Quick first post of the day, with a message to my buddy
It’s my last day of working the day shift this weekend, which actually seems like the better deal when I think about it. Granted, I was a little shocked by the news of having to work early Friday morning, but to be honest, it turns out that I get Sunday night off, and then since I’m returning to my old schedule, I get more time off as I don’t have to return on shift until Friday night. To me, that’s a pretty cool arrangement for me. More time off is good.
This whole getting up at 0100 is making me feel all weird, though. In the time I’ve been working, I don’t I’ve ever had a shift that began so early in the morning. Even when I was enjoying the married life, I don’t think Stephanie even had a wacky shift like this, and during her time at Cisco, I recall her odd shifts pretty clearly. A fact of which I’m reminded of right now, working these 12-15 hour shifts for PayPal over the course of this year. That brings me to another thought. On August 1st, I’ll have worked with this company for an entire year. My track record with working hasn’t been all that stellar what with all the layoffs and downsizings and reorganizations. When I was working for GNAC, I recall that the day before my one year anniversary, I got a phone call from my vice-president who informed me over the phone that I was no longer an employee. The day before! That made me laugh my ass off. They were worried about my stock options. I told them to go to hell. Why would I want the stock of a company who’s doing really shitty? Last I heard, they filed for protection under Chapter 11 or somesuch, so it was a good call to make. They didn’t even go IPO.
Getting back to this whole new shift thing, all I can mutter when I wake up is the lack of caffeine flowing through my body. I’ve been cutting back on Pepsi and Caffenated Tea over the course of the last three months. The result has been a more restful sleep, but also waking up is a total pain in the ass. I usually stumble around my room for a little while before I fully register being awake. As opposed to being all caffenated, when I would go from being asleep to wide awake in a matter of milliseconds. Now I understand how my mom feels, she hardly drinks anything with caffeine in it. On the upside, though, the whole restful sleep thing is a really really good thing, especially with the hours I normally keep. Previously, it seemed like Pepsi was a necessity to work graveyard, but I’m managing. I will admit to sporadic Pepsi drinking from time to time, but not on a regular basis. I had one this morning, but this was the first Pepsi since AX, which was a week ago. Now at Anime Expo, caffeine is a necessity, trust me. This morning, though, I definitely needed a can. After that, I tend to stick to either 7up or a cup of mint tea. Mint tea is pretty cool, especially when I’m banned from drinking Earl Grey. Oh wait, no, I do drink Earl Grey once a week, when I go to Karen’s. Karen is a tea fiend. I can’t spend time at her place without drinking tea. Except she drinks it without sugar, and I can only make a face when I have tea without sugar in front of me. I do drink green tea unadulterated, but that’s about it.
In the misty haze of waking up, in the back of my mind, there are all the things I’m looking forward to doing this week. Interestingly enough, the majority of the events I’m looking forward to are happening on Monday. I finally get my Kimagure Orange Road TV Box Set tomorrow afternoon sometime, possibly evening. I’m going to go see the Giants kick the shit out of the Diamondbacks tomorrow night with
On the side, I’ve actually starting playing some of the other Bemani games, like ParaPara Paradise. ParaPara is more of an Avextrax game, and that’s just fine, because I happen to like a lot of the Avex songs. Especially since Avex did the entire Initial D soundtrack, and it’s all Eurobeat! So some of the Avex music from Initial D is on those later mixes, and even though playing it might cause some people to question my sexual orientation, I could care less. I’m having fun. As for batting practice, though, I’m finding the ball a little better, but my right knee is starting to kill because of the pressure I’m exerting on it. I keep swinging for the fences each time, and it’s taking a toll. So last week, I cooled it a little earlier than I had intended. Funny thing is, it doesn’t hurt when I’m playing DDR, but it does when I’m batting. I say funny because DDR is really high impact leg work, and batting practice is typically upper body. Though after a hundred pitches, it’s my arms that scream, not my legs. Maybe my knee just felt left out and started to scream, too. No clue. I’m going to go see a doctor about the knee and other assorted questions I have about my recent exercise on Tuesday.
