You know it's getting bad when...

(Just for the record, all of these things really happened today.)


You know it's bad when...

* You get excited that gas is "down" to $2.92 and you rush to fill your tank.

* You look at your current balance and are delighted to discover you'll still have almost $100 after rent is paid!

* You have to get to work in order to relax and unwind.

* Writing your blog before bed is the highlight of your day.

Today has just been one of those days where the magic just never showed up. I shouldn't complain, because a lot of people have it worse than I, but I'm going to complain anyway. Trust me, it helps. I wish I knew what made today so awful, but I don't know, I only know it was.

I think I'm upset because a lot of my friends are leaving, going off to do other things, and I'm still trying to decide what the heck I'm doing here in the first place, and what I need to try to do next. I keep going back and forth between staying here and trying to get a better job (preferably one I didn't hate), or moving to Nashville to do a year as an Au Pair. I could get some money in the bank and be able to start off a little better this time next year, whether I wanted to move back to Chattanooga, or just move on to something else. It's not a bad option, really.

Here's a funny thing. At work tonight, I was the official "greeter," which meant I stood in the doorway in a ridiculous T-shirt and passed out information on our "weekend special" which is pretty much: if you spend a lot of money here, we'll give you something that's... sort of... free. I had to give the spiel about it all, and it's amazing to me how many people don't want anything for free if it means they have to pause and listen to another human being explain how to get it.

So, by the end of the evening, I had shortened my little speech down to: "Hi, if you spend $50 or more, you get this free." and shoved the little information paper into their hands. I found that people didn't hate me so much if I said it quickly and let it go. If I had shortened it any more, I would have probably sounded like a Cavewoman: "50 dollar... you get free." We were, of course, supposed to explain in detail the various potential benefits, some contest rules, and promote our store's credit card, but morale was low and I didn't have the heart to make anyone's weekend worse.

Somewhere along the way, about halfway through the evening, I guess, I thought to myself... maybe going through an interview and getting an office job wouldn't be so bad after all. One of my co-workers said that if I stayed until Christmas, they would make me dress like an elf, and hand out candy canes with the information taped to them. I want to be in another country by Christmas.

So while I'm standing there, wearing the Official Greeter T-shirt and handing out flyers about potential free stuff (which people reacted to as if I were handing out tracts!), who walks in but one of my old bosses from the day care. I don't really know why, because I am infinitely happier at this job than I was at that, but I felt really freaking embarrassed to know that my old boss now knows that I work in a department store. She asked me how long I'd been working there, and I lied and said it hadn't been very long, and that I was just doing this for fun while I waited to hear back from some of the places I'd put my resume in to.

In my defense, that was the orginal plan, and there are remnants of truth scattered throughout what I said, but things haven't exactly worked out as I'd hoped, and I did make it sound as though I hadn't been working there since February, and that I had put my resume in a bunch of places... not just two... and that I do this job for fun. *sigh*

But I must say, I don't have to separate screaming, fighting children all day or have someone sit me in their office and tell me they need more detailed lesson plans (the lady that came in tonight was the one who always did that), which we will never, ever use because no one can get thirteen five-year-old children to do jack! So... I should be happy for even a "greeter day," which really wasn't so bad, after all.

I must sleep now, because I'm working all day tomorrow too, and I'm exhausted. I'd love to get a few posts adding to the "You know it's getting bad when..." list! I'm sure I'll come up with some more tomorrow...