Soooo....I'm back!

Oh, for all I know, nobody ever reads this anyway, so I'm announcing my presence to a metaphorical empty room.  W'ev.

So I've been all over the place of late.  School year finished about a month ago, and I completed my first straight-A semester EVER.  I'm quite pleased.  Particularly as one of the classes was Accounting, which is my kryptonite.  Anywho, with that done, I got back on the job-hunting wagon, almost got hired to cash control at Six Flags in Vallejo, except that I was referred to the job by my brother, who works security there, and they have a policy about not having family members in those two departments.  It makes sense, it's just frustrating, particularly as they hadn't managed to connect the dots and tell me so until after three weeks of various kinds of interviews, despite the fact that at every step I was asked "Who referred you?" and replied honestly, including the familial relationship and his department EVERY DAMN TIME. 

Turns out I dodged a bullet there, according to someone I know of who used to work that position.  It sucks.  Hugely.  And then not two weeks after that, my mom and I had gone to Lane Bryant (plus-size women's clothing store) to do some shopping with the freebie dollars she had accumulated before they expired.  As we usually do at LB, we had a stack of probably $500 worth of clothes between us at checkout.  So Eugenia, the saleslady who was checking us out, asked if I wanted to open my own LB account (Mom already has one) to take advantage of their first-purchase discount.  I told her I wasn't sure I'd qualify, since I'm unemployed.  She ran the approval anyway, it came through, and as we were checking out I joked with my mom that she'd have to help me pay the bill when it came due, what with the whole no-job thing...Eugenia handed me an application right then and there, I sat outside on a bench and filled it out and brought it right back, got a call back from the store manager less than 15 minutes later scheduling an interview for the next day!  I did well at that interview, did a second brief interview with the store manager a week later, and now I'm scheduled for an interview with the district manager to see if I'd be suitable for a management position!  Dude, seriously, I've never managed anything in my life, at work anyway.  But they just like me that much I guess, heh. 

So, interview Tuesday.  Wish me luck, internet!

I've also been accumulating and trying various bath/body/beauty products that I think I'm going to start reviewing here.  Why not?  Someone might stumble across them on Google or something.  Haus of Gloi's scrubs and lotions, One Hand Washes The Other's balm and Deep Black soap, Beauty In Balance's gel moisturizer (when it gets here), and the Maybelline lip stain I just picked up at Rite Aid.

Oh, and not that it matters anymore as they're discontinued and sold out anyway, but Aromaleigh's lip balm was not all it was cracked up to be - it was better than any drugstore product I'd ever tried, but it still had a slightly-too-solid texture and made my lips peel a little bit, just like everything else.  I'm way happier with OHWTO's balm.  But I'll blather more about that another time.

My Weekend Has Not Been Relaxing, or, I <\3 Financial Statements...

It's been a busy weekend.  My paternal grandmother's birthday was Thursday, so Ozzmodious and I and my younger brother drove down to my uncle's house, where he hosted the full force of the local clan - my grandparents, himself and his live-in girlfriend, my father and his girlfriend, my brother, and Ozz and I - for an evening.  I get kitchen envy every time I go over there.  I don't cook for shit, but I might be motivated to learn if I had a place like that!  A 6-burner gas stove with built-in grill and griddle areas, ginormo oven, huge center island with a built-in wine rack, big damn fridge, so much cupboard space I could cry.  All brushed nickel with black marble countertops and rich wood cabinets.  Beautiful. 

It's been strange, seeing the house getting slowly redecorated with himself and his girlfriend living there now.  His wife, my aunt-by-marriage, died almost two years ago.  And I know that's plenty of time, and I'm certainly glad his girlfriend makes him happy, and I don't begrudge them that.  It's just...after her death, I was living in Tennessee still, and in fact I had never been to the house between when it was them there, and now, when it's him and his girlfriend.  So to me, it's gone straight from one to the other, and it's still taking some getting used to.

But aside from that, the evening was great.  Ozz gets along really well with my family; there was lots of excellent food, and conversations that got so loud and vibrant that by the time we left, I had nearly lost my voice from laughing and shouting and all that.  In my family, s/he who talks loudest gets heard, and that's the only rule, so the volume can get pretty overwhelming if you're not used to it. 

Then this morning, I went over to my mom's early to have breakfast and help her clean up, since her sister is coming into town this week.  As usual, I ended up spending like five hours over there, when the cleaning itself only took one at most, and the same for breakfast.  I genuinely don't know where the time goes...after that, it was home and terrible fast-food for lunch with Ozz, and...homework.  Two mini-papers to write for Soc, in response to some videos we watched in-class on Wednesday last, and then two problem sets for Accounting.  Given an adjusted trial balance, we had to create the set of financial statements: income statement, statement of owner's equity, and balance sheet, in that order.  Then from that, we had to calculate various ratios, like return on assets and profit ratio and debt ratio and shit.  Argleblargh.  I'm doing *really* well in that class - over 100%, thanks to some judicious extra credit work - but it doesn't mean I find it easy or fun.  I am at least coming to regard it as a challenge, and to feel a sense of grim satisfaction when I get things right, but I doubt it will ever be a subject that is dear to me. Oh well.  That wasn't what I took it for; I took it to prove to myself that accounting was not some horrible foreign realm of terror, and that I *am* actually capable of learning and doing it, and I that much I am able to say now.  So far, anyway.

I think I've gone from "weekend summary" to "pointless off-the-path ramblings" now, so I'll close it down and go take a shower.  Hopefully not such a long one that the landlord upstairs turns off the hot water again...heh.