Turn, Turn, Turn

"The more things change, the more they stay the same."  To summarize life with cliches, I feel this one captures the essence of personality the best.  And often times, life feels to follow suit.  While the line is often delivered in a negative connotation, there is an upside to it -- at least, if you like the person you are.

It captures a lot of my life right now, personally, in the good way.  This week marked the sixth month since I left my job.  My part-time job is becoming routine (which beats it being a mystery), my finances are holding up quite nicely, and my education is definitely top priority.  I am really looking forward to getting back into a professional environment, but by the same token, I don't mind working retail (something I have never done in the past) for the time being.

Pins (right) & Needles (left) snuggle.

Surprisingly, at least to me, Needles is back to normal -- in terms of his eating habits.  I eventually cajoled myself into taking him to the vet.  My primary veterinarian was almost 15 miles away from my place, so getting the cats down there was always a chore.  When it was a matter of life & death, it was easy.  When it isn't, it feels like I am torturing them for my own amusement (and spending several hundred dollars for it).  Instead, I brought Needles to a much closer Kaibab Animal Hospital, which was less than 5 miles away.  By the time I took him in, his eating was mostly back to normal.  The vet said, aside from the obvious obesity, Needles appeared to be in good health overall for a cat his age.  I've learned that the average lifespan of house cats is 12-15 years, and we will celebrate his 12th birthday on November 1st.  We have him on other medication (because, why only pay $200 for a visit?) which is supposed to benefit him.  I'm sure it will, but for the most part, I'm happy that he does not protest its oral administration every morning.

Besides, it is good experience for my part-time work.  We have sick animals often there, which need medication.  None as cute as my cat.  They are usually bearded dragons or corn snakes.  I am not looking forward to the day(s) when I am caring for them, but that time is still another month or two away.  Right now, I am perfecting my lay of the land.  The most amusing anecdote from work happened the other day.

I thought I had off Tuesday and Wednesday, but I got a call at 8:40 on Tuesday morning from my hiring manager stating that I was scheduled to come in at 8, and he was curious where I was.  I called back, while getting dressed, to let him know that I overslept, and that I would be in as soon as I could.  Things blew over soon enough, and the rest of the day shaped out to be a normal day.  Until I had a familiar looking customer.  I couldn't quite place where I knew him, but I knew I had seen him before (just not face-to-face).  Regardless, I rang up his purchase and asked if he was enrolled in our rewards program.  He had not, and he did not want to be bothered with it, but his purchase was $7.50 less with a card, so he conceded to it.

I gave him an enrollment form, and he wrote his name in the email address line, and asked for another form.  Ordinarily, I would have coaxed the person into using the one they had, and memories of the Cash Cab guy's stand-up routine kept circling in my mind, but there was a much louder thought in my mind: BE NICE!  I followed that instinct, which proved to be especially beneficial when I learned his name was Jason Kidd.  I had another in-mind exchange, which went basically like this:

• FIRST THOUGHT: "Oh, like the basketball player!"
• SECOND THOUGHT: "Actually, not 'like', THE basketball player!"

I worked at a restaurant for five years before I had my first celebrity encounter there (Alice Cooper, January 2003) and now I had my first encounter in the first month here.  Granted, it's possible another sports celebrity came into my restaurant and I just did not know who he was.

Otherwise, things are mostly normal.  At least, as normal as they always are.