Chapter 106: Sweet The Sting

Today was a very interesting and unexpected day. It started off in a fairly regular way. I woke up at 7:30am when my alarm went off but, unlike the regular routine, I didn’t get up and get prepared to work out. In fact, I stayed in bed until close to 8am. I checked my bank account to confirm that my direct deposit had not yet gone through, which I knew wouldn’t have happened yet but I figured it was worth checking. My Mom had to work early today because she had requested to get off at 6pm today instead of 8pm, so she was going in at 8am in order to get her full day and a little overtime. Since my Mom was working early I had to take a cab to work, which meant I would have to leave earlier than I usually do. I guess I kind of used all of this as an excuse to skip the workout today. Just my Mom not being here was enough to make me not want to do it, anyway, but I was also very tired this morning and didn’t really feel like getting out of bed, let alone getting out of bed to exercise. So, I didn’t do that. Instead, I ate a bowl of Cupcake Pebbles, (a new cereal from the makers of Fruity & Cocoa Pebbles, flavored like cake frosting,) and watched an episode of “Chelsea Lately” on the DVR. Then I took a shower and got myself dressed and ready for work. I wore this blue and black Marc Ecko polo shirt and did a cute blue and black makeup theme to go with it. I left the house this morning feeling pretty confident and like I was looking pretty good. I was in a very good mood to start the day.

When my cab arrived, I happened to notice that the driver was this older guy who I seem to get every time I take a cab. This guy is creepy. He acts far too familiar and always says, “It’s always good seeing you,” and talks way too much to me like we are friends or even know each other beyond me paying him to drive me to work every now and then. It’s just really annoying to deal with. So, I decided to make an attempt to use some of the techniques I have learned from “How To Make Someone Love You Forever In 90 Minutes Or Less” on him. The thing is, though, I used one of the things that they use to tell you not to do. Body language is key to a lot of our interactions with others and this book suggests that when trying to garner interest from somebody, we need to use open body language. I decided to do the opposite and used closed body language. I avoided eye contact, kept my arms crossed and looked everywhere but at him frequently. Turns out, it really works. Instead of chatting my ear off about a bunch of inane things that I don’t care to discuss, he stayed pretty much silent throughout the ride. It really worked out perfectly. Now all I need to do is put the opposite to use and see how effective it may be. Of course, the first thing I would need to do is find somebody I would actually care enough to use it on. That is proving fairly difficult at this point, but it will come together. Once again, I spent much of the day reading that book and I really feel like I am learning a lot about social skills and the simple, subconscious things we can do to make ourselves appear available and appealing to others. It is really a fascinating book. Of course, once my sister spotted that this was the book that I was reading she has decided to make as much fun of it as possible. Oh well, though. I am making an effort to learn new things about myself and about how to make a connection with others and that is a good thing, no matter how much she may want to make fun of it.

I also got my overtime check today, which wound up being slightly less than I had anticipated but still plenty to afford me a small shopping trip this weekend. Apparently, while calculating what this check should be I forgot to factor in the fact that the more money you make the more taxes are taken out. I really don’t understand the way that works. I have always just claimed one and been done with it, but I normally don’t get that much back when income tax time comes. Some of my co-workers have told me how they really don’t wind up paying in all year, but wind up getting a refund of thousands. That doesn’t make sense to me at all, considering that I thought the point of a tax return was to return the amount that you paid over what you should have. If these people aren’t paying in at all, how can they get so much back? The whole thing is really far too complicated and it seems like the system may be a little too easy for people to work. Whatever. I am doing what I am supposed to and can’t really get overly concerned about what other people are doing. I just need to make sure that I am doing what is right for me. Still, despite being slightly less than expected, it still is a lot more than usual and will be very helpful to me.

So, today at work we had a few different people leave early. They were mainly the people who were working later shifts. This meant that, after 4:30pm, I was the only person left in my department. It’s not really a big deal, but there were a couple of factors that kind of messed it up today. First of all, our systems went down right around 4:30pm, which meant we could answer the calls, but couldn’t really do anything for the customers. Of course, that was nothing in comparison to the fact that when I went on my last break at 4pm, I was sitting on this bench behind the building where I take most of my breaks. I was minding my own business, not doing anything out of the ordinary – just smoking cigarettes and checking my phone. Well, I finished my first cigarette and was going to smoke another but when I put the second cigarette to my lips I noticed there was something already there – some sort of bug. I wasn’t sure what it was until I felt a terrible sting on my lip. Yes, it was a bee and it stung me right on the lip. It wasn’t overly painful, but was enough to bring tears to my eyes. After having to fight to get this bee off of my lip, I immediately got up and walked around to the front of the building where my sister just happened to be coming out and heading into Human Resources. I was kind of holding my lip and told her what had happened. She didn’t seem to think too much of it and went on her way. Another guy who happened to be out there told me that I should smoke another cigarette because the nicotine helps release the venom or something like that. So, I figured it was worth a shot. My lip was starting to get a little swollen but it didn’t seem like anything severe. By the time I finished that cigarette and made it upstairs, though, it had grown quite a bit larger. Then the pandemonium started. My lip was growing pretty rapidly and our program manager happened to be out on the floor and kind of freaked out about it. They got my sister’s girlfriend to come over and she then got my Mom to come over and everyone was kind of freaking out. One of my co-workers gave me a Benadryl and I just kind of sat there not knowing what to do. I couldn’t really go home because everybody else working the later shifts had already left. I felt perfectly fine – I just looked ridiculous and it seemed to keep growing. For legal purposes, I had to go down to Human Resources and fill out an “accident report,” and take a drug test, which seemed a little excessive. Once I finished that I went back to the production floor and got back on the phone. Fortunately, we weren’t busy at all, and with the systems not working any calls that did come in simply had to be advised to call back Monday. My speech was pretty muffled, but my sister gave me an ice pack and I held that on my face for a while and it seemed to take the swelling down a lot. I mean, I wasn’t back to looking normal by any means, but the right side of my lip was no longer touching my left cheek. Of course, at this point my cheek right cheek was really swollen, as well, and my Mom was freaking out saying that maybe she should stay home this weekend instead of going up to her boyfriend’s house. My sister and I both told her that it was fine and she should still go, but she seemed to feel really bad about it. My sister told her that she would take me to her house and keep an eye on me.

So, I made it through the rest of the day at work and we came back to my house to grab some cigarettes and check the mail for my debit card, (which still hadn’t arrived.) My Mom was here and getting ready to leave for the weekend. Then there was a knock on the door. It was Rachel. When she was over last night she had forgotten her phone charger in my wall and had been trying to call me. I checked my phone and sure enough had a couple missed calls and text messages from her, which I didn’t hear because my phone was still on silent from work. We hung out for a few minutes, then I left the house with Amber to go to her house and spend the evening there. She made dinner and her girlfriend came home a while later, which was nice because I haven’t really gotten to spend time with her in a while. We basically spent the evening making fun of the outfits of figure skaters at the Olympics and “talking shop.” It was a pretty fun evening and by about 10pm somebody said to me, “Hey, your mouth is back!” My mouth is back to normal completely at this point, but my right cheek is still pretty swollen and is hanging down like I have a jowl on that side. It’s not a good look for me. The worst part was that before going back to their house, when it was still fully swollen I had to go cash my check and stop at the grocery store and get funny looks from people. I made the joke that this was the Universe’s way of putting my ego in check because I had been feeling pretty good about myself lately. One reason I was feeling pretty good about myself at this point is because immediately before going on my last break when this incident happened I had gotten my annual review, which was very good and came with a $.25 raise. I was very happy about this and it did make me feel pretty good about myself because I wasn’t expecting it to be that great. It really kind of validated my time there at the place that shall not be named, and reflected a lot of the improvements I have managed to make. I was really happy with how it turned out… then I got stung on my face by a bee.

My sister brought me home around 11:15pm and told me to call her when I get up in the morning. She said that she would take me to Burlington Coat Factory to do a little clothes shopping, which I have decided I can still pretty much afford. I have $392 on me after paying rent and still have $70.02 in the bank. Plus, there should be an extra $100 going into the bank sometime soon. I figure if I go out and spend like $100 on clothes at Burlington, it shouldn’t make too much of a difference. Another $100 will set aside for music lessons, and another $100 for Sheryl Crow tickets, I think. That would leave me with about $200 aside from the extra $100 that should be coming and the $70.02 in the bank. So, financially I am in a pretty good place at the moment, I think, and feel like it would be okay for me to go out and spend a little on updating my wardrobe. I also still really want to get the Roberto Cavalli shirt, but I am kind of waiting until I receive my debit card because using my checking account on PayPal takes a few days to clear, where as if I used my debit card through PayPal, it would clear instantly. I am hoping my debit card arrives tomorrow and I can go ahead and get that Cavalli shirt ordered. We’ll see, though. Either way, I am looking forward to tomorrow being a better day than today was. Honestly, today wasn’t really that bad. It just had one really random, less than good occurrence. Overall, it was actually a pretty decent day.

Of course, I fell asleep before posting this blog and it is now the next morning. I woke up this morning and finished up this blog first. Now, it is probably time to call my sister and start getting dressed and ready for the day. My mouth is still normal, but my hanging jowl-looking right cheek is still there. It’s kind of annoying, but it’s not as bad as it was before I went to sleep last night. I’m pretty sure that by Monday when I go back to work, my face will be back to normal. Thank Gaga for that, too.