Chapter 258: I’m Still Good

Today was the big return to my normal, day-to-day life. You know, the one that includes the regular every day and every week things, like work and piano lessons and things of that nature. I woke up when my alarm went off at 6am, got up and did my morning skincare routine and brushed my teeth and such, made myself some coffee and smoked a cigarette, had a bowl of Honey Bunches Of Oats and all the normal things I do in the morning. This morning was a little odd, though, because I found out yesterday from my sister that we are getting our hours back at work and that I had a few different options on how to take my hours back. Of course, one option was to go back to how my schedule was before – five days a week, 9:30-6pm. This was the least desirable option to me. The other option was to stick with my current schedule and just come in 30 minutes earlier each day. I would still be missing two hours that way but I would also still get to keep my extra day off. So, I told my sister that this was the option I wanted to go with, which meant that this morning I had to manage to get myself ready in time to be to work by 8am. It was only slightly different, honestly. I just had to make sure that I started and finished hair and makeup about 20 minutes earlier than I normally would. No big issue. Plus, I actually like doing 8am-6pm better because adding that extra half hour to my shift means that I get an extra break, which makes the day flow much better than it did before. So, it is a pretty even trade.

Work started out kind of fun today. I spent the first little while discussing the illuminati with a girl from the account that sits right next to us, which is always a topic that I am fascinated with. Once the two girls who sit beside me came in at their regular time of 8:30am we all sat around chatting and joking and laughing and such. It made the morning pretty fun, honestly, and I was actually enjoying myself. Plus, those first couple hours passed pretty quickly. Unfortunately, when I went to my first break everything was fine and dandy but when I came back I had apparently missed some big drama on the floor and there was a pretty thick air of tension in the air. I still don’t know exactly what happened but I figure that since I wasn’t involved and didn’t witness anything, it shouldn’t create any issues for me. So, I am making it a point not to get involved. I also found out that our new employees will be showing up next week and that, as I have been hoping and lobbying for, there will be boys in it! It’s not as if I intend to try to scrape up a boyfriend or anything from our new training class but it would be nice to have some boys around. If nothing else, it will give me something to look at throughout the day. Either way, I think that adding new people into the environment may help to alleviate some of the drama on the floor – if nothing else, it may create a buffer zone between all the people who don’t get along. So, I am looking forward to that… mainly for the boys. Of course, this also means that we will have a week while those new employees are training where our supervisor is off the floor doing that training. Everybody is already anticipating that there will be drama during that time. What else is new, though? Like I said, as long as I am not involved I don’t care. I just don’t know how much longer I can avoid becoming involved. Of course, as long as I keep my composure and avoid doing anything that could potentially get me in trouble, I don’t have anything to worry about. So, basically, all I can really say is, “fuck it.”

After work today, I had my piano lesson. It was a little strange because I had just been there the day before yesterday, so I wasn’t really expecting much progress or anything like that. I don’t think Viktor, my piano instructor, was really expecting much, either. Surprisingly, though, he did see some progress. He seemed pretty impressed with my work today, although I felt a little silly because I was playing the piece at tempo now but not without repeated screw-ups. Still, he was impressed with the fact that I was doing it at tempo at this point, since I wasn’t on Monday. I mean, I practiced a good amount yesterday but I didn’t expect that. I just kind of walked in and did it – which was, I suppose, a really good thing. I’m pretty impressed with myself, honestly. He wants me to keep working on this piece over the next week and try to perfect it. Then, next week, he is going to give me a new piece to work on – a classical piece. I’m not overly excited about that, if I’m being honest. I mean, I am excited to start work on a new piece but I am not all that excited that we are moving into classical music at this point. I’m just not a fan of classical music, although I guess I do see the value in learning some of it. It is definitely a stepping-stone to learning to play piano. After all, it is kind of the cornerstone of the craft or what started it all. So, I guess I am kind of excited for it.

After my lesson, Viktor drove me home, which is always very nice of him to do. I was kind of expecting to find a package at my doorstep. You see, my dear friend on Facebook, Kelly, actually ordered a birthday present for me, which was amazing of her to do and not at all expected. Apparently, it arrived today. Unfortunately, it wasn’t waiting at my door when I got home. I checked the UPS tracking site and found that it was left at the office – the office that closes at 6pm. I got home around 7:30pm, so I don’t get to find out what this gift is until tomorrow. I am pretty excited to see what she came up with for me, though. She has really been one of the most kind, observant and caring people in my life over the past little while, especially with all of my birthday dramatics, so I really appreciate her. I’ve kind of gotten to a point where I am not concerning myself with other people so much, aside from a select few, so it is nice to see that there are at least a few people left out there who are willing to concern themselves with me. So, I am going to have my Mom go get the package from the office when it opens in the morning, because it isn’t open before I go to work, and it will be here waiting for me when I get home. I’m pretty excited. As shitty as it may sound to say, I LOVE getting gifts. So, I am excited. Speaking of birthday gifts, I am still struggling with the Ulta gift card my Mom gave me for my birthday. I mean, not really struggling but having a little trouble deciding what to do with it. I can’t decide if I should use it online now or if I should save it for this weekend and actually go to the store and shop. The only reason I wouldn’t want to go use it at the store is that I think looking all the stuff in the face, I would be more prone to want to spend more than the gift card amount. I can’t really do that this weekend because I basically missed two days of work last week, which will be on this weekend’s paycheck, and I can’t really afford to spend anything extra. So, if I just go ahead and use the gift card online it will be easier not to spend more than the gift card amount but still get new stuff.

Writing it out now, it seems clear that I should just go ahead and use the thing online now. It just makes more sense. So, I think I may go do that right now. Before I do, though, I should probably finish off the day. There’s really not much else to it. My Mom got off work at 8pm and we went down to Taco Bell to pick up something for dinner, (I had a strange craving for it for some reason,) came home and watched “Big Brother,” and “Kathy Griffin’s My Life On The D List,” then I came into the bedroom to listen to Disney Channel soundtracks, (“Hannah Montana Forever,” and the new “Jonas LA” soundtrack, both of which I am kind of in love with for their fun, summer themes!) So, that is about it. It was a pretty decent day. In spite of the fact that my vacation time is done for the year and I am back to the daily grind, like the Hannah Montana song says, “I’m still good.” Now, I am off to shop online. Goodnight.