop to put everything back, and it was supposed to be an easy day. Ha. They’re doing some rearranging, so we had to clear off two shelves and count and inventory everything. EVERYTHING. There was so much. We didn’t get even halfway through, but none of us cared, we were so burned out and tired and done with working. I spent an hour and a half counting and organizing these little bits in a large box, getting them all sorted and listing it all (to be fair, it should have taken 45 minutes. Maybe.) and I closed the box and set it aside. And then we found some more of the same bits. And instead of counting the new stuff and setting it on top of the old stuff, one of my coworkers ruined everything I worked on, mixed it all, moved things around, and destroyed it. I had been fine up until he did that, but it was the end of the day, it was too frustrating to deal with, and that did me in. That, and the bus taking an hour and a half to get me home.

But now it’s over! And I just get to wait for the money to roll in.

Woooork

SO MUCH WORK. Which is great. I love having work. This week and next are great in terms of that. This weeks is all a film shoot (oooOOOoooo) for Comedy Central. Some famous comedian presents a bunch of other comedians. I’m not a huge standup fan, but these guys are okay. The one girl was fantastic in rehearsal and then totally tanked the show, I was disappointed. The host is great, though, and one of the guys was fantastic. The rest were okay. Funny enough. We did two shows yesterday, and are doing 4 more today. I’m running followspot and my arm is killing me because I am on for the whole of the show. The funny part was  when they made everyone in the audience get up and rearranged their seating so that it would look like a different audience for the second show.

Next week is shop prep! And then a show load in! And then the first day of school! And then a 19 hour day! And then a day that is so crazy I haven’t been told the schedule! It should be fun. And then the following week I have more work, but I don’t know that schedule yet. But it’s very nice to start school off with so much work. I feel like I can get a little ahead, money-wise. I’m not sure that’s entirely true, but it will definitely help. This current week will pay my rent, and let me pay off the rest of my tuition early so I don’t have to worry about having that money come october and november.

I’m still anxiously awaiting my books. They still have a week to get here before school, but I really want them to show up today. I have sunday free for laundry and studying. And cooking for the week. Always with the cooking.