Batteries not included. Although, I wish someone would have supercharged mine.

Music: Random trance on YouTube. (always looking for new songs!)
4p

As I wind down another week, I'm feeling accomplished in some areas, while others needed some serious attention. 

Sunday night, after a long and exhausting weekend, I expected to sleep for 12 hours without any interruptions. I knew what was coming this next week, after an entire week of mood swings, food cravings, (among...other things...). I hardly slept at all Sunday night, and first thing Monday morning, my suspicions were right, and there went my Monday. I spent the whole day locked up in the house, cleaning here and there, and taking out my irritation doing what I love: I dragged out my N64 and finally found a working TV to hook it up to, and played Rampage. Perfect game for the PMS'ing woman in your life! When you can go around blowing shit up and eating people, it's a good day.

I didn't sleep again Monday night. I had to be up early on Tuesday morning to go get my car inspected. Thank God I don't have to worry about it again until next December! My mom and I decided to head out to the mall in Humble to finish our Christmas shopping. It was a productive day; we both found what we were looking for. I found some winter shirts in Areopostale (they are always having sales, which is why I love going there), and while waiting in line, I met a very nice lady. We discussed kids and clothes, Christmas, and last minute-shoppers. It made waiting in line for 30 minutes seem like nothing. I'm glad there are still nice people left on this planet.

We wanted to leave the mall before rush hour, and my friend Alyna texted me, asking if I was coming by to see her. She works at the bank by the mall, so I stopped in for the first time, and said hi. I told her I still had her birthday present in my trunk, and she suggested I come over to her place after she got off work. My mom and I went on to do our grocery shopping, and I had just enough time to get home, clean up the mess I'd made in my closet while trying to find something to wear (I have way too many clothes), and hide presents, when Alyna called me and asked if I still wanted to come over. I grabbed my stuff and headed over there. I played with the baby, and helped Alyna wrap presents (I am a terrible wrapper, haha). We talked and watched TV until James was ready to be picked up from work. I had parked behind Alyna's car, forgetting she may have to leave to go get him, so I offered to go pick him up. I brought him back safe and sound, and he cooked dinner for us...at midnight. :P We hung out a little longer and talked about one of our *dear* friends...gag. I'm sure some reading this know who I am talking about. After a lengthy conversation, I left, super tired and ready to crash. I came home, and was wide awake. Especially after what I read on facebook, my blood pressure was up, and I was ready to kick said dear friends' ass. And why does it still bother me so much, after all this time? After re-hashing with Alyna and having flashbacks, it opened the hole again, and re-ignited my anger. And I feel a confrontation coming on soon....


Sleep once again evaded me Tuesday night. When will it end? I was planning on catching up and sleeping in Wednesday morning, when my phone decided today would be a good day for me to be popular. I got a text from Amy saying she was headed my direction, and wanted to meet up to exchange Christmas gifts. So I figured I'd lay down a few more minutes. Don't bother me again, phone! Damn if 5 minutes later, it buzzes again. This time, it's Laura, telling me about a sale at her job. I texted her back, and lay down again. Okay, no more! I don't wanna be popular anymore! This is too much work! I'm still not fully awake yet, and just want to sleep a bit longer. I close my eyes...and bam, like clockwork. Alright! I'm up! I got ready, and Amy arrived. We went and had lunch, and looked around walmart. I finally finished up the last of my Christmas shopping. I came home and started the pain-staking task of going through clothes, but by this point, exhaustion was catching up with me. I decided to take a short nap, and I mean short, because the kids had come home from school, and were now playing and screaming in the street. But I felt better. 

After dinner and some more N64, I put in a movie and lay down to watch it. I finally crawled into bed around 1:30. I had just fallen asleep, and was finally getting some good sleep when I woke up to a raging storm.  I reached over to turn on the TV like I normally do when a storm happens at night. Nothing. I figured I wasn't pointing at the TV good enough. Still nothing. I opened my eyes, and noticed the room was darker than it should be. Too dark. My computer lights weren't even on, cable box was out. Oh, fuck. No power! I got out of bed and unplugged my laptop, switching it to battery power. Duh, you sleep-deprived idiot! No internet! I turned on my phone, and saw it was only 2:30. I'd only been asleep for an hour. I brought up the Radar. Holy blown transformer, Batman! Where the hell did that squall line come from? Alright, no more being caught off-guard! I'm a wanna-be storm chaser for cripes sake! Curse you, you meteorologists for not putting your multi-billion dollar technology to better use. 

I left my laptop on, adjusting the power settings so the computer would turn itself off after an hour, letting me have some light at least so I could get back to sleep, and not have to run down all of my battery power, just in case. That's the last thing I remember.

The next time I woke up, I figured it was around 10 or so, time to get up and start my day. I felt oddly better, more energized, more energized than I should. Hmm. I reached over and grabbed my phone. 

It was 1:05 in the afternoon.

Holy crap! My phone wouldn't lie, right? Maybe I slept through the end of the world, now it's all ass-backwards. I turned on my TV. Maury was on. I still needed some more confirmation. I looked outside. Yep, sun was pretty high in the sky. What a beautiful day it w--holy crap I slept until 1 in the afternoon!! I still had so much to do! 

I got up and got dressed, and had enough time to go to the bank and go put gas in my car, before it was my lunch time (remember that strict Thursday schedule I mentioned a while back?). I ran by Burger King, and after lunch, cleaned the windows on my car, and straightened up my room, even putting my bed back together. Now I'm ready for another weekend at work. My day started way later than I'd planned on it starting, but I got the sleep I needed, or else I'm not sure how I would have made it at work tomorrow. I feel better, Mother Nature is done with me for the moment, and it's nearly Christmas! Let's get this weekend started!!

If I don't get a chance to update this before the big day, Merry Christmas, ya'll, and I'll be back with my year in review very soon. Peace. :D 

I swear they kept falling from the sky....

Music: Newly found favorites on YouTube
8:25p

I'll be updating this in three parts (if I can manage). Today was a Twilight Zone day..wonder what we will call tomorrow? If it was anything like today, I'm seeing a part two in the not-so-distant future. Froze my ass off all day long (this is what happens when you don't dress appropriately, and Mother Nature decides to screw with the weather), production was touch-and-go, pallets kept dropping on me out of nowhere, I would have settled for BB-Q, and, oh, yeah...I broke my machine. Again. Must be a habit. Thank God the load wheel decided to fall off five minutes before they called us in for the day! I had to drop off the machine with maintenance, and walk (toting my box full of shit and all) back to my dock. So I guess that was the irony for today, and what that is exactly, I'm still not sure, but I found it funny. Even funnier when people passing by gave me strange looks. Yes, I know, there was me and my box, no machine. Even funnier when I got stuck in traffic waiting for the not-train right by work. And even funnier when I flipped a person off for cutting me off, going nowhere fast. The fuck where you gonna go, dumbass? Ugh, I hate people. I especially hate that unloader for giving me lip about her production. Damn bitch, don't you know that I am FAR better at giving an attitude than you are? Honey, I've had 30 god damn  years of practice. I let her know that, too. Shut her up, it did. What? I can't always be known as the sweet one. 

Day one, it's over...thank God. I'm still freezing my skinny ass off, I'll be surprised if I make it through December without getting sick. Again. Maybe it's the damn icy-hot I just rubbed on my shoulder. Damn my shoulder hurts. Hmm. Think tomorrow I'll dress in layers. I can't stand being cold. Being cold sucks. What's really funny is my sarcasm throughout this blog. Those that know me well know my sense of humor (or lack thereof). 

Friday night: If I make it through to Sunday night, god dammit, I'm getting drunk. That is all. 
__________________________

Music: Toy Story
8p

Day two: I should have kept my ugly mouth shut.

If yesterday was straight out of the Twilight Zone, today was complete hell. Another 'anything that can go wrong, will go wrong, and will continue to go wrong until the end of the day.' Except this time, it was on steroids. With a piano dropped on its head (oh, did stuff drop..). Ran over three times with a couple-thousand pound machine, and beat with a baseball bat. There, I think that covered it. 

I'm not even sure where to begin. Unloaders did not have tier racks, and I had to cross three docks just to get them, killing my production already, plus hollering at my manager for not getting someone down to my dock to downstack the tiers. That took up my first hour. Production: zip. Unloaders were getting pushy, and thanks to Sonia showing up late, I ran the entire show. 

Second hour: my machine decides to lock me out, mid-transit. Least I knew what to do this time around, and didn't crash into any walls! Pure sarcasm, in case you couldn't tell. So down to maintenance I go, and damn if the computer didn't do it again. So of course the guy takes it for a quick spin...and it doesn't do it. Of course! So I take it back, make it back down to the opposite end of A dock, and damn if that bastard didn't do it again. So once again, I run back down to maintenance. They advise getting a new machine, and leaving the bad one behind, and they'll come pick it up later. So down to my manager's office I go, no machines. I inform my manager what's going on, and she tells me she'll get me some help down to A and B dock. About time! I run down to the orderfilling office...no machines. By this time, I'm ready to walk out the door, and go back to bed. I run down the shipping side, and finally come across a machine sitting alone in front of a door. Jessica and a guy were loading, so I asked them if they were using the machine. I got on, logged in, ready to take off...and nothing. Damn battery was dead! UGH. It's nearly 8 by this point, no production, I'm ready to scream. Jessica decided to give me her machine, saying she didn't need it, and that it was fast. It needed a new battery soon, but I didn't care. I needed to get going. I told Jessica thanks, and headed off.

So I get the battery, and, okay, now I'm back on track, Enma is helping me out with the unloaders, it's going to get better. 

Who the fuck did I kill in a past life? It just got worse. 

I got the luck of being stuck with hauling folding tables, notorious for falling over, because they put so many on a pallet. Every door. All day. And my title for this I had written yesterday..if only I'd known! And here's the really fucked up part: the unloaders were instructed to stack the tables a certain way, so we could haul them without them collapsing every five minutes. What did they do? They did it THEIR way, leaving our QA guy, as well as our haulers, pissed, and the haulers without production, because those idiots had to go back and re-stack each pallet they'd done wrong, fucking themselves, because that left them with no room at the doors! Several times did we have to go haul elsewhere while QA straightened them out. Fucking third party dumbshits!! IF they'd done it the RIGHT way the FIRST time, we wouldn't have been in that mess. I even called my manager for her to see for herself just what we were dealing with. Morons! It wasn't until the end of the day that all the pallets/racks had been re-stacked, and though they kept falling, too, at times, it wasn't near as many as earlier in the day. I swear, after tomorrow, if I see another tier rack, folding table, or A and B dock for that matter, it will be too soon.

I did manage, once everything was more-or-less straightened out, to bring up production, but this morning just absolutely screwed me. I'd say today was one of the worst days I've had at work since back when I was an unloader. I'm having flashbacks I don't want to have. I keep trying to push them down, down, down, but it's like trying to shove an inflatable ball under water; ain't gonna happen. It just keeps popping up.

Like I said, if I make it to Sunday, I'll be one happy bitch. Today sucked. I'm forgetting it ever happened. The positive thing about today is that I'm alive to see my bed again! With that said, here's hoping tomorrow goes much better.

That is, if I decide to even get out of bed.
_____________________________________

Music: Christmas Carol on AMC
10:48p

Day three: it's over! Thank God! I'm too tired to get drunk, for I won't need the alcohol to sleep tonight. Today was the best day  out of the whole weekend, even though it still wasn't the greatest, but still far better than the last two, including yesterday! So obviously, I got out of bed this morning. :P

The unloaders behaved themselves today, I had plenty of help on my docks with providing tier racks and pallets, and hauling off yesterday's freight. We got stuck with the stupid tables again, and still had issues with them falling over, but nothing like what it was yesterday. I didn't break a machine today! Production went better, and would have kept getting better had we not had to wait an hour for QA to verify anything. Four docks, and not one tagged pallet we could take away. Haulers were pissed, and running amok, trying to find something to do. Even resorted to taking stray pallets that were hiding among the un-tagged freight. Add that to the 30 minutes I had to spend waiting for someone to come change my battery (they were on break..what great timing). I chatted with a guy from shipping about the differences between Texas weather, and Chicago weather while I waited. 

Throughout the day, I noticed people leaving every so often. The loaders on my dock closed up around 2, and I noticed how quiet the building had become. Everyone had left. Only us haulers and a few unloaders remained. Lucky bitches! The other areas got to go home early, while we had to stay and be pissed. :P I'm happy I got my hours, but it's pretty depressing when you get to watch your friends clock out and head home early on a 'Friday'. It was kinda fun having the whole building to myself so-to-speak, not having to worry about anyone being in my way. Just wish those damn golf carts wouldn't keep popping up out of nowhere. Or tables falling. I don't want to even look at A dock next weekend..I've had my fill for a while. 

One more week until Christmas! I'm excited, but I'll be happy when it's over. This week is going to be fun! :)

My brain stopped working an hour ago. Show's over, go home.

So this is what happens when you play dirty.

Music: Thunder. At least I think that's thunder. 
12a

Sometimes, I hate living in Texas. Middle of December, and I've got my fan on full blast. It's so hot that I can't sleep. Oh, well, might as well do something productive. 

Another weekend is behind me..yes! It went by quick. That's the best part since I became a hauler; the long work days just blow by. Going in on Friday, there was not one pallet of freight on the docks. So I'm thinking 'what are they going to do with us until the unloaders get going?' I had a gut feeling, but figured they'd have us moving pallets around, or unblocking a door. Word of advice: always go with the gut feeling, because you know that 99% of the time, it's going to be right....

That moment I'd been dreading finally arrived; three months after leaving the hell that I called unloading, they put me in a trailer. Now here's the weird part: no dread, no stress, no worry. It was just one of those things you just accept. Then put it behind you and forget it ever happened.   They paired up haulers to start unloading, just until some freight started generating. I worked with Pedro, and I was glad, because he and I get along pretty good. We grabbed our machines and headed to our door. I ran and got a computer cart, and for a split second, forgot how to log in for unloading. It came back to me, and it was like second nature. I made it down to the door, and threw it open. I told Pedro 'welcome home!' He replied 'yeah, for *you*!' I had no flashbacks, no negative thoughts. It wasn't really all that weird to be back in a trailer, I was even in a good mood, laughing and joking with Pedro. It was nice to think back how much I'd been through in the past three months, making me all the more grateful. We had light boxes, we got a lot done. Eventually, they turned us loose on the docks. I managed to bring up production, though I got a late start. 

Saturday was an early day for us. I hauled from everywhere imaginable. I tried to get every piece of production I could find, especially the shorter hauls. And I was glad I did; the freight was all mixed, and being we left early, that helped immensely. 

Today was something else. I was put on D dock, pissed because that usually meant production would suffer. We were two haulers short; guessing they decided to take the day off or something. I was assigned the dock by myself, so I threw everything out the window, and told myself wherever the freight was going, to take it. I had the fortunate luck of only having four doors open to start out with. They started unloading, but I saw no QA anywhere verifying any of the freight. I figured they were short on their end, too. So while waiting on them, I ran to the other docks to haul. Later in the day, a hauler became pissed at me because I kept appearing on B dock. I had a guy on the inside telling me where the easy hauls were at. I needed the production badly, as D dock still had no QA. This hauler was pissed because I was taking all of his production. Hey, if someone was helping me clear my dock, I wouldn't complain!

It got to the point where the hauler wouldn't shut up about me hauling off of the other docks. I waited for him to say something else so I could get in his face. I felt like I was getting blamed because my dock was backed up, and they wouldn't let us go until most of the freight was gone. QA eventually made it down to D dock, and I just ignored the hauler the rest of the day. I explained to my boss later that I have to go where the production is at, and I still have a job to do, just like everyone else. And, just like everyone else, they'd go down to other docks, too, to get freight, so I couldn't understand why he was so pissy about it. Huh. Must be his time of month. I did my job, that's all that matters. I wanted so bad to get in his face and tell him 'you know, if it's tagged and ready to go, I'm taking it. End of story. Don't like it? Too fucking bad.' And that's what I decided, that sometimes, you have to get mean and play dirty. It's the only way to make it. I decided to stop caring, hell, everyone else does it. My boss totally understood my situation. 

Another good PTL for the week, and it's always good to end the week on a good note. Even better when you get to leave early! What a day. I'm fucking exhausted. 

And a busy week ahead...so excited to see what it brings. Shopping tomorrow! Yay!

The rain's finally here, guess that means I can go back to sleep now. 

Cloud 9 never looked better.

Music: Vojt Van Twistigen-"Naked Rose"

6p

Where I last left off, my week was going pretty good, although lack of sleep was my biggest problem. Since then, I've slept (much better), laughed, cried, laughed some more, and laughed until I cried. 

Vocal therapy was a success...I've been so out of touch these past few months. I feel re-energized, and ready to continue on. Thanks to my friend (you know who you are) for all his help. I worked on my problem areas, and if I have to do another warm-up (I prefer more traditional free-styling to help me warm up), it'll be too soon! I was serious when it was time to be serious, and laughed the rest of the time (kinda like now because he won't leave me alone so I can type this). That's what made my week so good. Friends I can laugh with and annoy until they kick me out. But who the hell in their right mind would want to do that? :P

An old friend got in touch with me last night, and absolutely made my week. I met him years ago on Myspace. We chatted a few times here and there, and I thought he'd dropped off the grid. He seems like a nice guy, funny, too. I'm looking forward to getting back in contact with him. 

All the while, I did some Christmas shopping, and talked to some of my closer friends. This week is ending on a high note; I can't wait for it to continue when I get off work Sunday night.

I can't wait to see what's to come! :D

Yes, I know, this is short, but sometimes, shit happens. :P Peace.

Crystal of nightmares.

Music: Rain+thunder=I could sure use a nap.
7:10p

I've been just a tad more productive this week; I've gotten a little more organized (if you call shoving things into drawers organized), bought a few more Christmas presents, and even started up vocal therapy again (thanks to my friend for letting me borrow their space). Was nice to get away from everyone and everything, and just let go (without having to worry about bothering the neighbors, not that they'd complain). Oh yeah, and I owe you a bag of Cheetos that I downed while doing the Cupid Shuffle in between songs. :P 

I only wish sleep would have fit itself in there somewhere. I'm two days down already, and I don't feel any more energized than I did yesterday morning. Last night was the worst. Nightmares don't help the situation, and I felt the repercussions of another nearly restless night. I kept forgetting things, and was annoyed for a good half of the day. The only thing that really made me flip a switch was watching the storms in Channelview as they chased me while driving back to Crosby. I came home, and opened my blinds, watching the sky get darker and darker, and enjoying an awesome lightning show. Could have probably taken a nap, if not for random banging around as people took turns wrapping presents. Or my phone ringing. I'm just sorry the rain won't be lasting into the night....

I ran into a couple of former co-workers in Channelview. They asked if I was still at the store, and when I told them I'd moved to the warehouse, they were shocked. They asked if I liked it better, and told me I was lucky that I no longer had to deal with customers. When i told them I started out as au unloader, they looked even more shocked. I described what I do now, and they asked if I liked it better. We got to discussing money, and of course I don't tell anyone what I make, but simply said the warehouse pays better. I only wish I'd gotten the overtime so I could have put some money away. Another thing that is holding me back from getting my own place. I didn't think it would turn out that way; I wanted some pad money for Christmas, to get everyone better presents this year, and put the rest away. But I seem to remember some nagging feeling back a couple months ago that told me I'd be getting fucked on that end. And the overtime never came for me, or my area. People were pissed, and even friends that did indeed work some serious hours weren't happy with the way my area was treated. I may just be able to get by in December...if the volume keeps up and doesn't slow down as predicted. 

Until then, the rain has definitely moved off, so it looks like I'll hve to catch up on sleep the old-fashioned way. Or just go straight for the Zquil. Hell, I might just have a drink..I forgot how much alcohol relaxes me. 

That is, after I get past the whole 'bounce-off-the-walls-buzzed' stage. :P

I'm off to go find my version of "Can't Sleep" by Above and Beyond..since my iPod decided to erase it for whatever reason......fucker.