Chapter 144: Waiting For Wednesday

So, I came upon a bit of a dilemma today. Let me start from the beginning, though. The plan I discussed last night to NOT stay up all night listening to the nerdist.com podcast actually worked out and I was asleep by 12:30am. Unfortunately, I still woke up about 45 minutes late. This wasn’t much of a problem this morning because I didn’t have plans for working out or anything, so I was able to just get up, eat some oatmeal and get in the shower and prepare for the day. I took a cab to work because my Mom was out of town this weekend and wasn’t getting back until her start time today at 11:30am. I almost kind of thought about going in late and riding to work with her, but that would be pointless issues and if I was going to go that far I may as well just call in sick, and I definitely cannot afford to call in sick. After all, I am working on my “free” check this pay period, so there will be no fucking around and missing time. I want my “free” check to be as much as possible so I have even more extra money to spend. I am already coming up with all kinds of things to spend money on when that time comes. I probably won’t wind up with near as much as I am dreaming of at this point, though. I owe my Mom some money and I have to pay on my cell phone bill and I would also really like to set some aside. I will probably only end up splurging on some makeup, although I already intend to splurge on some makeup with the paycheck I am getting this weekend. Have I mentioned yet on here how in love I am with NYX cosmetics? I really am. All of their stuff is high quality and stays on really well, but is also really affordable. Plus, they make so many colors that go on in a really intense, bright, bold color, which I love and want to incorporate more of into my day-to-day look. Over the weekend I watched a whole bunch of makeup tutorials on YouTube by people using NYX Cosmetics and came up with a bunch of really cool looks that can be done with their stuff. Plus, the founder and CEO of NYX, Toni K., was a guest judge on “RuPaul’s Drag Race” tonight and she was fucking fierce! NYX is the official sponsor of “RuPaul’s Drag Race” and it is the makeup used by all the queens on that show. If I’ve said it once I’ve said it a million times – I want to look like a drag queen, damn it! I am just kidding, of course, but I do want to do some of the magic that drag queens manage to do with makeup. So, I plan on doing a major NYX haul over the next few paychecks. Should be tons of fun for me! I’m excited!

So, the pre-work part of the morning passed rather quickly and when I got to work I became aware of my dilemma right away. My sister told me that she has to work until 6pm on Wednesday, the day of my piano lesson. In general, that wouldn’t be an issue at all and would actually work out perfectly. Yes, it would work out perfectly if my sister were an agent. Unfortunately, though, my sister is a supervisor and that comes with all kinds of reports to be done at the end of the day, as well as having to wait around until every agent is off the phone. I have seen my sister work until 6pm and, more often than not, it means she has to work until closer to 6:30-6:45pm. All of this adds up to me not having a ride to my piano lesson on Wednesday night. I am left with two choices here – I can either try to reschedule or cancel my lesson or shell out something like $15 to take a cab there. The best solution would be to reschedule. My sister said that if I could get it moved to Thursday or Friday, she would be glad to go ahead and take me. If I just cancel then I lose the money that I pre-paid for this week’s lesson. If I take a cab then I am spending nearly the cost of the lesson to get to the lesson. I definitely want to try to still get there and still take this week’s lesson and, like I said, the best solution would be to reschedule. I’m just not sure how well I will be able to pull that off. I guess that depends on Viktor. I called the Allegro Academy to attempt to reschedule today but the woman I reached, (the same woman who cancelled my first appointment when I said I wanted to keep it,) said I would need to talk to Viktor about rescheduling but that he was in a lesson. She took my number and said that he would call me back. He never did. The issue that comes in, as well, is that the Allegro Academy has a 24-hour cancellation policy and if you need to cancel a lesson but don’t do it within 24 hours of your appointment time then you lose your money. If you have to cancel and do it within 24 hours then your money can be applied to a future lesson. They also have a policy about “Make Up Lessons,” that basically says that you are only allowed 2 make up lessons per year and beyond that, you are just kind of screwed if you have to miss one of your lessons. So, I am kind of scared to use one of those up already. I don’t know if rescheduling for another day this week would count towards that or not. I’m not sure how exactly that works. It concerns me, though, because I’m not sure when I may need to miss an appointment in the future. After all, I know that I am going to wind up needing to spend a few days down in Fort Meyers for my brother’s wedding and I don’t know if that may wind up interfering with my lessons or not. I don’t know what I’m going to do yet, but I definitely need to figure it out tomorrow. It would have been really helpful, of course, if I had been able to actually speak to Viktor today. I will try again tomorrow. Hopefully tomorrow I will be able to reach the girl who is usually at the front desk – she is much more coherent to speak with than the one I have gotten the past few times and is really nice and friendly. All I know is that I need to get this issue sorted by tomorrow. Hopefully I will just be able to reschedule for Thursday or Friday and have the whole situation be easily resolved.

Work passed pretty quickly, surprisingly, considering we were missing a couple of people. One of my favorite co-workers was kind enough to step up when my other evening worker called out and we actually got to have a pretty good talk this evening, which I enjoyed. I really enjoy getting to know the people I work with better, although I do sometimes feel like the more I know the less I actually wish I knew. That is not the case for the person I worked with this evening but definitely is for some of the others. We actually recently moved our seats and are going to have a brand new account sharing our row now, which I am kind of excited about. I do like most of the people I work with but I am pretty excited to have a whole group of brand new people sitting by me. I feel like it is really important to have your surroundings switched up every now and then and to be around new people sometimes. After all, you never know what one of those people could be to you – any random stranger you meet has the potential to be your new BFF, your worst enemy or even the love of your life. More importantly, though, is that every random stranger you come across has the potential to teach you something new about yourself. I feel like I don’t take advantage of that potential very often and I really should. In any sense, I am excited to have a whole group of new people around.

When I got home from work I sat down in front of the TV and watched the new episode of “Jessica Simpson’s The Price Of Beauty,” which saw Jessica travel to Mumbai where she learned all about Bollywood. The thing I really love about that show is the fact that every episode features a lot of fun examples of the concepts of beauty in the different cultures but also features a truly fascinating, captivating story of a real person in these cultures. Tonight’s episode featured a little girl in Mumbai who was born with a really bad cleft palette and, with the help of Operation Smile, they were able to provide a free surgery to repair that and give this little girl the beautiful smile that she deserves. It really brought a tear to my eye. Every episode of this show so far has done that to me, though. It’s just a really intelligent show in the sense that it can lure people in with all of the fun, frivolous beauty tips and such that they learn in all these different regions but it also then provides the viewer with a genuine emotional experience with stories like the one this little girl in Mumbai had to tell. It really is a beautiful thing they are doing and, despite some shallow moments here and there, I think this series is a very powerful thing for people to see. I really appreciate the fact that this series was produced and is being aired. I think it is of the utmost importance to show people that they can feel and truly be beautiful no matter what. This is a message that is very close to my heart and I am so grateful to the people who put this show together for doing this for the world. When my Mom got home we went out and got dinner from Gyros & Seafood and came home to watch “RuPaul’s Drag Race.” Sadly, my favorite queen, the hilarious Miss Pandora Boxx, was eliminated tonight. I knew she wasn’t going to be the winner but I was still very sad to see her go. The show is pretty predictable from this point forward – there is a very clear winner amongst the group and now it is just a matter of watching it play out. I’m going to be sad to see this series end. Fortunately, what I consider the very vest show on television at this point is returning very soon – on April 13, “Glee” is back! I am extremely excited for all the new music that is going to come of this and to see what they are going to do next with this brilliant cast of characters. It really is my favorite thing on TV right now and this extended break they’ve taken has really sucked.

I don’t really have much else to say, honestly. I have taken a lot of the feelings that I have expressed over the past few days and decided that what I need to do with these things, my relationships with the people I love, is make the effort to improve them myself. I haven’t quite figured out how exactly I am going to do that but I’m sure I will. After all, if I don’t try to correct these things how can I expect anybody else to? This is something I have come to realize in a lot of different ways recently – I can’t expect anything from anybody else if I am not willing to make the effort to do the same myself. So, from this point forward, I am going to put out as much as I want to get back. I am going to do whatever I can to really try to make a difference in my life. A good friend of mine left a comment on my blog saying that if I want these things to improve I am going to have to reach out for them to happen. She also made mention of the fact that I am pretty good at going about life that way in every other area, which is true, so why wouldn’t I apply that same sort of attitude to my relationships with others? That whole concept had never really occurred to me before but it makes perfect sense. I guess sometimes the simplest things are the ones that we are less likely to see for ourselves and need to be shown. I am very grateful to this friend for showing me this one. Now it is a matter of actually applying it. We’ll see how that goes. For now, though, it is 12:42am and I should really get to bed. Good night.