Eleven: You keep thinking that

For someone whose life is typically very ordered, structured, routine, to the point of rigidity and dullness, the last couple days have been a tad chaotic.

So Thursday, the day after my pivotal drama presentation. I say pivotal because it doesn't feel like anything else in the semester will require as much of my time and energy, and now, relatively speaking, I can relax. And it's a damn good thing I had this presentation before I started work (well, after my first shift) because of all the madness of planning and rehearsing.

Thursday night was Vasa's Halloween party. Much to my dismay it looks like that will be my only source of Halloween fun this year, because I've got work Saturday and Sunday and I'm too lazy to do anything. I'm preparing for work to take over my life, which is a dangerous prospect considering how much of my time should be reserved for school. And all together it's a damn shame because I really liked my costume and am not getting to show it off a whole lot.

So on Thursdays I am supposed to have class for six hours straight, although the first one is a screening (this week, Coming Home) it's still pretty tough when you think about eating and stuff. I ate in the screening, and my second class was canceled due to the prof's laryngitis. This led to me having three (well, two) hours to kill before the party. I had invited Martina, because I knew she had a costume and would get along with others at the party.

During the screening I got a missed call on my cell, it was Gus leaving a message basically asking if I wanted to work the next day. Despite the fact that I had every intention of going out and partying (in Toronto far from my bed and work no less) I agreed, because I consider it bad form to turn down shifts too often, so I didn't want to make it seem like a pattern. I'm not in an adversarial relationship with this job (yet...)

In the meantime, we went over and got our costumes on. People really liked Martina as Leia, and I got a few notices as DHARMA guy. I may have to recycle it next year to justify having bought it. For a different crowd, in that case.

I was a bit awkward because we were mostly surrounded by people who knew each other, although once the drinks started flowing, I... well, let's just say that I have a habit of playing up everything you've ever heard about alcohol as a social lubricant. Meaning at one point late in the night, I got into this really bad attempt at the Thriller dance with this girl, and neither of us could really get the moves, so we just started a whole different thing. More of a ballroom thing. To Thriller. Did I mention I had been drinking?

I'm awesome.

So it was a pretty decent night, and sadly I left early so as to be all "good night's sleep." It was not so extreme a case of self-destruction as I went through earlier this summer the night before Amanda's wedding, mind you; that really set the bar. I figure that the ability to go out, drink my face off, get sick, go home, sleep, and get up the next morning (in both cases far earlier than I ought to have) and do my duty, sans hangover of any kind, to be a rare gift of youth, and I try not to squander it. Someday I will be old and fragile and as modest as my drinking exploits are, they will have their revenge someday. Or something.

For the record, I was drinking Whiskey and Ginger Ale, which reminds of both the best night of my life (the Half-Past cast party) and, oddly enough, my late Granddad, who always kept Ginger ale (or really, ginger beer) around the house and would serve it.

There was a guy from my (and Martina's) film history course last year. Inevitably, we had a loud drunken geek conversation about Star Wars. Yep, yep.

Some notable costumes: Vasa and John as Star Trek Original Series folks, a dude as "sexy Lincoln" a ghost costume, which I made the obvious Klan joke about, Coraline, and a nudist on strike. And of course, some random sexy ones. At one point, there was karaoke, but it only lasted two songs; the girls doing Lady Marmalade, and pretty much the whole room joining in on Man of Constant Sorrow. Had there been time and more of an audience, I'd have done Twist and Shout, because there was a movie-themed disc, and that song was used in Ferris Beuller's day off.

I went home, and rather than going directly to bed, watched the episode of the Office I had missed on a certain video website Manda recommended to me. So I cheated myself out of 22 minutes extra of sleep just to get a more instant Office fix. And besides, I didn't sleep well, possibly because of Whiskey, possibly because Holy fuck I have to work tomorrow in this condition."

But as I've already implied, the day went smoothly. Well, there was one incident with a lady who wanted a dance CD but wasn't thrilled with my limited ability to help her, and I took some flack for it. As much as I boast of my experience at the store, year after year there isn't too much to differentiate myself from some noob. I have to re-learn a bunch of stuff (or, stuff I remember, people mainly assume I don't know) I take a while to get into the groove of customer service (usually through incidents like that one) and I just generally space out all day, go on auto-pilot drone mode, which is not healthy. I should take more initiative, and maybe when I'm a tad more comfortable, I will. I'm going to keep missing Mandy, goddamnit. She was a big part of the reason why working there was so cool last year. She helped get me out of my head. And when you're outside of your head, you make fewer mistakes because you are actually paying attention to your surroundings.

Sigh. Much of the day did go by without incident, although a lot of it was busywork, as is often the case, hence the spacing and all. I should learn to take more pleasure in my work.

Anyway. I'll probably slap together some more whimsical thoughts on the subject later. I'm working all weekend, as I expect will be the trend from here on out, or at least until the holidays and my schedule gives me more leeway; even then. Well, gotta make the money while I can, you know. I'm very lazy about finding work, because this is the only job I've ever liked, even when I haven't.

I just hope I don't feel so brain-fried and lame tomorrow, or in the future. Maybe it's because I didn't have any coffee.

This entry actually should have been better, but I dawdled and now I am tired.

Keep on rockin'
-Scotto