Today I’ve have some strange thoughts appear in my head and thought I would share 5 of them with you. Some ranty, some quirky. Let me know your opinion. I think some of these will be expanded into posts in the not to distant future.

1. Scarf for a hood
Why is it that people are anti hooded scarf? I bought one last winter (and have whipped it out for the first time today) and J won’t let me wear it in public. It has been banned to home use only. I really don’t get it. I’m combining a beanie and a scarf but better! Come on people, it’s not like it’s the blanket with sleeves!

2. Nosey Neighbours
so one of my neighbours loves a chat. Maybe she isn’t nosey, I think she might actually be deprived of adult conversation (she lives in a 2 bedroom flat with her 2 kids) and on occasion traps me in the stairwell. I feel so cornered at these times. While I don’t have a problem with her I just want to go home or go out or where ever. I’m sorry nosey neighbour but I’m not a neighbourly love kind of gal.

3. Just because I can, doesn’t mean I have too.
As I get older a question that I hear more and more often from acquaintances is “So, do you have any kids?” and when my answer is a resounding “NO!” their reply is “Why Not?” or “When do you plan too?”. Just because I happen to have 2 “X” Chromosomes I am expected to want a white wedding and them promptly start popping out babies. Well you know what? I couldn’t think of anything worse! Even the idea of pregnancy repulses me… I don’t understand why we try to nurture our unborn children when they cause hormonal changes, cravings and morning sickness yet if any other ‘parasite’ caused these side effects then we’d do what we could to kill it! And swiftly.

4. Childhood nostalgia let-down.
Today I indulged in my first potato chip/crisp sandwich in about 10 years. What’s more I added Nutella too it, which I haven’t done for 20 years (yikes, I feel old!) and surprisingly, it was pretty good! I didn’t take my first bite and feel I’d made a huge mistake. Why is it though that our childhood loves generally don’t work out this way? I remember when the Jetson’s finally came out of DVD I reminisced about how much I loved that show when I was a kid (although, it wasn’t as good as the Snorks! but then, what was? Only the Samurai Pizza Cats comes to mind) so I bought as soon as possible. I got home and turned it on, only to find out that George was a sexist pig and that the show wasn’t really as entertaining as I had always thought. I didn’t even get through a third of the episodes, so disgusted as I was with George… and yet, if it happens to be on TV I still think “Ooh, I love that show” only to remember that actually, my 5 year old self loved that show and only because she didn’t understand it.

5. A little young for me.
As you all know I am an adult that makes no secret of her love for Young Adult Fiction where the main characters are generally 16 or 17 and learning something from life. Yesterday, I saw a book that looked very interesting, good idea and a great cover (and yes, that is important! I’m sorry but I’m drawn to shiny, textured covers) but then I found out the main character was 14 and thought that maybe that was a bit too young. So I got to thinking, is there a too young? I’ve read adult books with younger main characters so does age really matter?

What a week! This is the first time I can remember in a long time that I didn’t even glance at Lazily. Normally, while I may not post, I take a look at stats and check (stalk) who is checking me out and think of what I can do to improve the site but in the last 10 days or so I haven’t had the chance to sit and do that.

In fact, I haven’t had the chance to do a lot recently. Until this weekend that is. Where I’d love to say I did something fun and productive but I actually slept for a lot of it. Although, some people may consider my first watching of Avatar productive. I actually watched 2 Sam Worthington movies on a fluke (the other people Terminator Salvation) and had to endure his crap fake american accent for about 4 hours that day.

Not only was I so busy my head hurt but I was sick, so it hurt even more! Actually, that was my nose. It was running so much that it hurt to even breathe. 200+ tissues later it appears to be ok.

On the plus side I had a dreaded inspection that my landlord was participating in that might have just been the best inspection I’ve ever had. The real estate and the owner were in chatty land and barely recognised the pink tinged shower glass. *phew*

I also had a great Mothers Day with delicious organic pizza (not that it tasted overly different to non organic) and snarfed down about a hundred pieces of Mars Bar Slice (I gave most of it to my Mum though… I promise).

Work was stress max. Our new consultant who happens to share names with my work nemesis made me want to pull my hair out. I don’t recall being so frustrated at work ever. I don’t deal very well with people that don’t deal very well with change. I just want to slap them and possibly stab them in the eye.

But I made it through! I’m here and alive and better for it (ok that is a lie… I think I read to much over the weekend) and ready to get to next weekend 🙂

All of my working life I’ve always been the one that the bosses (most, ok some) liked on a personal level (and the others generally didn’t like me because I had influence and could distract other staff… which is, you know, understandable) and who let things slide because overall they could see that I knew what I was talking about and had an idea of how things work. Technically, I was their best employee but on a performance level I might have been their worse.

In most cases I’ve never been promoted (except at TeleTech where they had a section of people – who had the skills to assist other people but didn’t have the discipline to do much else – that they called Seniors. We were the ones that knew everything but didn’t suck up to the bosses and in most cases we never progressed beyond this point) at work. I’ve never been the one to look up to but always been the one to go to when training was required. I rarely got bonuses and was lucky to see a pay rise.

When I started at my current job I loved it. I was so relieved to be working – I had been unemployed for 3 months prior – and the work was very much my style. Very little to do with customers and very much to do with computers and systems and researching books (YEAH!). At some point along the way my immediate boss started to dislike me, was it in the first month when I was so frustrated with her that I yelled back at her and told just how wrong she was? Was it when I was teaching her things about how our systems worked? Who know but she took quite a dislike to me. I like to think it was because people preferred to come to me than to her, even though I was the more junior employee.

So, because of this boss I plodded along at work and never got anywhere. I was promised the chance to move into her role 3 or 4 times and each time she decided I wasn’t ready even though I was more or less doing the job. Then she quit. I was so excited and then I found out how behind she was and what I had to work with. I was determined to move past this though and show that in the busiest period of the year I could do a better job and I could do it by myself… and I did.

This person actually works with the company again now but in a very different role where I am in some respects more senior than her (considering she is now a lowly casual heh).

Anyway, away from my bitterness, we had a new general manager start the Tuesday after Easter and wow! She took me in for an hour and saw me for what I was. It was the first time I had gotten to a new GM before my boss did and the first time someone with any authority realised that I was worth something to them.

Now I go to work and wonder what I’ll learn and how I can make myself more useful and more required to my company. For the first time I know what it is like to be satisfied in a job and feel like I belong in that role.

For the first time I feel like I’m someone worth something. Let me tell you, it feels good.

As many of you know I currently work in a book shop. As you also know I quite enjoy reading books so, obviously, this suits me quite well. Now, the thing to point out I suppose is I rarely buy any books. If I see something interesting a work I see if I can borrow it from the library. Is that so bad? So what if I only buy the books I truly love!

Anyway, I’ve recently starting requesting DVDs from the library too and I’m somewhat appalled at the amount of dvds that are ‘claimed returned’ or ‘missing inventory’. It really really annoys me that people steal these! You’re getting the chance to watch something for free people! Give other people that same opportunity.

Even though this is incredibly frustrating, that isn’t even what this post is about. No, this post is about the people that take things back late. Currently, I’m waiting ever so patiently (read, not at all. Hiring it as we speak. Yes, spending money! Argh, I know!) to get my hands on Season 3 of Battlestar Galactica. Which you wouldn’t expect would be hard, considering it is 4 years old now (yes, I just jumped on the BSG bandwagon, you have a fracking problem with that? :)).

In reality I put in my request for this around a month ago. The library has 3 listings which are “Missing Inventory”, “Item being held” and Checked out with a due date of 26/03/2010. That was 5 weeks ago!!! So of the 3 copies potentially available I have to wait on the 1 actually available. At the moment I have 11 requests on items and this is happening so much more than I’d expect. It just really drives me crazy! I don’t mind if something is a few days late but when it gets to a few weeks, what is the reason?? And does the library do anything about it? Other than advise of fees they will probably never actually receive.

Now you know the intricate story behind this, my question is this: Do I have the right to bitch? It is a free service I’m using, am I allowed to be upset? It makes me think of those torrent sites where people complain about the quality of the file they’ve downloaded and everyone tells them to frack off because they haven’t paid anything for the file. Is this the same situation? Do I have to sit and wait because someone else is abusing the system or can I bitch out my library?

I really hope the answer is yes, because I’d also like to ask them why they still insist on using IE6 on their computers and can I install Chrome instead 🙂