PSA: Getting Rid Of Unused Medication

Since Simon has so much leftover Percocet from his oral surgery, I knew we needed to get rid of it somehow.  I’d heard that it’s not a good idea to flush them, but I didn’t actually know what we could do to dispose of narcotics.

So I called the pharmacy, to see if they could take them for proper disposal.

Turns out that they don’t do that, but the pharmacist told me that the best thing to do is to grind up the pills (or crush them a few times- make sure the pieces aren’t big), and then mix them in with coffee grounds, sand, or kitty litter and throw them away.

Easy enough.  I’m gonna go clean the litterboxes for the day and get rid of these suckers.

But… I LOVE Twilight!

This was a line I heard so very often today.

Don’t want to wait in line with everyone else?  I love Twilight!

Don’t want to have to sit in seats away from the rest of your group because you arrived exactly on time for a sold-out show?  But, I love Twilight!

For some reason think that we need to turn on extra lights in between shows (which is impossible)?  I love Twilight!

The show is sold out and you want tickets?  I love Twilight!

I got so sick of that reasoning.  Did they miss the part where everyone else there for that same show loves Twilight, too?

Also:

Dear Seniors,
Yes, Friday has special pricing for you.  It is also the day that new movies are released.  Complaining that we’re too busy on a Friday and you have trouble finding parking is not going to make us stop getting hot new releases.  We need to make money, too (even if Marcus is too cheap to give their employees raises…).
No love,
Kaylee, who is really sick of the whining over a day good for our business

Thoughts On New Moon

On Thursday afternoon I went to the employee screening of New Moon.  I’m not really going to get into an actual movie review right now- I need more time to think on that a bit, because in general, my opinions on Twilight are… unusual for a fan, and utterly incomprehensible for someone who finds the entire thing ridiculous- both of which describe me.

No, what I’m more interested in talking about right now is the character of Bella Swan herself.

I have widely publicized my affinity for Team Jacob.  I just like him better (for many and varied reasons) than Edward.  But this isn’t really about either of the Teams.

I hate Bella Swan.  Not for the reason that many fans give: Oh, she has Edward!  I want Edward!  My reason is more complex than that.

I can’t abide her treatment of Jacob.  He’s a good kid, and he absolutely adores her.  Beyond all reason, he loves her.  This is a valid feeling that he has.

Bella is not interested.  I can’t blame her for that.  Sometimes in life there are people who really like you, people who you care about, but who you just aren’t interested in romantically.  It happens.  This is also a valid feeling.

The problem is that she won’t let go of Jake.  She seems to think that telling him, “I love you.  I can’t live without you.  Without your friendship I’m nothing.” isn’t leading him on.  The boy is 16.  He’s hormonal and in love for the first time.  Telling him all those things and then saying, “But I’m going to choose Edward.” sounds a lot like “Try harder, genius.”

I would be more forgiving if Bella said, “Jake, I care about you as a friend, but I love Edward and want to spend the rest of my undead life with him.” and then left Jacob alone for the time he needed to work past that.  Instead, she actively tried to convince him to see her, hang out with her, spend time alone with her, and told him repeatedly that she loved him, cared for him, couldn’t picture her life without him.

It’s not in the slightest bit fair to Jacob.  In fact, I would call it cruel.

Once upon a time, there was a nice guy, a friend of the family, who was interested in me.  I just wasn’t interested back, so after telling him so, I didn’t accept invitations to hang out (unless it was a group thing and other members of my family were involved), and when asked out, I would remind him again that no, I was not interested.  I did my best to not indicate in any way that there was a chance I could be convinced otherwise (granted, I couldn’t control what others said, but I, personally, was as clear as I could be), and I did what I could to make sure there was the space needed to realize that it wasn’t going to happen.

And he moved on.

Bella doesn’t give Jake the chance to move on.  She gives him every reason to believe that he could convince her to ditch Edward for him, and gets upset when he persists in trying to woo her.

She even uses the feelings that he has for her as a lever- if you really care about me, you’ll just be my friend, without realizing that the corollary to that is- since I care about you as a friend, I will do my best to not cause you pain.

He loves Bella, and she doesn’t love him back.  His heartbreak is understandable and sad.  It’s horrifyingly manipulative of Bella to use that against him, heedless of the fact that it will only hurt him more in the long run.

Taking A Quick Break

To motivate myself today, I’ve been writing two or three pages, and then taking a 5-10 minute break for a specific activity.  I’ve played Bejeweled, Guitar Hero, read forums, checked blogs, all in tiny increments in between actual productivity.

And the novel is actually getting somewhere.  I don’t know that I’ll actually make 25,000 before bed tonight, but I’m closing in on being caught up again- and the numbers for this year are looking a lot better than last year’s at the halfway point.  I’m pleased.  (Also, it’s time for another hefty dose of ibuprofen.)

But I wanted to share a quick story from yesterday.  I have a co-worker who talks to herself- not in the way that I’m used to, the way that reminds oneself of things that need to be done- no, she holds conversations with herself, pausing for responses that no one makes, laughing at things that none of us can hear.  Generally she only does this when no one is around, but yesterday was different.

Yesterday I worked with her in the box office.  For the entire day- except when customers  were directly in front of her- she kept up a running conversation, complete with pauses and little giggles every now and again.  The thing is, she talks at a level just low enough that her words can’t be understood.

I felt like I was on the LOST island, hearing the voices of The Others Whispering around me.

(Which also reminds me- Simon’s interview last week was in Ann Arbor, which is where the headquarters of the Dharma Initiative is.  And he said that the interview was more about them selling him on the program and less about questions for him.  I think I’m lucky that they didn’t just truck him off to an island in the South Pacific…)

Dear Customers

Please form lines.  I realize that we are not in Jolly Olde England, but the knowledge needed in able to Que properly is learned at a very young age.  If you mill about in a large amorphous mass in front of several registers staffed with helpful, smiling, people, they will be unable to tell who to help next, and your irritation about “cutting in line” will be ignored, due to the fact that you, personally, never bothered to form a line or ask anyone else if they intended to form a line.

And, I beg of you, do not yell at the cashier who dares speak up and ask said mass of people to form four individual lines.  She is trying to help you get to your movie quicker.  She has no secret and diabolical purpose.

With a brilliantly fake smile,
Kaylee
Dear Jerk,

Yes, I have a brace on my arm.  Thank you for noticing, and telling me that my job wasn’t possibly hard enough to cause me carpal tunnel.  You should have been content with my answer stating that I write a lot, but instead you chose to belittle my ability to run a register whilst one wrist is encased in plastic.  Kudos to your wife for being polite enough to apologize to me on your behalf, even when you told her that I wasn’t worth an apology.

I hope your own customers mock you when you’ve hurt yourself,
Kaylee

I Want This

I write in longhand- it’s what I do to prevent distractions, and the feel of a pen in my hand, scratching out words onto blue-lined paper, is one of my favorite things in the world.

The problem that I’ve found is that I then need to type up thousands upon thousands of words in order to make them accessible and easier to edit.

But a friend found this, and I fell in love.  It’s a smartpen.  A pen that records what you write on paper and turns it into a printed document.  A pen that enables writing without the tedium of typing afterwards.

I haven’t even bothered to look at the price- I know we won’t be able to afford it anytime soon.  But I can daydream extensively…

Mostly Writing

Several times during the week I’ve thought of post I’d like to make, or silly things to link to, but instead, I’ve gone back to writing.  The self-control to sit my butt down and write is a hard thing to finagle…

The corporate office for my theater made the decision over a year ago to introduce a wage freeze.  When it first went into effect, they said that it would only be a freeze of merit increases, but that promotions would still include raises.

That lasted all of a couple months before they stopped giving raises along with promotions.  Then minimum wage increased, so the sixteen-year-olds who just got hired are making almost as much as I am (and the only reason that I make more is because of the premium I make based on the fact that I’m available during the day).  The only people with more responsibility than I have are managers.  The expectations made of me are higher than they are for anyone else at my level, because I work hard and want to learn things.

And yet I make just a hair over minimum wage.

Yesterday was the last day of corporate’s United Way donation drive.  They are trying to get every single employee to sign up to have at least $2.50 taken out of each paycheck to go to charity.

You may say that that isn’t much- and it’s true.  You may say that it’s for a good cause (my GM said there was an option to allocate my donation to the Ronald McDonald House)- this is also true.

However, I’m pretty thoroughly offended that corporate would deny us our raises and then ask for our money.

Seriously, folks.  They could donate that amount all on their own, and it still wouldn’t even remotely cut into the amount of money they’ve saved by refusing to give raises to people who they’ve insisted be promoted.

And now there’s a rumor going around that they will take away the free movie privileges.  I would love to see the mass exodus that would happen should that decision go through… we don’t work there for the money, honestly.  I could make more money with better benefits at the Starbucks down the street.

I Sense A Trend

I am, yet again, the proud owner of a car that requires two keys.

I am exceptionally good at wearing out ignition cylinders.

FYI.  Don’t let me too near your cars.  I give Simon’s another year or two before it gives in to my POWAH.

I Am So Ready For Bed

Today was a stressful day, with the exception of dinner.

It became clear today that my car’s ignition cylinder is done for, and my car had to be towed to the mechanic in order to get said cylinder replaced before Simon goes off to interview number one in Michigan tomorrow afternoon.

To the tune of nearly $400.

Then Sophie crashed on her way off the toilet she’s so fond of playing on, and she cried for a solid five minutes, distressing me and Hero to the point of near tears before she finally got up and started walking again (Limping, but walking.  She’s doing a little better again, but still limping and sometimes crying, still distressing Hero and I every time).

So not only do I feel awful about Sophie hurting, I also feel guilty at being relieved that we don’t need to come up with money for an emergency vet clinic.

On the plus side, Simon’s parents gave us a bit of birthday money with the instructions to spend it on something frivolous, so after the car was towed (but before Sophie’s incident), we went out for all-you-can-eat sushi with some friends.  That was really nice… also delicious, and I am stuffed to the gills with raw fish, rice, seaweed, avocado, and that fabulous tea they serve at Japanese restaurants that I love so veryvery much.

I seriously need some good sleep now.  Maybe my dreams won’t be so distressing tonight.

Day Three, Still Going

I’m currently at 5,540 words, and if I were aiming for the bare minimum each day, that would mean I’m still on-target for day three, and I’ve only written 800 words today!

(As a side note, the one thing I don’t like about WordPress is the lack of Javascript widgets.  I miss my LibraryThing and NaNoWriMo widgets that let people see my library and my wordcount right on the blog…)

This year the writing process is a whole lot smoother than last year- and I think I figured out why.  Last year, the main reason I decided to do NaNo was because it had been several years since I’d done any sort of regular writing, and the number of finished stories (not re-written and edited, just a plot line that wrapped up!) was able to be counted on one hand.  I used NaNo as a kick in the pants to get me to write something- anything- with some semblance of structure and at least an attempt at a plot.

Last year’s still isn’t typed up yet, but trust me when I say it’s downright awful.  I’m proud of the effort and dedication it took to knock out those 50,036 words in 30 days, but the story itself isn’t a pretty sight.

But that’s okay, because then when I got caught up in our 7th Sea game and decided to write for that, I wasn’t afraid to write something awful, because I knew that I could always change it and fix it at a later time (said later time has not yet come for 7th Sea, but it will, eventually).  For the past eight months, I’ve done regular writing, within the structure of the story we’ve already told, and have worked my way up to nearly 60,000 words on that, in addition to blogging, my journal, and random snippets of things I’ve been writing just for the joy of getting words down on paper.

It feels fabulous to be writing more regularly again, and I think that the practice has given me a better sense of how to express myself in writing more quickly… although I’m sure this novel will be pretty terrible as a first draft, as well.  I know about how to time the writing, I know about how many words I write on one page of wide-rule, and I have a far better sense of pacing this time around.

It’s going well, and I’m pretty pleased.

44,460 words to go.