The Dangerous Existence of Madame Lee

+ This morning, I called my boss to tell her I was going to be late to work because it was snowing and the standard Tri-State response to snow is THEY IZ FLAKES FALLING FROM THA SKAIZ, WUT DUZ I DO???. For people who yap about how they's bo'n and bred here, like that's something to be proud of, they seem to magically forget that OH HEY, IT USUALLY SNOWS DURING THE WINTER HERE. Jesus I hate Evansville so fucking much. Resuming to the main thread of our narrative here, my boss didn't get my voicemail until after she came in, because she too was made late.
+ I was going to do some overtime BUT SNOW TOOK IT AWAY FROM ME. Basically, it was still snowing when quitting time rolled around, and I am leery of driving in snow especially when it is dark and I can't see the snow I'm driving in. I did make it home safely, thanks to the grace of the gods alone.
+ Immortal snippets of dialogue:
( They might even be kind of funny without you seeing us in action! )
+ If you think the Army of Darkness deserves pie, or if you just have an irrational prejudice against the Army of Darkness and would like to keep them from getting pie, don't forget to vote!
+ I'm home, I'm safe, I'm warm, I'm comfortable, and that's what really matters.
+ ♥

So I got a call from RMUTA HR Man today, or rather I got a message he left on his answering machine, about I-9 documentation, which surprised me as that isn't usually requested until you actually start work. This, of course, sent me into a frenzy of nerves about OMGWTFBBQ I WAAAAAANT THIS JOOOOOOOOBBBBBBB.

(Explanatory note for the non-Americans on the flist: I-9 documentation establishes your right to work in the US. All employers are required to verify your eligibility for employment, and you can do this by providing certain kinds of ID; the government provides employers with lists of what constitutes acceptable ID. You can provide something like a passport, which establishes both your identity and your citizenship, or you can provide, say, a driver's license to establish your identity and a Social Security card to establish your citizenship/right to work in the US. Employers must accept any documentation that is approved by the government for employment authorization purposes; they are not entitled to specify which documents are okay and not okay. Moreover, your I-9 documentation must be submitted to the federal government by your employer within three days.)

As I think I mentioned in my previous post about getting the job, RMUTA originally wanted me to start on 6 December; however, they didn't call me to offer me a job until 2 December, which was very short notice and probably wouldn't have been enough time to get all the pre-employment screening back. I also mentioned that, uh, I was currently employed and would need to give notice, so it was decided that I would start on 20 December. Turns out, HR Man put me down in the system as starting on the earlier date, with the result that the Powers That Be are all like WHERE IS THIS WOMAN'S I-9 DOCUMENTATION AND WHY IS IT NOT IN YET. Fortunately, it's fairly quick and easy to fix.

Also, after talking to the HR lady at work today, I learnt that I am getting two more checks, not one as I had previously assumed; I will get a direct deposit (final paycheck for, like, work I actually did) and then be issued a live check for vacation pay. :D

( Life stuff, mostly an outing )

It has snowed, and IN-62 is poorly plowed off. I was supposed to have a job interview today, and got as far as the 'Mart (about 10 minutes from home, except longer because the road wasn't in such good condition) before I decided that it would be more prudent to turn around, go home, and reschedule. I would like snow a lot more if it stayed off the streets and just coated yards and trees. At least it's powdery snow and not icy snow (or powdery snow that subsequently had a fight with freezing rain and then lost, which is also unpleasant to deal with).

However, no snow or other inclement weather is expected on Saturday, when, pursuant to the will of the people, I intend to go and have my ears pierced a second time. Should you feel my time would be better spent in scenic New Harmony, feel free to vote. Because that's how we roll in the People's Socialist Republic of Xi-feng. :D

Also: forgottensanity, in the event the long-awaited samurai game opens this year (as ever, subject to whether l33 sees a shiny thing and/or must hold down a job which requires actual effort), you may wish to draw some inspiration from this fine masterwork. Remember, if it ain't rainbow wings, it just ain't love.

I've been grooving off Married to the Sea lately, ftr. Check it out sometime. Also: Superpoop.

Hey, forgottensanity, I got the stuff you sent! The Daim bars came a few days ago; unfortunately, they had consumed most of the babies in transit (apparently they resemble turnips in that), and then the adult went for X-chan, so I had to take it out by a chomp to the neck. Its flesh is deliciously toffeelike. :9

Also, the basket was greatly appreciated and has been enthusiastically enjoyed; we all loved it. :D I did share it, simply because I couldn't eat all that myself.

♥ for augustuscaesar and queen_lily_rose. Just because.

X-chan was home, and we got to spend some time together, but now she's gone. This has been yay, except for the part where she had to leave. I've been trying to convince her to move to Kentucky, but Kentucky doesn't do the greatest job of selling itself, so.

I had the bright idea to use my day off on Tuesday to go up to Bloomington and return library books. This would have gone off without a hitch if it were not for the goddamned weather (freezing rain); it was supposed to get better here, and Bloomington isn't that far north, but still. What usually takes about two and a half to three hours took all day, due in part to having to stop several times because some yahoo thought four-wheel drive magically granted him immunity to the laws of physics and went skidding off the road. (I am scared shitless of skidding and was frightened when it happened to me near Huntingburg. Fortunately, I didn't lose control of the car and didn't hit anything or go careening into an embankment; I was able to right myself and proceed shakily through the intersection.) The first time, I felt sorry for the driver; after the third or fourth time, I stopped feeling any pity or human fellow-feeling at all. (On US-231, headed northbound through Martin and Daviess Counties? Uh, yeah. They don't believe in guardrails there, apparently. Not that guardrails are your best defense against skidding.) So by the time I got to Bloomington, the library was closed (and has just reopened yesterday, in honor of duokinneas' birthday), and the roads were still bad (IN-46 westbound was completely blocked off at the Owen/Monroe county line due to the number of accidents, and there were several nasty messes on IN-37 headed northbound), so I wound up having to get a hotel room for the night and shush a panicky lolmom. The Travelodge actually isn't too bad. The weather heated up overnight, it was good to be home, and by the time I left this morning the ice had melted and there was just plain old regular rain, which I can deal with.

I'm getting a little tired of this not-living-in-Bloomington nonsense.

Also, I got to wait on Mr and Mrs Speshul Snowflake on Christmas Eve. The 'Mart closes at 6 p.m. on Christmas Eve and remains closed until 6 a.m. on 26 December. :D Anyway, we were herding people out (after multiple announcements that YOUR CESSPIT LOL-MART STORE IS CLOSING and subsequently that YOUR LOL-MART STORE IS NOW CLOSED) around 6, and the Speshul Snowflakes decided to come in to pick up their meat trays from the deli RIGHT THEN and suffered severe butthurt injuries when informed that a.) we were closed and b.) the deli had given their meat trays to someone else.

Christmas was okay. The X came back from Indy (turned out my father and Pweshus Wifey weren't there for Christmas DAMN I could have gone if I hadn't had to work) and we had breakfast and opened presents and watched A Christmas Story and all was yay.

So. I'm back. I guess I might try to write more regularly in this thing. I'm going to try to pick myself back up in 2009; I've been so angry and bitter for so long that I've let myself get stuck in it, and that's not good.

1.) We done had another ice storm, which sucked ass, particularly the part where I couldn't get my eight hours in on account of the courthouse in Rockport was closed and also the part where the undead zombie tree continued to shed limbs. I like trees, don't get me wrong, but I'm convinced that one of these days, the undead zombie tree is going to kill somebody (preferably not me or m0mmy).

2.) We also done had a lunar eclipse, which rocked. Remarkable, isn't it, how at 6 p.m. the moon was like a big golden coin that I couldn't take my eyes off, and at 8 p.m. it had shriveled to a pale white fingernail sliver.

3.) Yesterday morning, I only realized I'd left my glasses in the bathroom after I'd already confined the cat, and I couldn't block the door quickly enough to stop her getting out. Freed from the fascist confines of the jakes, Callice tore up and down the stairs until she realized that I intended to chase, catch, and imprison her, and then she cunningly curled up in her Secret Hiding Place. (Which wasn't so secret, because all I had to do was peek around the corner and grab her.) To demonstrate her displeasure, she proceeded to drown her catnip turtle in her water bowl (I found it floating when I came home and changed her water; it was hysterical, in a macabre way). If she elects to drown her catnip fuzzy as well, she is not getting a new one.

4.) I have (finally) developed a(nother) Plan Of Action™, and may or may not be instituting a filter to talk about it. I'm not sure that anybody really needs or wants to read about it, but think it may actually succeed this time if I can only conquer my inherent laziness.

5.) Also I just finished reading Romances of Old Japan by one Ozaki Yuko; it was an enjoyable read and the pictures are beautiful. I was a bit disappointed at what I perceived to be a dearth of samurai, since THERE ARE NEVER ENOUGH SAMURAI as all know, I think samurai automatically make a book Great Literature. A samurai could totally have saved Born with the Century by William Kingsolver (possibly the worst book ever written), if only by adding a delightful WTF element.

6.) Speaking of samurai, I am in the process of writing a longer entry about how I read this one novel and took great exception to the author’s failure to learn what a word actually means. Don't worry, it'll be behind a cut so you can say to yourself, "Has Lee no other interests?" and skip it. I'm always thinking of things I can do to others.

7.) I should buzz my hair off Y/N? (My original plan was to have breast-covering hair, but I am cursed with wretched hair and am beginning to think that getting rid of all of it may be my only salvation.)

1.) Snow is fucking filthy. Seriously, you wouldn't think frozen water coming from the sky in an endless concatenation of beautiful special unique flakes would leave your car all streaky and dirty, but it does. I think adulthood has ruined the magical/exciting/neat aspects of snow for me forever, now that I live in a state and work in a profession where I occasionally have to go out and drive in it. At least we had a mild winter and we're supposed to get back up into the 40s and 50s next week.

2.) I wonder if Paul Scott was influenced by A Passage to India (E.M. Forster) at all when he was writing the Raj Quartet (only about one of the greatest series EVAR). I've loved the Quartet (and its sequel, Staying On) for years, but I'm reading A Passage to India at the moment and am struck by the similarities.

3.) We had stir-fried pork and vegetables with cashew rice for dinner. :9

4.) I got more used books at the Book Worm in Corydon. YAY USED BOOKS :D

5.) I ♥ ukekenshin. And the rest of you too, of course. But particularly Talyn.