11.19.06

Long days..

Erg.. You can tell the holiday season is starting.. All of us are turning into moody peoples.I've had two days straight where I just.. haven't wanted to deal with peoples or my coworkers. I've just wanted to get what I needed to get done DONE and get my ass out of there.

I've been sitting and thinking on it, and I do realize that there are waay more high points to this whole "switching to days and switching jobs" thing... I mean, I have to deal with WAY less crabby customers.. Yeah, some have attitudes, but I need to realize that I can have an attitude too when I don't mean to. Also, I enjoy having stuff to do for my whole shift. I hated being bored as hell for my whole shift.. this at least eats my time. Yeah, downsides of managers who hound your every step and a monotonous routine, but I think I can deal with this.

I did, however snap at the manager on duty today, because I thought he was going to ask me to do something, and I was already feeling VERY pressed by my responsibilities at that point (customer service desk and discount list) that I just couldn't DO what I thought he was going to ask... I did later apologize to him, but I think that that may have set him off, which set off everyone else's bad moods.. for that, I feel kind of sorry.

In the time since I last wrote an entry in this diary, I have finished two books: The Secret History of the Pink Carnation by Lauren Willig, and Graywalker by Kat Richardson... Both were very different books, and yet, in some ways similar.. I enjoyed both of them, though I will admit I put down the Richardson book, thinking that it was too boring, and just wasn't going to very exciting...

The Secret History of the Pink Carnation was one of those books that has a book within it, and you sort of leap from one story to the other, depending on what's going on, and the drama of the thing... Basically, it is about this Grad student from Harvard that is doing her dissertation or whatever in London, partially to get away from an ex, and partially because she has an inordinate amount of interest in the historical figures of the Scarlet Pimpernel and the Purple Gentian... both of these spies have been unmasked, and she is curious about a third, named the Pink Carnation... The story within the story is the story of the Pink Carnation, which unfolds as the grad student, Eloise, reads these documents... there is more going on with Eloise, what with the grandson of the owner of the documents not wanting her to read them, and her attraction to him.. it's both a sort of spy novel, and like a chick lit book at the same time.. VERY entertaining.

Greywalker was different. It was a story of supernatural events, and in some ways it reminded me of Charlaine Harris' Grave Sight in some ways.. I will says that instead of Harris' humorous tint, Richardson went for a much more spoooky and ominous tone, which I truly enjoyed. I did, however get to a point where I was reading the book and I just... wasn't enjoying it as much as I felt I should.. and I decided to quit... I later changed my mind and finished the book, and I am very happy I did. I am hoping that this story winds up being a series of books, which would be very cool. Basic storyline is that this private detective in Seattle has a near death experience, where she was legally dead for a minute or two... and when she comes back.. she's different.. she can walk in what is called the "grey"... this brings her some interesting cases, involving ghosts, vampires, necromancers, and other creepy crawlies of the night.. Her struggle to believe what is happening to her is probably one of the more interesting facets of the book, since one can really understand WHY a skeptic would have such issues believing in this other world that is so close to our own, and yet is where all these seemingly unnatural things like ghosts reside... it's fascinating... very interesting.

With that, I am going to call this entry finished, except to give you a list of what I am working on reading now:

Books I own but have not even started reading: