Today I quit my job.

I've been working in CMU Housing Services for four years now; ever since October of my freshman year. I've been there longer than about half the full employees. I remember things a lot of them don't, like the old key system or the employees who have long since left. I worked the job when I was the only one, and the responsibilities of everything fell to me.

But with graduation comes moving on, and so now I'm done. And I'm proud of myself, really. I maintained a consistent 20-hour-a-week schedule for four years, without disappearing, skipping, or quitting like so many other people did. Despite school, and despite having to get up at 8 every morning when all around me people slept gleefully till noon, I still managed to comport myself admirably.

Not just anyone could do what I've done, and done it well. In the end, I can't walk away with any particularly lasting accomplishments -- no great projects done, no brilliant changes made -- but I've done my job well, and consistently. I think that's something to be proud of.

So. Weekends.

This was Carnival weekend. Carnival is a huge production around here -- fraternities, sororities, campus organizations all take over the dorm parking lot and construct huge booths. These are really unbelievable affairs, all things considered, when a lot of effort is put into them. And then there're actual carnival rides, and all sorts of events and so forth. Fun stuff. Now, the upshot of all this is I got Friday off... or did I?

Friday. I went in to work. My boss wasn't there, so I slept till 12:30, then went home. In all truthfulness, I'm not into the Carnival scene much, so -- home it was. And I spent a reasonably nonproductive evening at home, and enjoyed myself.

Saturday was fun! I slept till 1, missed tigerphoenix online, and so went to hang out with cyfis and siliconrose. We hit Carnival a little, then went down the Library, and spent a good fifteen minutes just enjoying the pretty pretty day. Then off to get sandwiches for dinner, and a fun free-form role-playing session. (Say, did we still want to hit the Science Museum?)

Today was sitting around! I find I'm enjoying that more these days. Lest restlessness and fidgetyness on my part. Of course, that may just be a factor of having gotten out on Saturday. I don't know.

Much fun was had by all, or at least I'm of the opinion that it's so. The lessons we've learned?
Birds building nests are incredibly cute, but talking ravens are distrubing.
Sephigeezer is not a bad guy anyone can take seriously, and Geezeroth is much worse.
Gold Chocobos rule Chocobo Racing.
It's very easy to scar me for life.
Conversely, I have a sick, sick mind. :)
When your roommate leaves bass on at ludicrous volumes, check his room. Chances are, he's not there.
I like being happy.

My boss is an idiot. Forgetting I work today? Fine by me -- I'll just sit here and get paid for updating LJ.

Why is the online academic audit giving mer grief? Why isn't it using my classes to fill requirements? Did I miss something here? I guess I'll have to go to the English office and make sure I'm not goinmg crazy.

I better be graduating.

I tend to get berated a lot for posting nothing but negative comments in the journal. I suppose that's true, and I'm sorry.

With that said, another negative comment in the making.

My old boss quit over winter break, and his boss -- possibly the stupidest and most inept person I know -- decided it was completely and utterly necessary for HIM to take over the duties of the position.

Mind you, he has absolutely no idea how to handle my boss's old position -- not the slightest damn idea. This doesn't stop him from trying, however.

I work the job because I need the money. I don't make any pretense about it. I work the job because if I didn't, I would have no money whatsoever to spend. None. My meals would consist entirely of ramen and water to drink, and I wouldn't be able to even tag along with my friends to, well, pretty much anything. I wouldn't even be able to role-play on AOL, since I have to pay for that too.

My old boss understood. My new boss does not. Already he's sent me home today since he doesn't have an absolute set-in-stone schedule for me. That's four hours of work I'm missing. That's about $30.

I'm in school, aren't I? I'm here for my future, supposedly -- but I don't want to even think about what he'll say when I try to get time off to look for a job or a place to live after MY IMMINENT GRADUATION. Let alone if I have to meet with someone to do a group project -- which I will.

I wouldn't be so concerned about this situation if buying books this semester was not going to, quite literally, run my bank account down to its last few cents. By April I have to somehow come up with the money to fly out to see Ellen. I can probably pull it off, if I spend absolutely nothing between now and then, but it still bothers me.

It really, really bothers me.

Ah well. I only have four months of this shit to put up with -- less if I decide the misery simply isn't worth it, and quit. Which I well might. Or I might get fired -- though I have no idea who'll do all the work if I am. I'm just very upset and frustrated about this mess right now. Probably just because it's a very immediate conflict. I can still hope everything'll be all right... maybe?

.....

I'm sorry my first long post in ages is so negative. There are good things in my life. My classes look interesting, or if not, I have the ability to goof off in them so far. Ellen's coming to visit at the beginning of February. That makes me feel a lot better!

Right now, though, I'm just cranky because I got up at 8:00 for nothing. Oh, and I'm extremely, extremely, extremely affection-starved. Even more so than normal. And on a related note, I have yet to see my friends here since I got back, and I miss them terribly. (And since you guys read this, take pity on a poor lonely dragon and get in touch with me! ;D )

Ah well. I hope I have something better to say next time I decide to say it.

So today someone at work decided that it was my fault that they got in trouble for fucking around and playing card games when they should have been working, and that to punish me for my nonexistent "snitching" they would beat the crap out of me if they ever saw me outside of work.

"You better wear a Housing shirt for the rest of your fucking life!" his oh-so-scary threat went.

Aside from the fact that he's a completely pathetic loser, I'm a bit concerned about his threat because he's a complete asshole, totally self-centered, and has no appreciation for the future or for the consequences of his actions.

That and the fact that he lives right down the hall, and could probably barge into my room or intercept me when I leave at his convenience.

What bothers me about this whole thing is that society has no provisions for dealing with this sort of person. If any sensible person had designed society, anyone with this sort of attitude would be forcibly rehabilitated, or at least kept away from the people who actually are capable of upholding a social contract.

Sadly, we dwell in a society in which people actually have to do something before proper action can be taken against them. Now I have to wait until he actually does something before I can be satisfied that he won't do anything -- and even assuming he went to jail for a significant amount of time, he has the sort of mentality which would blame me for whatever punishment he recieved, and undoubtedly return to enact further vengeance.

I wouldn't mind so much except that I'm not looking out for just myself. I have other people to consider. And I'm well aware that there's no compensation for a loss of physical integrity.

In conclusion, thank you for listening to me vent.

My boss says to me that my job today is to ride out in the box van and pick up six 5000 BTU air conditioners.

We first go to Home Depot. Home Depot only has 6000 and up -- apparantly whoever produces their ACs didn't make enough 5000s. That being a bust, we have to go nealry across the city to get to Lowe's. They have no 5000s either, but they do have 5200. Good enough, I say, and try to purchase them -- only to find out the credit card my boss gave me is declined.

That was my morning. How was yours?

Spent the morning moving furniture into apartments. The truck battery died. More of the same this afternoon, and four hours of it instead of three! Bleh!

I feel good. I don't know why -- I guess it's good to feel like I'm doing something instead of just hanging on. And I'm getting paid, paid, paid! On the downside, the work hasn't even officially started yet... eeeep.

I'm excited. My friends are actually going to be living in the same building as me this summer! It's a first!

Wheewhee!

So I've started going in to work at 8:30. This is just for the next couple of days, and then I start going in at 8. Ewwww.

Spent most of the morning moving furniture around. Move desks to here. Move cabinet to here. The worst part is knowing that I'll have to just move it all again, because it's just a temporary place. Put a giant hole in the wall, too, which was pretty cool. It wasn't my fault -- my idiot crewmates abandoned me just as the cabinet started falling over.

So here I've been awake and productive for the past four hours. I come back for lunch and my fat lazy roommate is still asleep. We went to bed at the same time last night. I guess this goes to show that there's no justice in the world.

I need to call WQED Pittsburgh and ask the name of their internship director. That's important so I know who to address the cover letter there. I'm planning on getting an intership there this fall if at all possible. They cover TV, radio, magazines -- I'm sure I can fit in somewhere. WQED, I should note, is the birthplace of Mr. Roger's Neighborhood.

Off to make that call, and then get myself some frickin' food!

What the hell am I doing up?

Stupid job.

No work for me! Whee!

Midterm. Midsemester. Hell.

The worst is over, I dare to hope. I've finished my BIG papers, I've only got one midterm exam left (on Thursday). What did it cost? My sanity, my well-being. I'm so exhausted. So tired... so tired.

But all things considered, life is going pretty well. I don't forsee any decent relaxation in my future, though. This weekend is supposed to be mid-semester break, but I have to work Friday and Monday just like always. No rest for me there. Hmm... maybe I could work extra hours Monday and take most of next Friday off..

And now it's time to complain about my roommate. He stays up till 4:30 at night and sleeps till noon or one every day, then constantly complains about how much he has to do. Roommate no baka.

Ah well, off to work for me!

I've been working since nine this morning. I work for campus housing -- it's my job, at least for now, to go about fixing light bulbs, installing desk lamps, and in general, as I once put it, "slacking the desires of seven thousand screaming, crying babies all so damn focused on 'me! me! me!' they can't even breathe without fighting over the best air." I'm very cynical about my job.

Nevertheless, today found me in the Housing van. It's a nice van, too, easy to drive. Gives me a real sense of power.

I completed something like sixty work orders today. Just me in my van, with a big drill and a lot of bulbs and junk. In the meantime, I've reorganized the dorm classification system for better efficiency.

It's not much of a job -- but there is NO ONE better at it than I am. :D