Amy Boatman

It's About That Time

I started my new job at Starbucks on the 26th. The class has been alright. I’m not really good at sitting in a classroom but it was probably the best training class I’ve been in for years. Plus, there’s some really great people in the class. It’s kicking my ass having to get up so early and it’s only going to get worse. My new shift’s gonna start at 6am. 6am! Fuck that’s early! I also have to work weekends. Shift bids are done every three months so hopefully in April I’ll get a better shift. I was really bummed to get such a crappy shift, especially since I was told right after I was hired that I’d have at least one weekend day off, so I came up with a list of things that are good about coming in early and working weekends:

• I’ll be working a similar shift, including weekends, with my classmates. That’s the best thing.
• There will be plenty of onsite parking.
• The gym is pretty empty around 3pm so I’ll get right on the machine I want.
• It’ll still be light when I get off.
• I’ll get to go to lunch around 10ish so it won’t be so crazy in the kitchens and in the cafe. 
• The weekends are really laid back. I can wear sweats and look all slouchy. 
• There’s no bosses there on the weekends. 
• The building is almost empty so I can explore in peace.

Not much else going on in my life right now. I get up really early, I go to work, I come home, I go to bed really early. I go to my Tuesday night NA meeting which I love. I’ve missed the Thursday writing get together lately but hope to get back at it. A couple of Wednesdays in a row, I got to go to a women’s treatment center and share my story. That was awesome! I really enjoyed that. It’s great getting to share my experience, strength, and hope with other people. Now I just need to find a sponsor here. I’m not sure why I’m reluctant but I am. I have someone in mind I want to ask but I haven’t done it yet. We’ll see.

I’m so happy today is Friday. R and her friends are gonna get mani/pedis tomorrow and then go to the thrift stores. They’re looking for sweaters to take apart so they can use the yarn for other things. It’s really pretty funny. Anyway, I’m getting some alone time!! Woohooo!! I’m hoping to finish Family Guy. That’s a damn funny show! Tomorrow night, we’re gonna go see The Golden Compass and then Sunday, hanging with the mother-in-law for her birthday.

Snappy Comebacks and a Brilliant Spouse

You know how we all have those situations in which the witty, snappy comeback alludes us? Hours later, when we least expect it, the perfect line comes to us. It’s so damned annoying. Well today we went over to Barnes & Noble to spend a $25 gift card. I got two books and the total came to $24.98. The cashier asked me if I planned it that way but of course, I’m just not that good with numbers. She gave me my $.02 and said “I don’t know what you’re gonna do with it though.” I said, “I’ll give somebody my $.02 worth.” I could hear the drum and rim shot in the distance.

We attempted to do some geocaching today but struck out once again. We are now something like 0 for 12. I’m not sure what it is but we just can’t seem to find anything here. It was rainy and windy today so, honestly, we didn’t try that hard. We ended up on Alki Beach looking for this one cache. We didn’t look long due to the aforementioned rain and wind but over just about 50 feet from where we were standing, the water was washing up on the wall. There was this couple standing there and every time the water came up, they cheered. They looked like they were having so much fun. It was awesome!

Afterwards, we went over to Starbucks (go figure, huh) for some coffee. R was looking out the window at the water and I was looking at the sale circulars. I saw that Radio Shack had GPS units on sale. Now, a little background on this. Last weekend, we were going…somewhere and I was supposed to be navigating. I couldn’t tell how to get on the highway so I told R I usually just “feel” my way around in these situations. Well, she got a bit upset. Turns out she has a thing about being lost, not knowing exactly how to get somewhere. I hadn’t been aware of this before. I love it when I learn new things about her just when I think I know it all. So, anyway, knowing she has this fear, I saw these GPS units for sale. I told her we needed to go over to Radio Shack and look at them. So, off we went on a mission.

Do you know what a bad idea it is to go to one of the shopping centers two days before Christmas? Well it’s right up there with yelling fire in the theater and watching The Pirate Movie. We spoke with the young man in the store at length and asked him questions he had no answer to but at least he had Google. (What did we ever do before Google?) We ended up leaving with a brand new shiny Garmin Nuvi 200 complete with maps of the whole US, driving directions to every Starbucks and yarn store in town, and this bland female voice that tells us which way to turn. The funny thing though is it tells us to turn as we pass the turn, lol. We played with it all the way home and had a blast.

So, we get home and decide we want to figure out how to use our nifty little gadget for geocaching. I hooked it up to my computer and transferred over a gps coordinate file. We turned it on expecting to see all kinds of pretty geocaches light up on the screen. What we saw instead was…black screen. And then more black screen. It turned out I overrode the internal file or some such. We both dinked around with it for a bit but couldn’t figure out. I gave up and suggested we take it back to Radio Shack in the morning. Then I sat my ass on the couch and watched the Amazing Race. R continued to play with it. Periodically I would glance over at her seeing her wrinkle her forehead and stare intently at the computer screen. Occasionally, she would tap the GPS and it would beep. I would glance over at her hopefully but she’d shake her head and frown deeper.

Hours later, I hear a shout of triumph. She had gone from site to site, forum post to forum post, odd bit here and odd bit there. Somehow, against all the odds I had placed on it happening, she managed to restore the whole damn thing. I am incredibly impressed with her. She rocks!! Now she’s figured out how to do all kinds of impressive things with it. She is a rock star!