Jacquelyn's Space

A bunch of storms and a deluge of rain rolled through my area the past couple of nights. We needed the rain but unfortunately we lost power at home for almost 24 hours. That really sucked because as much as I love the romance of candlelight I really love my computer technology. I find I cannot live without it so when the power goes out I get a little perturbed, a little on edge. Actually it is both not having power and access to hot water, or any washing water for that matter. We have a well so when we lose power we got nothing. I cannot stand to be without a shower. Shower and computers, my favorite technologies!

I worked third shift the night (I work at a fast food joint) I lost power at my house. I was hoping I would get to work and the power would be out there too so I could get to go home – no such luck, they had power. It was busy at work too because of everyone else not having power. It was just 3 of us running our butts off. At 1:29am I was ringing up a customer in drive-thru – a very hungry volunteer firefighter who had been working an accident on the highway and a house fire – when, as his receipt printed out, we lost power at the restaurant. His receipt got stuck in the printer and I was afraid we wouldn’t be able to get his food because everything is cooked to order at that time. The cook started cheering and I started laughing at the cook because he was so happy. He said “That is what I’ve been praying for all night.” I was kind of happy too but I knew that just because the power was out we weren’t just going to be able to say “Forget it!” and go home. I half expected the power to come back on but it did not. Luckily we were able to serve the customer his food then we had to figure out what to do. We only had safety lights (no generator) to work by so we had to close the store to customers for sure.

What it came down to was we had to clean up the store as best as we could and put all the food away in the walk-in refrigerator and freezer. We were already behind because it had been a busy night. Lucky me, when I work third shift I do dishes and work drive-thru so I was stuck doing dishes in the dark, ha. Fun, fun. I did dishes until I ran out of hot water. I got almost all of them done – don’t know how well because I could barely see but hey I tried and their not too picky about the dishes around there anyway, ha. Then we had to sit around until the end of our shift. I tried to do some other cleaning but with limited light it was a challenge. It was weird being in the store without power – so quiet. I felt like a ghost (a McGhost, hee hee) walking around there. It was weird but it was also relaxing, and it was cool watching all the lightning once I got to sit down. Pretty much everyone loved the experience, at least on third shift and the early morning crew. I guess the restaurant didn’t get power until 2pm so other people who came into work had to clean all day because they had daylight to work by. I thought they would just be sent home but because no one knew when the power was coming back on they had to be ready. Boy am I glad I worked thirds. At least I got to sit on my ass and get paid (that doesn’t happen that often in fast food) and I didn’t have my dumb store manager breathing down my neck. Yay.

Well I have had a rotten week. Kinda, sorta. It has been relaxing but I have not done anything. I have just worked a bit, slept a bit, and read a book (oh yeah, I went to a Psi Chi meeting – it was good to see my psychology pals). I just cannot seem to get rested. I was pretty wore out last week too for vacation – still on that 3rd shift schedule of up all night, sleep all day. Tired of being tired.  Tired of not having any energy. So since I am off the next couple of days I am going to try to get energized. I need to exercise, study, write and of course clean. Can I get a sarcastic “Yay”?

you are falling asleep and think of something brilliant. So brilliant it would be a good thing to write about, or at least tell somebody about it. You promise yourself you will remember the idea later as fall deeper into sleep. Then when you wake up you cannot remember … Ugh! That happened to me today. I had a brilliant writing topic and now I cannot remember it. I must keep a notebook and pen by the bed!

This happens to me far too often – I get great ideas as I am falling asleep, or in the shower or while I am driving and I always think I will remember them but I tend to forget. I must get more vigilant about writing these ideas down or recording them.

Now what was that idea today???

Don’t you hate it when you wake up way too early and can’t get back to sleep? That has been my morning – woke sometime in the 5 o’clock hour and could not go back to sleep. I laid in bed for an hour then decided to get up. I have checked my mail, my facebook, the newspapers/news/articles, eaten, picked up a little bit around the house, tried to do a little organizing, played a couple of games, studied for the GRE a little and just now I am getting tired. I feel like writing but don’t know what to write…well I am feeling a little too tired and out of it to tackle any serious topics. I think I should go back to bed and get some more sleep.

Ha, so my stepson comes over and starts jamming to some house music. I love it! One of the songs samples an old school jam, Rockwell’s “Somebody’s Watching Me” LOL Double love it because that used to be one of my favorites songs when I was in 5th/6th grade or so, plus I love house music – makes me want to dance (that is what comes from going to all the hottest gay bars in Detroit in the 90’s, ha ha) and move. It is making me hyper! This ‘new’ or at least new to me DJ (I think – not a group, just one dude) is called Deadmau5.

http://youtu.be/EZAyvA2-KE4

Thankful to be on vacation. So thankful that I actually stayed awake this morning and made my husband a lovely breakfast before he was off to work.

Made it through another week of working third shift – well this week I didn’t have as many hours as last because I had a long week-end which I squandered away. Unfortunately it has been pretty uneventful around here. I guess not uneventful but kind of ‘same ole, same ole’ if you know what I mean. Hung out at the pool with my nephews, listened to my Mom bitch, bilateral earaches, more bitching… ha

One good thing is the renovation of our home office is just about done. My husband painted and we bought some cabinets and a counter top to make one long desk with two work spaces. It is pretty cool. I figure if I ever have a baby the desk can become a changing table, hehe. I just love the color I picked out – it is a lavender and is called enchant, ooo la laaa. It is enchanting and I hope to hang a bunch of my scenic pictures on the walls in here. Next project is to paint my bathroom.

Starting today I am on vacation. My husband and I had hoped to do something exciting and/or new but it would cost too much and be too stressful to do what we really wanted to do which was to go camping in the U.P. (Upper Peninsula Michigan). We kinda planned on going up to my parents house which is not too far from Lake Michigan. My husband and I love going there but the weather is not going to be ideal so we are not sure what we want to do. May end up at my parents place but I really want to get in some beach time and if the weather is too cool or it is rainy it kind of sucks for us (thinking more of my stepson who will be on vacation with us). It is often more a relaxing time rather than an exciting time up in old Kaleva. Don’t know what to do…

So other than that I have attempted to start studying for the GRE. I received some new study materials and also intend to make use of the stuff I already have though it is geared more towards the old test. I have already learned much from the GRE website. I just have a lot of studying to do; a ton of math review because I have forgotten a lot of it from disuse. I also have to practice my writing because there is two analytical writing tasks on the test in which you only get 30 minutes per task to complete. ETS (the makers of the GRE) list all the questions on their website and I was thinking of tackling some of the questions within this blog to practice. The only bad thing is there is like 90 pages of questions between the two tasks! I am scheduled to take the test at the end of September and 3 months goes by pretty quickly. Yikes!!

So not sure how this vacation is going to go with me being kind of stressed and everything up in the air.