Monday, August 28, 2006 

First day of class today, not terrible, though I did have a difficult time pulling myself out of bed at 7am. Didn't make it til 720, actually. Met a couple new people, hopefully I'll meet some more, I could use some more friends around here. Classes themselves don't seem too bad either, though books and art supplies are fighting with my usual bills for every last penny in my bank account. I'll get ahead eventually. I looked around the apartment briefly earlier for something I could sell on ebay for a little extra cash, but unfortunately everything of value is also something I don't want to part with.

I had my "promotional event" last night, turns out it was just handing out samples during college night at Meijer's. But hey, I'll take $17 an hour to pass free things out to people any day, I already have to do it at Old Navy from time to time for much less than that. I was only booked for 4 hours, but I didn't get home til 1130, which was likely the cause of much of my fatigue this morning as well as my exhaustion right now. I got to hand out Axe samples to all the college guys, it was fun I admit, I saw several people that I knew which is always favorable. Plus I got to bring home some of the leftovers for Dan (he likes the Pheonix scent, which happens to be what one of the samples was - if anyone else wants a sample deodorant or shower gel, I have the hookup, haha). I'm still a little intrigued that companies go through talent agencies to hire "pretty" people to do something as menial as passing out samples, I always figured they just used the store employees, maybe Axe (and L'Oreal, who was giving out coupons for a new cosmetics line) wanted to stand out or something, I don't know. The other girl there with me was a Meijer employee, I guess she was getting paid significantly less to hand out stuff...I didn't tell her what I was getting, I figured it'd be better that way.

Unfortunately I won't see a paycheck for up to 90 days, in the event that agency billing doesn't go as planned (90 is worst-case scenario, I guess, the email said "40-90"). Plus I have to mail them my signed paperwork proving that I worked the hours before they can do anything but at the moment I don't have a stamp.

Posted by Rachel at 10:53 PM |

Thursday, August 24, 2006 

Dan and I are planning a trip to the Renaissance Festival on Saturday, September 9th. The two of us are going for sure, but I figured I'd ask to see if anyone else is interested in going as a group. I'm asking now just in case you're like me and need to give your job 2 weeks' notice to get the day off. Mt. Pleasantians, if you wanted to come stay here Friday night and ride down with us Saturday, that works too. It'd probably be best to go a little earlier in the day so it's not so hot while walking around.

Lemme know if you're interested.

Posted by Rachel at 9:11 PM |

Thursday, August 17, 2006 

I absolutely hate saginaw valley. Hate it hate it hate it. First they fuck me over by deciding to charge me a $41 "academic computing fee" and not cover it with my scholarship (I didn't have to pay this fee either semester last year). So I make my payment by e-check (with money I don't have - yet another way for them to TAKE MY MONEY WITHOUT REASON) and still can't register OR drop anything because it hasn't gone through yet. I called the financial aide lady back and she's like, oh, it takes a few minutes. So here I am, a HALF HOUR later, still not registered for the classes I want because SVSU blows. I should've just gone back to bed, so far being up has done nothing for my productive intentions except to PISS ME OFF.

Fuck you too, SVSU.


Those were my feelings this morning as I sat at 845am, pissy about school registration. I figured I'd get up at 7am (when they opened online registration), arrange my schedule the way I wanted it, then go back to sleep til 10. But of course it wasn't that easy. I happily go to register only to get an angry red message that says I'm not eligible because I have a balance due.

Well, of course no one is in any office at SVSU at 7am, so I call and leave a message and go back to sleep, at which point I dream that no matter how hard I try to type the registration site address into my web browser, I can't seem to get to the right page. I was woken from my nightmare with a phone call at 820am. The financial aid lady was nice enough to call me back and inform me of my fee, and that I could just pay it online.

You can see from my statement this morning that it wasn't quite that easy. I finally went back to bed just to get a call from the lady a few minutes later. "We're having problems with the online payment system," she told me, "I issued a temporary credit to your account so you can register now." So back to my computer I went, two hours and 15 minutes after my intended start time, to find that only one of the two classes I wanted was still available. Gr.

It sort of worked out for the better though, despite the fact that I'll have to get up at 7am every morning (ugh - I'm definitely not a morning person). I moved my 212 class and got my creative writing class. Not entirely looking forward to the semester, but...what can you do.

Posted by Rachel at 8:59 AM |

Tuesday, August 15, 2006 

I think my cheekbone is still bruised from when Jeff slammed me into the wall Friday night. It still hurts when touched. I don't care what you guys say (Anna, Kelly, Jeff), it's your turn to come down here.

The beginning of the semester is coming much too quickly and as it stands I do not like my schedule at all. I wasn't informed of the first registration days for fall (partially my fault, admittedly) which resulted in missing out on the good classes/times. My schedule is this:

Monday and Wednesday 10am-7pm (Eng. 262 - Intro to Journalism, Art 226 - watercolor, and Art 122 - Intermediate drawing),
Tuesday 7-10pm (an English 212 - "topics in critical writing") and
Friday 830am-330pm (art 250 - graphic design).

Luckily for me though, due to SVSU's policy which results in dropped classes for those who didn't pay their tuition by the deadline (August 2nd for fall semester) there are openings in a couple classes I wanted to take: Eng 306 - Creative Writing fiction and a Monday-Wednesday English 212. This would mean school 3 days a week instead of 4, and a few extra hours on Mondays to work. I just have to be up at the crack of dawn on Thursday when registration resumes to catch the openings before someone else does.

I finally started painting again yesterday. It's a picture of the orchids Dan bought me months ago. The flowers have long since died and fallen off the plant, but I have pictures for backup. They're turning out decent so far - not as perfect as I'd like them to be, but they bear a close resemblance.

Posted by Rachel at 7:52 PM |

Wednesday, August 09, 2006 

I'm finally making a bit of progress in "the industry." I'm booked for a promotion in the end of August at SVSU that pays $17 an hour. Granted, I'll just be handing out something and talking to people (it's for L'Oreal) but I'm excited to finally have a starting place and something to put on my resume.

Tonight at work after close I was working on folding little shirts in the baby section when I looked over and noticed a bill on the floor. It was $20, just laying there. I picked it up, excited at the realization that I'd just found an unclaimed $20 on the floor. My empty gas tank immediately came to mind and I pictured how the needle is once again on "E" (its permanent home, lately). Then my stupid conscience kicked in and I went and told my supervisor, who said that maybe the cash handler had dropped it out of one of the drawers she was carrying, and "if not it's probably someone's." And she took it and brought it to the back and I never saw it again. :(

It hadn't fallen out of the drawer (as I suspected it hadn't); a customer must have dropped it. But apparently it's company policy that if employees find money they can't keep it, so into the safe it went. My supervisor told me that she "admired and respected me" for doing the honorable thing, but I was still disappointed...I could certainly use an extra $20 this pay period.

So in my disappointment I drove to the gas station after work, filled up my tank, and put $39 in gas on my credit card.

Ridiculous. It was just under 14 gallons. But it's one less thing I'll have to worry about for awhile.

Posted by Rachel at 12:52 AM |

Sunday, August 06, 2006 

Last night as I was getting ready for bed sometime between one and two am, I suddenly got goosebumps all over and was FREEZING. I went to bed and wrapped the sheet, the blanket, and the sleeping bag around me and shivered for apparently a good two hours, drifting in and out of sleep. Dan came to bed and tried to snuggle with me, but his skin felt so cold against me and I was already quite cold. I did manage to get to sleep, only to wake up this morning roasting hot. I pushed all the covers off of me and drifted restlessly in and out of sleep, unable to get comfortable. Now I'm just achy all over and depleted of my energy. I tried to eat a bowl of cereal this morning but after a few bites my stomach said, "no more," so I stopped.

I don't understand though. I don't have a stomach ache, or any cold-like systems. In fact, aside from what I just mentioned I feel normal. Just achey and heavy.

Posted by Rachel at 12:32 PM |