I'm all aloooooone...

Today was quite a day... It started when I woke up at 11:03 and was supposed to be at work at 11:00.

I rushed out the door, using perfume instead of showering and frantically calling my manager to tell her I wasn't going to be on time... She didn't answer the phone, so I was really freaking out because I thought I might have the wrong number and wasn't going to be able to contact her.

So I finally got to the mall and rushed in and the store wasn't open. Like, it was locked down and everything. I was confused. My first reaction was, "Holy shit, if the manager's the only one there are they not allowed to open the store?"

But I couldn't see my manager at all, so I asked at a nearby kiosk, and found out that she had apparently got all the way there and realized she forgot her keys, so she had to drive an hour round trip to go get them. This sort of incredibly convenient coincidence happens to me all the time, which is why I believe in a god...

So instead of being half an hour late I was half an hour early, and got to relax with a muffin and a Coolatta and laugh at the people who looked very, very confused that the place wasn't open yet.

But my manager, alas, was pretty frantic about the whole thing, so she had to work in the back room the whole morning and I was basically alone in the front of the store for the first hour. And then another guy didn't show up at all for his shift, no phone call, nothing, so I had to stay an extra hour. But I got a DVD about mitochondrial Eve so it's all good. Today was really, really not my manager's day though.

I owe my mom like $500 right now.

Today is the Quinquatrus Minores, a festival sacred to Minerva/Athena of the Flute-players. On this day the tibicines, flute-players, went through the city in a procession that ended at the Temple of Minerva.

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Yesterday was Ryter's birthday, so I headed up to visit him, complete with my gift of wood for Jesus (his lizard, not the Messiah. You know, the name hay-ZOOS works better when you're talking than writing). The gift was technically for Ryter but Jesus was the one who would benefit from it.

The lizard's very cute. He's spiky and looks grumpy lots of the time but cute-grumpy and he's very gentle, peaceful, and friendly, and he seems to really like Ryter. He eats right out of his hand already.

I also gave Ryter cupcakes that spelled out "Happy Birthday" because this one time we were talking about birthdays at school as a kid, and he mentioned that he never got to have cupcakes with his classmates because he has a summer birthday. So I decided that while I was not going to be able to provide him a chance to eat cupcakes with snot-nosed youngsters, that was probably for the best anyway and eating cupcakes with Loquelo, Nonaestima, me, and a bearded dragon observer was probably just as good if not better.

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Today was my first day of work. It was okay, but a little boring. There was the obligatory awkward sexual harassment video, followed by a short film on How To Be An Obnoxious Salesperson. Then they stuck me out on the floor and said I was to greet people, assist as needed, try to push the stuff, and meanwhile look around and try to memorize the contents of the store.

But hey, eight bucks an hour, and the other people working there seem really nice, and I do know the merchandise there pretty well, since every time I went to the mall for job applications I stopped in, and my manager actually said I looked familiar, which was both interesting and kinda sad. Okay, really sad. Really, really, really...

Bah...

Today is the Matralia, a holiday to honor the goddess Mater Matuta. The matrons of the town would offer cakes baked in earthenware pots to her, and they carried their neices and nephews (not their own children, those of their sisters) in their arms and prayed for their welfare.

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I HAVE A JOB!

Well, sorta. I'm working the cash register at the Discovery Channel store, which is going out of business and needs help for the big "get rid of everything" sale. So this is only until early or mid August, but it's a job, and the hours are flexible so I can work part-time if I get another job.

Plus, eight bucks an hour. Schweet.