je voudrais être un yeti

Mirrored from Oh Clementine. You can leave any comments there.

Last post of 2009! *wipes tear off cheek* I don't normally make resolutions because I know I'm going to break them, but why not push myself this year? Looking back on 2009, I didn't get much accomplished, so I want to make 2010 awesome!

Here is a short recap of my year, and then my resolutions.

2009 in Review

• January 2: We got the cats! I can't even remember a time before them. They've honestly brought so much joy into my household, and I'm so glad to have them… even if Hank is mentally defective.
• January 20: I watched Barack Obama's inauguration on TV during school hours and had a mini party in my school library. Definitely a good moment!
• January 21: I was nominated for the Bloggies and subsequently lost. However, I was never expecting to win, and just being nominated was such a happy shock!
• January 29: I lost my cell phone and got a new¹ one. (I'm getting a new one in 2 weeks, though! Yay!)
• February 11: Jet ran away, but we found him.
• February 11: My friend's grandmother died after a long battle with cancer. She was like a third grandmother to me, so this was devastating. It's been nearly a year.
• May 3: I took a break from my blog and came back two months later.
• May 25: I had a huge fight with a friend over a school project and didn't talk to her for five months. To put this into perspective, she was DEFINITELY the one being immature. She tried to blame her low mark on me.
• June: I passed all my exams and finished the year on the honour roll!
• July: I discovered the most amazing book I've ever read.
• August 23: I lost my new phone, but found it in a Pictionary box. (Not a huge event, but it was funny so I had to include it.)
• September: I won the Community of Learners award at my school. To this day, I'm not sure why.
• September: I voted 1500 times for Aisling's cousin to win The Next Star. (This is a big event, okay? Do you know how much energy I put into that?)
• September and October: Both the kitties had their first birthdays. (I only blogged about Hank's, though!)
• October 22: I got contacts and was amazed by my awesome vision.
• October 28: I deactivated my Facebook account, but had to cave and reactivate it shortly thereafter. I am weak. (But really, I had to reactivate it so I could give my friend directions to my house!)
• November 3: I figured out what I want to do after I graduate from high school.
• November 10: I got braces and was not amused by the fact that my mouth was in excruciating pain for four days.
• November 14: I got a job as a cashier at a big chain of grocery stores.
• November: I came thisclose to failing math!
• December 17: I got a new laptop, after my (also fairly new) one completely died. This one is amazing and shiny and it makes me so happy. It's white with swirls! And the volume control looks like a light, but it's touch sensitive! And you can turn off the touchpad²!
• December 22: I went to visit my relatives and met the little girl who's staying with my aunt and uncle. I fell in love with her sweet, adorable nature.
• December 29: I lost my iPod! D: This is horrible, because I rely on it A LOT. I had notes on there that I reallllly need.
• Best of all, I didn't die!

Goals for 2010, somewhat ordered by importance

• Pull my average up by 5%³ – First term was not great for me in terms of grades, and my average dropped 5% from last year, 9% from the year before. (Notice a trend here?) Ideally I would raise it back up to where it was 2 years ago, but since my math mark is SO LOW (I missed a week of school and nearly failed the big test), chances of that happening are slim. This is going to be my main goal, since it will require a lot of work.
• Get bank account balance up to $2000 – With my job, this shouldn't be too hard, and I'll probably earn more. This is my minimum, though. I need to save up for lots of big things I'm planning!
• Get my blog post count up to 200 – That's 66 more posts in one year, which is definitely doable! I'm going to try to post more often than that, though. I really want to post 3-4 times a week, but sometimes I lack in motivation and inspiration.
• Comment on more blogs – I'm such a serial lurker, it's not even funny. Along with Aisling, I'm going to try to comment on more blogs. My goal is 21 blogs a week⁴, and I'm going to keep track with a handy dandy spreadsheet. (Because seriously, I just love any excuse to make a spreadsheet.)
• Write more – I have my NaNo novel, which I'm definitely going to have to scrap and rewrite from scratch for the 900th time⁵, and a new idea. I don't know how I'm going to balance the two, but I'm definitely going to make some time to write.
• Clean my room – I've probably needed to do this for the past year, so I'm going to get around to this in chunks: realphabetise books⁶, organise clothes/donate old ones to charity⁷, clean desk (even though I just did that this summer), redo horrible disgusting closet⁸, clean/vaccuum floor, organise bedside table. I will most likely be documenting this journey on my Dreamwidth account.
• Create at least three new designs and use them – I'm not great with Photoshop, but I figure I should make myself practice. This is going to average out to one design every four months, so hopefully I can keep it up. This means that I should probably get working on something soon!
• Buy more clothes – I have very few clothes that actually fit me, due to wearing a uniform most days. I got some gift cards for Christmas, so I should be able to get a few things!
• Figure out electives for next year – I'm going to be doing this within the next few weeks anyway, but it seems big to me. Universities will see next year's report card, so this is pretty important!
• Keep track of money spent – I have an application on my iPod for this⁹, and I used to do it. I just stopped suddenly, so I'm going to start again. This will help me with my main monetary goal too!
• Use an agenda – I stopped partway through this school year. I have no idea why. I just suck like that.
• Pay the library – I've owed them $40 for a year. Enough said. (It would also let me get my card back, heh…)
• Get my braces off – This doesn't really depend on me, more on my teeth, but it's possible. My dentist said 9-18 months when I got them in October, and they're going really fast so far. With any luck I might have them off before next school year!
• Get my hair cut – Last time I had it cut was June 18, 2008. It's probably high time for a trim.

Happy new year to everyone! I hope 2010 brings everything you hope for. If you set any resolutions, I hope you achieve them.

1. and nearly as crappy [↩]
2. which admittedly has no real use, but it's cool [↩]
3. which is where it should be [↩]
4. 3 a day [↩]
5. seriously, I've gone through at least 10 drafts of this stupid novel [↩]
6. I haven't been good about putting them in order in ages [↩]
7. I have so many clothes that don't fit, and I want to reorganise them; colour coding was a stupid idea [↩]
8. seriously, it's a nightmare [↩]
9. first I'll have to, you know, retrieve my iPod from the depths of rental car hell [↩]

Mirrored from Oh Clementine. You can leave any comments there.

The other day, my mother told me that she had something for me. I was quite curious, since she doesn't generally just buy me things. She presented me with a Tinkerbell advent calendar, and I may or may not have screamed like a five-year-old.

Now, see, I really, really, really wanted that advent calendar. (Feel free to judge me for having a mental age of five.) I worked on Sunday the 30, so a lot of people were (understandably) buying advent calendars for their kids. I decided that I absolutely must have one, so I came home and hinted strongly that I would definitely like a Tinkerbell advent calendar, and that my brother might like the NHL one that we also happened to have in stock.

Last night at work, somebody was buying a Transformers advent calendar. It's a little late for that, but at least his son (I'm assuming, but you never know) will have a few days' worth of chocolate to eat all at once. Anyway, so as I handed him the receipt, I looked at him to see if he was the kind of person you can joke around with. You can tell most of the time. If a customer smiles at you when you look at them, they are cool and you can talk to them. If they stare at you coldly and look like they're thinking "Give me my damn receipt, already", then you can't. This guy smiled at me, so I told him, "I have one of these at home."

He could have said any number of things, such as "How old are you? *incredulous stare*", "Really?", "Cool…", or "Oh." However, he did not say any number of things. He said, "Which one?"

I smiled because it's little things like this that make being a cashier bearable and told him, "The Tinkerbell one." Then I told him that my mother bought it for me. He told me to enjoy it.

So what was the point of that story? I have no idea. I guess I just wanted to share the little bit of happiness I got from my job, and maybe the excitement that this advent calendar is bringing me. Because you know what? It has 32 DAYS OF CHOCOLATE!! (It also includes a countdown to the new year.) Let's just chalk it up to me wanting to spread the holiday cheer. I know, I'm so thoughtful.

Mirrored from Oh Clementine. You can leave any comments there.

Comfortable footwear is everything. You will not survive an 8-hour shift if you're cramming your feet into tight shoes.

When they call someone to the damage room, they really mean the bathroom. I had never noticed anyone saying that before, but now that I know what it means I hear it all the time.

When they are selling reduced fruits, it's because the fruit is rotten. This could probably be figured out with a grain of common sense, but I still think it's sneaky for them not to say it's rotten!

People do not tend to understand what "void" means.

People either don't read their coupons or like to try to scam you. Guess what? We read the coupons.

Veal cutlets feel very squishy and disgusting.

Although 20 hours of training feels like overkill to me, some people could use at least 30. When you're typing in something with a reduced price, you do not need the code for that item. I got that the first time; some people need to have it explained to them 5 or more.

When you're actually checking items out, all the codes you've taken hours to memorise suddenly disappear from your consciousness.

People do not know how to read signs that clearly state what's on sale and what isn't.

People don't understand that when a) the gate is closed, b) there is a sign saying "next available lane, please", c) the people at the cash are not in uniform, and d) there is paper spread across the conveyer belt, THE LANE IS NOT OPEN. Seriously. I have already had to tell at least 50 people that the lane is closed, and I've only had 3 training shifts.

Lemons are 4053. This is one code that I will not forget, for whatever reason.

Similarly, clementines are 4450. However, I think it's quite obvious why I know this.

Bags cost 5 cents. They have always cost 5 cents where I work, and there has been a 5 cent tax on plastic bags in my province for quite awhile now. However, a surprisingly large amount of people seem outraged when you charge them 25 cents for 5 bags.

People do not know how to swipe a credit card.

People don't understand that if you leave your item at the cash without telling the cashier, it's fair game. The cashier has too much to worry about to notice your bag of lemons. Somebody else may take them, yes. If you don't want them to be purchased by somebody else, take them with you when you go back into the store.

People have a lot of pennies that they want to get rid of.

In short, most people who shop at supermarkets are apparently not that smart. I just tell myself that for every second I deal with them, I make a tiny fraction of a dollar. I am also gaining ~valuable work experience~ so that I'll be able to get a halfway decent job (i.e. not at a supermarket) in the (hopefully) near future.