My new sick obsession

I cannot stop reading graphic novels. I know at one point I liked books without pictures in them, but I can't remember why now. I'm sticking to a few authors, but still.

Sandman III is at Another Dimension Comics and I just remembered that you pay the US price + exchange there. Hmm. I think I'll have to go there to check it out when I have the chance.

The week is going a little less rapidly than I'd like, but I've come to terms with that happening. It's almost Canada Day, which means champagne and Wayne's World I&II, possibly South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut. Wish you were here.

Tonight is dinner with Blaine and co. Chapters called to see if I could come in tonight and if I didn't want to see *a movie so badly tonight, I might've said yes. It would've gotten me out of dinner.

Oh well, I'll suck it up [that's what SHE said] and go to dinner. Meghan is my emergency call at 8 p.m. and if I'm not dead from the amount of dairy I've consumed today, I'll go have mini-hangs with her.

It's two weeks to Christmas day! Do you know what your presents are?





*Twilight. Again. Oh my God, that movie is never not funny.

My life has become an interesting pop song...

But no one is singing along. Perhaps that's because I haven't told anyone the melody.

This past week has been non-stop go go go. I worked Monday night and because we dicked around there, we didn't get out of the theatre until 2 a.m. Yay for working longer than you paid yourself for!

Tuesday through Thursday I volunteered at the film festival. Since last night was my last night at the film festival, Davis decided we were going to drink rum all night while working. This wasn't particularly difficult for me as my job was to scan in prepurchased tickets and download film box office control codes. He, however, was working in booth, threading projectors that are as old as Alabama. Between him, me, and another guy named Chad, we finished off half a 26 of white rum.

Apparently that wasn't enough for us. No, we had to go consume more alcoholic beverages at a place called Bottlescrew Bill's. They're famous for Around The World In Eighty Beers. If you finish all eighty beers in a year, you get a plaque with your name on it. A boy from my office finished them in a matter of two months. It was kind of awesome. Anyway, last night we slammed back beer, shots consisting of Pear, Creme de Menthe, and Sambuca, as well as Sour Jacks at the end of the night and vodka slimes. This still was not enough for us! We went back to Davis' friend's place and continued to drink vodka, rum, and something called Wild Turkey, which Davis made exceptionally strong and I didn't finish. He took one sip at the end of the night and said "I am so damn proud of you for even making it halfway through that cup, Mindy."

We stumbled out of there just after 3 a.m., two drinks and a whole lot of Michael Jackson later. Funnily enough, when we left the theatre to buy the original rum, Davis told me about a party where he and Clements both slept with girls from our theatre and he said he did not picture the evening ending like that. As we were walking to the hotel to get a cab, we talked about how we definitely didn't see this evening coming. And then we decided to hang out more.

I proceeded to cab it home and pour myself into bed around 4 a.m. and then wake up at 6:30 a.m. to get ready for work. If I pushed getting out of bed to 6:50 a.m., well, that's between me and my blankets.

This is a silly time of day for an update but I just realized today how happy some of my theatre staff makes me. Usually they annoy, frustrate, and irritate me. Today, it was exactly what I needed.

My day at work, despite being able to talk to a really good friend for most of the day, was actually pretty shitty. I'm up to my eyes in work that's been passed off to me by Muthu for a conference I'm not attending at all. I have Adam breathing down my neck about shipments, which is actually the majority of my job and as such I'm usually pretty okay with. I have Karen breathing down my neck about my accounting duties, which I shouldn't actually have, being as they have six people in the accounting department. I have Jack breathing down my neck about travel arrangements for a Chinese delegation that's arriving in a little over a week, again, also a part of my job that I'm pretty okay with.

For example: Adam handed me a stack of CIs and Certificates of Origin to have notarized by Karen. Awesome. I go get the seal and the stamp because Karen always gets me to do that. I find out she's leaving for the next four hours. Not awesome. She doesn't even have time to sign them beforehand so I can just stamp and seal next to her signature. So. She gets back in at 2:30 and I send the documents to the Chamber of Commerce to be certified. I send them on a fireball so they'll be back in time to go to Ottawa. I get a call at approximately 3:30 from the Chamber that says our Arabic documents need to be stamped by a translator. This has never been an issue before. At all. So, I get them back and Adam bitches at me for not getting them out sooner, which really wasn't physically possible.

I'm also kind of salty over the fact that Donna seems to think it's okay to give me Karen's expense reports, even though that's her job. Well, technically, it's Fiona's but Fiona has turned out to be so very useless that I count her as office furniture. I don't even know.

It turned out that all I really needed to do was hear Jack say "HO NO!" It made my day seem infinitely better.

Happy Belated Birthday Post to Meghan. She's twenty now and I really hope for her sake that twenty is better than nineteen. 

We celebrated in true Meghan and Melinda style and ended up with a bottle of wine cooler left each. It was a good night, we ended up hissing drunk and watching BBW porn at a house party. All in all a good night after a crappy day at the theatre.

Tomorrow is my serious business day and I really don't know what I'm going to do. It's going to be kind of a turning point. At least I know I have everyone important behind me. I don't know what I did in my previous life to deserve such amazing friends but I did something right. Time for Melinda to sleep, because she's beyond tired right now. 

I'm on fire and now I think I'm ready to bust a move.

A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, we had a list of basic manners at a movie theatre. I wish I could find it.

It's been a busy night tonight. Kung Fu Panda did the majority of our business tonight, which is so ridiculous because it looks terrible to me. I'd rather sit through a conversation with Tom Cruise than watch it. Hm, I'm a tad judgmental tonight. Whatever.

Normally I'm in a better mood but tonight is just. No. I usually have no problem with closing on a friday. I've done it for over 2 years. I have a problem when our only two full times go away for the weekend during summer blockbuster season.

It also occured to me that I haven't been on an honest to god date in two years. Which would make my last date Nick. No thanks. I need to go on a date or something.

Anyway, I'm ready to go home but I still have more than an hour left to go.
Sent on the TELUS Mobility network with BlackBerry

Last night at the theatre, we played Epic Battle With Star Wars Toys for two hours instead of being out on the floor like good managers. Blake, Deryck, and Matt showed up at the theatre around 6:30 p.m., still pretty drunk from their afternoon of playing golf on the company tab. Apparently they had to stay at the theatre until they sobered up enough to go to a goodbye party for the theatre's old district manager.

I come back into the office around 6:45 and they've set up two tables and all three of them are picking through action figures from this set. Nadia and I watched them play their first round and then we joined in for the next round. We formed an alliance and completely owned the shit out of everyone else on the table.

It helps that Blake was hammered because he'd had three drinks and he's allergic to alcohol. Highlights of the night? One of the wookies looking like Cock Knocker from Jay And Silent Bob Strike Back. Blake accidentally hitting me in the chest and Deryck saying "You shot where you aimed but you hit where you were looking", and the complete and total ownage of Matt.

After that, we kind of puttered around being completely useless until it was time to close, at which point Nadia and I killed time between closing the day numbers-wise and closing the theatre people-wise with Brickbreaker. I'm up to 9470 as a high score and I finally got to level 16. Unfortunately, that seems to be my Everest.

Well, I'm off to continue doing things for our marketing conference in June.

I'm failing pretty hard at real life today. My cabbie at noon drove three extra blocks and tried to jack my fare up. I wasn't impressed.

I found out my little brother is getting bullied at school and it made me think of the past and how much I really don't miss it. The future is now. Today is the first day of the rest of your life. Bonus points for this reference: I will not sit idly by as the events that affect me unfold to change the course of my life. I will take a stand and I will defend it.

You fools, Soylent Green is people!

I'll likely be resigning from the theatre in the next few weeks. It's just more prudent given current circumstances. I'll miss it, though. I've worked there for more than seven years and for seven years I've been able to define myself as someone who has better taste in movies than the average person walking into a multiplex. 

I bet you didn't know we judge you, did you? We're so much worse than the asshole at the record store because we judge you multiple times on the same visit. We judge you when you purchase your tickets for Speed Racer, we judge you when you get your ticket ripped at the door podium and meander into Speed Racer, and we judge you when we see you walk out of Speed Racer as we go to clean it. Don't think we don't notice how you can't even meet our eyes at the end of the film. Go cry in the restroom and put cigarettes out on your thighs for that hour and half you just wasted. 

It seems I've fulfilled my bitterness quote for the day, so I leave you with this

Once you've clicked that link, click the button for howl. I promise you won't be disappointed.

Indiana Jones and the Temple of Fail

I'm so happy I didn't work Wednesday or Thursday evening at the theatre. There was so much fail going on tonight with my staff and my guests and my life. 

First of all, I'm trying to go a little more green and start using public transportation. I should be rewarded for my efforts. Or they should at least go a little smoother than they went today. I woke up bright and early and caught the 7:11 a.m. bus to the train station and caught a train going the opposite way I wanted to go. This was on purpose. I'm one stop away from the end of the line and then I ride the train almost to the complete other end of the line. I wanted a seat. So, I took the train into downtown and everything went smoothly. It was nice out, I got to wear my sassy new raincoat and be gleeful that it was not yet raining.

I should've quit there. I should've quit right then and there and said "Thanks for the wonderful day, life." No, I got in and I did nothing but work for the entire day. Now, most days I'll make time to check out my favourite blogs and see what's going on in the world at large. There wasn't even time for that. 

After work, I went to catch the bus to take me to the theatre. Now, I know the 301 takes me to the theatre. Great, I miss a 301 but the next one is due in 11 minutes. That's not horrible. I'll wait for it and feel awesome about myself for caring a little about the environment.

I got on the wrong 301. This one took me to the southwest rather than the northeast. Of course, I was reading The Zombie Survival Guide and learning how to do search and destroy/reclamation missions, so I didn't really pay attention to where I was going until I looked up and saw Bow Trail and 33rd Avenue SW. ... So not where I needed to be.

I get off at the next stop, cross the street and catch the other 301. Thusfar, I have managed to remain relatively dry. I board my 301 and it starts pissing rain from the sky and I have deal with a woman who not only wants her seat but also wants half of mine. I think, I can deal with this for a little longer. I get to my stop and finally, finally am at the theatre, half an hour late for my shift. I already know shit is going to be hitting the fan because there's no way in hell that Indiana Jones isn't busy. And that's when I start getting poured on. 

Also, my staff are all incompetent and they know I hate them. New jobs, anyone?

Things that made today bearable: Starbucks water, Meghan, Adam, Shopper's Drugmart at 3 a.m., and Tabatha doing zombie watch for me while I peed.